Giorgi Mamardashvili (GK) Valencia

Achterberg, who might know a thing or two about Liverpool goalkeepers.

2 Likes

Interestingly I was just listening to a podcast with Tim Dittmer, former Liverpool youth team goalkeeper and current Head of Coaching for the FA. He was talking about how very quickly that good relationship between a GK Coach and GK can become a dangerously close one. Basically he was saying that because of the inate human trait of wanting people to like us, and because GKs are such a niche group within a football club and often train for a long time away from the main group, that if GK Coaches and GKs become too friendly or familiar then it can become an environment where the coach is seeking to make the players happy rather than push them.

I’m not saying this was the case with Achterberg and Alisson, or Taffarrel and Alisson, but sometimes changing things up might be a positive if Alisson is asked different questions in training etc.

1 Like

I have a lot of respect for you but Goalkeepers are very different from outfield players…Their legs don’t give way until in their late 30s and their reflexes stays roughly the same until the late 30s as well…

It is just so bizarre for FSG to pre-plan for Alisson’s departure when funds are in tight supply and positions needing to be filled are not filled especially RW…

Not sure what all the confusion is about, clearly the plan is to move Alisson into the 6.

3 Likes

Sure that could be true, I don’t know what the data would say especially as some goalkeepers rely a lot more on being explosive than others. For example Tom Heaton can keep going for a long time because he stands on his goal line and doesn’t really move. Pepe Reina was a very explosive goalkeeper who as soon as he lost a bit of that he fell off the cliff dramatically. I don’t think Alisson is overly reliant on being powerful or explosive but he’s also not exactly Tom Heaton so I don’t think he lasts forever at the top level.

As I’ve said in this thread - we don’t know what conversations are going on behind closed doors but Alisson has won every trophy possible, had a very accomplished career with Liverpool and I could certainly see him thinking about trying something new or winding down. He turns 32 in a couple of months, maybe he thinks one more year then he wants to go back to Brazil etc. Could be anything.

He’s an elite athlete and I’m not but I’m 32 and I recently quit playing because it was getting tough on my body. Maybe he is just not the kind of guy who wants to play into his mid-late 30s.

I don’t think we have enough information to immediately assume that this is our ownership forcing him out though, which seems to be what everyone is jumping to.

3 Likes

And Kelleher into false 6.

We’re going to need a nickname for this fellow. He has far too letters in his name!

It’s also massively foolhardy to assume that just because some goalies can stay more or less on form deep into their 30s that our goalie surely will. He is 32 in a few weeks and has a pretty unpleasant injury record for a goalie, so is now at an age where careful consideration for how his form is being sustained will have to be carefully weighed every year.

It’s also worth pointing out that these older top goalies are the exception not the norm, and in almost all cases they did experience significant drops in form by those later years, but had such reputations that those issues were often overlooked.

No one’s reflexes stay roughly the same through that age. What allows some (very few) goalies to stay at the top level up towards their 40s are other adaptations they make that allow them to be effective despite their loss of reflexes and explosiveness.

1 Like

If we’re playing Kalleher as a false 6, then wouldn’t it make more sense to play Alisson as a box-to-box striker

No but FSG is too cheap to buy us a new 6 so there we go. FSG OUT!

Can we buy him and loan him to Bournemouth? Seems to be conflicting information on if that is within the rules set by the PL.

If that were to happen, you can already predict what stick Hughes is going to be beat with next.

There definitely was a rule that would have prevented that and at least according to this it still seems current - you cannot loan out a player to another Prem club the window you buy him
How many loans are allowed for Premier League clubs??

I think that rule is only for the same window.

Buy him, train with the squad til January, then loan to Bournemouth for the rest of the season. Next summer, providing they stay up we can loan him to them again.

Kind of kills of the value of the loan if Bournemouth cannot get him until Jan though. If they have a gap they need to fill in such a critical position they will surely wont be willing to wait until Jan to do that.

This is the type of move that I’d associate with Liverpool from a few years ago. Hopefully, they are looking for eventual replacements for Robertson, Salah and Van Dijk as well.

Legends all of them, but unfortunately none is getting younger.

Think the payment will be staggered and he will sign for us only next season as per this tweet to work around this rule.

https://x.com/AnfieldNews367/status/1823770684767789371?t=CjIqvCuHtDQWx-6Ym1herg&s=19

1 Like

Shady!

2 Likes

Yeah that’s shady but I’ll take it :joy:

1 Like

The second most exciting transfer thread of the season.

I mean at the behest of Liverpool with a purchase deal signed for 2 years later, they deal with Bournemouth directly for the loan. Dodgy but could be done?