I think some people have been spoiled by the last few months. It was a great luxury to have 5 top level forwards and in an ideal world we’d actually have 6 for full rotation with no drop in quality.
But for all the rest of Klopp’s tine we never had close to that quality, and I’m not sure there are any guarantees that we will again.
The midfield should be the priority for our main signing irrespective of what happens with Mané.
I think we saw down the stretch that we only had three reliable forwards that we were comfortable using, and there’s a good chance we’re going to lose two of them within the next year - if not sooner. That’s without considering the potential loss of Firmino and the sale of Minamino.
Absent any incoming forwards, there’s a good chance that we’re going to be left with Jota and Diaz and not much else in terms of proven quality by next summer (Carvalho and Elliott may become dynamic wingers, or they may play in more attacking midfield roles).
Even if we manage to come to terms with Salah, we’re going to need at least one more quality forward to replace the losses of Mane, Firmino, Origi, and Minamino over the next 12 months. It must be a priority to bring in a new forward signing this summer.
I think we will bring a forward in if Taki and Mané leave, but for me the priority still remains a midfielder. Which is the priority ultimately isn’t a big deal, just how I think things will pan out.
I think we will cope with ‘just’ 5 forwards (6th being Gordon or Elliott on occasion), but I don’t think we can manage another season with the midfield options we have unless both Elliott and Jones step up a level.
Carvalho hopefully fills the gap? Taki can do the link up too. Obviously a drop from Mane; but Diaz softens that blow. The team needs to evolve…albeit id rather he stayed
That’s a big hope on Carvalho, I can’t say anything over a 19-year old coming from the Championship without seeing for a single second in our shirt.
I don’t see Taki staying.
I think you can say stylistically that Carvalho sort of replaces Taki across the front line as that combining type of player, grab minutes anywhere you’re needed and put on the pitch.
And then with Origi and especially Mane leaving, we need a serious forward coming in.
I think my point (if indeed I had one) was that Mane leaving for free in a year is acceptable. We aren’t broke, we don’t need to flog our best players for £30m for fear of them leaving on a free. The fact that this club is prudent is exactly why we don’t need to engage in this kind of BS from Bayern.
But can we afford three of them to leave on a free, potentially all in the same window. That’s a lot of work to do with a finite budget, even if we aren’t skint.
I don’t want to see him go but I also don’t want 12 more months of contract expiration chat only to end up having to replace Mane anyway but also trying to make whatever budget we are stretch to replacements for Mane and Firmino as well.
If he’s decided he’s going it’s just a case of playing hardball to get as much as we can. Luckily we’ve proven pretty good at this recruitment lark recently so armed with an extra £30-£40m I’d be pretty confident we find the right replacement.
I’d rather see Bobby and Sadio re-sign at £225/wk until he’s 33 and let Salah leave.
Salah leaving next season is becoming an inevitability but he is the one guy that can win a game from absolutely nothing. Also he’s the most creative player on our team with the exception of Trent.
If no one is offering 100m+ for Salah then he’s the guy you have to keep around. His goals and assists alone keep us in the league title fight.
Mane is a great player but he can’t do what Salah does, not consistently.
sorry I believe that street goes both ways.
If Salah gave us one more season like the first half of last one, then I’d say we let him go next year with our blessings. I think that our club are in the situation where they can’t win with these two regardless of what they do with them. Regardless of how Salah performs, we’ll lose him on a free next season. Sell Mane to Bayern for any price, watch him destroy the league and perform well in Champions League as the main forward there - you’ll be hearing endless comments of “how is it possible that Ward didn’t get 100 million pounds for him, FFS, #everybodyOUT”.
At least Salah buys the club time to find a replacement - and the replacement won’t be one player, it will be the change of system, one that is made to get the best out of him in particular. Maybe if club find a proper goalscoring centre forward this summer (something we haven’t had since Suarez and Sturridge in 2013/14 and something only Mane came close to being over the last few months), we’ll see them going after a younger and left footed version of Mane of a few years back, someone with good acceleration and work rate who’s capable of providing greater protection to Trent and improving the balance of that triangle on the right flank.
