Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

brevity

https://youtu.be/XQcBI5SKJgU

Cookoo

machiavellianme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119693422#Comment_119693422

That's just it Toby. Don't concede and at least we can't lose. Our forwards are always good for a chance or two, it's when we are continuously chasing games that takes its toll.

patsy sally

I'm just sitting back smiling looking at haaland and thinking what can he achieve,he is just a machine when it comes to goalscoring think I saw a stat Earlier 3 hatricks in 8 premier league games,Michael Owen was closest on 48 games if I'm correct that's unbelievable.

noodler

Smiling at Haaland making the league a joke for the next five years doesn't appeal to me tbh!

How will sky market this product once Arsenal fall away

fyfe79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119694099#Comment_119694099

I reckon it's why the PL were so desperate to allow the Saudi's take over at Newcastle. They need another oil-backed club to challenge City into the future as they knew Klopp won't be around for ever and the facade of the league would become much more apparent when Liverpool inevitably fall-off. City would already have 5 walkovers in-a-row if it wasn't for Liverpool.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119694099#Comment_119694099

The same way the marketed it when MU dominated presumably.

BorneTobyWilde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119694099#Comment_119694099

He chose the wrong club, and will be out the door in 2 years, he's a stubborn player, it's why he has a release clause that is very low considering.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119694204#Comment_119694204

He has release clauses that are low because he's good enough to dictate terms that favour him, because there's literally no alternative in world football that offers what he does.

BorneTobyWilde

It's all fear with him, people don't defend the ball, they get caught up in defending him, while he very much has eyes for the ball and will get on the end of it.

https://youtu.be/Jrif5xyjigA?t=15

A fear goal, why is Villa keeper guarding his near post with Debruyne out wide with only an option to cross, fear, then Villa keeper tried to makes a save from a cross, fear, then Haaland just taps it into an empty net.

I mean Alisson just stands center, plucks that ball out of air, and yawns. People lose their heads when Haaland is close, when there is no need

dogbert27

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119690138#Comment_119690138

Given our current form there's no guarantee we're finishing in the top 2 of the group stages, could have Europa League this season!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119694204#Comment_119694204

I can’t think of a better club for him to be at. Top team, challenging for both domestic and European titles where they are favourites for both, service from some of the best midfielders in the world, including the best, DeBreyne at creating chances and passing to him, one of the two best managers in world football, he is getting paid astronomical amounts of money, and was able to dictate a clause allowing him to leave, presumably for RM or Barca when his contract expires. At this rate he is surely on course for the BDor, not this January, but the following one. Mbappe must now be wondering about the wisdom of staying in the French league, but I suppose the WC could put him back on top in some peoples opinion, for me the three top players are Lawendovski, EBH and KDB.

Am I missing something?

yourdeadwright

So what you guys thinking about Tuesday .

I can't see Fab starting he needs a rest for Arsenal , I'd like Mo to have a rest to,

Tsmiakas will start i think that is why he was taken off early the weekend same as Hendo

I want to see the following start

...Arthur,...Hendo...Thiago

....Jota...Nunez....Diaz

Not sure about the back line To early for Konate or Ramsey ?

Pool need a morale boosting win, therefore, strongest team we can field to play. A loss or draw here, and qualification for knockout stage becomes a nerve wracking uncertainty.

Eircom_Sucks

pain in my face at the min with how we are going , should be way ahead and not sure why we are falling apart

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695022#Comment_119695022

What is our strongest team ?

Do we drop Firmino who has our most goals & most assist from Nunez ?

rob316

I can't see where the answer is going to come from in improving our performances and results, so much is wrong.

How do you go from playing every game available last season and on the verge of a quadruple to this? Or is that exactly why we are playing like this, too many games?

You have to ask questions of Klopp, can we keep playing this tired formation? The defence is bereft of any confidence and look to concede on every attack.

JimboJones99

I think Klopp knows things have to change. He mentioned a couple of weeks ago about "reinventing ourselves". What worry's me most is that I dont think he has the players in the middle of the field to be able to do so.

A lot of questions are rightly being asked about our defence but teams have figured out how to hurt us and we do not have the players that are able to press any longer. To be able to press, you need to have athleticism. We dont have that at the minute, not one of our midfielders is able to press well enough anymore and that leaves us very open at the back.

