Absolutely gutting news this. He was probably the first sports idol I had as a kid. Brilliant footballer and strong as an ox. He was also responsible for me getting an England shirt. I felt so cool wearing it for PE in Junior school. He was brilliant on Superstars too along with Brian Jacks.
They did but not in the same way we had with a peak Mane and Salah. They did it by swarming forward as a unit making quick, sharp passes. Wirtz was key in this.
The long and short of it is we didn’t try to sell him 18 - 24 months ago. We were still dicking around trying to get him to sign a new contract. It’s all arbitrary saying who would have bought him because we just don’t know, he wasn’t available.
He was meant to be Quansah’s replacement. We should have signed an experienced replacement for Konate as his transfer discussions were already dragging on. We also left it too late in the transfer window bringing Guehi in.
Hopefully we’ll bring in an experienced fitness coach because there’s no way our players could currently cope with the extra exertions of an Iraola team.
Not sure it is so clear cut as you make out regarding the coaching. The same group of players were still drilled and fit from Klopp. That slowly drained away. We haven’t really played well since last March. Slot didn’t even have to integrate any new players last season thankfully.