Mo Salah

[rudedog]

Awful, awful, awful band.

One of the worst ...but not as bad as Shed 7.

music snobs

[RedReet]

:
They need better all-round players.

The front three are great, but I don’t feel that they are necessarily going to continue to do this for the next two or three years.

Salah is not a centre forward, I don’t think he is a player who can score goals consistently over a period of time. We don’t have players like that.

We have players like Salah and Mane and, although Mane scored a hat-trick against Porto, they are not out-and-out goalscorers.

So, as funny as it may seem, I think if they could get a centre forward, a penalty box player and play Firmino slightly deeper, I think it will be better for the balance of the team.

Yes, we’re scoring lots of goals but can we see Mane and Salah continuing to score this amount of goals on a regular basis?

I think we need to get better individual players now.

Clearly Johnny hasn't caught up on any football since his CBB stint.

[rodo]

good god

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqSo3V6q3mA"]♫ MO SALAH SONG | 'EGYPTIAN KING' FUNNY JAMES SIT DOWN PARODY MANE LIVERPOOL FC PREMIER LEAGUE - YouTube[/ame]

[Gray]

Great we’ve got songs to argue over and a player worthy of so many.

[Exiled_red]

Clearly Johnny hasn't caught up on any football since his CBB stint.

I know it sounds crazy given his performances this season, but I think that there is a valid underlying point there, which may or may not be what John Barnes was getting at (but worded it badly). For me that point is that we shouldn't rely on Salah being a 30 goal a season player. At the moment when you look at his stats he is having the season of his life, now obviously we hope that he has stepped up a level into that elite class of players, and he is now going to put in seasons like this regularly, but there is a chance that this is a one off and next season he will be back to 'only' scoring 15-20 goals. John Barnes had a similar thing where he had one outstanding in 89-90 that was well above his normal level. I wonder if he is warning against taking that as the norm for Salah.

John Barnes games/goals all competitions (before injury):
Watford
82-83 - 53/13
83-84 - 54/16
84-85 - 47/15
85-86 - 50/13
86-87 - 48/14
Liverpool
87-88 - 48/17
88-89 - 42/13
89-90 - 44/28
90/91 - 44/17

[Charly]

he got injured and we already had Aldo, Beardo and Uhhh... Rusho to score goals, so Barnes was never bought to score, but had better options back then... ai dontbthink anyone will compain about another top striker... but gor me it is diminishing returnrs when the midfield could do with some real steel.

[Norbs]

Rusho

Rushie

[Red_Polo]

Rusho

Rushie

Rushers. Rushsie.

[RedReet]

I know it sounds crazy given his performances this season, but I think that there is a valid underlying point there, which may or may not be what John Barnes was getting at (but worded it badly). For me that point is that we shouldn't rely on Salah being a 30 goal a season player. At the moment when you look at his stats he is having the season of his life, now obviously we hope that he has stepped up a level into that elite class of players, and he is now going to put in seasons like this regularly, but there is a chance that this is a one off and next season he will be back to 'only' scoring 15-20 goals. John Barnes had a similar thing where he had one outstanding in 89-90 that was well above his normal level. I wonder if he is warning against taking that as the norm for Salah.

John Barnes games/goals all competitions (before injury):
Watford
82-83 - 53/13
83-84 - 54/16
84-85 - 47/15
85-86 - 50/13
86-87 - 48/14
Liverpool
87-88 - 48/17
88-89 - 42/13
89-90 - 44/28
90/91 - 44/17

I think you are giving him too much credit.

"They need better all-round players."

How many goals does he want us to score?

"The front three are great, but I don’t feel that they are necessarily going to continue to do this for the next two or three years."

Based on what? We set the foundation last year and scored plenty. We added Salah and scored more. The more they are playing together, the better they are getting.

"Salah is not a centre forward, I don’t think he is a player who can score goals consistently over a period of time. We don’t have players like that."

Neither was Messi or Ronaldo.

Everybody thought the same at the start of season, but he has. You expect him to scored every game. He scored consistently in the more defensive Serie A, so it's no surprise that he's scoring more in a more open league, playing for a better team. Plus he's just approaching his prime.

"We have players like Salah and Mane and, although Mane scored a hat-trick against Porto, they are not out-and-out goalscorers."

They don't need to be.

"So, as funny as it may seem, I think if they could get a centre forward, a penalty box player and play Firmino slightly deeper, I think it will be better for the balance of the team."

Firmino is one of the main reasons why Salah is so prolific. Their understanding is getting better as the games go on and the two of them are pushing each other on.

If we had a 'penalty box player' defences would sit deeper, leaving less room for the counter.

"Yes, we’re scoring lots of goals but can we see Mane and Salah continuing to score this amount of goals on a regular basis?"

Yes. And more.

"I think we need to get better individual players now."

Yes we do John, but the last positions we need to be worrying about is replacing any of the front three.



I'm a big fan of Barnes and generally he talks a lot of sense. He's had a mare here though. I didn't see any of CBB or know how it went, but I heard it was a bit of a PR disaster for him. Is this just an attempt to get a few headlines again?

[labourRed]

Yup, he's had a mare there. The quotes not CBB, until i opened this page i wasn't aware he was in that.

[Kenneth]

I guess time will tell.

[Exiled_red]

I think you are giving him too much credit.

"They need better all-round players."

How many goals does he want us to score?

"The front three are great, but I don’t feel that they are necessarily going to continue to do this for the next two or three years."

Based on what? We set the foundation last year and scored plenty. We added Salah and scored more. The more they are playing together, the better they are getting.