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695360#Comment_119695360

Trent needs taking out of the team for a few games but we currently can't as we have no option there,

Seems to be a serious lack of legs & explosiveness in our team currently,

Trent,Tsimakas, Matip , Fabhino, Thagio , Hendo , Firmino all look very very slow & sleepy out there,

For all of Manes ability its his aggression & spirit being missed most, When we had himself & Diaz playing together last season it became infectious to the whole team,

Ottoman_1000

It's kinda weird how we ended up here. Klopp's stamp for a few seasons was this team was a well oiled machine and if somebody was out injured, his replacement knew what exactly what his role was and things motored on without a sign of a kink. It was our major strength during that period. Now we are a miss-mash and the players who are meant to be the primary player in each position don't look up to it, never mind the players replacing them!

What is really killing us is the fear factor is now gone. Before we could comfortably defend on the midfield line because, firstly teams were terrified to commit men forward against us so 90% of what we had to deal with was hoofed clearances from the opposition backline to a lone striker, and secondly that lone striker was facing a battle against a prime VVD so even if the ball did find him, VVD would just easily win it back and get us going again. Now teams are more than happy to try keep it on the ground against us and pass it through the lines and not only are they doing that, Once they break through they are committing numerous men forward and simply overwhelming us every time.

Some people are alluding to Elliot and Carvahiho not been up to it or the loss of form of Hendo and Fabinho and therefore we no longer controlling the midfield area anymore. And while there is truth in all off that, the reality is our midfield is facing a completely different ball game that what it has come up against the last few years. You can see it in Fabinho where he looks flabbergasted as he now has sometimes 4/5 players all running off him looking for the ball where that was never a problem before. His role before this was to either drop back and support the centre halves defend a hopeful clearance over the top or press high and go in hard on the opposition to win it back, sometimes he would be winning it back just outside the oppositions box and it was an instant dangerous attack for us. He can no longer get that high up because if he does he is leaving 3 or 4 opposition players behind him and we are instantly under pressure if they can find any of those with a pass.

BillyHasMates

I think there are a myriad of issues at play:

Mentality: we had an exhausting season last year. Record number of games which ended with heartbreak on two counts. That has to have affected the players. All of that effort to end ultimately in disappointment. Hard to motivate players to go again. I certainly believe there is evidence that quite alot of the players seem unable to switch on and their alertness and concentration levels in particular are not what you would normally expect.

Physical: injuries and age. We are still holding on to quite a few sicknotes in the squad, particularly in the midfield department as everyone knows. Ox, Thiago, Keita, Matip all have terrible injury records since joining the club. Some others then like Fab and Henderson pick up injuries also, just not on the same scale. Some players also have a ridiculous amount of mileage in their legs coupled with them getting older which brings its own natural problems. Milner, Henderson, Firmino, Salah and to a lesser extent Robertson and Trent. Quite a few of those mentioned players have been playing the vast majority of our games for 4 to 5 seasons now in a team that expects high intensity.

Investment: we have massive squad issues now. We failed to build on the title winning season and have been far too slow in reacting to obvious holes in the squad. Our midfield options are currently very poor and primarily consists of sicknotes, players getting on in age and on the decline, and a couple of relatively inexperienced young players with 'potential'. We have nobody there that are at the peak age range. Trent still has nobody to rotate with him. How have we got here? Are the owners being frugal with squad investment, much of what we read and hear would say we are only spending what we recoup in players sales. We don't really have any more Ibe's and Solanke's. The players we probably want rid of are the players with the bad injury records or are getting too old. Who would buy them? Are the transfer and recruitment committee being too rigid with their recruitment strategy? I certainly think so. Another possibility of course is Klopp's and the club's loyalty to players who have produced for the club before. I think the vast majority of fans have come to acknowledge the squad issues and the relative lack of investment in comparison to other trophy chasing teams.

Tactical: for me, we have never looked more open defensively than we have this season. I haven't checked stats but it feels we concede from almost every first shot on target the opposition get. Probably due to a mixture of the above reasons, our press is not functioning. Due to that, we have become extremely easy to play through. We are not compact as a team. Massive gaps exist between midfield, fullbacks and centre backs, the centre backs in particular getting exposed. We don't appear to have that athleticism and legs in the key areas, particularly midfield and opposition teams are overwhelming our centre backs by flooding their midfield players forward, all of which are able to get the run on our midfield and beat them to our box. The right side of our defense has been a problem for some time and I feel it is time Klopp acknowledges that having Trent in a semi free role for his 'creativity' is offering far more problems than anything productive and we need to make adjustments. I feel we have been figured out and I think it is time the coaching team looks at first of all focusing on making us more compact and harder to score against, and then moving away from the 4-3-3 as I don't believe we have the players anymore to make it work. I do think the 4-2-3-1 is worth a try.

