It’s been already discussed here
How come he played him against Palace then?
Well, I would actually prefer not to cite the elimination from the cup and this one-off effort as a positive example.
Furthermore, the only issue right now is that Slot doesn’t see Ramsey as a member of his team, and is probably also not pragmatic enough to consider him as such.
And I only quoted him, by the way; as I said, this has already been discussed elsewhere. He might change his mind at some point, perhaps in an emergency situation, etc, but I wouldn’t count on it.
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He played him against Palace and was on the bench against Forest. Who knows what’s his physical state like and if he still needs careful management. Journalists can ask specifically where’s Ramsay, but they didn’t. Plus, there’s always the aspect of how much the coaching staff rate certain players.
The fact that in one question he said 5 defenders doesn’t tell me he will categorically never play Ramsay again this season (it’s not impossible that he goes out on loan in January, while we’re at it). What about Williams and Norris then, more players over the age of 21. They were also on the bench.
We can make the distinction of which 8 main defenders we entered the season with and we always have these either young players or not so young anymore, but who are still on our books and for different reasons in the building and not playing football somewhere else.
Unless they’re frozen out or something, I don’t doubt the coaching staff will use them if they judge it’s the right call.
Pre-match press conference scheduled for 09:00 tomorrow morning. I have a works team meeting at that time, so I am planning on being asleep.
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Sunderland are doing really well this season. At the start of the campaign most people predicted the same three who were promoted would be relegated, but Sunderland are flying high and shouldn’t have any problems whatsoever. If they can keep it going they might have a chance of some form of European football.
I’ve watched them a couple of times and a big feature of what they do is their energy. They are all very committed to the cause. They have some quality too, but not the sort of quality that gets close to matching a top side.
All that is to say I am concerned that if we put Salah back into the side, Sunderland will exploit that and attack down that flank.
After finally looking a bit more solid and balanced against West Ham I would be loathe to give it up so soon in the next game, but my concern is Slot will play Salah and we will lose something important.
If Salah gets the nod I will hope he does well and even makes a match winning contribution as obviously the quality is there, but as we can all see, the legs… not so much.
Besides Salah there is a choice to make at right back. Gomez did really well last time but I would not start him again for this one, mostly due to preserving his fitness in case we get into an emergency situation in central defence where he would be needed. If neither Frimpong nor Bradley are ready, I would select Jones for right back.
Isak to stay up top, Wirtz to stay behind him. I would like to see Ekitike play in the half space from the left instead of Gakpo, just to see what he can do with it, as that might be a great option to unearth. On the other side if Mo does get the nod, as I expect, hopefully he plays a bit more narrow and closer to the others, as when he is isolated out on the wing it does him no favours and accentuates how much his legs have gone in comparison to what he was. If Mo starts I would play Dom in the 2 on the right side, so between Dom, Konate and Jones that flank is protected from any shortcoming Mo has at this stage.
It feels almost disloyal to talk so openly about Mo like this, as he has been such a great player for us and is a legend. But here we are. A new team is emerging and Salah won’t be in it in the future, but we are in the transition phase where he will probably see diminishing action moving forward, and we have to mitigate the downside while hopefully getting enough upside from him.
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With the talk about Ramsay, we need to appreciate how much he missed over the past 3 years and why. I think we were all encouraged by his appearance in the league cup, but it was then reported he was kept out of team training for several days afterwards, which sounds like an abundance of caution move for someone they know is still being built back up and is not physically ready for more than the odd appearance
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I keep saying I want a diamond, but what I really want is 4 in the midfield with the fullbacks creating width. Whether that’s a box or a diamond, I don’t care. It helps us to win the midfield battle with the extra man in there and gives Florian a license to roam, something he did very well against West Ham. It also gives is a bit of solidity when we do lose the ball.
All the hype about the Scum beating Palace at the weekend, but it must be remembered… Palace played in Europe on the pre Thursday night, and Utd had a full week to prepare for the game -
It’s one of the reasons Glasner gave as his excuse for getting beat on Sunday by the Mancs… Which brings me to my point…
Playing Sunderland in midweek is the best scenario for us, because like us, they also played a PL game at the weekend. Yes they will have had an extra 24hrs rest with playing their game on the Saturday, as opposed to our Sunday fixture… but still, it’s a lot better than them having a full weeks rest and specific training routines berfore turning up at Anfield.
