Easy question: if you could only retain one of the three, who would it be and why?
This question is hypothetical only, so I don’t want any of you idiots saying we can keep all three, or that we should be able to retain two of them.
Trent for me and it’s purely an age thing. We would be signing him up for his peak career years whereas with the other two it would be a twilight contract.
Virg as he’s still the least replaceable. Trent is unique but I think the way Arne wants us to play we can actually split his passing amongst the midfield three and play a more orthodox RB and be fine. I’d love Trent to stay and if he wants to leave really would like him to sign a new contract first but for 2025 (at least) I think Virg is the one we’d immediately miss most.
Trent.
If Virgil were 2 years younger , it would be a no brainer.
I remember posting years ago that the money we’d get for Suarez and Cou was worth it as we needed to re-enforce in other areas. Was true at the time. But now we’re actually at the point of having the best team in the world. To paraphrase Aragorn “We sell to no one” Trent without question. VVD is magical but he has had a nasty one and the big lad is no longer 27. Sadly. Mo? Genius encapsulated in football boots but his time is coming. What’s the old line? “Let a player’s legs go on another team’s pitch” or words to that effect.
Both Virgil and Mo know that any club they join after Liverpool will mostly be a downgrade. Probably more likely to accept an offer to continue to stay in Liverpool because of that.
As far as Trent is concerned , this could be his last chance of playing for a club like Real.
It’s not an easy question with a straight cut answer. Ideally would like both Trent and Virgil to stay.
Love all three but Virgil is the best defender in the world and has 3 or 4 top years left in him. (My opinion).
Trent would be my second choice due to age and talent and Salah third due to age and having a pretty darn good attack even when he isn’t playing.
Think we’d struggle to replace any of them though.
Trent is possibly the easiest to replace.
We might not have someone with the exact skillset but we have one very good one in Bradley already.
But that said , I would still want Trent to be retained over Mo and VVD. It might be that he’s a local academy lad. And it also sends the message that we are not that easy to be poached from.
I don’t see us replacing VVD , no club can replace someone who’s the best defender currently. But push comes to shove , we’ll find someone and if that someone is atleast 2/3rds of Virgil , then we’ll be getting a very good defender. Plus we have to factor the fact that we are more solid at the back right now and hence a lesser defender might work well too.
Mo’s mo. I suspect we will miss his goals and assists. But it’s not as hard replacing him as replacing VVD.
Virg for me but losing Trent would be disappointing. Virg just takes it as I don’t think there another CB like him anywhere in the world and he’d be a pain in the arse to replace.
Agreed with Whippet and Sith, for me it’s Trent and the decision is solely based on him coming into his prime age-wise and Mo and Virgil approaching the age of winding down.
If I was to choose purely on the basis of who is more important to the team right now today, it would be Virgil.
I actually think we’ll keep Virgil and probably Mo, I think Trent will go.
Still have hopes that we would keep both Trent and Virgil.
Especially as Nikola says that Trent is going for sure.
It’s a difficult one but for me it’s Van Dijk - on the account of his overall form since joining Liverpool, his response to a career-threatening injuries, his leadership qualities, the fact that he started playing football and the highest level relatively late in his career (theoretically, he might play at the highest level for a few more years), and the small fact that he’s the best centre back in the world.
This shouldn’t be taken as a slight on Salah and Trent - I’d love it if all of them stayed and had massive success with Liverpool. It’s just a bit of recency bias - Trent used to be unplayable but his form has suffered over the last two years, while Salah is naturally slowing down.
VVD is still a phenomenal defender but he doesn’t have that utterly imperious air and mobility that he had pre injury, nor the raw speed. Nobody comes back from a serious injury 100%. Combine with his age, sad to say there are younger priorities.
I think we are going to feel it hard if we lose any/all of the three, for different reasons:
Mo. There are some who don’t think he’s declined massively, but I am one that sees the big decline, in ball use, dribbling, etc he’s just not very clean any more. As someone else once put it, he currently fails the eye test. But having said that, we will notice massively him just taking a good defender away due to his threat. He is also still super lethal when in and around the box, even if percentage wise, I don’t think he’s up at the levels he once was. Overall though, probably he’ll be the least painful one to lose. The club is dreaming though if they don’t spend big in replacing him. I’m not going to accept Chiesa as the replacement. Which is what I fear them do, like they did when Gini left. “Tada! We got him last season! Like a new signing!”
Trent’s ability to ping a ball and open up the team offensively I think is massively underrated. That threat makes defences play us in a particular way and also gives us many more offensive avenues. I think I’ll get some stick for being harsh here with the following, both on comments about Bradley but I’ll upset @mascot too who still thinks Robbo is the bee’s knees. Bradley is a good deputy but goodness he’ll be a massive step down if Trent leaves. Hell. Bradley is like a weaker version of Robbo: has the foot skills and the athleticism, but not the world class football brain that someone like Trent has. Expect a decent number of tubes down blind alleys. If Virg wasn’t on this list, the potential Trent loss would be easily at the top of the ‘painful loss’ list simply for what we lose - Bradley has been promising, but he’s not close to world class like Trent is. Bradley is a traditional FB. I absolutely don’t buy the age thing though about Trent. I’m a Miles man: the miles are far more important than the age of a player. Trent has a lot of miles in those legs. 5 more years left on him? Probably, but not all of those will be peak years. 10 years? Only in something like the US league. I know it depends on how his body holds up, and so far it’s held up well, but I would expect to see physical decline over the next 3-4 years.
Virg. This poll is simple in reality. I’m not even going to mention his ball use because even without mentioning his long balls, his loss will still easily be the most painful. Virg taken out of that defence without a world class replacement brought in I feel will see us become that shaky defence that we’ve lived through over previous seasons pre Virg and for that ACL season of his absence. It’s just going to suck losing him. Ali is top notch, Konate is a great partner, but without question Virg makes that defence. It’s not just his defence, but the presence of having forwards dread having to go against him, which helps for psychological dominance.
TL;DR Virg. Easily.
Salah - His goals/assists contributions and what he brings to this team are invaluable. As it stands, I don’t see who can replace him.
Firstly, this obsession with spending money (in football in general, not you personally) needs to stop. Spending big more often than not gets you shit results.
Secondly, I’m not sure if they intend to replace him directly per se. We would probably just use the best option we have available. If Gordon can finally get back on track, then perhaps he will be it. Otherwise, we will probably look at the market and our existing options and see how we can best adapt. I think a post-Salah world is one where the other forwards will see more responsibility for the goalscoring.
I’m wondering what the influence of Quansah’s development will play on this, as well as whether we have any other promising players emerging. They might not replicate that presence or psychological dominance, but I think we already tend to do rather decently in games without him, although that tends to come against lesser opponents. It’s not as though we don’t have problems with conceding lots even with him in the team.
What a great question to make me miserable just before the weekend, thanks. Trent by a really thin margin, and it basically boils down to his age, simple. He is definitely not the most influential player out of the three, but as said, he is much younger, and has a funny accent that makes me laugh.
Cynnie to blame for this.
I’ve gone for Virgil just simply as he is the easiest to probably get and the most effective at this time.
I don’t really care about cost and how much we can get for players. That kind of thing sucks the fun out of the game.