Our summer business (or lack of it) so far - what are your thoughts overall?
Could have been much better for sure but don´t think we are done. If you had told me in May we would start the season with the squad we have today I would have been satisfied. It means we kept
Coutinho (most important thing this window) and added
Salah who I think is seriously underrated. If you look at his expected goals and assists numbers over the last 2-3 years you are looking at someone you can expect Alexis Sanchez levels of output per 90. I think a combination of Chelsea & fee have people not thinking of Salah as signing a world class player. Yet his numbers stack up well against pretty much anybody in europe. If we had signed Salah for £90m, that would probably be far more in line with how you would value a 25 year old with his output and imagine people would feel much happier going into the season. That´s strange for me as it seems we have saved money on a top player and that is what to be happy about. I guess the amount you spend is more important than what you actually get for some (see Everton and the hype over them for example).
Solanke looks a real player. He´s considered a youth/prospect but Chelsea were happy to go into the season with him as 3rd choice last year for striker. He never played due to the fitness and form of the other two though. There are so many things to like about him but, the main thing for me, is that he offers that threat from crosses without taking anything from our plan A the way a target man like Benteke, Lukaku or Carroll would who don´t really offer intelligent movement. That´s not to say he is a better player than them, just that he suits our system much better.
Robertson - Always liked the look of him. Think he will become a left footed Finnan for us. A solid player for 8m.
Kent - Okay not a new signing but new to the first team squad. Think he will offer good depth for the flanks and bringing him on in games when we are a couple ahead to give him minutes and rest Salah/Mane would be a smart approach this season. I saw him for Barnsley and he tended to play deeper than our forwards and drove at teams with the ball to offer penetration rather than act as more a scorer or creator the way our 3 forwards do in our system. So he may need some adjustment to our system, but he already looks like someone who wouldn´t let you down if we needed a run of games from him which is quite good at 20.
EDIT:- With the news Lallana may be out until the new year, we almost certainly need another player for that role now. I suspect Coutinho will make the permanent move to midfield now with a versatile attacking player coming in who can cover all our forward positions and maybe even drop into midfield himself like Luan/Correa.
Do you think we will see much more transfer activity either way, before the window closes?
Hopefully. Still think we will get VVD. I don´t really like outcome based judgement though because so many factors feed that which are out of our control. I am critical of decisions rather than outcomes. The decision to target players like Downing, Carroll, Benteke, Balotelli... while also targeting players like Lallana, Firmino, Markovic. There is a clear disconnect there in terms of what you actually want or even what system or style of football you want to implement. It almost felt like someone was sorting players by some arbitrary number (e.g. Fifa overall rating) and targeting players on that basis.
Now I think we are targeting the right players since Klopp came in. We haven´t signed anybody that would leave me scratching my head. For example - and I will touch on this more in the later question - Mignolet has a problem with shot stopping. You can isolate his weaknesses to being shots from distance and angles. It´s quite a weird problem for a keeper to have. He´s great at close range with reaction saves, but when you compare him to everyone else for shots from 15 yards+ and especially from wide areas, he is WAY below the average, year on year. Karius, on the other hand, out performs averages by 44% for shots from wide areas. He also made the most saves in the Bundesliga of shots from long range and massively outperforms averages there too. So I can see very clearly a connection between problem identification for existing players and then scouts identifying top young targets to solve them. Then the fee we actually got him for is effectively nothing at all. We are talking someone who was in the top 3 young goalkeepers in Europe in terms of goalkeeping metrics being signed for 1/6th of what Everton paid for Pickford - a high volume, low quality shot stopper. Pickford scouts as Mignolet pre-Liverpool. Very hard to know what you will get from him unless you are buying for a relegation battle and have a porous defence.
