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Our most important player?

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mwake

mwake

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1 - VVD
2 - Alisson
3 - Robertson
4 - Salah
5 - Mane


Honestly, I say its VVD!

Before we bought him we were like how were now? Exciting to watch but defensively chaotic. Now he's injured we've reverted to that same level.

VVD makes this team much better just by the way he can read a game and completely shut down incoming air traffic, and his passing is massively underrated.
 
Virgil. I've always been in Hendo's corner and we definitely suffer for his absence, but losing Virgil has thrown the whole team unit out of kilter.
 
Losing VVD was a huge blow but we’d have been okay had Gomez and Matip stayed fit.

Alisson is the obvious choice.

Then maybe Hendo or Salah.
 
With the exception of the crowd (clear #1) :

1. Salah (his ridiculous number of goals are well under-valued on here, 29 and counting this season, where would we be without them because clearly we have no-one capable of replacing him as a goalscorer.
2. VvD
3. EDITED. Damn how could I forget Fabinho!!!
4. Hendo
5. Trent (he may have had a bad spell but he is integral to the way we play and a major contributory factor in a huge number of goals over the past few seasons).
6. It was Firmino, his loss in form is a major contributory factor in our fall-off. Now I'd put Robbo as #5.
 
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Hendo has been our most important player for the last seven years or more.

Him not being in everyone's top 3 just shows that we've got a number of really cracking players.

I hope this team gets at least one or two more proper seasons together. Ie: with crowds and not injury ravaged
 
Frogfish said:
With the exception of the crowd (clear #1) :

1. Salah (his ridiculous number of goals are well under-valued on here, 29 and counting this season, where would we be without them because clearly we have no-one capable of replacing him as a goalscorer.
2. VvD
3. EDITED. Damn how could I forget Fabinho!!!
4. Hendo
5. Trent (he may have had a bad spell but he is integral to the way we play and a major contributory factor in a huge number of goals over the past few seasons).
6. It was Firmino, his loss in form is a major contributory factor in our fall-off. Now I'd put Robbo as #5.
Click to expand...
You’re absolutely correct. The numbers Salah puts up are ridiculous - you can’t argue with them. Even, I would argue, in mediocre form he is still scoring goals. And yet he isn’t loved...
 
mom said:
Hendo. Vvd. Mané. Allison. Salah
Click to expand...
So a question for a lot of people rating Mane above Salah... Why?! Over the past five seasons they have been close / tied twice. The other three times Salah haa been out of sight.
So is it just personal bias or is there a specific reason? And where would the 30+ goals come from without Salah?
 
Salah contributed 23 out of our 55 league goals (Mane with 13, Firmino with 11). His importance to the team is magnified esp. in a season like this when our forwards are mis/under-firing.
 
For overall leadership, it's clearly Hendo. I actually believe him to be up there with Graeme Souness as maybe our greatest true leader of his team. The team is a different animal with him on the pitch... He's a magnificent captain.

But, as to how the team actually plays and functions, it's gotta be VVD. Our entire game is built around him being back there, running things... Our high press doesn't work without him, as everybody else sits deeper than normal, to compensate for his absence. Our FBs start from approx 10-15 yards closer to our own goal without him behind them. Our entire game plan is built around having him back there, sitting on the halfway line, pushing everybody further up the pitch.

After him, Fabinho is not getting nearly enough love in this thread... He's a fucking colossus in the middle of our midfield, the best holding MF since Fernandinho. He's a wonderful player, and our team is immensely poorer without him in it (in his usual role).

So, from a pure Xs and Os perspective, I'd have to go with:

1. VVD
2. Fabinho.
3. Hendo.
4. Allison
5. Doesn't matter anymore... If the above 4 are all fit and playing, and we have a full squad available, we're the best team on the planet.
 
Whaddapie said:
For overall leadership, it's clearly Hendo. I actually believe him to be up there with Graeme Souness as maybe our greatest true leader of his team. The team is a different animal with him on the pitch... He's a magnificent captain.

