Florian and the (Slot) Machine

[Dreambeliever]

This post fact universe we've been living in for about a decade is interesting. I mean I could just say that Liverpool are ten points clear at the top and I've got loads of tickets for the match tomorrow and it might make me feel better. I think Philip K Dick said it best, and he knew a thing or two about the line between truth and fiction. "Reality is that which when you stop believing in it doesn't go away". I've put that in inverted commas as if it's a real quote but I can't be arsed googling as I have a hangover you could donate to medical science and I'm still in bed. The fact is we sold mane and we replaced him with Diaz. He wasn't as good as mane but he was really fucking good. We then sold Diaz and we didn't even bother replacing him. Now we're shite. I think they're the points that even if you stop believing in them, they still exist.

Opinions are not facts though.

Lots of things haven’t gone as we would have liked post Diaz but it’s surprising people don’t think we had enough capable fire power for LW when you look at
Wirtz
Hugo
Gakpo
Chiesa
Rio

All very capable on the LW. The issue has been our deployment of the personal, the tactics, form and injuries.

 

[Dreambeliever]

Not sure you understand the definition of "definition".

Classy.

 

[Judge Jules]

Maybe semantics, but I think when you look at it, primarily from an attacking sense, you should try and replace talents and abilities, trying to shoe horn in exact replacements is something that will end up leaving you short. The two biggest things we didn't replace, imo, are Diazs ability to beat a man, and Trents long passes from deep.

Wouldn't disagree with your first sentence as far as it goes, but you need to be doing it within an overall system. Wouldn't directly disagree with your second sentence either, but I'd be more specific with regard to Diaz and say that we needed to replace his ability to do so from a starting position wide on the left. Isak, Wirtz and Ekitike *can* all do that, but it's not their first choice position and IMO it needs to be for a player to count as Diaz' replacement. "Can do a job" is not enough for LFC's first team other than in cases of short-term necessity.

 

[KopRed]

Diaz will be mentioned again and again. It's as if we have won alot when he was here.

Meanwhile the player who was most responsible for us winning the league last season, nobody wants him anymore.

Talk about weird.

 

[Frogfish]

Diaz will be mentioned again and again. It's as if we have won alot when he was here.

Meanwhile the player who was most responsible for us winning the league last season, nobody wants him anymore.

Talk about weird.

Not sure what you find weird.

Salah has fallen off a cliff. If he was performing like last season everyone would be lording him. He's not.

Diaz is ripping it up at Bayern. One of the best 2 teams in Europe.

 

[Gerry_A_Trick]

Wouldn't disagree with your first sentence as far as it goes, but you need to be doing it within an overall system. Wouldn't directly disagree with your second sentence either, but I'd be more specific with regard to Diaz and say that we needed to replace his ability to do so from a starting position wide on the left. Isak, Wirtz and Ekitike *can* all do that, but it's not their first choice position and IMO it needs to be for a player to count as Diaz' replacement.

Yeah, I just don't think replacements need to be counted that linerly, if you take that further you would say that every player hasn't been replaced. Nunezs ability to cause chaos wasn't really replaced, nor was Jotas ability to be that poacher (maybe Isak? But remains to be seen), and as mentioned, we didn't replace Trents talents etc. Attacks evolve, and actually replacing like for like can make you more predictable. I'm not sure we've ever replaced anyone in a strict sense. Kenny was a very different player to Keegan.

We do miss that ability to beat players and create space from the left, as you say. So, in that sense he (or as I'm phrasing it, that ability) hasn't been replaced. Perhaps Kerkez was intended to add something else there, which hasn't really happened either, and maybe Rio can add that when he develops a bit more.

 

[Tinto]

Diaz will be mentioned again and again. It's as if we have won alot when he was here.

We did win a lot when we had Diaz though

 

[KopRed]

Not sure what you find weird.

Salah has fallen off a cliff. If he was performing like last season everyone would be lording him. He's not.

Diaz is ripping it up at Bayern. One of the best 2 teams in Europe.

Diaz is ripping it up at Bayern, not unlike Wirtz for 2 seasons. Wirtz came over and what happened?

So too has Kane, and Olise, and Sancho. They left the Premiership for Germany and it's like they are super human over there.

I'll wager a guess that the Bundesliga is not all that great perhaps?

 

[KopRed]

We did win a lot when we had Diaz though

FA cup 2022, Mane and Bobby were still around.
League cup 2022, Minamino against Leicester, Jota (bless his soul) against Arsenal were the key to winning.
League cup 2024, the Kids final.
Premier League last season, Salah mostly.

That's about it.

 

[Markeh]

i think we need to put more respect on liverpool legend nat phillips name

 

[Frogfish]

Diaz is ripping it up at Bayern, not unlike Wirtz for 2 seasons. Wirtz came over and what happened?

So too has Kane, and Olise, and Sancho. They left the Premiership for Germany and it's like they are super human over there.

I'll wager a guess that the Bundesliga is not all that great perhaps?

Wirtz has been exceptional, after a difficult start, in a misfunctioning team as his general stats prove. G/A not being used as the sole arbiter. Even the 6CM PotY points think so.

