Mo Salah

[danperkins]

Copied from the wh match thread, as it's relevant to salah.

The shorter pass to mo will often see him get pressed by the defender, but we know that's going to happen. So mo let's the defender chase him back towards our goal for 5-10 yards then he plays the ball back to who passed and he can then sprint into the space vacated by the defender and get a return pass to run onto.
Trouble is, teams have seen this all year and now don't chase him back too far and concede the space.

yeah this is spot on.

[baitman]

It is a very valid point, but I think moreso in how it highlights that we (coaching staff and especially other players in the moment on the pitch) are taking the "safe" or the "pass the buck" option far too often and expecting Salah to have the pace of four or five years ago than other players feinting that pass to Mo and instead switching the play to the other flank or to a runner through the centre.

Do fully expect a big change in our set up after the summer and expect far more of our play (compared to now that is and regardless of whether Mo stays or leaves) to go through the central channels. Think our attacking build up play and midfield advancement play will become far more rounded and less one player centric.

We need to be able to spread the attack options and not be so one dimensional.
The midfield need to follow up and win second balls and contribute more

[Buzzo]

Also interesting to note that a lot of Salah’s less productive games have come since Trent was injured, as have a lot of our poorer performances as a team. Hopefully Bradley being fit will help.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Also interesting to note that a lot of Salah’s less productive games have come since Trent was injured, as have a lot of our poorer performances as a team. Hopefully Bradley being fit will help.

A lot of our more disjointed performances as a team this season also came with TAA in the side so don't think he has as big an impact on Salah's big performances as he once had.

He certainly has dropped off massively this season as a chance creator for Salah let alone an assist provider for him.


Think we can see it in other players too during games in how often we shuttle the ball from right to left and you just know that almost every play that receives a pass is looking towards the right flank to see if they can hit a ball to Salah and if not we start recycling again.

Think we as a team put too much pressure on Salah to be the be all and end all, and when he is having an off day or a day when he is simply up against defenders that can stick we him, we still keep trying to hit balls to him rather than trying to exploit any spaces created by the other team watching Salah.


The other side of that is course that we are now very much coming to the end of the Klopp era when it comes to the available squad, and from next season on we will see what a Slot team containing new players that Slot wants will look like and play.

[Mark79]

We’ve missed Trent, but it’s been compounded by not having any of our other RB options available either.

We looked far better once Bradley came on on Sunday and restored some shape and balance to our build up.

[Cerbie]

We’ve missed Trent, but it’s been compounded by not having any of our other RB options available either.

We looked far better once Bradley came on on Sunday and restored some shape and balance to our build up.

We looked a lot more threatening with Bradley than we did with Jones at RB.

[Mark79]

[ame]https://twitter.com/_pauljoyce/status/1909999752348868827[/ame]

[BigChief]

Conflicted feelings.

[BobTheCharmer]

Madness.

[Mark79]

2 years sounds good.

Same for Virgil.

[Buzzo]

Great news

This means we can move forwards with some continuity and potentially still receive a fee for him.

He deserves it for his performances this season.

[Buzzo]

2 years sounds good.

Same for Virgil.

These two guys have pretty much dragged us to the edge of winning our second league title is 30 odd years.

[Charly]

I feel like this is a lot of other players we need to bring in. Another striker to replace Nunez, another midfielder or two (if we lose Elliott) Both fullbacks and another centreback.

Deferring losing Mo may work better (depends on how or who we replace him). I do hope we are not stuck witha dead weight who we are afraid to substitue or drop when he plays ****e. I feel like he is becoming bigger than the team and that he is undroppable, and I am not expecting him to improve in terms of performances (early season).

[Kenneth]

It's going to take a strong manager to make this work out I think. Mo cannot be an automatic starter for two more years. Hopefully slot is that man.

[Sus]

It's going to take a strong manager to make this work out I think. Mo cannot be an automatic starter for two more years. Hopefully slot is that man.

Exactly. Great news if he is treated the same as every other player in the squad