Tis a bit mean on Jota considering.
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Yesterday, i think we saw the answer. Gakpo- Nunez-Salah or Jota-Diaz-Salah/his sucessor will make the attack work.
Why Diaz-Nunez-Salah trio didn’t work is because Diaz and Nunez are very similar type of players who occupies very similar positions.
Diaz is not known for his very clever runs behind the opposition and lethal finishing. His lack of agility to beat past his opposing fullback after his injury reminds me a lot of Mane in his last 2 seasons with us.
Nunez on the other hand is someone who overthinks and sometimes his lack of concentration makes him easy to mark. His offensive movement in between the opposing CBs is not enough to break down any low blocks.
Jota and Gakpo can work with them due to them focusing primarily on the mental aspects and movement of the game. Both of them are specialists in finding space and not creating space.
Who can create space? Precisely Diaz and Nunez. Diaz while somewhat losing that agility hasn’t lost that pace at driving straight at CBs. That sucks out the opposing CBs and creates that space in that channel for players like Gakpo and Jota.
As for Nunez, his physical presence itself is enough to suck out the opposing CBs…Sometimes even the opposing DMs may get sucked out too. That also creates space.
In short, Diaz and Nunez is never gonna form part of the lethal trio together as they are players that work better driving towards the goal rather than clever movements…
We just need to move the ball quicker, they all slow it down and dribble into cul de sacs. Ignoring overlapping players and midfield. Also the midfield has to pass more to get the opposition moving and keep them guessing.
Gakpo is poo atm he really slows things down far too much, the only one that doesn’t look at his own feet is Nunez and he forgets where they are!
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I was fully convinced that Salah new contract was to protect his value, have him for one more season, play him slightly different and have the newbies transit into the main men. But so far I have not seen it. It’s not just the goals but the intensity. When Mane was here with Salah, that intense competition to be better was so good to watch from a neutral point of view. Jota can score, Diaz is fast and unpredictable, Gakpo is hardworking and can do the Firmino role, Nunez is speedy and hardworking but none of them look like having that intensity to be the Alpha in that strike force. Don’t get me wrong, they are great players but that intensity from Salah to be the best is heads above them. I hope time will give them that as most of them are still young and that is why I think the club might have a rethink of letting Salah leave this summer. Goals aside, Salah strikes fear in alot of defenders I cannot say yet of our other forwards. And we really need not just the new “Salah” but also the new “Mane” and “Firmino” from this crop to push the whole strike force to be the best
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Nunez and Jota!!!
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This is going to sound a little old school, but while Salah is at AFCON, I’d like to see Diaz off the right hand side. With Trent inverted in even a bit more than he is now (during attacking phases), let Diaz just stay wide as an outlet. Diaz has the best one vs one dribbling ability of our front players, let him beat players out there and get some crosses into Nunez, Gakpo and/or Jota. If they double Diaz out wide he can look for Trent or Szobo inside and we have an advantage there too.
Basically, chalk on the boots wide player on that side instead of someone trying to completely replicate what Salah does. I don’t think that will happen, but I do think it would be effective.
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Funnily enough, I had this exact conversation with a couple of friends of mine just a few hours ago. It was a different era but I often think of how Ferguson replaced Ronaldo - by buying Valencia and gearing the whole side towards helping Rooney score as many goals as possible.
Now, we don’t have a centre forward who is as reliable as Rooney used to be but putting Diaz on the right, so he can run into space (Van Dijk and Trent send a lot of long balls to Salah, don’t see why that would change with Diaz there) and put in crosses and cutbacks more often with his stronger foot, might actually create a few chances for Nunez, Jota and Gakpo, maybe even Szoboszlai and Trent. He’d also offer more protection to Trent/Bradley/Gomez than Salah.
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It’s not for long, so we might try a few options and see how it goes.
Jota can do it, Diaz, Gakpo, obviously Elliott also. It depends also on the opponent, form, etc. It doesn’t have to be one outstanding option because we don’t have one and we have to see how the first game goes.
Gakpo would be maybe the least preferred option of the mentioned 4 for me.
I had the most hopes for Jota last time because he’s intelligent, two footed, has balance, can smell where to be to score, like Mo. In the end, it was Ox I think who scored twice in two different games playing as the RW.
Maybe it would be helpful for Diaz to go on the right and try his luck there, provide width (maybe becoming Cuadrado… joking!). Things are not clicking for him on the left at the moment. Almost as bad as Mane’s pretty poor form on the left in mid 17/18.
Elliott in general looks sharp lately, I think he’s been hitting the gym with Mo and is trying to work a lot on his shooting, finishing, etc. Regardless where his future lies, etc. But seeing as we might be a little bit light in midfield, he might be more needed there.
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Salah: 28 games, 19 goals, 10 assists, one goal contribution/72 mins
Nunez: 38 games, 14 goals, 11 assists, one goal contribution/87 mins
Jota: 28 games, 14 goals, 4 assists, one goal contribution/88 mins
Gakpo: 38 games, 11 goals, 5 assists, one goal contribution/132 mins
Diaz: 36 games, 10 goals, 5 assists, one goal contribution/163 mins
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Salah really holding the team back again. Can’t believe the club didn’t listen to me last summer (and the one before) when I said we should flog him to fund rebuild. 
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There is an awful lot to like in those stats. The good part of it is very good indeed.
Perhaps with a bit more time spent together - bearing in mind the midfield is mostly new, and we haven’t been able to see a settled forward line for very long either - we will see the weaker parts improve.
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Surely the bottom three stats are 90%+ due to the strikers not finishing. The midfield are giving them enough opportunities. There are several points lost because of that.
I think it has to factor in that they all create a lot for themselves which often are not as high quality chances as ones created for them
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Season we finished on 97 points we were 3rd on big chances on 78…incredibly Bournemouth were only 1 off us.
Season we won the league 2nd behind City on 88…20 points behind them.
This season we’re top already with 84. In comparison City are 2nd with 80 and Arsenal 5th with 68, which probably means they’re by far and away the most clinical if they’re outscoring everyone else…seems somewhat peculiar when they don’t have a natural goal scorer.
Score your fucking goals, surely that must be the answer.
And I am surprised that such a learned and philosophically intelligent group took 317 posts only for a halfwit like me to point out the bleeding obvious
Don’t be like that, you very smart for an Aussie.
That was the idea behind me being sent to UK, to help raise the average iq in both countries