I also like the decision to go all in for players who will take the team up a level or two. If you buy slight improvements and the player doesn´t settle immediately, or an apparent strength doesn´t show through as much in this league compared to where we signed them from, that slight improvement could turn into a slight downgrading or worse. The problem is those types of players are rarely available because they will be excelling at their clubs who won´t want them to leave, are likely captain or their star player, will have a long list of richer suitors with more recent success to entice them. We have seen with the likes of Barca and Real Madrid, sometimes they are targeting these players 1 or 2 years before they get them. Coutinho has been tapped up since 2013/14 for example. Almost 4 years on and they start the actual negotiations for him with us. How many years was Ronaldo being targetted by Madrid? I remember him being mentioned by Real Madrid presidential candidates a few years before Fergie's virus quote. Another 12 months still and then he signed. So players who are world class or verging on world class are never easy to sign for anybody, regardless of what people would have you believe (unless their agent is in charge of recruitment for a club and gets almost £50m for the deal!).
So I am all for us hanging in there and fighting for our top targets. We won´t always get them but for me it´s a sign we are in a good place and no longer need 5+ signings every year, staying in a permanent state of transition, because the squad has so many holes to fill and our kids look unreliable for even a few games. Trent, Woodburn, Grujic, Ejaria, Kent, Solanke, Gomez - I wouldn´t lose any sleep if any of them had to start an important game for us. No, not an ideal scenario, but I am sure they would be fine.
The alternative is we keep looking at fall back targets until you are so far away from what you needed and wanted in the first place that you barely see the improvement in the end. Who could we sign that would be a clear improvement on Lovren/Matip without either negating a strength or adding a weakness to our system. Lovren, for example, is out best player attacking balls in the air. If we replace Lovren with someone inferior in the air, we are taking our biggest weakness defensively and compounding it. So whoever we replace Lovren with has to be at as good at competing in the air as Lovren and that one requirement almost immediately eliminates most of the potential targets. When you then factor out all the giants who have the turning circle of the Titanic and who couldn´t play a high line and an expansive passing game, you have a very very short list. Top of that list is VVD. Then you have the likes of Orban (Leipzig!) and Jullien (Toulouse) and a few other names who have other concerns like the very high amount of fouls they make in slower leagues, etc. Then the question is - how is Jullien any better than Gomez. He has more top flight experience but does he look a better player? No idea, you would need some more scouting to answer that. Seems decent but raw though.
We could then try to replace the weakest links in the squad (e.g. Klavan) but then you are just signing for depth and that becomes a vicious circle in and of itself as we saw with Rafa.
It's been clear who our top targets are/were. If we start September having failed to secure them, is this another sign of indecisive ownership?
I think this is a very hard question to answer with the information we have as fans. Firstly, whose decision is it whether to move onto other targets or focus on just our primary ones? I think it´s Klopps. Then it is a question of whether that is a right call or not? I personally think, in terms of depth, we have the numbers but not the quality and experience in depth. That isn´t necessarily a huge problem though as bringing through players by using them as depth is a good way to focus resources where needed. If Ejaria kicks on to be a first team level midfielder, how much is that worth in this market? Matic at 29 is going for £40m so how much would a Matic level midfielder be worth aged 22? Maybe 60m for this club? Home grown & club trained too. The kids won´t all work out of course, but if just a few do, it allows us to make 2 top signings every season rather than 4 or 5 hopeful ones. The big problem though is we aren´t making those signings, not yet at least (although IMO, Salah is the first of such level talents).
Then the question becomes - what is an acceptable amount of time to pursue those level targets? As mentioned before, top clubs seem to pursue their targets a long time. Many Bayern signings are chased over multiple seasons. The exceptions would be clubs who can go out and just throw whatever money they like at the problem. But we aren´t that club - and thank fuck too. I´d rather be what we are now than a inexpensive tool for a Russian Oligarch or Shiekh to launder their image and reputation.
I can see a clear shift in how we operate now this summer. Gone are the days of needing to build a squad every season. Now we seem to have that squad in place, every season we just need to replace the aging parts (Milner <-> Robertson, Lallana will be next I guess), replace any failing parts (Mignolet <-> Karius) and then add 1 or 2 quality additions each summer. I think we will be pursuing several players who we think will take us up a few levels now for long term. Then aim to get at least 1, if not more, every summer. Klopp is yet to build his spine and it seems VVD - Keita - Mbappe is what he has targetted to do so. It doesn´t seem he wants anybody else either. I haven´t really seen any other player linked in those positions. The other targets are players like Ox (low cost/free depth for multiple positions) and an understudy to our forwards (Luan/Correa/Muller/Vasquez). I endorse this idea. I know it will give some people the shits feeling like they are going into a season light in numbers, but I don´t see that we are, experienced numbers yes, but give me Kent over Demarai Gray any day of the week. A tactically dense speed merchant. So, it could be better, but as mentioned, I have no problem with Gomez, TAA, Ejaria, Woodburn, Grujic, Kent, Solanke being counted upon when needed.
