What revisionist twaddle, both Salah and Mane were ridiculed by fans of other teams when they bought, laughable post.
The Liverpool Club Thread. **No Spoilers**
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Caporegime
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Are you just posting nonsense for the sake of it now?
Soldato
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Lets be honest even liverpool fans were a bit meh when Salah and Mane were signed.
Diaz has been brilliant, Jota has a decent record aswell.
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As a Liverpool fan I'm not sold on Diaz. Flashy, works hard and scores the odd wondergoal, but doesn't influence games consistently enough for me. To be clear, I'm not writing him off or calling him a flop, but he's got a long way to go to convince me that he's the right long term replacement for Mane. When they're both fit, I'd start Jota over him.
Right now I think Martinez is a more consistent defender than Konate, but Konate has it in him to be one of the best centre backs on the planet. Martinez isn't going to improve significantly from where he is.
Right now I think Martinez is a more consistent defender than Konate, but Konate has it in him to be one of the best centre backs on the planet. Martinez isn't going to improve significantly from where he is.
Staggered that anybody can not be sold on Diaz. Imo he's been Liverpool's best outfield player since he arrived. He's averaging a goal or assist ever 140 minutes, combined with defensive work off the charts.
Konate's still a little raw but is already a top CB and is only going to get better. Like VVD he has the physical attributes to dominate pretty much any forward he comes up against.
Konate's still a little raw but is already a top CB and is only going to get better. Like VVD he has the physical attributes to dominate pretty much any forward he comes up against.
Loved Diaz. For a january buy he's been great and saved our blushes several times last season too. If he didn't suffer this serious injury he'd be banging them in right now.
He reminds me of Coutinho, who also never sold me at Liverpool. If play wasn't going through Coutinho, he was out of the game (both offensively and defensively). Diaz obviously has a much better defensive workrate, but I don't think he offers enough in an attacking sense when play isn't run straight through him, and for a player reliant on getting the ball and being the main man, a goal or assist every game and a half isn't enough.
To be clear, I'm setting high standards - the point I made is that I'm not sold on him replacing Mane, which is something very few players are capable of doing. Diaz is an excellent footballer and I'm very glad we have him, but he's far from the automatic pick that Mane was and I don't think that I necessarily rank him ahead of Jota/Darwin/Gakpo in that role.
I like Diaz. My only real reservation with him is how he fits tactically. Much was made about how he slotted straight in, but from what I saw (and I watch all the games live) he had pretty much a free role, starting wide left. I was never really sure that position really exists for him in the longer term. Now Darwin plays in that left channel in a more orthodox and even more explosive way.
Maybe we sell Salah in the summer which opens the right side of attack up and he can do the same as he does from the left, but that will require a much greater tactical awareness as he'd be mostly playing in front of Trent (not a criticism of Trent at all, just how the right hand side with Trent operates) and not Robertson.
Maybe we sell Salah in the summer which opens the right side of attack up and he can do the same as he does from the left, but that will require a much greater tactical awareness as he'd be mostly playing in front of Trent (not a criticism of Trent at all, just how the right hand side with Trent operates) and not Robertson.
Soldato
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Mane is getting all the love since he lefty, but lets be honest, last year he only started banging them in when he moved to the middle, he missed as many as Salah. Great guy and player for us, but hes last season or 2, showed a drop off in levels.
Re Coutinho, maybe in his early years he was a bit in and out but the last 2 and half years he was unreal. For somebody that was more a midfielder than a forward, his goal and assist rate was insanely good. What you could say regarding Coutinho is that he didn't really have a position in a Klopp side.
