07 Sep 2024 15:35:01
This may get a little long, so I won't go into minute detail ?.
Now the dust has settled and the summer window has closed, I thought I would post a few thoughts on how things currently lie.
First of all Slot. The more I listen to him speak, watch training videos and just his general deminour. The more and more he reminds me of the great Mr Paisley (who in my eyes is the greatest Liverpool manager) . He came in seamlessly and took what Shankley did to another level, I know its early days but tactically wise Slot seems to be on the same trajectory. Hopefully he wins as much silverware haha. that's difficult, although I think he will win more than Klopp. Time will tell, if I'm right on this.
Secondly, the 3 Stoogers (Edwards, Ward, Hughes) . Apart from the contract situation, I think they have done an alright job. It was always going to be hard to pick a Klopp replacement but I feel they have nailed that one. Player outs is a big tick also. Player ins, you can't always please the fans. Yes we didn't get the 6 or CB we all craved but we did sign Chiesa who isa an absolute bargain at £10 - 12m. The same could be said for Mamadashvilli.
Thirdly, the squad. This is an odd one tbh. We have not weakened the squad with the players we have sold and we have arguably strengthened the squad with the signing of Chiesa. Yet we seem like a midfielder light, if we would of signed a midfielder. I feel both Endo and Morton would of left, leaving us with 1 player less than the current size of the squad. Leaving us light again. Midfield is integral to what Slot does, if there is couple of key injuries in this area. We could be in trouble, if we have to field a midfield of Endo, Morton and Elliot. I don't have the same worries with defence or attack. Salah and Diaz are playing like they having something prove, Virgil has not even got out of 2nd gear yet, Konate is playing at a level we all know he can so let's hope it continues. What can I say about Gravenberch that hasn't already been said, he seems like a totally different player and has been our best player so far. I like the balance of the squad, that with the tactical tweeks and simpler player instructions. I feel we have a squad capable of challenging on all fronts.
Fourthly, contracts for Virgil, Trent and Mo. All 3 will sign new contracts imo. All seem happy at the club and I wouldn't be surprised if their agents were told negotiations would commence once the window shuts. It should of been sorted sooner, no doubt. The fact Diaz is rumoured to be getting a new contract, it doesn't surprise me that we are now hearing rumours of Mo and Virgil to be offered one. Trent doesn't want anything public, hence why nothing has been rumoured. So I wouldn't be surprised if by the next international break all 4 have signed a new contact.
Lastly, that stupid Balon Dor. How Allison gets overlooked for GK of the year is beyond me. He is far superior to any of the others on the list. We all know it is a fix anyway.
All in all this season excites me, there just seems to be this relaxed feeling around the club. No pressure to succed as it is Slots first year, which plays nicely into our hands. We love to be the underdog ?.
07 Sep 2024 15:51:25
Slot has done well so far. But you’re drinking the happy juice by comparing him to Paisley.
07 Sep 2024 16:23:08
Very good post @Thefields, I think you may be spot on with the contracts though, I feel 1 of the 3 will leave and I think it will be VVD sadly.
@HessleRedTom1980 I don't think the OP is comparing Slot to Paisley, but more comparing the transition which, so far has been pretty smooth. Long way to go though and still a lot to prove but, I am certainly on board with what's happening within the club. I'm not going to raise my expectations for the season right now, I'll still be happy with champions league qualification and a trophy.
07 Sep 2024 16:34:25
What Paisley achived at Anfield will probably not be seen again, that is not the point of the comparison. The type of person he was, his approach on the training pitch are more were the comparison lies. Its all ifs and buts if he is successful, still doesn't mean he doesn't compare in some ways.
07 Sep 2024 16:24:34
Nice write up mate.
No one seems to be able to offer a sensible solution to the CB situation. Like given the context of VVD having not extended, who exactly was going to come in?
07 Sep 2024 19:25:55
If we have to play Endo, Elliot and Morton in midfield that would mean, Grav, Macca, Szob and Jones would all need to be injured at the same time.
It doesn’t matter what team you are if you have 4 first choice midfielders out at the same you will be in trouble.
I think the squad is fine, we have 2 good players in every position but like I said in another thread it just depends who gets injured as to whether injuries will affect us. If we had 4 defenders or 4 attackers all injured at the same time we’d be in trouble too. So would any team.
07 Sep 2024 23:05:47
To add to BP's reply, having Grav, Macca, Szob and Jones all out injured at the same time is very unlikely. And even if that did happen, I suspect we'd see Trent temporarily move into midfield and Bradley come in at RB. While not ideal, most teams in the league would be delighted with a first choice midfield with the quality of Endo, Elliot and Trent, never mind as a 5th choice option!
08 Sep 2024 07:31:54
Just a bit of devils advocacy but Slot has got Klopps team right now. It seems like he's getting a tune out of them but but tougher challenges lay ahead if there are injuries to key players and when the likes of Mo, VVD and others move on. However, Arne cannot be faulted three games in.
