Post Match Newcastle (A) Aug 26th 2 fucking 3

[peterhague]

I don't understand the concern re Kerkez. He's a 21 year old kid, and for anyone that watched a bit of football bar Liverpool last season could see that he was already then among the top left backs in the league. He's got everything to be a top player so just give him a bit of time to settle in. Thought he was more than enough solid last night anyway.
Needs to do better for the first goal but he'll learn.
Should 100% start against Arsenal.

Same with Wirtz. More than enough solid last night as well, but not easy to make your mark on a game that is less about tactics but more just a fight. Still finished with the highest pass percentage of everyone on the pitch but to little creativity in that hostile environment. Just happy we didnt get any injuries.

Both will be much better in the coming weeks as they settle in. Patience, and no need to overreact on either of them.

We're trying to retain a title. We can't just start players because they have promise. Kerkez actually has to earn his place - he has to be competent in the here and now. Apart from anything else it's bad for squad morale if some players are just given a pass.

 

[Markeh]

That's the thing, you can't drill creation out of players. It's more about improving decision making. Flicks are fine, as long as you do it at the right time. Jones and szob are poor at decision-making.

With wirtz he seems sensible with possession but is willing to gamble when the time is right

yea i don’t think it’s necessarily a problem with trusting wirtz it was more the fear of getting the ball to him safely by his colleagues. they don’t want the slot blame.

thankfully not every match will be like that

 

[StevieM]

It was a quite a relief to have won the match, however, Slot's players conceded two goals down to basis football whereas, LFC couldn't cope with at all! Slot and his team will have a very tough season ahead, the squad is very weak, and LFC has become a selling club! We had a light weight and useless in the king Salah, now we have another expensive overpriced lightweight in Wirtz useless too! Bad investment for sure. I thought Szobo played very well ( I don't normally rated him). I can't see the current team will keep a clean sheet this season, the defence quite weak. We need at least three quality players by this week. Rio was the team saver, and he should be used more often. Good luck for next week game.

DonnerVan…. Is that you?????

 

[Markeh]

I don't understand the concern re Kerkez. He's a 21 year old kid, and for anyone that watched a bit of football bar Liverpool last season could see that he was already then among the top left backs in the league. He's got everything to be a top player so just give him a bit of time to settle in. Thought he was more than enough solid last night anyway.
Needs to do better for the first goal but he'll learn.
Should 100% start against Arsenal.

Same with Wirtz. More than enough solid last night as well, but not easy to make your mark on a game that is less about tactics but more just a fight. Still finished with the highest pass percentage of everyone on the pitch but to little creativity in that hostile environment. Just happy we didnt get any injuries.

Both will be much better in the coming weeks as they settle in. Patience, and no need to overreact on either of them.

i’m not overly critical yet but moreno was 22 when we signed him and never improved

 

[StevieM]

I don't understand the concern re Kerkez. He's a 21 year old kid, and for anyone that watched a bit of football bar Liverpool last season could see that he was already then among the top left backs in the league. He's got everything to be a top player so just give him a bit of time to settle in. Thought he was more than enough solid last night anyway.
Needs to do better for the first goal but he'll learn.
Should 100% start against Arsenal.

Same with Wirtz. More than enough solid last night as well, but not easy to make your mark on a game that is less about tactics but more just a fight. Still finished with the highest pass percentage of everyone on the pitch but to little creativity in that hostile environment. Just happy we didnt get any injuries.

Both will be much better in the coming weeks as they settle in. Patience, and no need to overreact on either of them.

I wouldn’t say I’m concerned as such, but he hasn’t started well - which is totally fine as long as he improves.

There’s a reason why I though Robbo would start the season as our LB while Kerkez was given time to bed in.

I can only presume we didn’t quite fancy Robbo up against Semenyo’s physicality and Elanga’s pace.

 

[Mystic]

It's interesting we have scored 9 goals in 3 games and Diaz is still constantly being brought up. Should we be scoring 4 goals a game just to be able to win games now?

We should be playing more. We just stopped playing for some reason. Look at Rio's goal, it was a fantastic move, they had no chance. Everytime we start playing we looked like we can score anytime.

And Konate needs to be dropped and hopefully we can stop shipping goals. Anyone will do, he is that bad now.

It's obvious isn't it, Diaz was able to take the ball and run with it, run at the opposition and take the pressure off our defence making the opposition go backwards.

We were desperate for that last night, both Gakpo and Salah are great players and capable of this to a degree, Salah more so, but they are less about running at defenders than Diaz was, and more about getting on the end of balls, or doing their trade mark check inside and shoot.

It's all maybe a bit unfair on Gakpo, he's an inside forward through and through that's what we should expect, conversely it's Salah that's causing the issue for me, he's an excellent dribbler, and strong as cunts, but he's shown fuck all hold up play so far this season, and on current form would struggle to beat an egg.

If its too far down from his throne to track back and defend, then he absolutely has to do more to keep hold of the ball up top and help the defence out when he's chilling up there, otherwise we are essentially carrying him, and it's hurting the whole team imo.

