It's a couple of days before the first competitive game of the season; what do you expect to see? Let's not focus on results too much here – obviously we want to win every game and every competition. But what are you excited about or perhaps fearful about this coming season? Who will be the top scorer? Who will play the most minutes in central defense next to Van Dijk? Who will disappoint? How will the opponents play against us?
One thing that might or might not affect us is the new rule on goal-kicks:
In theory this could help possession-based teams like Man City and hurt pressing teams like us, although seeing this in action in a few pre-season games, it still looks like there will be plenty of opportunities to win the ball high. Like here, despite Conte's Inter managing to play out the ball very nicely:
Overall, I think Klopp will try to marry the patient approach from the first half of last season and the aggressive approach we saw in the Spring – a great team needs to be able to go from one mode to another at will. I expect to see some kind of "hybrid" 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 formation where one morphs into the other depending on the game situation.
For individual players, I expect a stronger season from Salah and especially Firmino – they did not have enough rest to start getting rusty and should hit the ground running; however I'm worried if they will run out of gas by the end. Ox is the big X-factor – his knee won't regain full range of motion until at least next season, can he cope and still find the kind of form he was in pre-injury? Big expectations on Keita and Fabinho – both should be fully settled by now and deliver a full season of strong performances. I wonder how Hendo will fare in his new advanced position – there is a lot of competition for that spot, but if he could sustain anything close to his offensive production since the Southampton game (1 goal and 5 assists in the last 11 games of the season), he will take some shifting.
I think Trent will decisively win the assist competition with Robbo this time and will chip in with a few goals as well – I actually worry about Robbo regressing a bit, while Trent will surely improve compared to last year when he didn't hit great form until the last couple of months or so. Finally, I really hope Alisson and VVD will continue performing at their world-class levels and won't reveal any hidden weaknesses – it will be harder for them because every opponent will now study their games intensely.
Bring on the season!
One thing that might or might not affect us is the new rule on goal-kicks:
In theory this could help possession-based teams like Man City and hurt pressing teams like us, although seeing this in action in a few pre-season games, it still looks like there will be plenty of opportunities to win the ball high. Like here, despite Conte's Inter managing to play out the ball very nicely:
Overall, I think Klopp will try to marry the patient approach from the first half of last season and the aggressive approach we saw in the Spring – a great team needs to be able to go from one mode to another at will. I expect to see some kind of "hybrid" 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 formation where one morphs into the other depending on the game situation.
For individual players, I expect a stronger season from Salah and especially Firmino – they did not have enough rest to start getting rusty and should hit the ground running; however I'm worried if they will run out of gas by the end. Ox is the big X-factor – his knee won't regain full range of motion until at least next season, can he cope and still find the kind of form he was in pre-injury? Big expectations on Keita and Fabinho – both should be fully settled by now and deliver a full season of strong performances. I wonder how Hendo will fare in his new advanced position – there is a lot of competition for that spot, but if he could sustain anything close to his offensive production since the Southampton game (1 goal and 5 assists in the last 11 games of the season), he will take some shifting.
I think Trent will decisively win the assist competition with Robbo this time and will chip in with a few goals as well – I actually worry about Robbo regressing a bit, while Trent will surely improve compared to last year when he didn't hit great form until the last couple of months or so. Finally, I really hope Alisson and VVD will continue performing at their world-class levels and won't reveal any hidden weaknesses – it will be harder for them because every opponent will now study their games intensely.
Bring on the season!
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