Liverpool FC Forum

[redshade]

It has been an incredible journey to say the least. Post match I was disgruntled, devastated, deflated like many. Last weak was a killer blow to the gonads and yesterday just completely slashed off the bag of jewels.

Anyhow it has been a fantastic effort from the lads.
To challenge City on the final day after being 14 points behind at one stage.
We were excruciatingly close to potentially winning the title had it not been for City quick goals

We've won 2 cups and should've added a third yesterday.

It has been a phenomenal effort, just bugs me that these lads deserve alot more.

To the negatives,

3 finals we played this season and failed to score a goal. We've had around 60+ shots with 17 on target with a return of 0 goals.

Our record vs top 6 was not great this season.

So where do we move on from here......

We are adding Carvalho to our squad but unsure what will happen with Sadio and Salah.

Salah situation is an odd one,is he going to run down his contract??

Thoughts and review guys....

[UvS xR4GEx]

Sadio has just revealed hes leaving the club so that answers a few questions. I think we should sign that Darwin Nunez from Benfica.. he was a real handful and had that nasty edge upfront that you need sometimes.

We need a new center midfielder going forward aswell.. Naby hasn't lived up to expectations and Hendo and Thiago aren't getting any younger. I'd try to still get Tchouameni, but if that fails we should go all out and get Bellingham.

[redshade]

I like Darwin, gets the goals and would flourish under Klopp.

There are few names flying around like Nkunku and Gnabry.
Nothing concrete yet on sadio but these are stats of potential replacements.

Darwin Nunez (Benfica)
Age - 22
Games - 41
Goals - 34
Assists - 4


Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig)
Age - 24
Games - 51
Goals - 35
Assists - 20


Serge Gnabry (Bayern Munich)
Age - 26
Games - 45
Goals - 17
Assists - 10

(From another forum platform)

Salah situation is odd, should we make some money off him before he lets his contract run out? Or enjoy his services for one final season..
I don't think he will sign and can't see owners submitting to his contract demands.

[kazza]

I think hard decisions need to be made about our original front three, it could be only Firmino will stay as he seems to have the least ego of the three (when it comes to playing time). If Salah wants to wind down his contract I say sell him this summer without any question, we need commitment to the cause. I also believe we are in a similar situation in midfield as Hendo, Milner, Thiago all are hitting that age where midfield is more difficult and Ox looks like he will leave. Need cover for Trent also.

I’d say we need one top striker and a prospect  and one top midfielders and a prospect, that should be done organically and to be fair we did bring in Jota and Diaz and both those have proven they can start but are not at the level of Mane and Salah yet. Going to be a summer that shapes our future and if done well could keep us where we are for another 5 years.

[redshade]

We are entering a period where Klopp is forming his second side. I'm hoping we get solid replacements this summer.
I know we score a lot but still feel we need a genuine striker. The amount of chances our lads uptop miss is crazy. A natural goal poacher would be something we should look into.

[Reg]

The biggest lesson for me is that we played too many games and the players were exhausted. We played 8 games in the last 30 days whereas Real Madrid had a month off? If we hadn't chased the FA and League Cups through to Wembley I reckon we would have thrashed them. We don't have the resources to play 65 games a season.

The lads mentioned higher in the thread, Nunez etc.. all played 40 odd games this season. 65? are you surprised our lads ran out of gas?

I hope Klopp has learned his lesson from this campaign, maybe we would have won the league as well?

Onwards and upwards. 

[damjan193]

Good points by redshade in the opening post, I mentioned similar things in the match thread. We were poor against the top sides this season and IMO all of those games had a similar pattern. They play the low block, allow us possession and then get us on the counter when we lose the ball. We were hardly ever allowed a counter attack while the oppo did them against us constantly. Like Klopp said a few times, it's harder to play against a packed, well organized defence that's playing deep, especially if it's against a top side, so why we didn't try the same sometimes is beyond me.

