24/25 Pre Season

[jozza800]

You're always on about the squad depth and X Y Z can play there..... etc

but that isn't good enough and will not get us anywhere if we have to have players fill in for most of the season.

If anything it'll get us the europa league

We have two players for every position other than cover for Mo. Players have to fill in when you lose two from any one position. Like last season, Gomez having to play LB when Robbo and Tsimi are both injured.

[miller0863]

Do we have two 6’s?

And I don’t mean someone who can “do a job” there, the “do a job there” person should be third choice.

[jr81]

Do we have two 6’s?

And I don’t mean someone who can “do a job” there, the “do a job there” person should be third choice.

Is Bajcetic one? Rumoured that Slot was happy for him to go on loan, maybe not after this.

I'm gonna throw it out there, could trent end up as the ball playing 6 people say Slot likes to use?

[jozza800]

Do we have two 6’s?

And I don’t mean someone who can “do a job” there, the “do a job there” person should be third choice.

We're unlikely to play with a holding '6' as we would in a 433. We have 5 very good midfielders and 1 excellent one and this isn't including Bajcetic.

Mac - Jones
Elliot

Grav - Endo
Szobo

It would be more of a concern if Klopp was still here playing 4-3-3.

Grav and Szobo need to show more than they did last season.

Elliot has been excellent pre-seaon, and I think he'll be well suited to the 10 role.


I'm far more concerned with our forward line tbh.

Nunez is drinking in the last chance saloon, Gakpo and Diaz both need to improve from last season. Mo and Jota will have to stay fit and healthy for most of the season if the other 3 dont improve.

[faridtoxteth]

Gravenbirch has played well the last two friendlies. Much as we love Jurgen, maybe to suit his desired style of playing he played players in positions maybe not suited to them. Gravenbirch and Soboslai. Under Klopp I have no idea where Curtis Jones is best suited to play for example, and I think Slot doesn't know yet either.

[jozza800]

Gravenbirch has played well the last two friendlies. Much as we love Jurgen, maybe to suit his desired style of playing he played players in positions maybe not suited to them. Gravenbirch and Soboslai. Under Klopp I have no idea where Curtis Jones is best suited to play for example, and I think Slot doesn't know yet either.

I think once we get up and running Jones will be one of the 'two' alongside Mac.

[Insidious]

You're always on about the squad depth and X Y Z can play there..... etc

but that isn't good enough and will not get us anywhere if we have to have players fill in for most of the season.

If anything it'll get us the europa league

I am indeed, yes.

I also regularly say things "in an emergency" or "as an emergency option" - this caveat is unfortunately ignored more often than not. I am absolutely fine for example with Gomez playing as part of a double-pivot for 2-3 games in a nearly 60-game season (all going well) if we are unfortunate enough to be struck with an injury crisis, but would absolutely hate to see him there for any length of time.

Nobody is suggesting that we

have to have players fill in for most of the season

as it would be wholly undesirable. But the odd game here and there really shouldn't be a problem in an emergency.

The goal is to have two players of a good level for every position as much as possible. We should also always be seeking to improve it via three routes -

- Improving existing players through coaching or finding better working relationships on the pitch
- Transfers
- Youth coming through from within

I would argue that our weakest area (in terms of proofing against injury) is back-up/depth for Salah, but we are reasonably good in other departments. We should of course aspire to better, including via the market and the sooner Hughes gets over the Zubimendi debacle and gets to work, the better.

One of those areas is at the 6 and miller is right to wonder -

Do we have two 6’s?

And I don’t mean someone who can “do a job” there, the “do a job there” person should be third choice.

My reply to that would be that it'll be a double-pivot, with Mac/Grav/Jones/Endo playing deeper than Szoboszlai/Elliott - someone will be the "third choice" as miller puts it and my suspicion is that it'll be Morton. Now, personally I think Morton is a "decent" player, but have not seen enough to convince me that his level is higher than the upper reaches of the Championship or the lower end of the Premier League. With that in mind, I would be hoping to "raise the ceiling" (improve the first-XI) via a transfer - in my case I wanted Zubimendi - with a view to "raising the floor" - so Endo would have been our "worst" player as the double-pivot option, rather than Morton - a continual improvement of the squad.