"Salah is not a centre forward, I don’t think he is a player who can score goals consistently over a period of time. We don’t have players like that."

Neither was Messi or Ronaldo.

Everybody thought the same at the start of season, but he has. You expect him to scored every game. He scored consistently in the more defensive Serie A, so it's no surprise that he's scoring more in a more open league, playing for a better team. Plus he's just approaching his prime.

"We have players like Salah and Mane and, although Mane scored a hat-trick against Porto, they are not out-and-out goalscorers."

They don't need to be.

"So, as funny as it may seem, I think if they could get a centre forward, a penalty box player and play Firmino slightly deeper, I think it will be better for the balance of the team."

Firmino is one of the main reasons why Salah is so prolific. Their understanding is getting better as the games go on and the two of them are pushing each other on.

If we had a 'penalty box player' defences would sit deeper, leaving less room for the counter.

"Yes, we’re scoring lots of goals but can we see Mane and Salah continuing to score this amount of goals on a regular basis?"

Yes. And more.

"I think we need to get better individual players now."

Yes we do John, but the last positions we need to be worrying about is replacing any of the front three.



I'm a big fan of Barnes and generally he talks a lot of sense. He's had a mare here though. I didn't see any of CBB or know how it went, but I heard it was a bit of a PR disaster for him. Is this just an attempt to get a few headlines again?

I agree that we shouldn't be messing around with the front three, our priority in the summer has be to try and bring someone in who is close to their level of quality who either can be rotated in an out with the 3 we have or someone who will compliment them. I will fully admit that last summer I was worried about Firmino as the main striker he isn't a natural goalscorer (as you say that doesn't matter) but clearly he is bringing in other players and Salah and Mane have benefitted hugely from that, and I will be the first to admit that I was wrong.

Looking back at the Barnes comments I guess that he wasn't making the point I was thinking of, but I think my point is valid. Salah has had a phenomenal season, if you had said to us at the start of the season that Salah would score 20 goals in all competitions for us this season we'd all have been made up. I think that normally you might rely on those 3 getting about 50-60 goals in all competitions over the season between them, anything else is a bonus. This season the 3 of them have played in most games and when the didn't we had Coutinho coming in. I think that we need to bring someone in who close to their level and will either be able to fit into the same system or offers something different that will still contribute goals and assists. Or someone that can come in when one of them is off form.

Obviously we all hope that these guys push on even further and can all post world class numbers, for years to come but we have to be prepared for that not to happen as well for whatever reason. I realise that sounds a bit negative but we have to work that way.

[RedReet]

I agree that we shouldn't be messing around with the front three, our priority in the summer has be to try and bring someone in who is close to their level of quality who either can be rotated in an out with the 3 we have or someone who will compliment them. I will fully admit that last summer I was worried about Firmino as the main striker he isn't a natural goalscorer (as you say that doesn't matter) but clearly he is bringing in other players and Salah and Mane have benefitted hugely from that, and I will be the first to admit that I was wrong.

Looking back at the Barnes comments I guess that he wasn't making the point I was thinking of, but I think my point is valid. Salah has had a phenomenal season, if you had said to us at the start of the season that Salah would score 20 goals in all competitions for us this season we'd all have been made up. I think that normally you might rely on those 3 getting about 50-60 goals in all competitions over the season between them, anything else is a bonus. This season the 3 of them have played in most games and when the didn't we had Coutinho coming in. I think that we need to bring someone in who close to their level and will either be able to fit into the same system or offers something different that will still contribute goals and assists. Or someone that can come in when one of them is off form.

Obviously we all hope that these guys push on even further and can all post world class numbers, for years to come but we have to be prepared for that not to happen as well for whatever reason. I realise that sounds a bit negative but we have to work that way.

Aye, we definitely need at least one, preferably two attackers that we can add to the mix. I liked that we brought Salah in, even though we had Coutinho and Mane and even then thought that we could do with another.

Salah's numbers will most likely drop next year, even by virtue of number of games played as he's barely missed a match this season. There is every chance Firmino's could go up significantly though. This is only his second season playing CF and he's getting better by the game. The more he plays there, the better he'll become you'd expect. He was doing decent there last year until we ran him into the ground (although he did finish the season quite strongly). From our first competitive games this year against Watford and Hoffenheim he looked on it and as I said, he's got better and better as the season progressed. Long may it continue.

[Maxiedge]

One of the worst ...but not as bad as Shed 7.

**** 7

[Red_Polo]

Yeah agree with a lot from the last few posts.

Whilst I think some aspects of what Digger is saying are definitely a bit old hat - the need a proper striker kind of thing, the implication the wide forwards can't be the main goalscorers - there is a perhaps unintended grain of truth in there as well, in terms of it being important to look for another outstanding attacking contributor.

Whilst we would hope to see the front three continue to contribute as brilliantly as they are, and look to build a team that supports that, we should also prepare for something to change there. They are men, not machines. You always need to be looking to buy the next player that makes key contributions in the final third, no matter how well things are going. Look at the number of centre forwards Ferguson bought for instance; McClair, Hughes, Dublin, Cantona, Cole, Solskjaer, Sheringham, Yorke, Van Nistelrooy, Forlan, Saha, Smith, Rooney, Tevez, Berbatov, Owen, Van Persie. That's 17 in 25 years without adding wingers in. It's better to be proactive, and to give yourself the problem of having too many to fit in rather than waiting for there to be a hole in your attack.

A player of similar level to our existing front three would really make a difference even if we don't necessarily 'need' it, and only play three of them at any given time. Suddenly there is a healthier level of competition to push people, we have better options from the bench, covering for players as form, injury and suspension may require.