Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

KDB and Trent have the same passing range/cross etc but KDB is more dynamic, he drives past players, he actually does get physical when needed.

I think Trent at faux RB with better midfielders is the answer (again).

Top 4 back on baby.........

Konate was covering a LOT of space tonight - a (dual?) hybrid Centerback/Rightback role due to TAA not being there. Feasible against a poor Leeds side but would be a disaster against rivals. I'd put Gomez at right back for the remainder of the season, as he's clearly not the answer at CB, to give us more stability on the right, and play TAA in the middle ahead of Fabinho who's a walking red card these days.

Easy there tiger

He’s no better than Trent defensively, but he’s had the luxury of far more protection at Man City. I’d still take him for his attacking ability though, would suit us perfectly but he’s not an upgrade on Trent or Robbo.

One thing I've laughed at this season more than other years is when we are sh1t first half and "let's be honest a lot of us me included" say how crap we are and "insert players name here" needs to be subbed off immediately - then goes and plays a legendary 30 mins and bags a few goals

If we can laugh at anything ive found that amusing

Of course he'd still have to defend, everyone knows that. But put someone with the defensive determination of Robertson or talent of konate and you'd probably cut out the mistakes or indecision. I'm taking about the times when he has been on the scene but clearly marked the wrong player or wasn't clear what was behind him.

On top of that that new player will have TAA with 6 years or RB experience helping him out.

A new RB could then help out with the wide rw position pushing salah fwd.

Have you seen the league table recently lol

But we already have 2 decent left backs?

So that would be a step in the left direction 😉

It's not a case of predicting an injury to players, it's contingency planning or in Klopp's case failure to do so. We had only three central defenders with first team experience going into the 2020/21 season. Matip and Gomez were both known to miss months of seasons through injury. Creating a situation where the team would need one or both players to be available for an extended period was wishful thinking.

Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips weren't trusted because they aren't quick so playing the high defensive line was an issue. There is no point in them being in the squad if the manager isn't willing to use them when the first choice options aren't available.

When Lovren left, the club looked at signing Caleta-Car from Marseille but decided against making an offer for him. In the January transfer window he was again strongly linked with the club but the offer wasn't made until the final day of the transfer window. He was sitting on a plane in Marseille airport waiting to hear if the deal was finalised when his club pulled the plug on the deal because they had no chance of securing a replacement.

Taking Henderson and Fabinho out of midfield broke the team. The lesson was there to be learned but for whatever reason it was ignored and the squad depth not improved. Last season Tyler Morton filled the gap for a period of games, this season it was Stefan Bajcetic. There was no reasonable explanation from Klopp as to how this situation was allowed to develop.

Newcastle lose to Spurs at home at the weekend and my eyebrow will be raised, nothing more.

I thought we were poor overall last night. Slow to get going, slow to move the ball at times, against an opposition that were nowhere near the level required. A couple of well taken goals notwithstanding, I wouldn't be getting too excited. The 'new' Trent role has been attampted a fair bit in recent weeks, but we won't get as compliant and soft opponent as this Leeds side every week. He looked good, but then again so did Cody and Nunez, and of course Jota and they haven't been great recently.

Leeds being crap was the story of last night's came rather than any great Liverpool performance.

A rare enjoyable away day!

Thought we were pretty good last night although it’s fair to say Leeds are all over the place right now.

Still, nice to see our forwards have a good day out, Jota finally getting himself on the scoresheet and Diaz coming back in!

TAA did well in his new role I thought, it’s an area where we can get the best out of him. Not sure how it would work against tougher opposition but it could be the way to go against teams that will sit back.

Top 4 is beyond us at this stage but hopefully they can end the season strongly.

I wouldn't agree with the sitting back. Leeds sat back for the first 30 and we didn't get a chance on goal. They pushed forward and we countered when there was space behind. After that the game changed.

It's possible he could be good alright, the potential long shots drawing players out and the second angle to cross from for gakpo and Núñez but we haven't seen that yet. Imo

Apologies I didn't necessarily mean the tactic will work at breaking down teams that sit back, as there's no evidence to suggest it will offer us anything different! I was merely suggestion that it will leave us to be less exposed playing this way against teams that sit back, if teams are to press us successfully we will be worse off than where we were for a lot of games this season because our ball retention and evasion of the opposition press is so poor...it obviously works great when teams come at us and we manage to play around their advances like last night, but how many times have to we failed to do that this season? That was one of Gini greatest strengths, he was almost impossible to get the ball off, even when backed into ridiculous corners he would play his way out. We need to seriously recruit the right players if this is how Klopp wants us to set up going forward.

So enjoyable last night from the moment we scored. We showed we can still punish teams mercilessly.

However, I'm not sure everyone fully understands why the new Trent role works, what is needed for it to work and why he is not an elite midfielder.

First off, the man looked like Pirlo in his pomp last night from about minute 30. Just unreal to see him able to display his passing range. A privilege to see it, and to watch him do it so effortlessly too.

However, there is a big gap there that will be exploited. The reason it worked last night is because Konate was sensational in covering (bar his mad mistake), and Leeds went lifeless from 3-1. Trent was essentially the extra man, and because Henderson is past it, it was entirely dependent on Konate being a monster, and Fabinho being something like Fabinho. Imagine Gomez in there at CB, and teams that are better than Leeds are flooding that CB channel. In our pomp, we had prime VVD, Fabinho and Henderson's legs to allow Trent to roam. I'm delighted that Klopp has identified Trent's unique skills as needing to be unlocked properly, and he seems dedicated to finding a way to do it.

But he's still a RB. He should not be a CM. He'll be overpowered and outrun too often. you don't eliminate his defensive issues by sticking in midfield, you just put them somewhere else. So if Trent is going to be what he was last night consistently, we need Konate wrapped in cotton wool, a proper CB backup, and needless to say, and entire midfield revamp.

But Trent is generational.

so where do we end up? Its a pretty good run in, I could see us winning all our home games but away games against Southampton, Leicester and West Ham fighting for survival will be very difficult. I reckon 5th falling a bit short of 4th

The ideal scenario is to revamp midfield entirely alright - but for the rest of this season i'd quite like to see Trent in that right sided midfield role. We could remove Hendo entirely from last nights game and it would have made little difference to us, so if we swapped him out for Gomez at RB, we'd be a bit more solid in defence while getting the benefit of Trent being able to play more centrally. Thought Trent was quite mobile and strong last night in fairness to him, covered a lot of ground and got stuck in. Him as a double 6 beside Fabinho (or Henderson, if we trade those two broken-looking-men off game by game), with Thiago or one of the kids (Curtis, Elliott, Carvalho) ahead of them could be interesting.

Konate really is immense though, first name on the teamsheet right now.

I don't understand why we don't go a 4-2-3-1 at this stage. With Gomez at right back and Trent in the CM two with Fabinho first choice. Trent will always be a much better player with the game in front of him and allowing him to be proactive in defense. When he's asked to mark space and anticipate runs he is poor, those just aren't his skill set.

Interesting to read that about the Bayer leverkusen squad. Went onto transfermarkt myself for a closer look. Florian Writz is valued there at 85m so that’s really inflating the value of the squad. Interesting that their squad is valued higher than the Brighton squad on that site.

It sounds like FSG want to use data and scout young players early which I agree with.

What I’d be a bit concerned by is the sense that FSG are happy to buy a player who’s price is discounted because of injuries or attitude, as seems to be the case with the Gravenberch, and the Arthur signing