Reg raises a good point as well. We played too many games this season and that took its toll in the final. And it's not just the amount of games we played but the intensity as well. Real had the La Liga title in the bag and could rest for a month while we took the league to the wire. We played every single competition with full intensity all the way to the end and obviously that exhausted our players.

Finally, the Mane and Salah situation. This really is a key point for the club. Mane is obviously going and Salah may go as well. Diaz and Jota were good additions to our team but are they as good as peak Salah and Mane and capable of carrying our attack? And there's a question of our midfield as well as Thiago and Hendo are slowly succumbing to father time. As someone else said, we're almost at the point where Klopp will have to form his second side. We unfortunately don't have the luxury to make wrong signings as some other teams do, so I'm a bit worried about what the future brings for us.

[redshade]

I agree let the opposition at times have the ball, let them drift in gradually in the middle and then hunt the ball down and aim for a quick counter. We were really good at that in Klopp first couple seasons.

We need a quality forward who can get numbers like Salah. Jota,diaz will get good numbers but won't lead the pack like Salah has since his arrived. Salah goals, assist numbers have been exceptional and could've been even more considering the amount of chances he also misses.

Like you said mate the new players Klopp snaps will be crucial to how we continue to challenge for the next few years.

Some rumours going on about Kane, I'm sure they are just trivial rumours. Kane is a prolific goal poacher but his age and injuries, no thanks.

[Reg]

Liverpool's gameplan: Robbo down the wing, passes to Diaz who goes to the byline then crosses.
TAA down the wing, either crosses or passes to Mo who goes to the byline and tries to get the ball across.
Diaz/Mo may cut in so be ready to block their line on goal.
2-3 LFC players waiting in the middle for said crosses.
All Madrid had to do was be ready for the crosses at the end of the day.
We need to change the record.

[woof woof !]

Liverpool's gameplan: Robbo down the wing, passes to Diaz who goes to the byline then crosses.
TAA down the wing, either crosses or passes to Mo who goes to the byline and tries to get the ball across.
Diaz/Mo may cut in so be ready to block their line on goal.
2-3 LFC players waiting in the middle for said crosses.
All Madrid had to do was be ready for the crosses at the end of the day.
We need to change the record.

I've been banging this drum for quite a while now Reg.  We are so predictable ! It's almost a "paint by numbers picture"  If you and I can see it , is it any surprise that oppo teams haven't also maybe noticed it ?   

We've been sussed, so many teams now play a deep defensive "block" against us, draw us on and then look for a quick counter with a ball up and over the top.

Our front three no longer have the space they were previously allowed to run into , they're now quickly closed down and smothered by the opposition.
Solution ?
A world class midfield ! 
Not sure if or how we'll get them 

[Boocity]

For a team that's predictable we still out performed every other team over the whole season. The problem was an aging team running out of steam after a mamouth season. When we first got RM in the final i was convinced we would brush them aside but the last few weeks of the season you could see the drop in performance levels from the players and last week I was really concerned that we would be mugged by RM.

We need a fresh injection of players, a prolific striker and a couple of midfielders, FSG must release the funds, probably over 100m to enable us to keep pace with the likes of City, if they don't we will have half our team over 30. I would also leave the domestic cups to the reserves up until the semis.

[kazza]

Mirror


Sadio Mane contract demands expose Liverpool's red lines after ridiculous Man Utd offer
Manchester United are stuck with players on big salaries as a result of Alexis Sanchez's deal, and Liverpool won't break a wage structure loaded towards bonuses

There is a simple truth hidden in the latest reports about Sadio Mane emanating from Germany, and it asks a huge question about the future direction of Liverpool.

Various media outlets close to Bayern Munich are suggesting the German club are prepared to pay around €20million (£17m) a year to secure the forward on a three-year contract, which equates to around £325,000 a week. And really, that would fit with his situation at Anfield. There is little doubt Mane would have signed a new contract with Liverpool, if they had offered what he felt he was worth.

