Liverpool FC Premier League Champions 25/26 - Talk /Gossip/Rumours

Ok Ronaldo started playing regularly at 17 I'm pretty sure and is still playing at 40 also, just to give another example besides Milner. And actually one thing those two have in common is their professionalism and dedication to their bodies and their careers so there might be something in that.

Despite a few other examples tho I'd be inclined to agree with you that younger players need to be protected. I mean, even without any stats or any previous examples doesn't it just kind of make say intuitively? At 17 you're basically still a child with a child's body and to put that up against a fully developed elite athlete's body is definitely risky.

I'm curious if the clamour for him to play more would still be there if we still had Diaz or a fully fit and firing Isak meaning Ekitike could rotate with Gakpo on the left cos I know for me I just want to see him play more mostly because he looks exciting and watching us play this season has been so boring for the most part. We have become a boring team to watch, which is wild considering what came before, and at least Rio brings some excitement.

The goal we scored yesterday came after Rio beat a defender using stepovers!

We’re such a strange side that it’s hard to know where to start with the analysis. And I don’t want to get negative after a win like that. But it’s all very frustrating when you look at the bigger picture.

Firstly, I’m not buying the idea that we were completely rubbish throughout and deserved nothing. There was nothing wrong with our second-half performance. It’s exactly the type of display I’d expect from a top side like Liverpool, going to a tough away ground against a team hoping to capitalise on a new-manager bounce.

My big issue, like most people’s, is the first half. It’s not as if the difference between the two halves was down to a simple tweak because something wasn’t working quite right. The gap between the first and second half performances, and not for the first time this season, is so massive that it looks like there’s a completely different eleven on the pitch.

I never thought I’d say this about a Liverpool team in recent years, but to me, having also watched us three times in the flesh this season, there’s a huge laziness problem. We want to dictate and get on the ball like we did in the second half, but you have to earn the right to do that. And when “lesser” teams come out and get in your face, you have to put them back in their box quickly. But to do that, you have to show you’re willing to do the dirty work and sprint the hard yards just as much as they are. We simply don’t want to sprint those hard yards or put in that dirty shift.

Instead, our lads seem to hope the opposition will eventually tire from these efforts. So we sit back and pray we don’t concede during that phase, then pray even harder that this passive approach has worked and we can get on the ball against a tired team in the second half.

It’s such a bad mentality.

I’m not Slot’s No.1 fan by any means, but having been there and watched it a few times, it doesn’t come across as bizarre tactics like some would have you believe. I’ve seen him visibly frustrated at the lack of energy, movement and urgency from the players. So the question is: why are the attitudes so off?

We currently have one of the highest-paid squads in world football, yet too often they only seem willing to show up for 45 minutes here and there against tired opposition.

Great point about the first half.

The thing is Rooney was not like most players, he was a phenomenon, and he was washed up by the time he was 30. He probably lost out on 10s of millions in wages due to his decline. Milner and Ronaldo are both the same age, and are both still playing. All three started young, and had played a lot of minutes by the time they were 18.

The thing is you don't know ahead of time whether playing young will have such a negative impact. Millie and Ronaldo are both effectively freaks of nature, but perhaps if Rooney's minutes were held back in those first 2 or 3 seasons he might have had another 6 or 7 years at the top level. Alternatively, maybe his body just was never going to last.

The point I'm making is that it is known that playing a lot when you are young can have a detrimental affect on your longevity, and I feel that a player like Rio, who is fairly light and weak looking, a fair amount of caution should be taken, because there's not much on the line.

Bringing him on in a game where we need a late inspiration and goal is exactly what we should be doing with him. In addition starting him in the Champions league, and getting him high visibility minutes on the world stage, and where he might have a big impact, is far better use of his minutes than a rainy Sunday in Nottingham.

Having said all this, I do think he could play a little bit more, and I understand people's frustration, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Where did it all go wrong Raheem 😂

You have to remember though that Wirtz was a warm up injury so Jones was a last minute change

The entire team would have trained all week (no midweek game) with the understanding Szoboszlai would be at RB and so Dom would have been completely prepped to play at RB and likely had the full briefing on Hudson-Odoi.

Joe Gomez would have been prepared to be the player off the bench at RB, not Jones

Overall, I get your point that Jones is another option at RB and was able to play there later in the game, but I don't think it's surprising that it wasn't from the start because that meant essentially 2 unplanned changes at the last minute rather than just 1

I loved how Szobo had the patience to get the ball onto his right foot to cross into the box for the goal. Didn't just rush and hit a hopeful ball in.

This is another symptom if his terrible squad management if you ask me. As a player if you know you are gonna be starting every game regardless of how you actually play there is less incentive to try harder. Players need to know that if they play poorly or don't try hard or whatever that they can and will be dropped. Our players know they will start the next game anyway so it comes down to personal motivation to give your all in every match. Some players have that motivation, like Szob, and some don't.

There's a bit of a trade off, in that players like Sterling and Rooney who start off as first team regulars at the very top level generally finish up early too. Both still had phenomenal careers, won way more than the average footballer does and had a decade or more continuously at the very top level, very few players get that. I would also think that when they start to decline and are no longer at the top clubs, the hunger and drive goes, an element of nothing to prove anymore, millions in the bank and not bothered to put the effort required to "only" play for a mid table or lower half team.

Have you looked at the state of our squad this season? Imo its a very light squad compounded by some long term injuries. Its easy say a player should be dropped if not performing but what if there is no replacement for them on the bench?

The other concern is that the players who do come on have tended to be even worse than the players they replace, with the exception of one or two….

There is no way Endo could play the role that Mac plays in the team,he can only play as a no 6 in midfield.