Decent but dont think Real need him
Last time we had a Mac in our team we won the treble⌠Just saying.
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@AnfieldWatch
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NEW: Fenerbache are planning to offer ÂŁ7m for Liverpool midfielder Thiago Alcantara. #lfc [a spor]
By the time weâve covered three quarters of his wages weâd owe them money.
Are you saying we wouldnât be tempted to sell him at that price Rab? 
The price isnât tempting, but for me, none of our older midfielders are safe. A new thing must emerge.
Itâs a fair comment to say we canât change everyone, and I would see what offers we get, but even after contract expirations, none of our older midfielders would be safe for me. Old, slow, getting injured a bit too much. In the case of Thiago, heâs the best of the bunch and I would prefer to keep him over Fabinho and Henderson.
First things first, we need at least two good midfielders coming in, then letâs see what the group looks like.
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Wouldnt mind this happening.
Hes on a fortune so need his wages to re-build.
He isnt getting any younger and is injured again.
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Probably why Henderson has a long contract, to herd the new recruits into Kloppâs plans.
On a fortune he is but I donât see the club even bothering to entertain that offer, theyâd want at least double that to part waysâŚmaybe even closer to what we paid.
Maybe after another 2 seasons. He is still too good for Turkish League.
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My mind will boggle when Thiago was apparently a wrong fit for us, âtoo technicalâ and âslowed us downâ, then some of the media guys (likes of Didi and Barnes, and I respect them) who said that might want the likes of Mount and Maddison.
Absolutely amazing.
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Our system has been designed to maximize scoring across the front 3. no point in trying to run everything through RW, theyâll just double up and pocket him.
4231 seems like just one of the obvious solutions, but I actually quite like the options that a 4222 has, as it allows a lot of flexibility amongst the players for movement across the front and cause confusion.
We donât run everything through RW, Salah has his specific role where heâs not a winger and not a #9. If we play 4-4-2 (regardless how we want to call it, Klopp calls it either 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1), you lose a lot of what Salah is best at and perhaps get that Bobby or someone else (and no, right now neither Carvalho, Jones nor Elliott will get that role) can play slightly behind/alongside Nunez. I donât see anything that makes me think weâre changing the main formation soon (apart from sometimes flipping to 4-4-2, but then Salah plays up top with someone, he doesnât play right midfield/winger), thatâs not our problem. But Iâm intrigued to see if we can make it work with Salah not changing his role much and Nunez starting centrally in a 4-3-3.
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I would have thought if there were plans to use a 4231 formation next season we would have already switched to it.
I donât want to switch, just to have another tool in the shed to use. I see a lot of us lined up evenly spaced between their lines and having real difficulty moving the ball vertically up the pitch. we donât create overloads and players are fairly rigid in their positions at times. Would be nice for us to create some chaos once in a while, hopefully starting today.
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We do have that tool, but we do the formation change mostly when we donât defend well (which is our principle) and have a crisis of results and some availability problems that makes us switch to the double six structure.
Right now, I first and foremost want to see us revive our principle, how we defend starting from the front and then all the way back through the lines. Creating chances and scoring has been sometimes hard to do this season, but itâs been alright, much better than our off the ball stuff.
I doubt weâll see a major shift in that in the remaining weeks and few months, simply enough damage has been done already, thereâs games, not a lot of training time, etc. Now itâs about going game by game, finding XIâs and combinations that can bring us results to secure either top 4 or one of the other two European competitions.
But then in pre-season, thereâs no doubt that massive focus will be on the training pitch. We have to revive our principles and also help the team with some transfer activity, in and out. Make the squad smaller and more competitive, more in sync in all phases of the game.
At that price, no.
Would I be tempted if we could get close to what we paid for him and not have to supplement his wages? Maybe. Depends who was coming in.
Again though, heâs another one who we just seem to play and play until he gets injured again. We canât find a way to manage his minutes to help keep him fresh and injury free. We need a midfield unit that enables that to happen without a huge drop off or a change in the way that works. Or, we need to move on from him and go back to a more functional and physical type midfield.
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Thiago is a luxury player who at his age and where heâs at in his career, canât really afford not to be playingâŚKlopp is really into his rhythm, heâll never treat a player like Thiago playing 1 week then 1 week not and so on.
We signed players like him and Ibou knowing they were injury prone but we saw the reward being worth the riskâŚprobably hasnât quite worked out with Thiago but I wouldnât say itâs been a disaster either.