Of those 8 who would you replace, ignore Firmino who until this season had sort of been replaced anyhow.
Do you replace Trent in the summer, Alisson or Robbo, what about VVD his form was off the charts once he got fully match fit. Matip was brilliant as well though you’ve already got Konate who could slip in there.
If truth be told the players who have been a worry for a while. I don’t disagree the CM should in hindsight have been freshened up but it’s really hard to make a case.
We generally also don’t buy the finished product. Elliott and Carvalho could and probably will develop over time but I’ve already seen posts on here writing them off.
Nunez is another that’s basically been written off already by some.
Foden came through gradually, our lot to a certain extent live and die by the sword, Darwin may never reached the heights of Haaland but the guy is a league behind on growth
Trent for me has been by far the biggest problem this season, Virgil hasn’t been at his best but people are trying to shift more of the blame onto him & off a developing local lad which I can understand. Next biggest problem is Hendo, sorry to say but the guy is finished. Elliott has a lot of convincing to do…he is not ready to start games in the Prem, for me Carvalho is a level or 2 above him ability wise.
In summer I’d be going all out for Hakimi and Barrela & switching to 3 atb.
The Arsenal game might have wider implications for both sides.
If they win, it will boost them further, and they are already flying high. It will give them the sort of belief that they will cement a top four spot this time, and possibly even challenge for the title (they won’t do that).
If they lose, it might possibly remind them of their fragility, and cause them to doubt their new found steel and maybe have a little wobble.
If we win, it will remind us that we can play a bit, and for all the talk of a very poor start to the season - and it has been - we aren’t too far off and still have it all to play for with loads of games to come.
If we lose it will put more clouds over our season, and the issues we have will start to magnify, and the bickering in all quarters will intensify, ahead of the Man City game.
It feels ridiculous to pile too much onto one league game at this stage, but the Arsenal game is bigger than normal due to all the above.
Not bombing him out so to speak but his form should it continue would merit accepting a place on the bench…I think if we had Ramsay fit ready to go he would already be benched he’s been that bad. I can’t make a case in any of the 10-11 games we’ve played where he’s defended well.
Elliott has done well, been tidy with the ball but nothing spectacular, most of his touches are very safe in a midfield where playing next to the 2 we have been, needs far more…we need a game changer in that midfield when things aren’t going our way…Barrella I believe would do that for us in that system.
Hakimi for me is the best RB in the world…he’s got it all.
This is what is utterly fucking weird, last season Trent, Mo and Elliot were developing an amazing little right side for us… we were solid defensively and causing lots of problems offensively…
Yet this season Elliot looks like he can’t defend, Hendo being called out for not defending… It has to be the system changing, whatever shift to having Trent inside has caused far too many problems vs the gains it might make.
We need to get back to basics and what works, and to get back in thread, this is exactly what Pep did when he stuttered early one season.
Someone mentioned on social media earlier teams have learned to attack us fast down Trent’s side and it’s paying dividends, we need to counter it with either Gomez or Konate.
Trent is a generational talent. Probably the best passer of a football in the Premier League. You make room for him. If you don’t play him at right back, you play him somewhere else.
There’s much more to football than passing, sure when he’s given the time and space he can effortlessly drop 1 on someone’s head or pinpoint a ball 40 yards across the field. But right now he’s not showing that…on top of that, he’s getting caught out time and time again. No one’s questioning the ability he has, that’s clear. His all round game right now is affecting the team, detrimentally.
His game by numbers this season in the league.
7 games, 1 goal, 0 assists.
608mins played.
450 passes (345 successful) 76.7% accuracy.
That’s before we even get to the number of times he gets dribbled past, or crosses put in from his side like he’s not even there…he makes no attempt to close down…no attempt to track back and little attempt to put hid body on the line.
That doesn’t scream undroppable to me.
Dropping him isn’t anymore absurd than him being left out the England squad, this is something we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
It was in the Trent thread then he got hold of it and passed it to the Liverpool season thread, unfortunately his thread passing is just as bad as his game passing, hence the city thread.
Last couple of seasons we haven’t won everything. Starting from the summer of 2020 we have haven’t won either of the two prizes that count and we haven’t refreshed our squad enough. Given the schooling we got in 20-21 due to leaving ourselves light at the back, it’s fairly fucking obvious that we couldn’t afford to coast on our past ‘winning everything’ mindset. We absolutely needed to jump earlier - because we haven’t we are losing this season (just like 20-21) and as many (including yourself, perhaps?) have stated before, it’s harder to entice reinforcements from a position of (relative) weakness than when you’re on top. Starting January, we are going to now need to wholesale revamp the squad; if Klopp is to reap another PL title before his contract ends (assuming he stays) then he’s going to have to have a new look squad come next season.
