The Official Liverpool Thread - Part 2

[Orchard thief]

Gravenberch has looked fairly comfortable in the new role. Was highly rated at Ajax but had a disappointing move to Bayern and looked pretty average in his first season at Liverpool.

Last season he was very passive in his play but this year he looks much more willing to get involved.

Hasn’t really been tested yet though. The fixtures have been really kind. Hopefully he can carry his form through to January and another midfielder signed.

He’s not really a rotation option for Slot given the way he plays. Endo is a completely different player. Macallister is consistently excellent and another who has to start most games.

Could do with getting Elliot back from injury and Jones staying fit. Sloboszlai deserves a spell on the bench but the options aren’t there.

A win at home to Bologna to go 2 from 2 would be a good start to the CL group cos they’ll need to rest players in game week 7 and 8.

 

[Philby]

Agree with all of the above.

Gravenberch has performed beyond what anyone could've expected (MOTM again this weekend) but certainly there are tougher tests to come - Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid & Man City all to come by 1st Dec. No doubt he'll have a dip at some point and may need managing through it - which is where the lack of cover may cause issue.

What's more encouraging though is that he is excelling at the parts of the game that we didn't think were that strong - reading the play, interceptions, getting stuck in. He always had the athleticism & could drop a shoulder to beat a man.

Fair play to Slot for assessing that he could be suitable for the position and being brave enough to give him a run there.

It'll be interesting to see what the club do if both he and Bajcetic (2 run-outs for RB Salzburg this week) have strong starts through to Christmas - and no major injury issues crop up. If Bajcetic can fill out a bit and avoid injury then he's got the potential to become a first team regular too.

That'd leave Slot with a decent set of midfielders with a great age profile.

Gravenberch
MacAllister
Szob
Jones
Elliot
Bajcetic

Might just be a case of swapping out Endo for someone with a more rounded skill set, but it might not need the break-glass £80m+ defensive mid that we all assumed.

 

[Orchard thief]

Re Gravenberch:

He was quite clearly a panic buy on the last day of the summer ‘23 window. The Lavia/Caceido farce was embarrassing for FSG and they scattergunned for anyone available!!

If he performs consistently over the full season and shows last 6 weeks are more than just a purple patch I’ll have to laugh. All the FSG talk of only signing the perfect player would be debunked by signing a player with decent attributes and coaching him well to do a job.

The loss at home to Forest is the standout result for me. Remains to be seen how they deal with a disciplined low block.

Maybe they’ll be better against teams in the top half of the table that’ll want to come out and play. The fast transition that Slot likes is difficult to play through 2 banks of 5.

Next few months will tell us a lot more.

 

[Rebel CNC]

Re Gravenberch:

He was quite clearly a panic buy on the last day of the summer ‘23 window. The Lavia/Caceido farce was embarrassing for FSG and they scattergunned for anyone available!!

If he performs consistently over the full season and shows last 6 weeks are more than just a purple patch I’ll have to laugh. All the FSG talk of only signing the perfect player would be debunked by signing a player with decent attributes and coaching him well to do a job.

The loss at home to Forest is the standout result for me. Remains to be seen how they deal with a disciplined low block.

Maybe they’ll be better against teams in the top half of the table that’ll want to come out and play. The fast transition that Slot likes is difficult to play through 2 banks of 5.

Next few months will tell us a lot more.

Next few weeks should be quite informative - tricky away fixture v Palace and then home to Chelsea and away to Arsenal with away trip to Leipzig sandwiched between latter two.
Handy run of fixtures to start the season but next one that looks nailed on 3 pointer is Fulham at home in mid December (said the same about N Forest mind you)!!

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

Palace haven't played any of last season's top five yet and are not in great shape with their defensive numbers. Forest are much better defensively, by comparison. No excuses really.

 

[The Duke]

Agree with all of the above.

Gravenberch has performed beyond what anyone could've expected (MOTM again this weekend) but certainly there are tougher tests to come - Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid & Man City all to come by 1st Dec. No doubt he'll have a dip at some point and may need managing through it - which is where the lack of cover may cause issue.

What's more encouraging though is that he is excelling at the parts of the game that we didn't think were that strong - reading the play, interceptions, getting stuck in. He always had the athleticism & could drop a shoulder to beat a man.

Fair play to Slot for assessing that he could be suitable for the position and being brave enough to give him a run there.

It'll be interesting to see what the club do if both he and Bajcetic (2 run-outs for RB Salzburg this week) have strong starts through to Christmas - and no major injury issues crop up. If Bajcetic can fill out a bit and avoid injury then he's got the potential to become a first team regular too.

That'd leave Slot with a decent set of midfielders with a great age profile.

Gravenberch
MacAllister
Szob
Jones
Elliot
Bajcetic

Might just be a case of swapping out Endo for someone with a more rounded skill set, but it might not need the break-glass £80m+ defensive mid that we all assumed.

Can you recall if there is a mid-season clause in the Bajcetic loan? Over the next 12-15 months I cannot see a situation where they won’t have to spend significantly to bring in a DM. I think there are too many variables in the hope that Gravenberh maintains and improves his current performance levels allied to Bajcetic becoming a top tier DM. Maybe someone in the youth team makes an unforeseen quantum leap; Quansah like.

 

[Rebel CNC]

Lads how is it only 12.5 mill for Chiesa?

Would have thought he'd be a 45 to 50 mill at least.

Made of glass. Thiago is iron man compared to him.

Surprise, surprise. Has barely broken a sweat so far and he's out injured for tomorrow and probably until after intl break!!

 

[The Duke]

Surprise, surprise. Has barely broken a sweat so far and he's out injured for tomorrow and probably until after intl break!!

Aye. If it looks like a crock, walks like a crock and crocks like a crock. But FSG are still the cleverest boys in the class.

 

[PussyinBoots]

Jota and Chiesa doubtful for Cesspool against Bolognese

 

[nico]

Surprise, surprise. Has barely broken a sweat so far and he's out injured for tomorrow and probably until after intl break!!

Slott said he may be fit for the weekend against Palace. Although with an international break coming after I suspect he won't be risked until afterwards.