Soccer!!! I won a national championship as a youth player, a national PDL championship in college, an amateur national championship as an adult, the over 30 national championship, and need to add over 40 to the haul. I've got a buddy around here who was a former national team player who is 39 this year and wants to come out of retirement next year - so I'll give it another go with him.
I do lacrosse ball. But the muscle has been torn 3-4x now and it just will never be right. So gotta pick and choose the spots to really open it up.
I'm okay with the changes. I mean at cb we're in real difficulties here. VVD is our best but he's what 34 now and we can't ride him till he drops. Konate's form has dropped off the cliff , he's been erratic in defending and awful passing out from the back . Then there's Joe who was pretty bad too last game he played. After that its take your pick of Grav, Endo or Robbo to fill in at cb and none are ideal. If I'm looking overall since the start of the season Bradley ,Frimpong,Kerkez have been inconsistent and I'd say playing at a lower level than we've been used to even accounting for Trents defending quirks. Combine the bad form of those guys with our issues at cb and Houston we gotta problem! Looking up top Isak and Hugo are good editions but we miss the unpredictability of Diaz and Jotta's work rate. Mo is off . Gakpo works hard but with little return. Macca ls off too and Wirtz looks lost much of the time and right now the game is passing him by. Very talented lad, clearly but he needs to adapt to the pace and physicality of the league. I don't envy Slots predicament right now . too many guys are not operating at a level we need from them .
I think it may be more a matter of how Slot is having them play. For instance how does Kerkez go from being in the team of the year to just playing ok. It's not his age because he's a year older and it's not getting used to a new league because he was in the PL last year. The manager's job is getting the best out of his players and Slot has not been doing a good job this year.
Disappointing end. BUT ...... I thought it was a bit better than our last two games? We certainly had enough chances to grab a point or three. Konate has been discussed a lot, but Salah and MacAllister are also worrying me a bit. Certainly not at the same level as a year ago. On the upside, Marmadashvili did reasonably well and Wirtz looked better. Not a fan of Grav at CB when we have Gomez available.
Marmadashvilli was good it builds confidence as Allison is going to miss 10+ games every season with his injuries
Yep ,I suppose ultimately the buck will stop with Slot since he has to figure out how to make this squad into a slick effective unit. Kerkez may just be struggling to adapt to liverpools high line or simply struggling when facing a low block / quick counters which I'm sure rarely happened at Bournemouth. But I also wonder whats happened to Macca , Bradley and Konate? Has Mo finally hit a wall and declining? I do think the failure at the last seconds of the window to sign Guehi coupled with the season long loss of Leoni has dealt Slot a serious blow at cb. He needs to figure that out and how to cope with 3/4 fb's who are struggling too. Arne Slot has ONE defender he can really trust right now. There's a lot going on with the team this season and the more I watch the more this looks like a transition season for the squad . I expect plenty more changes over the next couple windows.
Last season the #9 and #10 did a ton of work for the team and facilitated Salah not needing to do that work. Salah in turn produced a historic season. This season the #9 and #10 are meant to score and create goals. It means that we have given up a lot of the balance we had for more attacking fluidity. The problem is that the attack has yet to click and we have sacrificed some of the solidity at the back. Meanwhile Salah still doesn’t do the work, nobody is doing his work for him, and now he’s not producing the goals and assists. I think one way we have tried to make up for the loss of balance is by having the left back play more reserved. But we signed a left back whose strength is going forward and making overlapping runs. So now Kerketz positioning just seems weird and he has no connection with Gakpo. Robertson has a better understanding of what the manager wants, but no longer has the legs to do the job. Gakpo, whose form is not good, is now the only option we have at left wing. Neither right back is playing well, and they are both so different to Trent. This has not helped Konate, who without Trent beside him is struggling to progress the ball forward and has turned into a mess. We didn’t sign the centerback we wanted who is very good at progressing the ball forward. So now one of our best midfielders is playing right back while another one of our other best midfielders’ form has fallen off of a cliff. I still back this team to come good, because they are all outstanding players who are just not used to playing together. They are all simultaneously dealing with the tragic loss of a teammate. After 7 games, all in all, it’s still a good start to the season. We are one point off the top. We may not be the best team in the league right now, but when it all clicks I have no doubt that we will be.