I firmly believe that training is more important than transfers for Klopp. He doesn´t moan about transfers but moans his arse off anytime something limits his training time with the team. Whereas other managers who rely on transfers more like Conte and particularly Mourinho moan their tits off to anybody who will listen about it. This will be the first time we go into a season with a pretty much settled team. I have been waiting for this for a LONG time after season after season of upheaval and transition for as long as I can remember. I´m excited to see what happens with our defence & attack all being far better honed to Klopp´s ideas. I think it will be an exciting season. Although I still think we will get VVD.
Who do you think is our first choice keeper this season? Is it a case of healthy competition or a disadvantage not to have a set No.1?
As mentioned before, and I´ve talked about this a lot over multiple threads, I´ve always felt we have a bigger problem in Mignolet than just his errors and fear of crosses. There was always this statement that he was a great shot stopper but I just had this nagging doubt in my mind that it wasn´t true. I know nothing of goalkeeping, I had no way to present that as an argument that I could support other than to say "I disagree, I think he isn´t"... which isn´t much of an argument.
Then this summer I got access to some good expected goals data for the first time. Not one of those basic ones that Ted Knutsen uses either to just give a vague idea - this guy went into far more depth with his workings including type of assist, type of shot, pressure on shot taker, etc. I realised that expected goals against vs actual goals conceded could be a way of then measuring how good goalkeepers are at simply dealing with shots. Of course commanding goalkeepers like Courtois will actually reduce goals due to preventing shots in the first place. But at least I had something to try and either verify or quell my fears.
When I ran every team in England´s expected goals vs actual goals numbers, all the expected top keepers (e.g. De Gea, Lloris, Cech, Courtois) come out as performing above averages. Mignolet comes out in the bottom 3 in the league. I run them for other leagues, the top keepers rise to the surface (e.g. Oblak, Neuer, Navas). I run all seasons I have data for in England and year on year, Mignolet is in the bottom 3 in the Premier League. In fact the only goalkeepers who have an individual season worse than Mignolet does consistently is Guzan, Fabianski and Boruc. When the data is grouping Mignolet in with those names and grouping together the likes of Neuer, Oblak, De Gea, Lloris at the other end of the scale, you know you have a problem. Karius was creeping into the Neuer group the season we signed him.
I also came across a study of the average zones on the pitch goals are scored from and comparisons for each team to the average. Liverpools stood out simply because we concede goals for long range and angles far more than average. The only similar team was Man City when they switched from Hart to Bravo. In terms of expected goals they went from having someone who performed a scratch above average to someone who would be capable of hitting Mignolet numbers over the course of the season, although with Bravo he was never historically that bad and so part of that is likely the whole foreign keeper adjusting to more physical league with twice as much crosses per game. Likewise they went from conceding goals in a tight circle around the goal to conceding from almost anywhere in the box. Although still it wasn´t as large an area as Mignolet concedes from.
So, if this information is correct - and I have subsequently seen it corroborated by two other analytics sites - it points to two things.
1. Mignolet is a poor shot stopper when averaged out over the season
Measurement of shot stopping ability of goalkeepers2. He struggles with shots from angles and long range
* Ignore the Spurs penis. I said IGNORE!Then when you put Karius under the microscope, he is (or was when signed) one of the strongest young goalkeepers in europe. He also has one of the quickest releases of the ball in the top leagues, compared to Mignolet who once held the ball for 22 seconds against Bordeaux. Karius kicks and throws are also much further than Mignolet also. He also favours throwing over kicking to launch quick attacks. I imagine, for a coach who wants to hurt teams in transitions, having a quick thinking goalkeeper is preferable to one who holds the ball until the opposition can reset their shape.
