Obviously losing dembele is not ideal, but I think we have enough depth on the wings that we may be fine. Nobody that offers the pure threat of dembele, but I think it's possible that a Gotze like we saw today plus Pulisic/Phillip stepping up may be plenty to offset his goal contributions. Maybe we won't ever replicate his unique abilities but we can strengthen in other areas to make it far less detrimental to us
After the match Zorc confirmed that there's been no contact with Barcelona. Either they pony up the demand of 150M or there's no deal. Watzke confirmed that when he went on a sports show. They have no problem keeping him and while I can't read between the lines in German, I get the sense that they've already got a plan to reintegrate him into the squad. Also Rennes sell on cause has a limit of 20M. So if we sell him for more than 80M, they still only get 20M. I'm sure Dembele would develop his skills and brains over time. He's just a kid with greedy agents and a desperate Barcelona whispering in his ears. My hope is that we keep him for a year and see if he has a mental reset. We have a stacked squad this year so we want to win trophies, not just a domestic cup. No matter how much Mor matures or Gotze returns to his old self (mind you he's still on meds which is why his face appears so puffy), we are talking about ifs. He's got his stamina back but his acceleration is still not there and without it he's not going to have take one like Dembélé. Dembélé is the present. We need him if we want to win trophies.
Those special plays are little tricks half of all kids learn who play football every day. He has zero vision. If you watch guys like Kagawa, Gotze, Dahoud, Gundogan, Reus, Weigl, Raphael ie the more intelligent players and what they do with the balls without it and immediately after passing it there's almost always a reason ie open up space or become an option. You can tell that they think it through. Castro just keeps running. He's not inconsistent. He'd have to alternatively be good and bad to be that. He's never good. Kagawa is inconsistent. Milos Joijic has better vision than Castro.
What I noticed yesterday was that Zagadou (who was quite hopeless before) and LP have improved significantly, and I have the feeling that PB have the ability to get the best potential out of players. Also Auba, with his new role, contributed in build up play, not only waited to get the ball or run between defenders. So let's wait and see what PB makes out of this team, with or without Castro or Dembele
Because Klopp used him on the wing where he was a failure and for some reason failed to see his value as a CM.
Love Klopp but he messed up with both Kampl & Perisic. Of course, he's done the same with Sakho at Liverpool.
Late to the party on this one, but there were a few things that stuck out to me during this match. 1. Wolfsburg was absolutely terrible, so anything we saw should be taken with a grain of salt. 2. Gotze definitely looks to have some of his old groove back. His touche is sublime, and even his acceleration and speed look to have improved a lot since last season. He's not the Gotze of 2012/13 right now, but he's moving in the right direction. 3. Once we have Weigl back, I think you will see Dahoud replace Castro in that starting position in the midfield. 4. Pulisic...... wow!