Liverpool need to bench two players to avoid ‘wheels falling off’ on season

Liverpool have won nine of their first 10 games but the wheels could come off, says one fan in the Mailbox. We also have more on the Champions League and VAR.

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Glass half-empty take on Liverpool

When Liverpool scraped by Wolves a few days ago the consensus was the performance and marked lack of fluidity made the difference between top side in the league (us) and rock bottom (them) appear barely discernible.

So heading into the Bologna match anticipating some kind of reaction, it was rather disappointing to witness only a short-lived one. Perhaps playing your same 9- or 10-odd of the XI each week out with nary any rotation will do that, but I suppose time tells.

The width of MacAllister’s grin after opening the scoring was matched only by the breadth of space he was gifted to tap in. For twenty minutes and 1-0 up it looked a question of win by how many as we played video game football, stringing together extraordinary passing sequences, some of which appeared almost arrogant in vision and execution. That is, until the script flipped with little warning and suddenly Bologna made themselves a menace, passing up numerous opportunities to level the terms. Lucky for us.

I don’t consistently watch enough other teams’ football to know if this is a general pattern or just one we appear to trademark, but it does seem we quite enjoy conceding an early goal to then be spared a blush by an offside flag before fully waking up. It’s like clockwork at Anfield, it happens nearly on basis, and it has bridged several seasons now. And of course sometimes there’s no flag to save us and we essentially begin matches in arrears.

The stateside studio after-show had Carragher purring about Salah’s strike to double the advantage in what amounts to the most basic, trite game analysis, but Salah won’t dream of getting that time or space against any top side with competent defenders. I see a nervy, shite October if we don’t lift performances. Anybody with eyeballs understands our fixture list becomes considerably more challenging post-interlulls, I’d hate to see Slot’s excellent start to Merseyside life undermined because we hit the snooze button a few times too many.

Klopp famously called Darwin Nunez “handsome” but the Uruguayan’s face betrays him at every turn, even with time in the box he is bereft of ideas or confidence, and he truly lives offside doesn’t he. I still don’t know how his career will go, but if pushed to bet I’d say he’s headed anywhere from mid-table prem to somewhere glitzy but empty, like a PSG. But for Liverpool… I just don’t see it with him, despite all his occasional flickers of undoubted brilliance and his endless graft.

Also, Szoboszlai and his small feet have played small all season long, no attempts at crazy scorpion assists will cover any blemishes and gaps in his game. Curtis Jones hasn’t impressed much in his stead either; Elliott can’t come back soon enough. The longer-term view (or the more truthful one) is we’re probably still one light in midfield, someone of world-class starting quality to come in so Szoboszlai can shift to being a strong presence off the bench, or at least share the duties.

Look, I hear myself now and this is clearly a rant on a day we’ve won and probably if I take a step back it could seem disingenuous and inaccurate. I know it’s nowhere close to doom and gloom and crikey Gravenberch is playing out of his skin, looking better with nearly every touch. He rumbles about like a lithe, prime Yaya Toure, and if he ever adds a reliable strike to his game, watch out.

But throwing a nightcap on a turd here, I do believe our results haven’t told the entire story thus far. Liverpool do need to put forth better showings, beginning at Palace. After that the stabilizers come off, but I hope the wheels don’t.

Eric, Los Angeles CA (The referee from Montenegro was deplorable tonight. I don’t know his name and I don’t want to. Where do they find these people.)

Did VAR really spoil Villa fun?

Quick question to all Villa fans please, as it’s a point I hear raised over and over – VAR Spoils goals…?!!

Did VAR spoil your celebrations last night?

Or did you go batshit mental when it went it and then AGAIN when it was confirmed? And you got to lose your minds twice?

VAR only spoils things when you lose right?

Well done the Villa, some result that!

Al – LFC, Still quietly going about our business without making headlines. Loving it.

Well done Villa

I know there have been a couple of mails recently about opposition fans enjoying the demise of a rival team, but I thought I would buck the trend and offer praise to Villa.

As an Arsenal fan they aren’t necessarily my favourite team, owing to their role in us missing out on the title last year, however, I still have a soft spot for Emery. Don’t get me wrong, I think time has shown that him being sacked by Arsenal was the correct decision, but he is clearly an excellent football manager and always came across as a nice guy. It’s pleasing to me to see him do so well.

