The Midweek Maxi #19: Quality Quansah, Shambolic Rivals & Shankly's Foundations
Our new Liverpool FC weekly compendium. News. Stats. Views. Debate. Links. Data. Insights. Delights.
To read about why we’ve replaced Free Friday with The Midweek Maxi, see the intro to the first edition.
So far the bumper weekly roundup is going down extremely well with paying subscribers:
This week:
Excerpts and links to the different pieces we've published across the TTT Substack network, prior to the paywall kicking in;
Then, some of the best comments from the site this past week;
Next, Daniel Zambartas’ bumper LFC News, Media & Transfer Round-Up;
And then finally, bit of Midweek Moby (the TTT stalwart, not the beautiful bald middle-aged man), for the third mini-article of new writing within this week’s Maxi.
Job done! (Oh, and it’s also a discussion thread for the issues raised.)
Note: the Maxi may exceed the email size limit on Substack, but the whole piece can be read online by paying subscribers.
TTT Network Roundup
Links and excerpts to articles on the various TTT sites, which are run by different people and require separate subscriptions to this, the TTT Main Hub.
The Main Hub
First up, it’s been 12 months since the switch to Substack, as well 14 years since TTT started all those years ago (I feel old now -DR)… we are also the most popular football site on this website which is impressive, so thanks to everyone who subscribes!
Next up is the post-match analysis from the away victory over Wolves, in the perfect example of a game of two halves.
Paul Tomkins
Well, the league, the TV companies and the PGMOL make it as hard for Liverpool as they possibly can, but Liverpool initially making it even harder wasn't enough to derail the Reds.
After a disjoined, sloppy and (naturally) tired/sleepy first half, the Red beast awoke, with Wolves all fireworks and no bang until the break; and then like terrified puppies after it.
In the first half, no one but Jarell Quansah (who remained man of the match) looked even remotely 'at it'; Alexis Mac Allister, after the mad dash back from Bolivia, played like a jet-lagged guy screwed over by the timing.
The worst VAR for Liverpool, who hates Jürgen Klopp? Check. The 12:30 away game after an international break? Check. Four South American players only back from international duty less than 24 hours before kickoff? Check.
Key defender suspended for using industrial language that has been used towards refs every week for 140 years? Check. And three of the back four understudies? Check.
(Since when has calling a decision a ‘fucking joke’ been a bannable offence? As with the yellow card Alexis Mac Allister got at Anfield for waving an imaginary red, the consistency and rules went out the window when Newcastle players did the same.)
Again, whether conscious or not, this is a kind of corrupt application of the rules; one rule for some, another rule for others. Increasing inconsistency is becoming the only consistent.
Mac Allister also got a very early yellow today for not much at all, but a cynical shirt pull haul-back on a breaking Darwin Núñez right in front of the ref was not a booking, when it's as much as a nailed-on booking as ... going towards the crowd after scoring.
Even Michael Oliver, who used to be the best ref, looks lost and confused now; not helped, in my eyes, by being a die-hard Newcastle fan taking Saudi money to ref over there. (Again, don't open yourself up to issues over integrity.)
I'll get onto the football, and the joys of that second half, but what is a yellow card anymore? It's surreal.
Joelinton literally ran in front of the referee – who had to have seen it – to ask for Virgil van Dijk to be sent off. Plus, no apology from the PGMOL or audio release of the 'VAR' work by Tierney and his elbowing mate when Howard Webb reviewed some controversial decisions; just an overturn from an independent panel for a terrible decision, and let's all keep quiet.
'Integrity' and the Premier League don't really go hand in hand.
To give the Reds twice as many of the most difficult timing of fixture than any other team in Klopp's tenure, and to again have Tierney who, as ref and VAR, constantly gives bad decisions (and whose linesman attacked a Liverpool player!), a whopping 25% of the time as a ref or VAR since the latter role was introduced, is almost wilful corruption at this point, as it's now gone well past 'accidental' or 'coincidental'.
Even Jermaine Jenas had to admit it's odd that Liverpool keep getting a fixture – in part dictated by the company he works for – adding that it "needs looking at". Who's up at 12:30 after the next international break? Liverpool.
