No arguments with that, though still love having Thiago as a Liverpool player.
And next summer when Naby goes and we sign Jude Pedri and Camavinga we’ll have no midfielders aged 24-28 
Only just seen this now , after making similar points (re:Hendo and Klopp’s loyalty) in reply to you in the post-match thread.
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Indeed, so maybe the problem is not the Thiago signing but the decisions not to continue strengthening the engine room with players similar to him. I’m gutted we didn’t sign Guimaraes, he went to Newcastle for £33mil…
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Now we await for the bossest of bosses to do what he’s the best at. People & situational leading.
As far as player leading, we don’t need to debate. He’ll make sure they are treated right while instituting changes.
Reg tactics, no more respecting styles and principles, especially with the injuries we’ve had. No more attack at all costs, possession footie and playing from the back. MF can’t keep up and defense is tired.
Give them the challenge to figure out how to avoid conceding and release them off the 2019 style. The stands deserve to get hit by clearance balls. Do what’s needed.
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We have made serious transfer blunders in the last 15mths, letting Gini and Mane go. Because the reliability those players provided bred confidence in the others to go flair.
I don’t think either should be seen as a mistake as they were starting to have less of an impact than they had previously. Keeping them would have mean’t even more aged players in the squad and less funds for squad rebuilding.
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Gini was never really ‘special’ but his energy one of a kind and very important in the Klopp era.
Gave his all in his last season and while we had so many injuries he played the most minutes I believe.
We are missing him so much.
Same with Sadio who had very good second half of his last season.
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Your point about thiago is an interesting one (going back a few posts now), but I think it has to be balanced against the alternative. The more successful we became, the more teams collectively adapted the same approaches to mitigate our strengths. Increasingly that meant them conceding possession, and dropping men in behind the ball and packing their own box. The addition of Thiago was the counter move, and if we dont do that, what are we left with? A rather uninspiring midfield having tons of the ball and left to either force a pass they cannot make or just giving it to a FB to pump it into a packed box (simplification to make a point).
So I think that leads us to where the conversation has subsequently gone…what more did we need to do to supplement this evolution with other players who can supplement him when he’s playing and add something new when he isn’t. I suspect, Jones and Elliott collectively were expected to be a bigger part of that than injury has allowed them, but it’s also increasingly looking like the right thing was to replace Ox and Minamino’s salary with one new young powerful dynamo type player. Which is why the move for Tchouaméni made so much sense and why it;s increasingly looking like the wrong move to have determine that in Ox and Naby we had the legs already available to go one more year until we get the replacement.
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I’m not denying they were important players for us - but Sweeting was flagging the fall off in Gini’s numbers before he left. We’ve since see the same was true for Mane.
We can argue whether or not we should have kept them, but to call them blunders I think is totally unfair on the club (particularly when the players were wanting out anyway)
No its not unfair, its correct. They were key players in our spine. Thiago, whist technically far better, cant stay fit, so that replacement has not worked. We then go an swap Mane for Nunez (facepalm) and now have a double problem. Hence no fixed starting 11, hence waivering and inconsistent.
Clarence Seedorf was never special but he got the basics right every time - these players are indispensible to success. Now we do not have this.
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What? His close control and ball retention skills under pressure were exceptional! In his prime he was absolutely special!
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I don’t disagree with any of your points.
My big confusion comes from with the shift for Thiago it involved less of the fullbacks being the overlap and building little triangles with a midfielder, fullback and forward… We appeared to be getting that down, the Diaz signing was perfect for replacing Mane and Jota picks up the Bobby role… Yet then we bought Nunez who doesn’t fit that style of play at all, he seems perfect for the older style of player who would thrive with Robbo and Trent getting wide and crossing the ball.
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That’s factually incorrect. Klopp and the club wanted Mane to renew but he wanted a new challenge. And Diaz is Mane’s replacement, not Nunez.
P.S. Seedorf was special.
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I think he meant flair, but in that drubbing of Barca, I think I saw the moment of greatest ever close control and ball retention, fooling Rakitic, Busquets et al (x3) in one move, sublime.
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If Jurgen didn’t know before last night he will know now this squad is not up to task…too many players either past it, off form, not ready or crocks.
Hopefully lessons will have been learnt from the last 2 summers that you can’t solely rest on your laurels and next season we can be where we want to be again.
No its perspective, and we obviously had undervalued Mane under Salah and that erosion took its toll. This is the reason, and perhaps wages.
Seedorf was special in the sense of consistency alike Wijnaldum, but both hardly shown a flair game, was the point.
As far as I can tell Nunez is playing up top where Mane was in his last season, but there is a little interchangeability between all the front 3.
Its like the wider world where pedantry can detract from clear conclusions. In any event we are totally shit at the moment. Lets hear your better reasons?!
Mostly, less is more.
Good discussion above on the midfield evolution with the addition of Thiago. We started to change the style but we didn’t go far enough, so we were caught between the old model and the new model, in my opinion.
The old model doesn’t have the legs to dominate a Premier League midfield battle any more; and the new model is only partially there, technically, to do the possession game.
I think once we get the midfield right, the knock-on effect will help the attack and the defense, and we will look a lot better for it.
In the meantime we are struggling.
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BREAKING: Jurgen Klopp has been stopped by police for speeding round Anfield.
When questioned why he was speeding he replied:
“I’ll do anything for 3 points at the moment”
Made me chuckle this 