 

[peterhague]

Is Salah really "an excellent dribbler"? He's definitely excellent at dribbling directly at a defender and giving the ball away. And he might be strong in a standing wrestling match, but pretty useless at the shoulder to shoulder duels you need to win when taking players on at pace. Yes, he produces the occasional brilliant run. But his median attempt is pitiful. And he's been like that as long as I can remember.

 

[KopRed]

It's obvious isn't it, Diaz was able to take the ball and run with it, run at the opposition and take the pressure off our defence making the opposition go backwards.

We were desperate for that last night, both Gakpo and Salah are great players and capable of this to a degree, Salah more so, but they are less about running at defenders than Diaz was, and more about getting on the end of balls, or doing their trade mark check inside and shoot.

It's all maybe a bit unfair on Gakpo, he's an inside forward through and through that's what we should expect, conversely it's Salah that's causing the issue for me, he's an excellent dribbler, and strong as cunts, but he's shown fuck all hold up play so far this season, and on current form would struggle to beat an egg.

If its too far down from his throne to track back and defend, then he absolutely has to do more to keep hold of the ball up top and help the defence out when he's chilling up there, otherwise we are essentially carrying him, and it's hurting the whole team imo.

But it's all based on an illusion. It's like Diaz never played for us. But in truth Diaz played for us for 4 seasons. How often have we dominated games entirely? Last season in the 1st half was the period when we had the most control i have ever seen us play, even under Klopp.

When it came to the 2nd half, we were struggling. Every game was about "getting over the line". Diaz was playing did he not? So why do we think he is the messiah who can give us control when games he has played has shown otherwise.

When the team doesn't play, Diaz doesn't play. He had not, and did not single-handledly drag us to win games. Salah was the main one, Macca the next, sometimes Gakpo. The rest are a mixed bag, including Diaz.

 

[Gerry_A_Trick]

We certainly have to give the new we players time to settle, the problem is that we've too many of them that haven't offered enough yet, and our squad is quite light in general. We've been amazingly fortune with Ekitike so far. You can make a case that Kerkez, Wirtz, Frimpong all need to be afforded more time, but, and I realise we've won both our matches so far, we'll need at least another one of them to be stepping up very soon, or we'll need to drop a couple of them until there is more rhythm in the team. I'm not particularly worried about any one of them individually, but it's too many changes at once.

It was a problem that was obviously going to happen with this many new players and players leaving, we just need to deal with it as well as possible over the next few weeks and months.

 

[Hansern]

i’m not overly critical yet but moreno was 22 when we signed him and never improved

Moreno didnt play for another team in the PL and was a top performer before his move either.

The Moreno - Kerkez comparisons are as bad as the Darwin - Ekitike.

 

[Hansern]

We're trying to retain a title. We can't just start players because they have promise. Kerkez actually has to earn his place - he has to be competent in the here and now. Apart from anything else it's bad for squad morale if some players are just given a pass.

You don't retain a title by having Robbo as your starting left back.

 

[Frogfish]

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/D8jMsWkNNK4 .

What a great goal. What a great assist by Szoboszlai. And what a great finish by Ngumoha. That finish looks splendid. What a first-time touch, what a way to find a corner. Tremendous.

Most players would make one touch to control the ball and then make a shot. This finish is superb. Making that extra touch would've allowed goalkeeper to surge forward and start closing the net. A fantastic finish and a fantastic goal. Goal of the season so far.

Fantastic team goal. Was it Gravy winning the ball in midfield then 5-6 sharp passes and then that Dom step over. Superb.

 

[Frogfish]

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/D8jMsWkNNK4

Dont know if anyone noticed it, but all the subs ( except Endo who came on after the goal) were involved in the build up.

Konate to Elliott to Gravy to Bradley to Chiesa to Salah to Ngumoha.

Not crediting Dom is a travesty!

 

[The Nomad]

Fantastic team goal. Was it Gravy winning the ball in midfield then 5-6 sharp passes and then that Dom step over. Superb.

All ten players played a part if you watch the full sequence.

Gravy didn't "win" the ball. He kept possession going from a loose pass from Elliott (I think it was).


View: https://x.com/SamueILFC/status/1960226082109411336?s=19

 

[Frogfish]

We're trying to retain a title. We can't just start players because they have promise. Kerkez actually has to earn his place - he has to be competent in the here and now. Apart from anything else it's bad for squad morale if some players are just given a pass.

Even with his average performances, and no one seens to be giving him credit for the things he's doing right, he's still better than the depths Robbo had descended to.

He wasn't in the PL team of the season because he can't pass, tackle, cross etc. He just needs to settle into a new team and tactics - and Gakpo needs to use his overlaps more.

Accommodating new players is going to take time but there are already some ridiculous knee jerking going on around most of them.

 

[Frogfish]

All ten players played a part if you watch the full sequence.

Gravy didn't "win" the ball. He kept possession going from a loose pass from Elliott (I think it was)

Ah OK. I just remember him doing a fantastic job from on the ground, against two players, to get the pass away.

