Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

I agree, I'm definitely not on a downer on our season so far, very happy with the way things are going. But some teams have been comically bad against us too, UTD, Milan and Wolves spring to mind. So I'm cautious optimistic.

I still don't think Slot can be truly judged until he's given a few transfer windows. I still feel we are caught in a mix of systems, some of the way Slot likes us to play, mixed with some of the old Klopp ways. But I think that's purely down to the players he has at his disposal. So I'm curious to see how he wants to progress the squad to his liking.

It is interesting, so far someone like Mainoo has gotten very little negative feedback so far even if he was part of the midfield of a team that gave away the most shots in the league and allowed all teams to just walk through the midfield last season. I guess people are happy to see that it is not always the player but the position he is put in….until it comes to Trent and where he found himself with Klopp's teams, out of position and high up the field. Expecting him to defend from that position is unrealistic.

Both things could be true at the same time, terrible defender and out of position, but I am not sure pundits or posters gave enough credence to where Trent was expected to play under Klopp. His frailties on defense was not always because he was bad, it was by design and the way we played.

TAA has had more than a few shocking defensive moments over the years. I'm not referring to being caught up the pitch and being done by a counter attack, simple lack of awareness in defensive situations such as there is a player looking to attack a cross behind him, letting an attacker turn inside instead of showing them down the line. At times Konate has done the work of two defenders covering for TAA.

He doesn't have the mindset of a defender and has spoken about that himself this season. Klopp played the percentages and focused on getting TAA into a position that could hurt the opposition. Improving the player as a defender did not serve his team best. In an interview a few weeks ago, TAA said that Arne Slot does a 20-30 minute review of his game with him with a focus on things like his positioning and making better defensive decisions. He wants to improve the defensive side of his game and is delighted to be able to work on it with the new manager.

If the defenders can defend and the rest of the team are organised and disciplined to keep their shape we can weather a storm in the new system, there were signs of that in pre-season. However I think the left back position is our major weakness, Robertson is fading and Tsimikas is mental. The goals conceded against Forest, Milan and Wolves were all made possible by the decision making/lack of reaction by the players on the left. A year ago Elanga would not have got the chance to look up and play the crossfield pass to Hudson Odoi because Robertson would have been on top of him. Pulisic got a free run for his goal. The Konate vs Alisson situation occurred in the Wolves game following Robertson being found flat footed and unable to react.

The media are focused on the three contracts and the lack of a proper #6 but on the evidence of the first 8 games, I think that it is the Robertson/Tsimikas situation that will decide how our season goes.

I see another person in England has lost their job after a tweet about Hillsborough and the WBA fan who died at Hillsborough over the weekend

Sadly I find that a lot of stupid people only get stupider with age. Or they get worse at hiding it.

No, they just care less. They were always that stupid.

I think the classic example of not being aware of the attacker coming in behind him is the 2022 CL Final with Vinicus Jr.

He wasn't out of position but just not switched on.

Rodri is a massive loss to City but they have the replacements to bring in who maybe are not as good as Rodri but capable of doing a job. If Liverpool lose VVD or Salah they are in bigger trouble because the quality they have to replace them are not as good. Would you trust Gomez or Nunez to help you win a league title if the other 2 are injured. I wouldn't trust them. Anyway I still think Liverpool are still behind Arsenal and City in terms of who is going to win the title

"Would you trust Gomez or Nunez to help you win a league title"

Joe Gomez played 28 league games at CB the season we won the title and was our best defender.

So….yes

The Gomez Van Dijk partnership then was something special

"Maybe that's a testament to the younger players they bring through via the academy to supplement the first team."

This is the only point I'd disagree on - everything else 100%

I think if you'd look at it, all of those teams match us or beat us when it comes to academy player minutes in last 6 seasons (completely pulling that out of nowhere but I can rattle off prominent youngsters from all those teams)

Instead with us, I think it's more a testament to how seldom we make huge miscalculations in the players we bring in. In the past 6 seasons Chelsea and City have had the financial clout to spent a lot on players who don't work out and then just replace by spending again. Arsenal spent £72m on Pepe. United with Antony, Sancho, Casemiro, Mount. Spurs didn't get much return on Ndombele or Richarlison. Newcastle did ok. Wood, Willock, Tonali all had their issues but they're not in the same group as the others for sure.

