06 Apr 2026 07:57:23
Have we got a world class player in the squad anymore? Wirtz show glimpses now and then and under a new manager mite unlock that like he does for Germany. Isak again looked no where near when he joined but totally unfit and very unlucky with a bad injury.
Salah is finished as is VVD, Alisson can’t stay fit and his kicking is not there anymore. We have a World Cup winner that is weaker than my Nan. I’d say no we haven’t yet.
{Ed078's Note - I understand your point. Alison's injury record is by no means the worst, but not great. That withstanding, I'm not saying he's the best in the world, but IMO he's in the top one :)
Agree re Salah. VVD is not exactly finished, but the focus on his errors are based upon years of being the best in the world, unfairly putting a spotlight on him that others don't have to bear.
From an LFC perspective, only time will tell with Isak.
Wirtz? Hmm. I wasn't worried about his adaption to the PL at the beginning of the season, I'm still not worried about his apparent lack of "stats". I think there are very few teams that he wouldn't walk in to. I think he is the most gifted and intelligent player we have.
Sboz. His recent scandal aside, he is a top midfielder. Energetic and committed, the sweetest strike around, a workhorse engine.
Grav. Last season, one of the top DM's around. What's changed? Tactics, motivation, who knows.
The phrase "world class" is often so unhelpful. Think about it, of all the thousands of really good pros plying their trade, only a handful could be described as "world class". How many of those can one team claim to have?
06 Apr 2026 08:34:01
Isak is probably the closest we have, but we haven’t seen him in a red shirt. The rest, no, other than Ali when fit.
What we do have added to that is about three or four who are often first choice internationals in their positions in strong international teams, in Wirtz, VVD, Grav, and Macca.
So we have six who should be top drawer, plus Szob and Kerkez.
They’re not necessarily world beaters, but there’s a strong core that shouldn’t be getting beaten by four several times a season.
06 Apr 2026 08:44:38
If you're winning Bundesliga best player twice, you're on the cusp of world class.
06 Apr 2026 08:43:33
Virgil and Ibou need help. If we're going to push all the midfielders so far up the pitch, we need to press from the front aggressively and not retreat into this weird passive mid block that we have, everybody needs to engage the ball instead of hanging around and thinking we can defend purely through zones and numbers. Virgil isn't young anymore and he can't defend an entire half of the field on his own, expecting him to do anything close to that is just asking for trouble. I'm sure, or at least I'm hoping, that he has indicated to the coaching staff that he needs help and that he isn't getting any younger.
I can only assume that Slot thinks that this team can't press high and aggressively on a consistent basis, which is why he doesn't do it. We have shown that we can do it to devastating effect in certain games, but maybe the cost physically is so high that given our lack of rotation options, we immediately look knackered the next game/Slot drops the high press for something more conservative if we have two or three games a week.
The 4-4-2 with players spaced closer together and everybody knowing their jobs when it comes to squeezing the player in possession high up the field and forcing them into traps, with two forwards running the channels in behind and looking to receive balls early over the top or through the lines, the lines much closer together out of possession and the center halves jumping up to make up the numbers in midfield off the ball has given us our best performances this year, but because of injuries or lack of fitness we haven't been able to see it consistently for more than a game at a time.
I don't think it's a matter of whether we have world class players, but of the overall shape that masks each players deficiencies while accentuating their strengths. When the spacing is better Grav doesn't need to play passes that he can't execute, he can either turn and leave a defender in the dust if they are getting too close to him, or do a simple 6 yard pass to somebody else. Macca doesn't need to cover huge amounts of grass that he clearly can't cover. Wirtz has runners in behind, Ibou can play on the front foot engaging players (which is where he is best) and isn't marooned on an island in possession trying to figure out how to pass to, Mo can stay tucked in the half space and doesn't have to start out wide trying to beat two defenders, we can more effectively cluster around players pressing when we lose the ball.
When we've lined up like this, everybody's job is easier and everybody looks good, even Macca has looked back to his best in such situations because he isn't left exposed trying to do things that he can't do.
I personally think that the problems with this team aren't that the players are not as good as we think, I think they are as good or close to as good as they have been, it's that they haven't been playing in a structure that makes up for their deficiencies and puts them consistently in positions where they can make the most impact on or off the ball. A lot of that has to do with Slot, yes, and overall fitness has a lot to do with it as well (not all of that is the coaching team's fault either, Ekitike for example is still acclimating himself to the league physically and playing two games a week is clearly a stretch for him), but the stop start situation with injuries also doesn't help.
06 Apr 2026 08:58:26
At their peak VVD and Mo were undoubtedly world class. Their brilliance week in week out made them icons, and if you were picking a world 11 they'd be in it or around it.
Isak and Wirtz would be in the conversation, but we've not seen Isak, and Wirtz is far too inconsistent at the moment.
He probably needs another two or three years to reach his peak level and he simply needs to do more each week.
If we had a world class coach we'd be doing better.
