Ozan Kabak

[deep blue]

3 hours ago, dbtcity said:

There were more issues at hand than simply just missing an experienced head… I’d say 1) little Wes and Cags are both to similar in terms of they are both aggressive and defend on the front foot (not ideal for a cb pairing) 2) they never had a settled full back along side them and 3) the language barrier! We can’t start writing off highly rated youngsters based solely upon having enough experience imo…. I’m sure similar discussions were had last season pre signing Fofana and he turned out to be half decent 🤷🏼‍♂️ 

We were often over-pressured, or easily punctured, in midfield.  The addition of Soumare will hopefully add strength to our midfield and take some of the pressure off the defence.

[volpeazzurro]

3 minutes ago, kingfox said:

As @Muzzy_Larsson said.

 

“Context is key here, no one is saying always go for the experienced option they are merely saying given the current options at centre back, who in the main lack experience beyond Evans and who have looked a little suspect without Evans' presence, that going for an older head may be a better option at this point in time, if possible of course.”

 

You have to take last season into consideration, the amount of problems we had, which led to us having to play an unorganised and inexperienced back line cost us valuable points.

 

When Evans was missing, Soyuncu turned into a liability at times, Castagne had to play RCB, plus we even had to call on the likes of Amartey.

 

None of those situations were ideal, many on here vented their frustration.

 

But suddenly some fans on here now think, that an inexperienced back line if Evans gets injured, will be ok and it will do.

 

Many on here also pointed out that it was perhaps the obsession of playing 3 centre backs that was the problem and not necessarily the personnel.

 

Putting Ndidi there only served to severely weaken both midfield and defence. Castagne, not his fault, was pretty damned useless there. Soyuncu on the extreme left of three was clearly out of his comfort zone and a bit of a liability at times, like Castagne, not his fault.

 

Despite injuries, there were better alternatives but Rodgers set us up as if we were in fear of relegation not fighting for fourth spot. A bit like Southgate, if you’re aim is merely not to lose, you may achieve that and avoid criticism and occasionally win something by default but, for the bigger prizes, you have to set out with the mindset of believing that you can win. We were setting up against bottom three sides as if we were about to take on Bayern Munich. Let's not pretend we were unlucky, the football towards the end of the season was absolutely dire at times. The only time it seemed to change was occasionally in the second halves when we tweaked our formation. Just my opinion. 

[Gravel]

12 minutes ago, kingfox said:

A lot of ifs, buts and maybes from every post since about page 15 mate  

 

I’m not the only one, but I’ll save you the stress of reading more, I’m off to do some weed

Fixed it for you

[Steve Earle]

4 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said:

Many on here also pointed out that it was perhaps the obsession of playing 3 centre backs that was the problem and not necessarily the personnel.

 

Putting Ndidi there only served to severely weaken both midfield and defence. Castagne, not his fault, was pretty damned useless there. Soyuncu on the extreme left of three was clearly out of his comfort zone and a bit of a liability at times, like Castagne, not his fault.

 

Despite injuries, there were better alternatives but Rodgers set us up as if we were in fear of relegation not fighting for fourth spot. A bit like Southgate, if you’re aim is merely not to lose, you may achieve that and avoid criticism and occasionally win something by default but, for the bigger prizes, you have to set out with the mindset of believing that you can win. We were setting up against bottom three sides as if we were about to take on Bayern Munich. Let's not pretend we were unlucky, the football towards the end of the season was absolutely dire at times. The only time it seemed to change was occasionally in the second halves when we tweaked our formation. Just my opinion. 

What formation would you have had us play given injuries to Barnes & Maddison?

 

 

[LestaLad]

 

[Sharpe's Fox]

9 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said:

Many on here also pointed out that it was perhaps the obsession of playing 3 centre backs that was the problem and not necessarily the personnel.

i didn't like the three at the back but "obsession" is complete hyberbole. With Barnes out it was completely reasonable way to get pace and goals on the pitch with two strikers and keep the midfield three.

[urban.spaceman]

He doesn’t even look happy about this in the ****ing photoshops. 
 

 

[STUHILL]

31 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Hey, it’s all good, my head is just spinning from the cyclic nature of this thread. Need a sit down.

 

And now I feel bad cos I need to do some weeding too….   

 

[Dahnsouff]

Were all these portraits part of the deal? Are they at the KP or at Seagrave? Seems a bit ostentatious if you ask me.

[UHDrive]

LCFC are in a lot better position than they were when we won the league in terms of quality CB's. Set pieces wise we also have Soumare as additional height and strength now. Kabak is a defender with a good reputation and I'd rather get him as opposed to getting shafted through lack of defenders and pulling ndidi from CDM to CB or throwing amartey at RCB via injurys.

 

Still, that said, the 🌎 will end if we don't get an experienced defender. 

[Vardinio'sCat]

We need to do succession planning every summer, especially for players who have 2 seasons left and haven't signed a new contract, like Cags.

 

This may be a deal that is set up in case another player leaves.

[jeffschlupp]

4 minutes ago, UHDrive said:

Set pieces wise we also have Soumare as additional height and strength now

And this will be more important than lots of people realise. Rodgers clearly couldn't stand playing Mendy and Tielemans together without going to a 3atb and getting an extra tall player in there, and he was right.

