Andrew Robertson? Mohamed Salah?
If heās not getting on the bench for Ipswich on the first day of the season, Iām not sure weāll be rotating him in for CL games to rest others.
With Konateās injury history and Quansahās relative inexperience I personally think heād get plenty of playing time across the season. But he may prefer the chance to start at centre back every week somewhere else rather than another season of uncertainty about when and where he might play for us. If I were him Iād be concerned that both Klopp and now Slot seem to favour Konate and Quansah ahead of him when all are fit.
I wouldnāt be against taking the opportunity to part ways amicably and to bring in someone more suited to the left hand side with one eye on managing Virgās games a bit more and the other eye on longer term succession planning irrespective of what happens with Virgās contract.
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Who would he have displaced? There will be plenty of players who donāt make the bench this season. One game doesnāt mean a lot, especially when the whole squad is fit, and the manager wants as many players as he can get familiarised with his system as soon as he can. If kids in the U21s were getting in ahead of him you may have a point, but I think the Ipswich game was more an illustration of the riches we actually do have in our squad, rather than the weaknesses of particular players.
I donāt fully buy into the idea of developing players as understudies. While practicing alongside VVD can be beneficial, but If someone is good enough, theyāll prove it regardless. I believe that bringing in a reliable right-footed center-back, who is more consistent than KonatĆ© and can push Quansah to become VVDās backup, would strengthen the team more than acquiring someone who is dedicated to the left side and canāt play elsewhere. Considering KonatĆ©ās injury history, the possibility of Quansah being our only right-sided center-back isnāt far-fetched. This is a much bigger concern than finding someone solely as VVDās backupāa role I think Quansah is better suited for.
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Donāt tell me, tell the bloke who is exploring his options having not been included in the squad for the opening game and was close to joining Newcastle earlier in the window.
Clearly he has an opinion that somewhat differs to your own.
Oh I donāt know if heāll find that thatās enough game time as a reason to stay, I was just pointing out that not being in the squad for Ipswich was not an indication that he would not feature in Champions League games to rest others.
I think itās reasonable to conclude that on balance we did well. I dont agree, but I dont strongly hold that position either as it is a cost-benefit balancing situation and we cannot be sure what the path not travelled would have been.
However, I think what is clear is that through the period on the back end of covid we had several players who had established themselves as peripheral (excuse the seeming contradiction, but I think that is the right way to characterize it - been here long enough to demonstrate they were not going to be important players by that time) and were available but we failed to move them on. Several still made valuable contributions, but their continued presence made it difficult to bring anyone else in. Klopp spoke of this several times and it seemed to play a role in the staleness we eventually saw in Kloppās last but one season that maybe we wouldnt have seen had we had better turn over on the periphery of the squad.
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Wasnāt a good sign though was it. Nor was the willingness to include him in the deal with Newcastle for Gordon but not entertaining the idea of doing the same with Quansah.
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@Sweeting, comments?
Is Lusby a moron or is Lusby a moron? Discuss.
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I think itās amply clear that heās no better than fourth-choice at centre-back at this point. This was clear even last season.
The question of how involved in rotation plans he will be is completely separate.
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I think it was made quite clear that the reason he wasnāt in the squad was because his head was elsewhere. I donāt think it had anything to do with where he is in the pecking order.
Gomez would be the first name on my bench for the simple reason that he can cover so many different positions. He is the perfect squad player.
I agree with the rest. At 27 itās understandable that he wants to be somewhere he can nail a starting place, and I would back him to do so at anything other that a few premier league clubs.
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If Bajcetic is allowed to leave Iām going full pitchfork and flaming torches.
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Net spend Champions 
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That 200m warchest we were āpromisedā 2-3 years ago must be reaching close to half a billion by now.
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Thing is Bajectic is first team now.
Didnāt we at one point have a lot of U18s playing for the U21s due to keeping so many of the U21s in and around the first team due to injuries.
Look at the rest of the bench. There is no one there who screams they were only included because a 4th CB wasnāt in the right headspace to play. The reality is with everyone fit we now have enough players that 2 or 3 are going to have their nose put out every game.
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hincapie vs inacio, who is better??