Pretty sure we have a midfield thread for this boring stuff which doesnt have anything to do with Lavia?
Anyway, from the unreliable tweets thread, who is JoshLFC1909 supposed to be? Is he literally just a random person? Does writing ‘Fabrizio Romano’ and adding a bad photoshop in his tweet make his tweet valid, because as far as I can see, Romano hasn’t said any of this?
Possibly the reason why Liverpool went for Mac who likes to come inside to the more central areas.
Diaz on the edge of the box with mac more central and Robbo behind them for the early crosses and the triangle linkup. That I daresay is what Klopp is looking for.
Yeah, Mac seems ideal for that LCM part of midfield. Also because he played more on that side. Deeper or higher in central midfield, but sometimes even tucked in narrow on the left.
What do we need to have “between” Robbo and the high intensity left sided attackers we have? Someone who can provide control. Receive under pressure, turn, combine, but also being defensively active at the same time. It’s what our initial plan was with Keita and partly why we brought Thiago.
And yes, I think they’ve been working with Diaz on getting inside more from wide, receiving inside, danger zones. Get his numbers up. He came with the reputation of more of a tricky winger with intensity. Here, on the ball, I think we’re trying to make him more effective. He sometimes spends a lot of energy forcing some moves (although good thing he has it!). He doesn’t need to take on the whole right side of the opponent’s defence.
Sorry for going a bit off topic, but it’s all part of the conversation how things will look with these new players we’re adding.
This is the overload i’m expecting to see when robbo bombs up. He’s not going to go further than that but the linkup between him, diaz and mac to create the overload. And if either of them drag defenders out of position , the pass to the center where Nunez/Gakpo come in
Except neither of you have mentioned Lavia once in this discussion 
There’s not much to say that hasn’t already been said.
Excellent young player, a bit overpriced.
We seem to be interested.
Just the norm for twitter…always see tweets linked to journos that are made up. Anything for follows and likes.
Piece in the Athletic today, saying we’re done in the midfield for now unless someone else leaves - though we retain an interest in Lavia.
More from Pearce:
Liverpool could yet move for a young centre-back if the right option becomes available, but they won’t pursue a third midfielder unless one of the current crop leaves.
Since wrapping up the signing of Szoboszlai, there has been growing speculation had Liverpool turned their attention to Southampton’s Romeo Lavia. He is admired but as things stand they are not pursuing the Belgian defensive midfielder. They do not believe they have a gap to fill currently and they also feel that an asking price of £50million is far too high for a teenager who has only made 17 more senior appearances in his career than Bajcetic.
No wonder we judge that price too high.
Yet again we leave our selfs short if this is true.
We let Milner, Keita and Ox from midfield leave and are left with a hugely out of form Fab, Injury prone Thiago and Hendo is also now picking up knocks. We had to play kid so much last season we broke him… That was some rebuild…2 players.
Although Pearce dont get as much info as he used to.
Probably why he says unless someone else leaves
If things stay as they are, we are still plenty stocked with eight dedicated CMs, and that’s before you consider the change of shape, seeing Trent move into CM at times, as well as ignoring the other young talents like Tyler Morton who may stay around.
Hendo
Thiago
Fabinho
Mac Allister
Szobozlai
Bajcetic
Jones
Elliot
You mention Fab being hugely out of form. I believe that his form dipped because everything around him also fell apart. I don’t think its over for him. He was being asked to cover far too much space, whilst the hard working midfielders in front of him were breaking down. I’m pretty relaxed about Fab and think we will see him playing well provided the No.8s can stay fit and healthy.
Thiago and Hendo will also see less pressure on them provided Jones can maintain his form, and the new lads can settle. Saw somewhere that Thiago’s average games per season at Liverpool are similar to his whole career - 30-35 appearances per season - we just seem to have this thing in our heads that they need to be able to play 1000 games a year.
Overall - I do want another midfielder in - but I think right now defenders are top of the list of needs. Any new CM that comes in has to be a younger, project/future, type footballer.
On Lavia himself - I’m a fan but the price is clearly the bit that’s not right on him. Saints looking for bidding wars on him, but they need him gone this summer. We’ve been in talk with his agents etc, and if he’s keen on Liverpool, then this (being out of the race for him) could just be a negotiation tactic.
I think its hard to argue that we don’t now have a stocked midfield, but I do still question Pearce’s statement that we could change our minds if a player leaves. We have what I would call 3 ‘old heads’ left - Hendo, Fab and Thiago. I think it would be a bit of a risk to move any of them on just to have funds for a 19yo kid that we would not expect to walk into the first team setup. I think there really needs to be a good handover to these new players and that needs those senior players around to ensure the process is smooth.
So I am at ease with finishing our midfield signings here. If we wanted to add another without anyone leaving, fine. But leave the 3 older players around to provide a good handover to the new guys and go from there.
My thought is they know Thiago is off next summer as we aren’t offering him a new deal. So if someone comes to us with a reasonable offer and we have the chance to make a few quid and get £200k a week off the wage bill then it’d be hard to turn that down.
I don’t think it’s a case of we necessarily need to sell someone to raise funds to do more business. It’s just right now they’re happy with the options but if something changes then we’d look to add another.
I’m not overly concerned by a handover as such. We’ve experienced leaders all over the pitch to help them settle in.
There’s a risk to keeping around too many old heads as well, as we saw last season. Lots of people even wanted Milner to stay on another year!
I’m a bit tired of experience and leadership being the magic bullet that keeps players around despite their ability not matching up to the standard required. Henderson, Milner et al have been fantastic for the club, but there are younger, better players out there who also take responsibility and work hard. Szoboslai, for example.
6 of those 8 were here last season and that went well, no? I do believe that a complete overhaul of our central midfield is needed. Szobo will be not be playing in the ‘engine room’ but further forward, I would imagine. That just leaves Mac currently as the sole new face.
We need a top ‘water carrier’ in there to energize midfield. Fab is spent as far as I’m concerned. Thiago is…Thiago - aging class, but so fragile. Jones and Elliot should be used for rotation. Hendo is a great leader but his career is winding down and can’t play two games a week. Bajcetic was showing genuine promise until his injury and we’ve yet to see how it’s affected his progress.
In mitigation however, if Trent adapts to becomes the new midfield gritter, that would solve the conundrum - but then again, defending is not his strength as we’ve seen.
I think if we were going to sign Lavia this window then we would have already done it by now.
I’m not sure, I think we’re likely to be open to the prospect of Thiago leaving and if it happens will look to this lad. We’re probably quite relaxed about the situation.
I think there’s a chance after spending so much on Rice and Havertz Arsenal may have priced themselves out of buying Lavia as well, so if Southampton are looking to cash in this summer it could be interesting to see what happens late on in the window.
Not at 50m. There are a lot of pieces to fall into place eg Arsenal/Rice, which may have an indirect effect on what the final price will be, and whether we are willing to pay it.
Personally, I think two older, experienced heads are enough, and if a Saudi club comes in for Thiago, this deal could be on. We are at a point where our team is evolving, and it would be exciting to add new young players who will be the club’s future.