 

By having Soumare I think he can afford to drop Ndidi in certain situations, or at least cope without him in AFCON. Rodgers' best attacking teams haven't had a ball-winning midfielder - think of Liverpool's midfield three without Lucas Leiva for many games in 13-14 (Gerrard/Henderson/Coutinho) or Celtic without Brown, instead playing McGregor or others in the holding position. I think Tielemans and Soumare as a pair could work.

 

In a 3atb we'd have enough with Kabak - four proper CBs plus Justin/Bertrand who can play wide, and maybe Amartey if he stays. In a 4 likewise.

[UHDrive]

2 minutes ago, Vardinio'sCat said:

We need to do succession planning every summer, especially for players who have 2 seasons left and haven't signed a new contract, like Cags.

 

This may be a deal that is set up in case another player leaves.

There has been rumours about Cags since before Xmas and tying him down to a new deal. It's really cutting it thin now and if we don't recruit Kabak (which seem likely now) then he isn't going anywhere this season.

[UHDrive]

2 minutes ago, jeffschlupp said:

And this will be more important than lots of people realise. Rodgers clearly couldn't stand playing Mendy and Tielemans together without going to a 3atb and getting an extra tall player in there, and he was right.

 

By having Soumare I think he can afford to drop Ndidi in certain situations, or at least cope without him in AFCON. Rodgers' best attacking teams haven't had a ball-winning midfielder - think of Liverpool's midfield three without Lucas Leiva for many games in 13-14 (Gerrard/Henderson/Coutinho) or Celtic without Brown, instead playing McGregor or others in the holding position. I think Tielemans and Soumare as a pair could work.

 

In a 3atb we'd have enough with Kabak - four proper CBs plus Justin/Bertrand who can play wide, and maybe Amartey if he stays. In a 4 likewise.

I couldn't have said that any better. 

 

I think Tielemans and Soumare would be a potentially great CM pairing. Soumare will carry opposition players away from Tielemans so that his job is easier and he can sweep more centrally and its a similar thing for Ndidi too because it allows him to manoeuvre into Soumare's position as Soumare is moving forward so as he can intercept balls higher up the pitch. Gerard was the best I ever saw at Liverpool in midfield doing that and some of liverpools famous European nights were exactly because of how gerard inspired the confidence in the team simply by creating vacuum of spaces.

[kingfox]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

Hey, it’s all good, my head is just spinning from the cyclic nature of this thread. Need a sit down.

 

And now I feel bad cos I need to do some weeding too….   

Weeding done.

 

Anyway, did you know that Gary Cahill, Jose Fonte & Joachim Andersen are all currently available.

 

Far better options than this guy Kabak don’t you think 

[Dahnsouff]

1 minute ago, kingfox said:

Weeding done.

 

Anyway, did you know that Gary Cahill, Jose Fonte & Joachim Andersen are all currently available.

 

Far better options than this guy Kabak don’t you think 

Don’t you also need to do the watering?

[dbtcity]

1 hour ago, deep blue said:

We were often over-pressured, or easily punctured, in midfield.  The addition of Soumare will hopefully add strength to our midfield and take some of the pressure off the defence.

There were quite a few issues like us being susceptible to a long ball switch into the space our wing backs had left playing the 3/5 atb which inevitably pulled 1 of our cbs out of position quite often throwing our whole defence into panick! Hopefully if said formation is what Brendan has planned for us this season he gets it nailed down and water tight

[UHDrive]

19 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Don’t you also need to do the watering?

Indeed, make sure they're nicely moist and wet.

[Dahnsouff]

2 minutes ago, UHDrive said:

Indeed, make sure they're nicely moist and wet.

This is the gardening sub topic, you want the tinder thread

[gurru991]

21 minutes ago, kingfox said:

Weeding done.

 

Anyway, did you know that Gary Cahill, Jose Fonte & Joachim Andersen are all currently available.

 

Far better options than this guy Kabak don’t you think 

Cahill never was fast & at 35 soon to be 36 is getting slower.

Jose Fonte îs 37, 38 in Dec definitely lacks pace.

Joachim Andersen is valued at 25 mil & is not coming here to be a back up. He was horrible for Denmark in the Euros.

None of the three are better options than Kabak.

[UHDrive]

7 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

This is the gardening sub topic, you want the tinder thread

Depends really. Maybe xhamster, if the gardens are subject to too many hamsters.

[ARM1968]

Tedious now. Sign him. Get Matondo in, end of business. Win league and Europa. Get it done. 

[mozartfox]

2 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

He doesn’t even look happy about this in the ****ing photoshops. 
 

 

That picture is so very ‘Arsenal’. 

[enmac]

48 minutes ago, gurru991 said:

Cahill never was fast & at 35 soon to be 36 is getting slower.

Jose Fonte îs 37, 38 in Dec definitely lacks pace.

Joachim Andersen is valued at 25 mil & is not coming here to be a back up. He was horrible for Denmark in the Euros.

None of the three are better options than Kabak.

This guy is 36.

 

[gurru991]

4 minutes ago, enmac said:

This guy is 36.

 

I know that 

It's like showing me someone who has smoked for 50 years without getting cancer. 

It's an exception to the rule.

Jamie Vardy is 34 but it doesn't mean we should we should sign a 35 year old striker !!