2023/24 Season

[Buzzo]

It’s been months since then. It will have evaporated by now.

I'm imagining they moved that £115m to a sub account, swung into it for £18m for Endo.

...So we've got £97m burning a hole in our pocket?

[Doc_Piptorious]

I'm imagining they moved that £115m to a sub account, swung into it for £18m for Endo.

...So we've got £97m burning a hole in our pocket?

Minus the 35m or whatever for Gravenberch.


See it's getting smaller



Also was it not 111m that we bid and Chelsea paid 115m?

[Buzzo]

Minus the 35m or whatever for Gravenberch.


See it's getting smaller



Also was it not 111m that we bid and Chelsea paid 115m?

Ah yeah forgot about him.

Still £50-60m plus whatever we planned for this window already?

[Doc_Piptorious]

Ah yeah forgot about him.

Still £50-60m plus whatever we planned for this window already?

and the 200m we get for TAA , the 125m for Salah and the tenner for Darwin

[Craig_H]

Ah yeah forgot about him.

Still £50-60m plus whatever we planned for this window already?

They’ll say that went on the Anny Rd stand.

[peterbread]

Is tonight’s game hopefully a return to the normal 433. How much better did they look. Even when Trent hasn’t played Gomez has still been inverting but not tonight. Much more balanced. Defence and attack looked much better. I know West Ham weren’t great but that better balanced formation made the team look more like the old machine and was it more that or West Ham being poor.

I like Elliot in midfield but he was great out wide tonight. He’s young and has plenty of time to get midfield minutes but for now give him more games there. It gives Mo some proper competition and a genuine alternative. I imagine he’ll be starting there when Mo is away next month.

If Elliot moves into the front three again then the obvious is to make Trent a permanent midfielder as we have the space in the squad. It looks inevitable now as he’s getting played there more and more.

Gomez deserves the RB slot and is good enough to be first choice. Let Bradley to be the back up but also go for a CB/RB in January especially if we go back to a proper 433. Quansah and Konate can both play the left sided CB. Get in someone to cover RB and the right sided CB role.

Everyone looked better with the normal formation. Endo looked more comfortable, Jones was back to his best and Szoboszlai found some form again.

Now watch us play the usual formation on Saturday.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Is tonight’s game hopefully a return to the normal 433. How much better did they look. Even when Trent hasn’t played Gomez has still been inverting but not tonight. Much more balanced. Defence and attack looked much better. I know West Ham weren’t great but that better balanced formation made the team look more like the old machine and was it more that or West Ham being poor.

I like Elliot in midfield but he was great out wide tonight. He’s young and has plenty of time to get midfield minutes but for now give him more games there. It gives Mo some proper competition and a genuine alternative. I imagine he’ll be starting there when Mo is away next month.

If Elliot moves into the front three again then the obvious is to make Trent a permanent midfielder as we have the space in the squad. It looks inevitable now as he’s getting played there more and more.

Gomez deserves the RB slot and is good enough to be first choice. Let Bradley to be the back up but also go for a CB/RB in January especially if we go back to a proper 433. Quansah and Konate can both play the left sided CB. Get in someone to cover RB and the right sided CB role.

Everyone looked better with the normal formation. Endo looked more comfortable, Jones was back to his best and Szoboszlai found some form again.

Now watch us play the usual formation on Saturday.

Both Szobo and Elliot had someone in Gomez that linked with them and that caused overlaps.

That changed how we looked and how we were balanced straight away.

And the thing is that Gomez actually did invert quite a bit last night. But he also bust a gut to shuttle back to the RB position and to go wide.

Watched a recording of the first half when I got in last night and watched the second half this morning , and it was striking how more cohesive the team as a whole was with Gomez just doing the inverted role with no fuss and no muss.

Nothing fancy, just a lot of hard work and a lot of good positioning and making himself available to other players.

Gomez has quietly been very good in most of the games he started this season and especially the ones in which he was used as a RB/inverted RB.

[RedReet]

Admittedly West Ham were cooked, but worth nothing Trent still got two assists when he came on.

Good to see Gomez maintain his good form this season though.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Admittedly West Ham were cooked, but worth nothing Trent still got two assists when he came on.

Good to see Gomez maintain his good form this season though.

Was not trying to knock TAA in the slightest, rather was praising Gomez and also noting that using the inverted role in a more disciplined manner brought a lot of balance to the team, playing a big part in making a decent team in West Ham look ordinary, as it has done when Gomez started in other games this season.


That for me is not as simple as a Gomez vs TAA debate, it is more down to Klopp and how he has one playing in a more diciplined version of the role and the other being let stay infield in more or less a free role.


Same role, very different levels of flexibility when playing it.


But take the performance Gomez put in last night, that willingness to go wide and to return to RB, the constant availability to over and under lap with the RCM and RM along wioth the pinging in of crosses.

Now put TAA there doing the same albeit with the even greater range of passing and playmaking that comes with TAA and it becomes even more puzzling that Klopp does not want that.

[RedReet]

Was not trying to knock TAA in the slightest, rather was praising Gomez and also noting that using the inverted role in a more disciplined manner brought a lot of balance to the team, playing a big part in making a decent team in West Ham look ordinary, as it has done when Gomez started in other games this season.


That for me is not as simple as a Gomez vs TAA debate, it is more down to Klopp and how he has one playing in a more diciplined version of the role and the other being let stay infield in more or less a free role.


Same role, very different levels of flexibility when playing it.


But take the performance Gomez put in last night, that willingness to go wide and to return to RB, the constant availability to over and under lap with the RCM and RM along wioth the pinging in of crosses.

