I know the sponsor wants a photo for their wall but this sort of thing is silly isn't it? Its hardly something going on an open top bus tour of liverpool at the ned of the season
First of our scouting missions on the Red Bull clubs today. imagine will be a few less changes this time? Maybe only 22 players used?
I'd imagine at this point you'd be right. We would leave all the kids home and take a preseason focus team with us to austria for training . to play the game prob 45mins min each. at this point we need 6 players to play 90mins v city in very short time so 45, 60 mins efforts are a must
why does the Community two bob shield matter this time round? After LFC's last season we actually over took Man Utd in the "Real Trophies" count as most successful English club of all time. (and yes sorry Diego by the UEFA recognised Super cup and the FIFA recognised world club do count as they are recognised and mandated "competitions" As we can see man city are now over spurs as firth most successful english club due to their rampant doping and chelsea are 4th. Only the community shield can now be claimed by desperate man utd fans as the thing that "keeps them on thier perch" this unrecognised friendly pushed man utd over the top with 5 extra wins in the preseason FA slush fund booster. Should LFC win this minor friendly then both clubs reach 66. Please do note that, as always in endless fairness to others, i have excluded the "sheriff of London charity shield" and one off "football league super cup" even though this takes 2 trophies from our total. I hard think a charity shield running form 1898 to 1907 should count really but most importantly a cup set up to placate everton after the disastrous European ban should really not aid LFC in any way. SO DOES THE COMMUNITY SHIELD ACTUALLY MATTER? Only to manc so if they start up about their most successful club status just point them to the real trophy count. they'll try to knock off some stuff but its all ego innit.
Confirmed Liverpool lineup vs RB Leipzig: Van Dijk, Salah & Diaz start With the Reds’ No. 1 not ready for an immediate return, Adrian starts at the Red Bull Arena with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson making up the back four. In midfield, Fabinho, Thiago and Naby Keita all start. And Mo Salah, Luis Diaz and Roberto Firmino all line up in attack. With plenty of options off the bench, changes will be in reckoning and it is expected the majority of those will come at half-time as Klopp continues to ramp up the minutes for the majority of his squad. Liverpool: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Thiago, Keita; Salah, Firmino, Diaz Substitutes: Hughes, Davies, Milner, Gomez, Henderson, Jones, Elliott, Tsimikas, Nunez, Carvalho, Matip, Bajcetic, Phillips, Mabaya, Van den Berg, Morton
so bascially near enough full 11 as available. Adrian trent konate vvd robbo keita Fabinho Thiago salah firmino diaz 17 subs. kind of shows the travelling party to the training camp doesn't it. whats up will kelleher? theres zero sign of him at all and he played internationals during the summer. injured?? on the naughty step again?? phillips gets to travel which suggests nobody is bothered to buy him.
Strong lineup. Some good youngsters there too. Morton we know has shown enough to impress Klopp. I think young Mabaya looks a great talent too, shows good composure and pace.
Thiago needs a lot of work on match fitness. He looks like he did 2 years ago coming in..well short of pace and running. Needs games. The front 3 I would not call fluid at all. Zero real effort by firmino to combine with Diaz. That's something to watch develop. Not sure if we will see a new team.now or 50% with some going on for 60mins today. I think it's still early.
Need up quite a good 60min run out for key players. Thiago came out after ht and put an extra burst into here that ended up looking much more positive. Henderson time was positive as well. Overall a good build up for players to put in the bank and go into the training camp to build on.
Needs to clearly. Should have had 6 there. Carvalho did alright as well a nice little cameo with good busyness and more about his hunger to chase back and do the work which is more what we want to see ingrained
Anyway, it was hardly rocket science to see nunez is a proper player. He's worked reasonably well today for his 4mins. Still quite a bit of finding the right runs and sure he got 2 off going though keepers hands but he's finished the two you really want him to finish well and that's where the real confidence will come from. Just a nice run out for 45mins building up fitness there. As I've said, He tormented our defence in two games. No worries about what he can do for us. Diaz.hasnt really come alive yet.
best goal was no 2. the salah goal was some pressing and then some break of the ball and when in salah finishes fine. most important is the pressing the pen was a pen but the ball was going out so the keeper made a gift. diaz didn't do much else, hard to get a look in first half, worked better with nunez second half. the second nunez goal was a blueprint of what to expect. he passed that one into the corner off more good pressing and trent really handed him the run. really good pressing from Thiago at the start and just all round hunting which we want to see. the third looked a tad streaky as a reaction toe and the ball went exactly where he'd love it to go, not sure he meant that tbh. the fourth to be quite honest was piss poor keeping but you take it don't you? Its just preseason and honestly getting out of there with no injuries is good cos they were being a bit dickish with the challenges so a few of our lads gave them a bit back. With a week of intense training inbound we really don't need that kind of pointless stuff. hopefully we can improve again over the next week and get the midweek game out of the way cos we are now 8 days from the community shield. really madness. this stupid world cup is ****ing up the season big time. Losing 2 weeks preseason and then having half the squad knackered and half needing games on boxing day is hardly ideal.
Keeper wasn’t great for the pen or the 4th from Nunez. The 2nd was a lovely finish and 3rd was what we’ve missed at time, someone standing in 6 yard box for a tap in. Nice confidence booster for him though. Sounds like Elliott has had a decent pre season. Will be really interesting to see how him and Carvalho are used this season. And if they get any game time on the pitch together.
elliott does look as reported to be trim and looking fit. Henderson also looks very busy so must be feeling the competition. The Carvalho one is really interesting as he looked very eager to impress but where he plays and how much (5 subs context) is hard to know. I do feel like we have more scope for jones, elliott and carvalho to get 20-30mins this season in league. But then again frimino, jota, keita, henderson, gomez et al. all have a claim for time as well. Those 3 young lads need games.
