See, I can’t even spell his name right!!
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If TAA’s name can fit, there won’t be any issues.
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I’m a dissenting vote on Kabak. The links don’t at all make sense to me. Just my opinion, he’s not anywhere close to the level required to play regularly at LFC, and certainly not for the money being talked about. I don’t mean all this in a negative or slanderous way, I just think Kabak is oddly overhyped.
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If you believe we won’t go after Upamecano because he’s not great in the air or very tall then why do you think we’d buy Kabak?? they are both the exact same height at 1m86cm/6ft1 and Kabak isn’t this great heading specialist with the stature of VVD either,far from it.
As for Upamecano being the exact opposite to what we buy,what about VVD?? when we’ve needed to go out and buy the best in that position,we’ve spent the money and bought them,Upamecano at £38mill in the summer is daylight robbery tbh and depending on how desperate we are to get in a CB of his standing then i’d imagine we’d find the extra few million to get him out early.
Looking at both players Upamecano’s attributes,skills,attitude,experience,stats,potential and price are a much better fit for us in January than what Kabak could ever offers us right now,other than the fact that he’s 2 years younger and about £10-20mill cheaper,i don’t see why he’s being compared to Upamecano at all,Kabak only stands out because he’s a 20 year old CB playing in a top league (how many that age are playing around europe?) this doesn’t mean he’s a great player though,stats,form,attribute’s,experience and attitude,he’s nowhere near as good for us as Upamecano would be,infact i’d prefer to bring on Rhys Williams and give him game time than waste money on Kabak.
I don’t know why i’m getting into this,it’s pretty pointless second guessing LFC/Klopp in the transfer market and who they’ll buy anyway,all i know is i just hope it’s not Kabak because he’s not this young world class CB ready to step in to help solve our problems this season at all.
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I think we’ll buy Mbappe instead.
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I am sure the club is looking to buy a CB in summer anyway so they might bring forward the plans to January.
But whether it is someone like Kabak or Upacameno or Mandi depends on what was the original plan Klopp had in mind for this 4th CB in the first team squad. It also depends whether Klopp thinks he can depend on Matip for another 3-4 years until 2024 when his contract expires. If Klopp and the medical team thinks that Matip is not just going to suffer the occasional injury moving forward, then this 4th CB would probably be someone very strong and already at a very high level, jus for example like Koulibaly or even someone like Skrinar, and not someone like Kabak where development, alot of it, is needed. Then it will be Gomez, new player and VVD for the top 2 spots with Matip playing the Lovren role last season.
If Klopp believes Matip can be counted on still, then in Jan, he will be looking at a player whose level might not be that high but definitely higher than our youth options like Rhys and Billy, probably even at Gomez level but can take it to the next level in 3-4 years. Then someone like Upacameno might make sense.
There is also the option that if Matip might be sold in the summer and the other options are priced too ridiculously, then Klopp might just get an option like Mandi, who are good enough, then sell Matip in summer, get that very good option in summer, then Mandi will play that Lovren role.
Of course we never know what Klopp had in mind. VVD’s injury definitely threw plans off track and I believe what he and the backroom staff thinks about Matip, Gomez and even the youths and options like Nat Philips will determine what kind of player we go for in January.
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The point of the VvD signing wasn’t that he was the most famous, highly rated, expensive CB so we bought him. He was the best fit for our needs due to his skills and abilities who happened to be very expensive. Also don’t let history rewrite the VvD signing. At the time there were still a lot of questions, his lack of recognition with national caps, him never having stepped up to top level, the City talk that he was going to have to play his way into their starting 11 not be starting from the off etc. etc.! VvD was the 100% perfect match for every thing we needed from a CB to play Klopps tactics and style of play.
Upamecano and Kabak probably aren’t but Kabak may cost half or less of what Upamecano would cost to complete as a deal so his short comings may be far less of a concern. Also (although I hate getting too stat heavy) in Bundesliga last season Kabak did actually beat Upamecano on duel success rate and aerial duel success rate. The two physical traits a CB needs to have in my opinion are pace and being physically robust. Stats wise they need reasonable passing and successful in aerial duels and ground duels. Numbers of duels can be distorted by the team they play for but how often they win their duels should be better indicator. Used squawka to have a very fundamental basic look at their compassion.
Probably won’t be either of them considering recent inbound players. They always seem to surprise everyone.
The good thing about Upameccano is that if he’s not as tall as you’d like, you can just bolt on an extension.
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Hight is neat but not necessarily. It’s how high you can jump. Take for instance Ronaldo, who has the same hight as Upameccano. Renaldo is a phenomenal jumper, Upameccano could be too.
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I didn’t realise you could still buy ‘Meccano’. Is Upamecano an upgraded version? Like Super Meccano!
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I know stats can be deceptive but he’s not very successful with his aerial duels which, for a potential long term partner for Gomez, I think will be one of our main priorities when bringing in a CB.
Doesn’t matter. You’ll make up your own version anyway
Excuse me?
Basically what you said in the Everton thread.
I think that Kabak is a smoke screen the real target is anybody’s guess we might even do a Thiago and go for an older player like Koulibaly?
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I know a lot don’t like the suggestion but I still think Tah fits the criteria. Tall, quick, maybe needs to work on mobility, out of form and not really in great place with current manager/team. Surprisingly he hangs around the same kind of passing accuracy and duel/aerial duel success rates as the likes of VvD. Actually better than many other CBs we are linked with. Just think if someone like Klopp got hold of him he’d be turned into an absolute monster of a CB.
He’s crap though, there’s a reason he doesn’t start for Leverkusen.
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Jota wasn’t starting for Wolves. Sometimes it’s about how the player fits to the tactical needs of the team. I’m not saying he’s great. I’m saying his strong points are the things that most matter with our CBs. And due to his current situation he would be well below value. Klopp would then address his short comings in training and develop him further.