 

[Gerry_A_Trick]

Not crediting Dom is a travesty!

Who hasn't credited Dom?

The thing with assist counts is that they don't tell a full story, Chiesa, Salah, Dom and Rio were all involved in that (and more before too), probably with increasing influence in that order. Same goes for the Chiesa goal last week, Salah played a big part in it, but didn't get the assist.

Assists probably even themselves out over a season, if you're playing an important attacking role you'll likely get a lot of assists, but each individual one is debatable. Same with goals, some are easier, some harder, but if you score a lot of them you're pretty good.

 

[The Nomad]

Ah OK. I just remember him doing a fantastic job from on the ground, against two players, to get the pass away.

Put the video above.

 

[Hansern]

Who knew that Szobos best creative impact in the final third was actually jumping over the ball and dummy'ing the defender.

 

[tombrown]

All ten players played a part if you watch the full sequence.

Gravy didn't "win" the ball. He kept possession going from a loose pass from Elliott (I think it was).


View: https://x.com/SamueILFC/status/1960226082109411336?s=19

I do worry about Chiesa's sense of direction once the goal is scored though ...

 

[Hansern]

Spare a thought for those who said Virgil would have a poor season after the Community shield game.
He has been imperious for us these two last games. Yesterday he won just about everything Newcastle threw at him.
Still the best CB in the World. Not even close.

 

[Frogfish]

Who hasn't credited Dom?

The thing with assist counts is that they don't tell a full story, Chiesa, Salah, Dom and Rio were all involved in that (and more before too), probably with increasing influence in that order. Same goes for the Chiesa goal last week, Salah played a big part in it, but didn't get the assist.

Assists probably even themselves out over a season, if you're playing an important attacking role you'll likely get a lot of assists, but each individual one is debatable. Same with goals, some are easier, some harder, but if you score a lot of them you're pretty good.

Sigh. It was tongue in cheek because he didn't include Dom in the list of passes.

 

[Gerry_A_Trick]

Sigh. It was tongue in cheek because he didn't include Dom in the list of passes.

Oh, ah.

 

[peterhague]

You don't retain a title by having Robbo as your starting left back.

If Robbo can't even be trusted to play for a few weeks while we ease a new kid in then he shouldn't be here. Gomez or Tsimikas could play instead.

 

[binomial]

This "control" football of ours the last 12 months has been largely non-existent let's be real. We saw it for the first few months of last season then it totally vanished, the "control" was superseded with complacency and lack of bravery in moving the ball forward and quickly.....something you have to do in order to look the part and break teams down.

How long did our back 4, Jones and Ali spend daydreaming on the ball yesterday? It's fucking shite. You have poor Wirtz moving from side to side looking for a single pass that never came. Grow some fucking balls and tell these players to move the ball quickly.

 

[peterhague]

Even with his average performances, and no one seens to be giving him credit for the things he's doing right, he's still better than the depths Robbo had descended to.

He wasn't in the PL team of the season because he can't pass, tackle, cross etc. He just needs to settle into a new team and tactics - and Gakpo needs to use his overlaps more.

Accommodating new players is going to take time but there are already some ridiculous knee jerking going on around most of them.

I think Klopp showed the way to integrate new players gradually when needed. 4 new players coming straight into the team is a lot - you should be trying to reduce that where you can. Kerkez struggling on top of that only exacerbates the problem.

Like I said if Robbo is incapable of filling in for a few weeks then he's got absolutely no business being here.

 

[Hansern]

If Robbo can't even be trusted to play for a few weeks while we ease a new kid in then he shouldn't be here. Gomez or Tsimikas could play instead.

Tsimikas isnt good enough and is about to be sold/loaned out. Gomez can't stay fit and isnt very good at left back.
Better as a RB/CB option.

Robbo can be trusted to play in certain league games, cup games and come on late if needed.
But we're 100% playing our new left back as the main starter.

If our defence is gonna get better and more settled we need the back 5 to play as many games together as possible.

 

[Number21]

Szoboszlai needs to be starting on current form. If that means benching Mac Allister, who clearly has something rumbling on, or even more boldly Wirtz, then so be it.

Benching MacAllister would be madness. We missed him badly last night. He's our best midfielder & should be starting every game except when he needs a break or it's a not an important game.

When our midfield plays well he's always at the center of it.

 

[peterhague]

Tsimikas isnt good enough and is about to be sold/loaned out. Gomez can't stay fit and isnt very good at left back.
Better as a RB/CB option.

Robbo can be trusted to play in certain league games, cup games and come on late if needed.
But we're 100% playing our new left back as the main starter.

If our defence is gonna get better and more settled we need the back 5 to play as many games together as possible.

Tsimikas might not be good enough but he's still better than this version of Kerkez.

There's no rush. You can do it gradually. Klopp showed that with Fabinho, and ironically enough, Robertson himself.

 

[KopRed]

Robbo has a mistake in him every game. We have seen it time and time again last season. The Greek is a more reliable left back but he's not winning the popularity vote.