The most frustrating thing for me as a fan is that many of the above problems were anticipated by fans and posters here and were discussed well before this season. The club really seem to have taken their eye off the ball. On top of that, regardless of the results, we don't seem to be learning or adapting, particularly tactically. We continue to give up the same type of chances in the same way and seem too persistent in trying to make it work. What do we have to lose now in admitting it's not working and trying something else?

martyos121

This comment from Klopp deeply concerns me:

https://twitter.com/TheAnfieldTalk/status/1576909240220135424?t=pnBM4EGEDTe94FEl6O96SQ&s=19

Even Pep has made some attempt to adapt his team on occasion (albeit to varying degrees of success) and he's notoriously rigid in his philosophy.

It feels like a huge blindspot for Klopp. There are other ways to play football, very effective ways, and we have more than enough talent on our squad to try new things.

Ottoman_1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695693#Comment_119695693

To be fair, I don't think Klopp can come out and openly admit to the press that things need to change with his philosophy but you would imagine he would know himself that something needs changing. I outlined it in my previous post that teams are no longer fearful facing us, we play Rangers now this week who lets be honest are an awful side. But you can be guaranteed before a ball is kicked they'll score at least 1 and create a lot of decent chances against us, that in itself says a lot!!!

BorneTobyWilde

People praise United and Spurs this season for how solid their defenses are, and slaughter Liverpool, but United conceded 14 in only 7 games,Spurs 10 in 8 games.

We've only concede 9, same as City. Of course a lot of our conceded goals are individual errors, if we cut that out we'd have conceded only 4, things like Trent making it so easy, VVD kicking the air when it's easier to side foot it clear, silly stuff.

We've also scored 18, Arsenal have 20, conceding 8, so the little things are making a huge difference for us.

Ideally VVD clears it, and we win 3-2, Ideally we take one of out 500 chances against Everton, Ideally we beat Crystal Palace with 75% possession, and 24 shots, ideally Salah side foots it into the net from 2 yards out against United, instead of trying to use the tip of his left foot to score artistically for no reason whatsoever, another game with 73% possession, and 17 shots.

Fact is we've lost one game since 1st of Jan 2022, same as City so not a lot is wrong.

martyos121

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695809#Comment_119695809

I get what you mean, but I think that’s a very pointless face-saving exercise if so. Every man and their dog can see that a change in tactics would be worth at shot at the moment, so Klopp refusing to admit that himself doesn’t really do anything to build trust with the supporters. Of course he already has that trust built up in abundance, but it won’t be long eroding if that form continues.

Totally different kettle of fish to 2020/21, there were valid excuses for that crisis.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695825#Comment_119695825

What? Who praised Utds defence?

Its context Toby, Brighton’s defence is being praised, but no one thinks they are a top team who were expected to challenge for the title. Fact is, errors in defence have cost us dearly, as it did this weekend, which is why we are behind both Spurs and Utd.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695693#Comment_119695693

He's always very reluctant to make quick pivots alright... he's made huge changes to how we play over the years, but always things that were planned well before pre-season. I'd kinda hoped the gap between games would've been substantial enough to do something similar, but I guess you can't really work on anything at that scale with so many key players missing on international duty.

Ottoman_1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695911#Comment_119695911

I do agree with that and I wish sometimes he would be more flexible with his opinions on certain things. He has always been very stubborn about his approach. To be honest, I think Klopp himself is a little shocked about how drastic the drop off in levels from last season has been and he's not fully sure how to address it himself yet. Players are just looking lethargic and un-energised within 10 minutes of games now. He also seems to be surprised about how teams are going at us aggressively from the off now days, this is completely new to him. Like on Saturday for example, Brighton went about their game as if they were playing any team from the bottom end. They're composed and controlled the game for long spells...That was unheard of from oppositions teams coming to Anfield the last 4/5 years!

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695558#Comment_119695558

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695403#Comment_119695403

The simple answer is our Midfield ,

No energy or legs anymore, Milner, Ox, Naby, Jones, Elliot, Henderson all not up to it ,

Thiago is a gem but always injured , Fab needs legs around him or looks ordinary ,

I got laughed on here for constantly moaning about lack of a midfield transfer in the summer but its so glaringly obvious , Stevie Wonder could see what was going to happen ,

Everyone wanted more creativity in midfield but we never needed it , Our success under Klopp has been based on a tireless midfield, Our Forwards & fullbacks look ordinary without it, We need legs legs & more legs in midfield ,

Even with all our injuries we no longer have a single midfielder with legs, We used to have Gini,Hendo Milner, even Ox , who could play either side of Fab ,

yourdeadwright

Van Den Berg suffered a horrible ankle break,( sorry not confirmed as a break but lokeed like it the way it bent )the weekend,

Looked nasty ,

brevity

We are scouting this guy apparently

https://twitter.com/Mobyhaque1/status/1547741931525926912?s=20&t=yfcrkPQ08F1z7rKaMuRThQ

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119696007#Comment_119696007

This.

