Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

Lies. There are no good country songs.

fairly disgusting from the French police

Turns out that you are correct. There are 12.

Probably a man City or psg fan now 😂

It was the Paris locals who were the hooligans that night.

Genius 😂

A guess, eh?

Aye, and you can PM me the euromillions picks for tomorrow, ta.

...

Istanbul here we come for 7.

Did you put a bet on that??

They may look a little deeper if you did 😜

The League cup Liverpool will play in one game before the World Cup

1st Round - 10th August

2nd Round - 24th August

3rd Round - 9th November

4th Round - 21st December

Quarter-Final - 11th January

Semi-Finals - 25th January & 1st February

Final - 26th February

But...tradition...January 3rd round games...magic of the cup?

Taken the above from Reddit but I'd be very happy to see Jones go to Forest and see how he gets on playing every week.

Forest's Guardian journalist pouring cold water on that rumour...

No one else after Ramsey according to Joyce, if Ox is running down his contract this season we are stuck with him so...

Bellingham next season I would hope! 🤞

If he's 100m though I just can't see it...

Dietotenhosen wishing Boss a happy birthday today... 😂

I wonder if the signing of Nunez (and Carvalho), coupled with the talk of no more signings, specifically midfielders, will prompt another change in playing style for Liverpool under Klopp? Even though the majority of the time under Klopp has seen a 4-3-3 formation in play, there has been some subtle changes every season which have affected the play and the style somewhat, moving from gengenpress->controlling->possession based teams.

2015-2017 - In the first couple of years, there was a sort of quasi 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 which engrained the gengenpressing roots into the squad. Lallana & Gini were moved from attacking midfielders into a more regular CM role, alongside Henderson who was moved to DM. Origi & Sturridge were trialed as traditional number 9s, before Firimino eventually gets the CF position, but in a more false 9 role. The first signs of being able to attack space brilliantly becoming a feature of the team. First front 3 emerges in the form of Coutinho Firmino Mane.

2017-2018 - With the gengenpress in full flow now, there was a real onus on legging teams now, with big bursts of attacking energy to blow teams away. Some games were real attacking helter-skelter games. Lots of goals scored, but too many goals were still being conceded too. Lots of high scoring wins while conceding at the same. A large reliance was placed on the front 3, with the introduction of Salah, to score from counter attacks and via their own link up play. There was still a worry around not being able to break down teams that defended deep and cut off space. With the introduction of Karius & then VVD, Klopp showed how he wanted to build play out from his defence, and the possession style of play had started to take some form. Individual defensive mistakes were still littered in the defence. The team was still somewhat young, and naive, and often out of steam and ideas.

2018-2020 - The CL final loss in Kiev stuck with the players and coaches in terms of game management, removing that naivety. Alisson, VVD & Fabinho allowed the progression of building the possession game, but the key attribute being that they controlled games now, in terms of managing the space and the areas where the ball was being played. The midfield of Fabinho Hendo Gini Milner were now in their peak, utilizing a mid block press off the ball, controlling the space and rarely needed to attack, recycling the ball when they got it back instead. A lot of 1 goal winning margins, 1-0 or 2-1 were seen in this period. The full backs became key to creating attacks, along with front 3 who are still scoring the goals. There were some hints of moving to a 4-2-3-1 in the winter of 2019 with Shaqiri being used as the 4th attacker. By the end of 2020, the team is a fully functioning possession based side. On the ball, sometimes the team lined up almost in a 2-1-4-3.

2020-2022 - The team has now moved away from defending the space, to instead defending with the ball, partly due to the energy levels dropping in midfield which also contributed to not needing to gengenpressing as much anymore. Teams were having to work hard to get the ball off of Liverpool as they were so well tuned in possession, aided by the two new playmakers emerging in the form of Trent & Thiago. The introduction of Jota sees the use of a 4-2-3-1 a lot more, with him or Origi used as a more traditional focal point instead of the false 9 role. The 4-2-4 becomes more frequent with Keita, Elliot & Henderson all given a unique role of supporting both midfield & attack from RM, allowing Trent & Salah to have more freedom.

