Squad & tactics (2024/25)

[Rich]

[The College Dropout]

By the looks of it Anderson is considered a forward, consequently thee's a lack of depth at CM. Burn is first choice back-up at LCB & LB.

 

[TRon]

3 hours ago, Mazzy said:

No reason not to include Shelvey if there is a free squad place for him. Would seem odd to leave him out if there was an extra space.

 

Keep Bondswell in the squad then if there's a shortage of numbers.

[Kanji]

40 minutes ago, Rich said:

my man created a spreadsheet.

[Geordie Ahmed]

4 hours ago, TRon said:

I see absolutely no point in including Shelvey in the squad keeping our fingers crossed he might play two or three games, I really hope Howe was just suggesting it to keep the player's morale up. Shelvey usually takes longer than others to get up to speed with fitness as well, he's never been the best trainer. Do we actually need to lose any more players now Fernandez and Shortstaff are gone?

If there is no one else to take the last spot then it does make sense

[ponsaelius]

42 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

By the looks of it Anderson is considered a forward, consequently thee's a lack of depth at CM. Burn is first choice back-up at LCB & LB.

 

 

Based on what exactly? Played all his games in pre-season in the midfield 3, started there against Tranmere and he came on at Wolves for Willock.

 

Liverpool is literally the only game where he has come on in a wide forward position.

[ponsaelius]

25 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Keep Bondswell in the squad then if there's a shortage of numbers.

 

Bondswell doesn't need to be registered as he's 20.

[TRon]

Just now, ponsaelius said:

 

Bondswell doesn't need to be registered as he's 20.

 

Ok fair enough. Just seems we could really have pushed harder for a loan signing then just to cover midfield if nothing else. Even Ross Barkley might have made sense on the right deal.

[Rich]

3 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

 

Based on what exactly? Played all his games in pre-season in the midfield 3, started there against Tranmere and he came on at Wolves for Willock.

 

Liverpool is literally the only game where he has come on in a wide forward position.

 

Just to be contrary, probably.

[ponsaelius]

11 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Ok fair enough. Just seems we could really have pushed harder for a loan signing then just to cover midfield if nothing else. Even Ross Barkley might have made sense on the right deal.

 

I understand but I think it's clear that the club and/or Howe have no interest at all in stop gap signings on loans or frees. Any signing clearly has to be a long term move for the club - with loans requiring the potential to be made permanent. We'd clearly rather muddle on with what we've got and even play youngsters rather than sign a player for the sake of it.

[STM]

I think had we been more desperate. We would have paid for a loan. We weren't desperate. We have 13 games with this squad.

[Manxst]

Howe this morning: "I feel it was a very good window.  I set up with a very clear vision of what I wanted it to be, it's never perfect and it's never absolutely as you want it to be.

"But from the board down, everyone has given their all to create the best squad possible.

"I found the window to be very difficult this year and it was very long.  I'm pleased it's shut and we can concentrate on the football.

"We were trying right up until the end of the window. Sometimes, things look like they're going to get done and for loads of different reasons, they don't always happen.

"There's no blame attached to that. It's just the window, and you're dealing with agents and players. We were actively trying to do one or two things which we felt would've made a difference for us but they didn't happen."

[TRon]

42 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

 

I understand but I think it's clear that the club and/or Howe have no interest at all in stop gap signings on loans or frees. Any signing clearly has to be a long term move for the club - with loans requiring the potential to be made permanent. We'd clearly rather muddle on with what we've got and even play youngsters rather than sign a player for the sake of it.

 

Yeah, we clearly wanted loans in, Howe said as much, but they obviously had to be the right loans, and if they were Chelsea players, then they obviously weren't willing to co-operate. We've already seen with Liverpool and Klopp how the atmosphere has suddenly become a lot more hostile as they perceive us as a coming threat.

[ponsaelius]

We're going to have a problem again next summer in that only Ritchie and Dummett are out of contract (and Shelvey - although you'd imagine he triggers the auto-renewal when he returns from injury). We might also have Hayden and Hendrick back to deal with.

