Forgot to mention, the forward line of Diaz and Jota and Salah seems ready to rumble, they were alert to plays and runs and seems ready eager to make an impression.
And Slot, just with starting Quansah instead of the more lauded and experienced Konate, then substituting him at half time, showed his slight difference with Klopp and his willingness to do the hard thing and it’s up to the players to adapt and respond. It’s the mentality that the right things need to be done at the right time, no hesitation
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Good result and a great start. Apparently no new LFC Manager has won his first competitive game in decades. That’s a positive.
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Did anyone notice a couple of big bouncer looking guys on the pitch at the end? In grey tee shirts, looked like they were escorting the players off. One was around after Salah was interviewed.
I’m not sure that I have seen this before.
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I thought Trent was solid at right back defensively and was excellent offensively in the 2nd half. Somehow I felt Quansah was sound in the 1st half. Shows how much I know!
2nd half was a 200% improvement in our forward play. As mentioned elsewhere we could have scored 5.
Can’t wait to see our new coach’s impact on Nunez.
And I think we can forget about fist pumps from him.
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Quansah had some decent moments, but he seemed somewhat physically intimidated. He was getting pushed around surprisingly easy, and his foul in the Ipswich 6-yard box very much looked like a player trying to assert himself. But I think the major reason why he got swapped out was that he was playing deeper than Slot wanted.
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Was my impression. When Konate came on though he only seemed a bit further forward, he was much more proactive than Quansah. Konate was initiating the challenges (whilst pushing forward) rather than being challenged (on the back foot).
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The first one is Quansah
This is Konate
For a centre back, that is a fairly remarkable difference, Quansah spent a large amount of the half at the corner of our 18, Konate was on average close to 10 meters further forward while also playing somewhat wider at times - he is controlling a lot more space.
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Didn’t realise he was so much further ahead than Quansah. From a lay point of view it is difficult to imagine that it is a one piece move, as it were, rather than a system tweak.
Ipswich were tiring a bit too by then. They weren’t pushing forward too.
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I saw the gap between our backline with midfielder s. But I though is Gravenberch was not active enough to receive the ball from defenders. Show that I know nothing
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I think there is something to the idea that Ipswich were not getting up the pitch as effectively in the 2nd half, but that is also in part being denied the space. That is where the physicality comes in, Quansah had a foul near midfield where he was pushed off the ball and retaliated, and another similar sequence in a very similar position resulting in a run at the goal. Slot was pretty clearly urging Quansah to push further up, Quansah was getting nervous about getting beaten and doing what comes naturally - give the attacker a bigger cushion. So Slot swapped him out.
Comparing Quansah and Konate’s touch maps, they are oddly similar given the difference in their position.
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Quansah won 4 out of 8 duels whereas Konate 3 out of 4
Also Konate several times went to the right back position when Trent vacated the space.
Ipswich in the first half had a line of four pushed up front to prevent us playing out from the back, along with their midfield backing them up. They couldn’t keep that up in the second.
45 minutes it seems.
I do think they sort of have it in their mindset… do they not start training at 10am? (Maybe why Slot wants them to breakfast together).
Their worst form last season was 4.30pm on a Sunday.
But yeah we did start slow in almost every 12.30pm game but is it just mindset.
Probably doesn’t help being away mind which they often seem to be as well.
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2 different halves we were in the ascendency the 2nd half having more possession and therefore higher up the pitch, so very hard to compare.
Just have to agree with Slot though Ibou won all his battles that I can recollect
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You can’t bully Ibou around. He’s a big unit and people think twice before tangling with him in duels.
Quansah probably got put under pressure a bit too much by the opposition players. Hence the change.
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Calvert Lewin had Konate on toast in our last match against them!
Do people really not enjoy watching this guy play? I think he’s absolutely gorgeous. The pass he arrowed forward to Mo, the cheeky little flick over the oncoming defender.
https://x.com/ovLFC/status/1825143867999391982
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Before jumping to any conclusions, I would want to see both Trent’s and Virg’s heatmaps split between first and second halves side by side.
If there are any wholesale differences between halves, then that might suggest a tactical tweak rather than the change in personnel being the big cause in differences between the heatmaps.
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