On Diaz, if you're basing this on Mane 2016 to 2020 then I agree. Mane was out of this world in that period and it would be hard for any forward to reach that level however 2021 onwards he was not nearly the same player, which is why he was getting left out fairly regularly for Jota and then Diaz when he arrived. Whether Diaz can reach Mane 2016-2020 level only time will tell but the early signs, for me at least, are really promising. I don't think you can make direct comparisons between the two as I think they're different players and I also think moving forwards we're going to play slightly differently to how we play now. I think moving forwards we're going to play a 4-2-3-1 or some sort of variation of that and that suits Diaz down to the ground. He is much more of a traditional winger than Mane (or Salah) was. Mane and Salah are very much out and out forwards who start from wide positions - they're game is about playing on the shoulder of the last defender and making runs in behind or diagonals into the box. Diaz still makes those forward runs but he plays a lot wider and carries the ball a lot more. I actually couldn't agree less with you on the point about how much influence he has on the game compared to Mane - I think he has far more influence on the game and I'm not saying that as a criticism of Mane, I think it's normal because of the role he plays is different. I'm sure I wrote this before but my one criticism of Diaz was that he doesn't score/assist more based on how much he was influencing games.
As above, I don't think you can make direct comparisons between the two as they're slightly different players and I think Diaz is going to end up playing more of a wide midfield role rather than a wide forward role moving forwards but in terms of their influence and importance to the team, I think Diaz is (or at least was before his injury) well on the way to reaching the sort of levels Mane reached. His defensive output was the best we've had from any wide attacker under Klopp, his position means he gets on the ball more often in deeper positions and still he wasn't far off reaching players like Mane's attacking output (Mane averaged a goal or assist every 128 minutes during his time at Liverpool to Diaz's 140).
Caporegime
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Firmino off at the end of the season apparently.
www.skysports.com
Fantastic servant for the club over the years and at his height, we literally couldn't have had a better false 9 in world football but his best years are behind him and it's been clear for a couple of seasons, his legs left on a free transfer two or three season ago.
Hopefully the start of the big refresh we need.
Roberto Firmino will leave Liverpool at the end of the season when his contract expires
Roberto Firmino has decided not to renew his contract and part ways with the club after eight successful years; the 31-year-old has told Jurgen Klopp of his decision; Watch Liverpool vs Man Utd live on Sky Sports Premier League from 4pm on Super Sunday; kick-off 4.30pm
Fantastic servant for the club over the years and at his height, we literally couldn't have had a better false 9 in world football but his best years are behind him and it's been clear for a couple of seasons, his legs left on a free transfer two or three season ago.
Hopefully the start of the big refresh we need.
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Many forget he wasn’t a Klopp signing but I’ve never seen a less selfish striker. 100% team player. He will be missed.Firmino off at the end of the season apparently.
Roberto Firmino will leave Liverpool at the end of the season when his contract expires
Roberto Firmino has decided not to renew his contract and part ways with the club after eight successful years; the 31-year-old has told Jurgen Klopp of his decision; Watch Liverpool vs Man Utd live on Sky Sports Premier League from 4pm on Super Sunday; kick-off 4.30pm
Fantastic servant for the club over the years and at his height, we literally couldn't have had a better false 9 in world football but his best years are behind him and it's been clear for a couple of seasons, his legs left on a free transfer two or three season ago.
Hopefully the start of the big refresh we need.
When the stories come out the other month that he was close to signing a new deal it was a bit of a surprise - he's struggled to stay fit for much of the last couple of seasons and with Diaz, Nunez and Gakpo arriving in the past 12-18 months, it was difficult to see where he'd feature for us. We're well stocked in the forward line and with the likes of Doak and Gordon coming through, I don't think we'll feel his departure as much as we would have done a few years back.
Caporegime
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His legs have been just as big a loss as Gini was and Henderson's now becoming.
Never stopped running, never stopped pressing, often won the ball back on our 18 yard box to start attacks, not what you would really expect from a Brazilian but one of the hardest working players we've ever had.
Never stopped running, never stopped pressing, often won the ball back on our 18 yard box to start attacks, not what you would really expect from a Brazilian but one of the hardest working players we've ever had.
Always had the same feeling for Firmino as I had for Kuyt, both would run and run and run and give you everything they had in every match. Can understand him moving on now, his gametime will only have become more and more limited with the frontline players we have but he does with a great deal of thanks and respect.
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Loved the fact that always seemed to enjoy playing, will be a miss but he cant handle the premier league any more,, constantly injured, and Jota offers us more, and gives us more goals. Jota chant isnt as good as the Bobby one tho 