Hear ye, hear ye!
I saw him quite a but last season, and he tore it up. He needs to jeep playing but at a higher level.
Pre-Season Observations
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I saw him quite a but last season, and he tore it up. He needs to jeep playing but at a higher level.
Last team to win the PL without a DM was City in 2013/14. Fernandinho isn't a DM. Being the most defensive midfielder in the team doesn't make him an out and out DM (see e.g Henderson), he's far more attacking than that (as his 5 goals would suggest). YaYa was an out an out attacking midfielder - you don't score 20 goals in a PL season by being defensive until you are losing !
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There is plenty to like about Gomez but there is also a fair bit to give cause for concern.
His positioning was very poor at times yesterday and he can be a bit rash in the tackle.
The rashness may well go with experience and game time but can we afford the luxury of developing a centre half which would probably cost us points throughout that development phase? We desperately need a better centre half than we currently have in my opinion and while I have concerns about Van Dijk he will hopefully be better than what we have and also hopefully not hampered by injuries. Either the current or future ones.
I'd be happy to have Gomez as forth choice and make sure that he gets lots of game time in League cup games, etc, with Lovren as third choice.
Regardless or whether Gomez is better than Klavan , Sakho is better than the pair of them. If we don't get VVD then Klopp and Sakho need to stop being big tarts about whatever the disagreement was and settle it.
What about Leicester and Chelsea with Kante?
In any case, take pre-season with a large pinch of salt. Voronin looked like a world beater in pre-season, and by some of the comments on here lately, you'd be forgiven into thinking the second coming of Moreno was upon us.
Competitive football is a different beast.
Sakho can make that happen.
But if you gave me a choice of having VVD or Gomez plus 60m to spend i'd take the latter.
I don't think its safe to assume that VVD is going to solve any of our problems. He's never played top level football in a system that exposes its CB's, add in the fact he hasn't played in 7 months and he's clearly not ready for this coming season and i really don't see the attraction of making him the most expensive defender in the history of world football.
Would you be happier if the fee for Van Dijk was Sakho plus £25m?
Rightly or wrongly I really doubt Sakho has a future at Liverpool
I think the same re Sakho - and the whole football world knows he has no future with us. (Managerial genius strikes again)
If 25m+ Sakho was a possibility i'd probably take it. But Klopp destroyed Sakho's value (or the LFC media did) so i just don't see it as possible. 25m plus Sakho to me = 35m which is about where VVD's value is in todays market.
If 25m+ Sakho was a possibility i'd probably take it. But Klopp destroyed Sakho's value (or the LFC media did) so i just don't see it as possible. 25m plus Sakho to me = 35m which is about where VVD's value is in todays market.
I missed out the 'out' , though the rest of the post made it obvious 😉
I'd rather go and get VVD. He's a leader, a good passer, and reads the game well, and he's desperate to come here. Gomez has been out of top class action for an age. The boy's got talent, and I like that he'll be involved, but he's unlikely to give us what we need for the full season.
Having said that VVD's not kicked a ball since Jan.
Hopefully, Dan will convince him to come sign with us next year too
One of the reasons I'm not too worried about our midfield is because I already view Coutinho as part of the midfield 3 (when everyone is fit, which presumably means the front 3 is Mane-Firmino-Salah). In this case, the 3 midfield spots would be divided between Coutinho, Lallana, Wijnaldum, Henderson and Can, with Grujic and Ejaria as capable back-ups – that's not a bad collection of midfielders.
Now, if we lose Coutinho (or Can or both), then it's a different matter – in this case Keita or someone like him becomes a necessity, rather than a luxury. But I really think that if we just keep everyone and sign VVD to improve the central defense, we should be OK for the coming season (other than the usual question mark around Sturridge's fitness).
Now, if we lose Coutinho (or Can or both), then it's a different matter – in this case Keita or someone like him becomes a necessity, rather than a luxury. But I really think that if we just keep everyone and sign VVD to improve the central defense, we should be OK for the coming season (other than the usual question mark around Sturridge's fitness).
Did it?