With all the talk about the likes of Bellingham, I've also said this before :we don't need a world class creative player there, just someone technically proficient who has legs and is robust enough to be available when required, like Gini in a lot of ways.

We have enough creativity, we need balance and a few anchors throughout the side.

brevity

Interesting piece about us on MNF tonight.

noodler

Thought Gary Neville's bit on Trent was absolutely spot on tbh.

There's a quick written recap on sky sports news website/app too.

Balance is all wrong and he is getting away with murder with people saying Klopp wants him to be that high etc when there are clearly huge deficiencies in his defending that actually aren't to do with his starting position.

fyfe79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695558#Comment_119695558

Top post. Nails pretty much all the issues.

I think the "top, top" levels are SO finite in top level sports that even very little drop-offs in terms of desire/application/age-related performance dips are enough to cause huge problems.

For example, a 5-10% drop off from VVD (either injury related or age related, who knows?) is enough to create both a slight belief in opposing strikers which wasn't there before (which enboldens them to try to exploit), and a 'butterfly effect' of doubt and uncertainty among his fellow defenders - which, in turn, creates an ever-increasing butterfly effect which ripples out among the midfielders etc etc. It's almost like the 'one bad apple spoils the whole bunch' analogy - not picking on VVD here, just using him as an example - you could also look at Trent, at Fabinho, at Hendo, at Salah etc...

I think the team is drowning in self-doubt right now.

brevity

While pretty much every one is at fault for this particular mini-crisis, I wonder what impact our Pep is having on our tactics...I wonder if there is a early succession plan being implemented and it's falling apart.

BorneTobyWilde

Kill en that way

giveitholly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697422#Comment_119697422

Missed it,any chance of a quick synopsis of what was said?

Ottoman_1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697825#Comment_119697825

No way Matip gets dropped over VVD on current form.

noodler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697847#Comment_119697847

Sky sports website if you want to read it. Five minute clip on their YouTube channel otherwise.

BorneTobyWilde

Konate is back, and needs games though

Agent Coulson

Martinelli will terrorise TAA next weekend if he starts.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697981#Comment_119697981

Tbh if Konate had to play, I’d be resting/dropping VVD and playing him with Matip. Not sure we’re in that much of a rush to give him starts yet though, he’s not played a minute since coming back from injury, better to be cautious and give him the last 30 mins at this stage I think.

In your team, with one less midfielder, I’d be starting Gomez at right back over Trent too.

citytillidie

Next 3 games are must wins, 2 V Rangers in the CL and the Arsenal game in the fight for top 4, Man City game is a throw away now City are going to walk the league.

Bluebb993

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119694204#Comment_119694204

And who would you say would be the right club for him? Or is it because its not your club?

BorneTobyWilde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119698061#Comment_119698061

Real thought the deal for Mbappe was signed sealed and delivered, Haaland wanted Real, Real didn't care for him as they had Mbappe, except they didn't have Mbappe, and by then Haaland was already at City.

If Real want Haaland he'll drop City like a cheap date, he has a release clause, and he'll walk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119698263#Comment_119698263

This isn’t a surprise to anyone. In fact, it was made clear to all interested clubs that Haaland required a clause allowing him to move for a certain price after a couple of years. That clause was in his BVD contract, it is in his City contract, and it will be in his Real contract if he moves there. It is extremely clever as it ensures that the player is able to move based only on the player’s choice of club, not based on who can afford an astronomical transfer fee. As another poster said, when you’re that good, you call the shots. And I wouldn’t be so sure that he will drop city for Real.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119698051#Comment_119698051

Matip needs minding, he can't play every game in our upcoming schedule, so it'll be important to rest him where lkssie9.

I'd prefer to see him play against Arsenal than at home to Rangers for instance.

Bluebb993

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119698263#Comment_119698263

Real also had benzema who still had another 2/3years left in the tank, so timing probably wasn't right for haaland. Hell move there at some stage I'd imagine but just signed 6 year deal with city and release clause if there even is one is rumored to be 150mil +

Ottoman_1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697487#Comment_119697487

Those clips are woeful, especially the Sancho goal. No prime Jordan Henderson or likewise replacement is going to cover for that level of atrocious defending. He's either not up to it or just doesn't care because some of what we see is laughable.

atilladehun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695558#Comment_119695558

Agree with a lot here. Definitely think many of them are a bit broken from last year. It's not a case of improving attitude, they're a bit depressed from the failure.

The biggest pity about the signings are Ox and Naby. They should be at their peak now and running the midfield. If they were resilient then milner would probably be retired and hendo would be deputising for fabinho.