See, this isn’t right either. Say it’s 8 midfielders we have. We don’t need 8 to be injured for us to be looking at Badjetic as possibly having to play or putting square pegs in round holes. We need maybe 4 to be injured and that would make him (or a square peg) to be first or second option off the bench or to rotate with as we can’t play the same three for 90 minutes every game can we?
Currently we have Ox, Thiago and Jones probably gone for the next month or longer. Of our fit ones we have Keita and Henderson, both who are prone to niggles and missing games. Fab will always miss a few a season too. So the worst case isn’t that 8 are injured, it’s that one more from where we are now puts us in a pretty sticky situation.
Again, this is something people are making up. Did we forget Karius was completely bombed out? Do we think Lovren was desperate to move to Zenit? Wasn’t Lallana told he could stay for his final year but wasn’t going to be someone Klopp would rely on. Do we not think Benteke was encouraged to move?
There are ways to move players on other than being a dick to them. And most players understand that is part and parcel of the game and don’t poison the well on their way out.
Jones has already been chucked in the deep end and came out just fine, at the age of 19. Got us qualified for Champions League too. And Elliott is often rated higher than him…
And in the end we only had issues because Virgil was taken out illegally, and Gomez broken on national team duty, while Matip didn’t get a chance to recover from the injury he had going into the season.
Didn’t the latter just finish an entire season injury-free?
We need to sign a MD just to silence all the negative doomsday posters during games. Otherwise, we will have to put up with all the negative drivel for every misplaced pass etc.
Was Ali contacted for the first time after the CL final? There were rumours swirling for at least 6 months. The fact he came suggests those rumours weren’t BS and that we always had a plan to go in for him regardless of the CL debacle. If anything I see his moving on as Klopp getting the lad out of the spotlight. I don’t need to watch Karius begging for forgiveness after the final whistle to know he was a mentally broken man. Definitely the right move to have someone else come in and move him away from the spotlight and what would have become a very ugly situation from both our fans and from opposition fans.
Jones out for 2-4 weeks is what was reported 6 days ago. Has that changed?
The thing is, even for the next 2 weeks until CJ is back, we still have 3 players that could play DM, and 4 players for the 2 positions ahead of DM. That’s not even taking into account using FC in midfield and then that makes 5 players for 2 positions. Once CJ is back that’s even less of a problem.
We can cope with another injury in midfield without a problem.
Did you read the sentence which followed in my post? I acknowledged that this decision eventually allowed us to go for Konaté, who was obviously our prime target.
But I still think that the risk of going with only three senior center backs in the new season was too risky, and it cost us a year during which we were unable to compete at the highest level, and it’s only an unlikely Alli winner at Brighton which prevented us from missing out on the CL. Finishing fifth would have hit us in the teeth very badly… Maybe it would have been a good idea to bring in Kabak on loan during the summer already to cover for Lovren’s departure?
Now don’t take me wrong, I don’t think that the current situation is remotely similar to that one, which was the most extreme I’ve ever witnessed while following this club. Hence me being very relaxed right now, although disappointed for the injured players. But that’s ‘normal’ stuff in football I’m afraid.
Yes, or as said above, bring Kabak in on loan during the summer already, giving him more time to adapt to our ways. That way, he wouldn’t have felt the need to deplete his midfield, which was by the way hit with many serious injuries as well during that odd season.
(If I remember well, Klopp said that Williams wasn’t yet ready at the start of the season and couldn’t bring him in regularly when the injuries to VVD, Matip and Gomez happened, hence his decision to put Fabinho in there).
I’ve had enough now. People think we’re fine so let’s just see. Fingers crossed for injury free seasons for a bunch of injury prone players and hopefully the kids do alright when we inevitably come to rely on them.
I just hope there’s a back up plan should we not get Bellingham next summer because no doubt some people will be happy to wait yet another year for “the one” whilst we get by offering Milner another deal and hoping we’ve finally resolved the chronic injury issues of those still here.
Don’t understand your beef. From what I have been reading I don’t think that people are fine with the situation but understand how Klopp works but besides that what can we do, we are supporters there is not much we can do as our manager decided that he is not bringing in a new midfielder.
Btw I hope he play’s Elliott and Carvalho a lot and it that means an early exit from the cup competitions so be it. I’m all inn for the PL title the rest, not so much.
Pretty certain it was between him and Mignolet to be number 2 that season, just a matter of who lined up a move to leave first. He did, and the rest is history.
You can’t call it a bad decision just because of hindsight. Like @Mascot said, even Jürgen agreed that it’s still a decision that he would take. With all knowledge available going into the situation, it was the right decision. They did not get it “badly wrong”, but just that we hit that absolutely near impossible situation.
I’m sorry, but to go into a PL season with only three center-backs is calling for problems at all times if you want to compete at the very highest level. They got it wrong in my book, especially with Matip and Gomez having experienced problems in the seasons before this one. Even with Konaté in the pipeline, they should have secured a fourth senior center back, even if only on loan for a season. Phillips and especially Williams weren’t ready for that when shit started to hit the fan.
Anyway, I’ll stop here, as it’s a thing of the past. Lessons have surely be learnt from what happened.
Klopp is always totally upfront with players about about where they are in the pecking order and what they can expect in terms of game time.
To take Ox as an example, Klopp and Ox will know exactly where they each stand, and I am certain that Alex has been told that he can go if an offer comes in. He is still here, and that obviously means we haven’t had a bid or Alex doesn’t want to go - Personally I would think Ox wants a move, he certainly needs one. But the offer just isn’t there.
The difference between Ox, and say, Benteke or Sakho is that 20-25m offers came in for those lads.
So really there isn’t a lot Klopp can do to force Ox out, and he isn’t the kind of manager to let a player rot. He’s staked his reputation on being a player’s coach, and Ox is well liked around the club.
As Klopp said, there simply isn’t room for another midfielder unless one leaves or is unavailable. It might be that the recent injuries (which are nowhere near as bad as hyped) prompt a rethink? Or maybe not.
On the specific examples, Lovren was desperate to move. He wanted to go the previous year. He didn’t want to be fourth choice centre back.
Karius and Lallana both knew where they stood. Karius was a special case, as the arse totally fell out of his game and he need to get away from the club and rebuild his career. Lallana knew his role was much diminished and was going to see less game time and fancied a move.
You got away with one there mate. When I suggested last season Matip could play the 6 I got my head bitten off
We also have the option of playing Gomez at RB and pushing Trent into midfield. Maybe the change would do him good.
