mdgoonah41 wrote:
I appreciate that you are willing to shit on all of our rivals, especially while we are down in the dumps, but be real. VVD is the best CB on the planet. their attacking trio is the best attack force in europe, all told. they have great midfield depth.
more importantly, they have a rigid system that they've been well-drilled on, and they know exactly where to be at all times.
Liverpool have good players, yes, but so do other teams around Europe, now, in recent seasons, and forever.
Mané, Firmino and Salah are very good but they're not 1/10th the players individually that, for example, Neymar, Suarez and Messi were/are, and I'd argue not anywhere close to that trio when considered as a collective attacking force either. Van Dijk is good but so were Pique, Ramos, Thiago Silva etc. I have watched these guys and I have watched van Dijk, and he is not some sort of alien: those guys, and many others if you stretch it back, are as good or better. Much better in some cases.
You talk about a well-drilled, rigid system, but that's hardly earth shattering. They don't do anything special tactically to explain their superiority. Napoli have murdered them a couple of times at the San Paolo in past two seasons, Barcelona pounded them last year at the Camp Nou, they were taken apart by City many times not very long ago, even Roma gave them a thrashing in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final. Most of these games featured the "best CB on the planet" van Dijk, the "best attack force in Europe" and Klopp's "well-drilled and rigid system".
I don't really know what I'm driving at with all this because they're doing what they are doing and that is the reality, but their results are mystifying. Genuinely. And I remain suspicious.
