Florian Wirtz - Welcome to LFC

[danperkins]

-----Ekitike - - Isak-------
Gakpo - Mac----Szob
-------------Grav---------------------
Robbo-Vvd--Gomez-Bradley

Personally I would like something like this for a few games. Tall side, physical side with pace.

[labourRed]

Site tacticians - what's our best 11 minus Salah? i.e. what will we look like during AFCON?

Not a tactician but rumours are we'll see a different shape after the int'l break and we'll start with Isak and Ekitike. I suspect two up top, diamond will be the direction of travel.

[Doc_Piptorious]

I don't think we bought two strikers to play both as what happens when one is injured.

With what we have i would try below with wirtz as false 9.

Ekitike. Wirtz. Chiesa

Mac

Grav. Dom

Kerkez. VVD. Gomez. Bradley

Might well be two strikers with a diamond behind them, might well be your formation, but we might also have been planning to play one striker with two CF/AM type players behind him and we cetrainly have the players for that.


Might be


----------------------Isak------------------
----------Ekitike----------Wirtz----------


Ekitike being able to go into Isak's spot if Isak is injured and we have Salah, Chiesa and Gakpo all able to go into one of the CF/AM type roles.


Then in the centre


---MacAllister-------Szobo-----


--------Gravenberch------------





But think what holds true to what you and many others have been saying is that we do have the players (and depth) to change our set up whilst not going too light in the centre and whilst being able to drop underperforming players.

[BG1973]

I don't think we bought two strikers to play both as what happens when one is injured.

With what we have i would try below with wirtz as false 9.

Ekitike. Wirtz. Chiesa

Mac

Grav. Dom

Kerkez. VVD. Gomez. Bradley

[Harv]

Site tacticians - what's our best 11 minus Salah? i.e. what will we look like during AFCON?

------isak---ekitike------

----------wirtz-----------


---macca-------dom-----


----------grav------------

then a back 4 with Bradley/Frimpong and Kerkez/Robbo bombing forward providing the width and Macca and Dom providing some cover when they go forward.

Whoever bought these players in the summer surely had this lineup in mind when doing so? It gets the best of all of them from what we've seen at their previous clubs.

Rather than trying to shoehorn them in as Slot seems hellbent on doing.

The problem is Salah really. Can his ego take not starting games? Doubt it.

This idea that we're going after Semenyo is also weird to me. Like sure, he's a beast, but why not sign him in the summer? If you're not going to change formation then why the **** sign Isak, Ekitkie and Wirtz. And also why sell our best proper winger?!?!? It's truly bizarre to be honest.

[Kenneth]

Let's add Ekitike, just for a laugh. He did play, allegedly.

[Kenneth]

And Robbo's

[

[Kenneth]

This was Wirtz's heatmap for the game. It's interesting.

[BigChief]

@ Kenneth. All fair.

But he would have had ample chances to get the ball in space today had Robertson played ball wide to him.

He is a techilnical player with quick feet who you want isolated against a full back. A player with great vision and passing.. I cannot for the life of me understand why Robertson kept cutting back and giving it to vvd.

That's wirtz out wide.

Central.. salah is a problem. The ball goes to salah a lot but is never retained, nothing to play off for anyone.

I cannot see how Wirtz could ever make an impact in this team at the moment. It might be all on him but given the two points above I don"t see it like that.

Wirtz as a left player ended up next to Salah on many occasions. I wonder if he saw something and tried it out on his own volition or if he was directed by the manager? Or he just got fed up seeing Salah always passed the ball and not him.

[badpiggy]

So Frimpong is a squad player? And by usual back four, that's Robertson instead of Kerkez?

[Doc_Piptorious]

My feeling would be usual back 4 and midfield with Ekitike and Isak up front with Wirtz as a #10 behind, untested but I think that gets the best out of most players and gets most of our best players on the pitch

[DerKrampus]

Wirtz had the chance to thread a ball through the middle to Ekitike when we were down 1-0 (I think?) and instead passed it to the left. I mean wtf? Just ****ing try it!

[Exiled_red]

Site tacticians - what's our best 11 minus Salah? i.e. what will we look like during AFCON?

My feeling would be usual back 4 and midfield with Ekitike and Isak up front with Wirtz as a #10 behind, untested but I think that gets the best out of most players and gets most of our best players on the pitch

[badpiggy]

Site tacticians - what's our best 11 minus Salah? i.e. what will we look like during AFCON?

[danperkins]

Yes. The football he has this side playing since early this year is pure ****e, he's shown no signs of being able to change it and has now just spent 400m quid on players he doesn't know how to use...


but yeah Wirtz and kerkez are the issue lol

Nobody said Wirtz & Kerkez are 'the' issue, but they are an issue whether you like to admit it or not and have been very poor. If you are going afford them a pass but yet say you are done with Slot after 11 league games after winning the title last year.... people will call you out on it.

Imo it's pretty obvious that Slot has been very poor this season, is making mistakes and doesn't know his best 11 either because players haven't settled, players are off form or the real worrying one... the balance isn't there because we made the wrong decisions in the transfer window. It's not great whatever way you swing it but also there has to be some responsibility on the players too and it's also pretty evident to me many individuals aren't playing well either (Salah being one of them as you often point out) and it seems to most people that Wirtz and Kerkez have been pretty ****. Apart from our eyes, we know this because Kerkez has been dropped for old man Robbo and Wirtz had been in and out and played in multiple positions because it's not working with him yet. Slot doesn't know what to do with him because Wirtz is really struggling to get to grips with the premier league. Ultimately it's up to the manager to get the best out of the players he has but also the players too need to take some responsibility.

I am saying all this and believe it to be true but also I'm not saying I am done with Wirtz or Kerkez at this stage either. I get the anger, usually at this point on forums when LFC are going through a bad patch, people get frustrated and we start to eat each other... happened so many times on here over the years. Let's not do that, the season seems a bust, just too many changes and moving parts to be successful. For me, Slot needs to keep us near too 4 until the January window and then address the imbalances in the side. If it gets untenable before then, maybe we'll see a change. Hopefully it doesn't go that way.