I notice you ignored the Salah point after previously complaining about 6CM general comments re. his performances.

Diaz was a large part of our title winning team last season so dissing his contributions to Bayern (in the CL too not just the BL) is off key.

 

[tombrown]

Let's be honest - Isak & Wirtz were really replacements for Trent & Salah - obviously not like for like but Wirtz to replace Trent's creativity and Isak to replace Salah's goals .. but it is clearly taking a bit longer to come to fruition, which, with hindsight, isn't that surprising precisely because they are not like for like replacements.

Now that is a fact and if you disagree you are wrong and I'm going back to bed

 

[KopRed]

Wirtz has been exceptional, after a difficult start, in a misfunctioning team as his general stats prove. G/A not being used as the sole arbiter. Even the 6CM PotY points think so.

I notice you ignored the Salah point after previously complaining about 6CM general comments re. his performances.

Diaz was a large party of our title winning team last season so dissing his contributions to Bayern (in the CL too not just the BL) is off key.

He was, but he was largely playing as a 9 and not LW, that is the main problem. When folks here claim he wasn't "replaced", do they mean the 9 or the LW position? If it was the LW position, he was replaced by Cody long ago. If it was the 9, we bought Isak and Ekitike.

But I guess some are saying the Bayern Diaz today will produce the same Bayern numbers if he was here today, despite Diaz being here for 4 seasons and producing nothing close to the Bayern Diaz? Then that's your opinion but I disagree and we will never find out conclusively who's right which I am perfectly ok with without seeing the need to call people names.

 

[Tinto]

FA cup 2022, Mane and Bobby were still around.
League cup 2022, Minamino against Leicester, Jota (bless his soul) against Arsenal were the key to winning.
League cup 2024, the Kids final.
Premier League last season, Salah mostly.

That's about it.

Won everything apart from the CL. That’s good going

 

[Frogfish]

He was, but he was largely playing as a 9 and not LW, that is the main problem. When folks here claim he wasn't "replaced", do they mean the 9 or the LW position? If it was the LW position, he was replaced by Cody long ago. If it was the 9, we bought Isak and Ekitike.

But I guess some are saying the Bayern Diaz today will produce the same Bayern numbers if he was here today, despite Diaz being here for 4 seasons and producing nothing close to the Bayern Diaz? Then that's your opinion but I disagree and we will never find out conclusively who's right which I am perfectly ok with without seeing the need to call people names.

I've never called you names !

Diaz last season with us played (all games) LW 25 CF 14 RW 2 (transfermarkt) so he wasn't replaced by Cody LW 35 CF 4 but remember Diaz was out for a while so Gakpo played all those games.

 

[Gerry_A_Trick]

I've never called you names !

Diaz last season with us played (all games) LW 25 CF 14 RW 2 (transfermarkt) so he wasn't replaced by Cody LW 35 CF 4 but remember Diaz was out for a while so Gakpo played all those games.

Diaz played 48 games on the left wing the previous season(2 RW and 1 CF). And Gakpo was 13 LW, 26 CF and 7 each on RW and CM. Not sure how accurate those are, as players often play multiple positions in a game, but Gakpo definitely played a lot more on the LW last season, and Diaz played less. They almost flipped where they played from one season to the next.

 

[FreshRed]

And on a similar note, we need to stop keeping fringe players around for too long.
Nat Phillips was 27 when he left us and had made 39 appearances. He was never going to make it.
WTF is Kaide Gordon still doing at the club? A handful of appearances and for my money he's looked bang average every time. I personally would add Bajcetic to the list too. Not going to make it here. Owen Beck is 23 - is he the succession plan for Robbo? Fuck me.
City have sold loads of players in recent years better than all of them and they are a far more attractive proposition to a young kid as a result - come to us, you'll get your chance and if it doesn't work out we won't stand in the way of you going somewhere else to make a name for yourself (have a word with Cole Palmer if you don't believe us). Go to Liverpool and they'll keep you languishing in the reserves (where you'll get handed your arse on a plate every week because your team-mates are all shite) or maybe on loan at Wigan/Preston/Blackburn, or somewhere else where they live on pies and keep whippets, in the forlorn hope you might suddenly become a superstar overnight when no-one is looking.
If you're really lucky, you might come back and get to sit on the bench and keep Rio company as the pair of you watch your team-mates collapse defensively every week while the manager (sorry, "head coach") plays some other bugger out of position because he doesn't trust you, even though you're a specialist in that position.
Or if you're luckier still, you lose a couple of headers in the first game of the season against a battling championship team like, say, Ipswich, you get subbed off at half-fucking-time and then singled out in post-match interviews for criticism by the "head coach" and then barely kick a ball (when you do, confidence destroyed and match sharpness lacking, you don't fully do yourself justice) and then you are sold off to Leverkusen with a buy-back clause that you'd have to be fucking mad to allow the club to exercise. Only when you leave the club do you get the senior England cap you clearly deserved a couple of seasons before.
Fuck that shit.

Well, when you put it that way, but we could improve a bit.