Ok, Virgil cannot get an injury!
1 Like
Neither Virgil or Ibu can get injured as things stand
3 Likes
Yeah itâs a concern and letâs hope they are prepared to act (assuming Guehi is too expensive and earmarked for next summer). If they donât I think our transfer window, for all the exciting attacking talent, would be judged unsatisfactory.
2 Likes
Chiesa can play in the left too.
1 Like
Gomez?
Isnât he injured?
Or as things stand does he stand on one leg?
1 Like
Yeah⊠Football can get ya like that sometimes :0)
2 Likes
1 Like
The fansâ previews of the season are now online in the Guardian:
Our bit, for the TLDR is here:
Weâve made some great signings, raided the Bundesliga for Frimpong, Wirtz and EkitikĂ© and swooped south for Kerkez, with more to come. Our target is clear then: to finish top again and go further in Europe. And we must try without one of our stars, Diogo Jota, whose loss is immeasurable, of course to his family first and foremost. What he meant to the boss, the team, each individual player and the supporters has been evident in the outpourings of love and respect shown in these past weeks. We wonât forget him and in doing all we can to succeed we will honour his memory.
Key players/weak links? The new signings and how quickly they settle will be vital, but I imagine the influence of Alisson, Van Dijk, Salah and Mac Alister will continue to make the team tick. Weak links can only be in defence if multiple injuries hit at once. Sixteen-year-old Rio Ngumoha has dazzled pre-season and I expect he will play a some part, albeit sporadically, and Trey Nyoni continues to look the real deal.
We still need to sign ⊠Isak has four goals in six games against us. It would be good to see him score in a red shirt. We definitely need support at the back, too. Weâre supposedly monitoring GuĂ©hi at Palace, who is in his last year of his contract, and Parmaâs Giovanni Leoni, 18 â one for seasons to come.
Our headline-maker is ⊠Arne Slot. His summer Ibiza jaunt was picked up on social media, and heâs becoming ever more demonstrative on the touchline.
Happy with this seasonâs new kit? Yes, weâre back with Adidas â the three stripes come with a ton of glorious memories â and it has a traditional feel to it, no fancy detail or frothy, unnecessary collar. A shirt of champions.
We will finish ⊠1st. Top four 1. Liverpool; 2. Manchester City; 3. Arsenal; 4. Chelsea. Bottom three 18. West Ham; 19. Leeds; 20. Burnley. First manager sacked Scott Parker.
Steph Jones
2 Likes
Just finished reading the lot - The Everton one is hilarious: âTarget has to be Europa League or Conference qualificationâ
3 Likes
I think Brentford might be in a relegation dogfight all season⊠If so, I hope they survive due to our forever King in waiting - Caoimhin Kelleher
4 Likes
I mean, that could easily be tenth.
3 Likes
The writing skills here are not the best, but I feel it confirms that the consensus of fans from other clubs, are desperate to find a chink in our armour that can be exposed⊠We shall see I guess
Liverpoolâs new era promises excitement â but have they changed too much?
Story by Jonathan Wilson
Florian Wirtz! Hugo EkitikĂ©! Milos Kerkez! JĂ©rĂ©mie Frimpong! And soon, possibly, Alexander Isak! Itâs vital, Bob Paisley always said, to build from a position of strength, and Liverpool this summer have certainly done that.
If Isak does join, Liverpoolâs transfer spending this summer will be approaching ÂŁ400m, which would be the second-highest figure paid by any club in a single transfer window (behind only Chelsea in summer 2023) â the lack of signings last summer coupled with some canny sales has given them significant profitability and sustainability rules headroom.
If there is a giddiness on Merseyside at the prospect, itâs understandable. Liverpool suddenly have a range of attacking options the like of which no Premier League club has had since perhaps the early days of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea. If pre-season games are anything to go by, it would seem there will be a shift from the 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 hybrid of last season to something more overtly 4-2-3-1, with Mohamed Salah, Wirtz and Cody Gakpo operating behind a centre-forward â at the moment EkitikĂ© but maybe later Isak.
There is a clear sense of Arne Slot taking full command, as JĂŒrgen Kloppâs rejig of the forward line is swept away. Which itself must be thrilling to Liverpool fans: if he could win the league, have them play as they did last season, with somebody elseâs players, what could he do with his own? And it is exciting, there is a sense of a new era for the Premier League, of the battle ceasing to be Manchester City against Liverpool or Arsenal and becoming Liverpool against perhaps three challengers, if Chelseaâs performance in the Club World Cup final was indicative of the heights they could reach.
