He did great things for Lille and the Tampa Bay Rowdies, dude.
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Pedro Neto could be a cheaper Sancho alternative, admittedly less experience and not home grown but offers similar attributes.
Iād love a summer window of Konate + Kabak + Bissouma/Camavinga + Sancho/Neto with Firmino, Origi, Adrian, Shaqiri, Wilson, Grujic, Wijnaldum, Davies all leaving.
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I donāt think we should be wishing Bobby gone. The bloke has played an unbelievable amount of football the past four years, itās kind of to be expected that his performances have dropped off.
Weāve failed to find competition for him or an alternative to him that is anywhere near close. For me, I think an addition up top this summer should be the replacement for Origi, Minamino and to some extent, Shaqiri.
Origi down the middle hasnāt been a viable option for about four years and whilst his best work came off the left, we have Mane and Jota now. Minamino simply hasnāt been good enough wherever weāve played him and certainly not enough to replace Bobby in the middle of the front three. And Shaqiri barely plays and when he does it tends to be in behind the front man, something Bobby could do with a more orthodox striker in front of him.
We should be looking at phasing the current front three out rather than selling them and then buying a replacement. Weāve bemoaned the lack of quality depth up top for a while now so letās shift the deadwood first rather than a key player.
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So, Dortmund wants Mateusz Musialowski and/or Chamberlain. This will enable us to buy Sancho with significantly less amount of cash.
Says who???
A genuine question: where did these two rumours come from?
Man City and Chelsea rejects have done pretty well for Liverpool so far but with a better fitness record, Sturridge would have gone on to rival Kane as Englandās best centre forward, Iām sure of it. I donāt think that Abraham is anywhere near Sturridgeās technical standard and footballing ability, though he may end being a goal machine in a side that will be able to create chances for him. That said, Iāve seen quite a few of his games and it never occurred to me that he has much more to his game than finishing - heās young enough to prove me wrong, though.
Heās already done his bit to fit into this Liverpool side by having his knee injured and his season endedā¦ Quality talent, though, but I donāt really expect Klopp to stunt Elliottās progress by buying either Neto or Sancho or someone similar. I think (or hope) it will rather be a case of selling Origi, Shaqiri and Minamino to free up space (and funds) for Elliott and a striker.
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Thatās pretty much how I see it. Possibly a more traditional physical forward who can add an extra threat from crosses and set pieces.
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I think it will be harder to find the type of no.9 we want than it will be to find a versatile wide player and play Salah through the middle.
Firmino leaves, Salah moves central, Sancho/Neto/Sarr etc compete with ManĆ©, Jota and Elliott (if he doesnāt go out on loan again but personally Iād loan him to a Premier League team) on the flanks. Jota and ManĆ© could also rotate with Salah through the middle.
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I think Origi might end up at Inter:
- Italian clubs have a taste for washed-up PL players
- He would be a decent back-up for Romelu Lukaku
If Dortmund does sell Jadon Sancho, I think, they will be tempted for Takumi or Shaqiri.
I would be careful what you wish for.
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Dropped off, sure, except that it has completely vanished. If anyone buys him they would have to look beyond last years form and hope that itās not the state of things to come.
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Lingz. J Lingz.
Get it right would ya.
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And DannyWelbZ.
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Hypothetically speaking, if Firmino leaves and Sancho comes, how would our attack look like?
Sancho, Mane, and Jota all are right-footed. Although Mane have played on the rightwing in his early days, he has established himself on the leftwing, cutting in and shooting with his right. Jota has been doing the same although he has been in a more central position in the few games he has played for Liverpool.
Will Sancho be used more like an orthodox right-winger, with Mane/Jota on the left and Salah in the middle? Will Salah stay at his accustomed position on the rightwing and Sancho on the left with Mane/Jota playing central?
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Salah or Jota central, Mane emergency option. Right forward Salah or Sancho with Mane and Jota as emergency options. Left forward Mane or Jota with Sancho emergency option. Elliott having some games on either wing. New traditional CF type (Origi replacement) not guaranteed for a week in week out role (but scope for him to earn it) sometimes playing as a more conventional CF type. Sometimes when we can really go for it we have 3 forwards with Sancho, Mane or Elliott playing as more of a number 10 behind them.
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Salah has been the main man for us since he got here. Not sure why people would be keen to shove him out of the position where heās been so successful into a central role to accommodate a right footer on the right side which is totally at odds with how weāve played with our wide forwards to date.
If we sold Firmino, get a forward who plays down the middle to replace him, not a bloke who forces our main man into a less familiar role and who doesnāt play the wide role in the way weād want.
@rab I agree with your thinking. His primary role is to score goals, and so people make the assumption that if you just start him closer to goal heās likely to score more, but that just isnāt how it works. Henry was the first player who I think really presented this, but since then weāve had a whole generation of goal scorers who thrive from starting in an ostensibly wider position.
However, one of the things to consider is that most of these players have thrived from that position in part because theyāve had a āstrikerā who has facilitated that for them. For instance, one of the reason Benzema was preferred at Real over the better goal scorer Higuain was because he was more selfless in creating room for Ronaldo coming in from the left. We definitely donāt need to go to the extreme of Bobby being an anti-striker, but it does mean we cant expect to just get any goal scorer in and expect Mo to continue his scoring streak from the right.
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Salah has been impressive when playing as a CF though, I donāt think itās so alien to him and getting off the wing - where he has other duties than scoring - could be more beneficial in the long term for him.
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I though Salah wanted to play CFā¦
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