I know he’s more attack minded but for me from the little I’ve seen of him, Carvalho is the better prospect. Think in all 3 sub appearances he’s made a positive impact…
Time to switch into the 4231 and fit him in the #10 position.
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Problem I have is, will he be the next lad to be written off before he has even started.
Like Nunez and Elliott and Milner to be fair, Klopp didn’t want to use these players as much as he has. Only Carvalho is probably getting what Klopp wanted to do.
Maybe Nunez but that’s a bit of a self inflicted issue.
Milner didn’t get to 36 out of nowhere. Keita getting injured didn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Has Ox ever really been fit or on form since his injury? We’ve had years to identify players to replace or supplement these guys and months to set up deals.
This obsession with Bellingham being the one and only is looking sillier by the day given we’ll need two, if not three new centre mids next summer. And yet you’re telling me all our scouts and data people and the astro physicist can’t identify anyone other than the two best young centre mids out there.
I could give you a name, or two or, five and you’d just say “if we wanted them they’d be here so they’re either not good enough or they aren’t available” like that excuses the situation we find ourselves in.
But, if you firmly believe there hasn’t been a single midfielder that has already moved this summer that isn’t better than Milner or Keita or Ox or Henderson then that’s your choice. The evidence of today and the season so far and for large parts of some of their Liverpool careers to date would suggest otherwise.
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If we going go for radical suggestions, how about we look for a good right sided full back and put Trent in Midfield.
The playmaker from full back thing has served us well, but I really worry that teams have adapted. And Klopp has not added a combative energetic midfielder for over two years now, despite losing Gini and Hendo and Milner getting on in years, which is essential for that system function.
Two midfielders from Trent, Fab, Hendo, Thiago, Keita and Milner. Nunez at 9, and an attacking midfield trio from Diaz, Firmino, Carvalho, Salah, Jota, Elliot and Ox.
I think putting Trent on the right side of a midfield 3 could work, I don’t think it’s likely to happen especially anytime soon as that would mean Ramsay being our main RB.
But it’s an issue we wouldn’t be discussing if we freshened up the squad once in a while.
No one was talking about moving Trent into midfield 2-3 years back when we were winning majors.
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The club is too slow in improving the team. The midfield just isn’t all that great. All for going for the right player, but there’s nuance behind that. The club is also too slow in getting rid of players and that’s a problem itself.
The club don’t spend near enough to improve the team. We have top players but the team needs to improve. Just compare our spending to other clubs. The club has the fifth or so highest revenues in the game.
We’ve won some trophies, but we’re not winning them regularly enough. Unfortunately we’ve missed out on the league on two occasions by the slimmest of margins.
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That’s cos it was working then. The concern is that teams have adapted to it, and we no longer have the midfield that can cover for the advancing full backs.
The way our defence is playing?
Nah.
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Gini was available on loan. Could have slotted in seamlessly in the problem left side position (unfortunately, looks like Thiago will take some time to come back). And as it would’ve been a loan, it wouldn’t have impacted any long term plans.
He went to Rome but has fractured his tibia in training at Roma, so will be out for some time.
Ox and Keita cannot be relied on. Curtis is young and has picked up injuries at inopportune times - he would have been ideal in this Man Utd game where they switched to younger players for more energy.
That’s silly. It’s not our job to identify players. However, as fans we can look at the group we have, not be happy about it and state it a mistake to go into the season without addressing it. We dont need to provide the alternatives to be able to make the latter point.
It’s also silly to think that we genuinely think the number of players who could improve our midfield can be counted on the fingers of a lobster. Sure, we seemed to be interested in Tchouameni and then didnt follow up on an alternative. But its insane to think that means we think it is only him and Bellingham in world football who fit the bill. Far more reasonable is to say that Klopp was happy with him CM options, but was willing to go for one of our long term targets earlier than we needed him when he became available. The fact we didnt follow up with anyone else was because he wasnt being identified to fill a current hole, in the mind of Klopp. So it’s not that no one else is good enough, it’s just not an area we were looking to do anything this year. Obviously, something could happen between that point and the end of the window to change that perspective and push us back into the market. It would have to be pretty significant, and I dont think any injury by itself would do that, but it might if the injury was a straw that broken the camel’s back type situation. If that happened, there would be loads of players we;d have identified who Klopp would rate highly enough.
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And yet, here we are. The reality is that the club have not bought a midfielder (unless you count Carvalho) despite there being apparently loads we could have bought.
The only possibly reasons for that are
a) There aren’t actually loads available, and having identified the top targets, we’re not going to bring in the back up lads if it means missing out on the first choice targets.
b) Klopp has a lot more faith in his midfield options than we all do.
c) FSG are tightarses who won’t give Klopp any money.
d) everyone at the club is incompetent and doesn’t see the obvious issues we can see.
Of those options I think a) and b) are still the most likely.
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I’m tiered with Bellingham already. only midfielder in the world??? Anyone able to run week in week out is an improvement right now. Nunez, Paulinha, Bruno Guimerez, Bissouma, kevin Philip, De Paul… changed club within year and you guy act like Bellingham is only one out there.
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It’s this one and he’s wrong about it and he’s been wrong about it and the fact that he’s better than me at football doesn’t change that fact.
I really thought that the total non-use of Ox at the tail end of last season meant that Klopp was turning a corner. I cannot understand how he then goes into this season insisting that he “loves” this group.
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In other words, we did a Manure-FDJ type of move regarding the Tchouameni situation, agreed?
I find it baffling that the entire backroom of LFC thinks that Milner is some ageless robot, Hendo is the same hendo 4 years ago, Thiago’s legs are made like Gini’s , and Keita and AOC to magically stay fit for the season.
To think, the fanbase actually made excuses for the club for not having a proper succession plan for Milner, Hendo,Thiago, Keita and AOC!
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Inherent in option a being true is that option b is also true, unless you think Klopp is willing to write off a season to simply wait for the right players to come along.
The extension of that is a player who is not your #1 pick in a scenario where you have the luxury of not needing to add anything right away will almost still be very attractive to you in a situation where that luxury is removed. I mean, Mo says hello. There is no need to take the aim off the #1 guy if its a role you dont need to fill now. If you decide the role does need to be filled then I guarantee you this team will have identified a list of alternatives to the #1 guy who look attractive enough.
Klopp isnt a knee jerk guy, but simultaneous injuries to Thiago, Jones and Keita, again, this early in the seaosn might have slapped him a bit.
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Brilliant, just brilliant!
Fell out of what?
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The lad that went to Wolves is pretty decent, by all accounts and Bissouma moved to Spurs. Just saying, like. And Brighton will try to hold onto their virginity tightly enough when it comes to Caicedo but will probably turn out to be open enough with the right amount of money. Options were and are still out there.
I like to call this Mignolet-Karius syndrome; ‘nobody is out there and they wouldn’t make a difference anyway’. Even after VVD and Alisson proving that one player in a key position can transform a team. We’re honestly reaching the stage where we’re hamstringing a world class defensive line and a world class forward line by having too few reliable options in midfield. Our quality and quantity in midfield isn’t meaning much if the list of players we can reel off the top of our head amount to only 3 or 4 out of our 8 or 9 options being available in practice at any given time.
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fell out of the squad aka AWOL.
Who would at this point be two years older than when he left us and playing in a midfield with Henderson and Milner. Number one, Gini might not be the same player with the same legs any longer, number two, that midfield lined up for us many times, Gini was invisible and was slated for most of the times they did and number three, the average age of our midfield would 72. I know we need reinforcement but Gini wasn’t the answer.
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