Yeah they are not the slam dunk prospects that I saw with the likes of Bradley and Quansah, who I think will have long and successful careers hopefully at this club. Chambers is certainly the better of the two players but I do have concerns over his size - as much as it is true to say physical size isn’t everything it is still very important. I think Chambers will be at least one or two years from being in serious first team consideration, assuming he continues to develop at his current rate. Scanlon I think needs to take some bigger jumps, he is missing too much time with injury.
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Four players sounds a lot but if Matip and Thiago are off plus we’re talking about Tsimikas probably going (we’re surely not buying a new left back if he doesn’t go then four doesn’t seem that many. Then there’s Gomez as a potential departure too and I suspect we might see at least one of Diaz, Nunez or Mo move on too.
We’ve really only picked up Quansah and Bradley as regular starters from the youngsters. There’s some talent in those ranks but I think they’ve played out of necessity rather than choice.
So a centre back to replace Matip and push van Dijks and Konate. A left back to replace Tsimikas who can push Robbo. I’d keep Gomez and sell van den Berg unless Gomez pushes to leave and then I’d keep van den Berg and he and Quansah can fight it out to be fourth and fifth choice.
Midfield I think we can add a new DM with Thiago going. Will be overkill perhaps for a season whilst we see how Bajcetic comes back. All being well we move Endo on next summer as the new guy and Bajcetic own that role.
Up top I can see us looking for a left footer for the right hand side. Even better if he can also play centrally or perhaps we see Mo do a bit more of that. Think that’s all we do up top even if Nunez or Diaz go as we’ve options down that side and centrally. May even see Carvalho getting time on the left again.
If more than one of those two or Mo go then we get a second player for the forward line.
In - CB, LB, DM and RW/FW.
Out - Matip, Tsimikas, VDB/Gomez, Thiago and probably a forward.
Any other departures creates need for another addition.
The case for the defence?
There isn’t one.
There’s a case for a new defence
I had to go back and capture 1 moment because it was quite remarkable, and it was when Diaby or might’ve been Bailey hit the side netting.
Everything wrong with our defence can be seen in 1 shot.
Now can anyone in their right conscious mind explain what in the blue shitting fuck is going on here?
An elite defensive midfielder changes everything. If there’s any chance for Choo-choo we should pull out all the stops to do it. I think that’s what Slot needs to do, or someone of that ilk who goes to the top of the class and takes hold of that defensive midfield role.
Even if it means sacrificing one of the numerous number 8s we have (though I hope it doesn’t come to that) we need an elite defensive midfielder.
Everything will look that much better. Right now the balance is wrong, and we are playing squad men (Endo) or putting a square peg in a round hole (Mac Allister).
We are the third best in the Prem but there’s no reason we can’t challenge next season with the fresh energy and ideas of a new manager, plus a couple of signings in the right areas.
Knowing our luck…Tchouameni’s current injury history, which is not disastrous, will just get worse after signing for us…
I think getting new players for those positions is a given. Even if Salah stays, and I think he shouldn’t, next season would almost certainly be his last with us so we need to look ahead and get his replacement in this summer.
No ‘maybe’ about left back for me. Robbo isn’t what he used to be and I very much doubt if he’s going to turn back the clock and rediscover the energy that he had a couple of years ago. I think you previously suggested Fulham’s Robinson. He’s a player that maybe we should have bought when he was at Wigan and I think he’d be an excellent replacement for Robbo.
Virgil is the wrong side of thirty but I’m not advocating replacing him now. I think he needs a top class partner, preferably someone who’s not injured half the time.
Endo has done a good job but he is limited and it’s clear that MacAllister doesn’t enjoy playing the no.6 role. It’s not surprising that we’re again being linked with Touchameni.
As this is the defence thread, I’ll say that a new DM plus an LB and a top class CB would greatly improve our defence.
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2 first teamers and 2 youth won’t be a major overhaul.
We’d need replacements for Thiago , Matip , Salah and a backup left back.
Thiago might have been replaced already by Mac , Bajcetic.
Matip does need replacing though. It’s alright looking at Quansah but he’s not as experienced as Matip yet. We should be looking at that Mainz guy. I hear he won’t cost a bomb as most CB’s would. Dutch pairing at the heart of defense won’t be a and call with a Dutch coach.
Salah needs replacing even if he’s seeing out his contract and staying the extra year. While he’s improved in other facets of the game , he essentially is someone who’s main skill is his pace. He can do a job for 60 minutes at full throttle though. But we need to probably push him to be more central while getting someone in the right wing.
I’d agree with what quite a lot of people are saying about Tsimikas. He needs to go as he’s not good enough to challenge Robbo consistently. Not entirely his fault as he barely gets gametime when Robbo’s fit (Robbo’s injury record has been pretty good so far in his career with us). However at this point , we should be looking at someone who’s long-term improvement over Robbo or atleast who can replace Robbo in 2 years time and Tsimikas isn’t the one for that. Kostas has his moments with Liverpool and I’d expect he would shine in the Italian league but he’s run his course with us.
