Agree, which is why I don't share the view that he should start wide left. I want him starting centrally and going all over the pitch.
Florian and the (Slot) Machine
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Agree, which is why I don't share the view that he should start wide left. I want him starting centrally and going all over the pitch.
IMO he lacks the physicality when he plays in the midfield 3(i presume that's what you mean). makes us softer in the midddle. Playing further forward in the front 3 gives him more licence to roam and cause damage.
His most recent displays suggest to me that the physicality point no longer applies. He's been more prominent in the midfield battle recently and has put in a good few ball-winning tackles.
I can see how playing further forward might in theory free him up more, but that depends on whether we're happy to let Kerkez carry more or less the only threat we have on that side.
I can see how playing further forward might in theory free him up more, but that depends on whether we're happy to let Kerkez carry more or less the only threat we have on that side.
He looks to me like the old 2nd striker that teams used to play. Big man, small man. Or even the way Gerrard played with Torres.
We have a few players now who look like they would fit better in a 3-4-1-2 formation. The 4-1-2 bit I think we could do quite well, we don't have defenders for it though. Unless Gravy played as a sweeper.
Maybe wait till Xabi is here for that 🙂
We have a few players now who look like they would fit better in a 3-4-1-2 formation. The 4-1-2 bit I think we could do quite well, we don't have defenders for it though. Unless Gravy played as a sweeper.
Maybe wait till Xabi is here for that 🙂
He’s on his way.
I’m still open to Wirtz playing on the left wing in a free role, mainly because Gakpo has been poor, Wirtz and Kerkez connect well, and Szobo, Jones or Mac Allister alongside Gravenberch is a title-winning midfield. In ideal circumstances, Wirtz plays the position we signed him for every week, but right now, we need to keep some flexibility depending on fitness and form. Had we landed Semenyo, then it's a different conversation. Same too if Slot actually showed some faith in Ngumoha
I’m still open to Wirtz playing on the left wing in a free role, mainly because Gakpo has been poor, Wirtz and Kerkez connect well, and Szobo, Jones or Mac Allister alongside Gravenberch is a title-winning midfield. In ideal circumstances, Wirtz plays the position we signed him for every week, but right now, we need to keep some flexibility depending on fitness and form. Had we landed Semenyo, then it's a different conversation. Same too if Slot actually showed some faith in Ngumoha
I think it's fair to say that Wirtz, Kerkez and Frimpong are now all showing why we bought them, Kerkez has been really good of late.
We definitely need an upgrade on Gapko, but generally on at least one of the flanks we could do with a powerful goalscorer who's quick.
We definitely need an upgrade on Gapko, but generally on at least one of the flanks we could do with a powerful goalscorer who's quick.
On paper at least, this should have been a mouthwatering prospect, had Salah's decline not happened and Isak not got murdered:
----Ekitike-------Isak---------Salah----
-----------------Wirtz------------------
I still worry if we can play Salah and Wirtz in the same team. I worry if we can play Salah at all, but the two of them....
----Ekitike-------Isak---------Salah----
-----------------Wirtz------------------
I still worry if we can play Salah and Wirtz in the same team. I worry if we can play Salah at all, but the two of them....
This is still one attacker too many IMO for our current set up.
Isak will become a problem if he's fit again, because his fee suggests he should play but Wirtz & Ekitike are quietly becoming the best attacking pair in the league.
All we need to complement that is one other winger (maybe Salah with hunger back could still do that this season) and then a solid midfield & defence could see us in a really great place.
We play 50-55 games per year though. Its madness to think that we don't need two quality strikers. They can even play together or Ekitike can play on the left if need be. The amount of games per striker wont be a problem.
And as we've seen this season, injuries happen. To both of them.
I do not disagree, but it is a sad state of affairs for us to have the “best attacking pair in the league” and can’t win a game.
I agree with the point but when you have top level players they want/need to know that they are *the* guy. They play differently (currently) and maybe that will change as I don't believe we have seen Isak look even 50% of the player he was at Newcastle yet. If there was a system that they could interchange in that would be the ideal, but our current situation doesn't offer anything resembling that.
Agreed
A sweeper? Return to the stone age to resurrect an obsolete role to play every team's striker onside not to mention a complete and utter waste of Gravenberch's ability?
Yep, starting with the entire audio track.