06 Apr 2026 09:36:27
I think Wirtz, Ekitike, Kerkez, Leoni and Gravenberch all have the potential to be world class. No amount of potential is a guarantee though. They need to keep working at it. I think Szoboszlai already is world class and he's proven it time and time again in big games this season; he reminds me of David Beckham is his prime, as he is capable of winning a game with a moment of sheer magic and also does a deceptive amount of work out of possession. Isak and Alisson are world class when they're fit, which is unfortunately not that often this season. If both of them can get back on the pitch next season, though, that will be a huge boost.
Van Dijk and Salah were definitely world class, but not anymore. The really disappointing thing is Macca and Konate, I think, had the potential to be world class.
There is a reason why a team like Real Madrid was interested in the the both of them. Their drop off this season has been as sharp as the drop from Virgil and Salah, though, and they're still in their mid twenties so it makes absolutely no sense to me. Application in training, maybe?
All these players need is a manager who will get them fit and get them playing at a higher tempo. They've been asked all season to conserve energy and play at half pace for some stupid reason, and now we're reaping the seeds that were sown. We have a team miles off the pace of the football at this stage of the season who've lost all belief in the manager and his tactics.
06 Apr 2026 09:47:56
If we were to name a current world 11 starting line up, only Allison makes it. If we include subs, maybe Isak, Witz or Szoboszlai, at a push.
06 Apr 2026 10:13:46
No.8, that's only your definition of "world class" though. It is a largely subjective term in a football context. World class means something different to every football fan. If you asked every football fan on the planet to name all of the world class players in the world, I reckon you'd get well over 10 million different combinations/lists.
I've always considered it to be the top 10 in the world in your position. That's just my own criteria though based loosely on the Cambridge Dictionary definition of world-class which is "Someone or something world-class is one of the best that there are of that type in the world". According to that definition you do not have to be the best, you simply have to be among the best of that type. You have to break it down by position, because how do you compare a GK to a striker? I also don't think you can limit it to one player per position by saying they have to make a World XI, because doing that would mean that Salah was never world class (as he was behind Messi for virtually his whole career) but someone like Ashley Cole was world class because he was the best LB in an era of quite poor left backs in general.
Was Ashley Cole a better footballer than prime Salah?
I think the criteria for what is world class in football has been warped in recent years anyway. It's been overused at times because the younger generations love hyperbolics (legend, hero etc) but also due the emergence of Messi and Ronaldo who were simply in their own league way above world class, what world class actually is has become even more subjective and muddled. Are Messi and Ronaldo actually the only world class players in the last 30 years? Nobody else even comes close to their sheer levels of output and dominance in the Ballon d'Or conversations.
06 Apr 2026 10:25:55
I'd take a high functioning team over world class players.
06 Apr 2026 10:28:34
I don't agree with it, but I don't think the average football fan would have Ali as No. 1.
I still think he's the best. Dom, Isak and Wirtz are knocking on the door. Vvd and Salah have dropped out of the discussion in the past year or so.
06 Apr 2026 10:33:36
Not having a dig at your opinions, MK, but not a cat in hells chance is Szob world class. Given he has stood out in probably the worst performing Liverpool team in a decade, also some fans calling for him to be captain, not a chance he's a poor man's Gini for me.
06 Apr 2026 10:38:40
This season no one has been world class. Last season, Alisson, Vvd, Grav n esp Salah was playing at world class level. We got a few who potentially could be, Wirtz, Isak, Slob maybe Grav if he played in his natural position, but I think whats more important for the team is work horses like Hendo, Milly, Fab, thats what we really need.
06 Apr 2026 10:41:05
Consistency makes a player world class, and at the moment Szob is the only player who comes into that bracket. At times this season, Wirtz, Ekitike, Isak and Grav have shown their potential world class ability, they have just lacked the consistency and the continuity to keep them all fit together.
If we can add a Diomande to the attack for sheer pace, and shore up the defence with a fit Allison, with at least 4 players who can tackle and stay in a position to defend, we should be okay. Let's hope next season we can move on players and coaches who need moving on.
06 Apr 2026 10:42:33
I would love to see an in-depth investigation on how we have got to where we are in such a short period of time. In all honesty, we are playing like a team fighting relegation, and the players look like they believe we're finished.
There has to be a reason behind this, yes we can blame everyman and his dog, but there has to be something wrong within the football club, and it needs to be given the resources and time to find out what it is. YNWA.
06 Apr 2026 11:33:50
Different spin.
Forget world class players, world class team.
Hendo (ex Sunderland), Robbo (ex Hull), Gini (ex Newcastle), Millie (not wanted by Citeh), Fab (ex Monaco), Mane (ex Southampton), Bobby (ex Hoffenheim).
None classed as Worldies when they joined, but look what they became.
There seemed to be a plan then on how we wanted to play, the role of each position, and we went and got players we needed.
No "kids in the candy shop" approach, but identification of who we needed.