2 weeks Ago
If Trent is leaving Liverpool then they might need a new ‘locksmith’, and that’s not Dominik Szoboszlai. Who could replace him? Send your views on any subject – not just Liverpool and Arsenal – to [email protected] We need to talk about Dominik With the likely departure of Trent to foreign shores, it appears that a creativity void will arise at Liverpool.
Rather than eulogising about what Trent currently produces from an attacking perspective, let’s spend a second to talk about how this gap can be addressed/plugged in some way. Before Trent came onto the scene, Liverpool’s locksmith (the one that opened those low block doors) was Coutinho operating in the 10 position, ably supported by Firmino. When Coutinho departed there was lots of rational concern about where the creativity would come from .
.. step forward the attacking fullbacks to help ease those concerns.
Now that fullback dynamic is set to change with Trent moving and Robertson likely stepping back from being our starting LB. I hope Bradley gets the run at being our starting RB next season, supported by an able backup (there appears to be sense in getting freebie Walker-Peters in for that role, saving the club pennies for other priorities), and although dynamic in his attacking ‘up-and-down intent, Conor does not possess the wand of a right foot that his predecessor had. So for me, the light needs to shine back onto the midfield to pick up the creativity slack.
.. So do we have the right midfield pieces in place currently? Even though Gravenberch has been somewhat of a revelation in the No.
6 role, I would still be supportive of us bringing in a high end specialist in that position. I know we were considering Zubimendi in the summer, but I am glad that didn’t work out as I felt he is a little too similar to Mac Allister in physicality/nature. For me the two stand-out, viable options for a dominant, physical No.
6 are Ederson at Atalanta and Tchouameni at RM. So that leaves 2 midfield places ahead of the No.6 – Mac Allister gets one of those for me, which leaves a pool of players in the current squad who could play the 8 (Ryan/Jones/Elliott/DomZob).
I had hoped that this season would have seen that debate being resolved with Szoboszlai stepping up and showing the (£60m) quality that we believe he has. But he hasn’t done that for me. The more I’ve watched him in 2025, the more negative frustrations seep into my brain.
Positives – he has the best engine in the club (not up for debate) and as such, a lot of his value is harder to immediately spot as it’s tough to track those movements on TV coverage. He has a fantastic strike on him too. Negatives – not physical enough in the challenge and certainly not creative enough for me.
I’m not saying he has to become the hard man of the team, but he just rolls around too much for me leaving him to stress about whether all of his follicles are neatly sitting his crappy alice-band. ..
and as for creativity, in recent games I feel he is cheating somewhat when on the ball and plays simple, safe passes that don’t really ask a lot of questions of the opposition. ..
. so in affect he is Liverpool’s Duracell Bunny version of Jack Grealish (not ideal). Can he adapt/improve ? .
.. he’s technically strong with a great engine, so I’d say yes he could.
Will he adapt/improve ? ...
not so sure. We’re likely to see new attacking additions across the summer and how that process goes will define what happens at the top of midfield. I like the idea of Isak (well .
. the version of him that isn’t made out of glass), but feel it unlikely that deal will get over the line (he would need to agitate for the move to make it happen, I suspect). So if we can’t bag a world class 9, I would look to solve things in a slightly different way.
I’d try to bag Cunha to play the Firmino false-9 role (hopefully we could remove his red-card muppet gene when doing so), and use the net money saved by not going all out for Isak to go after someone like Eze in attacking midfield, who I’d select ahead of Dominik. Who knows how the cards will play out, but I do hope that a level of refinement to what we recently did to the midfield forms a meaningful part of that. Sparky, LFC (money on 3-1 for Sunday .
.. per the 43 year flashback) De Bruyne for Liverpool? Liverpool love buying wonderful players who are crippled.
Thiago, Arthur, Chiesa. Now, I’m not saying Kevin De Bruyne is in that category but he’s certainly in the ‘Limited Genius’ sphere and should fit the FSG policy of only ever signing young players with potential unless an established player with an great YouTube showreel is available for cheap. And actually, this might make sense.
Trent is leaving and taking those defense splitting passes with him. No one else in the squad has that ability. Often this season Liverpool have laboured against deep sitting teams and Szobo, Mac A, Grav, Jones, have not really been able to get through them.
But Kevin? He could do a job for a year or two? In those games you don’t need a highly mobile runner so we wouldn’t need to push him too hard. All we’d need is a few of those delicious passes he is capable of making. How many times have Liverpool camped in the opposition half for 30 plus mins with nothing to show for it? Some games need a locksmith and our current one is off to Madrid.
