The Central Midfield Thread

The Albert
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I don’t mean to sound arrogant, given that players like Coutinho saw this club as a stepping stone not long ago, precisely the way we as fans are looking at the likes of Lille or Dortmund - but I fully agree with you. It’s a big question if a player like 18-year old Trent Alexander-Arnold would have been able to break into Liverpool’s first team last season, straight from the Academy, let alone some kids who are playing in whole different leagues. Even Jones, Liverpool FC-born and bred, isn’t nailing down a starting role in a inconsistent midfield.

I think Bellingham is going to be special, probably too special for Liverpool to be able to attain him once Dortmund decide to cash in on him - maybe this is the main reason why a lot of fans, not just of Liverpool, are demanding their club sign him now (you can extend that to Camavinga and every other teenage hot property).

Personally, I think that, money issues and CL absence notwithstanding, Edwards will do what Edwards does every season - bring in players his team have been monitoring for quite a while. I’m convinced that Aouar and Bissouma are on his shortlist, as are the likes of Andre Silva, Vlahović, Daka… And maybe some opportunistic deals like those of Shaqiri and Minamino.

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Realistically though, it’s highly unlikely he goes anywhere other than us, Chelsea, united or city providing he carries on on his current trajectory. Italy doesn’t have the money, the Spanish teams tend not to buy British players and Dortmund would probably rather sell him a £1.00 than let him push through a move to Bayern.

Same with Sancho really. Half the reason Dortmund and now others are picking up English kids is they know there’s a premium when they sell them on as English teams will desperately want them. Only question is, when do their valuations come down to a level English teams can afford and justify otherwise they might miss the window to get maximum value for them and start to see them run contracts down.

They take a lot of gambles on young players Dortmund and it’s a part of their model. If Bellingham had gone to one of the big four English clubs last summer he wouldn’t have played half as much as he has over there.

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I agree with everything bar the Dortmund part. I think they’d sell him to anyone if the offer was the right one, to be honest. If he continues fulfilling his potential, I think that Dortmund will get to the point where they can demand 100+ million pounds for him. If that’s how it goes, I don’t think Liverpool will be able to afford that, not once the Manchester clubs are brought into the bidding war.

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85

Dortmund will sell at their will.

My understanding is, this summer they will sell Haaland and maybe Sancho. That will be enough to cover the COVID deficit as well as the rebuild. They will keep grooming Bellingham and will perhaps put him on the market next or 2023 summer.

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They’ve only got him under contract till 2023.

Sancho goes this year (one of the opportunities out there this summer) with 12 months left and Haaland if anyone offers stupid money.

Next year Bellingham goes with 12 months left on his deal and Haaland with his clause if nobody pays stupid money this summer.

They’ll make good/big money on both Sancho and Bellingham but it won’t be £100m like some are saying.

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Shocking :flushed:

Why would Dortmund sign a young (freaking 17) on a three-year deal???

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Sancho’s contract is up to 2023.

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Many other sources say Bellingham is under contract until 2025.

Not the first time Transfermarkt has something wrong.

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Bear with me here but what about Dele Alli as an option.

Clearly fallen way out of contention at Spurs and must be looking for an escape. He’s shown that on his day he’s supremely talented but with all the upheaval at Spurs and Jose’s unique approach to man management his career seems to have stalled.

I’m sure they’d hate to sell to someone they think is a rival (yeah you wish lads) but he’s got to go somewhere and aside from a reunion with Poch at PSG his options seem limited.

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Nah, not for me.

I know we can place a lot of hopes into Klopp of reviving a player, but Alli has some serious work to do. Not only mentally, but tactically as well.

That lad needs a serious reset with himself and go back to some basics of a midfielder.

Spent too early too long as a very offensive #10, almost more like a second striker really. I dread to think how he would look right now in central midfield of a Klopp side. He can’t even do it at Spurs and look at their CM choices, they’re not great.

Plus, he’s still on a large and long enough contract at Spurs, wouldn’t be an easy deal with Levy being in the same league.

I’d pass that one and not cry too much IF he manages to do it somewhere else. Maybe a new manager at Spurs would help him, but I think he first needs to help himself.

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He can backup Firmino. Look, players like Firmino or have roles that resemble him are not readily available - and Dele Alli is one of them.

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He’s also a proper knob from everything I’ve seen… part of the no shirt, bad hair, Ibiza party boys crew with Maddison and Grealish.

