So what if he’s been here 5 years. Is he now he’s being criticized for joining one of if not the best club side in world football at the age of 17 and failing to immediately displace Joel Matip or Virgil van Dijk? Mainz was his 4th loan spell, two of which were to the same club and took place before he even turned 20. He was PotY at Preston and Mainz while he’s statistically been one of the best defenders in the air (68.7% win rate) in Europe.
We have no idea if our coaches like him, or would pursue him if he wasn’t our player. What I said is that if he is seen as someone who would be pursued based on his form at Mainz, then why not give him a chance? We know we don’t have the financial might to go toe-to-toe with Man Utd, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Man City over every flavour of the month so we have to think and act differently.
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A couple of questions about SvdB:
Has anyone seen the mandatory ten full matches?
Does he have his own thread?
I’m not even criticising the lad, just saying it’s not the same situation you described which was if we brought in a new player.
I think it’s likely he’ll be sold this summer and I think it’s a shame that Klopp never considered giving him any sort of chance.
He would almost definitely be behind Joe Gomez in the pecking order at centre half next season though because when fit and playing regularly Gomez is very good.
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At CB? I guess we’ll just have to disagree on that one.
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I’m open minded, curious and not writing anyone off.
We got some pleasant new first team players last season in the likes of Quansah and Bradley. Same might happen again with some other names.
Gomez was useful last season and might be also this season, but at some point new/young players might push him out of the door for a new challenge in his career.
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The old “he will be given a chance” routine.
In other words he plays all pre-season to be shop window then we sell him.
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I wonder if Gomez will decide to leave? There have been a few reports that he is weighing his options. He is plenty good enough to start for many teams, but at Liverpool he has become a bit of a utility man. As it happens that has served us very well, and he did well for us last season, so I’m not damning him with faint praise. But I just wonder if he wants a bit more than we are able to give him?
Hypothetically, if Gomez did leave, I could see us retaining SvdB AND buying another central defender, given the age of VVD and the fitness of Konate. It might be slightly overstocked initially, but with some question marks over the defence, it might be the way to go.
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Which is fine. Pre-season is grueling and you need bodies, more than you’re going to be able to use once you get into the usual rhythm of the season. You have to make use of players you already have, it gives some a platform to get moves to where they are going to play and occasionally allows some to make a case for having a role if they are kept on.
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If it happens at any point it will happen with Slot and Hughes newly arriving.
From the 2 guys I watched I felt he wouldn’t look out of place in our defence but I don’t have enough bar I felt his recovery was good.
You all forget that we still have Rhys and Nat at CB. We just rejected a bid for Nat and you cannot rule out that unless we find a solution for both of them, they will be seen as a 5th and 6th solution for CB considering they had first team experience during a difficult part of a few seasons ago. Not that I like that but our club under FSG has always believed in using existing resources as much as we can and this summer may not see us depart from that, unless we sell at least one of Nat and Rhys and a player we want becomes available at the right price, we will not move.
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Didn’t we buy Matip from Mainz, that worked out OK. If SVB was their POTY then we must see value.
Williams has been left out of pre-season, so chances of him still being here in September are extremely slim.
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It’s crazy how underrated/disrespected Joe Gomez is.
The form that everyone bases their ‘he can’t play centre back’ stuff on was also the time that we had no functioning midfield.
The idea Van den Berg comes in an immediately pushes Gomez down to fifth choice is fanciful.
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No, we got him from Shalke, and he was free.
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I bet Danny Ward loved that two weeks he was given chance to be our new first choice keeper.
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No, but we bought Karius from Mainz and that worked out…uh…That’s not the point here…
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There’s disrespect for Gomez and disrespect for SvdB.
We know Joe can do a good job at CB and he’s not so old that he should have lost that ability. He’s also uniquely valuable due to his versatility, as we saw last season. That versatility may be the reason he’s less respected than he deserves.
Sepp is still young, but has quite a bit of experience, has impressed in the BL and has good stats. None of us have seen enough of him to make any kind of judgement, but, as has been pointed out, if we were buying him now, there’d be a fair amount of excitement at the prospect of his potential.
This time last year few of us had heard of Quansah and now he’s firmly established in the first team squad.
We’ll see how it goes, but I’d be happy to keep both of them.
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Does anyone know if Sepp qualified as home-grown? I think if he joined the club at 17 he’ll have theoretically been here long enough, but I’m not sure how overseas loans affect that…
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Yes, he does.
Liverpool’s homegrown players: Alexander-Arnold, Beck, Carvalho, Gomez, Hill, Jaros, Jones, Kelleher, Koumetio, Phillips, Pitaluga, Van den Berg, Williams
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History shows you’re probably right. That said, this summer is a bit different because of the change of virtually whole coaching staff, so he might actually consider what the new guy has in store for him. If he impresses Slot, who has a track record of giving chances to young players, then why wouldn’t he stick around, at least for a while?
As for the shop window quipp, his whole last season might have been that. I doubt anyone will buy him on the back of a few friendlies.
As for Gomez comparisons… I stand by my belief that Gomez’ last good match was the win over Man City at Anfield. He hasn’t shown that form at centre back for ages but he was pretty good at right back, surprising me even. Strengthening at CB is necessary - if Van Den Berg can suddenly become a world beater, I’ll be over the moon because I don’t see Gomez doing it.
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