Just confirmed that he’s going Livingstone on loan for the season.
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I think we’re nailed on to lose Salah and probably VVD next summer - and I think it’s by design. Would have loved to have collected a transfer fee for both, but this allows them both to secure one final massive payday for themselves, and they deserve it. We REALLY should have been addressing CB the last few windows, and we just haven’t. Will need to bring in 2 world-class CBs next summer, IMO, and a top-drawer CDM, and a new LB. Robbo is on the decline and Kostas ain’t shit, we need help there. RB looks fine and as you point out, the forward line is great and will continue to be after Salah - especially if Chiesa can stay fit and firing.
Depth upfront is bordering on indulgent but the contract situation with Mo will hang over everything until we know one way or another on that.
Midfield depth is okay and certainly better than some recent seasons. Still failed to bring in the long term six we’ve been chasing for 2-3 years now. Don’t think the manager fancies Endo and he’s only still here because the Zubimendi deal didn’t get over the line. Madness to play the “it’s him and only him” game again and a lot now rests on Gravenberch adapting to that role.
At the back we’ve not done anything. No contract for Virg or Trent, no move for Gomez having rocked that boat, no left sided option it was suggested we wanted and no improvements at left back. Not expecting all of those things to happen in one summer but we should have done something given how quiet we’ve been elsewhere.
The keeper is a nice addition as and when he gets here but puts a countdown on Alisson’s time here and Kelleher too. Hard to complain but hard to get excited about just yet. Could well be very astute business in the long run.
Again it feels like we’re going into a season counting the bodies and thinking we have enough but we could easily get exposed with one or two injuries in certain areas. That’s compounded by moving on some of the more established younger lads who covered so well at times last season. Understandable though as they need to play and we got some good fees.
Really I think those contracts and what we leave ourselves to do next summer will be telling. I suspect we’ll be looking back at this summer and saying we could have done more business now and carried a couple more bodies in the squad to help mitigate the work needed next summer. Instead we could well be looking at a lot of work needed in one summer and another ‘transition’ type season to follow.
Funnily enough he went to Livingston because they sold Liverpool academy graduate Shamal George to Wycombe.
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If I recall correctly…
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Feels hard for me to see how that’s not the case no matter what, and that it’s not a problem unique to us. I don’t see how with a nearly full squad our depth is any weaker than other clubs.
That doesn’t happen in summer usually, and you can see how both sides might want some time to see how the Arne Slot reign goes first.
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Wondering whether some of the CB depth (or relative lightness of that) is related to ensuring all 4 CBs have at least some game time.
Managing gametime and keeping 5 CBs of a high quality happy would have been extremely hard.
Let’s be honest, I don’t know what people expected here. Retaining Phillips or having a youngster close to breaking through was the most realistic scenario. Or… swapping Gomez for someone unproven in the PL, in which case we would have still been left with 4 players.
I would have liked to sign a couple of u21 youth CB prospects but oh well.
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Why? Are our existing kids not good enough?
There are more than enough games to keep everyone happy and in any case that wasn’t an issue last season when we had 5 CBs in the squad. It turned out to be a wise decision with Matip suffering a season ending injury.
Comparisons to other clubs are moot. None of them have our collection of central defenders. Konate is bound to miss time. Van Dijk shouldn’t be relied to play again 99% of the time at 33 after a summer tournament. Quansah is 21, whereas Gomez had his foot out the door and everyone thinks that he is better at other positions.
I feel like we are pushing our luck without another reliable option.
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And I’m sure other clubs have their own problems too. Comparisons aren’t moot because the whole argument is usually “oh but our squad isn’t good enough to win anything”, when the reality is that one could say that about pretty much every single team if you wanted.
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It’s not about comparing us to other clubs, it’s about the make up of our squad. We’ve moved on from a lot of the very injury prone lads but still have a couple who are very prone to niggles, in particular Jones and Konate. They both happen to play positions where we’re operating with the minimum numbers wise.
No reason contracts can’t be renewed in the summer. Ridiculous that the three of them have been allowed to get this far anyway. Inexcusable and the issue now hangs over the season.
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Once the injuries starting piling up, and they will through sheer physical attrition over the season - no matter how well the players are fitness managed - Arne will be reduced to playing the U21s in crucial competitive games because of a shortage of numbers. So I think the answer to the question is ‘No’.
No, the point is that every single club has its weakness, no matter how much money they spend on it. Virtually every single position is “operating with the minimum numbers wise”, especially in defence. At least in midfield players can be a little more versatile and cover across. We’re pretty much 2-deep in every single on-pitch position.
