This is what I’ve been thinking about. The most natural role for both Szoboszlai and Mac is in the ALM role in the 2-2, where Jones ended the season. Assuming this link doing the rounds is true then there has to be an idea already in place for how to use one of them differently. Most think we’re relatively weakest at ARM and so maybe one could slot over there, which was my thinking about how Mac would play. But the alterative is the requirements for the DLM role have changed and Mac slides back there.
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It will be interesting to see how it pans out, and maybe the former way of thinking about our midfield will need to evolve with the advent of the 2+2 box.
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My opinion (which is just that) is that Fabinho’s decline is much in part due to circumstance. I believe his wife had a baby in December so has perhaps had no sleep for the last six months. But more than that, the injuries and weird formation experiments made everybody and everything look worse than it was.
With a decent summer break, a kid sleeping through the night, a bit more stability in the squad and less experiments then I suspect we will see improvment in Fabinho and will certainly be involved a lot at the start of the season as the new players are being introduced to the team.
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Then have Henderson/Fabinho fill in around this main squad (e.g. if Trent if injured/suspended then maybe Fabinho comes into the 6 role and we play Gomez at RB in a more traditional 433 shape - or Henderson could do a job in any of the four midfield roles but shouldn’t really be a starter thesedays.)
The questions mark is what happens if Trent misses a game. We could either do as I said above and revert to a more traditional shape (which more than anything else just shifts the focus of the playmaking onto the forwards, but it didn’t work well last season) or maybe we think outside the box again and find someone else who can at least do the movement from RB to CM, even if they can’t do the playmaking side of it that TAA can. Henderson could do it in a pinch but Bajcetic also could be a candidate for that, he’s played RB before and shown himself capable in midfield.
Also I think this squad is clearly short a CB.
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We’ll probably look to lineup like this if Trent needs a rest / suspended etc. Leave the onus on the midfield and forwards to get the goals needed. That involves Robbo not going higher up the pitch as well.
This i agree. A Left footed CB would be a great thing to have. Also the injury histories of the existing CB’s.
Colwill, Inacio, Van de Ven… several left footed cbs have been linked.
I think we will sign Van de Ven, but my guess is Colwill would be preferred, but Chelsea won’t play ball there.
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Ven is getting more and more linked with a move to Spurs.
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He will fit the home grown criteria, right?
Would prefer a better footballer than Van de Ven for the left sided centre back. Inacio and Colwill appear to be levels above him with the ball, or Gvardiol if we’re dreaming. A player like that to replace Tsimikas makes tons of sense in our new system.
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Van De Ven isn’t that great in the air , but then that’s not his biggest issue. I still think if push comes to shove , we can sign him ahead of Spurs. But the club might have other targets in mind.
Wondering how Koumetio has developed , take him on a preseason if he’s fit and then let him be a reserve option for cup games. If it works out , we’ll have saved a substantial amount.
I don’t think Chelsea will sell Colwill this summer. Brighton are trying hard, but it’s also hard for us to get that one over the line. Still remains to be seen which formation Pochettino uses, but I could see them forming Silva (possibly playing his final season, at least at Chelsea), Fofana, Badiashile and Colwill. Possibly loan or sell Chalobah instead (was linked with a move to Italy).
Colwill is a pipe dream, unfortunately… Since we’re talking about homegrown players, would Guehi make sense for us? I wonder what the stats say but I’ve always thought he’s a decent centre back.
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Guehi is apparently Spurs’ top target for that LCB position, but they think he will be too expensive this summer.
Hmm, I’ve completely missed that. I saw the links with Van de Ven and it sounded like he was their top target. Still, I find it strange that we virtually haven’t been reliably linked with any centre backs this summer.
Gold was speaking how ideally Spurs would want Guehi, but maybe now Ven is the next main target as alternative.
There were no links to Szoboszlai until about 24 hours ago!
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Almost everything about Klopp’s football starts with defense. We have so many examples of this and just mentally throw them out because his football is exciting enough that it’s difficult to reconcile with a coach who mentally approaches the game like that.
- Famously, Klopp commented that winning the ball quickly is the best way for a team to create chances when asked about his attacking philosophy.
- Jones gets back into the team towards the end of season and plays well and when asked about it Klopp commented that he had to be rewarded because of how well he started understanding the defensive assignments of the role
- Elliott has his best game in ages and when asked about it Klopp gushed about how well defensively he did.
- Shaq absolutely dominates Southampton for a half in a performance that finally brings the skeptical fans on board with his signing, yet is yanked off at half time because he wasnt getting the defensive side down.
If Trent is not available the chances of us throwing out an entirely new shape to try to accommodate what we lost from his in an attacking sense while requiring everyone’s job without the ball to change is incredibly incredibly unlikely.
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