I even begrudgingly like Martinez. I think people forget how happy he was to win the FA Cup with Arsenal and he should have replaced Leno, that was one of the few mistakes Arteta has made. Thankfully its been rectified now, but I don’t think Arsenal would be worse off with Emi between the sticks.

So there you go, football fandom doesn’t need to be tribal all the time, sometimes we can just be happy for a fellow club following a belting performance and result, just please for the love of god don’t turn us over at the Emirates again please Unai.

Andrew

All hail the finishers

After Jhon Duran’s heroics last night it begs the question of whether we should be seeing football borrow a concept from Rugby Union and embracing the “super sub” role.

When Eddie Jones was managing the England national rugby team he would refuse to label his subs/replacements using those terms and instead would call them “finishers”. Subs were not there to make up numbers and, rather, every player in the squad was used each match day. In a similar vein, the South African team have taken this concept to a whole new level in recent years, having a “bomb squad” where they introduce subs en masse (up to 7 at a time) to replace a pack that has spent 40-50 minutes beating up the opposition forwards. Their introduction of fresh giants would invariably demoralise the opposition further.

While things didn’t end up too well for Eddie, he certainly had an element of success with this in early years and it was often replicated. South Africa have been phenomenally successful with the approach, winning multiple world cups.

While football has had a few notable “super subs” (Solksjaer, Origi and Duran spring to mind), substitutions generally have been used sparingly and more to cover injuries or make tactical tweaks. For example to bring on a defensive player to shore things up, or, conversely, an attacking player for a defender when chasing a goal.

There, of course, was an element of necessity to this when subs were limited to three per game – managers could not be as laissez-faire with emptying the bench given the inherent risk of suffering an injury and having to finish a game a man down.

However, now that there is an increased number of substitutions available, as well as bigger squad sizes (thanks Chelsea) owing to a greater number of games should we see a switch in that mentality? Should managers look to have a Firmino type false 9 pulling a defender all sorts of directions and tiring them out, only to replace them with a stronger, more direct option to attack a fatigued defender?

With a squad like City’s could they rotate players and then bring on the likes of a De Bruyne and Haaland in a 55th minute to strike a bit of fear into opponents and gain a mental edge?

It may seem crazy not to start your best players, but South Africa have shown that it can and does work. Ox Nche for example was a player that did not start throughout the entire world cup but would come on and fully change a game – getting into the conversation for world player of the year elect in the process.

When you have a player like Haaland scoring 200 goals a season, of course you play him all the minutes you can. But my tuppence worth is that managers should be analysing the types of players that are more suited to this type of role and utilising them in that way.

Richard (there is also good examples from Hurling teams in Ireland but that’s going a bit too much into the unfamiliar for a lot of readers!), Limerick

What the Swiss model games should look like

As a sequel to the last time I wrote in about this, here is an estimate of what the third round of fixtures would look like, if the Champions League was actually using a real “Swiss Model” to pair similar-level teams each round:

Brest vs Dortmund

Leverkusen vs Benfica

Juventus vs Liverpool

Inter Milan vs Aston Villa

Sparta Prague vs Manchester City

Sporting CP vs Atalanta

Monaco vs Arsenal

Barcelona vs Bayern

PSG vs Real Madrid

Celtic vs Lille

Feyenoord vs Brugge

PSV vs Atlético

Bologna vs Stuttgart

Dinamo Zagreb vs Shakhtar

Girona vs Leipzig

Milan vs Sturm Graz

Salzburg vs Belgrade

YB vs Bratislava

So, again, if they had actually done the thing they claim to be doing, we would probably be getting a very interesting third round of fixtures. Albeit with an insufficient amount of jeopardy to make any of it matter beyond determining who gets to avoid the Round of 32, but still.

Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland

The real problem with the Champions League

I’d just like to throw in a little sideline about what I think is increasingly becoming a problem with the Champions League, and it’s not the new, shit format.

Over the last decade or so, many of Europe’s lesser leagues have become dominated by single clubs, be it RB Salzburg in Austria, Young Boys in Switzerland or the likes of Celtic and Shaktar (which does go back further, but still). The issue is, these teams are following the football trends of the day. Play a high line and dominate possession. The Champions League money flows in creating a financial disparity which only widens the divide and voila, they’re the Man City of their country.

