[Mikus LFC]

Is it not just the case now that Klopp knows he doesn’t have the right players in midfield so is having to adapt somewhat to them rather than vica versa? As I posted on TT, the recruitment team should be leading the club over transfers and making them happen, even if Klopp isn’t 100% over them. You look at all the properly run clubs like City and they identify targets and ruthlessly bring them in. This isn’t all about money. If we were chasing Tchouameni over summer there must have been big money available. But when that target went elsewhere, we just seemed to do the old, “we’ll have to wait next season now until the right player becomes available again.” Yet I read somewhere that Klopp effectively made the recent Gakpo signing happen which if true means that Klopp is almost effectively having to run the club completely. That really isn’t good. I know Klopp is the biggest asset the club has, but it’s not good if the whole club ends up bending towards him and relying on him to do most things.

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[Mikus LFC]

Well that was as predictable as night following day…

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[Mikus LFC]

Get Bajcetic on.

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[Mikus LFC]

Indeed nil. Completely bullied off the ball.

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[Mikus LFC]

Don’t do an Adlab and Nine Ed, by saying we should have “too much” for such and such a side. Everytime someone says that we drop points 😆

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[Mikus LFC]

Conte at Spurs was the wrong fit. Basically just another Mourinho appointment. Doesn’t necessarily mean he wouldn’t succeed elsewhere.

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[Mikus LFC]

Interestingly Arsenal have still not played City in the league yet, so they still have to play each other twice which adds to the drama.

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[Mikus LFC]

So Arsenal can go 7 points clear if they beat Brighton later. Nobody saw that coming this season.

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[Mikus LFC]

Of course money helps, but a very good team only needs maybe 4-5 truly world class players in it because you need other attributes like hunger and leadership, not just skill. So you eventually reach a limiting factor in terms of how far money can get you. City didn’t need to spend a good chunk of what they’ve spent over the years to be as dominant as they are but they spend big because they can, which, admittedly helps inflate prices, so one could perhaps be more critical here, and spending £100 million on Grealish now looks like pure luxury.

One may also be critical of Chelsea’s use of the loan system but again, it’s actually come back to bite them such as when you look at some of the players they later let go such as De Bruyne & Salah. So overspending can actually do more harm than good.

City are currently so dominant because they have all the ingredients at the same time, but it won’t last forever. City have beaten Liverpool more over the years to titles as they are a more robust side with goals throughout the team whereas Liverpool have been more reliant on their front 3. So it’s down to more football philosophical reasons imo. You can talk about squad depth but Liverpool have let their midfield age without replacing them, so that’s a fair criticism of the club strategy, and there was clearly money there for a midfield replacement or why else chase Real Madrid for Tchouameni in the summer? Also, as good as Thiago can sometimes be, targeting an injury prone midfielder hasn’t been a particularly wise move overall. And was enough research done on Keita?

So yes, it’s important to be honest about these things rather than get lost in a financial debate about who’s spent what.

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[Mikus LFC]

Midfield still the root of our problems nil imo.

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[Mikus LFC]

I’m defending Nunez at the moment because of his overall contribution to the team and he’s still clearly raw and in his first season. But I concede he’s missing too many chances. And that could start to cost us at some point. Hopefully Gakpo will start relieving the pressure.

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[Mikus LFC]

We owe Faes a hell of a lot tonight 😆

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[Mikus LFC]

Henderson having a mare tonight.

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[Mikus LFC]

Same old problems. Completely casual in midfield, and defenders playing high in defence vulnerable and easily caught out.

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[Mikus LFC]

I think clubs dominating have to have all the ingredients together at the same time, which is actually very hard to do and is therefore pretty rare. As others have said, you need the resources, the right CEO, the right director of football and the right manager. Man City had won titles before Pep but they were no were near the dominant side they are now under the former Spanish and Barcelona dream team of Soriano, Begiristain & Guardiola. As I say, the danger for City is that when Pep leaves, his fellow Spaniards could follow him.

Even though Chelsea have been very successful over recent decades, I wouldn’t say they’ve been particularly dominant, as a manager simply hasn’t been able to last long enough. But they have excellent “continuity success” as they had a very good owner and recruitment team over the long term. Indeed Chelsea prioritised having long term players rather than long term managers. Real Madrid, arguably have a similar strategy, as maybe Bayern Munich do, with players prioritised over managers and its probably the best formula for keeping a club at or near the top.

Man Utd under Fergie were the last team to be as dominant as Man City currently are because again they had all the right ingredients and wedded themselves to a long term manager. But such dominant sides are more susceptible to quickly unravelling when one party leaves, causing others to follow out the door as we saw at Man Utd when Fergie left and to some extent when Wenger left Arsenal.

One might say greed still drives whatever strategy a club goes for, but we know greed doesn’t just drive owners, it drives the fans too.

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[Mikus LFC]

I’m not sure Paul. I think whilst of course managers can leave a club better than they found them, the idea they can leave long lasting legacies on how the club performs after they leave is a bit wishful thinking for me. I would argue the better strategy for a club is to have a long lasting and very good CEO and Head of Recruitment with the manager changing every so often. This is basically what has bought Chelsea their continued success, particularly over the Abramovich era (though that’s the extreme example). What you don’t want is to be heavily dependent on your manager and/or have him closely wedded to the other hierarchy at the club. Fergie and Gill leaving Man Utd at the same time was utterly disastrous for the club and its taken a decade for the club to recover. Similarly, Wenger being at Arsenal for so long left something of a vacuum when he left.

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[Mikus LFC]

Man City have basically brought in the dream team that helped create Barcelona’s success. Ferran Soriano, Txiki Begiristain & Pep Guardiola. It wasn’t rocket science in that sense. The risk for City is when Pep does leave, will the others follow?

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[Mikus LFC]

I think the acid test of a striker is when they are through one on one on goal with only the keeper to beat, you know 9 times out of 10, a top striker will finish it. When Núñez went through on goal last night I knew he wasn’t going to score. But I have to say I am with HH and Sean on this one. He never drops his head and just keeps going and he does creates chaos, good or bad 😆. We need to give him at least the rest of the season and we’re not the sort of club to quickly dump him in any case. He’s had more impact than Keita and he’s still with us.

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[Mikus LFC]

Yeh I’ve heard that about Bellingham Ed. Fingers crossed.

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[Mikus LFC]

So we keep signing forwards but no midfielder yet? Understand with Diaz and Jota currently out but surely have to bolster that midfield this month.

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