Mane’s case is very similar to that of Mohamed Salah. Both are 30 this summer, and with time running down, both see their next contract as the biggest and most important of their career. Both feel they are now in the elite bracket of the likes of Robert Lewandowksi, Kevin De Bruyne, Cristiano Ronaldo, Antoine Griezmann, David De Gea and Luis Suarez, who all earn £350,000 a week-plus.

It is understood both Mane and Salah set their figure at around £400,000 a week in talks with Liverpool, which would put them alongside some of the world’s biggest stars, but still behind the likes of Messi, Neymar and now Mbappe. The reasoning was simple enough, they are as valuable to Liverpool as De Bruyne is to City, so deserve a commensurate salary.

But Liverpool were never going to reach those figures, and here’s where the simple truth comes in.

Bayern, Real Madrid, PSG and several English clubs are able to offer more than Liverpool right now in terms of basic salary. Studying Liverpool’s wage bill is actually far more complex than simple base figures, because they load their payments with bonuses for success.

So when Virgil van Dijk is said to be the highest earner at Anfield on £220,000 a week, that doesn’t include his bonus payments…and they would have been astronomic if the Reds had pulled off the quadruple they were a couple of goals and a couple of inches away from. But the fact remains, Liverpool are not willing to break their pay structure, even if they ARE willing to offer bigger bonuses for trophies. For very good reason….they only have to look down the road to Manchester to see what problems that brings.

United are loaded with so many players now that are on eye-watering salaries - with De Gea’s near £400,000-a-week a prime example - because they paid Alexis Sanchez a ridiculous £500,000-a-week.

It is an escalating scale, with each important star wanting parity every time their contract is up for renewal, and sometimes, clubs have to try not to blink in negotiations. Liverpool did that with Emre Can and Gini Wijnaldum, and have not paid a heavy price for letting both go on a free as their contracts ran out. In fact, on both occasions, many would argue they dodged a bullet in not keeping them on massive salaries.

But Mane and Salah are different, because they are both - undoubtedly - amongst the top five in the world right now. And that is where the simple truth comes into play. Other clubs recognise their quality, and are prepared to pay the global going rate - up front - which is why Bayern can get close to Mane’s demands. So can PSG and Real Madrid for that matter, and Barca if they want him enough. City easily could, United and Chelsea too. And this is where the huge question about Liverpool’s direction comes in. Can they afford NOT to pay those wages to their biggest stars?

It is a delicate, almost impossible balancing act. They got away with letting Wijnaldum leave, because they gave Thiago £200,000-a-week as his replacement. Can could go because he wasn’t good enough, as his time at Juventus proved. But if they lose Salah and Mane, how do they replace both? The club has brilliant analytics and scouting departments, and Klopp and his staff including Pep Lijnders have a real eye for emerging talent.

Yet it takes time to develop that young talent into greatness. Salah and Mane are better players now than when they arrived at Anfield, and it took maybe two or three years for them to be truly world class consistently, and certainly more than one summer. So while Liverpool are evolving, whoever signs those players are moving forward. Moving past Liverpool potentially.

That asks questions about what club they want to be. It is all very well - and certainly prudent, sensible, wise even - to set salary caps, but where does it leave the club? It is a risk, and one based on the ability of Jurgen Klopp, who seems to have the Midas touch wherever he goes. But don’t forget, after twice winning the Bundesliga with Dortmund, he couldn’t repeat that feat in his final three years with the club. In fact, his only success in his final three years were two DFL Supercups.

That is because Dortmund operated a policy of allowing big players to leave (usually for big fees) rather than give them massive new contracts, on the premise they would find the talent to replace them. But how do you replace a Lewandowski, a Mario Goetze or a Mats Hummels? Dortmund never did. And the same question can be asked of how to replace a Salah, Mane or van Dijk?

It is a fraught situation: go too far in contract offers, and you could be set back five years like Manchester United have been, or even end up like Barcelona now, or Leeds in the past; don’t go far enough, and you could end up like Arsenal or Spurs, who many feel have been set back by too much caution and pragmatism with their finances.

It is a simple truth, raising complex questions