Seeing Nunez as a more traditional 9, coupled with the regression of Firmino, leads me to think that the move to 4-2-3-1 may become more permanent, or even a lobsided 4-4-2 with Diaz playing as an orthodox winger on one side with the RM tucking in a bit more again. It might suit the team to 'only' play with 2 midfielders - Thiago & Fabinho have proved that they can play this together. Henderson is well able to, and Keita proved at Leipzig that he can play in a 2 man midfield too, provided he stays fit.

This would see Salah more up front alongside Nunez. I would not be surprised to see Carvalho deployed in the 1 behind the striker at times this coming season, although he is still very young, so it might be Firmino moving back to the role he had at previous clubs as the player behind. Elliot might be used in this role too, or even Thiago in some big games. We might see a continuation of the 4-3-3 too.

It's certainly going to be an interesting season ahead and to see how Darwin will affect the evolution of this team 😅

Great post Fitz. I do have a strong feeling myself that Klopp will have us operating under a less rigid system this season, in the sense that our 4-3-3 with a high defensive line and the more reserved press from the front could be switched occasionally for a deeper line in midfield and a more aggressive gegenpress up front with a 4-2-3-1.

A tactical switch and/or an alternative approach to games against strong sides could be on the cards given the fact that we’ve actually regressed in beating high quality teams this season. An away win at Inter was our best result of the season but when you look at the league, there’s not one game where we’ve beaten a side on our level or even close to it. A hugely impressive and consistent season, yes, but there’s a weakness at the minute in beating the top dogs (and even Spurs for god’s sake) and I’m sure it’s being addressed this summer.

It's being reported in Scotland that everything has been agreed with Aberdeen, £4.5M fee plus £3.5M in performance addons and a 20% sell on clause. Ramsay is expected to travel to Liverpool for a medical tomorrow.

If the club had sense, they'd tie him down now so (similar to Naby) and sort out some form of agreement.

I wonder is the World Cup being played in the middle of the season effecting transfers.

Will clubs sign players who stand out in the World Cup in the January transfer window like they might have in past during a summer transfer window.

Was curious so looked through our squad and we do have a pretty big group of first teamers that won't be heading off to WC. And even when you look at the players that are going, a lot of them aren't guaranteed starters. 

Not Going

Kelleher, Ramsay, Robertson, Tsimikas, Matip, Gomez, Keita, Milner, Elliott, Jones, Carvalho, Ox, Salah, Diaz

Going (likely)

Alisson, TAA, VVD, Konate, Henderson, Thiago, Fabinho, Firmino, Jota, Taki, Nunez. I'm assuming Mane is definitely gone. 

Of the likely players going I'd only consider VVD, Jota, Taki and Nunez as players guaranteed to start most if not all of their games. Brazil usually rotate their keepers, Fab is behind Casemiro but does get rotated in, Firmino will likely be on the bench. Konate just got called up so maybe he won't be first choice. Southgate doesn't see Henderson or TAA as starters. We might even get lucky and Southgate will go full clown and he'll leave one or both behind. And I don't think Thiago plays all the time for Spain but would need to check that.

Biggest issue is, I can see both the Dutch and Brazil going deep, especially Brazil. In comparison, quickly looking at City's squad, it looks like most of their first team squad will be going bar Zinchenko, Haaland and Mahrez. 

What I'm saying is, get ready to dust off the asterix for our next league title lads!

I'd love it of ingerland left Trent and Henderson at home, not gonna happen though.

Southgate is getting flak for leaving Trent out, and the self preservation instinct will kick in, he won't want to be sent home at the quarter final stage and have to explain why he has no players from one of the EPL best 2 teams.

Ojo say his goodbye, Hope he finds a decent club for himself.

England has one midfielder playing for a top 6 team, Henderson and he is not certain of his spot in the team. Instead it is Philips or Rice that is seen as a better choice. Every time they play against a team with better players their midfield gets overrun and that is where they lose the match. They play with an extra defender as well to compensate for this mismatch in midfield.

Add in that Maguire is first choice CB, then while they have done well the last 2 tournaments you can see there are definite areas of concern for them.