The Central Midfield Thread

Read today he will only move if he’s going to be a no1 which is very unlikely in the Premier.

He could make it as a #1 for quite a lot of PL clubs.

Brentford example might lose Raya. I can see Kelleher fitting in there nicely. Right profile of club too.

If he does go , and we decide to have another keeper if Pitaluga is deemed not ready as third choice , I’d think of getting Steele from Brighton as a second choice. 32 years old , good with the ball on the feet. Can give good

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What ifs… there are many.

Kelleher could play EL group stage + League Cup games here next season, but it’s not shocking if he’s looking for a place where he can start playing regular football and that will probably happen sooner rather than later.

Brentford already signed Flekken from Freiburg. Sanchez or Martinez might be on the move, we’ll see. His new club doesn’t have to be a PL side.

Both Jaros and Pitaluga(come December) would count as homegrown

We have 6 home grown now,
Kelleher
Trent
Gomez
Curtis
Henderson
Phillips.

Fun fact:

If we sell both Henderson and Fabinho, but sign Lavia, our average age in midfield will drop to 22.4.

Plus looking a bit forward, Thiago will most probably play his final season.

Good stuff.

Couldn’t stand to watch another season of old men chasing shadows in midfield.

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Too coincidental to me that both Henderson and Fabinho are being courted at the same time and nobody else from any other area of the team. I reckon both of them have been given a hint and their agents have been working on looking for the best payday far sooner than yesterday and today. We just happen to be hearing about it now.

I’m quite pleased tbh.

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Its Agent Gerrard at work. He knows we need money.

Of course, that is just natural. We got a hint that something might be coming from Saudi (because it was really hard to see who would come in for Fabinho from Europe), they got a hint before coming back from their breaks that we are open to listen to offers. It’s surely not yesterday’s news that we are ready to part ways with Hendo because Szoboszlai killed the lactate test, so we’re fine with him. We only see part of the iceberg.

Group of Thiago, Jones, Allister, Szoboszlai, Bajcetic, Lavia, Elliott is much better than our midfield last year. Quantity is never a problem, most of us satisfied with our front line although we only have 5 players for 3 positions. If Allister and Szoboszlai settle quickly, Jones and Bajcetic continues their form, we will be fine.

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At this point i’m not even going to guess how this all plays out. I’m still fairly sure Trent won’t be midfielder no matter what position he takes up during different phases of play. Too many bad takes going round on here for me with all the latest news mind you. I think I’ll have a leave of absence until we actually play a game of football again.

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Well, at the end of last season, he was both a defender and midfielder. Not at the same time, but depending on the phase of play. For now, until we see a change, I believe we will continue doing that, at least play with it. In what capacity, performances and results will determine that. Formations were always only one moment in the game, or one phase. Mostly a defensive one. They change all the time, because it’s a game of movement. As time goes by and the game becomes more about team work, more complex things are getting in sync, in order to gain advantage over the opponent.

Ahhhh the good old days when footballers could play anywhere.

Games evolved too much now though that they can only play RCM or LCM.

Yes please, gimme more of Trent type. RB he can do it, Wing back he can do it, RCM he can do it, AM he can do it.

I think peeps are vastly underestimating the impact of losing two senior players in MF simultaneously…

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Maybe, but alternatively the longer last season’s malaise failed to lift without the senior players being able to return to form the more apparent it came that heads had to roll and the more some players were playing their way out of the club.

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I’m not going to lie. If we sell both Hendo and Fab then I’d be praying the club throw the kitchen sink at RM for Tchouameni. IMO taking out two players experienced playing in a more defensive style in the PL, choosing only Lavia wouldn’t fill me with confidence (and I don’t think they together would generate a fee great enough for two incoming MFs) If only 1 goes to SA, then I’m more comfortable with just Lavia.

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I think Mac is the big unknown. He is a player who has played well in 3 different midfield positions and I’m not 100% sure what role, if even any one specifically, we identified him to fill. That might hold the answer to how we’re thinking about filling the gap left by losing these guys.

If he has been earmarked in the role next to Trent on the left then bolstering the ranks with a relatively inexperienced player like Lavia looks a lot more like a move with a predominant upside than one with big risks

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The left sided #8 or double pivot #6. When he’s the #8, he can either drop deeper to get involved in the build up or, depending on circumstances, also join forward. It will be great for us to have him and Thiago for a season and they can share game time, Mac can pick up a lot of stuff from Thiago, etc.

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Three of our most experienced midfielders and one of the biggest earners in the squad are wanted and clubs are ready to pay differerent amount of transfer fees.

Fabinho - we know that there is an offer of 40 mln. pounds for a solid and experienced midfielder who had a really poor season /but only one poor season in his LFC career/. He will be 30 yeras old in three months. And I guess that we could squeeze 45-50 mln. pounds from Al Ittihad.

Same is valid for Hendo too, he is 33 years old, on huge wages and his form has dipped dramatically last season. I think that we could get around 20 mln. pounds for him which will be a good deal.

And finally the injury prone Thiago, totally unreliable player on 200 000 pounds per week. Clubs from Saudi Arabia and Barca are interested in him and I read quotes about 10 mln. pounds transfer fee Liverpool could receive.

Can we lose 3 of them? Yes, we can, but it will be a huge risk to lose not only experience, but also leadership. The perfect option for me is to keep Fabinho, because he is younger and is much more reliable presence than Thiago and looks like he is not an option for Brazil at the moment, so he could rest in the pause for international football. But at the same time 40 mln. /In my opinion we colud squeez around 50 mln. pounds/ is too good to turn down for a 30 years old player, who is not getting better lately.

Hendo is the most obvious transfer, it looks like he has made his mind and is ready to follow Stevie. Thiago mwill probably stay, but we will need a defnsive midfielder with quality and experience. Lavia is not enough. We can not start with a totally new midfield next season /3 new midfielders for Chelsea/, it will disrupt the cohesion in the starting eleven. Bajcetic is injured and he is rather young and inexpetienced. Morton is injured and is not good enough to play for L:iverpool at the moment. Elliott has a lot to improve in his defensive game, Szoboszlai will have his debut season in English football. Jones has improves massively and can be a top player, but I am still not sure that he can give us 40 or 50 + games every season.

Caicedo is expensive, but in my opinion he is the best in his position in the PL, but if we manage to sell Hendo for 20 mln. pounds and Fab for 45 mln., pounds, the club will only need to add 30 mln. pounds and sign a top, top player. And the wage bill will be reduced dramatcially after this summer transfer window, while midield will be fitter, younger, stronger, hungrier and the word pressing monsters will be the ideal description fro such a young and talented group.

But selling Fab and Hendo and only adding Lavia will be pretty stupid and risky. If we sell two of our leaders, we need to replace them with a top player. Like Rice, Barella, Bellingham, Caicedo…

But if we sign Caicedo and Lavia, it will be worth the risk to sell aven thre of our old guard.