Playing football at 12:30 is not as easy as later in the day. That's a fact.
If teams were forced to play games at 3am, that would naturally be deemed insane. But 12:30 isn't enough time to get fully fuelled. It's not a natural footballing time. Most intense sports are not played at lunchtime.
Someone has to start looking at patterns in data (if clubs do, why doesn't anyone else?), and how there can be no integrity if the playing field is not broadly even; no one will get perfectly ideal scenarios all the time, but if you had one team playing 10 home games and 28 away, you'd say that it's clearly unfair.
We know about home advantage, so why not about 'time of game' advantage?
How can Mac Allister (and the others) be expected to play two games in South America, come back and have a body clock set for midday? He must have been caught in possession five or six times, and no wonder.
Prior to games, teams tend to train at match-times, to get into the right rhythm. The past two weeks, most of the team has been all over the world.
Still, by the time the game moved more into the afternoon, the Reds were finally roused, with the tactical issues corrected, too, and some super cameos from the bench.
There's plenty to rave about, after the interval, including the 'new' Mo Salah we're seeing.
The majority of my analysis and the analysis of the others follows for subscribers only.
It's easy to forget how similar Liverpool were in 2019/20 – often narrowly winning tight games; and teams missing big chances at key moments, to leave it open for a comeback or a late win.
So far, the Reds have reacted to adversity in three of the five fixtures, with another hardly be a gimme: Chelsea away, on the weekend they snatched not one but two Liverpool targets.
A goal and/or a man light three times, the Red Machine has clicked into gear, then into overdrive, every time since that opening day.
Five games, three away (two to big clubs). Plus a revitalised Aston Villa at Anfield, and Bournemouth playing against 10 Reds.
Most of the second halves have seen thrilling action.
Today, after Wolves missed decent chances in the first half, they created nothing after the break.
While not yet rock solid, long periods of games have seen Liverpool look untroubled. And in fairness, lining up with a rookie, and wobbler and a stand-in in defence is not conducive to a strong start.
This was the very definition of a new defence, with Quansah ironically the only one who looked settled, on his full debut. The lad has it all, bar experience.
He'll get a bit extra in all departments, too.
His manager on loan, Joey Barton, said last season. “He’s going to get bigger, he’s going to get stronger, he’s going to get faster. His anticipation of the game is going to be better because more senior games get you that.”
Ian Foster, his former England coach, said: “He’s going to get stronger and more athletic as his physique changes over the next few years. That’s really exciting for the staff at Liverpool because there’s a lot more to come. His football mirrors his personality – very calm, very cultured. He just goes about business in the right way.”
We saw all that today, before cramp forced him off; as a sign that he can add yet more power, to a body still developing. His shoulders are broad but he can fill out more generally. The next few years can see him become truly elite, given where he's at already.
Joël Matip eventually settled, but he's getting old, and his nerves seem to be getting worse; combined with a lack of playing time and the rhythm it can bring.
And Joe Gomez as an inverted right-back felt all wrong. Getting the masterful Dominik Szoboszlai into the no.6 areas instead was a much better plan.
Another player who is clearly losing his physical edge is Mo Salah, but yet again he showed that if he can't beat men for pace (in the first half he just kept dribbling into the full-back, albeit not literally), then his awareness is improving like two opposite trajectories crossing.
Time and again he's shown that, actually, when he's not trying to dribble and he's not trying to shoot, he can just find all kinds of time, and pick all kinds of passes.
He won't get a hat-trick of assists because Harvey Elliott's goal was going wide, but he did create all three goals. Plus, in the first half, the ball down the line for the willing runs of Szoboszlai was played yet again.
I like to see him let others do the fast running, and he makes the ball do the work. I’m happy for him to still shoot if the shot is on, but today he barely took one, and didn’t need to.
Salah is almost now a creative playmaker from the no.8 areas, as he's not really creating by hitting the byline, but by holding back; or when 25 yards out on a break and facing up to a back four in line, curving in passes for runners.