The problem for the Champions League is, these high-line, possession heavy sides then come along and play the actual Man City. Or Real. Or Bayern. And they have absolutely no idea how to play when they’ve got to sit in a low block and have less than 30% possession. They then get absolutely shellacked by four, five, six or whatever, only to bank the cash, maintain the gap domestically, and do it all again next season. Feels kinda pointless.

Lewis, Busby Way

Just make it a knock-out

The Champions League format is certainly more interesting, but they still haven’t got it right.

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again. Europe’s premier competition needs to follow the FA Cup’s format.

Arsenal’s result was excellent and Villa’s was even better, but imagine this round of fixtures were all one-off knockout affairs.

PSG, Bayern and Real would all be out. What’s not to like?!

Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

What Man Utd really need to do

Since the weekend I have resisted the temptation to write in about the latest Man Utd debacle and decided instead just to listen to the fans (isn’t that what pundits always say we should do?)

These are the fans who love Utd, like obsessively, crazily, ignore your family and entire life way. Just the same as I am with Liverpool.

I used always feel like I knew more than certain managers (Hello Roy and Brendan!) and it was only when FSG appointed Klopp that I finally felt I could stop worrying about my club. Basically I know what you’re going through lads and it’s rough.

So what are the faithful saying? In my two day study I tried to disassociate myself from the usual football narratives and just focus on key words and themes that were emerging from the data (doesn’t that sound very impressive?!)

In the spirit of qualitative research (again highlighting my credentials and overall cleverness) certain key themes emerged from the data.

In order to fix this mess the following seems to be of utmost importance from the fans perspective:

1. Getting young players and keeping them hungry.

2. Getting rid of “deadwood.”

3. Finding a “totetmic figure” to bring the club back to greatness.

The fans are frustrated firstly that this isn’t happening, although some feel it has happened and hasn’t helped (particularly with reference to removing deadwood) and also remain realistic about the difficulties of finding their totemic figure.

As an outsider from the tribe it appears the needs of the tribe are clear but require some creativity to implement.

Assuming the role of creative genius I conducted a thought experiment to see if this could solve the underlying issues. I employed really clever modern methods such as thinking outside the box, lateral thinking and trying to shift the paradigm combined with the wisdom of the elders and mythos.

1. Keep young players hungry is the question. Keep young players hungry is the answer. Dovetailing beautifully with Jim Ratcliffes cost cutting measures this answer is hiding in plain sight. Rationing of food to young players should be implemented – older players do not have the constitution to endure severe fasting regimes and are already established in the team so have little incentive. Meanwhile Noo Man Yoo young players (less than 23) would literally play for their supper and failure to perform would curtail their rations until such as point as they shone or required parenteral nutrition.

2. Getting of “deadwood”. Fans have clearly highlighted this as an issue but also pointed out that the clubs approach to date – removing useless players and replacing them with other useless players isn’t working and perhaps the players aren’t the problem.

To this unbiased eye I have to agree, the players aren’t the issue, it’s the furniture.

We’ve heard for too long that Man Utd players are “too comfortable” and that this is reflected in their efforts on the pitch. The solution? Jim Ratcliffe and his team remove all chairs available to players and staff at Old Trafford and whatever playground they train at.

In the ultimate corrective action all players and staff at Noo Man Yoo would stand for the duration of their shifts (sitting can be done in one’s own time.) This would improve physique (imagine those calf muscles) and alertness but most importantly symbolically the club would literally be standing up to face a new era of dominance.

3. In a neat segway this would also solve the 3rd major issue highlighted by fans in the road to redemption for the club, the need for a totemic figure.

Local artists and craftsmen would be employed to fashion a giant totemic head from the removed furniture into a replica of Sir Alex Fergusons head. Rising 100m in the air this head would be the largest and most impressive totemic head in all of English football and would be the masterpiece of Noo Man Yoo. It would sit imposingly in the front of the ground greeting all players, staff and fans on entry.

Opposition players and fans would see the head as they approach Old Trafford and would feel their valour and resolve dissolve in its shadow. I suspect No Man Yoo would not even need a “manager” again solving their perennial search for a new saviour and the head would govern all with its presence (perhaps uttering “it’s just spurs lads or other such works periodically in a deep baritone) and would forever immortalise and implement “The Man United way” which was once spoken of by sages like Gary and Roy but is now near forgotten.

I know I shouldn’t share this as opposition fan but seeing this great and gracious club suffer for as long as it has pains my soul.

Get it done Jim, get it done.

Dave LFC