The difference out there tonight was not Guehi. In the same way as it wasn’t the difference in S London or Instanbul. It would have helped, no doubt and maybe hauled us over the line in one of those, but not in all 3. And even if he had, it still would have papering over the cracks in the same way that 6 late winners in our first 6 games did. Our biggest problem is that Wirtz and Frimpong came from Leverkusen, Kerkos from Bournemouth, Ekitike E Frankfurt, Isak Newcastle and so on. We are not an amalgamation of the playing styles of 5-6-7 clubs across England and Europe, we are Liverpool, with our style. Which is why there’s much to be said for signing 2-3 1st teamers and few aspirants each season. We’ve signed 6-7 players who are all in the squad. And while Marmalade might take less integration because he’s a keeper, Wirtz needs a damn sight more than a preseason behind closed doors. Here’s the acid test. All the newbies have mourned Jota and very respectfully, but he wasn’t a teammate of any of them.
Cucurella said post game that Chelsea deliberately attacked our right side because Salah doesn't defend as deeply and they knew there would be space there.
Last season Szoboszlai covered that space from the #10 position. That’s not going to be Wirtz’ job, so thats part of the reason why we don’t have the same balance.
I know we're all down about today's result, but for perspective: As poorly as we've played, we're 1 point off first, and we've played the teams currently in 1st (W), 4th(W), 5th (L)and 6th place (L). As well as away at Newcastle (W), and the home leg of the derby (W). Interesting stat: we've all moaned how draws have cost us in past seasons. We're 5-0-2. The only team in the league without a draw.
Slot is making a really big error - he's putting midfielders into the backline while he's leaving experienced and talented defenders on the bench. It's not that long ago when Klopp had a horrendous injury problem and we all know he responded by putting Hendo and Fab in the backline. Those moves killed the team's balance and he soon admitted the error and brought in backup CBs Williams and Phillips who did an above-and-beyond job between them. Slot's making a similar error but not because of injuries - it's (a) desperation or (b) that he doesn't trust the likes of Frim or Joe - which is nuts. he's misbalancing the team at the precise moment when we need to tighten our defence and bed in new lineups and methods of playing. how are they supposed to get into any rhythm with new teammates when they don't play under real conditions? this crazy game of musical chairs has to stop asap.
The cutback for the winner came from salahs side. but to be fair I have no idea what we were doing on that play - looked like a recreational team getting cut open.
a mate of mine said at times we look like two 5-a-side teams that have never met, playing together. and they don't like each other very much. and the manager doesn't know what position they are best at.
I agree with 1. 2 and 3 will be taken up by the media and opposing fans in full force - so I will leave that be.
I agree to a point that Slot doesn't know what his strongest line up is because so far this season ,for instance, other than Virg who has played well on def? Not Frimpong and Bradley has been picking up yellows cards for fun. He's on 5 now I think in all comps . Konate has been unrecognizable from the player we know, Kerkez has been a bit better of late but still isn't there quite yet for me and Robbo has lost a step. So I think Arne has been juggling at the back in an effort to find some stability in his back four. Why he hasn't brought Joe on only he knows but we don't see Joe in training but clearly he either doesnt trust him for some reason. We've looked vulnerable in def all season and I've been willing to give these guys time to gel and develop as a unit but I'm not seeing much signs of that improvement yet. Obviously the coaches need to find solutions but there might be no quick fix here. I don't think Slot has suddenly become a dumb coach but I do think some of our new players have struggled to adapt and that some of our previously reliable guys (Konate , Mo, Macca }have been below their normal standard so this transition in the team continues to be an ongoing process. We need help at cb which cannot be addressed until Jan at the earliest and I think its vitally important to get stability in the centre of def.
I said before the season that the first 10 games are going to be up and down. And in essence they have been. We won a bunch of games late despite having two goal leads. Now we've lost three games giving up an early lead and then not being able to get it back or blowing it. Still up and down… But… Where I worry now is that the results have actually been getting worse and that's my big concern.
I agree about not liking each other - comment based on frustration. but I think there's some validity in "knowing best position" in the sense nobody imo knows what 11 we'd pick for a balls-to-the-wall gotta-win game.
Yep , we can all see that we've not been controlling matches in the way we've done for many past seasons and thats frustrating for me. Last season many of our results were wins by one goal and the last 3 games have seen us on the wrong side of one goal losses two of which could easily have been draws. After 10 games we can begin to see patterns which develop ie strengths and weaknesses . For me we're clearly too open at the back , we don't transition the ball easily forward from def and struggle when pressed. Much of that falls onto our back four who imo have been unable to give us a solid foundation .Hence Arne back filling with mf'ers who are better with the ball. I'm beginning to question things like is Frimpong strong enough to play as a fb in the epl? Why is Bradley constantly picking up yellows? Kerkez still looking a bit raw at 21 and needing more seasoning ? Whats happened to Ibou? I think some things may resolve themselves over time , we'll see , but cb is an area that needs sorting asap.