As mentioned before, Karius is particularly strong in all aspects of shot stopping where Mignolet was weak. However, that is just shot stopping. It remains to be seen can he be a commanding presence? Also they both shared the same weakness - crosses! Oh, and Karius is also the 17th best goalkeeper in europe at saving penalties with ~35% save rate. Migs is 25% and Ward 13,3%.
So with all that in mind, it seems clear you want Karius in between the sticks as soon as he is ready, right? Well.. that should be if he is ready. I personally would make that switch now and just eat those errors that comes with playing in a new league/country just as United did with De Gea. But maybe the pressure would break him. Maybe he is not ready. Maybe never will be. Maybe Mignolet, in training with Karius, has adapted his game to better deal with long & wide shots better. Maybe that is why Mignolet now looks a lot more solid? I´ve no idea. But when 4 years worth of data is saying Mignolet is in the bottom 3 of his position every year, it´s certainly something to keep a close eye on.
As mentioned, Klopp hasn´t really put his spine in place yet, which is something all coaches like to do. I honestly think Karius will get a shot as #1 at some point and then we won´t look back. Everything we seen from him pre-Liverpool screamed future Neuer. That is the path he was on. I expected a rough first season and got it. That doesn´t mean he will reach such lofty heights - maybe he just won´t be cut out for the Premier League despite looking potentially world class in Germany. My gut tells me we have seen Mignolet´s ceiling and whether Karius replaces him or not, he probably isn´t Klopp´s #1 long term.
We're loaded with creative talent but how important is it that our captain is fit and firing? Is he integral to our midfield and the overall shape and structure of our team?
I think Henderson may actually be our most important player at this point. Not the best player, and not because he is captain or one of our few leaders, but because in the system we play and in the ways we struggle, he seems to be a lynchpin on which it all either comes together or falls apart. In fact one of the things I´ve wanted most this summer was another rangey passer in midfield. I assumed we would get that having targetted Dahoud previously but alas, nothing. The young Brazilian who cannot get a work permit - Allan - is exactly this style of player which would have been nice to have for depth too. Although he is a short arse and aerial ability is also important for the #6 as our pressing results in a lot of long balls into his area to deal with, so scouting for a rangey passer who is good in the can become tricky. Most are deep lying playmaker types in the frame of a Pirlo / Xabi - which is the type of player you would box Allan as. So as it stands, we are going into the season with only Henderson who can be that #6 who can give us quick switches of play and rangey passes on a consistent basis and deal adequately with the large volume of aimless long balls into his zone.
When playing against a low block for example, movement to create space and the speed you move the ball are the two most crucial elements. We often have that first thing nailed down. However, when someone like Can plays instead of Henderson we lose a lot of that second thing. This often will make the movement irrelevant. Not seeing the gaps open up quick enough or not having the passing skill required to take advantage of them can be a real problem. This was often compounded by the fact teams could sit even more narrow against us due to the lack of a left footer at left back. How George Boyd played Milner last season is a good example of this. Whereas as we have seen already in preseason with dangerous, hard and low early balls into the box first time from Moreno and RObertson, you just cannot risk giving that much time and space to a left footed full back who can hit a dangerous cross in.
When Henderson was out, we ended up seeing Gini lose a lot of his value to our midfield also. This is because Gini would often drop into that #6 role to recirculate possession or switch play. He is nowhere near as effective at this as Henderson but far better still than Can. This saw Can take over the role of late runner into the box which worked against Watford, for example, but Can is also not as effective as Wijnaldum here. Therefore with Henderson being out of the side, it impacted on many positions. The wide players have less space as it takes longer to switch play. We lose a lot of our passing range. We lose that quicker tempo in passing. We lose Gini´s very dangerous late runs into the box. Can, of course, has a lot of strengths and comparing player of player, it´s hard to state one as better than the other. But Can would need to play with someone like Dahoud who can play on the half turn, give that passing range and offer some more creative passing to have a good 6&8 partnership. Without that, we don´t link play anywhere near as effectively when Can plays.