Last night almost all of the defensive struggles came immediately after we lost the ball needlessly. Under Klopp we have always been a team willing to force things and lose possession because winning it back quickly and creating chances from that was part of our game plan. This version of the team though seems to lose the ball in a lot of situations where we’re just too spread out to be able to press properly. There is a difference between trying to force the ball and being sloppy with it. Too often this season its been the latter.
We’ve become a possession based team (including the league winning season) after Buvac left and Ljinders came on board.
I do think we’ve lost a bit of identity with that. A lot of that change in approach was warranted and paid off as well but we’ve changed a fair bit in identity since then.
Quite a lot of times , we get seemingly stuck in the rut where our folks seem to be indecisive on whether to be more direct with the long balls or try to progress the ball through with short passing.
Nothing that Klopp couldnt fix but the team lost a fair bit of the gegenpressing identity when the tactics evolved. Made opposition less fearful of us.
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From counter pressing to counter fouling…that’s the team we’ve become, no composure or calmness off the ball and rush into a tackle which none of our players can win which could also signal low footballing IQ, all of this then leads to players panicking and positionally leaving themselves exposed.
It’s been a complete sham for 2 years.
Sort of, but it’s not an either/or situation. One of the best pressing teams you will ever see is Pep’s Barca. We have never played like them with the ball though and so even at our most controlling were always willing to try things at the risk of losing possession. If you do that in the right areas when we’re in the right shape, we back ourselves to win it back quickily, and doing so can enforce a geggenpressing situation on a team who wanted to sit back and not get sucked into that sort of game. That, rather than careful control of the ball is where a lot of high possession has come from in recent years.
For a lot of this season though, and loads last night, we’ve seen us turn the ball over when we’re hopelessly spread out and completely unprepared to go and win it back quickly. Their first two goals were a direct result of this last night.
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Not necessarily intending to bash Quansah here, but there is no way Watkins is rinsing Konate like that for the first Villa goal
Quansah
Konate
They’re both actually very good at standing up to dribbling players, in this circumstance Watkins was just better. I can accept players getting beaten by other quality players, which Watkins is. The issue is why Mac Allister, Endo and Elliott all thought it wasn’t worth marking the man on the edge of the area. That’s nothing but attitude/application. Simple stuff.
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You’re right, Konate would’ve lunged in recklessly to win the ball or poke it out for a corner like he usually does, only to give away a pen.
When he’s good he’s very good, when he’s bad he’s brainlessly bad…throw in the fact he can’t stay fit for longer than 5 minutes perhaps puts his future here at jeopardy.
Maybe, maybe not. But Watkins is very good at that and JQ also didn’t get much help (one of the reasons Virgil is so exceptional is he is a rare CB who doesnt have to have help to prevent them getting caught 1-1) despite several players doing well to cover the ground to get back into defense. It was a case of doing the hard work to get back into position then not doing anything effective once getting there.
As opposed to allowing a cut back leading to conceding a goal?
I’ll try and find a way to get your valuable input to Mr Slot.
He’ll be forever grateful
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Give him a chance to walk through the door before you do though.
Thing with Klopp and his football is that literally every player he selects must be at the very top of his game understanding and commitment in order for it to work. It worked perfectly for majority of his time here but when it didn’t work, we were dire. The last two seasons have been a combination of everything that can go wrong for a football club on the pitch:
- fatigue
- injuries to important players
- even more injuries to their replacements, leading to the worst injury crisis I’ve seen at the club (and we’ve had some entries to that competition, alright)
- senior players’ form completely falling off a cliff
- players tending to switch off defensively over and over (I’m looking at you in particular, Trent)
- Klopp being stuck in a tactical rut - we’ve become a team that’s possession-oriented but without a clear build-up plan, with players often being too spread out and relying on long balls to bypass even the slightest pressing attempts of our opposition
- refereeing decisions going against us that even Howard Webb wouldn’t give to Man United at Old Trafford with Ferguson watching from the byline
- increasingly suspect finishing of our starting players
- Klopp deciding enough is enough
Put all of this together and you wonder how on Earth, until last night’s game, the difference between us being first in the table and the third was one miss in each of our home games against Man City and Arsenal - or a clear penalty not given to us in each of these fixtures.
If all of these articles written about Slot are to be believed, he will insist on a more compact formation and patient build-up. Even if it makes the team a bit more “boring” to watch, I truly hope it’s the way he get his Liverpool side up to speed because the control that Man City and Arsenal exert in their matches is the difference between us and them, and it likely has an impact on the way they defend, not to mention the fitness of their players.
Back line needs another quality centre back, quality competition at fullback positions (provided Trent renews his contract and Slot decides to use him at right back instead of midfield) and protection from midfield. Some of it can be solved in-house, some of it through transfers. We need an upgrade on Endo, even if he did change my initial opinion of him for the better. He’s a very useful player to have but not a game-changing one like Rodrigo or Rice.
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