100%, things like missing Van Dijk and those instant first time pings into space for Salah to exploit.
It’s a team game and Salah gets high quality chances provided to him on a regular basis, he is the one we try our best to get into space and on a chance. There is no reason why the team couldn’t be tweaked to have a more traditional no.9 finishing off rather than our right forward who plays as our no.9 anyway! It’s semantics and starting positings rather than the role they play for the team.
There is no denying if Salah left we’d have a hole in the squad, like we would if Van Dijk, Trent, Robertson, Alisson etc. etc. left. He’s a world class player, but Klopps teams have always been greater than the sum of the parts. There is a reason fringe players like Morton can come into the team and look like he’s played there for years. That’s down to Klopp, his training, his tactics, his structure and his constant evolution.
Err this is what I was saying we would do and would need to do. As in we can’t just lose Salah and stick a like for like replacement in there we need to restructure the side which would mean a transition year.
I didn’t. I was saying you can’t take him out, replace him with a good or even great player, and with everything else the same we’d continue as we are.
No you can’t, but by extension you really can’t say the same about most players in our squad. When we moved from Firmino to Jota, we had to change our style of play. When we change between Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Henderson, Thiago, Jones, and Elliott, we change our style of play to suit each one of them better. It’s just part and parcel of having the very best players. We already do play quite a fair bit (and relatively well) without Salah in the team. He’s valuable, but it’s nowhere close to the end of the world without him in the team.
Either way, AFCON will show most clearly how we do without him. Don’t be surprised to see us still thrive fairly well.
You may be saying the same, but it’s laced with comments like disaster… Which I don’t agree with that level of impact.
We will go out and buy the best we can to replicate what Salah brings to the side i.e. goal involvement… That could be a No.9, it could be a Left Forward and Mane goes right, it could be a direct Salah like for like. It also could just as easily be promoting Jota and bringing in a quality young player to develop ala Salah/Mane when they arrived.
Do you think the teams goals will drastically drop if we played Jota – Firmino – Mane? I’d argue maybe marginally, but we’d still be as good as a team and our ppg would remain pretty similar.
Whoever we bring in will end up in some sort of tactical shift but the structure behind i.e. defence/midfield will remain as it is, the new player learns our defensive pressing triggers and attacking movements. Where they play on the pitch is irrelevant.
Yes as he has more goal contributions this season than all 3 put together.
The disaster would be losing Salah in one year prompting a transition year followed by Klopp then moving on and a new manager coming in meaning at least one more transition year straight after. Combine too many transition years on a run and you’re just stuck in that permanent rebuild cycle when you’re never quite ready to really achieve anything.
No it doesn’t we still play 433 with full backs who are almost playmakers and a CM that gets through a hell of a lot of work without scoring high numbers. Biggest change we have is who we use as the CF, Firmino, Jota and Origi but Jota is getting a lot more like Firmino and Firmino is scoring a lot more like Jota. We can go a few games without specific personnel but we are talking permanent changes here. We currently haven’t had to play too often without Salah.
Is that a period of time you are assuming the whole squad would have to adjust to no longer having Salah around? If that is so are you assuming it is going to last a year? Where is your data to back that claim up? That Klopp would take a full year for a squad to adjust?
That is far too simplistic and gives very little credit to the tactical flexibility of our squad and the way that Jürgen makes changes not just match-to-match but also within each game. You quite clearly missed the shift we made at the start of this season, where we had Alexander-Arnold stay back more than he usually does, for Henderson/Elliott to roam more, and for Salah to start wider. Or that Wijnaldum as the left-sided central midfielder played a lot further forward, acting almost as an auxiliary centre-forward in some games, but also played quite withdrawn in others. Or that positionally, Jota tends to play a lot further forward and left-biased compared to Firmino, who stays quite central and withdrawn.
But I guess all this doesn’t fit your agenda, which is unsurprisingly yet again panic and spend spend spend.
A quite recognisable term in football which means a year when significant changes are made at a team due to either a rebuild, change of formation, manager etc etc.
All getting a bit personal and heated on here. Half the people taking pot shots at me are actually making the same point that we would cope with losing Salah by having to make changes. Not sure why these people are then arguing against me as they are then basically agreeing with me in their arguments. It’s weird.
I do really question if you are on the wind up. Not seen a single personal or heated comment at all. Just multiple people disagreeing with your “hyperbole” level statements.
Yes we’d have to replace Salah, but it wouldn’t be a disaster, or need a year of “transition”.
This is the scenario that worries me more than simply losing Salah. The departure of a player like Salah might feel like something of a bookend on an era, and perhaps a logical time to step away. The club would still be in great shape, but Klopp has been here for a while, won silver, and like many of us he may just be getting a little tired.
It isn’t personal. We all acknowledge that change will have to occur. What you fail to recognize from other posters is that we don’t agree with the level of change you are talking about. We are discussing different degrees of the same argument which is equally important. But please don’t make this out like we are attacking. A few of us on here believe the change won’t be catastrophic. Liverpool will adapt and thrive. This is in our DNA. You believe the change will be, and make it seem like we won’t see silverware if he leaves. Yes, Salah is one of the greatest in the world right now. No, him leaving will not bring our status as a club down a few levels. We are too well run now.
Now on a posting note, I think some empathy with other’s ideas would go a long ways. We don’t have to agree, but it becomes difficult when some offer counterpoints and you are simply dismissive. And then wonder why some are dismissive to you when you post.
Not sure I even mention it that often to be honest.
Still a very arsey question, an assumption that because someone doesn’t agree with you they must be uninformed even though they have provides evidence to back up their opinion.
Not sure this can be considered anything but rude and antagonistic.
Just completely blowing off what don’t like.
Haven’t even been talking money.
Err you say I’m not being subject of anything personal in the same post you get personal? How does that work?
My two cents on this… I hope that we won’t have to find that out, aside from a few games that he will miss because of AFCON. While Klopp has shown that his tactical approach can largely mitigate the absence of some first eleven players, I think that current team’s attacking game would suffer very much without Salah. Defenders fear and respect him as much attackers fear(ed) and respect(ed) Van Dijk. His pace would be a huge miss as Firmino, Jota and Minamino are significantly slower than him (and it’s not their style of play anyway), these two criteria are those that I believe would be felt in his absence.
I think he would be very difficult to replace in the long term should he leave, too, a trait he shares with quite a lot of current first team players. My big worry is that Man United, Chelsea and especially Man City could lose any of their players and simply buy an extremely expensive and proven player to replace him. Liverpool can’t/won’t afford such players, which I’ve made my peace with, but signing a like-for-like replacement for Salah could prove beyond difficult even without the financial aspect taken into account. He’s a special player, not as outrageously skilled as Suarez, nor as complete as Stevie but one who gets the job done pretty regularly, at least up to now.
I’ve actually always preferred Mane as a player because of his style but I freely admit that Salah seems more important to this side. The question is probably whether he’s more important than Henderson, Van Dijk, Alisson, Alexander-Arnold…
I came on and there were 47 new posts, I’ve lost count so don’t have a clue how many more I have to wade through to get to the end. I only looked as I thought something important had happened.
Anyway if we lose Salah we’re in big shit and will have to buy 22 new players and start from scratch. At least that’s what one is saying, others don’t think it’s a bad as that, what do I know?
Do we have a god or a goat in our midst?
