I think you’re all right.
And I’ve never laughed at Utd in my life. They are a glorious and mighty nemesis.
I can draw conclusions based on the outcomes. We have colossally fucked this up, and we look like incompetent dickheads now. We knew a month ago that the Saudis were trying to buy Fab and Hendo, that should have been the point when we start assessing replacement targets and reaching out to agents/clubs for those targets. That the deals for Hendo and Fab dragged on is immaterial, we’ve completely failed in addressing the need at CDM and in the back 4. We STILL don’t have a credible RB replacement (sent Ramsey on loan) and we all saw last season the glaring need for another competent CB.
It’s negligence at this point, and there aren’t any excuses for it. We fannied around with the Lavia deal and got taken to school, then when we tried to swoop in for Caicedo, we got taken to school again. It’s utterly embarrassing and there’s no other way to put it. It’s fine to stand by the club and continue to be optimistic about the season, but any assessment of the transfer window so far that doesn’t arrive at the conclusion that we’ve had our pants pulled down is delusional.
It’s unfair to Klopp to have the squad so mismanaged like this. He’s given everything, and I’m not claiming he hasn’t been backed, but glaring holes in the squad are not addressed quickly enough.
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Now he’s off to Chelsea this bloke has finally figured out how to use Google translate properly. Unbelievable.
Therein lies the issue - a lot of people are disheartened by whatever the hell is going on behind the scenes at the club. I really haven’t got much trust left in those who are in charge of transfers.
I’ve recently read the list of August/September transfers made under Klopp that someone put together - while the names really didn’t paint a great picture, it actually suggested that we used to do our business early and reaped the reward later. Current state of affairs is a start contrast of that time and I really fear that powers that be aren’t decisive and/or smart enough to get the required deals done, as suggested by the laughable pursuit of Caicedo and, to an extent, Lavia.
Bloody hell, I don’t want to be Eeyore anymore but they aren’t making it easy for me, are they…
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We know the outcome. But nobody knows the details of what happened.
You therefore cannot reasonably make conclusions based on an outcome that you have no clue how it came about.
Yes you can draw conclusions. They would just be uninformed!
That’s what it’s about for the majority of players.
Absolutely PeR, but the narrative was that Jörg was Jürgen’s Guy.
First, the performances that we got from our sixes last year - namely Fab - are part of the reason why we missed out on the UCL. It is not something that we should aim to replicate this season.
Second, we didn’t sign Mac Allister to be a six. That is decidedly not his best position and doesn’t suit his main talents, and he cannot provide the kind of cover we need in that position.
We also didn’t sign Gakpo to be an 8, either.
The lack of a specialist in that position has negative implications for the rest of our starting XI.
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Yeah, nailed it. Playing quality players out of position is NEVER the answer, and we shouldn’t expect it to be. We need to bring in at least one experienced CDM and let Bajcetic be the backup for now. We also need to bring in a versatile CB who can moonlight at RB if needed.
It’s really that simple, and outside of some early Pavard rumors and maybe a few tenuous Colwill links, we haven’t been seriously linked with any CBs as far as I’m aware.
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That’s just popular thinking atm
They also say Enzo is no DM. Yet he won the WC with Argentina as a DM!
Macalister has played a good amount of his football, and done so very effectively, in a midfield 2. In this shape he is not being asked to be a single “6” so it’s very much in his wheelhouse. Furthermore I think the idea that he wasnt what we needed yesterday in the role are based on a bit of a misread on what was going wrong. He certainly did let us down defensively.
Klopp’s comments yesterday were that in this system the 8s are 10s, and no 10 in world football can get away without defending hard anymore. So in essence, he is fine for the role in this shape.
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My post was a little bit in jest because I’m increasingly seeing the idea that we shouldn’t have let Fabinho and Henderson go, however…
1 - Agreed, we shouldn’t be aiming to replicate it and playing Mac Allister at the base of base is miles away from it.
2 - Agreed, we didn’t. We signed him to be a flexible midfielder who can play a range of roles but mostly as a pure 8. In the box midfield formation, with Alexander-Arnold next to him, Mac Allister can be an 8 and we won’t need a pure 6. I don’t think Mac Allister is a great 10 - his quick and short passing is not creative enough and he isn’t much of a threat on goal. I think he’s a fantastic central midfielder though.
3 - Agreed Gakpo shouldn’t have started as the 8. Jones had a slight knock in training and I think that is the reason that happened.
I’d like someone to come in to play the “6” or the defensive 8 role as that would allow Mac Allister to be the flexible option he can be but for the meantime he’ll play exclusively in that more withdrawn role and I think he’s far better than the 2022/2023 version of Henderson or Fabinho were at it.
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Gakpo as the 8 was a much bigger problem than Mac Allister as the 6 yesterday. This isn’t a ‘told you so’, I’ve said before that Gakpo can play in midfield, but he was absolutely clueless yesterday as to what to do off the ball.
I thought Mac Allister did reasonably well even if not the perfect option there. With a ball winning player on the left ahead of him we’d have looked much more solid in that area of the pitch.
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Said this many times, about most footballers.
There is something wrong in your reasoning: had we immediately offered 50m for Lavia as you suggest, Chelsea would have outbid us the day after that, also offering higher wages to the player. You say that if we had acted more swiftly, the outcome would have been different, but I think you are wrong on that. Chelsea would have come in anyway.
The simple truth is that Chelsea seem to have a bottomless amount of money to spend these days (the devil knows where it comes from) and overspend it in the most reckless manner I’ve ever seen since I follow football. LFC as a club having to respect a budget, can do nothing against that.
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Couldn’t agree more with this. 
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All about money. Having the chance to work with JK doesn’t mean much to some players anymore.
I fear the worst after JK retires…
Finally another sane person who understands that it was nowt to fo with speed.
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I’m avoiding all sport media, especially Talksport. I bet the assholes are cackling with glee. And who can blame them
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This is more nuanced than jus the microcosm of the Lavia signing fuckup.
I’m trying very hard not to insult the intelligence of my fellow reds here but…
- we KNOW we can’t compete with the well-known financial dopers so we were built to box smart, not hard.
- that seems to have completely fallen by the wayside. You’re telling me, with all our data and scouting and resources, LFC can’t identify at least one ripe-and-ready prospect who can start excelling at 6 within a short period of time? Then we need to scrap that entire department and start over.
- yes, £60M IS too much for Lavia. But for better or worse we identified him and then started penny pinching when we now know we have the money. Yes, sometimes you DO have to pay over the odds to get a player in on time for the integration process.
- I’m not even going to go into the utter lunacy of going on a cash war against a vastly financially superior opponent who actually did all the groundwork already to get Caicedo in. In the past we’ve been praised for said groundwork being a key determinant in swaying a player to sign for us. How did we not recognise that our work was lacking in this case?
- a ceo looks at things like this and course-corrects their organisation. That’s what’s needed now.
We know the setup during Edwards’ time worked and we need to replicate those conditions and get the proper talent in. THAT’s how we avoid this happening again.
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