I would have sold him for £200m if he wanted to leave, but a Salah who wants to stay is a great asset, as I've said all along.
I've worried about his drop in pace, and his increasingly weak shooting, but he's now even faster in the mind. He could have had two more assists, and he's got to accept that he will score fewer goals (as do we).
Núñez was brilliant as a sub, after the anaemic Cody Gakpo, about to be subbed off, tapped in the equaliser, with his trademark far-post run. But Gakpo needs to be getting into those positions more often as the false nine, and not just staying deep, as he did in a first half where no one seemed to know what they were doing. He looks leaner this season; perhaps too lean.
Núñez's touch was a bit heavy for the chance at close range that was saved, but only a fraction; that's something he needs to work on around the area, as in tight spaces you can't afford to have even a slightly loose touch.
But the way he held off and turned Craig Dawson for the third goal was truly superb, with the defender like a rash, and duly dumped to the turf. He also just generally rampaged, and terrified the home team with his pace and directness.
Harvey Elliott deserved a goal; he's a little genius of a player, who found space in the no.10 area and laid off all kinds of touches, as well as shots. He’s incredible for his age; and again, maybe still three years away from starting to be as effective as his type often become.
Wolves finally attacked a little bit in the second half, before the final two goals killed them off.
The Zen Den
Paul’s Zen Den analysis was a detailed look at the new role for Mo Salah in this Liverpool side, and his ongoing evolution as a player.
Previously, Salah may have tried to cut inside more and shoot; yesterday he often just helped the ball either in behind the full-back, or pulled it back or square.
The role of Martin Ødegaard and İlkay Gündoğan (whose names I have have to google to spell correctly, hence the fancy letters) was often to hang around in the inside left or right space and just thump the ball at goal from 20 yards.
I'd expected Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szzobzoszszlai Szoboszlai (whose name I can now spell correctly 47% 46% of the time) to be the ones doing that; and the latter did so from hanging back from a corner against Villa, and also for the killer goal against Bournemouth, when Diogo Jota turned home the parried effort.
But I also said that Elliott could do this too, as someone with a good strike on him, and whose shooting should gain power with age and strength. I compared Elliott to Ødegaard last season, as two hitherto teenage sensations (playing top-tier football around the time of their 16th birthdays) who needed time to become reliable string-pullers; when compared at the same age, Elliott's career is on track to match the Arsenal man.
But rather than the no.8s also creating from the deeper inside channels, it seems like Salah in that area a lot of the time on the right.
Szoboszlai looks to overlap with pace early in games, with Trent Alexander-Arnold's role more infield these days.
But Szoboszlai has also been swiftly redeployed in deeper areas in most games, to either cover for the lack of the full 11 players, or as seen yesterday, to play-make from deep once the clearly jet-lagged Mac Allister went off after a befuddled first half.
The absence of Alexander-Arnold at Molineux – and the total unsuitability of Joe Gomez (who had been doing really well at centre-back) to play-make in the role – has meant we still haven't seen much of the right-sided trio of Salah, Alexander-Arnold and Szoboszlai in unison, and how potent it could be; especially when dominating games at home to weaker opposition in games of 11 vs 11.
This Red Planet
On TRP the focus was a deep dive on our potential challengers for the title, and whether or not Liverpool are well equipped enough to win the precious Premier League.
The multiple transfer windows slammed shut recently, and the incredibly frustrating international break stopped the start to what had been an emotional opening four games to the season. For once, it was a welcome break to what could be another intense campaign under Klopp (2.0). It feels like a two year plan is nearly complete, so is it time to ask the serious question: can Liverpool win the league (again)?
My answer is a resounding no.
But please don’t stop reading now. This shit is nuanced. Or, in brutal honesty, it isn’t really is it? Man City will win the league, but they don’t count, literally, when it comes to their accounts. And it’s tough to actually count the amount of financial charges the Premier League listed, but in fact, it’s close to the amount of points we’ll need to beat them to the title (101). Just in case you forgot *cough* as the officials seem to have done, here’s some good reading on it The New York Times, The Guardian and the actual official statement for those legal buffs reading this (as if!).