I’d take the gamble if I were FSG. He’s a good mate of VVD, their kids go to school together, he wouldn’t have to relocate his family, he’d play in a top team and league. Man City gave us Milner, why not Kevin? And think.
Kevin and MacAllister. The December commentary writes itself. TM MEDIAWATCH: Let’s all pretend Arsenal could refuse Liverpool ‘guard of honour’.
.. The Eternal Arsenal Horseshoe It seems strange to see it, as I’ve seen all the recent Arsenal matches live, I am having trouble working out if Arteta really has a different tactic in Europe to the one employed in domestic competitions.
I wrote in a a few weeks ago to say we had to go at Real Madrid hard in the first leg to establish a good buffer before we played them away, and we did. Or did we? The result would indicate that. It did feel that there was more confidence in possession, even if two of the goals were (sumptious) free kicks, rather than from open play.
However witnessing the continued use what I call the ‘eternal horseshoe’ of passing, i.e. round the back, up the side, back again, up the wing repeat, repeat, versus Palace last night, this attritional type of football doesn’t work enough of the time.
Against an Ipswich standard side (and 10 men) it was only a matter of time before they left a gap or got tired. However Palace, and other sides just soak it up. Palace pressed a bit higher and when an Arsenal player made a mistake and lost possession, the team don’t react quickly (strange, as most of them aren’t in advanced positions) and we’re scythed through.
Almost as if that contingency is being coached in, because no-one gives the ball away in training. A slight risk of forwards through the centre (Partey likes trying it), even if only a short pass, and fuses blow. What good will a £60m striker be in the centre if the ball never goes in those spaces? Again no diagonal runs, and none of the overlapping full back play past Saka and Martinelli which used to provide variety.
Instead those two just hug the line, receive and pass back the majority of the time, until Saka turns it on. 656 successful passes last night sounds impressive but the crucial figure was that Palace (the away team and lower in the league!) had 15 shots to Arsenal’s 12. So much more is needed out of that possession.
And, as I’ve grumbled about before, good grief the eternal horseshoe is boring to watch. Having said all that, if I am missing something within the Arteta masterplan and things start brightly against PSG (a different team to the one we beat early in the competition), then I’ll stand corrected. And of course, if we go all the way I will never criticise the eternal horseshoe again, Arteta will be a god in our eyes and I’ll help carve the statue.
Meantime I’m still not sure. What do other readers think? Is there a masterplan? Does this way of playing really pay off in the Premier League (Man City excepted)? TyA (everything crossed for two, possibly three, crucial games) READ: Does Arsenal’s ‘sh*tshow of a season’ prove project has ‘come and gone’? Arsenal project over? Perhaps Ignatius J. Reilly on Arsenal i s spot on.
Projects with a core group of players only tend to last 4-5 years, meaning Arsenal are on the cusp of having to rip it up and start again. As well as what Mr Reilly pointed out about the last 3 seasons, let’s also not forget the end of 21/22 where Arsenal were comfortably in the top 4, but shat the bed right at the end and finished outside CL qualification. There is now 4 years’ worth of solid evidence with the core of this group that whatever it is that it takes to get the job done – whatever that job may be – they don’t know how to get it done.
My feeling is that what happens next is you start to see the best players picked off – Saka to Real Madrid, Odegaard to Barca, Saliba to City, and so on and so forth. That’s what usually happens when a project has failed, players lose faith and want to move on. Andy H, Swansea Or not? Apparently the window for a squad’s success is three or four seasons max.
So what? If Arsenal refresh their squad with new signings, does that mean all prior recruitment and even Arteta’s appointment has been a waste of time? Is it only genuine success if you win it all with same squad you started your journey on? Please let me know what date we should pick so I can lock that squad list in to determine accurately when said squad has failed. Absolute bollocks. Everything is just taking longer than our attention deficit plagued society demands these days.
This business of acting like Arteta and our current squad have been a total failure is incredibly myopic and very, very f**king boring. One other thing. Stewie is a faceless internet troll who gets off on saying things he’d never have the stones to do in person.
Actually put something in the line you woose. If Arsenal win the Champions League, never write in again and F365 should facilitate by never publishing him again. Matt Wright, Gunner in Aus ( To be fair, he has offered to live-stream himself drinking his own p*** if they win the Champions League – Ed ).
