In the 25 man PL squad, 8 must be homegrown. We ended up with 7 in the squad last season (Milner, Henderson, Trent, Gomez, Kelleher, Milner, Ox and Phillips).
Down to now Hendo, Trent, Gomez, Kelleher and Philips - with the latter two both possibly going. We have a few options, Curtis and Sepp being the two most likely.
Clearly, the club need to get someone in the door - but who?
One thing to keep in mind is that 25 senior players is a lot, and generally teams only reach that level because they make up for a lack of good reliable players with numbers. You know, the sort of squad design that sees you start the season with 10 midfielders because you cannot trust any of them to stay fit and be in form. Teams with a well put together squad can and often do get by with numbers closer to 20, and even that tends to result in some players being minimally used. So we should definitely think of 25 as a limit rather than a target.
In terms of where we stand, Jones will no longer be young enough to be a free player on the kids’ list, so you can add him to the homegrown list (club trained at that, which is a big bonus). But when you also have Elliott and Bajcetic expected to get games, neither of whom will have to be in the main squad, then you really dont need anything close to 25 registered players
It’ll be interesting to see who goes on loan and who gets released etc this summer. In addition to the likes of Bajcetic we have a few who are close to first team football - Mabaya, Balagizi, Clark, Gordon, Bradley, Chambers, Quansah and Morton.
All of them could potentially benefit from a loan spell but Bradley in particular might be a good enough option now for the first team squad.
Have you seen enough of Ramsay to have a sense of which of him and Bradley have a better chance with us?
No, both of them were a level above U21 football. Bradley won POTY in 2021/22, Ramsay only played 5 times but had a couple of goals and assists.
Both of them also have one full season of professional football under their belts. They’re pretty similar prospects.
Looks like Ramsay is going on loan to Preston. That’s probably best for his development at this point.
I agree that a squad of 25 senior players isn’t essential. A squad of 17-20 senior players along with a bunch of promising youngsters is a healthy mix and allows the youngsters reasonable opportunity to prove themselves.
But when you are competing with Cheaty you have to be as stacked as they are.
City arent stacked with numbers though. They have 6 maybe 7 trusted options to call on from outside the starting XI. They precisely illustrate the point that the players from 20-25 tend to only be important if you’ve fucked something up.
Correct and they seem to keep their players fitter than we do, perhaps a lesson to be learned. Read they did not play that many pre-season matches just because there was not that much time, did they not give their players more rest than we did, can’t remember, thought I read it somewhere.
It’s better to think of it as no more than 17 can be overseas players.
Not counting players who have left and adding Mac Allister we currently have 15 (I think) senior overseas players, which means we have a little wiggle room as things stands.
Obviously that’s only as things stand and if players like Kelleher, Phillips or Gomez are looking to leave then we’ll have to make some big decisions on youth players pushing at the door or looking to bring in some promising young homegrown talent from elsewhere in order to maintain an effective squad.
Once you fill the other two midfield spots, then if you’re wanting to bring in any more overseas players then it’s going to depend on the departure of another player.
But that should probably be the case anyway.
That preseason was a mess, even Klopp’s alluded to it but hasn’t been overly vocal on it.
Man City managed it well even if it meant we won the Charity Shield.
Premier League rules state that, in their 25-man squads, teams are not allowed to register more than 17 players who fail to meet the homegrown criteria.
Would someone please explain that clause. If we have a smaller, say 23-man, squad; can we still keep 17 non-homegrown players?
Presently, our roster of homegrown players is Kelleher, Gomez, Phillips, Williams, Van den Berg, Alexander-Arnold, Henderson, and Jones. At least two out of Phillips, Williams, and Van den Berg are expected to leave this summer.
It’s very simple:
You can have up to 17 players in your squad who aren’t homegrown.
Caveat of “senior players” as it is possible that some players, in the premier league at least, may not yet meet the definition of home grown but be young enough to not have to be registered as senior players in the A list (as Bajcetic was last year)
Trent , Henderson , Gomez , Kelleher , Phillips , Williams , Van Den Berg , Jaros.
The only guys who could qualify as homegrown and there probably isn’t a future in the club for 4-5 of them.
This is a temporary problem though, once the likes of Jones , Elliot , Carvalho and later Bajcetic come of age , we will find the homegrown problem being sorted.
There’s a relatively easy solution in case Kelleher was to leave , Jaros fits in as a third choice keeper and playing with a squad of 24 first team members isn’t problematic.
The problem is when you are keeping around the likes of Phillips/ Williams/ van den berg just for the homegrown quota and aren’t able to move them out. They aren’t getting enough football with us which they need to in order to improve. It’s a dis-service both to us and them.
I think we can solve the homegrown and defense questions by signing Harry Mcguire
Williams has gone out on loan already. Sepp hasn’t been here for the past two seasons and we’ve only really held onto Phillips because of injuries late in the window.
I expect Phillips to go this window but does require someone giving us some money for him. Sepp may have a future here. Personally I don’t see it but who knows. But if we bring in another CB this summer and Matip doesn’t go anywhere I’d expect Sepp to go on loan for another season of first team football and a judgement to be made on him next summer.
One of the two , if not both will be staying this season with us. Atleast till the January window even. We can’t buy anymore non homegrown players as it stands. Milner and Ox leaving have left 2 spots that need to be filled.
Personally I think we’ll go with a 23 man squad. Curtis Jones is home made this season, Just checked.
So homegrown players - Trent , Jones , Gomez , Henderson + ( one of Phillips , Van Den Berg and one of Kelleher / Jaros).
It’s not ideal , for example being unable to move Phillips / VDB because of the homegrown clauses. Gomez not kicking on to the next level hasn’t helped either. We are facing the repercussions of the likes of City/Chelsea gobbling up young talent for their academies. Not saying that the liverpool hasn’t done a good job with still producing the likes of Trent , Jones as well as other PL caliber players like Williams , Brewster etc. But it is what it is. Chelsea have filled their boots with homegrown players (whether they use them constructively is beside the point , but they atleast can sell their unneeded talents for a premium).
Liverpool needs to be smarter w.r.t their academy players and look to actively loan out people in the U21 setup to competitive teams. The likes of Koumetio / Frauendorf etc can stagnate if they aren’t facing good quality football early enough in their careers.
We’ve had Arroyo for close to 5 years and are no closer to getting him a work permit. Would he count as homegrown if he gets the permit now ?
It’s easier to keep homegrown players; that’s it. Philips is still here because of bad luck. If we cannot sell someone, it’s because they don’t want to leave, or no one wants them. There’s never anything like ‘cannot sell someone because they are homegrown’.