Adrian doesn’t give me/us the confidence anymore despite his age/experience.
I think he is being considered as an emergency option. If Kelleher signs then the club will allow Adrian to move on. But if Kelleher doesn’t extend, he will be sold and Adrian and a young GK will fill the roster.
I also prefer to see Adrian gone, but it’s not the same if he’s 2nd choice or more 3rd.
I don’t think the club will want to have Kelleher and a bunch of kids covering Alisson (who had some issues). Kelleher showed some decent stuff, but I understand if we still want someone experienced to help them. It’s no big deal, our budget will not suffer because of it.
GK is a different position, maybe we’d look more at loaning out a few of those we think have potential or value. Pitaluga par example is still very young, so should be kept around for a little while.
Mel Reddy says Ben Davies will likely be sold.
Ben Davies is unlikely to stay on Merseyside having not played a minute for the club, while Rhys Williams is fielding loan offers.
So, what’s being said is that there won’t be any signings without sales, but that’s not really a surprise. The big question is whether we are willing to accept offers for the players we can afford to sell. Shaqiri will have his suitors and maybe Origi, Mini, Grüjic too. Wilson and a few others can also be moved on. I hope we get some decent offers.
Maybe it will be a loan, raise his value and sell him for a bigger fee next summer.
That one sounds fun, I’m actually looking forward to it!
If I’m being honest, I expected two (very) experienced goalkeepers to arrive this summer in order for Kelleher specifically to head out on loan. You look at what Man United, for example, have done with Johnstone and Henderson and wonder why Liverpool wouldn’t be able to do something similar with Kelleher. OK, maybe not see him go to seven or eight different loan spells, maybe longer spells at less clubs. Maybe some other young goalies to head out on loan aside from Kelleher, too.
Not really. The club are better at keeping their journalists briefed. They will usually say what the club wants them too.
I think this post is the most probable scenario. The only thing I would add, is that they will still likely have an eye on adding to those at the club even if keita or Ox don’t leave - but just not as an absolute priority as say strengthening defence is…, it’s a nice to do ( so they look at what can be done but plan on the basis of not doing so?) not a must do.
Yeah, last season we made room for Thiago on paper by considering Fab as a CB option so you needed an extra CM for that. We possibly did the same with Ox for forward, at least by the second half of the season after Minimino left. With Konate coming in that pushes Fab firmly back into the CM group. Maybe we see somehting similar with Elliot, Minimino or a new signing with respect to Ox as well?
Either way, even with Gini going, with the overall make up of the squad you can see that in pure numbers the CM is fine. The issue is when you look at the contributions of each players are we really down to 4 (Fab, Thiago, Hendo, Jones) and an ageing Milner? Id’ say it’s Keita or Ox we might be looking to replace rather than Gini and so until we get traction on that exit we’re likely to hold the company line that we’re fine in terms of not needing incomings there.
It’s not only numbers, it’s style and availability.
Gini was converted to more of a hard working CM. Now, we’d be down to Hendo and Millie for those roles as #8’s. With the former also backuping Fabinho at #6.
The rest are not irresponsible, but they’re of different style.
It’s a long summer, Pearce is not God, I’m sure the club itself doesn’t know yet what will all happen this summer. Wait and see, I’d say.
The hope must be for Jones to take another step up and fill in for Gini. I’m not against the idea, but haven’t seen the same sort of industry out of Jones yet (not many players have Gini’s industry), so it’ll be something to watch how Gini’s work rate is shared/replaced, and whether his exit will shift balance/tactics of the team.
Theoretically, a starting midfield of Fabinho, Henderson, and Thiago with Jones ready to step in looks good enough, but depth behind is questionable. Milner, bless his heart, is getting up there in age, and Ox and Kieta seemingly unreliable. I have more faith in Ox, as he doesn’t seem to get the little niggles Kieta does, but will get a long run of games before some terrible long term knee issue puts him out again. So hopefully his knee is sorted, and we just get the long run of availability. Kieta I’m about done with. Even when fit never been super sold on what I’ve seen. Ox at least had the great run in the side couple years ago before the knee injury, I’m hoping we see that player again.
If you squint, it could appear that the club is heading into the year happy with what they have on paper at CM like they did with CBs last year, counting on players who probably won’t have availability from start of season to end. Expecting a few twists this summer as ever, happy to see the seemingly first choice CB target through the door.
But this could be seen as a possible evolution of klopp’s system where our midfield becomes a bit more expansive?
I dont know if Gini was always earmarked for that role, or simply slotted so well into it we chose not to change things, but Klopp had wanted Gundogan at one point - how much did he differ in style from Thiago?.
This is my view, I really think we are going to shift to 4231… Especially against the low block, defensive teams (i.e. 90% of the league!)
Yes, I’ve been thinking this myself. Until now our midfield has been pragmatic by design, but imo signing Thiago was a sign that Klopp wants it to become a bit more progressive, and if Jones has been earmarked as Gini’s successor then that’s even more so.
If one of Ox and Keita goes I’d expect someone to be brought in then, and it will be very interesting to see if we go for more of a Gini/Bissouma ‘status quo’ type, or more of a ball-carrying, front-foot type player.
This is the interesting thing - Dan Kennett or Simon brundish have published stats to argue we concede fewer and score more with Keita in the side. He also spends a lot of time on the bench ‘available’, rather than out injured…
We will continue to play with a highline and the wingbacks bombing forward. Don’t we need a workhorse in the midfield to snuff-out the spaces and stop a quick counter?
More importantly we get offers early enough so that we can bring a player or 2 in.
From what I can gather we tend to hold out for our evalution which makes this difficult and inthis covid dominated market it’s going to be harder, isn’t it?
No, you need 2 very mobile and fast central defenders.
It’s very very unlikely a team leaves more than 2 players beyond their halfway line against us.
That’s why Van Dijk, Gomez, Matip are such good defenders they are elite 1 v 1 defenders, proactive at closing space and keep up the pressure. It’s been a huge part of our drop in form losing their style/ability.
How we won the league was based on us keeping up this suffocating metronome of wave after wave of attacks… We’d build this pressure cooker effect which would burst eventually… It was all based on 2 center backs who could mop up everything, but also keep the ball progressing forwards.
Nah, I don’t think we’re changing our principles.
Our creative players are all responsible or have energy, some more, some less. Some more specialized in that, some not.
We’re not playing the likes of Ozil or Isco in central midfield.
But we must be careful not to be too thin on the hard working side.