Mad isn't it? How have we spent £400m or whatever and still need 3 centre backs, 2 wingers, arguably a right back and a defensive mid?!
We sold/loaned 6 members of the first team squad, 8 if you include Morton and Doak and then concentrated the funds largely on three attackers. Spaffing so much on Isak, after Ekitike and Wirtz were through the door, was senseless. That fee could have covered at least two or three positions.
d) We sign a cheaper striker who isn't injury prone, arriving completely unfit, and invest in a CB or winger, too
Mind-blowing.
It's not shocking that even though we spent a lot of money, we haven't rebuilt the team yet, because there was a fuck ton of work to do and we've opted to use backup players that we have no expectation will actually supplant the main guy, then we let them sit around. We are fine with watching Salah rot and not having an alternative. We congratulate ourselves for stumbling into a 6, and say job done, no need to have backup. We are fine with having endo who is irrelevant, with chiesa who will never be in the first team. We only replace the main guy AFTER they've turned into shit. When we do remove a key piece of the team (Diaz) we don't replace him. We lose Trent for nothing. We are about to lose konate for nothing.
I don't see any sharpness in our decisionmaking process, and we are doing it again, right now.
I don't see any sharpness in our decisionmaking process, and we are doing it again, right now.
Yea your hindsight is mind blowing.
I'm loathe to get into the politics of it all, but Newcastle shouldn't have done what they did either. And Isak did go to lengths to say he was training alone, with photos in the press. What he didn't have was a preseason, he played no games, so had no match fitness. You can't just surmise that he took two months off, I doubt he'd have been heading towards his dream move for his boyhood club, thinking he could just wing it, it's absolute nonsense.
Again, this is another reason why Hughes should be available at press conferences every now and again. Why spunk £250m on two players and leave significant gaps at CB, DM and Wide Forward positions? That won't have been Slot's decision as Head Coach, but he has to deal with the ramifications of it.
Admittedly he's dealing with them poorer than you'd expect, but that's by the by.
Match fitness and sharpness I completely understand. Conditioning and taking 2 months to get near a pitch is just too much for me to believe. And even then looking absolutely fucked.
Steven Gerrard on Florian Wirtz:
"He struggled at the beginning, which I think can be expected when you come to the most fast intense league in the world," Gerrard told TNT Sports.
"I don't think anyone's ever questioned his talent. You can see there his vision, his awareness and his game intelligence, here he is on the last line, unbelievable touch, getting his first goal, I think that helped him a lot in terms of his confidence," Gerrard added, when reflecting on Wirtz's first Liverpool strike last month."
"But I watched him even before he came to Liverpool. He competed against one of my Rangers' teams, this kid is potentially is going to be a world superstar. He's come to England on his own, I'm told, new place, new environment, he's still only 22. I think about when I was 22, I was nowhere near my peak or nowhere near where I wanted to be."
"So you can see already in a short space of time, Liverpool are he's working with this kid in the gym, I mean look at that for a goal, the way he just reverses that. I think you see him grow now and evolve and he's starting to blossom because he feels more at home."
"He's settled now in England, he's up to speed in terms of the tempo of the Premier League. But I think there's loads more to come from this kid. I think it's clear that he can get to a world class level."
"He struggled at the beginning, which I think can be expected when you come to the most fast intense league in the world," Gerrard told TNT Sports.
"I don't think anyone's ever questioned his talent. You can see there his vision, his awareness and his game intelligence, here he is on the last line, unbelievable touch, getting his first goal, I think that helped him a lot in terms of his confidence," Gerrard added, when reflecting on Wirtz's first Liverpool strike last month."
"But I watched him even before he came to Liverpool. He competed against one of my Rangers' teams, this kid is potentially is going to be a world superstar. He's come to England on his own, I'm told, new place, new environment, he's still only 22. I think about when I was 22, I was nowhere near my peak or nowhere near where I wanted to be."
"So you can see already in a short space of time, Liverpool are he's working with this kid in the gym, I mean look at that for a goal, the way he just reverses that. I think you see him grow now and evolve and he's starting to blossom because he feels more at home."
"He's settled now in England, he's up to speed in terms of the tempo of the Premier League. But I think there's loads more to come from this kid. I think it's clear that he can get to a world class level."
Yeah you tell these SCM naysayers Stevie.