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Brizzle

Brizzle

Forum legend. Chief Superstition Officer. Slot Out
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This has possibly been discussed in lots of pockets. But worthy of discussion (and a key part of the argument many were and are making about 200m on two strikers vs investing in the defence)

Look at our back 5/6 from 2019/20 and the classic Klopp era, then look into next season, and we haven’t successfully transitioned a single one of these.


Goalkeeper
19/20 - Alisson with Kelleher as back up
25/26 - Ali with Marmadashvili

Kelleher IMO has two traits better than Ali. Ball with his feet and penalties. Marmadash is absolutely awful with the ball. Possibly a better shot stopper. I don’t think a single team in the league uses their GK in build up as much as we do. I’m unconvinced in this keeper “upgrade”

Left back
19/20 - Robbo with Gomez/ Milner back up
25/26 - Kerkez with Robbo back up

This signing yet to look correct. Kerkez is young and showed himself very capable at Bournemouth but not working here yet. Robbo can’t play twice in a week.

Left CB
19/20 - Virgil with Gomez/Lovren back up
25/26 - Virgil with Gomez back up

We’re currently seeing the worst version of VVD to have worn the Liverpool shirt. No signs of succession planning. We’re playing him every game and running him into the ground.

Right CB
19/20 - Matip with Lovren / Gomez back up
25/26 - Konate with Leoni / Gomez back up

Konate did good for spells here, but he’s injury prone and now has decided he’s off so looking to next season we have no options (and we have a young CB who may never fully recover from an ACL)

Right back

19/20 - Trent with Gomez back up
25/26 - Bradley or Frimpong

Two players having their first stab at playing regularly in the PL and both have already had injuries suggesting their bodies can’t handle it. Too soon to call it a failure, but the lack of support from RW means anyone in this position is going to be exposed. The 19/20 Trent had Fabinho & Hendo.


This statement isn’t meant to be offensive, just fact, given the highs. But the current versions of Alisson, Robbo, Virgil and Gomez are the wirst versions of each we have had in the squad.

This is obvious, and it’s understandable. 6 seasons of relying on the same players, and they now play in a system where they have less protection in front of them. I’m not even sure that peak back 5 would stand up to the waves of attacks we currently give away.

This can’t be solved until the summer. This is why i think many people feel we missed an opportunity. We may never have 400m to spend again. We needed critically to upgrade our defence & keep iterating.

This also means we can’t even write just this season off as a transition, because next season will have to be one too as we need two new starting quality CBs minimum next season.
 
Where we have got things right in the most part is the midfield but somehow ended up with three top quality 8s but not master in the 6. A position many of us wanted addressing in the summer.

LW we have done okay, but neither Gakpo or Diaz are/were special in the Mane sense. RW has been well covered across multiple threads.

Up top is a fuck up. We went from Origi and Firmino to only Jota being able to have real quality. So far, Ekitike has shown something about him but the others are all meh to shit.
 
My problem with midfield is that we’ve effectively gone from 3 to 2 midfielders.

Szobo’s move in the team has been an issue, because as AM he did it all. He led our press, he was part of every counter attack and he was always defending.

Unlike Wirtz at 10, but he needs 3 CM/DMs behind him for that to work. We need more because Macca was fatigued, Gravy got injured after being overplayed, Endo isn’t trusted and Jones is inconsistent.
 
If you are going to do that, go show Robbo from last season. He was zombified and was practically gifting them a goal a game.

He can’t play twice a week so there was no way he was starting yesterday. That means Kerkez was starting. Who could actually do with doing a Robbo in that having 2 months out of the squad to work on his game before coming in. Then again, that would mean showing the transfer dickheads had made a mistake.
 
MomoWASright said:
If you are going to do that, go show Robbo from last season. He was zombified and was practically gifting them a goal a game.

He can’t play twice a week so there was no way he was starting yesterday. That means Kerkez was starting. Who could actually do with doing a Robbo in that having 2 months out of the squad to work on his game before coming in. Then again, that would mean showing the transfer dickheads had made a mistake.
Click to expand...
My point isn't to show that 31 year old Robertson is better than Kerkez, it's to show that Robertson is a different type of left back with a different skill set, more suited to the style Arne wants to play.
 
So you show one example of Kerkez where the ball comes to his weaker foot and, because he doesn't feel comfortable using it, he has to swivel to clear with his left and two of Robbo where the ball is on his left foot and he has time to pick out a pass.

Don't get me wrong, they were both brilliant assists, but you're not comparing like for like
 
tombrown said:
So you show one example of Kerkez where the ball comes to his weaker foot and, because he doesn't feel comfortable using it, he has to swivel to clear with his left and two of Robbo where the ball is on his left foot and he has time to pick out a pass.

Don't get me wrong, they were both brilliant assists, but you're not comparing like for like
Click to expand...
I honestly couldn't find any other clips of his passing but it was pretty evident last night that he doesn't have Robbo's passing range.
 
Modo said:
My point isn't to show that 31 year old Robertson is better than Kerkez, it's to show that Robertson is a different type of left back with a different skill set, more suited to the style Arne wants to play.
Click to expand...

Did Robbo look suited to you last season in whatever style this is? Let’s not pretend he wasn’t one of the weak links.
 
Kerkez is not dissimilar to Robbo. Difference is, kerkez is trying to impress his new teammates and new fans so making rash decisions, whereas Robbo is a dressing room leader.

Kerkez will be fine. He just needs to be allowed to play his own game, which slot won't let him because Salah needs Bradley/frimpong to do everything on the right side, so kerkez can't do his game on the left as the balance is off.

Realistically we should have got a CB/lb hybrid to drift in to that position, or curtail gravs bombing on so he could drop between the CBS when we have the ball.
 
All of these concerns were raised in the summer.

Buy kerkez, get a defensively solid RB. Buy 2 attacking full backs, buy a 6 who drops deep.

We've focused on the data, and that makes sense. But we've not tried to build a squad
 
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