22 Jul 2024 06:44:31
According to. japanese sport news source, Kubo will be joining the reds to (eventually) replace Salah.
22 Jul 2024 08:33:56
Hoping its true! But don't know about their reliability level!
22 Jul 2024 09:05:59
I like this rumour.
If we pick up Kubo and Inacio to eventually replace Salah and VVD and then re-sign TAA that will be a successful window for me.
22 Jul 2024 09:31:24
I've never seen Kubo play? Anybody got any insights how he plays? I'm assuming fast and likes to cut in on his left foot, but would be interested in anybody's thoughts.
22 Jul 2024 09:34:39
He is a superb player with a top attitude, very hungry to be the best, also very well liked in the changing room, he has been through adversity and is now a fan favorite, he does love sociedad and the fans love him though, so I’m taking this rumour with a pinch of salt.
22 Jul 2024 09:40:34
Almost completely agree Ron. The only thing I would add is an extension for both VVD and Mo, even just an extra year in case, gob forbid, Kubo or Inacio end up horridly bad.
22 Jul 2024 09:51:55
Good player MK, similar to mitoma. Seems more of a creator than a goalscorer though so not an out and out salah replacement.
22 Jul 2024 09:59:52
MK same mate, i just had to google him to see who he plays for.
22 Jul 2024 10:48:18
Anybody else just here for Viktors assessment?
{Ed025's Note - yeah me Stuie, he is the all seeing eye..the oracle and assessor to the footballing world....oh and every player is crap...i love him.. :)
22 Jul 2024 11:17:34
MK, he is a super technical player but also very direct, loves picking the ball up deep and driving at the defense or going on a dribble into the box, has an outstanding first touch and great vision picking out runs into the box, good finisher with good first time technique but scoring goals isn’t his forte necessarily, a lot of sociedad’s attacking play goes through him even though he might not get the final assist or goal, he is also very very hard working and presses well (sociedad are the most aggressive pressing team in the whole of la liga and he leads from the front) . Of course he is far from the tallest player but he is extremely hard to get the ball off of and almost
Impossible to press. Magnificent player, hope we get him.
22 Jul 2024 11:45:24
For anyone who doesn’t know who this lad is or has t seen him play before, do yourself a favour and don’t watch his ‘ skills, goals and assists’ clips on YouTube, the creators of the vids either really doesn’t like the player or the video is accurate but should have been titled ‘ Kubo runs around bouncing off other players with a football close by’.
Obviously I exaggerate but is this link legit, €65m?
22 Jul 2024 11:47:06
Happy to take on the Viktor mantle for this one then chaps ;)
I wouldn’t be over the moon with kubo signing, he is a long way off Salah in terms of ability.
Output wise last season he was marginally better than Harvey Elliot for G/ A combined and is 2 years older I think.
He wouldn’t be my pick personally as I would prefer the club to target someone with better numbers. He’s also very small physically which can be a hinderance in the PL due to the physicality of the league I think.
I find it interesting that some posters didn’t think Gordon was good enough but do think Kubo is good enough, despite Gordon scoring almost twice as many goals and assists as Kubo (combined) last season in a harder league.
22 Jul 2024 11:53:45
Cheers Brummy and PB. Sounds a decent player.
JK23, I had heard of him from ED002's comments, but never seen him play. I hate Spanish football and stopped watching it about 5 years ago. Most difficult watch of all of Europe's top 5 leagues in my opinion. La Liga is rife with racism, petulance, diving, play acting, violence etc. And I'm not saying other leagues don't have some of those same issues, by Spain seem to let these kinds of character fester more than the rest. El Classico is an embarrassment to football more often than not. I hate it when we draw a Spanish team in Europe because you just know it will be anti-football. Saw that of the 4 minutes added on in the Euro final, the ball was in play for about 50 seconds. Sums up Spanish football.
22 Jul 2024 11:56:04
Looked on YouTube (I know) . Looks to have a low centre of of gravity and very direct also looks hard to shake off the ball.
22 Jul 2024 12:31:13
people need to stop comparing RW with Salah nobody in footballer from the wing has matched or compared to his output, you'll never get a like for like replacement in that department just impossible.
22 Jul 2024 12:39:54
Considering the other names were linked with, he’d be a better option than any of them because of his age, relative experience in a top class league (La Liga is far tougher than Bundesliga or the Turkish league and he can handle the rough stuff), his end product is ok, and probably would have been higher last season were it not for the Asian Cup, he’s got a decent injury history and seems like he has a ceiling to develop to, since there’s absolutely no chance of the likes of Kvaratskhelia or Williams, then I’d say he’s the best option available to us, I’d far rather we went for Kubo than Neto (sicknote), Olmo (sicknote), Yilmaz (coming from a very weak league), Sane/ Coman (too old and in Coman’s case, old and injury prone) or the others within our range.
