LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB - 2020/21 Defending The Title

[Hamburger]

Jones is indeed exceptionally good for his age. 

But his kopi Thiam antic needs to be addressed. Showboating gets you nowhere. 

[Kopites]

22 hours ago, Raymondism said:

It will be interesting to see what Michael Edwards will pull out from his hat this summer... well he insisted on Salah and he was damn right. 

We need a forward.. why do we need another forward when we have Mane, Firminho, Salah, Jota, Origi, Elliot, Minamino and Shaqiri? On top of that we still have Ox and Harry Wilson. We need to break up the front three soon. Though they managed to score 56 goals among them this season, they have gotten stale. Lets move a couple of them before we have the whole first team becoming free agents in 2023 or 2024. Origi has no future while Shaqiri is waiting for the right offer. Minamino.... Klopp insists that we still need this Samurai but farm him out. Elliot and Jota has bright future and it would be nice if Minamino can link up with these two. If not, we need to start grooming another. 

We might not sign the PSG striker but i would love to see another Jota type - can play in all three forward positions. 

CBs - its a well known fact that we want to sign at least 1 senior CB.

 

As for midfield, we need to replace Gini for sure... and maybe we need more than 1 player to fully replace him. He played 50 games and chip in with some goals from time to time. We also need to replace the goals from midfield. Ox was one of the main contributors and he has been spending time with Origi. It will be tough to sign a guy who can replace Gini to do the dirty work and yet expect him to score goals. Sounds like what Keita should be doing.

Midfield we do need an understudy for Henderson. 

[Vegas]

Jone shld watch Thiago last 6 matches... he may have good skills, but he waste them a lot dribbling to no man land.

 

konate most likely done. Bye Kabak i guess.

gini to Barca... 

[Kopites]

27 minutes ago, Vegas said:

Jone shld watch Thiago last 6 matches... he may have good skills, but he waste them a lot dribbling to no man land.

 

konate most likely done. Bye Kabak i guess.

gini to Barca... 

Give more times. He will come to learn to release the ball earlier.

i remember stevie also like to dribble to take on player before releasing the ball. Only in latest years under rafa that he learnt those cross field passes.

[Xers007]

Here comes Konate... lets welcome him....

13.34 BST: RB Leipzig defender Ibrahima Konate has passed his Liverpool medical and agreed a contract until 2026, says Fabrizio Romano.

source: https://www.espn.com.sg/soccer/blog-transfer-talk/story/4394218/transfer-talk-barcelonabayern-munich-eye-georginio-wijnaldum-amid-liverpool-exit

[Hamburger]

Maybe start a new thread for who is coming on board and leaving? 

[Akula]

“LFC have informed Ozan Kabak that they won't be exercising the £18m permanent option in his loan deal. Player now looking for an alternative route out of Schalke while Liverpool push on with plans to sign Ibrahima Konate.

It seems the performances of Nat Phillips have changed the mind of Klopp as he’s decided against keeping kabak”

[Raymondism]

3 hours ago, Kopites said:

Midfield we do need an understudy for Henderson. 

Ya man... Hendo's has only a few years left... Grujic still a Liverpool player until end June... Klopp can try explaining to him why he was loaned out year after year... or we can try to tempt Sander Berge.. at least Fabinho is still around so still have time... i think Covid really screwed up the great Liverpool sale.. now we are left with 3 years to replace or recontract our first 11

Other than Hendo, Milner wont last another 2 seasons... 

Maybe we try groom another right back and let TAA partner Thiago in midfield

[Raymondism]

3 hours ago, Vegas said:

Jone shld watch Thiago last 6 matches... he may have good skills, but he waste them a lot dribbling to no man land.

 

konate most likely done. Bye Kabak i guess.

gini to Barca... 

Think Jones can be a good ballet dancer..  he can spin around quite well LOL

Maybe Edwards is afraid that Kabak will be like Matip... both from Schalke... or maybe Kabak very unlucky... he moved to Schalke and now they are relegated...

Edited May 25, 2021 by Raymondism

[Raymondism]

2 hours ago, Xers007 said:

Here comes Konate... lets welcome him....

13.34 BST: RB Leipzig defender Ibrahima Konate has passed his Liverpool medical and agreed a contract until 2026, says Fabrizio Romano.

source: https://www.espn.com.sg/soccer/blog-transfer-talk/story/4394218/transfer-talk-barcelonabayern-munich-eye-georginio-wijnaldum-amid-liverpool-exit

Wonder if this guy is a Thiago or a Werner?

[Vegas]

1 minute ago, Raymondism said:

Think Jones can be a good ballet dancer..  he can spin around quite well LOL

close control is good... he's young.. can feel he lack the vision still.

seems that he takes the ball, then headup, then decide what he wanna do.

when he can have the scene in his head what to do, before he receive the ball => we have world class CM

 

reply to another bro: i nvr tot SG was a good dribbler.. he is explosive moving forward, but nvr a dribbler. i tot during the same period when he break into the team, David Thompson was the more skillful one 😜

[Vegas]

4 minutes ago, Raymondism said:

Wonder if this guy is a Thiago or a Werner?

dun be keita and sean dundee can liao

[Raymondism]

4 minutes ago, Vegas said:

dun be keita and sean dundee can liao

Wow you still remember Sean Dundee... 