To be honest, there is an envious side of me that looks at Haaland joining Man City and thinks about how he’ll score hundreds of tap-ins for them from well worked moves and how we need a bit of that as well in order to fight them successfully. I’d be happy if our two advanced midfielders offered more creativity and our centre forward dropped deep less, meaning that Firmino should probably be gone soon as well. I feel dirty for saying this but maybe it’s for the best that our legendary front three are phased out over the course of the next year, so that their replacements can (be) adapt(ed) to the new system.
I never said Mane wasn’t a quality player, but he doesn’t deliver as often or as consistently as Salah that’s just a fact.
yes, it’s true. but at $225/wk (if he’s take it) would we get the same performance from Diaz being out left full time if he leaves. I like the fact that Jota and Diaz can rotate through the front three. but maybe this is the evolution, who knows. I just think Mane has more to offer and once again we have literally MADE a star out of a player just to lose them in their prime.
Creating such a difference between Salah and Mane is very much old stuff, we are not in 17/18 (or Mane without Salah in the middle of 16/17, he had some really off periods in both seasons when he looked like he couldn’t complete a pass for about a month).
Goals and assists is not everything and even in that aspect, since 18/19, when Mane went up a level, they are more or less about the same importance for us. No need to act like Salah is a class above him for us. He was for 1 season, which was Salah’s first.
Both had little or larger off periods here and there since they’re playing together, Mane in the first part of this season and Salah in the second part.
Salah is our main and consistent goalscorer, Mane is also a very good goalscorer and perhaps a little bit better in dropping, making offers back to goal also, keeping the ball, being more involved in more situations and phases.
It’s why we never really played Mo in the central position in our main formation, Mane did that brilliantly at times in the past when he was needed and for a good few months in the second part of this season.
Their roles are also a little bit different, Mo with his goalscoring has earned that little bit more freedom. His assists numbers are also very good, but he also takes about 10 dribble attempts per game where he just runs into opponents. It’s okay, he takes risks and he needs to, it’s his game and he can’t play differently.
Jota is not such a footballing god like some maybe thought in 20/21 and Diaz isn’t either. Both have done really well so far, there’s no doubt about that.
We’ll have to react if Mane leaves and that’s it, it’s only natural.
I hope it’s not the case. I really feel like we would do better by ourselves to retain at least one of the front three if not two for at least two more seasons.
I don’t see the other two of the old guard leaving this summer, if someone leaves I think it will be only one. Looks like it could be Mane this summer. What happens in a year’s time is hard to predict at the moment, we have a lot of football to play until then. A lot of individual evolution is possible, the whole context could be different than it is now. Maybe it will be a case of slowly replacing a few of them, one this summer and then someone else next summer.
Mane’s brilliant - and Salah is still better than him in essentially every statistical category you care to mention. Of the two players, which is the conversation, I’d much rather have one more season of Salah. Even though seeing Mane leave will be pretty hard.
They’re both legends of the club anyway and the fact that we are close to seeing both of them gone - likely within the next 14 months - is not going to be easy to recover from. We will, but it may take time and I kind of see the value in moving one on now and getting them replaced, trying to make the transition a little easier.
Many see Diaz being brought in as Sadio,s replacement .If we get a figure close to what Diaz cost us then the club will see that as good business,and so will the fans if he starts to put those chances away.
Yeah, Diaz looks set to kick on with his evolution on the left side.
I’m excited for him next season, Klopp said that this summer they will go into more depth and details with Diaz about what we expect from him in that position.
But then, we have to think about that central area also.
I don’t want to be in a situation where Bobby is either out of form or not quite fit/match sharp and our only alternative is Jota (who has a goal in him, but against quality opponents can go missing in other parts of the game and we need more involvement).
Salah is a machine and almost always plays, but then for the other two positions you’d want 4 proper solutions being able to rotate and offer different skills.
I’d love for the evolution to include a four-attacker setup (4231 or 424). Fab and Thiago/Hendo as a double-pivot with Mane or Bobby in the #10/9 combo.
Hopefully Elliot learns a lot from Mo next season to make that RW slot his own.