The players I miss the most of our forwards are those who know more than others how we have to defend from the front, that is Bobby and Jota. No guarantees that things will drastically change with them, but our attack has seen a lot of changes lately, basically only Salah’s been fit (as always) from the “Old Guard”. I’ve been relatively satisfied so far with Diaz and so-so with Nunez, but I can’t wait to have Bobby and Jota back in the coming weeks hopefully.
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I swear he does that quite often, he’s just not as effective anymore in chasing down the ball, bringing it in, or even shooting.
He looks massively tired.
Mo was never brilliant in many aspects of the game, that is clear. He’s not a well rounded player, but fantastic in some aspects.
What he was/is best at, is playing a very simple and effective game (not saying it’s easy, especially at that highest level and how amazingly consistent he’s been so far), within our structure.
So it’s easier on the eye to see when his basic things drop a little. I have faith that he will still get to around 30 goals this season.
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He already has 17 so it wouldn’t be surprising, but it’s still disappointing in its own way or some reason. He’s become a lot streakier than before, I feel.
Hopefully this is just a blip and he’ll be back to full strength sooner rather than later, but I think he needs a break.
Depends, we had one of our best seasons (the title winning one) when he scored 23 in all competitions (19 in the league). He had a break last summer and during the WC pause, he looks physically fine to me.
Our front line is basically a complete chaotic mess at present, when was the last time we had the same 3 play for 3-4 games in a row? It’s not even like for like replacements either, Oxlade/Elliot playing wide left etc.
Not saying Salah isn’t playing distinctly average but it must be very hard to play your normal patterns of play with the team changing so much.
I read today we’ve been offside 46 times this season, as much as we did all last season… That is a tell tale sign we aren’t functioning as a unit at all.
We need to get Nunez - Gakpo - Salah playing together for a string of games, letting Nunez and Salah doing those runs in between the center backs and fullbacks. Then we can review if Salah is worth his contract or to be sold to fund a rebuild!
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I can’t remember, did he take penalties that season?
But for me, it’s more that he’s a step too slow for many things sometimes. Not sure if it’s a physical thing or a mental thing, but it’s the same malaise that I see in our play in general, everyone being a half-beat too slow to react or move.
To me that’s one of the main similarities with the 2020-21 season.
Jota is back in a couple of weeks, and for me he starts ahead of Gakpo.
After such a lay off I’d be surprised to see him play much for some time, games are coming thick and fast… Not arguing Jota isn’t better than Gakpo but we need some stability through the team.
Bobby has gone from 2 days away from training to no return date, another masterful injury management from our medical team…
Just to get someone back off the sicky list…
When the likes of Bobby and Jota are back soon, whenever they have enough proper training sessions in their legs, I think Klopp is dying to have them back.
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Jota is back in a couple of weeks, and for me he starts ahead of Gakpo.
I think Klopp is dying to have them back.
Aren’t we all …
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Mo was starting to do the simple things better against Cucurella on Saturday, he did some decent feints and didn’t lose the ball as much.
Collectively, our shooting was fucking shocking that day though. how many balls in to row Z?
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46 times offside, this seems to also emphasise the point that teams are now pressing us and playing a higher line, which in the past would have been suicide. They don’t fear us anymore and feel we aren’t very good in progressing the ball when pressed.
Something I have been harping on about is that we midfielders who aren’t just workhorses with pace but need to be good on the ball.
Can’t agree with this at all. Not a well rounded player? He can do the lot (never seen him play in goal) to an extremely high standard. He’s been below par (right way to use the word if you don’t want to sound up your own ass) lately though for whatever reason.
Yeah, that’s fine, we don’t agree. He doesn’t have to play drastically out of position (though that’s also one of the indicators, he’s basically “only” a right sided forward and a brilliant one). But certainly not someone I’d call a complete player (nobody is perfect, but we know there are more and less complete players), no. What he has he does it to a high and consistent level, but there’s not a lot of tools.
And mister (if 1972 is your age of birth), welcome back on the forum. I’d like to remind you that I told you before that English is not my first and not my second language. I do the best I can. Thank you for small corrections, that’s always welcome. If you find a lot of my posts too long (yeah, I am sometimes chatty and can ramble about LFC all day, it’s my little passion) or too gramatically incorrect or my opinions too clashing with yours, don’t bother so much. Rather find pleasure in being back on this forum in other ways.
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Hmm, maybe our definition of complete is different.
Salah can run, dribble, score, pass, set players up, good close control. Not sure what could be more complete. Maybe aerial ability.
hmmmm,
Sorry Jurgen, but i’m not having that,
Mo has been crap since Mane was crowned the king of African football at last African Nation Championship.
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I think it can be both. He definitely looked tired and downhearted after the African Cup, but he started the pre-season and start of the season looking more like his usual self.
The altered tactics and unpredictable line-ups won’t be helping him.
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