Thiago... many pple talk about him coming and he did...

Werner... also many pple say he coming but he later join another team and say this other team more suitable for him

SG was a defensive mid with too much energy... it was said that Gerard Houllier did not know SG will become CM and later AM under Rafa... he was meant to be the destroyer 

Edited May 25, 2021 by Raymondism

[Raymondism]

7 minutes ago, Vegas said:

close control is good... he's young.. can feel he lack the vision still.

seems that he takes the ball, then headup, then decide what he wanna do.

when he can have the scene in his head what to do, before he receive the ball => we have world class CM

 

reply to another bro: i nvr tot SG was a good dribbler.. he is explosive moving forward, but nvr a dribbler. i tot during the same period when he break into the team, David Thompson was the more skillful one 😜

Ok la.. Jones is better than Hendo at this age... also looked more like a Liverpool player but bro Kopite ia right.. he will grow his footballing brain and learn when to release the ball...

Edited May 25, 2021 by Raymondism

[Picnic06-Biante15]

14 hours ago, Hamburger said:

Jones is indeed exceptionally good for his age. 

But his kopi Thiam antic needs to be addressed. Showboating gets you nowhere. 

His style of play is more towards holding midfielder role.

We have Thiago and Fabinho as attacking midfielders and so Jones is a covering for Pool captain Henderson as holding midfielder.

This style of play is suitable for those teams who like to park a double decker bus so as to wait for chances to forward a killer pass ...   

[Atrecord]

On 5/24/2021 at 5:26 PM, Vegas said:

after what 20 CB pairings and finishing 3rd, no need sign new CBs

i think they will sell... we are quite loaded with squad and players on loan

the first play klopp signed supposed to come back again... sorry, forget his name liao...

if we signing the CB from redbull, kabak will be joining redbull

more exciting: elliot is coming back, the boy can play a bit!

Must be talking about Grujic. Wonder what did Klopp or his then sidekick see in Grujic initially, but didn't appreciate later...

One thing about him is that he's 1.9 m. Can't remember whether he's fast. What I think our team lacks, is players who are good, fast and tall, in that order. This is especially important for the CBs, which only VVD fits. While it's said that speed is not that important, i beg to differ. While Nat Phillips did great when required, and played a huge part in our ascent to 3rd place eventually, there were also many times he was caught upfield or was just caught out by opposing attackers betw the box and the centre line. In such situations, his chance of turning and catching up with the attackers, was always zero. The attackers will inevitably be pulling further away from him because he's not fast. Same for Rhys Williams. While both of them provided more aerial protection and threats at set pieces both-ends, their lack of pace is a big weakness. If we want to challenge for the top, this is something we need to address. 

Also, somehow Pool is magnet to short players... Apart from CBs, which i think it's imperative to have tall players, if we have another tall midfielder and tall attacker, that will increase our threat significantly. Of course, the player(s) must also be good and fast - and not only tall (and nothing else). Look at the list of short players we had/have:

Apart from goalie, which i think at least were not overly short (although most goalies are significantly taller than outfield players), we could had/have a team (those who ever played in the positions before/currently):

RB: Clyne (1.75 m)
LB: Moreno (1.71 m)
CB: Lucas (1.79 m)
CB: Gini (1.75 m)
LM: Coutinho (1.72 m)
RM: Thiago (1.74 m)
CM: Mescherano (1.74 m)
RW: Salah (1.75 m)
LW: Mane (1.75 m)
CF: Owen (1.73 m)

all of whom are shorter than... me! 

This would be a pretty decent team, by all count, except that when it comes to aerial balls... well... 😂

Oh, i'm impressed with how Elliot has done at Blackburn this season. The only drawback with him in the team, might be his 1.7 m height. Will need these players to do really well on the ground, to make up for the lack of aerial threat...

[Atrecord]

16 hours ago, Vegas said:

Jone shld watch Thiago last 6 matches... he may have good skills, but he waste them a lot dribbling to no man land.

 

konate most likely done. Bye Kabak i guess.

gini to Barca... 

Jones is young, and hopefully can be easily moulded into what is desired.

His good point is that he's comfortable with the ball, and can wriggle and get out of a situation where he is pressured by 1 or 2 players behind him, without any teammates readily available to help relieve him. I think in the whole team, only Thiago and maybe Firmino can do that regularly. Try asking Hendo to do it, and he can't even handle one...

Once he learns to not waste time holding the ball when not under pressure, then he might turn into a Macmanaman of sort. If he can shoot from far accurately too, then that would be fantastic. Oh, if he somehow can get faster, then it would be perfect 😁

[Hubwee]

4 hours ago, Atrecord said:

Jones is young, and hopefully can be easily moulded into what is desired.

His good point is that he's comfortable with the ball, and can wriggle and get out of a situation where he is pressured by 1 or 2 players behind him, without any teammates readily available to help relieve him. I think in the whole team, only Thiago and maybe Firmino can do that regularly. Try asking Hendo to do it, and he can't even handle one...

Once he learns to not waste time holding the ball when not under pressure, then he might turn into a Macmanaman of sort. If he can shoot from far accurately too, then that would be fantastic. Oh, if he somehow can get faster, then it would be perfect 😁

Gini is the real deal in keeping possession when under pressure ... Thiago dun keep possession well but he does know when to release the ball ....