yuddie

Aahh brilliant mate I've got NordVPN, I'll give it a go. Cheers.

How are you watching it mate?

Second leg, Genk vs Servette tonight. Can't find it anywhere which is a shame, I'll follow the updates through the evening. We're all Servette I'm guessing?

Score prediction: I'll say 3-1 Rangers. Good start to the season can be a setup for the rest.

4-4-2/Box Midfield (4-2-2-2) Butland Tav - Souttar - Davies (if fit) - Yilmaz Sima - Raskin - Jack - Cantwell Lammers - Dessers That being the team in defense and this being the team in attack, hypothetically: Butland Tav - Souttar - Davies (if fit) - Yilmaz Raskin - Jack Lammers - Cantwell Sima - Dessers Possibility of changing into a back 3 in possession if Lundstram is chosen but I think this gets the best out of Cantwell and Raskin and hopefully cures the full back problems. Subs (9?): McCrorie, Balogun/King, Danilo, Sakala, Lundstram, Dowell, Sterling, Rice, Matondo. (Unaware of quota stipulations, if there are any feel free to quash my bench).

Any takeaways? Suppose the headline stuff would be Goldson, Cifuentes imminent and, bizarrely, King being back in training?! I thought it would be easier to start a new topic because I wanted to post that tweet but wasn't sure on which thread. By the looks of it King will be back in a matter of weeks rather than months and if so, that does ease the pressure on trying to sign a LCB (we still need to). Thoughts? Did anyone go with their kids/grandkids? Or solo.

Like Liverpool the age of our squad and games in the legs has probably told in recent seasons. 60 game seasons with some players being used like a bar of soap (Tav, Goldson, Aribo etc) is going to tell eventually. Liverpool have been reaching UCL finals consistently as well as making cup finals, you can't rag your players forever like. You can almost judge that teams peak by their front 3's age, with all of them being 27/28 between '19-'20.

Brilliant, cheers. We've got a big enough squad to rotate for that.

I said yesterday that Tav is a bit dopey and I stand by it; foul throws, misjudging his touch for the ball to go out of play/past him and just a very gammy way of using his body. If we can slam Sakala for being 'shite' even though his numbers are remarkable then I think it's fair to do the same for Tav, he sort of runs and strikes the ball in a similar way to how he runs up to the penalty, but in general play...if that makes sense? Exaggerated and gammy. He was way too lax in the UEL final, looking surprised when he was pressed.

To be honest, I think middle to front we're stocked well enough with quality especially with cifuentes coming in; and I think that SHOULD get us 3 points on most matchdays (let's say 80% of the time). I worry about the defence in terms of quality (bar Souttar and Goldson) as well as how exploited the full backs have been this pre season when they aren't the best at defending anyways. I think if Beale gets the defence organised we'll win the league is my opinion, we've shown since Gerrard and even Murty that we can score, it's the basic errors that are killing us. Expectations in terms of players, I'll say Souttar for PoTY. Picking a top goalscorer is a lottery so for a laugh I'll say Sakala for the golden boot..coming in to rescue our attack in the second half of the season like he did last, ha.

Fairly happy with that, the manager will know there's a fair bit of tweaking to do but I think there's the bones of a good squad there. Actually thought I saw a player in Sima today, he's rough round the edges but there's an effective player in there. His link up was pretty competent at times even if he started poorly. The balogun signing will be nonsensical if we don't bring in a LCB imo though.

Balogun going off injured in pre season, some laugh that.

In fairness, this trait of getting stronger as the game goes on/when changes are made could be a sign of a strong squad and good fitness. Or a sign of a manager who doesn't know his strongest XI. Who knows.

You've got to laugh..

You know, it's only just dawned on me that Tavernier is quite dopey. I used to think he was gammy with how he played but watching him struggle to take throw ins this pre season I've realised he's actually just dozy. I still rate him like but aye, the boy can't concentrate at all.

That's it I think, we're playing narrow on a massive pitch. Maybe I'm being too simplistic but you can't play this narrow with no support for the full backs on a deck this big.

It would be pretty impressive if we go from this to scudding Kilmarnock and whoever we play in the UCL.

I don't really get playing with this system if the full backs get no support from the men infront? They're just getting overloaded and rinsed non stop. I'm starting to think that the reason it worked domestically under Gerrard was simply due to how tight the pitches were.

Don't mind the XI, probably goes to show how desperate we are for a LCB though. Butland for the full 90 please.

Should be a good run out, wasn't long ago they were knocking on the door of the UCL with Nagelsmann, and before that scouted Roberto Firmino and others.

Aye true, he'd still be taking a massive pay cut. Didn't they offer him 150k+ when he was a teenager?

Bit of a strange one, Fulham have just bid £4m for Callum Hudson-Odoi, Chelsea rejected £70 odd million for him a few years back. If you keep buying scarred players eventually some of them just won't come good but still, he was brilliant when he broke through initially. Would you take a hypothetical punt on him for £4m? 22 years old, England International with prem and European experience.

Didn't he spend time with the city group? And then bring in Dr Ceri Bowley who was a prominent figure for them? It's an educated guess to say he took inspiration from it. That's why I think the players just couldn't wrap their head round it or the communication was dire.

To be fair, I always got the impression that the players couldn't grasp what Gio was trying to do with them. Not fully at least anyway. That could be a communication issue but I reckon it was more of an understanding with how he wanted to play, that kind of Dutch/Guardiola/City group inspired football. Unfortunately Gio wasn't Guardiola but there were players at Bayern who have been on record and said how they just couldn't grasp his football for months.

I take comfort in the fact that we've played quality opposition in pre-season. Olympiacos, Newcastle and Hoffenheim are European level opponents imo and even Hamburg are steps above what we'll play domestically.