Nicholas K.

Thankfully for him, sports science is not threadbare like it was back in the day. We've seen it with Virg how well you can recover from a terrible injury like that, he's even better now than he was before. But yes, new CB vital for January now, get it done on New Years if you absolutely have to lol

10/10 joke 😆

Nothing confirmed, and probably won't be until his scans are complete, but rumour has it from the ITV comms crew that they saw a leg brace on the stretcher, hopefully it's precautionary. If it's anything less that 8 weeks then he really got away with one there, cause it didn't look nice..

Surely, SURELY he was thinking "I'm wearing an undershirt so it won't count", but no, it's the act of taking off the jersey that gets you booked, no matter what's underneath. Did no one clarify that to him???

Even in a controlled slower tempo, you need these kinds of players otherwise it gets a bit too predictable from a defender's standpoint.

As for set pieces, Im not sure slot needs him on setpieces. Maybe except for ball deliveries

Yes, him and Grav our best 'livewire' players, opponents just don't know exactly what they'll come up with and they can't stop it either. And that's what's made a few people anxious (unreasonably i think), that they haven't quite seen it yet. Although he was much much better against athletico

I'm not from an english speaking country, so I just call it whatever the people im talking to call it 😂

but im pretty sure the most common nomenclature in the uk is 'match', as in 'matchday' etc

oof ouch, good luck with that chaz, hope it goes well

Exactly, we bought him to be our deadliest playmaker now that Trent has left. He is a good finisher IF he finds himself in that situation but it's not his primary objective. He's incredibly smart with his movements and ball control which break the opponents shape and create passing opportunities

What's different with florian is that he is still a midfielder at the end of the day and isn't really expected to be 'in the post' as you put it. The danger with him comes from slipping away from his marker with brilliant ball control and movement and forcing the defence to start running backwards

It's a bit of a specialist role. F9s start in the regular striker position and then depending on how the play develops, they stay off the shoulder of the defenders OR drop back into the 10 position (where florian plays) to help teams whose system don't have play with number 10s to cope in midfield

Oh ok, then that most closely represents a 'False 9' which is not what Florian is. A false 9 is a striker responsible for both scoring AND dropping back into the 10 position, taking the ball and distributing to oncoming wingers and marauding midfielders making runs into the box from deeper midfield

Liverpool FC - Squad by position

Here's a basic depth chart on where each player starts. Green is their natural position, beige is where they could play when needed but isn't their natural position. Ignore 'SS', it stands for second striker and we don't play with one. Ignore RM and LM for same
www.transfermarkt.com/fc-liverpool...

I'm not really a basketball guy haha I'm not really sure to be honest if they are the same. 🤣 Is the post player the guy who waits almost directly under the hoop with his back against it?

While its become more important than ever for wingers to have good passing ability, its not vital. Also taking the ball with your back turned to your opponent is not common for wingers. Sheer speed and dribbling ability are the most important on the wing, and these are not his best tools in his belt

His pinpoint through-passing primarily (although we haven't quite seen it yet as he's adjusting to a stronger league) and his ability to take the ball that's been fizzed in at him under immense pressure with his back to the opponent, turn on a dime and 'create space' that wasn't there.

Wirtz wouldn't be a perfect winger anywhere really, cause that would be wasting his greatest talents out on the wing, when they are best utilized centrally. He usually only did it in case of injury to other players

Nah it's nothing, happy to help.

Yes, Mo has almost exclusively played out on the right wing, and yes it's the trendy tactical thing right now for left footers to play on the right and right footers to play on the left, just so they can cut inside with their dominant and best foot.

Virgil, Ibou, Giovanni and Joe are centerbacks, they stay central. Fullbacks are the people who play on their outside flanks, as in Robbo, Milos, Jeremy and Conor, and in our system they are very attacking. Notice how they always make deep runs off of the outside of our wingers, that's 'overlapping'

Also just as importantly, Wirtz's dribbling speed and running speed, while at a very high level for a midfielder, is just not quite enough for him to be a winger of Salah's caliber

As for why Wirtz can't fill in for Salah; Wirtz is simply not of the desired footedness for the right wing is Slot's system. Mo is a left footer which he uses from the right wing to cut inside and either create free space for an overlapping fullback and pass to them, or take the shot/pass himself.

Numbers are just a typicality now, they don't mean much. It's primarily for more casual viewers to get a vague sense of a player's capabilities and defensive/offensive responsibilities. There are multiple types of player for each number. A '6' can be a stopper or a playmaker or a mix of the two

But no matter their exact role on the wing they always start from very wide. That's what seperates them from att. midfielders primarily. Plus, their off the ball responsibilities are very different from a proper midfielder.

There's almost never 3 attacking midfielders. The 2 on the outside of the att mid area are wingers, only the central one is part of the midfield technically. Wingers usually in 2025 are what are called "inverted wingers" which cut inside and central instead of taking it to the byline and crossing.

I'd rather get those in the back end of the season after January to be honest. Get these last minute screamers out of the bloodstream early now, keep morale up while we gel in the new system when not much is directly on the line for a few more months still

Ibou's point blank header that he missed from a corner, Chiesa's uncontested header that went about a foot wide, Frimpong's shot from close distance that forced a decent save from the keeper. Plus the penalties always count for about 0.80 xG

Shot at literally while having a debate about american gun violence too

Think his name was 'Brent' or something, can't really say for certain though

So even if he plays both games this international break, he would still have time to change his mind until he gets the 3rd cap

I'm fairly certain your choice is locked in after you feature in a game for the 3rd time. I think you get 2 chances to change your mind. I don't know how many caps he already has, but yes, he would have to play to count for a cap, being called into the squad isn't enough on its own.