Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2019/2020

RoboKlopp wrote: »

Leicester will ship plenty goals under Rodgers. That's a given.

Agent Coulson wrote: »

We've had some memorable European semi finals on the way to the last 4 Champions League Finals the club played in.

Chelsea on pens 2007

steve_r wrote: »

Well said.

He also shone in games like Leicester and West Ham when the team was finding it hard going - his scoring run at that time kept the show on the road.
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The business and sporting success of Liverpool in the current campaign is rooted in the strategy drawn by Jürgen Klopp in May 2017. Required to present a plan to assault the major titles, Premier and Champions, the German coach met with the leaders to to inform them that, after a season of tests, it came to the conclusion that the tactical scheme that best suited the template was 4-3-3 and that in that module Phil Coutinho could only stand out at one end. When the club raised the possibility of signing Mohammed Salah , the coach told the management that he thought it was fine but that the position with Coutinho should be disputed. Never with Mané or Firmino, which he judged unquestionable.


In the offices of Liverpool were not surprised to see that the leaders embraced as if they had won a title when on 6 January closed the transfer of Coutinho to Barca for 160 million euros , a record after Neymar and Mbappé. Never the sale of the third most expensive soccer player in history meant less sacrifice and more benefit for a major club.


MORE INFORMATION
Sadio Mané controls a ball with his chest.
Sadio Mané controls a ball with his chest. LINDSEY PARNABY AFP
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Klopp: "I do not just want to win, I want to feel too!"
Influenced by the traditional German school, Klopp starts from a basic principle: before players , to be competitive at the highest level their players must be regular. Regularity, according to his philosophy, is linked to the biological element. It serves little that the players handle concepts and are skilled if they are not reliable in the execution of the pressing when they do not have the ball and constant in the unmarked when they have it. Klopp's experiments in the 2016-17 academic year focused on checking how the players adapted to the physical demands imposed on them by the division of tasks in the different spaces assigned by the 4-2-3-1 and 4-3- 3.

The tests put the emphasis on transitions: attack-defense and defense-attack. From the beginning, they revealed that Coutinho was a magnificent intermittent player. His cardiovascular system did not allow him to make efforts at the levels of Firmino, Mané, Can, Wijnaldun, Milner, Oxlade-Chamberlain or Lallana. The midfielders who most suited 4-3-3 last year were, based on the results of the tests, Henderson as midfielder and Wijnaldun with Can as flyers.

Explosive and decisive in short spaces, Coutinho lacked the heart and lungs to perform with continuity in the great spaces of the midfield. In the physical tests that simulated situations of the game, after two sprints60 meters Coutinho could not recover without remaining half a minute completely stopped. Too much, given the tactical demands. With the emphasis on permanent dynamism, Klopp discarded Coutinho to integrate the midfield in the 4-3-3. Even when he placed it as an end, he found that it disengaged in the folds. During several days he tried a 4-2-3-1 to place him behind the point, with a smaller radius of action to avoid suffering. If he played as a second point he could stay off the hook without generating serious imbalances, while the rest of the team was ordered 20 meters back. But the 4-2-3-1, in Klopp's opinion, did not allow the team to occupy the spaces in the most efficient way possible.

From perplexity to laughter
Barca's first offer for Coutinho amounted to 60 million euros, about a year ago. Klopp's reaction was perplexing. He thought that Barcelona had the three squares of the attack covered with Messi, Suarez and Neymar. When they told him that Bartomeu would sign Dembelé to replace Neymar and offer more than 100 million for Coutinho to act as relay for Iniesta, his amazement broke into hilarity. According to an employee of the English club, Klopp was blunt: "Coutinho is a fabulous striker but he will never feel comfortable in 4-3-3 as an inside; and much less if he has to play in the post of Iniesta in the 4-4-2 that Valverde practices in the defensive phase, where the longest runs should do the wings. Iniesta is a long distance runner. Coutinho no. "

With Coutinho as an insider in 4-3-3, this season Liverpool sank against Sevilla (3-3) in the Champions League, and drew Anfield against Burnley (1-1). The two parties had the character of trials and both provided clear evidence. In December, Klopp had no doubts about Coutinho's incompatibility as a midfielder. The statistics did not guarantee to be a starter in the front. In the 2016/17 season Coutinho played 36 games, scored 14 goals and had nine assists; while in the 46 matches that this course adds, Salah has scored 41 goals and has given 13 assists.

Two weeks ago, Liverpool eliminated Manchester City from the Champions League and this Tuesday is measured against Roma in the first leg of the semifinals. Salah's adaptation to the far right made Phil Coutinho the most expensive substitute in history. Made the transfer to Barça, the team of the reds boasts of being the beneficiary of an economic ball whose sporting consequences seem equally spectacular.

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Spur's are a few signing from being a really really good side
Don't forget they barley played a home game in the last 2 season's

Dickerty wrote: »

This is why, for me, he's more important than Salah. He just terrorises defenders every game, like Firmino but in more dangerous areas. Salah can be less present in some games, can cause attacks to break down by trying to beat one too many, not getting into the box to get on the end of things. But they all contribute to the whole.

I also think he's the hardest to replace - pace, finishing with both feet and head, attitude, fitness levels...

monkey9 wrote: »

Remember back when he was at Southampton and he was being linked with Man U? Pheeeewww!!

Turtyturd wrote: »

He probably wouldn’t get into the team ahead of Rashford or Martial.