Can Liverpool get 101 points? I don’t think any team should be able to get that amount of points in a competitive league. But we have come incredibly close to doing it before, yet that required the most superhuman run of points accumulation in the club’s history. In English football’s history in fact. Nevertheless, this current set of players is as close as we’ve been to the quality we had then, so with a bit of luck and maybe a potentially world class defender in the January window, we could certainly push Man City. But more on that later… now on to our ‘rivals’. And we’ll start with the biggest one, historically, for laughs.
…
There was also this short podcast on the highest valued Liverpool player based on Transfermarkd law-of-large-crowds method for assessing a players’ value in the market.
Dynasty
Chris returns with a brilliant look at how Shankly laid the foundations for the ost successful period in the club’s history.
Six times.
(Though none of them under Shankly.)
3 UEFA Cups
(One of them under Shankly).
Ten Big Ears finals - won 6, lost 4.
Beaten finalists in two other cups, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the Europa League.
(One of them under Shankly).
Plus a few European Super Cups knocking around the place.
As the flag says, European Royalty.
Yet, although the European Cup itself actually began in 1955-1956, with early Real Madrid domination, winning the first five, Liverpool’s European adventure didn’t begin until August 17th 1964, in a real football outpost, the moonscape of Iceland. European football would come to almost define the club in years to come.
We beat Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur 5-0 by the way, then 6-1 in the home leg. Tougher tests were sure to follow.
Having qualified on a coin toss against Cologne in a Round 2 play-off after two goalless draws, Liverpool reached the semi-final - not bad for the first time of asking - where they faced the then-mighty Inter Milan.
The first leg, at Anfield, was unquestionably the first great Anfield European night, the night when the legend began, when it first became apparent what this ground was capable of under the lights on a European night. The match came in the midweek following our first ever FA Cup triumph. Shankly, ever the conductor and master of psychology, had the FA Cup trophy paraded around Anfield before kick off, carried by Gordon Milne, who missed the final through injury, and Gerry Byrne, who played most of the final with a broken collar bone. The crowd, already in a frenzy, was whipped up to peaks of delirium. Liverpool won 3-1, but then lost the away leg 3-0, with some refereeing which was at best questionable - e.g. a direct goal from an indirect free kick.
But Shankly, and the fans, the club generally, had had their first taste of the European experience. They liked it, and wanted more.
TTT Transfer Hub & Deep Dives
Knowing that Mo Salah is staying until at least the January window it gives the Reds an opportunity to look for a potential replacement; in this analysis below, Mizgan looks over the best possible alternatives.
In spite of the fact that the team were underpar last season, Salah showed up and did very well. Barring the goal returns, assists and expected assists were at par with the unbelievable 2021/22 campaign. The shot and touches in opposition box metrics took a downturn. He has started this season with two goals and two assists in four games (until the first international break). Two (or three?) more assists were added during the Wolves game.
Subscribed
In this new hybrid system where Trent Alexander-Arnold moves into midfield, the onus is on the Egyptian to provide width to attacks and stay wide to allow the likes of Dominik Szoboszlai and Trent to have space in half-spaces and between the lines.
What this piece of analysis tells us is that Salah continues to be an important player for Liverpool despite changes to the way he is being used now post the departure of Sadio Mané last year and Roberto Firmino this summer.
Amidst all of this though, the initial doubt about his future remains. Liverpool cannot afford to be ill-prepared at the start of next summer. The Saudis seem hell-bent on signing Arab’s biggest star sooner rather than later. While it became late this time around, they would come out firing next year.
In reply, the Reds have 10 months to scout players who could potentially replace the 31-year-old next season onward. It is of course difficult to replace a winger/forward who has 188 goals and 83 assists in 310 appearances for the club, but one can try.
Three players have been linked with a move to Anfield provided Salah leaves the club next summer or after that - Jarrod Bowen, Takefusa Kubo and Johan Bakayoko. Let’s take a look at each of them and see if there is a case to be made for them to come in and do a job.
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