VVD approves this statement.
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Iām not sure why we would buy a forward to cover Salah for a month anyhow.
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Sorry, I donāt think that was the suggestion. More a case of ādonāt expect any forward line additions and with Salah being away for AFCON it means existing options will be shuffled to cover.ā
Was actually mention of Doak and Gordon possibly being options which I neglected to include and actually was more interesting than the bit about not buying forwards.
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Personally I donāt think itās a major issue if someone is forced over there.
Yes itās a drop off possibly (though I think weāve seen about 10 minutes from one or two of them).
Iām glad he put to bed JWP rumour to bed, one thing Pearce usually gets right is who we are not interested.
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Last AFCON, Ox deputised Salah, generally did well and scored a few goals.
Weāve got cover. Elliott would be my choice, but you have the two other kids, and Diaz and Jota have played right before.
Put it this way, I donāt think think it makes sense to look at attack, until weāve done two more midfielders, a defender and possibly a right back too.
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Plenty of options, letās face it last January no one was away in international competitions and we were having to play Curtis Jones up there.
Without Gakpo we would have had one forward for at least 2 games.
I wonder if itās us trying to drive down a price.
āOh we have a number of CMās we want to buy and we have agreements ready but you are greedy bastards so knock 10m off ladsā.
Itās a bit scrimpy to be fair and Iād rather we do it when we have 2 CMs confirmed but letās see.
Surprised not to see some active sales for certain players.
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NEW: Ryan Gravenberch has revealed that he will leave Bayern Munich this summer if he is not guaranteed playing time next season. - De Telegraaf #lfc
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About 15 years ago a friend of mine was telling me about a FIFA coaching conference heād just come back from in which the focus was the ādeath of formationsā. The idea was that increasingly teams were moving to having 1 shape in possession and another when defending and the course was focusing on effective combinations of those that facilitates effective switching of shape so you dont get caught in transition. I think people are familiar with basic implementations of that like 4-3-3 with the ball and 4-5-1 without it, but a few clubs have taken this to a length that is a bit more testing of the traditional way we view the game. Us being one. Trent has spent 2 years increasing the amount of time he spends centrally when weāre on the ball. What weāve seen recently is just an evolution of that.
Regardless of whether you consider Trent a midfielder or a RB, what is clear is that it isnāt a move into midfield that requires us to get another RB to play there to accommodate him. This move is partly about getting Trent on the ball more, but itās also about adding another body to midfield so that in that transition into defending when we lose the ball we have more bodies around the ball to help improve our ability to win it back quickly. Moving Trent into a legit DM role in a way that requires us to play a RB in addition to him takes away that tactical advantage we were trying to create for ourselves. Itās not out of the realm of possibility we do itā¦maybe another year of work for the forwards and a fresher midfield makes us think we can press effectively again in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. Maybe. But it has to be acknowledged that what this move has not done is open up space that needs to be filled with a traditional RB.
Thatās a lot of words to say the same thing I already said if you include the bit that was cut out of the quote.
But ho humā¦
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Ok, taking notes on whatās an appropriate response. Will promise to do better in the future
I really thought Thuram would be in by now. (assuming we are interested in him)
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The problem is, that nothing is free. That tactical advantage in possession comes at the price of a weakness when defending. Konate is now being asked to cover a huge area if we lose the ball with Trent somewhere in midfield. Right back has always been seen, rightly or wrongly as an area to exploit by our opponents, and this just exacerbates that. It can work against lesser teams, but someone like Vinicius will have a field day.
It also means that VVD and Robbo are pulled out of position as Ibou drifts out wide, which can cause issues too.
Our defensive record is not great and we need to stop conceding. That cost us CL last season.
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Not while hes away with France
Also now Tchouameni and Valverde are available weāre looking at our options 
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Totally agree with that, just not that the price is weak defending. It is a move tailored to address weakness in defending that undercut a lot of our season prior to the change. We had varying degrees of success with it, but you saw lots more of a familiar liverpool with us using that shape than we saw in the period of the season prior to the shift.
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NEW: Paul Gorst reports Liverpool is weighing up a move for Gabri Veiga. Veiga is a target alongside Khephren Thuram, Manu Kone, Romeo Lavia, and Ryan Gravenberch !
[@ptgorst][(https://twitter.com/ptgorst)]
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I doubt that type of attitude would suit Klopp. I donāt think any manager can guarantee you football, thatās up to you.
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I donāt like the language of being guaranteed to play. It sounds entitled.
Hopefully the conversation between player and manager goes more like this: āWhere do you see me in the pecking order, and what do I have to do to move up?ā
Then at that point, if thereās a significant disagreement, and the player sees himself as more worthy of game time, he either knuckles down or a parting of the ways comes into view.
I agree that no coach should be guaranteeing a player his spot, especially a younger player who is on the way up. If it is a big club there will always be other options, and you have to earn the shirt. Granted, if you are a world class player and have earned that status, you might benefit from some increased good will if your form dips, but that different to Gravenberch.
Probably wonāt interest anyone but Iāll tell you all anyway. Clarkson currently at Cormack park and away to sign permanently for Aberdeen
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