The transfer fees of Chiesa and Mamadashvilli might be cause for celebration in the accounting dept but mean very little to the average fan. We are still lacking another high-quality CB and we might regret it this season, the same as we regretted it the year we played Hendo and Fab in defence. Personally, i don't care if were to pay 80m or 10p for someone like Inacio last window, it should have happened.
08 Sep 2024 07:40:14
I may be wrong but I thought the great Joe Fagan along with Ronnie Moran and Roy Evans took training.
The great Bob Paisley could identify an oppositions player who was carrying an injury and take advantage of it.
If A Slot is half the manager of Bob Paisley then the future is bright.
08 Sep 2024 08:40:27
Paisley started out as a physio. It was said that he could predict what injuries a player was likely to pick up just by watching him walk.
08 Sep 2024 08:54:37
For me it’s about trying to manage our best players game time, so when we get to the business end of the season we are relatively fresh. We have a habit of being jaded towards the end. Hopefully we have enough good players in midfield and defence To share the work load.
08 Sep 2024 09:26:49
For me it’s about playing football that is great to watch.
08 Sep 2024 13:20:48
Good post, OP.
Signings and contracts, aside, things have gone well so far. The intensity starts now. This new CL format means more games and less dead rubbers. There are still two more international breaks before Christmas. And we don't have many of last season's kids to use in the cups. the new batch are very young - 16/ 17. It only takes a couple of injuries to increase load on other key players, leading to more injuries or loss of form.
We also have yet to see how Slot and the team recover from setbacks.
Excellent so far. Cautiously optimistic. Big tests to come.
08 Sep 2024 22:31:24
I think we all have a bit of scar tissue from the 20-21 season when we had to play Hendo and Fabinho at CB.
In reality that season we were only really 1 CB short but all 3 of our first choice CBs got season ending injuries. That’s about as unlucky as it gets.
When VVD got injured in October we all thought it’s ok we’ve still got Matip and Gomez and Fabs can slot in if needed. Then Gomez gets injured training with England 2 weeks later so we started with Matip and Fabs at the back.
We were top of the league 2 months later on Christmas Day so even that didn’t derail us.
What derailed us was Matip getting injured in January leaving us with no first choice CBs from January to May.
I can’t think of another time in my lifetime when we’ve literally had no CBs available for half a season and we’ve had many weaker squads than we have now. It’s so unlikely to happen especially now we have 4 first team CBs. We might have periods when Gomez and Quansah have to play but I have confidence in both of those guys to be able to fill in when needed.
20-21 quite literally was a worst case scenario and any team, including City and Arsenal would struggle if their best 3 CBs were out for the season.
09 Sep 2024 13:49:38
BP - the problem was that it was entirely predictable in 20. Matip and Gomez had terrible injury records. Going into the season with 3, two of which had poor injury records was negligence and stupidity.
We then repeated that mistake again in 22 with the midfield who were either shot or injury prone.
Those were not unlucky seasons. They were poorly prepared.
09 Sep 2024 14:07:25
Pelican, I respectfully disagree. We can speculate all you want after the fact but at the time (which is what matters), there was nobody on here (you included) that was sounding the alarm for us to sign in a CB just in case "all 3 of them have season ending injuries". Sorry, that never happened and nobody ever thought that even in the most extreme of scenarios, IMO.
Such an unfortunate and unique scenario is a freak of nature, IMO and nobody could have expected that to happen. Even rival fans couldn't believe it and many of them actually showed sympathy to the club. Oh and even if we signed the one 1 CB (which everyone called for) and the same 3 were still injured for the season, we would still be where we were. Should we have bought 3 CB's instead, in your opinion? That's why I respectfully disagree.
09 Sep 2024 15:10:54
OliRed, while nobody predicts season ending injuries, you can search my historic posts regarding that summer about the sheer stupidity of defending our first title in 30 years with 3 CBs, 2 of which were known to injury prone. Not sure what you are respectfully disagreeing on.
09 Sep 2024 17:59:56
Fly, there’s injury prone and there’s being out for the whole season.
You’ll always get injuries it’s part of the game but 3 season ending injuries in the same position is virtually unheard of.
I agree we should’ve signed another CB that summer but we also have to remember it was Covid at that time and signing players was difficult.
That also probably contributed to more injuries that season as players had a longer break and a condensed season with virtually no preseason.
It was a freak occurrence that you’d have to be extremely unlucky to ever see happen again.
09 Sep 2024 20:29:25
Pelican, then you need to read my post again. For ex., the knee injury Gomez had (Torn patela tendon) is the same I had over a decade ago playing NFL-like football with my mates and I am yet to fully recover. Never had a knee injury ever in my sports life before then. That's why such occurrences are called freaks of nature.
You can chat all you want about this or that stupidity (whatever that means) BUT the fact remains that if you were not saying at the time that we needed to buy 3 CB's to compensate for a freak of nature situation where we lose all 3 CB's getting season ending injuries then, none of the stuff you are arguing here matters right now. I repeat again, had we signed the one CB we were all calling for and lost all 3 CB's in the same way, absolutely nothing would have changed. That is my point, at the end of the day.