To me anyway, Salah will play. For no other reason than the guy has been a tremendous asset to us over the years, and with the AFCON just a matter of a week or so away anyway… plonking him on the bench in front of 55k home fans would be a really tough call - One I hope AS makes, but still, with the glorious headlines he has given us over the years, becoming a footnote as his arse gathers splinters, well I just think he deserves to be treated differently to most -
After AFCON, if the lazy fucker still won’t track back to help our cause… off to the glue factory for him it is then :0)
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Fair, but it’s not the same thing as the diamond. This can be more asymmetrical let’s say.
The box-shape is in possession, off the ball that extra midfielder or one of the two #10’s defend on his nearest side.
In that shape, usually both full backs don’t provide width in the same way, one stays more on the side where the winger is and the other one where the extra midfields tucks inside, goes.
There are different variations of it, depends also on circumstances of the day (and how we want to build up, a flatter back 4 or in a shape of 3). I think we played Szobo in the right half-space to give Gomez better protection. I was worried who would provide the width on that side when I saw the XI and my first guess was Wirtz right half-space.
I guess Gomez got the task of trying to keep it solid and simple and use Szobo’s energy to both cover and attack in that channel. It was back to his usual position at Leipizig, right sidefd #10 in a 4-2-2-2. One of the candidates to play there while Mo is away. It might depend on the game though.
Szobo, Wirtz, Jones… all players who can play as the 4th midfielder or additional #10 coming in off the sides.
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Like many I wouldn’t play Mo, for one reason only, we were far more defensively solid with Szob in his area as he tracks back and wants to win the ball back.
With how we have been going this season, defensive solidity needs to be our 1st metric.
Also, a few shouts for Ekitike over Gakpo, I would like to see him there at some stage but for me it is the same scenario as with Mo, defensive solidity, atm Hugo doesn’t seem to have the fitness to cover the left side like Cody does, even though Cody is far from being the best tackler, he does work hard, mostly
I don’t like the idea of Salah and Ekitike together on the sides at all. Not while we are in this state. Unless we’re chasing it or something. But even then it makes more sense to just pair Ekitike central with Isak. You can do with one player like that on the side and then you compensate/create balance for the midfield on the opposite, two is too much. Especially for this current Liverpool team.
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Only change I would make is Hugo in for Gakpo.
Mo will definitely start. No way Arne benches him for second game in a row, and at Anfield. I’m quietly hoping being dropped will have lit a rocket under him and he bags a hattrick
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The problem with Mo seems to be he doesn’t track back.
What’s the solution then? As I mentioned in another thread I would go for a 4-4-2 system with Mo as one of two strikers.
Doing that just opens up new or different issues.
How do we press if he’s one of two strikers these days? And what’s the midfield like behind?
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IMO it’s easier to press with Mo up front, he doesn’t have to run that much.
In midfield I would go with a diamond, Flo behind the strikers.
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It’s not easier, he’d have more responsibility to be the first line of press. Defending the centre is more difficult and complex than defending the sides. That’s where you usually “hide” or camouflage your more special players, even if they all need to hit a certain standard defensively. He did have a little spell under Klopp (post the 4-0 Tottenham defeat in 2017) when we went 4-4-2, Firmino used to do a defensive job for two players and Salah was the right sided striker, not too far from where he usually played.
There’s a reason why some of these special wide forward players don’t want to play as classic wingers nor as strikers because they know what it means. In the latter example, needing to press and also connect, play back to goal most of the time, which isn’t their strengths. And we’re not a counter-attacking team like Leicester were where you can just leave Vardy on the opponent’s last line waiting to be released into space.
I’m not saying it’s all good on the wing because it’s the first time in Salah’s career that he hasn’t started a season very well. He will be off to Africa anyway so we’ll see what’s the team like when he returns and how he returns. It’s an interesting dynamic as he always started the season well and sometimes dropped off near the end of campaigns. Hopefully this season it’s the opposite!
But changing his position I think doesn’t solve anything and even more so, likely opens up more issues.
A good few years ago I said that I don’t ever see his position changing at Liverpool (simple, he’ll never go to the left and I don’t think he will morph into a striker), but it will just depend on how long he can keep his individual level and how well we collectivelly balance it out around his zone.
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It’s a massive black mark against Arne if it is anything more than facesaving for Mo. If he can’t see that Mo shouldnt be playing for us right now and we need to invest in Isak/Ekitike/Wirtz developing understanding with each other and the team then I dispair.