Now put TAA there doing the same albeit with the even greater range of passing and playmaking that comes with TAA and it becomes even more puzzling that Klopp does not want that.

My post was supposed to say, 'worth noting', not sure if you interpreted 'worth nothing' as in meaning 'did his assists count as nothing to you?'.

Was as much a note to myself for future reference when discussing what Trent adds, but also an illustration of why Trent is such a conundrum as individually he offers so much.

Totally agree with what you are saying, but I'm also sure Trent has played the role similarly in at least one or two games. There are definitely some games where he's a lot more central and others he's stayed wider like Gomez last night. Likewise that's not a Trent > Gomez comment, but an observation already discussed, one which I said I'd love to hear insight from Klopp/Pep or Trent imself.

[Doc_Piptorious]

My post was supposed to say, 'worth noting', not sure if you interpreted 'worth nothing' as in meaning 'did his assists count as nothing to you?'.

Was as much a note to myself for future reference when discussing what Trent adds, but also an illustration of why Trent is such a conundrum as individually he offers so much.

Totally agree with what you are saying, but I'm also sure Trent has played the role similarly in at least one or two games. There are definitely some games where he's a lot more central and others he's stayed wider like Gomez last night. Likewise that's not a Trent > Gomez comment, but an observation already discussed, one which I said I'd love to hear insight from Klopp/Pep or Trent imself.

No I took the nothing as being a typo



Though I do not think TAA plays the role anything like how Gomez does and vice versa.

TAA most certainly has a free role compared to Gomez when one starts and not the other, and the dynamic of the team is changed drastically depending on which one starts imo.

To be honest I am not sure I would want to hear what Klopp/Pep/TAA would have to publically say about the role tbh as what would be said would imo be very much in the interest of team/player morale and what not.

Now the thinkings that go on in Klopp's head and what gets said behind closed doors, that I would love to be privy to and to hear an elaboration on what the hoped for ideal final evolution of the set up would be.


I think we have two versions at present. The not quite working, well maybe say not quite balanced rather than working, variation which is the box in the centre set up when TAA starts, and the more traditional version when Gomez starts at RB.


I say two versions because I think the TAA starting version sees TAA focus on central play/free roaming for maybe 80% of his game time and RB duties taking up maybe 20% .


Gomez starts and that looks to flip the RB duties along with right flank play ( including both attacking RB positions and going in to cover the RCM when that player moves out of position) to being 80% of what he does and going into the central spot near the 6 taking up 20%.

It just catches my eye so much as the differences are so stark.

The latter break down of positioning seems more suited to the personel that we currently have, but the former looks like it could be devastating had we a top tier DM (technically good to excellent along with being a physical specimen) with a fast mobile LCB in the back line instead of a LB.


But our midfield make up then looks off were we to go buy a top DM as we suddenly have a lot of players for the LCM spot and are slightly unbalanced with our player types for when TAA moves and/or the RCM moves.

It almost makes more sense then if TAA was left be one of the CM at the top half of the box and a more "steady" option left being part of a pivot with the DM.

But if we used Szobo to be the steady one then we are back to square pegs and round holes as he is far better when left to attack and drive forward.

So that then means looking at a LCM to be the one to give way and become part of the pivot with the DM. The obvious choice there being MacAlllister based on how he did similarish with BHA.

Though where that all falls down for me is that if TAA is moved further up the pitch his time on the ball gets reduced the closer he gets to the other teams final third and I am unconvinced of his ability to constantly receive a ball under the sort of pressure a central player would be under in that part of the pitch. I think his ranged passing is far more effective when it can stretch play or split a line, the further up the pitch he goes the less scope there is for those sort of balls and he has to rely more and more on quick short passing and those play changing long balls of his become less of a factor.


Thank feck I only have to worry about turning on my xbox when it comes to footy and can leave real footy to people like Klopp that know what they are doing.

[RedReet]

I'm maybe not explaining very well. Basically I'm just saying that there have been games I have commented that Trent is playing a lot wider than usual and likewise, noticed Gomez playing more centrally compared to games like last night. Admittedly, some of that may have been preseason (particularly Gomez playing more central) when I was paying more attention to that sort of ****, but I've definitely joked about Trent playing a hybrid-hybrid role at times this year. I also questioned whether it was game management or predetermined, but he was noticeably much wider than we'd seen last year (probably be easier if I go find the games I'm referring to. ).

I've actually forgot my point now as I started replying earlier, but it's probably covering old ground.

On the insight point, yes I meant what the actual tactics and instructions are and the full reasoning behind them, not an 'extra body in midfield' or 'get the best out of Trent' comment.

[Doc_Piptorious]

I'm maybe not explaining very well. Basically I'm just saying that there have been games I have commented that Trent is playing a lot wider than usual and likewise, noticed Gomez playing more centrally compared to games like last night. Admittedly, some of that may have been preseason (particularly Gomez playing more central) when I was paying more attention to that sort of ****, but I've definitely joked about Trent playing a hybrid-hybrid role at times this year. I also questioned whether it was game management or predetermined, but he was noticeably much wider than we'd seen last year (probably be easier if I go find the games I'm referring to. ).

I've actually forgot my point now as I started replying earlier, but it's probably covering old ground.

On the insight point, yes I meant what the actual tactics and instructions are and the full reasoning behind them, not an 'extra body in midfield' or 'get the best out of Trent' comment.

No I got what you were saying in both your posts.


Was just giving my own take on it.

[Mark79]

Yet another 12:30

[ame]https://twitter.com/LFC/status/1737790014543811045[/ame]

[Exiled_red]

Yet another 12:30

https://twitter.com/LFC/status/1737790014543811045

I think they are doing it deliberately to piss us off now.