22 Jul 2024 12:51:07
that article also rekons he's coming on wages that work out to around 240k/ week lol.
I have no idea who is the right person, but I'm thinking that a big part of what would work best is having a player come in with an attitude prepared to compete for a starting spot knowing that they're likely going to be rotating / backing up an established starter.
22 Jul 2024 13:04:30
Kubo is like if Bobby could finish consistently. He's not particularly quick but he's skillful, has a great eye for a pass, excellent close control. He can also shoot. He would be a very good signing in my opinion. Whoever said he'd be on 200k+ is smoking crack it would be far less.
22 Jul 2024 14:24:12
Looks a good one if we can get him in. Can’t compare him to salah now, there’s 9 years between them but great for him to learn from salah as who better to show him how it’s done. Seems to be liked by some big players xavi and zidane both fans.
22 Jul 2024 14:27:07
Liverpool Fan in Japan has talked about him for a while and does a bit of a breakdown on him. He syas that the Japanese media usually get their info fairly spot on in regards Japanese player movements.
22 Jul 2024 14:45:08
We await the upbeat, joyful synopsis of VVV AKA the footballing Yoda, before we can truly know.
22 Jul 2024 15:15:22
I think he looks like carvalho all over.
22 Jul 2024 15:36:10
Never had a real chance at Madrid but the general consensus is he's good enough to play for an elite club.
22 Jul 2024 17:02:00
Must admit, really disappointed with Victor's response. Wanted a "Ceaser weak, Kuba weaker".
22 Jul 2024 17:48:27
Staff at madrid, including Carlo all rate Kubo very highly. The player doesn't really want to return to Madrid as he doesn't see any opportunities for game time.
22 Jul 2024 18:31:41
Cheers everyone. Watched some clips online after all the high praise earlier. Looks similar to Bernardo Silva how well he shifts the ball to beat a man, turns on a sixpence to beat a press, and protects it with his whole body when under pressure. Scores a few beauties too doesn’t he. At 23 years old, assuming you’re all correct about him, he’s got to be worth a punt if the deal works for us financially.
22 Jul 2024 23:58:09
“Assuming we’re all correct” ???.
23 Jul 2024 09:12:15
You've lost me Ron. For a start that's not even a direct quote, as I said "you're" not "we're". Have I somehow offended you by believing you (and others) that Kubo is a good player?
23 Jul 2024 09:24:00
To the poster asking why would a Liverpool fan want kubo over Gordon despite having supposedly inferior numbers, Gordon thrives on having space ahead of him to attack at pace and is an excellent player in transition, but it still remains to be seen whether he can operate in the half spaces breaking down a low block.
kubo on the other hand can be like a 10 starting out wide, he has exceptional ability manoeuvring through small spaces, playing one twos, threading through balls at the right time, ghosting into the box to get on the end of chances himself. He is very quick but not the sort to play off the shoulder of the last defender like Gordon, rather he provides a spark of genius and vision to play in the final third. Kubo, salah and Darwin would be a fantastic combo imo.
23 Jul 2024 11:44:55
"Gordon thrives on having space ahead of him to attack at pace and is an excellent player in transition, but it still remains to be seen whether he can operate in the half spaces breaking down a low block. ".
And this is one of the reasons I don't want Gordon at LFC. He is more like a Martinelli type player. Give him space to run into and he looks boss. Playing vs a low block with no space to run into and he is neutralised. Sorry, I don't want such players at LFC.
As for Kubo, saw him play a bit a few years ago (with Isak and Januzaj at Sociedad) and looked a tidy player who ran at the fence playing on the right with a good eye for a pass. Not seen him since so I defer to those on here who have done so on a regular basis.
23 Jul 2024 15:16:20
@Patrik Burgher
It was my reply above on the Gordon/ Kubo points.
You raise a good point on Gordon thriving on running into space and using his pace rather than being a tricky player in tight spaces. He’s definitely a different type of player to Kubo. Kubo might be better suited to low block teams.
Equally, Salah and Mane always managed to make good use of their pace in previous seasons and had good success from it, I would prefer if we don’t setup tactically just passing the ball around in front of the opponents defence nullifying these in behind threats. I think that is as bigger problem as any. Haaland runs inn behind for city and seems to get plenty of goals despite low block teams.
I think it’s a leap to say Gordon wouldn’t work out at Liverpool because most teams play low blocks, depending on how Slot sets us up it could suit Gordon to a tee, we don’t know yet.
Anyway, there were posters saying Gordon wasn’t good enough at the time and my reply was more in response to that.
Appreciate the discussion mate??.
23 Jul 2024 17:18:03
Navy, we have Darwin to do that. Kubo, salah and mac allister feeding Darwin, who doesn’t have to be as involved in build up, will work a treat.