Gakpo makes sense. He is versatile and has already played two positions in his first two games at Liverpool, covering for first choice injured players, Diaz and today, Nunez.
Gakpo has joined a team that is struggling. He is not the problem.
I haven’t been on since the final whistle, so I will see what everyone else is saying, but it’s the midfield, innit?
Not only that, but fix the engine room, and a hell of a lot will start to improve.
Just saw this is the Klopp thread, so Jurgen (I know he reads)
This is the first time in my life that I see a Liverpool manager in need of making the transition between the successful but spent old guard and a new, hopefully exciting and dominant side. I hope that everyone is aware of that, as well as the fact that the club isn’t as healthy and well run as it was this time two years ago or so.
Before the World Cup, everyone was trying to convince me that it would get better after the World Cup but I was genuinely worried that it would have to get much worse before it got better. I don’t believe we will get CL football, I’m not even sure we’ll get EL football next season, but I’d be the happiest Liverpool fan in the world if we could live the cycle of “four good-to-great seasons, one bad-to-really-bad season” forever - which is what Klopp’s reign has been for the last five years.
I can actually see some parallels with Wenger’s post-Invincibles Arsenal. They relied on Wenger’s shrewd, often low-budget signings, the money generated from player sales and Wenger’s attractive, well developed playing style to keep themselves afloat and cash in on CL participation, while building The Emirates stadium. In a way, Klopp and Edwards did something similar under FSG - they bought smartly, they made big sales, Anfield is getting its second expansion and there’s also a new, state-of-the-art training complex - the club basically financed all of that itself, thanks largely to these two.
Wenger also had to endure the emergence of Chelsea and Man City as scrutiny-immune superpowers (I’d argue that he would have one at least one more PL title had Man City not been bought by sheikhs), just like Klopp had to endure Man City’s and now Newcastle’s wealth, too. Thing is, Wenger only got the financial backing from his employers once the stadium was complete, which was too late in that climate.
Even though Liverpool is, for all of its current faults, much healthier than Wenger’s Arsenal, I fear that the next chapter of Klopp’s reign might be more similar to Arteta’s beginnings in terms of league finishes. That said, I could endure a season or two in “hell” (and hell mostly likely includes the devil winning the title) if they are going to be followed by more seasons of 2019- and 2020-like heaven. Just back the man, we won’t get anyone half as good as him.
Let him, he’s clearly playing the panto villain on the guy wanting to boast about how right he was mentioning him about 10 times a week…whatever he has against 99% of dutch people is down to him…tbf I feel the same about most English players.
Anyone judging him even on the season would need a few lobotomies.
This may seem a petty little thing but to me it’s symptomatic of the malaise that has crept in, a lack of urgency that has somehow pervaded the squad. 60th Minute or thereabouts and it’s obvious that we’re going to make a quadruple switch, players getting ready, names already singled out. Brighton play a little bit of keep ball and then at the next stoppage they’re on sharpish with their own subs while ours are still faffing around until eventually they come on nearly 10 minutes later on the 68th minute.
I mean ffs, the games getting away, they’re running rings around us, the decision has been made on who’s hooked and who’s on and it takes almost 10 minutes to get them on? What the fuck. We literally just gave Brighton another 8 minutes to take the sting out of the game, run it closer to the end and make mugs of us. Zero fucking urgency to get going and it’s concerning.
Nothing wrong with him coming as a squad option off the bench, something we would’ve severely needed anyway given Firmino being off…this season we’ve been using kids like Carvalho or Doak off the bench or players no one wants to see like Jones or Ox.
& you’re actually banking on the likes of Jota staying fit…which is very risky in itself.
“I am loyal, I think everyone should be loyal, but I am not too loyal,” the Liverpool manager said. “The problem is too complex. You have a good player who did a lot of good stuff in the past and then maybe, in your mind, you think: ‘That’s it for him now.’ If you can then go out and bring in another player to replace him then it makes sense from both sides to say: ‘Come on, it was a great time, see you later.’ If you cannot bring anybody in then you cannot take anyone out, that’s the situation.”
It’s the “cannot” part that I don’t get. If we cannot do it now, then why would we be able to do it in the summer. That would seem to be pointing to FSG not being willing to put up the money right now.
And that would seem to indicate that as with last summer Klopp is focused on getting one player in particular to the exclusion of all other options.
We clearly need fresh legs in midfield and I find it hard to believe that there isn’t a player that we could bring in now, in addition to getting Bellingham in the summer.
Personally I feel much better after hearing the embargoed section of that press conference. He’s unequivocally put to bed the nonsense notion of him leaving. He’s given an absolutely clear warning to the vast majority of the squad who are underperforming that he has no issue with sending them on their way in the summer. A summer rebuild with big investment and Klopp at the helm is an exciting prospect.
and he will show his talent im sure.