Let’s not forget where Salah initially came from when he had his 44 goals season and then to this day remained our main goalscorer. And that’s 95% of the time our usual market in the food chain. There are options out there, a lot of times once we don’t really see coming. That’s why both; Liverpool’s selection/decision upstairs and Liverpool’s use/coaching of the tools they have made us what we are (but yeah, we can agree on Klopp as the most important factor). Is it difficult to find the next ones? Of course it is. We’re not the same in 2021 like we were in 2017 (or 2016 when Mane was signed) par example. But I’m sure Klopp will want to leave us in good conditions by 2024 (for now).
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He wasn’t exactly a nobody though … says someone who argued against us signing him as thought he was too expensive for what we were getting 
At the time the deal went through (pre-Neymar) it was a very expensive deal, probably the equivalent of about £80m in the post Neymar-pre Covid World. God knows what values are like now.
But he was an established, top star in a top team in a top European League. Maybe slightly undervalued because of his struggles at Chelsea early in his career.
I’d also say saying look at that deal for what we should be doing is being a bit optimistic. Salah has set League and club records. He’s been a ridiculously successful signing. We can’t bank on doing that, next time we may get a Keita or an Ox. For every Robertson we’ve signed a Grujic, for every Mane a Keita. We are not guaranteed to get it right.
However Alisson and VvD we went out and bought the best in the world that would be available and matched what we needed. 100% success rate on transfers like that.
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I didn’t say he was a nobody, but he’s a fantastic example how there are solutions out there apart from Mbappe and Haaland. That’s not our market and especially after a season we’ve had.
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I’d say Mbappe is very similar to the Alisson deal, especially if the price of around £125m is correct. If anything he’s more established, more proven, wouldn’t set a fee record for his position, younger with more service/resale opportunities. I would only see it if one or two of our forwards were leaving though. We’ve got 4 top starter quality (in theory) forwards for our front 3. We probably do need to start thinking of evolving the squad though at some point with the ages and contract situations of Salah, Mane and Firmino.
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Sorry, I don’t see how they’re similar at all.
We made Alisson the most expensive goalkeeper in the world by quite a large margin (for two weeks till Chelsea panic bought a worse alternative with the same money after missing out). He was far and away the best available keeper on the market even though he was actually rather inexperienced for a keeper. Mbappe wouldn’t be the most expensive forward, it’d be about half the record deal with a fair few other deals being more expensive (Hazard, Dembele, Coutinho, Neymar and Mbappe to PSG) but would be our new record signing. He may be young but just approaching the age we recruit most players at and has years of experience despite his age. In both cases they would be record setting (for us at least) purchases of the best in the world available to us.
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Yep, thats exactly what I think Edwards will be looking for… The Salah at Roma.
We hit another gem with Jota, so a similar level I think.
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On M’bappe, I think he is the kind of player, or rather the kind of personality, that FSG would be willing to move heaven and earth to get here. It’s not just what he brings on the pitch, which is considerable, but what he brings off it. To have a sportsperson with that kind of marketability on the books of any of their clubs, is something FSG would die for.
They would sanction £150m without breaking sweat, because they would see opportunities to make far more than that in the long run.
The question would be wages and how the hell you do it without utterly destroying the wage discipline they’ve built up.
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Maybe, but even then, I don’t think he choses us and especially at this moment.
We are big, but he’s destined for something a bit bigger straight away.
True, and in all likelihood, he is off to Madrid, but if he was interested, FSG wouldn’t consider the money a problem - that’s my point.
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And to to that, all it does is potentially replace goals, it doesn’t solve any problems if Firmino/Mane don’t recover.
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Yep, Salah isn’t the problem with our attack. Changing him out for another player (even a hypothetical perfect replacement who is exactly as good) doesn’t actually help us at all. There’s too much assumption that Mane and Firmino will just return to form. But Firmino has been on decline since before the fans disappeared and Mane seems too reliant on Firmino performing well. Salah and Jota are keeping us afloat at the moment.
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Just to be fair though, yesterday showed the side of him where you can see the lack of clinical finishing that has been part of him since he’s been here. He scores loads, he misses loads as well. Has been, is and probably always will be. That he gets as much as he does is a staggering testament to his positional play, his will and his mentality. He never hides and gets in the positions almost at will.
He had a bit of finishing mare though yesterday, the chances he had alone should have got us through.
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And also to the supply he receives.
Whenever it’s pointed out that Mo is an erratic finisher, the automatic response is “But he’s scored so many goals!”
The fact remains that he should have scored an awful lot more, as last night’s performance clearly illustrated.
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The sitter he squandered in the first minutes set the tone for the rest of the evening. If his finishing was remotely close to what it was in his first year, he would be regularly scoring 40+ goals every season.
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Fantastic goal, fantastic miss. Looks like it’s become an habit. Every 2-3 games a miss he missed even in his 44 goals season, but much more as time went on. Mane as well today, I won’t spare him.
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Remember when we used to dream of strikers who could score 20 a season?
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This is actually rather frustrating. The amount of good chances he has failed to put away, he would have eclipsed his debut season.
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