For us the only 2 proper signings we've made (meaning intended to be first team regulars like above) that didn't work out in that time were Thiago and Nunez.

Other than that, we've done incredibly well on signings for the first team and that means you don't need to sign as many new players, and when you do, they're much lower cost as they're signed as backups. We've had Tsimikas for years as understudy. Not great, but we haven't needed to replace him. Same with Gomez, £3.5m signing under Rodgers and still around.

There's been plenty of times we've missed on transfers - but it ends up being backups or loans that don't work out and we normally make the money back. Minamino, Shaqiri, Arthur, Kabak. The likes of City, United and Chelsea will bring in players who end up being similarly ineffective but cost a lot more in fee and wages

I don't disagree but that's a completely different point

I'm just surprised you've forgotten how good Gomez was in the title winning season - of all the players to give as an example of the point you were trying to make he'd surely be way down the list

He isn't wrong though is he. Liverpool have spent big as you can see from the example below so I don't know how you can say they haven't spend big money.

er	Age	Nat.	Season	Left	Fee
1	Darwin Núñez Centre-Forward	23		22/23	Benfica  Liga Portugal	€85.00m
2	Virgil van Dijk Centre-Back	26		17/18	Southampton  Premier League	€84.65m
3	Dominik Szoboszlai Central Midfield	22		23/24	RB Leipzig  Bundesliga	€70.00m
4	Alisson Goalkeeper	25		18/19	AS Roma  Serie A	€62.50m
5	Naby Keïta Central Midfield	23		18/19	RB Leipzig  Bundesliga	€60.00m
6	Luis Díaz Left Winger	25		21/22	FC Porto  Liga Portugal	€51.00m

Still spent big money though and at the time broke transfer records for a keeper and defender

Spending the record amount for a goalkeeper and defender is ok if they end up being the best in their position in the world - this is how the market should work. We don't win the Champions League or Premier League without them.

The point is look at the top 6 clubs who broke those above records - Kepa at Chelsea (which I think was only a week later) and Maguire at United

Nobody can claim that either of those players have been the best in the world in their position at any point since those record signings. Maybe not even close.

….

I'd ignore the visitor ^ He wasn't getting enough bites in the General Prem Thread so he's come to the source.

Jota injury was about due, after all he has played 5 games of football.

Mod Edit

Warning issued.

Soon realised after!

Too gung ho, takes his man on most of the time, and you can't do that in a quality league like PL and lose it 80% of the time. Needs guidance, pass, link, switch, make runs behind, Slot would work wonders on him.

RB Salzburg is essentially an U21s team, the average of the startng line-up is 22 and it drops to 20 if the goalkeeper is omitted. The Champions League is well above their level and it's a very steep learning curve for such young players.

Doing well in the league anyway, which is the main thing for them - 3 points off top, with 2 games in hand.

I'd say that Sahin was trying to create a story line and control the news cycle instead of facing the prospect of a journalist that was armed with quotes from him as a player with a very different opinion of Brendan Rodgers as a coach and manager.

He had turned down the chance to sign for Liverpool when he instead moved to Real Madrid in 2011. He joined Liverpool on loan the following season because Jose Mourinho had made it clear to him that he was not going to displace Alonso, Khedira or Ozil in the Madrid starting line-up and he would have to find a club to go on loan. Dortmund were interested but weren't willing to pay Madrid a loan fee that was 50% of the transfer fee they had received, Mourinho contacted Rodgers to see if Liverpool were still interested in the player.

At Liverpool, Sahin was a shadow of the player that he had been at Dortmund. Even when he returned to Dortmund he was never the same player, the move to Madrid broke something in him. Similar to the way Coutinho was never the same player after moving to Barcelona, Sahin was still capable of moments of magic but couldn't find it consistently.

Following the failed loan move at Liverpool he wasn't shy about making deriding comments about Rodgers.

It's a shame Harvey Elliott is injured and missing tonight. Tonight was a real chance to use him midweek and get 90 minutes for himself but also some rest into a couple other players in midfield and attack.

A midfield of Gravenberch MacAllister Elliott would have been sound. Gravenberch looks really strong physically now and looks like he can glide across the pitch without much fatigue. I'd have no problem with him starting again and then later in the game you can introduce Jones Szobozlai etc to freshen things up/rest. Maybe even move Elliott to RW to give Salah a breather, if Chiesa is out.