“Where is the Japan Pre-Season tour money, John? We need a new CB!”
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I am sold on that 7 minute highlight video and am encouraged by a good number of basic #9 goals included. But be warned, at 7 minute run time it’s probably got every goal he’s ever scored in it.
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Yeah, you could do a pretty good one of those for Darwin to be fair.
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There’s also a video of his last 19 shots going around - think he scored one.
Man U, Newcastle, and Arsenal fans in glee. Stats worst than Nunez.
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That is a genuinely weird genre of video that has become very common and for reasons I dont really understand. But that is how I feel about much of life these days
Also, big shout out to @Livvy you saucy beast
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I enjoyed this video discussing Isak v. Ekitike.
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I’m so hyped after watching this video. Yeah he’s got issues in finishing (gasp not another Nunez) but we can’t have everything. I hope Slot can help him improve in that area.
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I’m not wholly convinced. In fact I strongly suspect had Jota not been involved in his accident that we wouldn’t be after this guy. Sadly, we’re now forced into making a move for a striker in a shallow talent pool with prices of decent players being pumped way above what they’re worth.
He’s obviously a talented player but I fear we’re paying over the odds based on his most recent season rather than a truer value. It’s the same thing we did with Nunez too, peak value after one outlier season of production.
I think he’s got the potential to be a player who frustrates us fans. Lots of head down dribbling, trying to do too much and flicks with the outside of the foot. He’s also far from a prolific finisher. Seems to take an awful lot of shots to score quite a modest number of goals. I’m expecting a few big chances to go begging and the Darwin 2.0 narrative to be prevalent quite early on, especially with his slightly awkward looking physical movements.
On the plus side he does seem to score a good variety of goals. Tap-ins, headers, slots, dinks and curlers coming in off the left. That’s encouraging to see even if the volume of shots is way higher than it should be. He also looks to be good in the link up play in a way you don’t get so much with an out and out number 9 type like a Gyokeres or Sesko. Also seems to have a good knack of creating chances for himself too which is a positive.
He’s a right lanky chap so naturally you think about what he’d be like with our fullbacks whipping the ball into him but he doesn’t seem to be that kind of striker. You do wonder if his frame could carry a little more muscle without affecting his pace. He’s certainly going to get some clatterings from the type of centre back groks and he’s going to have to be able to hold his own there.
I think for him to be successful here he’s going to have to work hard on his decision making around when to shoot and when not to. And when he is making the choice to shoot you’d want to see that conversion rate increase. Less wasteful low value shots, more clinical high value shots. He’s also going to need to get his head up more.
No doubt there’s talent there and probably a better game intelligence than Darwin but he’s got some work to do, especially if he’s going to be our only true centre forward coming into the season. But honestly, I’m far from convinced from the highlights stuff I’ve seen. Lots of nice flashes but not the consistent output you’d want for the price we’ll have to pay.
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Normality 
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Is that why the Almighty is missing too.
Not a fan then.
I’m all for giving him a chance.
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Haha @TheAlmightyReds
Crazy that the dozens of people employed by Liverpool to look after transfers hadn’t thought of any of that 
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Oh my mistake. I thought this was a forum where contributors were welcome to expressed their opinions.
Imagine being so boring as to come onto a fan forum, into a thread about a potential new signing and writing something akin to “not interested in people’s opinions about this because the club have people who know more.”
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I’m not complaining. Think he’s one of the better options but in a pretty poor market for strikers and the loss of Jota has forced our hand to do something we otherwise might have chosen to delay doing.
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I can understand your issues with his finishing but his stats in dribbling, assists, expected assists, successful take-ons is is in the top 10 percentile, and in many the top 5 percentile.
In several areas of your points in your post you are worried about what are perceived has his strengths.
Also, according to FBREF, it was only las season that his Goals were below his XG, although the sample size in many of those seasons were smaller.
For me I am more interested in what he offers as a team player, I want him to be more like Bobby than Haaland and that it seems is where his talents lie and if he offers 15 - 20 goals a season I would be very happy.
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I’ll trust a guy who replaces Klopp with Slot and wins the title, any day of the week.
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Maybe that’s it. Perhaps I’m too concerned by the goals and that one season of production being an outlier and why the fee is so high.
It’s not that I doubt the recruitment team but it does look like a lot of money for what appears to be one of the better options in a less than elite striker market.
Ultimately we have to do something and I’ll give him a fair shot but I think we’ll need some patience as I think he might be more Nunez than Firmino initially.
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I do feel that unlike Darwin, Ekitike has been bought for his whole team game not just as the tip of the spear.
I thought, one of our weaknesses when attacking last year, was our relatively poor hold up play, especially from our CF’s. I feel that both Wirtz and Ekitike look as solutions to that problem and what was a weak part of our game last year will be a strength this coming season.
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