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Well once again, true to form this season we gave ourselves a mountain to climb by conceding a very early goal right at the off, and it has to be said it was as a result of some very poor initial control by Tsimikas, who then fell to the ground after he lost the ball to try and win a free kick, tbf he behaved like he had been shot…very embarrasing tbh.
Leicester however took advantage of this mistake and very quickly transitioned into attack and scored a goal that Liverpool themselves would have been immensely proud of….tbf it was a very well executed goal.
Despite this we have managed to recover our composure in the game and in the end win this tricky tie very comfortably, tbf if we had been a little bit more clinical and composed in front of goal, Harvey Elliott 😵*💫😳🤣, a scoreline of 5 or even 6-1 would not have flattered our performance…
However, the question I would like to ask everybody is this….
Given we have had such a great start to the season with what is a completely rebuilt midfield, a relatively new forward line and at times have achieved these performances without Virgil, Konate, Trent for 30% of our fixtures and played two of these games with only ten men for over 90 mins…
How much more room for improvement / growth does this team possess ?
IMHO If you analyse every member of our squad, although every player has performed well and some have exceeded expectation, with special mention to DS who has been off the scale stupid good… I think with every player so far we have only just scratched the surface of their undoubted potential… which is very exciting.
So with that in mind and after watching our performances to date, I am starting to become very excited and I would in fact go as far to say, that this could probably be the best squad, not team but squad, that JK has ever had at his disposal @ LFC…and I think you could see the tangible excitement within Klopp when on Saturday after the result and performance against West Ham, Jurgen was literally skipping down the pitch like an excited schoolboy just before he delivered his customary fist bumps to the crowd….
I am really interested to hear everyone else’s thoughts on our progress so far..
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It's definitely looking much brighter than a year ago. That ageing element we saw looks to have gone especially in midfield, the defence shows it a little bit that will surely be the next part of the build.
I'm just wary of a false dawn or jumping the gun. We've had a good start but we also can't deny we've rode our luck at times and got away with it a bit. We can't continuously give 1 goal leads away but hopefully we can sort that out.
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Whilst I would be hesitant to get caught up in the thirst trap of a premature squadjaculation, I am definitely excited about the potential within the squad and have been fairly open/optimistic about it from both the Klopp 2.0 and "future-proofing" perspectives.
- We have depth in a lot of positions. Better depth would be ideal in a couple of spots, granted, but overall quite strong.
- A number of the most injury-prone lads have departed.
- Four of our FIVE high-quality attacking options are well under 30 and there's potentially a quality youth option breaking through to compliment this group of players.
- Most of our midfield options are under 30, with the oldest and most injury-prone reasonably likely to move on and there being every chance he's replaced by a younger player of quality.
- Most of our full-back options are under 30, whilst Robertson (29, right?) still has a few years left. An area we need to keep an eye on as Robertson's level will drop further in time while Trent could have proper cover, but we have some time on our side to address it.
- With centre-back we have Gomez, Konate and the emerging Quansah all under the age of 27, with the option/possiblity of us replacing Matip to give us 4-of-5 centre-back options under 30.
- Alisson remains the World's best keeper for me and has some top years left in the tank, with Kelleher a good option for depth and resale value to reinvest should he want to pursue first-team football.
The injection in recent times of Diaz, Gakpo and Núñez in attack has reinvigorated the front end of the team whilst the additions of Szoboszlai, Endo, Mac Allister and Gravenberch compliment the continued development of Elliott and Jones to breathe a new lease of life into the middle of the pitch.
It all looks really good. For balance then, where can we be better?
I hear cries of "you can't replace Salah" and I think that whilst that is true, people can be a little too literal in terms of what that means. I don't think (when the time comes) that you have to go out and hunt specifically for a right-sided forward who drifts in on the left foot. I think the task should be "we need a forward who gets a lot of goals" and I think we'll work towards Núñez becoming the main goalscorer (central) and then look for a forward who can play on the right to compliment Darwin's skill-set. Could be wrong.
I hear cries of "depth at right-back" and whilst Gomez can do a job there, I'd rather have someone do a dedicated job at full-back so we don't leave ourselves too thin for cover at centre-back.
I think our midfield is a little "top-heavy" in the sense that we have plenty of options who can do a good job in one of the 8 roles but not quite the same degree of trust in the quality of our depth for the 6 just yet. Perhaps the departing Thiago will be replaced by someone who covers the back four, or perhaps Klopp doesn't want a destroyer - we'll see.
Konate's capacity for injury combined with Van Dijk getting older is a cause for (mild, proportionate) concern when it comes to the quality of depth at centre-back for a side that wants to win the Champion's League again or challenge for the League. I think this makes centre-back the most important area we could possibly seek to strengthen at the moment. Someone quality in the 22-26 age range and a good injury record to replace a departing Matip feels like the right course of action.
Overall, I must say, feeling very, very positive.
Public Enemy #666
The Klopp 2.0 way.....
https://x.com/ProjectFootball/status/1707317336120721492?s=20
First Team
Jones also like properly back on track to fulifling his potential. New man since the run at back end of last season. Confidence back in abundance. Looks huge too build wise towards before.
Master Tactician
Genius!Originally Posted by justincredible
First Team
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn-9eMQBZMI
Great camaraderie between the lads. great to see
Cleaning up the Scots since the 13th century
First Team
I'll want to double-check this, but apparently the combo of Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Gravenberch and Wataru Endō have 6 goal contributions in September.
Which would ALREADY be as many as Henderson, Milner, Fabinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Keita achieved for the whole of last season.
Doesn't "feel right" so it merits research, but absolutely bonkers if true.
First Team
I saw Facebook post saying that too. A real indictment of how our midfield was the Achilles heel last season if it's true.
Koala tea
It's not true, though there's not much between the 2 groups all comps.
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