But football is an endlessly complicated game; nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears it might be. With any change, there is doubt. In this era when so many coaches have a philosophy, a platonic ideal of the game towards which they are striving, it is one of footballâs ironies that often the most successful sides are those that embody a tension.
Slot won with Kloppâs players. ArsĂšne Wenger constructed some of his best football at Arsenal on the foundations left by George Graham. Pep Guardiola finally won the Champions League after the arrival of Erling Haaland, whose reluctance to involve himself in midfield represented a significant point of difference to previous Guardiola centre-forwards. A pure manifestation of a theory without friction seems often less effective, perhaps more predictable, than a system built through compromise
Thatâs a vague, abstract concern, of greater relevance to future historians than the here and now; it would, after all, be absurd to criticise a manager for fashioning a team to their model of football. But there are more immediate worries. Firstly, by making possibly five major signings, have Liverpool changed too much at once?
Every transfer is a risk, but changing almost half a team at once magnifies that risk. This probably isnât what Liverpool planned. Uncomfortable as it may be to discuss Diogo Jotaâs death in terms of its ramifications for squad-building, that is something the club have had to face. Liverpool seem to have acted very sensitively in helping players deal with their grief, but they also suddenly needed to buy a centre-forward.
It may be that the new signings gel instantly but itâs entirely reasonable to expect that process of integration to take a few weeks. The more players come in, the longer that is likely to take and that could cost Liverpool a few points that, in a tight title race, could prove crucial. Liverpool perhaps benefited from the reverse last season, getting off to a fast start, winning 11 of their first 13 league games under Slot in part because their lack of summer signings meant nobody (apart from Federico Chiesa) was having to adjust to new surroundings and teammates.
Then thereâs the question of balance. Jarell Quansah has been sold and while Joe Gomez remains at the club, his injury problems mean he cannot be relied upon. Ibrahima KonatĂ© doesnât have the best injury record and Virgil van Dijk is 34. That suggests a squad possibly short of a central defender, something highlighted by the fact Wataru Endo, Andy Robertson and Ryan Gravenberch have played in central defence at times in pre-season.
Perhaps the plan is at times to use a midfielder in the back four, using possession as a defensive tool in the way Barcelona did with Javier Mascherano, but that would seem a ploy only really applicable to games against cautious opponents.
That front four plus the two new full-backs feels very attacking. Perhaps thatâs saying not much more than that Wirtz is a more attacking figure than Dominik Szoboszlai, but that will place additional defensive responsibility on the midfield pairing of Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister. Where Szoboszlai fits in is another question; as well as offering cover for Wirtz, he could perhaps player as one of the deeper midfielders against opponents who sit back and allow Liverpool possession.
But thatâs not the only tweak. Salahâs role could change quite significantly. He has always been at his best with a centre-forward who vacates the space for him to sweep into from his position on the right. EkitikĂ© and Isak are both mobile players, but they are both centre-forwards. They are not facilitators with the instinct to drop deep or pull wide in the way Roberto Firmino or Jota, or even Luis DĂaz, did. Nor, in truth, with Wirtz seemingly likely to operate as a No 10, is there even obvious space for EkitikĂ© or Isak to drop into. That means an adjustment for Salah.
Itâs not an enormous issue. Heâs played perfectly well with Darwin NĂșñez. Thereâll be another tweak with Frimpong overlapping from full-back, going on his outside more frequently than Trent Alexander-Arnold did in later seasons. That should in theory help create room for Salah to dart inside, distracting the full-back, but itâs another element of uncertainty.
And thatâs the concern for Liverpool. The thrill of the signings is rooted in the pristine possibility, untarnished by experience, of what they could achieve together, but an inevitable accompaniment to that projection is the possibility of failure. The uncertainty of five new signings allows Liverpool to dream, but it also exposes them to doubt.
1 Like
Itâs not an unfair assessment. Even some of us are concerned about how the team will gel.
Iâm expecting an inverse of last season, where we started so well and fell off after Xmas.
Once this team learns to play together, we will be unstoppable.
*caveat CB
3 Likes
Far too long!
1 Like
It is a Sunday morning @Flobs ⊠what else you got to do besides relax and read about LFC :0)
2 Likes
Iâm expecting to see us concede a few daft goals to begin with, because the defensive side of the game has to come through practice. Last season the squad had been together for at least a year and they were well versed in that.
3 Likes
Honestly wake up, eat, pedal for 20-30 mins look on here and fall asleep (Iâm a bit worried about that as I think I should be able to stay awake longer) if not asleep fret about the community shield.
I know too long!
1 Like
Fact is mind everyone else has made similarly large amounts of changes. City havenât massively but bought a lot in January.
Arteta making the most of the famously intimidating Emirates crowd.
Canât see us defending the title after this.
3 Likes