Yes, for the Ronaldo 10 years ago. Now? No.
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To be honest, thereās so much conflicting talk on this itās a little confusing. If he wasnāt wanted, then why the club accept any offer? Iām not sure anyone really has the inside track on our transfer business, but also hedging on this, I think itās also that heās just another cog in the machine in a sense. He might be in the managerās plans, but heās a lot more interchangeable than someone like Minamino or Jota for instance.
Think he actually did pick up quite a few knocks here and there? I seem to recall something like that at least.
Quite apart from it being a terrible season from which to judge anyone, itās also worth noting that of his 2 starts, whoās really surprised that if you want a goal in a game, you bring on Salah and Firmino? Against West Ham he was taken off for Oxlade-Chamberlain, which is a very sensible substitution if you want to consolidate the win.
Heās not going to be a regular starter for us, thatās very much for certain, but to suggest that he canāt play the very same squad role that he did with good effect in a season where won the title is a little overblown, not even to mention the fact that heās not even close to that role now, given that we have since brought in Jota and Minamino. Itās a low-risk move, really, keeping a settled squad player who isnāt on very high wages.
Normally that would probably be the case but I think Iām still suffering from PTSD brought on by last seasonās decimation of the squad and our resultant struggles. I canāt help but feel a sense of foreboding, particularly about our forward depth.
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I can understand that, but nothing could help us avoid last seasonās woes. We literally brought in 2 centre-backs in January to try to stem the bleeding, only for them to miss the last quarter of a season anyway. If anything, we have ridiculous depth, to the point where we still managed to finish 3rd having played an uncountable number of centre-back pairings, with the most played pairing being our 7th and 8th choice, after having used up (and injured) 2 of our centre-midfielders doing so.
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Letās wait till end of October and see how the squad fares.
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Why do you keep including Jones in the list of players supposedly on the chopping block?
How can you claim we didnt use a squad in a season in which we at times had upt to 6 senior players missing?
This seasonā¦in 3 games weāve started 16 different players
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I donāt think it is odd. From the moment Gomez went down, he was pretty much crisis managing. A case in point being Robbo. He kind of had to keep playing Andy, as he was continually having to play unfamiliar centre backs. It would be difficult to use Tsimikas, and ask Rhys Williams to keep an eye on him.
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I wonder if in hindsight Klopp regrets not starting two of Kabak, Williams and Phillips together sooner rather than moving lads out of midfield.
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I donāt think so. My guess is his primary motivation was to keep someone experienced in our play there. Hence, we tried almost everything to avoid giving 2 of the new faces gametime together until one of them (Phillips mainly) became more experienced with how we play.
Very true and I hadnāt discounted that. Such an important area of the pitch and the three young cbs did really well and grew in confidence the more they played.
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Re Jones is he injured? Why hadnāt he been in squads if ok?
Re squad - we had all those injuries to jota, defence etc and still minamino, ox, keita and origi they still went out on loan or didnāt get much if any game time so why will they get game time now?
Be interesting to see who does get picked out of those lot this season. I think keita and Ox will probably see a bit more game time than minamino and origi
He got concussion in the final friendly, so had to miss the first game due too concussion protocols. As for the other 2 games, I donāt remember seeing reason for being left out, but our midfield has enough depth that we have that lucury now days
I think Klopp said he needed time on the training ground with them to get them up to standard.
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I doubt it unless you believe he thinks we could have otherwise still challenged for the title?
He was an unused sub against Burnley.
Honestly I donāt think 3 games is enough to figure out if heās being left out of squads or not.
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He missed part of pre-season due to injury and then got a concussion in the final friendly. He simply wasnāt as match ready as other options.
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Or lack thereof. We have 4 strikers for 3 positions with 2 other options who are at best lower PL quality. We tried that with the defence last season.
Shudder.
Thatās a bit of an exaggeration.
Ox and Minamino are good players with champions league experience.
Phillips and Williams were nowhere near that level.
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Thatās not true, is it?
We had just three CB for two positions last season. Two of them had history of chronic or serious fitness issues.
The fourth choice, Nat, was about to be loaned to a Championship side and the fifth choice, Rhys, used to play in fourth division.
We have four attackers for three positions this season and neither have any serious fitness history.
The fifth and sixth choices, Origi and Takumi, have experiences in playing in the Champions League.
In addition, AOC and Elliott can also be drafted in.
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Mane/Ox/Origi ||| Firmino/Jota/Minamino ||| Salah/Harvey
thatās 8 players for the front 3 positions. how many players do we really need?
Ox, Harvey and Minamino are just below the standard of our starting 3, Iād actually argue that Jota is as good as Bobby right now.
Origi is still an anomaly. He has the skill just lacks the workrate and drive.
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