This should go into “images that precede unfortunate events” category. I love Klopp to bits but we know exactly how this is going to pan out - because it had already happened twice, once with our centre backs and once with our midfielders.
Konate is slowly heading towards Alcantara territory when it comes to niggling injuries, which is an absolute disaster because he’s a quality centre back and because no one in our system can come even remotely close to covering that much space behind Trent in our tactical setup.
Yeah, I’m in panic mode, two seasons without CL football would be disastrous for us.
Having seen how much Al Ittihad are supposedly now offering Salah, I do now worry he that he might be tempted for the reasons that you gave. He could do a lot of good work with that money.
According to this Guardian article they were offering 180 million euros over two years and they are now “prepared to offer Salah almost double that”.
That’s an absurd amount of money, and as committed to the club as he may be, money like that could turn his head.
I dont see us getting top 4. We have no depth. Already have 4 or 5 injuries after 2 games.
The club knew what was needed this sumner and have failed… again.
Have you compared with all other PL squads though challenging for a top4 spot??
Arsenal have injuries to Jesus and Timber. Rice was over £100m
Chelsea have signed fuck tonnes of players but will take a while - Reece James injured, their best CB is 39 years old
United have re-signed Johnny Evans(!!) as a replacement for Harry Maguire, but can’t shift Maguire. Their best CB is 5ft5 or something. They’ve spent another £100m on an unheard of centre forward that’s big and blonde.
City have lost KDB for a long spell. They’ve sold Mahrez, Gundagon etc this year. They will still prob win the PL and therefore take one of the top 4 spots.
Newcastle - not much to say - other than they still have a weaker squad than us overall and their style, coupled with extra European games, will have an impact on them.
Brighton - lost 3-4 key players this summer. Ensciso also injured now. They are prob not challenging for top4
We finished last season in 5th, not far off the top 4. We are stronger than last season. Have argueably the most exciting attackers in the PL too. Yes, without a couple more signings I don’t think we are challenging from the PL (and even with them, unlikely), but I’m still confident we compete for a Top 4 spot.
The sooner all this is over, the window slams shut and people can start to untie the knots they’ve got their dicks entangled in and can finally turn their attention to the football, the better.
That’s great and all but you can equally paint a positive picture for each of them too.
Arsenal have upgraded Xhaka to Rice and dded Havertz for some depth at a couple positions to a squad that was far superior to us last year.
Chelsea have swapped Lampard for Poch. They’ve bought a lot of good players but also shifted on a lot of bang average ones. They’ve done a complete overhaul and no one quite knows how good they might be.
United have upgraded at keeper. The new striker may be young but he can’t be worse than Wout Weghorst.
City have bought one of the best CB’s in the league. Added an exciting wide forward and bought a sensible replacement for Gudogan. At worst they’re about even with where they were last season when they won the treble.
Newcastle have improved a squad that finished ahead of us last season.
I’m not saying transfers are the be all and end all but I don’t think there’s a team competing for the top four, let alone the title, that you could confidently say has had a worse summers business than us. Most of them would be on about par I’d say but we’re playing catch up to them all anyway.
Three players is the absolute bare minimum after all the outgoings this summer and one of them is clearly a bit of a stop gap, fallback option after other deals couldn’t get completed.
We’ll walk intonthe top 4. We narrowly missed it last season with the a significantly worse starting XI and the same depth. I don’t know why you love wallowing in misery so much.
Of course. It wasn’t my intention to suggest that the competition haven’t improved either. But we have also - adding Mac Allister, Szobozo, and Endo is a vast improvement in our midfield. Yes, we’ve lost some experience, and not signed as many as we think we need, but the fans of other clubs (barring maybe Newcastle and City) are probably feeling similar.
My overall point is that I believe we are firmly in the Top 4 race. Its not going to be a walk in the park, but we have a squad more than capable of competing for it. Bit premature to be defeatist about it all imo.
Is that the rule changes? What is the status of winning the Europa League in that (not that I am suggesting that we would have the remotest chance of winning it with our squad of crocked Sunday league players.)
I’ll honestly be shocked if it isn’t. Man Utd are worse, Newcastle have a tiny and worse squad plus European games, Chelsea are crap, Spurs are irrelevant, for Villa see Newcastle. The only teams with better squads than us are Man City and Arsenal - and Arsenal I don’t even think is that much better while City have taken a tiny step backwards. It’ll be a competitive top 3 although I expect City will eventually win it. 2nd and 3rd will be a toss up between us and Arsenal with a pretty sizeable gap back to 4th.
