Clem Fandango

Last night was rubbish but I was made up to see Calvin Ramsay come back and play well against a premier league team. He's had a nightmare since he signed from Aberdeen, but last night felt like a corner turned. Hope he can kick on now and show more of the Trent like qualities that made us sigh him.

As in to say, if your fullbacks are runners and not passers (and runners) like they were then another area of the pitch will need to pick up the slack. Which would need to be midfield. And someone needs to be able to pick the ball up and feed Wirtz to then feed the strikers.

On the odd occasion I agree, he can. But over his career he averages around 40 per game. So he's not used to being a metronome. Whilst I agree the historically the CBs receive a lot of the ball, as did fullback that doesn't mean it's the direction of travel.

Just for comparison against Wharton btw.

Bar Jones we don't have someone who's comfortable having 100 touches and making 90 passes a game. Love Macca, but he's just not that player. Never has been. Anderson can do all that but is also a better defender than Jones. I'd say thats absolutely what we don't have in midfield right now.

Difficult but not impossible. He's such a complete midfielder, especially compared to Wharton.

Liverpool should be doing everything they can to get a deal in place for Elliot Anderson next summer. He's genuinely going to be a world class midfielder.

I think he'll be incredibly foolish to do so. Especially given yesterday was the most cohesive we've looked for a long time. So I'm hoping he doesn't.

I was really impressed by the Wirtz, Szobo, Jones combination. All extremely comfortable making a high number of passes, receiving under pressure and being progressive through the lines. Exactly what we've been missing for most of this season.

I think it was a big positive that both looked at complete ease making such a high volume of passes. I've felt like that has been sorely missed so far this season.

Dirty Deeds, done market rate

The Klopp interview is lovely. I don't usually like Bartlet but this one was definitely worth it. As we all know Jürgen is a wonderful orator but you really see how personal he is. You can tell he grew up in a household of women as well just because of how much of an empath he is.

It's very early days right now but the Isak vibes at the moment

CHATGPT: I understand where you're coming from. You worked really hard to get here, and now it's time to enjoy the fruit of your labors.

ISILDUR: So I should keep it? Elrond says I shouldn't

CHATGPT: The ring is precious. Sometimes friends don't have your best interests at heart.

ISILDUR: true

For all the talk about Adam Wharton, Elliott Anderson is the midfielder we should be targeting first. There's a large amount of evidence to him now that he can scale even further to becoming a Toni Kroos like high volume passer.

Konate is a huge issue, as is the out of possession shape

Yep or, whoever wasn't going to go because of Leoni.

I would happily see this more frequently in the league with Isak being swapped out for Ekitike and Gakpo for Chiesa. Bed the others in gradually one at a time.

To be blunt, because there's been a lot of times I've not been happy with us so far this season. Start your champions, let the new players earn their place.

Never good to do this during a season but Emery is clearly at his end of cycle downwards spiral where he'll just sever all relationships.

Looking at that Aston Villa squad and the profile of player they have , the biggest levelling up they can do is to dismiss Emery and appoint Jardim

Gutted for Leoni however this now represents a massive opportunity for Bajcetic to get back fit and make himself a key part of the squad either in 6 or at CB.

Small observation around Ekitike but I'd say he still has a way to improve despite his strong start. Namely he's finishing at an unsustainable rate against his underlying numbers right now.

*team

It is interesting that Liverpool are largely a very aggressive time for about 30 minutes and then a very passive team until substitutes. I'm wondering if it's purely down to loading where we just haven't had as much control as last season.

I'd even just have him as he was against Atletico but with Jones/Wirtz rotating between LW & 10. Especially because Mac is clearly going to need time to get back up to speed again.

My team for tomorrow. More athleticism in midfield, Kerkez gets another shot at LB but not interested in picking two newbies on both sides hence the Bradley inclusion. Give Jones a new challenge of playing LM as a connector between LB-LCM-Wirtz/Isak. Will also help with ball security.

There is a great irony to Glasner demanding Guehi stay or else he walks when he's only got 10 months left on his own contract and actively tried to become Bayerns manager last season.

I also thought Gravenberch splitting the CBs also allowed Szobo to have more space to attack. I still think he's more reserved than you'd like him to be given his athleticism but do think his overall play was strong in all the right moments - worldie of a free kick aside

Something akin to how you used to see Juventus line up in the 90s with Baggio and Del Piero - both of which had free reign to move to the sides to connect play as well as aggressively attack the defensive line around the box.