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A £50m or greater price tag for Jude Bellingham is completely justified, because of his talent and of the fact that Dortmund themselves had to pay £22.75m to buy him.

A 21-year-old Henderson would have been priced at £50m these days.

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I think we’re likely priced out on Bellingham already. I don’t think Dortmund is going to sell him anytime soon, as I think they’ll bank on him doubling his value within a couple seasons with a bit more development and the post-COVID market stabilizing. If they sell Haaland, they’ll also be flush with cash and won’t need to sell him now.

He’d be an ideal signing, though. Young and wildly talented. I’m a big fan of Gio Reyna as well. Dortmund just has the market cornered on elite young talent.

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Upcoming season, Midfield is not an immediate concern but will be very soon. Our top trio in midfield is still the combination of Hendo, Fabinho and Gini. Thiago definitely gives us something very different, Curtis in for the long haul and Milner gives a very good backup. We then have Ox, Keita and to certain degrees, Shaqiri. But these 3 have been out of the side too frequently. It means if Gini leaves we do have to find someone to replace him from this lot. For us to buy a CM this summer, it might ne if we sell Keita, Ox or Shaqiri. If not, the next best combination is Hendo, Fabinho and Thiago. Honestly with Thiago the balance is different. He is just not as good as Gini in running, tracking back etc so with all his strengths if that is our combination, Klopp has to find ways to counter that imbalance because you cannot expect Hendo only to do the hounding. Keita would have been perfect but he has yet to prove himself unfortunately.

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Whatever we do in the summer, with Gini staying or leaving we need a player who can do what Fabinho does so if he ever is needed to drop into defense our entire midfield stops protecting the defense.

Plan A - Enough central defenders so Fabinho doesn’t need to drop.
Plan B - A Midfielder who can play the no.6 and screen properly.

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I think Hendo is the one who will keep backuping Fabinho if he’s unavailable. And we get a new dynamic/hard working #8 to replace Gini (maybe that player would also have the #6 in his arsenal, who knows). Next mission for Fabinho, as he will look to be back fully in midfield next season (and where it’s his place, not at CB, not to be our 4th option, the idea which I never liked)… is to complete a full consistent season. Up until now in the two seasons he played in midfield, he had patches where it was either some injury or our midfield needing Hendo back. Since 2019 though, Hendo’s pushed Klopp to use him at RCM again. I think we’ll go down the same route, perhaps not against every type of opponent, but back to those basics. And then the rest is all up to them and the rest of our central midfielders for next season. Quality, style, experience, understanding, form, merit.

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Maybe but Hendo is 30 and does get injured at least twice a season. I just think our “contingency” plans this season were proven as vastly ineffective… I.e. center backs out Fabinho to CB, Hendo covering.

Like a house of card which quickly fell down.

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The CB thing I agree, last summer I was strongly against the idea of Fabinho being our 4th CB option. Nothing against selling Lovren, it was the right thing to do, but it was better to look for a replacement then than it was in January. I didn’t imagine it would be this disastrous with injuries, but I think it maybe didn’t even have to be, to have a serious effect on our season. Virgil’s big injury was the surprise, the issues with Matip and Gomez? Nah. And we were down to 3 rather than 4 (even if Lovren played 30odd games through 2 seasons, going into his 30’s and on an important contract with a year left).

Hendo, after 2 years where it was dangerous with his heel problem, where he only played around 25-30 games, has had 3 season with 40 odd games. Now, he’s had another injury, needed in midfield and defence.

Fabinho is in his peak years at the moment, or entering them. You’d expect him to marshal our #6 role in the few years ahead. I’m okay with that age, Fabinho being 27 and Hendo being 31 this summer.

Last summer and in last summers there was a need to find something different, more creative. Now with Gini leaving, I think it’s a must to get a stylistically similar sort of player, to keep that balance going. And I mean Gini mainly of the last 3 years, since his convertion to a hard working #8. Love him or not, he’s probably the central midfielder who’s been most available under Klopp. Never injured. So we’re losing 40-50 games of that of last 3 years.

We can’t play any games here, I don’t want another gamble or put hopes into Curtis Jones replacing Gini and then hope that Hendo stays fit as much as Gini was.

For this particular move: Gini out - I want a similar hard working player in.

The rest, we’ll see what we can do and what Klopp even wants to do this summer. It will also depend on offers, so it’s not all in our court who we sell this summer.

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