i understand this…as i pointed out elsewhere though, thats probably(spec) becuase he understands the situation we are in…he was probably offered a midfielder from shelf b, because we cant shake a few we have from shelf c and the one on shelf A will be a little (a lot) cheaper next year.
so its a caveat im making for jurgen, based on no information at all, just an observation.
someone in a different office could have said ‘you can have Bellingham mate if hes the one you want, we’ll make it happen, dont worry about the rest, we will deal with it’
now i know its not THAT simple…but thats the point, at SOME POINT, he IS that simple…you wanna run with the Man citys, dont give Klopp a compromised midfield choice.
All of this begs the question, can we afford Bellingham plus at least one other centre mid of starting quality come the summer? I can’t see us needing to do much else unless someone notable wants out for whatever reason.
That will be where we judge FSG. If we’ve been prudent and considered in our spending in the last 7 years, with big outlays often being offset to significant degrees by outgoings, then do we have the money and inclination to go big next summer without selling off a significant asset in order to get the one we seem to have pinned our hopes on plus one other quality player.
A net spend of £20m-£30m just isn’t going to cut it to fix this midfield. My worry is they view signing Keita to a new deal to be a better value option than buying someone better/fitter/more reliable than him and still having to pay them a decent wedge in wages. If we’re all in on Bellingham, keeping Keita might be our only viable and affordable option to not leave ourselves short of numbers in that area. It of course gambles on his fitness and availability but that might be what we have to do.
I think it’s a bit of both, Jurgen turned down midfielders earlier in the window who were available at attainable prices and FSG probably refused to overpay near the end of the window.
That’s all assuming the owner’s turned down Klopp’s approach for more money @redbj which we have no proof of one way or the other.
I personally did find Klopp’s “we are not in charge of what we can spend” interesting as it can be interpreted as the very first indication of friction between manager and owner, but not decisive either way.
Until the very first game of the season, there was absolutely no indication that Klopp wanted to expand the squad in any drastic way and he has always been very consistent in his approach of having a ‘small family’ squad rather than a Man City-style conveyor belt of personalities. I still think he wants this and many of his comments since have simply been to try to shush the masses by agreeing with them.
We certainly need to take a whole new approach with the midfield. I hope we start the (say it quietly as it tends to get you fired) rebuild right now and be ready for season 23/24. The season is definitely salvageable, but I would hope that we start experimenting in the midfield now even if its sacrificing the unicorn dream of winning the title, so long as we are aiming for top 4, and with our eye on 23/24. Possibly give a bit of game time to the kids, observe the older guys and see if they still have the hunger (Fab), and make the 2 midfield inclusions in the summer window.
Just on our form, we have a down swing in form every year. Its never been avoided under Klopp. And it usually takes a long time - at least longer than other top clubs such as City - to right the ship. Usually only after three quarters of the fanbase have just entered the acceptance phase when thinking of what’s really achievable for the season. Bastards.
To say something very controversial, the phrase ‘mentality monsters’ is a bit of a misnomer in relation to Liverpool. In reality this team performs best when its got nothing to lose rather than when the pressure is on. Barca is a perfect example of that. The reason I raise this is that we will likely turn our form around only after it looks like we are no longer in the race.
I hear what Carra is saying but it’s coming from the coaches to play the opposition forwards on the edge. You can’t change defensive line tactics mid match. Klopp needs to make changes in training. It’s been drilled into the lads at training.
It has to come from Jürgen. Thankfully it seems from his press conference that the penny has finally dropped
To be fair, right now we do have a large team of midfielders. We just have ones that are ageing and injury prone. If we want to play in the same vein as before we probably need to maintain those numbers but freshen up the squad.
But I don’t see how the owners can cross that line and tell Jürgen
Interesting that this is probably the deepest squad Klopp has had at Liverpool, at least in terms of players registered. Three goalkeepers, five senior centre backs, three senior fullbacks + Ramsay, six senior midfielders + Arthur + Elliott and Jones, five senior forwards + Carvalho. Their availability is quite a different topic, unfortunately.
There will be a midfield clear-out next summer, I’m sure of that. Milner, Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain will surely be gone, Arthur likely as well, so I think that two players will replace them because of Henderson’s and Alcantara’s age and susceptibility to injuries. Only then can we hope that our midfield will again be able to show energy and provide balance to the whole side.
I’m not 100% certain it was shaped around those players being there, but I’m willing to bet that we haven’t actually seen what it’s supposed to be like. Given that at least 2 of the 3 are known to pick up injuries relatively often, I think that it’s more the case that the constant injuries are disrupting our game more than people think. It’s not even the longer-term absences that are the main problem, but that players keep dropping out one after another, that it’s quite hard to adapt to each change. I think it was right before the United match that we lost Keïta, but even before that we had players who just weren’t available, to the point where Jürgen was talking about injury witches. You can’t work on a system if you don’t know who’s going to be playing in it one day or another.
Not just coping, but copying. Lots of teams play a similar high intensity, pressing game now. They understand how it works, and are implementing it better than us currently
I don’t think @mattyhurst said he was useless at it though?
I think he said that it needed work, which unless you’re blind, you would have seen tonight. I don’t think it’s too far off the mark, that he needs to work on the basic skills and pulling them off in his current state of fatigue or whatever it is. He doesn’t need to be scoring bangers or pulling off some of his old magic, he just needs to get the passes and shots on target.
It would be nice to have the Alexander-Arnold of previous seasons at 100%, but I would just settle for a basic-tier Alexander-Arnold at the moment.
I find it interesting that many people have interpreted it that way, considering he was constantly being badgered about spending and transfers when he has always been consistent that he makes the final decision on who to bring in or not, and that he does not deal with the money side. We have a team and processes in place to determine what we can spend. That is not new. I think it’s just the British media’s obsession with transfers and the idea that the manager is the ultimate boss, that leads to him being questioned about such things, which are simply not in his remit that he was frustrated with.
He got smashed into in training by an overzealous young lad at Roma. He hardly ever got used at PSG. Where are you getting this “legs have gone” and “picking up injuries” thing from? His sharpness and stamina never dropped off with us.
Yes he did chase the money and ended up in a bad situation but that has no bearing on his abilities.
Shafting every single fucking one long when you’ve got Matip and VVD waiting or even worse sending it over everyone so Napoli pick it up and attack is hardly great.
How many corners did they break on? That’s also Robbos fault.
Ok
I know I am biting, but fuck it.
My response was to a poster on a forum advising a top class footballer going home to practice his crosses and free kicks.
Its trite and unnecessary to be fair.
TAA is a top class footballer and…
He is off the boil for any number of reasons and advice from any of us is akin to telling Wordsworth how to write poetry.
- to right the ship. Usually only after three quarters of the fanbase have just entered the acceptance phase when thinking of what’s really achievable for the season. Bastards.