There is a possible solution to this, which will initially sound ridiculous. But in instances where Henderson is out, we may want to have Can as 6 in our defensive phase of play and Coutinho there in our attacking phase of play. He would essentially be staying in the areas he would be most effective to us. When the ball is in the flanks, he would be sitting diagonally back in the half spaces to offer switches of play. Or to collect and drive into zone 14 himself. Or to thread through balls into the spaces we can create by creating underloads on the flanks. There is a clear problem here though - we are very exposed to counter through the middle with Coutinho holding that area. Which makes me think we would need a double pivot. That, therefore, means less players attacking the low block from central areas and essential means we are moving more towards a 4-2-3-1 than a 4-3-3 in terms of our shape.
We all know how strong we are when we are on song, however do you think our run-in at the end of the season showed this team had learnt a few lessons ie. Staying patient, taking our opportunities and the value of a clean sheet?
I think Klopp is very good at using tactics to solve limitations in his squad. It´s one of the trademarks of any over achieving coach in any sport really. A good example is his switch from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3. In the Europa League final he saw how easily that 2 in the midfield base could get detached from the attacking midfield 3. Now if you have a player in there like Gundogan who can play on the half turn and has good passing range then it´s not something you would really notice as no matter what else is happening, he will find a way to link play. But we didn´t have that player, we had Milner and Can and that really exposed their limitations.
The switch to the 4-3-3 puts the starting point of wider players of the 3 in midfield and, at times, the wider players of the 3 in attack in the half spaces. These are crucial areas to control on the pitch. If one of the #8´s needs to drop deep to link play, one of the wide forwards drops into that half space. But there is always someone available in or around those areas. When you start playing diagonal passes into and out of those half-spaces it ends up having the same effect as playing on the half turn as the player will naturally receive those passes with their back mostly to the flank and will have the goal in their peripheral vision. So it was a kind of hack to solve the problem we saw with the Can-Milner midfield 2.
Of course he has also put players like Lallana, Coutinho, Gini (and soon Woodburn) into those #8 positions too because as well as making small tactical adjustments, the more players you have that naturally play on the half turn and who can link play in that way, the more cohesive your team can build play and counter attack at pace too. But it does mean that no matter what else happens, we are unlikely to see another game like that Sevilla one where our front 4 of Bobby, Sturridge, Lallana and Coutinho look so isolated and disconnected from the rest of the team.
As for the lessons of last season, I think that Bournemouth 4-3 will be something that haunted him. I noticed in the game against Bayern we had an almost Brazilian like box midfield 4 at times with Firmino dropping in to become a #8 with two #6´s behind them. This is (similar to) the formation Dunga got a lot of criticism for as Brazil coach for being too negative. He was reasonably successful with it but for Brazil, that´s not enough. Brazilians demand substance and style - the demanding motherfuckers! Anyway, the shape we were playing was something like this.
x
x x x x
x x
x x
x x
The benefit of this shape is that you can funnel play wide, then box players in with pressing from all angles. Your #6 can no longer be dragged out of position to expose zone 14, as when one is dragged across the other shifts into that zone. If the ball gets played long and is knocked down into dangerous areas it will be somewhere in those boxes within the formation that would likely see someone surrounded and pressed quickly. Switches of play because difficult due to the wall of players someone faces from the flanks. More importantly, it´s a good counter attacking formation. Any regain of possession and we likely have a big overload in central area to quickly move the ball up the pitch with combination passing. Our two wide players should be positioned wide of the center backs which will either split them leaving them vulnerable through the middle, or vulnerable to diagonal through balls to set them clear. I wonder if this will be a containment system which Klopp settles into when we have a comfortable lead in games to conserve energy and finish sides off? Of course we heard Klopp say he wasn´t happy about the shape - that could mean they weren´t doing it quite right - or they were doing it totally wrong and he had no intention of them ending up in such a containing shape. Who knows
It was interesting to see something that looks so familiar from watching Brazilian football for a few years.
16 points dropped at home last season. Needless to say, that has to be improved on. Will we cope better with teams who stay deep?
