Philby

Genuinely fascinated to see how Liverpool's midfield shapes up once Thiago is settled in. Fabinho & Ox aside they rest are pretty flexible in terms of the roles they can play. One thing to keep an eye on this season is the distribution of assists across the squad. Front 3 (Mo, Firmino & Mane): 19 + 8 + 7 = 34 (~43%) Full-backs (Trent & Robertson): 13 + 12 = 25 (~32%) Midfield (Hendo, Fabinho, Keita & Milner): 5 + 3 + 3 + 2 = 13 (~17%) The rest (all max of 1 assist): 6 (~8%) That's a huge skew towards the full-backs relative to midfield. If, for example, giving more game time to Keita and Thiago at the expense of Milner and Wijnaldum means Liverpool play less through the full-backs and more through the centre of the pitch then we should expect to see these stats level out a bit.

Alex Stewart, Joe Devine & Seb Stafford-Bloor take a look at Liverpool full-back back-up transfer options https://www.tifofootball.com/podcast/sensible-transfers-liverpool-crystal-palace-celtic-roma/ Out of interest, they came up with the following options (...while also highlighting that promoting the likes of Williams & Larouci may be the smarter move) They are mainly more experienced, lower budget options who may be happy to play more of a supporting role. LB Mario Rui (28) - roma Bastian Oczipka (31) - schalke RB Daniel Brosinski (31) - mainz Valentino Lazaro (23) - inter

How Liverpool Surpassed the Golden State Warriors Ryan O'Hanlon https://nograssintheclouds.substack.com/p/how-liverpool-surpassed-the-golden?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo0MzMwOTY3LCJwb3N0X2lkIjoyMjM4MDgsIl8iOiJSTjhOMCIsImlhdCI6MTU3OTAxMzA5OCwiZXhwIjoxNTc5MDE2Njk4LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItNDA4MCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.AdjXFb9T1n3GIXPohrSqjQqsQ3rblmUnsgTPo4Og6fI

I was looking through some stats earlier and saw that this is the 12th season running that either Messi or Ronaldo will be the top scorer in the CL (...in 2015 they were joint top with Neymar). That, more than most, underlines how they have been a level above the rest for so long. Also, I see that Sadio has committed more fouls than anyone else (22) and is the third most fouled behind Neymar and Suarez. Well in lad.

I spotted that too, but assumed his reaction was an anguished one after leaving in a relatively saveable shot?

On the face of it that seems a shocking indictment, until I checked the stats and saw that Shaq/Mane/Origi didn't make a single tackle or interception all night. Although Liverpool were the more ambitious side on the night Barca did rack up 37% more passes, in theory giving the our front 3 even more opportunity to win back possession. An odd quirk of a highly unusual game.

Allan is starting his 6th loan in 4 seasons. After only playing 4 games for Eintracht Frankfurt his loan was terminated and he has now been loaned back to Brazil (Fluminense) for the remainder of the season. The goal was to get a decent number of appearances in a top European league under his belt to support a renewed work permit bid for the 21 year old. The loan back to Brazil won't help a bit on that front. It's starting to look that we'll likely sell him without him ever having made a competitive appearance. I think we extended his contract prior to the Eintracht Frankfurt loan move so you'd expect a reasonable profit on the inital £0.5m outlay. https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/first-team/338139-allan-liverpool-fluminense-loan

That shot from distance in the first half was a beauty. If only Big Willy wasn't in the way.

Last night was the first time that this back 4 (Clyne - Matip - Lovren - Moreno) started together.

Any sign of Ilori having returned to Melwood for pre-season? Plenty of pics of Ballo and the new additions but I've not seen a sniff of him yet. With Wisdom going out on loan he may well be seen as a possible back-up option right-back if anything happens to Clyne & Gomez.

How did Ilori play in general? Any indication that he may be able for some PL games this coming season?

I didn't catch the charity game. How did Flanno look physically? Capable of making a contribution for the first team in the run-in?

Er...up until yesterday Lucas was 27 himself!

He may well not quite have enough in his game (pace mainly) to be a regular in a side with CL 1/4-onwards ambitions.. ..but as a utility defender who would run through brick walls for the club I'm delighted he's in the mix and wouldn't dream of moving him on anytime soon.