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Trent, Salah and VVD

Him staying on main guy money allows him to be the main guy, but hopefully develop and set up the next batch of main guys

A 9, if gakpo develops more, szob becomes less of an attacking shithouse, bradders works well with him, then he's helping 4 players.
High hopes for Bradders but Gakpo turns 26 in a few weeks, so what you see is what you get.
Hopefully Szobo's play improves with the introduction of a proper right back.
 
Very happy. Makes the summer rebuild a little easier. None of us are sure how much of Mo Salah we are getting with the recent fall off but this is good for morale
 
Fucking great news. The only reason we're not super high about this is because he'd given enough hints that he wanted to stay.

Make no mistake, it makes a big difference to our future, regardless
 
So… Salah finally realised that no-one in the CL was going to give him a better deal than us.

😉

I really believe he thinks we can win another Lesgue and CL after this season’s.

So do I, by the way.
 
I get what you're saying but he's supposed to be the "main guy" and he's getting "main guy" money and minutes on the pitch.
He's been great all season long, can't take that away from him, but it also needs to be acknowledged that he's been missing for about 7 weeks and that's not acceptable for a player of his caliber.
Which is fair enough, but all strikers have drop offs. Look at haaland. Thing is the rest of the team haven't supported salah when he's had that drop in form. He's been carrying the team for half a season and when he's gotten tired no one else has stepped up. You can't expect him to deliver all season.
 
Which is fair enough, but all strikers have drop offs. Look at haaland. Thing is the rest of the team haven't supported salah when he's had that drop in form. He's been carrying the team for half a season and when he's gotten tired no one else has stepped up. You can't expect him to deliver all season.
I don't expect him to deliver all season, but this is the season defining time. We need him to be at his best now.
But I blame Slot for that more than Salah.
 
Which is fair enough, but all strikers have drop offs. Look at haaland. Thing is the rest of the team haven't supported salah when he's had that drop in form. He's been carrying the team for half a season and when he's gotten tired no one else has stepped up. You can't expect him to deliver all season.
Every time I read someone saying ‘Mo’s been carrying the team’ I think of how many players around him (Szobo, Grav, the right back) have to exhaust themselves over ac season carrying his defensive workload.. and how the expectation on the other flank on someone like Diaz is to both run himself into the ground and score / assist…and how other sides can just target our right hand side at will (and do so).

Like Modo I’m glad on balance he’s signed, but I’m concerned enough that a declining Mo might not prove worth the overall net negative on other important players in the system over the course of a long season. Personality aside, there a whiff of late career Ronaldo about it all to me.
 
I think this season that trade off has been absolutely worth it, because no other attacker has performed consistently. We got lucky that Gakpo & Diaz had patches of form that aligned nicely at different times.
 
Let's be honest, the reason people are down about Mo atm is because he's dropped off and no one else has stepped up. Get the right players up there with him...

I'm happy he's staying.
I feel though we need to ensure the team is more balanced.
Keep it more balanced, and we'll be fine (not sure what that means though in terms of league finish etc).
 
We're winning the league and our best players are signing contracts, but I'm undecided about taking any joy from these situations while there are still unanswered questions about my future happiness.
 
This is probably the 500th time i've said this but our tactics have also failed Mo. He never gets support.
Nah not having that ! The stats show that the RW is our most oft utilised attacking outlet and that his passes inside are the most made in attack. He doesn't do that alone.
Imagine how much more lethal he would be with a RB overlapping him, and Szobo or whoever at AM also playing more on his side. Our tactics feel like we purposefully let opponents double mark Mo, and then try to overload other areas of the pitch.
Szobo is almost always there supporting him. Trent is usually just behind him and whoever is at CF (Jota, Nunez, Diaz) is often an outlet for him too - just look at the assists he's received from them on his way to 27 goals. Bradley at RB should see more support and over-lapping too (if Slot permits it).
The glory days of Mo & Trent had Hendo also playing around them, Bobby with nice interplay, all in and around the penalty area and byline. That happens once in a blue moon these days.
OK some (a lot) of this comes down to him not just tactics ! He often lacks control and his passing goes astray, he's out-muscled and the past 2 seasons he's been out-paced too.
 
