He has done reasonable but not fast enough for a high line defence + I want our CB taller.
No aerial presence from Matip? Heās our best header of a ball behind Van Dijk and Alisson. Heās immense in the air.
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Yes unchallenged argueably our best but if challenged that dives to around Bobby levels (whoās not bad at heading either).
No, not even close.
Oh! heās a pile of shit then?
Prior to buying Matip Klopp was frustrated at how easy it was to hurt us by just pumping long high balls at our CBs. He bought Matip specifically because of his strength in the air to bolster us in that specific way. There were times when he looked weak and easily outmuscled, but in retrospect that appears to be a period in which he was playing through injury and pain and since he returned from that injury has been superb in that area again.
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Any plans for CB next season should not include us pretending we are going to have Matip for a decent spell of the season and even Gomez could be out again for that season. For that reason we absolutely must be planning for VVD, Konate and one other to be out first choice 3, whether that is Kabak or another. If Gomez stays fit then great we have 4 quality CBs.
Phillipās is romantic but just not at the same level for me, great 5th choice to have around, ideally I would move Matip. He is our 2and best CB but cant play 2 in a week without risking injury
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VVD=1
Gomez + Matip=1
New CB=1
Nat/Rhys/SvdB=1
Itās still a bit tight, but so is our money.
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If the calculation is Konate coming in as a preferred CB to Kabak, and we donāt have enough money for both, then I accept that. At that point Phillips comes into the equation as a back up - obviously not at the level of our top central defenders, but nevertheless a back up, who has exceeded expectations this season. Soā¦ good luck to Phillips.
And also, good luck to Kabak, who can count himself unlucky if this is how it pans out.
Ideally we have money for both Konate and Kabak, but if money is tight, I can understand the thinking that the 18M we would spend on Kabak might be better used elsewhere to freshen up the squad, and as others have pointed out, the midfield needs some work.
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PS - if Origi goes to Lille, and the wages are doable as they are similar to Renato Sanches, I half wonder if thereās any chance of Sanches coming the other way?
Highly touted player when he was first coming through, lost his way slightly, but is finding his feet again and might go on to have a productive top level career?
Sanches for Origi?
Plus another midfielder like Bissouma?
Oh Timo, you crack me up.
Liverpool have stepped up their interest in Portuguese midfielder Pedro Goncalves, making contact with Sporting Lisbon over a move for the 22-year-old. (Record, via Team Talk)
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Kabak is doing a decent job but heāll cost 18 million and IMO he is not (much)better than Phillips who will cost us nothing. No brainer, get KonatĆ© and we will be fine.
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Being linked with yet another CB ā¦
Tottenham have made an offer for Borussia Monchengladbach and Germany defender Matthias Ginter but face competition from Liverpool and Inter Milan for the 27-year-old. (Bild - in German)
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As for the whole Kabak situation, the reason why I oppose a permanent deal is that there are plenty of CBs better than Kabak out there. OTOH, Phillips costs us nothing.
As the 4th choice, you cannot get alot better than Matip/Philips. If we buy Konate, then it will always be VVD plus Gomez or Konate and if Matip stays fit, then its even more difficult to keep all 4 happy. Imagine throwing in an ambitious young player like Kabak, its not possible to keep all happy. Of course we can throw in permutations like what if VVD never gets back to his best, what if Gomez gets injured again etcā¦ but you cannot be buying players for all sorts of permutations, can we? As of now, there are no evidence to support that VVD is not going to back to his best or will suffer another season ending injury, similarly for Gomez. We certainly cannot be stocking players just in case of bad luck. I would be happy with VVD, Gomez, Konate, Matip/Philips as our CB choices. Donāt forget we can still choose to keep Rhys or Davies if we want to call upon any of them.
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We cannot and thatās the reason we went with Fab as fourth choice CB which at that time seemed the logical way given we were stacked in midfield. But now we have seen how the season unfolded, itāll be a mistake to proceed with the same set of players presuming theyāll not get injured, when the history and evidence from past few seasons suggests otherwise.
Our problems donāt stem only because of two of our first three CBs being injury prone but because most of our first choice midfielders are as well. Especially since they were suppose to cover up in case Fab has to drop back.
Ideally one of Matip/ Gomez as 4th choice CB is the way to go. 4th choice on paper, if theyāre fit and make a good case to start, they should be playing. But they will in all probability be missing many games again next season. Having 4 CBs with two of them being Matip and Gomez would mean we learnt nothing from this season.
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Werenāt we linked with Gintner before?
I said before if you are bringing in a CB and Kabak then you probably are looking at moving Matip on otherwise you are a bit overloaded.
I expect Kabak to go for a lot less than 18m but probably not here unless there is a lot more to Matipās injury.
Williams needs to get some game time in the Championship, I would have thought who would but SVB who is of a similar frame seems to have done ok at Preston.
My thought was Ben Davies would act as the 4/5 CB but evidently eithier Klopp thinks thatās too big a jump for the guy or that he needs a full pre season. Wouldnāt surprise me if he ends up off for a 2-3m deal somewhere which means we got our money back and some.
I can still see Phillips and I think out of him and Williams he has less of an up mark for us (just leaves me cold in some of the errors he makes, sorry). He will still make those charges up field and if VVD is alongside him thatās fine but less so with Konate or Gomez.
Another one to consider is SVB.
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My opinion is that Williams is likely to get loaned out (I thought it would be to a top League One club but maybe he can get game time in Championship - it is difficult to find a club willing to give a kid CB a starting role, though, I think Van Den Berg has played vast majority of his games for Preston at right back). Van Den Berg is likely to stay there for one more season according to Neil Jonesā report from a few weeks back, which is also fine with me if he makes tangible progress. That said, I wish he could regularly play at CB next season.
If I was Edwards, Iād take the money for Phillips if I was offered a reasonable amount, though. Maybe it could be one of those deals where Liverpool accept a smaller sum initially but insert a sizeable sell-on clause. Heās essentially a fifth choice centre back and I donāt think he has the pace and technical ability to be more than that for Liverpool. To put it this way, if selling him would enable Edwards to sign Kabak, Iād definitely be in favour of that deal.
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