Injuries last year, sure. But the two years prior he also played more minutes than anyone else.
We say he wouldn’t have played as often but nine times out of ten if Gini was fit, and he rarely wasn’t, he played. That’s a huge cog to lose and hope the minutes can be picked up by a bunch of players who are known to have injury issues and an 18 year old kid in his first season at this level.
Now watch us have to over play Henderson or Jones or rush Fabinho or Keita back too quick and one of them will go down with an injury if we’re not careful.
An 18 year old in his first season at this level is not going to be able to come close to the volume of minutes Gini has given us each and every season for the last 3-5 seasons. Not unless we ran him into the ground and we know Klopp isn’t going to do that with such a young kid.
For me if Keita and Ox would have been replaced with a top class, physically durable, player it would have been fine. But we didn’t so as you say that puts more pressure on others to play and they end up breaking down. Like what happened at CB last year after VvD got injured but instead of one major player it’s several niggles spread around several.
yeah thats the thing for me. Harvey obviously has just about everything in his locker, but thats not the only issue at play here.
if you look at his start to the season then i admit he would have ended up playing a lot more minutes than i thought he would have, but talent aside, we’d be asking for long term trouble letting the kid play 3000 plus minutes.
id imagine Klopp would have liked to have kept Gini, when it didnt happen, id imagine he looked at his hand, looked at what he could get this summer just gone, and decided to sit.
on a side note, i do wonder what his inner thoughts gravitate to regarding Thiago…not the level of talent, but the level of output hes had in an LFC shirt.
I guess it depends on who he’s sitting waiting for? Or were we needing someone else to go in the summer too? Perhaps we’re waiting for Milner to move on too before we act next summer.
Who knows and only time will tell. It worked waiting for van Dijk so maybe keeping our powder dry this summer will pay off next. But it didn’t look so clever when we didn’t go in for another centre back last summer so let’s hope we don’t get a repeat and some of these niggly injuries start to get spread out a bit.
Totally relaxed and happy about our midfield. As long as we have no long term injuries for Hendo or Fab or no mid term injuries for both at the same time.
I was Ginis biggest fan but not replacing him was very important for Harvey’s and Curtis’ development.
How many goals from midfield did we have in the league last season? This season 4 midfielders already scored and I am sure Thiago and Milner will also follow.
There is an owners thread already. This is a thread to discuss on the pitch matters. Not everyone finds endless arguing about John Henry’s intentions as fascinating as some.
The club made less money but FSG invested more into the side under Rodgers than they do under Klopp. Maybe the reason is that Klopp is still able to achieve? FSG have had the full investment of buying and running us back from selling minor shares with LFC being the main driver of the increasing valuation. The ambitious thing would be to invest further and drive that valuation ever higher to make more and more money off that investment. Klopp being manager means they don’t have to do that though. They can sit back, not commit anything and see the valuation still increase.
Sorry keep forgetting to quote in the other thread, just reply out of instinct will try and move to there next time someone says something about my credibility.
@Magnus maybe better to move the ‘Naby or Ox - who had more good games for us’ to this thread.
Just had a quick look at Wikipedia.
Ox arrived in 2017. 81 games. 8 goals.
Naby arrived in 2018. 59 games. 6 goals.
Ox was exceptional in a few games (especially those two games against City) before his injury. But since then he disappointed in in pretty much every game.
When Naby plays he has a good one usually.
I am sure we can compare match ratings of the two and Naby would be much better.
I find Keita, at current, a great disappointment given what he cost and I do not ignore his price. Not because he isn’t good enough, I think he has played really great in some games, but I find him terribly inconsistent and therefore not good enough. I also think we would get more money for him than some other players, because he has visible talent. But I don’t think he is good enough to be a regular player for Liverpool because I think personally that it’s impossible to know which Keita we will get in a game. The invisible one or the driving force, it’s more or less a throw of the dice. So far at least. But that’s my opinion.
Agree concerning Oxlaide having been terribly disappointing since the injury. If you read what I have written, including in tonight’s match thread, I firmly believe this season is his very last chance to find form. As for your comparison, I think it cannot be ignored that our squad was highly inferior in 2017 and 2018 to what it was for instance in 2020. I remember Oxlaide as one of the best midfield players we had before his injury. Now ? Now, he is among our worst by a good margin and I am as stated previously almost out of hope for him. So we disagree, but maybe not as much as you think (because I include factors you may not include when judging the two).
I would say is is good enough to be a regular starter - it’s just that he is never fit for long enough to be a regular. For me he has better awareness of where his teammates are and of game situation, and, can still have the direct running (breaking lines) that Ox does.
Nobody is asking to spend for the sake of it. Nobody is angry about the likes of Morton, Elliott and Jones breaking through. We are however now reliant on at least one if not two of Keita and Ox being available every match. Two players with great attributes but their availability isn’t one of them. The youngsters were getting chances when the likes of Keita and Ox were available,
If they’re good enough Klopp will bring them through despite competition for places. Its not a “new signings vs academy graduates” debate and its misrepresentation to make out it is.
100% agree with you. I thought Morton did as well as could be today. And again, it’s difficult to really judge Bc he was playing with 2 players just coming back into the lineup themselves. Very difficult for each of them. He was also playing against dangerous players. Very stiff test. I do believe his future is bright.
I’ve never been an advocate of spending for spending sake, but I would still love to see the club bring in a proper 1:1 backup for Fab. Obvs Fab is world class so we will likely never find an exact backup (in our price range) but an experienced player with similar traits for that holding role. We miss him when he’s out.