Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

Mudryk looked electric,

He skipped past 3 Liverpool players in the box but struck wide,

He is going to chase havoc in games , composure is what he looked to be lacking yesterday ,

He looked more of a Mo or Mane than Gakpo does ,

It'll be interesting to see who ends up the better player in the long term

Man City v Spurs

________________

_______________

________Rodri__Gundogan No9

Mahrez No9_Alvarez No9_Grealish No10

__________Haaland No9____

All attackers, all played striker, or behind striker, they fill the line up, the midfield space, but don't call them a Milner, or a Henderson, or a Fabinho, or a Thiago, or a Jones.

Liverpool have already the personnel to play this way, but don't, but keep buying players like Gakpo who fit this system.

Klopp is stuck on the wing backs bringing us goals, when City have a solid back 4, and fill the rest of their teams with creators, hard working players though, Pep demands that, that's why it works, they lose it and hustle to get it back, then retain it due to the fact they're all highly skilled attackers

The timing of Gakpo's purchase is the biggest thing going against him, we bought him when there's a much greater and obvious need in the squad.

In terms of rebuilding our forward line for the future he's a good get. That's Diaz and Jota at 26 and Nunez and Gakpo at 23 now.

If we didn't buy Nunez or Gakpo we'd have Salah up top on his own now.

Can't wait too see a front 3 with diaz-nunez-salah

Problem remains though the midfield is too far away from the attack, I'd love too see Eliott in that free roaming role behind that 3.

Shaq offered loads. Never should have sold him.

Harsh on Salah, he's being played ultra wide and no longer has a midfield capable of winning the ball in positions he might capitalise from.

He's still responsible for our only highlight in this piss poor season by getting the City winner

3 forwards left the club in the summer. At least 1 was needed to come in.

Chelsea have spent 460m on players this season, and that's just the transfer fees. We need to outlay 400m, and recoup 100m plus in sales.

We have Salah, Jota, Nunez, Diaz, and Gakpo (and Firmino potentially resigning), and you wanna spend close to 200 million on 3 more forwards? (Nkunku has already signed for Chelsea also).

Jones, 25m, Fabinho 35m, Gomez 30m,

Yea, but I'd be playing 5 attackers, one midfielder like City, I'd fit them all in the side in a 4-2-3-1.

The thing about Chelsea is they seems to have done their deals, can't see them signing another host of players in the summer.If they do they'll also need a new team bus

It really was... though the number of injuries between Liverpool and Chelsea was also huge.

Might have a chance of that on Fabs given his overall record. What would we have rated him at before this season? £60m? More? So even if this season wipes out half his value, that's not unrealistic. Don't see the others getting that sort of money though.

I tell you who might be a saleable asset given we bought three players that compete with him for left wing or the center in 12 months: Jota. Could get our £40m back easily.

Kelleher could push for a move either to get first team footie (although I'd rather loan him for a couple of years). Wonder what he'd get in the market.

There are reports that Rhys Williams is returning from his loan with Blackpool.

I wonder if that's an indication that there are concerns about the availability of the defenders or possibly that Phillips is leaving.

He's been on the bench since Stephen's Day and had a spell on the bench in November too. Maybe Blackpool have told us that he won't start for them regularly anymore unless they have injuries and we're going to send him somewhere else where he will start.

Honestly I don't think he has any future here. He's too slow, and unlike Phillips who's able to recogonise his lack of pace and tries to give himself a yard head start, Williams acts like he has the recovery pace of a 26 year old van Dijk. I'd sell him and bank the couple of million we'd get.

I don't think we'd quite get that fee for Gomez, but given his age and being an English home grown player, he's more saleable than the others. He still has all the physical tools, and you could see a coach backing that they could get his concentration right. We've already seen ourselves (with a league win) that when his concentration is there and he's feeling good and playing every week that he's an excellent player.

Fabinho meanwhile, it's not about form. I wouldn't have an issue if he just had poor form - form can be turned around. His problem is that he looks like a cripple now. He can't move. I don't see anyone buying a midfielder who looks as physically ruined as he does.

Stuck with fabinho unless he goes for free or a low price,at 30 years of age on a big contract till 2026 who is going to match that salary and take a chance on a meaningful transfer fee given how his form has dropped,he will become more of a squad player for the next couple of years.

They might need to do a DNA test for age,he might be older than milner....

Id love to hear if he's been playing through injury

It jut doesn't make sense

I have made that assumption myself. Thiago had an injury when he joined the club, the staff thought it was manageable but it required corrective surgery at the end of the season. Henderson has spoken about how he carried injuries through entire seasons because he didn't want to leave the team down.

In the 2017/18 season, Klavan and Lovren both picked up injuries in the New Years Day fixture against Burnley. Klavan was unable to train for the remainder of the season and was dosed with anti-inflammatory and pain killing injections before appearing on the bench for almost every game. His reward was that he got to start the physical games (Everton, West Brom, Stoke City) sandwiched between the Champions League ties with Man City and Roma. He had surgery on his back after the season had ended and was shipped off to Serie A at the end of the transfer window.

Lovren had injured his hip in the Burnley game and carried it through the remainder of the season under the supervision of the medical staff. Afterwards he opted not to go for surgery because Croatia were in the World Cup where he played every minute of every game except for the dead rubber third group game. He aggravated the injury during the final and didn't let the club's medical team know until he returned to the club. Klopp was furious with him because he expected a fully fit player to return for the start of the 2018/19 season.

Gomez spoke about playing in games at the end of the 2017/18 season where the muscles in his right leg were numb and he felt he didn't have full control of the limb because of the injections he received to get him on the pitch. The fans may not be aware of that but quite a few will remember him ballooning crosses into the back of the stand and looking uncomfortable going forward in the same time period.

There is an expectation on the players to make themselves available and put their bodies on the line for every game. Klopp spoke about this many times and it was his major gripe with Daniel Sturridge.

I suspect that Fabinho has an injury from the 2020/21 season which has been managed by the medical team but the club haven't sent him for the proper corrective treatment because he's needed for the team. I could be wrong but the drop off in his physical ability is consistent with when short term band-aid treatments are no longer effective.

Hopefully the cb recalls are to go 3 at the back. The defence and midfield is all over the shop so should be trying a 5-3-2 at this stage.

I'd give fabinho a week holiday and let bajcetic play the brighton game. I can't believe how bad he has been this season, its like when he first joined where he was miles off the pace for a few months but I don't know how he's going to back up to speed.

Thiago has been a 30-35 games a season player during his time at Liverpool. He has already played in 20 games this season. Keita has only stayed fit when rotated to start two games followed by a substitution appearance. I don't think a line up that is reliant upon their availability is really a sustainable option.

I played 6 games at the end of a season in my early 30's on painkiller for a IT band / knee issues ,One a semi final & 1 a final , It was horrible i just about looked fine in fitness tests & warm ups but just couldn't find any sharpness at all , Ps Obviously at a much much lower level ,

So id well believe it could be the case,

To add to the discussion on the injuries, Neil Atkinson on the Anfield Wrap has previously highlighted the issue of players not being fit to start but still being used as subs, TAA at the weekend being a good example.

Ramsey was supposed to be the backup for TAA but again that’s another injury prone player being brought in.

Its a bit of a vicious circle, the lack of quality squad depth means that players are being brought back too quickly and before they are fully healed.

Funny you mention Naby his last season at Red Bull they conceded 53 goals only 3 team in the whole league had a worse defensive record,