 

It seems unfathomable right now but we really need the likes of Lewis, Manquillo, Murphy etc to positively contribute to the on-pitch effort this season and rebuild some of their market value so we could ideally shift them for even nominal fees next summer. The same also goes for Lascelles, Almiron, Wood, Longstaff who would probably be next on the chopping block.

[Happinesstan]

10 hours ago, TRon said:

I see absolutely no point in including Shelvey in the squad keeping our fingers crossed he might play two or three games, I really hope Howe was just suggesting it to keep the player's morale up. Shelvey usually takes longer than others to get up to speed with fitness as well, he's never been the best trainer. Do we actually need to lose any more players now Fernandez and Shortstaff are gone?

This is true, but he was in better shape than previous, when he got his injury, which might point to a quicker return to his levels of last year, at least.

No harm in giving him a few sub appearances to maintain his hunger.

Would be nice if he was available for the cup game.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Happinesstan

[relámpago blanco]

2 hours ago, ponsaelius said:

We're going to have a problem again next summer in that only Ritchie and Dummett are out of contract (and Shelvey - although you'd imagine he triggers the auto-renewal when he returns from injury). We might also have Hayden and Hendrick back to deal with.

 

It seems unfathomable right now but we really need the likes of Lewis, Manquillo, Murphy etc to positively contribute to the on-pitch effort this season and rebuild some of their market value so we could ideally shift them for even nominal fees next summer. The same also goes for Lascelles, Almiron, Wood, Longstaff who would probably be next on the chopping block.

We need to sign a number of young players we develop who won't be good enough for us but we sell for 10-20 million. We need 2 or 3 of them every year as a conveyor belt. 

[buzza]

Quite a few journalists stating that Eddie wants to play with both Calum and Isak when both are fit. If this is the case what tweaks to the system does he make and who misses out?

 

If he plays both, he might go for (442), he has in the past:

--------------------Pope---------------------

Tripps-------Schar---------Bot/Burn------Target

--Miggy------Bruno-----Big joe--------ASM--

----------ISAK--------Calum-------------

 

I think our forward press could suffer and we would have less enforcement in midfield, i would rather keep with the 433 and move miggy or anderson (in future) into willock´s position:

 

------Miggy------Bruno-----Big Joe----

---Isak---------Calum------------ASM

[Conjo]

Howe doesn't give away tactics. He doesn't even give out injury status to journalists. Ofc he will tell them yes on the question if he want to play Wilson and Isak together. Time will tell if he actually does.

[54]

25 man squad confirmed:

 

2 Kieran Trippier
3 Paul Dummett
4 Sven Botman
5 Fabian Schär
6 Jamaal Lascelles
7 Joelinton
8 Jonjo Shelvey
9 Callum Wilson
10 Allan Saint-Maximin
11 Matt Ritchie
12 Jamal Lewis
13 Matt Targett
14 Alexander Isak
18 Loris Karius
19 Javier Manquillo
20 Chris Wood
21 Ryan Fraser
22 Nick Pope
23 Jacob Murphy
24 Miguel Almirón
26 Karl Darlow
28 Joe Willock
33 Dan Burn
36 Sean Longstaff
39 Bruno Guimarães

[joeyt]

No Gillespie 

[Coffee_Johnny]

Is this the first time we haven’t had a No. 1? 

 

 

Edited September 14, 2022 by Coffee_Johnny

[mosstef]

No Gillespie. So Karius is our backup GK now, I guess?

[Big River]

4 minutes ago, mosstef said:

No Gillespie. So Karius is our backup GK now, I guess?

 

aye, at least until Darlow is fit again in the new year.

[joeyt]

1 minute ago, Big River said:

 

aye, at least until Darlow is fit again in the new year.

 

Surely Darlow is back before the new year otherwise what was the point in registering him

[TRon]

Shows exactly where our squad is weakest if we have to include a midfielder who is basically out injured for the rest of the year. We basically have no back up CM's.