Liverpool FC Premier League Champions 24/25 - Talk /Gossip/Rumours

Circumstances were at play that were beyond Liverpool's control.

It has been in the public domain for months that Liverpool were prepared to offer a record fee for Isak, the £120m number didn't come out of thin air. In May, the Saudi powers that be had made it known that the player wasn't for sale at any price. Newcastle were of the belief that their position on Isak was secure and set about pursuing their own transfer targets, that's when the wheels started to come off.

However without having a Director of Football in place the club has been unable to secure players. Liverpool fell into the same rut a few years ago when Klopp took control of player recruitment. Failing to sign one of Delap, Pedro, Cunha, Mbeumo, or Ekitike has been a massive blow to them. Brentford are holding strong for their £50m evaluation of Wissa to be met.

Sesko was reported to have received an offer from Newcastle over a week ago but has not yet said yes, it would seem that he has doubts about joining them. In the same time frame it was reported that the Saudi position on the sale of Isak had changed. I think this was a face saving move on their part, a Premier League club being unable to strengthen the team while being in the position to offer Champions League football is unheard of.

Since then the reports of a Saudi club from the PIF stable being willing to offer €150m/£130m for Isak along with a £600k per week contract surfaced. The Saudi's are now willing to let Isak join Liverpool, but they need to save face in the process.

Selling Isak without being able to secure a replacement would be a total humiliation for them.

My issue with it, apart from it been a petulant action at the best of times. Is it brings additional scrutiny on what will be a huge transfer saga if it materialises. Noting like living up to the pressure of being one of the biggest premier league transfers of all time, but by practically going on strike to force that transfer through...

Some interesting analysis on possible formations this year - https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cqlerrl7dr3o

If Isak comes. I don't see all 4 starting. With 2 wingback already in the team, we would need more legs centrally to cover the gaps. I think we'll line up something like this. On paper it will look like Wirtz is starting left of a front 3, but with Kerkez out wide it gives him the freedom to move in and link up with the midfield. And with Frimpong out wide on the right, it gives Salah the freedom to move in closer to the goal.

I think it'll depend on who we play. Given who's available at the moment I'd see something like this against lower teams - front 4 of Wirtz in the 10, Gakpo, Ekitike, Salah as the front three.

Against better teams you may see Szobozlai in midfield and Wirtz on the left with Gakpo missing out.

It'll be very interesting to see how we do switch things up in game and week to week.

Personally I can't see it. Might be something tactically for certain games that he goes LW and Dom comes in for more midfield presence.

But in majority of games I can't see him anywhere but the 10.

I can’t see it happening, you didn’t break your transfer record on a guy, only to play him out of position. However, the formation Ottoman showed, I could see something like that, he’ll be name in a front 3. But more than likely he’ll will play much deeper, allowing Salah and whoever the No.9 is to form an almost old school front 2. Wirtz done some of his best work for BL drifting out the left wing and cutting in from there. So that role may suit him.

I had this discussion on here before, I’m not sure how Liverpool line up. A few podcasts have outlined that Slot is looking to emulate his Feyenoord formation, which was 4-2-1-3. But I don’t see that working like for like in the Premier League, playing 4 attackers, along with 2 wing backs would be insane. If you think back to last season, the job Szoboszlai had as a defensive No.10, mainly tasked with covering Salah. That was high risk itself at time, and Liverpool were quite conservative with the full back positions to help on the defensive side of things.

Now replace your defensive No.10 with an all out attacking one, and your more conservative full back roles with 2 out and out wing backs. I just can’t see it working week in week out.

He's a big loss, particularly based on last season.

He'll definitely be a loss but I do think the move is best for all as well. We obviously agreed that we'd let him leave this summer if he gave us one more year so it's important to stick with that. Now he gets to go and win more titles at Bayern and gets more money and a longer term deal. Liverpool also get a great fee and can bring in someone younger who will hopefully do just as well as Diaz did.