Don't know if I agree with that – sure Kent makes wrong decisions sometimes, but who among our senior players doesn't? How many times does Firmino pick a wrong option – if he was 18 years of age everybody would say "oh, that shows he's just young and raw" but because he's a senior player and Brazil international we just kind of accept it. How many times Coutinho or Sturridge go for glory instead of finding a better placed teammate – again, if it was Kent, we would all say this is proof he "needs more seasoning."
I guess my point is, let's forget the age thing altogether and judge Kent on what he offers he offers to the team RIGHT NOW – and from what I've seen over the past few games, it's a lot. Like someone said, I cannot imagine a better option to come on for the last 20 minutes of a high-intensity PL game and use his confidence and skill to run at the tired defenders – he has exactly the kind of character to make defenders hate playing against him.
Errr yes.
What is ambiguous about (and I'm quoting myself but adding bold) : Fernandinho isn't a DM. and YaYa was an out an out attacking midfielder ?
Absolutely agree with the second paragraph. For the first I'd add that he gave the ball away a few times more than an experienced player would, no shame in that as a youngster but it's not what you'd want in a PL game. Either he simply tried to take on too many defenders or his passing was short/inaccurate.
However I've also said that I think Klopp may keep him around as a backup to Salah & Mane so if one is injured we can still play the same formation at times.
Preseason star man is Firmino with 3 goals and 4 assists. Playing well and leading the line!!
Hopefully, Dan will convince him to come sign with us next year too
He be like.... who the fuck is this Daniel Sturridge?
Salah 4 (2 headers)
Solanke 3 (2 headers)
Firmino 2 (both penalties)
Woodburn 2 (1 pen)
Coutinho 1
Sturridge 1
Mane 1
Origi 1
Grujic 1 (plus disallowed goal against Bayern)
Wijnaldum 1
Milner 1 (pen)
Chirivella 1
Need to mention that Solanke has assisted for a few goals as well – off the top of my head the Chirivella tap-in, Wijnaldum's strike and now Woodburn's goal too. Firmino also had several assists.
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My suspicion is that Klopp isn't going to use Milner at left-back anymore. Which means Firmino will become our designated penalty taker.
That'll add like 5-6 goals to his tally for the season.
Firmino? He seems to have a weak shot when the ball is on the ground. He relies alot on placement. Milner strikes the ball clean and with accuracy.
Milner will thrash Bobby in a 1v1 penalty competition.
Moreno
If Klopp is basing his decision on pre-season then I've got to say that's poor. He's had all of last season to assess him in training and he found him to be wanting, rarely putting him on even as a sub. It's the reason he was clearly up for sale and would have gone if the offer was £15m instead of £11m. And now he's good enough again ?
We have been in control for most of our pre-season games and it's in those games that he shines because he has serious pace and sometimes a good cross on him, not that he played that often anyway (though he did play the whole game vs. BM). However his defensive weaknesses have not regressed, he is still dives mindlessly into tackles and is very positionally suspect. My prediction now is that if he gets games then we'll soon revert to Milner + Robertson as our two to go to with Moreno not even on the bench and discarded.
If Klopp is basing his decision on pre-season then I've got to say that's poor. He's had all of last season to assess him in training and he found him to be wanting, rarely putting him on even as a sub. It's the reason he was clearly up for sale and would have gone if the offer was £15m instead of £11m. And now he's good enough again ?
We have been in control for most of our pre-season games and it's in those games that he shines because he has serious pace and sometimes a good cross on him, not that he played that often anyway (though he did play the whole game vs. BM). However his defensive weaknesses have not regressed, he is still dives mindlessly into tackles and is very positionally suspect. My prediction now is that if he gets games then we'll soon revert to Milner + Robertson as our two to go to with Moreno not even on the bench and discarded.
If Milner isn't on the pitch?
I'm saying Milner might not be starting every game like last season. It's certainly a good idea to have an alternate penalty-taker. Firmino seems to have been handed the duties, as he's going to a certain starter in most of our games.
And regardless of how hard he hits it he has an excellent record. He was Hoffenheim's penalty taker too.
Just checked his penalty record for Hoffenheim. Scored 3, missed 2.
That's not very encouraging!
Haha - I knew he was the penalty taker but hadn't bothered to check his record 😀
His 3/3 pre-season a definite improvement then.
Holding my horses and maybe pinching my nose too.
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