But, as to how the team actually plays and functions, it's gotta be VVD. Our entire game is built around him being back there, running things... Our high press doesn't work without him, as everybody else sits deeper than normal, to compensate for his absence. Our FBs start from approx 10-15 yards closer to our own goal without him behind them. Our entire game plan is built around having him back there, sitting on the halfway line, pushing everybody further up the pitch.

After him, Fabinho is not getting nearly enough love in this thread... He's a fucking colossus in the middle of our midfield, the best holding MF since Fernandinho. He's a wonderful player, and our team is immensely poorer without him in it (in his usual role).

So, from a pure Xs and Os perspective, I'd have to go with:

1. VVD
2. Fabinho.
3. Hendo.
4. Allison
5. Doesn't matter anymore... If the above 4 are all fit and playing, and we have a full squad available, we're the best team on the planet.
Click to expand...
I agree with you on Fabs not getting enough love (I updated my Top 5 before your post) however having no Salah in the top 2 or 3 is just as bad, or worse, it's sacrilege ! Since without his goals (which we couldn't replace) we would be struggling to stay in the Top 10.
 
Frogfish said:
So a question for a lot of people rating Mane above Salah... Why?! Over the past five seasons they have been close / tied twice. The other three times Salah haa been out of sight.
So is it just personal bias or is there a specific reason? And where would the 30+ goals come from without Salah?
Click to expand...


Mané has had a dodgy season. But then, half of the squad has. But generally I feel Mané offers more all round game play than Salah. No denying Mo’s goals, he’s incredible in that respect.
 
Mane's always been a streaky player. It's easy to forget that because his last barren spell was a good while ago. I agree that when he's on form he poses a more varied threat than Mighty Mo, but as others have said you'll get goals consistently from the Egyptian King even when his all-round form isn't at its best.
 
Frogfish said:
I agree with you on Fabs not getting enough love (I updated my Top 5 before your post) however having no Salah in the top 2 or 3 is just as bad, or worse, it's sacrilege ! Since without his goals (which we couldn't replace) we would be struggling to stay in the Top 10.
Click to expand...

Truth is, I think that if all the others I do mention are fit and firing on all cylinders, then I think that the front 4 players will get enough goals (combined) for us to win almost every match that we play, and they're ALL crucial to our style of play.

I also think that, for all of his goals, Mo is far from prolific - he misses A LOT of glorious chances - and he's incredibly selfish, often to the detriment of the team. He strikes me as a "me first, team second" player. For that reason alone, though I like him, and certainly appreciate how good he is, he'll never be a favourite of mine.
 
Whaddapie said:
Truth is, I think that if all the others I do mention are fit and firing on all cylinders, then I think that the front 4 players will get enough goals (combined) for us to win almost every match that we play, and they're ALL crucial to our style of play.

I also think that, for all of his goals, Mo is far from prolific - he misses A LOT of glorious chances - and he's incredibly selfish, often to the detriment of the team. He strikes me as a "me first, team second" player. For that reason alone, though I like him, and certainly appreciate how good he is, he'll never be a favourite of mine.
Click to expand...
Yes I can understand favouritism however the thread doesn't ask who is your favorite players but who are most important 😉

I believe the stat is that even the best strikers only score at a rate of 1:4 chances on average so I don't see Mo as being any different, bar the whole team's recent poor record in front of goal.
 
Frogfish said:
Yes I can understand favouritism however the thread doesn't ask who is your favorite players but who are most important 😉

I believe the stat is that even the best strikers only score at a rate of 1:4 chances on average so I don't see Mo as being any different, bar the whole team's recent poor record in front of goal.
Click to expand...

Understood, mate. And I've explained why I chose as I did... Though he's clearly important to us, I just don't think Mo is quite as important as those that I name before him. And I think the fact that he's scoring like he does, but we're still in as low a position as we are lends some credence to my opinion.
 
Mo is a phenomenon, and I love him to bits. Maybe it's because we've been spoiled with incredible goalscorers over the years, or because as we've seen having one forward banging in tons of goals isn't enough to win titles on its one, but I still put Hendo and Virg ahead of Mo in terms of importance to the team.
 
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