I want what you’re smoking
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Really not sure I’d describe Konate as ‘no brainer’. That’s quite the injury record he has, and I’d think that the very top attribute on our CB wish list would be ‘doesn’t always get injured’.
It feels like a strange on to me, given Botman and Caleta-Carr are both available and probably a bit cheaper.
But if the Club are convinced…
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It’s been disproven by a few journalists that Konate is “injury prone”, some of his big lengthy lay offs were actually breaks in season so it looks a lot worse and the injures he’s had don’t point to some sort of underlying trend or regular breakdown type etc.
The only concern raised is as ILLOK has said he misses games and is a sub behind Upamencano / Mukiele (who in the 2 games against us is terrible!)
I’ve been wondering if Klopp might use 3421 next season, unleashing Robbo and Trent even further up the field but having 3 ball playing defenders on the pitch. Something like
Alisson
Konate – Kabak – Van Dijk
Trent – Thiago – Fabinho – Robbo
Mane – Jota
Salah
We’ve actually got a good squad to do this, Gomez/Matip as back up for the back 3 (even Phillips might be an option), Oxlade could transition to rotate with Trent and the new “forward” fits perfectly as a no.9.
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Really interesting. I don’t think Klopp has ever consistently used a back three has he?
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Not as far as I’m aware, I’ve seen 4231, 4222 and the 433 here.
Just been wondering how do you stop the problems we’ve suffered? Which are;
Open on the counter via the High Line
Conceeding at set pieces
Not scoring at set pieces
Robbo/Trent being nullified
Not enough width
Not exhaustive but the 3 defenders give us a lot of the above and its a perfect formation for penning back teams in their box but not being as open etc.
The added bonus is if you have a similar voodoo curse to half your backline you can go back to 4231 or 433 very easily as you’ve got more depth.
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Neither Maddison nor Grealish (even less) are playing CM.
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Apparently that was also last year’s rumour, which wasn’t even that reliable. They already have a second striker in Felix. Don’t know why they’d go for Bobby. Maybe think more how to replace Suarez, who has a certain clause even for this summer and will have a year left.
I don’t think Klopp sees Salah as our #9 nor Salah sees himself as a #9. He already spoke about it, he prefers his current role, inside right and with enough freedom to do his thing. He can do it sometimes, but I don’t think it’s our go to choice.
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Regardless of Kelleher, we need another experienced goalie to make it 3. I hope the latest rumours of offering Adrian another year isn’t true. But we can’t cover Alisson only with kids (even if Kelleher isn’t a kid by age anymore, by experience yes). Both Alisson and Kelleher had their little issues. We need a cheap/free experienced option there to either be 2nd or 3rd choice. I still hope Kelleher signs a new deal, but who knows, there’s a realistic possibility he might look to leave with a year left on his deal.
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Oh yes sorry I’ve forgotten about the selling of them lol. Then we need a midfielder lol.
I’ve heard Adrian mention he is in discussions about a new deal. He’s won a lot here, but please go Adrian. I hope we get a homegrown fella or something. Andy Lonergan type as it was a nice story of a lower league player come big time
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Lonergan was more like the 3rd/4th one (by accident/need, due to injuries) who was probably never brought in to play, but there to make numbers for training and act as emergency. Like Manninger. I think we need someone a little bit more reliable, who would be between the 2nd and 3rd option.
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Lonergan actually came in during pre-season when we had a bit of a problem with the position (maybe due to injury) and wouldn’t have been able to do any friendly games in training. Ended up earning a deal. Lovely story.
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Yeah, that was really one out of the blue and we literally needed an experienced body who is professional. Not good enough to step onto the pitch for us though.
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I think what I’d prefer to see is a bit of fluidity.
A back triangle kind of thing set up as either a back 3 CBs or 2 CBs with a DM in front. With someone like Fabinho you have the ability to not just change from game to game but also during a match too. If a game is going a certain way Fabinho drops back from DM to CB or if we’d set up with 3 CBs steps forward into DM.
Across the middle of the pitch you’d essentially have Alexander-Arnold, Henderson, Thiago, Robertson. That’s world class to me. Neco Williams, A new combative CM, Jones or Keita, Tsimikas would be good enough depth especially if the new guy is good or really promising and Milner for emergency cover across the 4 positions. Could be improved in the future, particularly at the wide places, but good enough for now.
Then you have the front 3. It could be set up like now with two wide forwards and a false 9. An ultra attacking 2 wide forwards and CF. 2 forwards with licence to roam and an attacking mid (like SaS days). Or like you’ve put two tucked in wide attacking mids with one forward. Gives us flexibility. Or at least it does with a CF added.
When we have the ball this is the shape we tend to see anyway. It’s just Fabinho who sits between the centre backs or Thiago and Hendo do it to get the ball moving forward. It’s rare Salah and Mane are out hugging the touchline so they’re probably not as narrow as you show here and Firmino would definitely be deeper than you’ve got Salah but generally it’s not far off.
If you have a third centre back, there’s not so much need for Fabinho in there and definitely not Fabinho and Thiago.
It’s an interesting idea but I don’t see Klopp entirely changing the structure of the team. Maybe the way it plays but overall he’d been pretty consistent throughout his career with the overall shape.
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I’m always of the opinion our front three need to be a little less rigid, Salah might start in that position but I’d expect him to push out wide right, cut in on his left etc. But the key is when he does that you need a midfielder or another forward, or Trent even taking that vacant space.
You could easily flip Jota to that no.9 spot and Salah on the right behind him.
We’ve become very very static in attack, what seems to be lacking is late runs from players coming from deeper and causing defensive shape to break. That’s why I like having 3 players sat across the pitch on the half way line, both central midfielders are completely free to make breaks and don’t need to constantly worry about the ball over the top and being caught up field.
I agree but a lot of the time it’s Trent sat where Konate sits… Not going to lie since January our shape has been horrific.
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I think it’s more that due to our problems at the back, we haven’t been compact anymore. Our midfield also changed a lot, we lost some of our principles against the ball. And then it also became even more evident that we were a bit late all the time to add newer things/elements. Someone like Jota came late (but I understand our situation, we can’t buy all at the same time), we’re still waiting for a consistently good “Thiago” (be it Keita, Thiago or someone else). I think the movement is still good, but we need going back to our basics (not only how we attack but how we defend and it’s linked, like it has to be in today’s game) and inject new quality/competition across all 3 outfield lines. Increase the quality of chances (the quantity is still there most of the time) that final bit, and finishing.
Played well against Seville tbf in pre season. Think he’s at Stoke now. Hope we offer him to coach the kids as a goalkeeping coach or something when he packs up