I hope so. There are some signs we will. Firstly, we have a left back (maybe two) who offers us pace and width on that flank. Milner narrowed play both with his choices and also with the tactical decisions managers could make to sit narrow against him knowing there was little concern of dangerous, whipped or driven, first time crosses from that side of the pitch. So they would have plenty of time to saunter out there and close him down. They could remain narrow to show him down the line onto his weak foot too. Whereas on the other side, full backs will step out and show Clyne inside on his weaker foot at times opening up the half space. So that is one. The second is Coutinho´s movement into the midfield. This not only massively improves our ability to link play and create from midfield but also add another goal threat in attack (by which I mean, Coutinho doesn´t really attack the space Firmino creates centrally. He scores goals but ones like that Arsenal tapin first day of the season are few and far between). We have a Robben-like threat on the right and left now. This for me is important as as we have seen Mane cut in many times like the goal he scored against Everton. No, the other one, not the tapin rebounding to him off the post.
<![CDATA[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/6k1zUmR1AaM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/6k1zUmR1AaM</a>]]>He wishes he cold play Everton everyday! Our wide players will find themselves cutting in to attack the goal a lot and having them be able to shoot on their stronger feet is important while the fullbacks provide width and stretch play horizontally by threatening down the sides of the box with crosses on their stronger feet.
This is also important as one of the ways possession sides can open up low-blocks is to create underloads on one flank, while isolating an inverted winger against a full back on the other side of the pitch. They then get the striker to move across to the underload moving the centerbacks towards it also. This is the trigger to then pop the ball out to the #6 who switches to the 1-v-1 on the opposite flank which will result in a clear goalscoring chance if he wins the 1-v-1. This is a move Pep used perfectly with Bayern many times with Lewandowski moving the defenders away making a big gap in the right half space, the ball would pull out to Xabi Alonso who played in Robben for a 1-v-1. The key player for me though is Henderson. Someone who can move the ball about quickly in front of the block while our runners try to make space and feeding to anybody who has a 1-v-1 chance to commit a defender. Taking players on results in space opening up as players move to support each other, fouls to win penalties and the possibility (especially for someone like Sturridge who can take snap shots with small gaps and no backlift) of finding a good angle to get a shot at goal from a dangerous position.
So there key elements:-
1. Seeing Underloads here means overloads elsewhere
2. Create 1-v-1 opportunities that will result in clear scoring chances
3. Running at defenders to force fouls, pull other defenders towards the ball, win corners & free kicks
4. Recycle and switch play quickly
Does atmosphere (or lack of it) affect the players in an overly negative way when playing at home? Or is it up to them as professionals to do their job and the crowd will respond?
Someone once said fear is emasculating. I assume it was Pelé, he was always obsessed with that sort of thing.
But I am 100% sure of it. Aside from the fact that players and the manager have both commented as such, it´s also just common sense. Confidence is such an intangible thing in football but in moments where the players feel empowered by the crowd like in Istanbul, or in the win against Dortmund, we all feel that and just KNOW something will happen. Even Pirlo and some Dortmund players have commented on it too. On how little things going wrong for you seem to be much bigger and more important than they are because of the moment. Because of how the Liverpool crowd were reacting, like they sensed blood. Our players certainly feel that, but that the blood the crowd is sensing is their own.
You can say it´s up to the players to lift the crowd but in my opinion that is just a cowardly way to shift responsibility from yourself if you are sitting in the ground doing nothing to lift the players when they need it. It´s exactly the sort of attitude that would have saw us properly collapse in a humiliating defeat in Istanbul.
Just seems like the sort of shite he would say, right? Look at that shit eating grin too!The manager has indicated there will be more rotation. This is understandable, given the fact we will have more games. Do you expect a drop off in the new year in terms of energy, or will we have the quantity and quality to cope?