I’m saying it may not have been the focus.
Alexander-Arnold, perhaps. But I think it was always a case where it was optimal for both sides to hold on and see what bargaining chips we have.
For the other two, the same thing was said for Henderson, the question of why we weren’t extending his contract, and then what? Henderson’s last contract renewal with us was two seasons ago, when he was Salah’s age, and 1 year younger than Virgil. The club was criticised for extending the contract of ageing players. Even for the last couple of seasons so many people on these forums have been slagging Salah off, creating imagined scenarios where he’s suddenly deteriorated after AFCON (two AFCONs in a row, at that), saying he wasn’t worth the money he was after in his latest contract (during the negotiations). And so much fantasising over selling him to Saudi last summer, or this summer.
That just makes absolutely no sense. At this age, you extend contracts based on what value they may add to your squad, and not whatever they may sell for, so you have to think and evaluate very carefully what they’re worth to the club. There simply may not be any common ground between what the agents think the player i worth, and what the club thinks the player is worth.
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So will every club? It’s not new.
Some people really just can’t get over their PTSD.
While it’s true we ended last season with 5 CBs, VVD, Matip, Konate, Gomez and Quansah, it’s not always the case. Reality is we were going into the season with the first 4 CBs. Last summer pre-season, how many of us had expected Quansah to feature much in the whole season and make himself a mainstay. I dare say other than perhaps a few of us here who follow the youths closely, the rest of us did not predict the impact Quansah made.
And that begs the question, would he even get a chance if in an alternate world that Matip did not get injured? That VVD did not get that red card and he was thrown into the deep end? If those things did not happen, would Quansah ever get a chance ahead of the 4?
Similarly, we are entering this season with 4 CBs. Who knows whether there is another ‘Quansah’ waiting to pounce if something similar happened? And it’s not just Quansah. The same thing happened to Bradley. Who can confidently say that there are no youths who can step up after what Quansah and Bradley showed us?
Actually, Jürgen is on record saying that he didn’t predict that either. Like you said, if not for the circumstances, he wouldn’t have gotten as many games as he did, and had the chance to prove himself.
@Sweeting can speak on this with authority, but as far as I know there’s no one from the youth ranks that could fill in like Quansah did last season. And that’s the whole point. It doesn’t matter that Quanshah got a chance because of Matip’s injury, what is important is that he was there to provide a viable option.
There is no one that can offer that now.
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That’s hindsight about Quansah. Like I said not many knew and even Klopp thought Quansah can make that kind of impact. I am not disputing your perspective that things could go terribly wrong but the club can choose to do things a certain way and reap the benefits. Of course it could go wrong but if we had just kept on stacking players just because, the ‘Quansahs’ and ‘Bradleys’ would never get a chance.
Yeah for right now I don’t see anyone having the ability to come in like Quansah did - and Quansah was a special kind of athlete who had stood out for a long time.
Our youth team is right now extremely young, full of potential but not ready to fill in especially a CB.
We have…
Terence Miles - 19 - Funny to say of a 19 year old but he’s essentially the experienced “war horse” type whose main role is to provide leadership. Quality wise he’s not got enough for Liverpool.
Lee Jonas - 20 - Came through as Quansah’s CB partner for the U18s but he’s struggled with fitness for the last two seasons. Lacks pace and mobility, when healthy he’s a very powerful player though.
Amara Nallo - 17 - Signed last season from West Ham and quickly went through the U18s into U21 football. Had a brief spell in the first team squad. Needs to improve his passing from the back and I think he’s not reached his athletic prime yet.
Carter Pinnington - 17 - My personal favourite of the young CBs currently. He’s a tall, physical CB who is very comfortable on the ball and stepping into midfield. Has been in the U21s since he was 16 as he pretty much skipped the U18 level. Tonne of learning to do still though but I expect he’ll eventually become U21 captain.
Wellity Lucky - 18 - Another physical defender but he’s especially suspect defensively as he tends to get pulled all over the place. Missed some key development dtages with injury and has struggled to hold down a place because of it.
Lucas Pitt - 17 - Aggressive front footed defender, good on the ball, U18 captain. Hasn’t moved into U21 football much yet.
Marcus Enahoro - 17 - New to CB, was playing as a RB last season. Squad player at U18 level.
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I don’t care about other clubs weakness. It’s an entirely pointless argument.
Failed to address two of our obvious needs. Failed to sort contracts before entering final years. The two main priorities and neither done.
There’s no defending it.
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