Where have you been? 
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Heās spreading that because heās in denial about us getting Raphinha in the summer 
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Raphinha or Bowen to replace Origi and Taki would be lovely.
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Top quality rumour that.
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I donāt think we can afford to keep all of them into their mid 30ās on lucrative contracts tbh. They are a long way from finished, donāt get me wrong, but the signs of not being quite up there in level are already showing. I think we need a freshen up, personally.
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Jonathan David, eh.
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What signs are they? I havenāt looked at the stats or studied the games, so that might very well be the case, but I think for a lot of people the reaction is little more than a knee jerk. He has never been a prolific scorer for us but was looking as if he was picking up more goals this season before his injury.
For me, the bigger issue has been the stability of the midfield as weāve rarely been able to put out a consistent line up.
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Paulo Dybala is out of contract in the summer I believe. Iāve always liked him. Could easily connect midfield and attack. Massive upgrade on Origi.
To be honest itās by watching them week in week out and they are not the same imho. As we know, though, the eye test is not always the best barometer and I am quite willing to concede that. I will do some searching and come up with a few metrics for games played, minutes played, goals, assists and minutes per goal contribution. Canāt do it right now Iām afraid so if I get some time will do so tomorrow and see if the stats are bearing out what the eye is seeing.
I am quite sure that Bobbyās stats, in particular, will see a steady decline from 19/20 onwards. The commentator today mentioned something particularly pertinent today; heās only scored once at Anfield in his last 21 games. I know weāre looking at what he brings beyond goals but I mean, thatās pretty poor.
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I think they have too but isnāt part of that due to having a particularly good year? His record before then did seem all that amazing either?
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A quick look shows
- 11 goals and 11 assists in 15/16
- 12 goals and 12 assists in 16/17
- 27 goals and 17 assists in 17/18
- 16 goals and 8 assists in 18/19
- 12 goals and 13 assists in 19/20
- 9 goals and 9 assists in 20/21
- 7 goals and 4 assists thus far this seaaon
So you may very well be right, 17/18 is the obvious high butā¦ I donāt know, on those it looks like a peak between 17/18 to 19/20. The last 18 months especially, has been poor by the standards set previously and I am not sure he can get back to that. I honestly think heās peaked for us and wonāt get back to that level. Iād be more than happy to be proven wrong, of course.
The Club has some hard choices to make in the next 6 months I feel, especially with Salah looking for a renewal. Keeping the 3 and renewing all of them isnāt the way to go imho; we will not be able to recoup on them in transfer fees to reinvest in the summers of 23 onwards and will face a major rebuild possibly under a new manager in '24. Iād be looking to offload Bobby and Mane now, bumper contract to Salah to keep guaranteed goals in the team for the next 2-3 years and ārebuildā an attack around Salah, Jota, A N Other and Elliot while Klopp is still around.
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For me even if the signs are not all there yet, doesnāt mean they arenāt going to be. The Salah-Bobby-ManĆ© Triptych has brought me so much joy and weāll be lucky as fans if we get to see an attacking unit both so talented and likable playing for us in the future.
But it canāt continue forever. Itās going to slow down, pick up more injuries more regularly.
We rightly criticised Ferguson for leaving an aging unbalanced team behind, and many point to that as a huge contributory factor for their rapid downfall. How many times have we pointed the finger at JosƩ for doing the same thing.
I donāt want to see it happen to us, and Iām sure moves for the likes of Jota and Konate are early steps in avoiding that, and hopefully after this summer weāll be a couple of new players further away from that point.
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I think the squad does need a bit of a refresh, 3 or 4 22-25 year olds ready to take the next step up rather than established superstars or teenagers.
But in regards to Firmino, I wouldnāt say his recent performances suggest a downturn. He was crap for a period last season, but he ended it strongly and personally I think heās looked really good this year despite getting pushed out by Jota and injuries.
Sure, if we got a big offer for him (say 60 million+) itād be worth taking and refreshing with a younger player. But for 25-30 million? I donāt see the point in that. Heās going to remain a good player for a few years yet. The level heās playing at this season is still a cut above a lot of the names from Germany or Italy I see us linked with.
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I donāt really agree with this line of argument.
The criticism of Fergie though was in part because he was adding ageing players to their squad. Much of our squad is not really all that old. As you point out, we are adding talented younger players behind the starting 11 that could be the long term replacements for them.
Thinking specifically about our front 3, we already have Jota on board. Upgrading Minamino and Origi (with one or two signings) may allow us to counter any issues form Mane, Firmino or Salah declining.
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Not really, Van Persie was the only one that could fit that category and he was still under 30.
Edit; The problem was he left aging, declining players in important roles they werenāt really able to be effective in anymore. So adding Van Persie instead of a new young star striker just felt like the straw that broke the cammels back.
Fair enough. My memory is failing me. They bought or promoted from the youth set up a lot of players that werenāt good enough, and kept their spine much longer than they should have. In Rooney and Van Persie, they had at least 2 players aged under 30 whose condition was probably more like 30+ aged players.
I still donāt think it is all that comparable here, as we have a squad that is already better balanced than Fergieās last couple.
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His chest is inadequate.
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I donāt think there is anything to panic about with the squad, but we need to do some business this summer and cash in some of these frugal windows.
Iād like to see two boss midfielders and an attacker. If we can move on Taki, Ox, Keita and Origi, and supplement the squad with further development of Morton and Gordon, I think we are nicely set up
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Agree on that principle of freshening up definitely, that is the responsible thing to do. But of course there are 2 ways I see this can be done. Its either we move say Firmino and Mane on and use what we saved on them to get ready made replacements (although nobody can guarantee anything about ready made replacements) but of course the chances are high if scouting is done properly. The other way which is attractive too is to spend big money renewing Fimino and Maneās contracts for another 3 years (and somehow I think Mane and Firmino will not ask for as much that kind of increase that Salah wants - which I think Salah deserves to be the best paid ever player in our history - I just feel they will not), and then to spend abit lesser on emerging talents and build them up in 2-3 years time to replace these players, and the timeline will fall just nice for Klopp in 2024 if he decides to leave then.
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Swiss Ramble has just posted the analysis of Man Cityās financial accounts. Iām not dismissing other rival clubs as they will surely get stronger but that is ominous reading. Basically, Man City have posted a profit and can continue spending big and our club is expected to make losses alongside all the other clubs in the league. How to counter that, I honestly donāt know.
You feel that the team need a combination of 2018 windows of sorts but I donāt think thatās viable, no one will pay big money for clubās unwanted players anymore. There are fair few Iād like to see moved on but you know how much Klopp valueās the team spirit. However, there are too many first team players who will have only one year left on their contracts in the summer. Iād definitely keep Mane and Salah, while selling Firmino, Origi (who might leave on a free if Sky Sports are to be believed) and at least one of AOC and Keita, with the other possibly getting a new contract to preserve his value. Iād keep Minamino for another year, if Iām honest, I doubt his value will rise or plummet either way and he can be useful in domestic cups at least.
Aside from a proper midfield and attack reinforcements (I know the side needs them, I just donāt know which type), Iām pinning my hopes on Jones and Elliott finding consistency and becoming proper options for the first eleven in the future. I really think itās too early for Morton but Gordon could be a good one, I think.
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