High hopes for Bradders but Gakpo turns 26 in a few weeks, so what you see is what you get.
Hopefully Szobo's play improves with the introduction of a proper right back.
Maybe not for Gakpo - if he were to become the main LW outlet he'd deffo have more G+A. I think the ceiling is higher but he needs to work back more (as Diaz + Nunez do).
 
I have an idea, I bet you and the rest of the fans have the same idea. The name of the action or process starts with an "R".
Well for me I'd like to see him moved inside and a real winger with pace take his place at RW. We know he has the goal scoring stats (best xG in the PL I think I saw recently) to make the most of it and his ability to pick a pass is now more Bobby-like.
 
Well for me I'd like to see him moved inside and a real winger with pace take his place at RW. We know he has the goal scoring stats (best xG in the PL I think I saw recently) to make the most of it and his ability to pick a pass is now more Bobby-like.
To play him like as a false 9?
Not a bad idea, but I'm not sure if it suits him.
 
Haven’t we been here before? Maybe I’m wrong, but my impression is that Salah often dips a bit in the final third of the season. We overstate the decline, talk about selling him, and then bang, he's back next year as one of the most productive forwards in Europe.

I’m not saying the drop-off isn’t real or that the club doesn’t need to adapt, but I wouldn’t read too much into these last few months as proof he’s in sharp decline. We can’t all agree that Slot has overplayed most of the squad and then ignore how that might affect someone who fasts every year, plays AFCON every other January, and is operating within a football calendar that, frankly, everyone apart from the bean-counters admits is far too intense. We should not be as reliant on him, but that's a sidebar. Now that we are, the extension means we have a regular source of goals and assists whilst we reduce our dependency on his numbers. Personally, I'm delighted the story continues.
 
Haven’t we been here before? Maybe I’m wrong, but my impression is that Salah often dips a bit in the final third of the season. We overstate the decline, talk about selling him, and then bang, he's back next year as one of the most productive forwards in Europe.

I’m not saying the drop-off isn’t real or that the club doesn’t need to adapt, but I wouldn’t read too much into these last few months as proof he’s in sharp decline. We can’t all agree that Slot has overplayed most of the squad and then ignore how that might affect someone who fasts every year, plays AFCON every other January, and is operating within a football calendar that, frankly, everyone apart from the bean-counters admits is far too intense. We should not be as reliant on him, but that's a sidebar. Now that we are, the extension means we have a regular source of goals and assists whilst we reduce our dependency on his numbers. Personally, I'm delighted the story continues.
Part of the problem is that the manager and player need to agree that he doesn't play 90 mins every match. He seems to have too much power for a player, and we have 2 successive managers who have been reluctant to hook him in games.
 
Virgil to be announced today as well appaz.
Now that I can wholeheartedly cheer…Virgil literally carries, organises, leads, symbolises our whole defensive line whilst also authoritatively - without ego - exercising his captain duties. No one is pulled out of shape to cover him, no one has to work harder than him to compensate…moreover he tends to cover for others (Robbo) etc galloping forwards. His form is also consistently brilliant, especially since he simply cannot afford to go missing in ANY game.

He’s a truly elite player that requires no special circumstances around him to bring out his best…like Mo used to be really.
 
Part of the problem is that the manager and player need to agree that he doesn't play 90 mins every match. He seems to have too much power for a player, and we have 2 successive managers who have been reluctant to hook him in games.

Agreed. Part of that is we've never provided proper back up or competition for the role, which will have to change over this contract. Klopp chose to invest in other areas and Slot has inherited Elliott and probably had Chiesa lumbered on him because FSG sniffed a profit.
 
Part of the problem is that the manager and player need to agree that he doesn't play 90 mins every match. He seems to have too much power for a player, and we have 2 successive managers who have been reluctant to hook him in games.

True. I think an audit would show that Mo's agent has been paying Jurgen and Arne a bonus every time he plays 90 mins
 
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