It depends. Firstly, I´ve never seen Klopp as much of a rotator. This is actually a criticism of mine from last season. I think when we got down to a small core of seniors and the same 3 or 4 kids on the bench every week he should have been trying to start a different one of them every game to rest players perhaps. Or bringing them on when ahead. Of course the risk is that you have a collapse due to the fall in quality. But I think fresh legs high up the pitch from kids will always be better than tired, more experienced legs. Plus the accumulative effect also kids in. Maybe keeping those legs on the pitch is good for that game, but what of the next one? Then the next one? Then at some point you have something like the Stoke match happening where you have no choice to put out a side with none of your regular attacking players as they are all injured, tired or whatever. Then there is the likes of Moreno, who probably could have been used as a winger to keep people fresh. He could certainly use his pace to stretch teams vertically, press high up the pitch and always showed good movement in attacking areas too in terms of knowing when to time runs in behind.
So, if Klopp is actually going to use his squad and rotate, we will be much better off. If he doesn´t trust the likes of Woodburn to play more than 80 minutes a season, or Grujic to start a match, or Moreno to play more than twice, then we will always struggle. Squad depth doesn´t matter if you don´t use them and until now, Klopp has looked unwilling to use the players at his disposal, for whatever reason.
Looking at the other 'top 6' clubs, how do you see our squad in comparison?
Can´t believe you aren´t taking the Everton threat seriously Archie. How dare you! They are about to do a Man City. Which I think means get relegated and end up hiring managers like Joe Royle and Mark Hughes.
United = Static & Shite
Chelsea = Lost aggression in attack & Shite
Man City = Too much upheaval & Shite
Everton = Just Shite. And Slow. Static too. Low productivity from open play. Who is scoring the goals? Shite too.
Spurs = Choking at Wembley Shite
Arsenal = Built on a House of Cards & Shite
They all lost key players and have a lot of upheaval in their first XI which makes predictions difficult. Even the most sure fire of signings don´t work out. There is also a long period where players have to get used to attacking patterns of play once again. In that sense, we have finally got something I wanted for long time - a season that isn´t one of transition. A settled squad where we just built onto what we have. We kinda did that last season too as our outgoings were mostly squad players. Spurs did it too adding just Wanyama. I think it´s one of those huge benefits people often miss when trying to weigh up the business teams do in the summer. I am back at that point I was under Rafa where I no longer even care what other sides do. It doesn´t matter. We have a world class manager who I trust implicitly. Also we beat them all in the 1-v-1 battles last season. Our real battle IMO wasn´t with them. It´s with ourselves and our ability to break down certain teams and I still maintain that will be achieved far more due to coaching than transfers. All we needed was a couple of lefties in certain areas and we are golden. I´d like one more though (Demirbay)
'Our target is the title', as stated by Jurgen. How do we approach the season? All resources set towards a title pursuit, sacrificing the cups if necessary, or is it full steam ahead on all fronts?
and also
Finally, your predictions for all comps:
League:
FA Cup:
League Cup:
Champions League:
I would do a Rafa in his first season and focus on League and Europe only and play mostly kids in the cups, even against decent sides. Maybe Re-assess if we get to the QF or SF stages. I think Spurs did this last season too. I remember Winks starting for them against us in the Cup for example. Those early league cup rounds though fall in our few off weeks from european football so it seems vital to keep the core squad fresh. Plus, if we don´t give the kids minutes there, where else are they getting the experience they need to go up a level and start pushing first teamers for a place?
In terms of predictions though, this is where I will cowardly opt out because of pathetic superstitions. I will say though that IMO, with the return to European football, that top 4, knockout stages in europe and a trophy would be a great season considering the competition we are facing. Fact of the matter is we are competing against six of the richest clubs in Europe just to win anything at all and no matter what happens, three or more of them will end the season winning nothing at all. I don´t feel so entitled to think that we
should be winning stuff when the likes of Chelsea, United and Man City have vastly more resources than us and one of which will almost certainly finish the season with nothing to show for it. I think we will almost certainly win stuff under Klopp, including the League, over the next 3-5 years. But I won´t place my expectations on anything this season as this coming season is still very much part of the learning curve.
It should be a cracking season though. We certainly have the most exciting attacking line up in the league and stylistically Klopp´s sides are a fuckload of fun to watch. I imagine we will impress the neutrals once more and as with any successful side, we just need a little bit of luck and good management to go pretty far. Can´t fucking wait. Come on you red men!
Oh and thanks Archie for the questions.
