I think we’ll see a lot more of Doak, looks mustard. Causes chaos, oozes confidence in himself.
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Yeah, the tone very was different when talking about those 2.
Doak - This kid has a ton of talent. He has lots of areas he needs to work on, but we’re really excited to see what he can do
Gordon - the kid just needs time to get used to U21 football again and learn to trust his body.
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Can we change the thread title to;
‘The attack - what’s the question?’
No reason, it just makes me laugh.
Thinking about doing the following for the other departments too.
During the Klopp era we had the Front3 (Mo, Bobby, Sadio) for most of the time.
Sure for some periods we had other attackers too - Sturridge, Origi, Ings, Brewster all with many injuries. We had Solanke, Minamino and could probably throw in Shaqiri and probably forget one or two players.
But most of the time we had to pray that none of the Front3 gets injured.
And man have they been good. As a unit and individually and we were very lucky with injuries.
How do we feel about our current attacking department compared to them and how do they compare to the attack of the other big clubs in Europe?
I like the fact that there is very little drop off if one of them replaces another.
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We still have Mo but have replaced Bobby and Sadio with Nunez,Gakpo,Jota and Diaz.I think overall our options are much better now as the new 4 are not the big drop off that the other lads were under Klopp.
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Mane, Salah and Firmino were the best 3. Our depth is better now, but they were barely ever injured, so our attack was better back then.
Nunez and Diaz are the two who could potentially reach that sort of level, they just need to show it over a long period of time (and hopefully stay fit).
It’s a shame Salah looks likely to leave in the near future, he and Nunez are brilliant together.
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I’m assuming that Salah will not be available in January / February due to AFCON. Do we have cover for that or should we be looking to line up our long term replacement at that point?
I seem to recall that we were fine last time without him but bringing in signings for the future in January has panned out quite well over the last couple of seasons.
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Buy someone in January assuming Salah leaves at the end of the season.
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With 4 quality options, most of whom have shown a good degree of flexibility, plus Doak pushing for chances, even if we do buy Salah’s replacement in Jan (unlikely) he’ll have a lot to do to get starts that quickly.
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Firmino/Sadio/Prime Salah > than 31y.o. Salah/Nunez/Diaz/Gakpo/Jota
Slightly unfair considering Salah, Mane, Firmino was one of, if not the, best attacks in the history of the club.
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I don’t know. I’m just kind of frustrated with our attack. If our traditional front3 have been a 10/10 most of the years I’m not even seeing the potential to reach a constant 7.5/10 in Nunez,Jota, Gakpo and Diaz.
If individually ‘not good enough’ then maybe as a collective but it doesn’t feel like any two of them have a special understanding on the pitch.
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We need to move the ball in midfield and get the opposition moving (they stay fresh having soo little to do watching us pass amongst the our defenders, if fact the opposition look like daisies we’re so ineffective in midfield and attack at times).
In the last 5 PL games the forwards have scored one goal and that was a deflected effort by Salah.
This kind of form by all of them simultaneously is not sustainable.
To be honest if they are all at 7.5 that’s fine. But ones injured and the others are at less than 2.
This is only partially churlish, but the answer is getting Mac fit and back in the “DM” role so we move the ball more intelligently from deep
How much overlap is there between the “we’ve been shit the last 3 games and our forwards need to shape out or get out” and the “Mac is not a real DM” crowds?
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In response to the thread topic’s question: Johan Bakayoko. Get him in January, and he’ll have plenty of time to bed in as Mo’s AFCON replacement.
Salah’s goals are regular, performances are sometimes better sometimes worse. Very positive how he has embraced Nunez. For me, he’s still our only automatic starter out of attacking players. The rest are more down to form, opponent, circumstances, etc. Even if he has some really shit touches and passes or runs into an opponent when trying to go past him, you stick with him because he’s still our main goalscorer.
Diaz is a bit cold lately and his numbers weren’t great even when he was in form. Injuries and off the pitch matters haven’t helped that. But I hope in following weeks and months he can get back to playing serious football and kick on, if he plans to have that left side of attack. He’ll be 27 next month and on a contract until he’s 31. Needs to show us that his peak deserves being a starting Liverpool forward now and in the next few years. If not, someone else will.
Gakpo’s touches are silky (best of our attacking group), but sometimes it frustrates how such a big boy lacks more aggression off the ball and more decisiveness on it. Would like to see him used on the left, when things are not going his way centrally. He’s basically made his breakthrough in that position, let’s not forget that he can still play there (also alongside or slightly behind the striker). He could do with a bit of Nunez’s nastiness and Nunez could do with a bit of Gakpo’s finesse!
Nunez has generally improved so far this season, goals and assists really aren’t bad when you put them together, but lately he’s stagnated a little bit. Still, at least he’s active in a lot of areas. But that can’t be enough to be an automatic starter like Salah. Only in periods when he really plays well and we can say “it’s just the final bit that’s missing”.
Jota I felt was starting to build one of his runs of games and goals, before this injury. Klopp mentioned a few times how we miss him in this period. An unusual player sometimes. Not always most present or consistent, but very handy, intelligent, probably our best presser of our forwards and nicks a goal when it seems nobody can get one.
That above is all just individual at the moment, of course the attack is also down to other players.
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