UEFA watch 2020-21

If youth players sub for both I think we can just make it.

Lloris
Docherty Toby Dier Davies
Højbjerg GLC
Moura Alli Son
Kane

Gazza
Gedson Dave Tanganga Cirkin
Sissoko Winks
Bergwijn Lamela Sess
New Striker

 

Players not used: Hart, Rose, Foyth, Aurier, Ndombele, Carter-Vickers, Clarke.
Shows what we need and who we need to ship out.

 

So we've got 28 players and we can only register 26 of them in the EL and yet you think our squad is not big enough....
I think they would all fit into the PL squad though as Clarke and Sessegnon will count as U21.

 

I think our squad's unbalanced and we've got a number of players that we won't use.
We have one striker, one left-back and a ton of deadwood.

We should have two players for every position and a few extras, plus some promising youth players.
I don't think that we do.

 

I assume a number of those will be off, likely Rose and Aurier, maybe Tanguy. CCV I think we’ll eventually loan in England but we have ages to do that and he may fill in for us a few times before going out. Clarke might also be set for a bench spot and a late loan in the EFL week after the transfer window proper ends.

 

Currently we have Cirkin, Rose and Davies and Sessegnon who can play left back. As you know I don't agree about the back up striker.....Son and Dele both have better scoring records than any striker we could possibly sign. Dele, Son and Lucas is the closest match we have to Firminho, Salah and Mane as far as I can see. Liverpool won the league and the CL without a striker by your definition.
If Rose and Aurier move on we can get a bit more balanced. Ndombele is the biggest issue for me. Either need to sell him before others notice he's lazy or train him to work.

 

Davies is our only good option at left-back at the moment.
Rose is disinterested, fat and clearly wants to leave, Sessegnon's out of position there and Cirkin's too inexperienced.
An injury to our first choice leaves us in a lot of trouble.

Liverpool won the league and Champions League with Firmino as a striker and Origi as backup.
The Belgian made 42 appearances for them last season. Our equivalent was literally nonexistent.
Son can fill in there, but it means moving a first XI player and leaves us with no options from the bench.
It risks running both him and Kane into the ground. Again.

 

You're basically preferring to run Son/ Dele into the ground than bring someone in who can lighten the work load on Kane, as well as Son who's most likely to play ST in Kane's absence at the moment. Look around 99% of clubs in Europe, they all have at least two strikers, it's good for depth and competition, right now Kane is unchallenged.

You do also realise who scored Liverpool's second goal in the CL Final against us, right? (and two goals in the semi final).

 

It’s not about the goals per se, it’s about having someone to occupy defenders and, as much as I know people hate the phrase, play their part in the system. A front 3 of Son/Dele/Lucas would work fine if we just had to press and counterattack but a lot of teams will sit in against us and it’s then more than ever when we need a focal point to occupy defenders and create space for others.

 

That was the thing about Poch's system: it was Dembele's role to create space coming from deep, which is what created pockets of space for Eriksen to thread passes through or Kane, Dele and Son to break into at the last minute - and is also the reason why we faltered far more if Dembele wasn't playing than we did without Eriksen

The amount of issues with our team that can be tied to Dembele's decline and departure really are worth noting
* Dele needed someone dragging players out of position through the middle for him to break into the box
* Eriksen needed somebody creating space through the middle for him to thread the ball through
* Winks needed somebody creating space further up the pitch so he could bring runners from deep into the game
* All of our wide players needed the uncertainty of opposition wide players drifting inside to plug the gaps

Sissoko couldn't replicate the role because, while he has the raw power and pace, he lacks the control and dribbling to play the role effectively
Ndombele couldn't replicate the role because, while he has the control and dribbling (and better passing) he's a glass cannon
Lo Celso is the closest we have to replicating the role, but the issue there is pushing him deeper stops him being our creative outlet further up the pitch

 

If we can buy a striker who is a better player than Lucas or Bergwijn then obviously we should. What I don’t get is why we want dross like Josh King who might be a striker but is not good enough to be on the pitch. Bale would strengthen us much more.

 

Because King is a striker, we don't have a system that works without one, we've got a lot of games and we only have two players for that role.
Kane and Son have been run into the ground and both have had significant injury issues, as well as significant international commitments.
We need depth in this position and it's not going to be superior to the players in our strongest XI.

We played 17 matches without Son last season and won 3.
We played 18 matches without Kane last season and won 5.
I think that we won one match last season without either of them in the team: the FA Cup replay against Boro.

 

Josh King is probably on a par with players like Ighalo and Origi. Origi especially has been vital for Liverpool as a squad player, we unfortunately had first hand experience of that. A position needs specialised depth, not asking fellow first XI players to fill in for Kane as that would only then run them into the ground too.

Look how vital Llorente proved in 18/19, he isn’t a better overall player than someone like Son but he’s a natural striker that came up with some huge moments for the club.

 

Llorente just about met the spec of being good enough but I really don't agree about King. Nowhere near as good as Origi.
We need six or eight forward players depending on whether we play 433 or 4231 and we already have Kane, Son, Lucas, Dele, Bergwijn, and Lamela plus Sessegnon and Gedson. Quite a good mixture of styles. I can't imagine selecting a team with Josh King in place of any of the first six.

 

PS I normally agree with your opinions but not on this one. Look at our fixture list for the first few weeks with 3 games a week. We will be playing a lot of U23 players and a striker like Josh King would add the necessary experience to such a line up , where I wouldn't want to see our front 6 being played.

 

Maybe we could get the Chelsea 4th team on loan. They probably cost 300 million,give or take a quid!

 

Llorente was good enough because he’s a central striker.

I’d say King’s definitely on a par with Origi. Origi, like King, wouldn’t be a starting player at any top 6 club but as a backup option they’d be very good to have. King has 48 goals in 161 league games for Bournemouth, that’s a respectable record in a poor team. Worth remembering Man Utd had a £20m bid for him rejected in January, we may have a chance of getting him for much less than that.

Gedson isn’t a forward, Lamela is highly unreliable both with form and fitness whilst he could also be a late departure this window, Sessegnon’s positional future is unknown as he may be a LW or LB. Of the players you listed, only Kane is a central striker. It would be suicidal to go yet another season without a second central striker. We saw how much it crippled us last season.

 

I think King carries a bit more versatility as well, he can play as a second striker or out wide as well. Perhaps slightly less of an out and out 9 than Wilson (who is remarkably similar to Kane in terms of how he plays, in my opinion) but nonetheless a good option for us.

 

They're begging for a spanking, aren't they?

 

You are playing for "pleasure" because :

1. Corona world has denied you a potential big home gate for this opponent

2. The finances of the EL means you would probably take a big hit on logistics
costs of travelling to London (whatever broadcast TV revenue you get from the game) .