It could be my bias and/or just plain ignorance of people outside of UK and outside of PL clubs’ fans but you wouldn’t believe how many misconceptions there are regarding Liverpool (and PL clubs in general) from external media and fans (I can testify it’s the case with Balkans and Italy).
A lot of them view Liverpool as a side that embraces chaos and relies either on pressing or Salah’s brilliance to get the goals. For them, Trent is a good fullback because he can switch the ball to the other flank quickly, they don’t particularly rate any other Liverpool defender and they love to pick errors in Van Dijk’s game and point out how Vidić or Stam were better centre backs than him.
As for Arthur himself, I don’t really expect a miracle but I hope for one. There’s probably not much pressure on him to perform instantly as he arrived extremely late, he’s been frozen out at Juventus and surely isn’t match fit - and he’s here only on loan, so he’s not carrying the burden of a huge price tag like Nunez, for example. That said, pressure will start ramping up soon because of our perennially injured midfielders but I hope that our Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking contingent will help him settle quickly.
If I had to guess I would say he’ll have a net positive on our season, coming in when necessary and doing a pretty good job, but not be good enough for us to spend £32m on in the summer. And I’d be fine with that.
So from what I can work out he doesn’t score or create goals but he does at least keep the ball. This is assuming we can get him on the pitch because his injury record is poor. Also he hasn’t played since May so he might be in for a shock when he rolls up for training in a Klopp team.
He can’t fail in my eyes because my expectations are low in the first place. A warm body who can fill in occasionally but maybe won’t be needed much. If he turns out to be more than that then happy days. I will continue to pray for the early return of Thiago.
It’s not Klopp’s style to parachute a player in last minute and throw them in the squad unless they have a heap of quality. Does Arthur fit that bracket? I’ve not seen enough of him to be honest. Plus, tactically our midfield demands a heap of tactical nous that he needs to catch up on.
If you are asking if he will start, or even play over the next couple of games, I would say its very unlikely. Milner will likely start in the middle and Jones will be first on. Fab and Elliott the other 2 who will start.
I had the same reaction, a lot of journalists - particularly those who don’t watch us often - are still stuck in the idea that we are all guns blazing, pressing like crazy people and charging forward at every opportunity. The fact we haven’t done that for a number of years now doesn’t seem to matter.
The thing here is he’s a very different player to Tchouameni (and Bellingham if that’s who we really wanted and are waiting for) and all the talk of what we were looking for once we accepted the need for someone was of a player who could play both the 8 and 6 role if needs be.
I get that circumstances have somewhat forced our hand here but Arthur seems not really to fit much of the bill of what we were after earlier in the window. Instead he’s being described as a bit of a Thiago-esque player, albeit a step down from that level. It’s either quite a compromise or it’s really the Thiago and Keita injuries that have seen us do this deal.
As with most of our midfield, he’s going to be judged on availability as much as footballing ability. Having not played since May you’d think there’s going to be some rustiness and conditioning issues to address before we see him possibly starting games. Certainly don’t see him getting chucked in for the derby this weekend.
It’s a decent sum we’re paying out for the loan and he’ll have to have some career resurrection here to think we’d ever be interested in making it permanent at the reported fee. But he’s here now and he’ll hopefully want to take the chance he’s been given, even if it’s just to earn a better move away from Juve next summer. Just need him up to speed as soon as possible as there are a lot of games coming up and we need to not over play the ones who are fit.
Which is why he is on loan. Because, unless he absolutely tears it up for us, he’ll be sent back and Bellingham will be coming in.
I think that has been obvious from the start that its the injuries that have brought this decision on. 4 weeks ago Klopp was happy with the midfield he had. 6 of 9 first team midfielders were fit and ready for the Fulham game. We are now down to 4 of 9. The Henderson injury this week probably was the final straw.
What I mean is, we haven’t exactly loaned the type of player we were actually looking for or thought we needed. Makes me think the Keita injury is perhaps more serious than just his usual tweak or strain, especially since the club have said nothing about it either. He’s also another smaller, lightweight, technical type when what we seem to have lacked in there at the start of this season is energy and dynamism when we don’t have the ball. As I said, it’s a compromise but doesn’t seem to tick many of the boxes of what it seemed like we were originally looking for.
Love other people’s confidence on getting Bellingham done. There’s clearly some journo’s that think it’s a nailed on thing but a lot could happen between now and next summer. I for one and not so convinced, both on the assumption that it’s just a matter of waiting for him next summer and that he’s worth the fee. It’ll also be an awful lot to put on some very young shoulders.
