@mlawton @cyrilwinstanley @mike @30yrdscreamer

I would expect Mo to be dropping down the field gradually in the next two years. He won't be subbed, but he won't be able to get what he wants 100% of the time anymore.

Maybe Chiesa's time is still afoot.

@mlawton @cyrilwinstanley @mike @30yrdscreamer

Upon video evidence, and if Chiesa really is a RW, he's been played out of position all of the time.

@mlawton @cyrilwinstanley @mike @30yrdscreamer

If you take a look at the few quality chances Chiesa has had, none of them have come from the Mo wing. None that I can remember.

This is quite illustrative (feel free to mute the music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgThT2Oy2pk

@mlawton @vruz @mike @30yrdscreamer as for new players, my opinion:

Slot needs more players he can trust to start. You can argue quite reasonably that #LFC have done enough and won the league. Brilliant season, superb adjustments from Slot. Genius (if planned) not to buy new players but to use the squad we had and to tweak a few things without completely overhauling players or playing style. If we’re a bit tired now and if we didnt win a cup what does it matter if we take a league title, which is clearly the biggest of the lot?

I don’t think we’ll get 90+ points, so it’s fair to say if we’d been up against a Man City team of previous seasons we might not have done it. I don’t think Arteta’s Arsenal ever will be that. City might be that again. In which case it takes something very very special to beat them.

I’d like it if Slot trusted some of the players we already have and rotated a little bit more: Eliot, Endo, Chiesa all could have had more game time. Even Jones didn’t play much at start of the season did he? A fit again Gomez (is there such a thing?) and Quansah could rotate with Konaté, possibly even Virgil. Horses for courses in the front three. And there’s some kids who are really impressive and I’d love to see them getting closer to the first team. But maybe Slot will only trust new players and he’ll have to buy them.

I would go with a left back and maybe another midfielder but no more than that. Continuity with a little refresh seems the best way to me.

@vruz @mike @30yrdscreamer very true! And Jota hasn't been the same since this last injury.

Salah is a generational talent, so for #LFC the imbalance between wing & striker is perhaps inevitable.

I think that imbalance is common. Arsenal are in the same boat and as I reflect on the table, very few teams have equivalent talent between those positions. Palace comes to mind. Maybe Chelsea. Certainly Brentford.

I'd bet there is an inverse ratio between possession and striker impact as well.

@mlawton @ravi@social.lol @mike @30yrdscreamer

I very highly doubt that a change of striker will change matters significantly without assembling a different supporting structure for that striker, whoever he is now and in the future.

It's not that both of Jota and Darwin are incompetents, it's that LFC is playing in a way that's designed to support Mo Salah and whoever plays on the other wing.

And as we've seen, that's not going to change for another two years.

@vruz @ravi @mike @30yrdscreamer I don’t know that Delap is the right striker, but that position has been under served all season. Some of that is the style of play, in which #LFC is so wing dominant. Also, most opponents won’t play openly so the striker is less effective anyway.

I’ve been dreaming of Isak for months, but I don’t know that he’d fit in either. (And it won’t happen because of )

The question, for me, is how Slot evolves the team. Who fits?

@vruz @ravi @mike @30yrdscreamer except they are equivalent players (0.45 vs 0.46 goals per 90), only one plays for an offensive juggernaut and the other plays for a relegation bound team. I think each might perform better in reversed roles. Nunez could flourish when not forced to attack a low block and Diap given such a surrounding cast?

There was/is promise in Nunez, but Slot doesn’t rate him highly and it sounds like he’ll be moved. #LFC