Gotta love it when we start handing brand new long term contracts right, left and centre. It’s like people think it’s free, it doesn’t cost more money each time we do it with each player.
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I wonder just how much his and Ox’s will cost us , and just how many games both of them will actually play?
It’s just fucking throwing money away.
Nah disagree when he has played at least he has been quality and helped us win the league
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… and the CL 
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And the World Club Champs
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He has, but there are also stratetic and long term decisions. In my opinion, neither Origi nor Matip deserved as much as 5 new years on their new deals.
That’s exactly it though , no-one doubts his ability , but giving lucrative long-term contracts to injured players (him and Ox) is just negligent. These weren’t players we were at risk of losing. They should have been given short-term contracts or even pay as you play until such time their fitness could be relied upon. Clearly now that time will never come , and that money will never be recouped.
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Wasn’t it reported he did the injury blocking/stopping Son not Kane? Just one of those things, for all I can’t stand Kane the dribbler both his ankles got smashed by us accidently also.
Yeah , I think I heard that too , but that challenge looked totally inocuous. Who knows ? … as far as Matip is concerned it could happen any time at all.
From the summer on we‘ll have options to manage his game time and I can see him being sold in summer 2022.
His body is simply not made for our kind of training and football. The cold weather is not helping either.
He should move to the south of Spain or Italy playing for a club that’s purpose is mainly defending, there he would play lots of games.
When the club says he’s out for the rest of the season, it sounds like a very, very long time. But the season will be finished in about 3 months. This is about normal for strained ankle ligaments to heal and I think everybody expected Joel to be absent for a good while anyway. Having said that, I think the club will move him on in the summer now.
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Well I had the hope that he’d be available for the season run-in, and for hopefully some really important games, but it wasn’t to be… This is a big loss for us as, taking out VVD, he’s easily our best center back. The guy who can be decisive in ultra-tight games, for instance in Europe.
My take is that Klopp, after having a really hard time to address our ongoing problems at the back, found a good solution recently by placing Hendo into the heart of our defence. I’d like him to stay there if there are no new injuries to our midfielders. It remains to be seen who will play alongside him on a regular basis. I for one would like Fabinho to return where he’s best: in midfield.
So, that leaves Phillips, who had a really good partnership with Hendo over the last 135 minutes, against strong attacking teams. Or one of the two new guys. But neither of them is ready just to jump in and provide the necessary stability for us imo. They have no clue yet how we play, and aren’t experienced nor talented enough to give us instant improvement (like VVD at the time when he came in).
I’m for keeping Phillips and Hendo as a partnership for the next games, and see how it goes. Stability and continuity is key at the back.
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Hendo may keep his place for now, but for me the priority is getting him back into midfield the moment we’re able to, ie when either Fab is back or the new guys are relatively up to speed.
I think it’ll be too soon for Davies or Kabak for Brighton, and it would be ballsy to say the least to play either against City, but thereafter my expectation is we’ll see Fab, Kabak and Davies as our top 3 CBs for the rest of the season, with the likes of Phillips, Williams and Hendo playing there as required.
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Balance is everything, we’ve coped in midfield a bit better in the last few games. Henderson and Fabinho will both still be needed at the back for the rest of this season. But we’ll see how much. We don’t have cups anymore, it’s the league and Europe. We’ll have to see how the two guys are in training and put them in when we feel we can start doing it.
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Surely, this is not before a month at the very least? One lad has experience in the lower leagues, but has never played something else than the Championship at best. The other is 20, coming from a struggling Bundesliga club. Both have zero idea about the pace and the level of PL attackers. They both have never trained at the level which is the one required at Liverpool, and they’ll both need a long bedding-in time, just like Robbo and others at the time.
Hell, Tsimikas is still in his bedding-in time after six months, and Minamino has still not managed to get a look in after a full year. I for one can’t see either one of these lads play a significant role before next summer. Maybe I’m too pessimistic though, and one of them will prove me wrong. Hopefully that will be the case, we could really use it.
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But then again, we need them, too. Both short term deals to start with and we have a little over 3 months to go. We can’t know how well they do before they do it. Training and those 11v11’s should be an indication when they’re ready to help us, yeah. So, a bit of checking, a bit of traninig and here we go. Sometimes it turns out good and faster than maybe expected. We have different cases.
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The difference there, though, is that Tsimikas and Minamino were both brought in as backups in positions we were already strong (not to mention unfortunate injuries and Covid in Tsimi’s case), Davies and Kabak are literally the only fit senior CBs at the club at this time.
I’d be surprised if we saw them in the next couple of games, but after that I think they’ll start to be brought in (my guess is one at a time rather than both at once).
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Kabak is coming from a top division, thing is you have to remember the difference between the bottom 6-8 teams in the PL and the top 6-8 in the Championship is wafer thing, Villa bought 3 players, two from the championship and a reserve keeper at Arsenal and have suddenly leaped up from barely surviving to Europe.
Interesting point on that is Cash, who has impressed me a lot if Davies is as good and all suggestions is he is one of the best in the Championship then we may have got someone good.
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Brighton: Henderson & Nat
City: Henderson & Fabinho
I think this much can be predicted.
Yes, both Ben and Ozan have been brought as emergency and yes, they still need some bedding-in time. I think the earliest either of them can start is against Leicester.
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