I always want us to improve - always - where possible, the selling of players who are past their best with us to supplement incoming players with their best ahead of them (Henderson+Fabinho out, Mac Allister+Szoboszlai+Gravenberch+Endo in) is the ideal - except we'd have ideally gotten better than Endo.

You get the idea, I should think. Reducing costs, where possible, is eminently desireable - but never my main goal at the expense of quality and would be based on a risk vs reward X data analytics basis in the hope of always making improvements, including the incremental and future-proofing ones to supplement the big.

[CCTV]

There is some very good ‘next level’ football developing under Slot. Yes I know it’s only Pre season friendly etc… but still.

It is a different approach to Klopp’s. Not massively but it is different - dare I say it, a more compete form of the game. It would be magic if we could become adept enough at it to mount a title challenge with this style. Not expecting that at all this season.

But the early signs are very encouraging.

Bump

[Steveo]

Brilliant quote and thanks for your continued support and trawling. Flattered tbh.

This is precisely what we all saw… A calmer more measured approach - perhaps not as exciting but which ultimately preserved the players for long enough to get the points required last season.

And then - what were initial tweaks to the style - with the same group of players imbued with monster mentality and already trained to Klopp’s heavy metal intensity - would seem to have become a more pronounced change to the game. And this is what we - all - also witnessed. That…and the inevitable energy wane through relentless use of Klopp’s strongest 11

And here we are with about to look at a calendar year with a loss rate that is frankly scary.

[Red October]

I am indeed, yes.

I also regularly say things "in an emergency" or "as an emergency option" - this caveat is unfortunately ignored more often than not. I am absolutely fine for example with Gomez playing as part of a double-pivot for 2-3 games in a nearly 60-game season (all going well) if we are unfortunate enough to be struck with an injury crisis, but would absolutely hate to see him there for any length of time.

Nobody is suggesting that we as it would be wholly undesirable. But the odd game here and there really shouldn't be a problem in an emergency.

The goal is to have two players of a good level for every position as much as possible. We should also always be seeking to improve it via three routes -

- Improving existing players through coaching or finding better working relationships on the pitch
- Transfers
- Youth coming through from within

I would argue that our weakest area (in terms of proofing against injury) is back-up/depth for Salah, but we are reasonably good in other departments. We should of course aspire to better, including via the market and the sooner Hughes gets over the Zubimendi debacle and gets to work, the better.

One of those areas is at the 6 and miller is right to wonder -



My reply to that would be that it'll be a double-pivot, with Mac/Grav/Jones/Endo playing deeper than Szoboszlai/Elliott - someone will be the "third choice" as miller puts it and my suspicion is that it'll be Morton. Now, personally I think Morton is a "decent" player, but have not seen enough to convince me that his level is higher than the upper reaches of the Championship or the lower end of the Premier League. With that in mind, I would be hoping to "raise the ceiling" (improve the first-XI) via a transfer - in my case I wanted Zubimendi - with a view to "raising the floor" - so Endo would have been our "worst" player as the double-pivot option, rather than Morton - a continual improvement of the squad.

I always want us to improve - always - where possible, the selling of players who are past their best with us to supplement incoming players with their best ahead of them (Henderson+Fabinho out, Mac Allister+Szoboszlai+Gravenberch+Endo in) is the ideal - except we'd have ideally gotten better than Endo.

You get the idea, I should think. Reducing costs, where possible, is eminently desireable - but never my main goal at the expense of quality and would be based on a risk vs reward X data analytics basis in the hope of always making improvements, including the incremental and future-proofing ones to supplement the big.

Yes. One of the problems this season is that the first choices have been so off and we don't have the depth on the bench then to change it. Sadly we lost some depth by selling Nunez, Elliott, Quansah etc. even though they weren't top-drawer. We're in a chicken and egg right now. Who can we bring in for Macca? Who can we bring in for Konate? We're very limited.