Trent made some small improvements but is still struggling, Gomez has been largely crap this season, Ramsay can’t even get himself fit for us to see if we can count on him next season in some capacity.
While we have such situations, I’m not in any rush to get rid of Millie.
Oh me neither. Any able bodied player is welcome in my eyes.
He is the only one who seems to be out for 2 games and you can set your watch by him returning.
If he is not good enough for other, lesser prem clubs to want, what value does he bring to us? If he is good enough to keep a place in our squad then there are plenty of viable moves for him if the deal is right. The reason he is still here, and there was not room for fresh faces to come in (and under appreciated aspect of our lack of signings, despite Klopp mentioning it often) is because we were unrealistic even unreasonable in what we were roundly reported to have wanted. Several clubs were reported to be interested but little happened because it became clear how over valued he was.
Maybe this is a reflection of what Klopp thought his value was, but if so then that is the still the problem given how fringe he was and what a limited role he has had. The may be no singular cause for this, but the end result is a collection of players who took up squad places with very little to no chance to win a starting spot who should have been moved on to protect against a sense of staleness creeping into the group
Isn’t that very subjective though? It might be a sense of staleness to fans, but it might also be a sense of stability to the team?
Who were available for loan? I think we anticipated him being fit post-international break, at a time when we needed more experienced players being available in midfield. As far as I can tell, the injury was a surprise to the club, was it not?
His loan speaks to me more of a Kabak-style situation where we know the player we want for the longer-term isn’t available yet, but will be in the next season, so we don’t want to commit to someone lesser.
Signing Gakpo isn’t the problem for me, it’s more the question of what we’re doing with Firmino. As it stands, we look almost like we’re accumulating players for a situation where we have 4 forwards on the pitch, with Gakpo, Firmino, and Carvalho able to play the “10”, Gakpo, Firmino, Jota, Núñez able to play the 9, and Carvalho, Gakpo, Diaz, Jota, and Núñez available to play on the left. I can understand us needing someone to patch that up until the end of the season, but if everyone is fit, surely we wouldn’t expect to see Firmino play that many games?
I guess it would make sense if he was willing to take on a Milner-style vastly reduced contract, but then it would still not be the best use of a squad space especially considering that we’re thin on right forwards.
I think summer will be very illuminating in that regard.
I’m not sure it went wrong for us. We got a player in on a cheap loan to play some games, before he unfortunately got injured anyway, and we had 2 players who in the meantime managed to make enough progress to step up.
I actually think it’s more to do with the fact that he’s still capable of putting in a top game every now and then, it’s more doing it regularly that would be a problem.
To put it in a different way, you don’t want to see Milner playing, not because he can’t do it, but because it means something else has gone terribly wrong.
Yes, it is not only subjective, but only my opinion. FWIW though it is not my opinion based on any observation of what has happened, but a years old prediction of what would happen if we allowed this large group of fringe players to stay for so long. That has happened and we have had the predicted fall off in performances and application. It is not proof, but it fits
His ability at RB is valuable and with our defensive struggles this year you would have thought a more defense first option there might have made sense in more games than we’ve seen it. Does that maybe indicate Klopp doesnt see him as a real viable option at RB, especially given the games Milly has got there? And if so, does that negate how this versatility adds value? More to the point, his performances in his primary role have far too rarely been adequate this season. Being versatile is valuable. Not being quite good enough in any of the roles you might be asked to play is not helping anyone.
I have very little information, especially since I don’t really pay attention to transfer rumours, so I can only speculate.
If he’s on £100k or £120k a week, which I think was widely quoted as the normal going rate for a versatile, young-ish Arsenal midfielder who was courted by Chelsea at the same time, while being an England regular, then that works out to around £5m to £6m a year, not to mention any transfer fee. I think this would be a significant obstacle for a lesser team who would be expecting to bring someone like that in as a regular starter, let alone any transfer fee.
On the other hand, for us, it would free up the wages which could then go into someone else, but we’d be losing valuable experience, especially of someone who’s sufficiently familiar enough with our team. Considering that he’s been pretty much our utility player this (and last) season, I’d say that the role he plays at the moment is essentially as a stop-gap filler for various positions should there be drastic injuries, almost like a younger Milner. So far this season alone, we’ve seen him pick up 9 games in total, with 450 minutes, despite having been injured a fair bit himself. In fact, looking at transfermarkt, he’s been available for 10 league games thus far, averaging 31 minutes for each game, although he only played in 7 for an average of 44 minutes per game he’s played in. Of that, he’s started 4 games,
I don’t think he picked up a single injury last season, but he picked up 1526 minutes, which is a decent amount for a squad option. He played regularly between October and February, before disappearing thereafter. He also played all our Champions League group stage games.
I think he has more value to us than to other teams, even though he’s not indispensable, and that’s why he’s still here.
I’d argue that that’s a feature of any top team. There are always many players who superficially offer nothing, but they’re there simply because it’s too expensive to buy someone in to do their jobs, or they’ve fallen into that category like Oxlade-Chamberlain has, simply because of injuries. Maybe they should have been moved on earlier, to keep costs down, but there’s always a cost of turnover, and I’m betting we value that higher than the costs of paying their salaries.
I really don’t think the “sense of staleness” is present except in the minds of fans.
I would agree, but I often do feel as though Jürgen plays at least one of Henderson or Milner whenever they’re available. If Henderson’s on the pitch, then maybe Gomez gets on as a right-back, but otherwise Milner would be the preferred choice I think?
Looking at the games that Milner’s gotten at right-back thus far:
In addition, in the league against Southampton, Milner played in central midfield, while Gomez started as a centre-back, and when Alexander-Arnold got substituted, Gomez was moved to right-back while Phillips came on.
In all but one of those games where Milner played right-back, was it a case of Gomez not being preferred there, but rather a case of Gomez already playing as a centre-back, sometimes being played over Konaté. In 2 cases, Gomez was preferred as right-back over Milner, and in the one case where what you said holds true, the absence of Henderson might have swayed the decision in favour of Milner.
If Mane was still here we’d be playing far better
Ah, yes 9th in the league, with ageing midfield and a mountain of injuries.
Definitely we have no problem and no need to invest. Strangely, but Arsenal keep investing, while leading the league and you know that is a very good way to keep you at the top - invest while you are first and the other teams need to catch you up. So explain me why Arsenal are investing, even this window they outspent us, while they are 21 points ahead of us after 19 matches?
Well said he has done well in most of the games he has played this season, but has had a couple of very poor games as well and is our only enforcer
:0)
Shag em both.
Be at the same time then… they are the same person 
Noooooo!?! Reaaaaaally???
Coulda fooled me !!
I’d just shag the 1 on the right then….