I think he was used once or twice as LCB in a back three / back five.
On rebuilding a team at the top of the table competing for and winning trophies doesnāt need to take a step back for a few years and build up to it. If we find ourselves in a position where we are having to do that it will be a huge demoralizing blow to 75% of the squad because, at their age, they canāt afford to stick around for the rebuild as it will be too late for them to enjoy it once itās over. If we maintain a top level status the best young talents are going to want to come here. That strengthens us in negotiation meaning we can force selling clubs into more acceptable deals to us. That doesnāt happen when youāre just one of many good options. Also you slowly integrate a couple at a time allowing you to maintain top level competitiveness. If (and God I hope itās a huge if) we somehow drop out the top 4 again we are no longer one of the big boys. It was just LFC once again having a blip this time two seasons not just one and we actually won the league this time āyay for themā as people will see it. As our established stars move On, possibly quite quick succession, we arenāt picking the best of the best to replace them as our lustre wonāt be as shiny we will be once again relying on great scouting to slowly work our way back up the table again through cautious minimal spending till we have that big CL cash again. Trust me I hope Iām wrong but we may find a real slog against it if we slip this season. This is the season we need to prove last two years werenāt anomalies and we really are back as a top European side again competing year in year out.
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It does for us mate,it took Klopp over 3 years to build this team up,finding the right players and working around FFP and a very tight budget,where player sales were needed to help fund it,it also still needed tweaking going into the next 2 years to eventually start winning trophies.
We took a step back and started saving money over the past few transfer windows before covid,not only because we had the bulk of our squad sorted but maybe because they were setting up another mini rebuild last summer or this summer (possibly??)with any money they saved,knowing the next rebuild will cost big bucks buying top replacments,youād assume losing over Ā£100mill has wiped out those savings to keep our heads above water and not going into debt,crippled our transfer budget and future plans massively.
I donāt understand how you keep bypassing that loss of money and we can carry on spending this month and in the summer like itās no big deal,like we can carry on throwing money at transfers from future revenues,for some reason i donāt think FSG work like that,especially not in this current climate in these uncertain financial times.
You also need to take into account,we have to pay off the new main stand,a Ā£50mill training ground,plus any potential ground work plans for a new Anfield Road expansion,plus find money for the Ā£60mill we still owe for Jota and Thiago last summer.
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Iām hardly calling for us to throw money around. Less than Ā£30m quite possibly less than Ā£20m and potentially even a loan for a player who would be a huge boost in our attempts to win over Ā£50m in CL participation money seems like a smart thing to do for a company that is going through financial issues and canāt afford to risk losing that revenue and attraction for sponsors etc.!
On the losses the single biggest loss is on the TV money. The deal has been struck to have this taken out of future TV money when itās back to normal. The rest of the losses mostly revolve around match day revenue. Last season more than 2 thirds was played as normal so we didnāt lose more than half the Ā£100m match day revenue I expect less than half. Thatās last yearās accounts which as you hint I also think we had set to be good ready for us to be in a position to splash if needed. This year we could end up losing the majority of the Ā£100m match day revenue but yet again without that loss could have been facing a real good year that could have meant a profit if it werenāt for Covid. We wonāt know this financial year for over a year. However if we need to make a loss this year (of all years with everything going on) to secure future incomes and standing in the game for future seasons I think the rules are relaxed enough to do that. FSG have form for this allowing us to operate at losses in the early days without stopping us spending because they knew the on pitch product needed to be there if they wanted to make the club secure in the future.
We donāt know what the finances look like, but safe to say after a global pandemic and a season and a third with no fans, they wonāt be in a good shape. TV, Sponsorship and Commercial will have also been whacked.
Saying Ā£20m quid (plus wages, agent cut and signing on fees) is nothing in that context is a bit blasĆ©.
Liverpool will be in a better state than some (Iād be worried if I were a Spurs fan) and worse than others - we have very high operating costs, because we had (pre Covid) very healthy income streams.
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Honestly donāt have the energy to read anything beyond a couple of paragraphs, particularly when you see they are pretty much repeating what has already been said.
I will say one thing, people need to stop reading what the club and Klopp are saying out loud and taking it literally, you do realise what happen to the asking price of players if they say yes we are looking to spend money on a defender. Also think back to when Klopp point blank denied we were interested in Chamberlain only to sign him in the next windowā¦
I have 100% faith in this clubs recruitment team, they have got us here, have a little faith, if we sign nobody, then there was nobody available that fits our model for the budget we had, simple.
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Fuck sake, height criteria failed for Alabaā¦ What is Eddie doing.
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I understand why weāre juding Alaba more to the ānoā side than the āyesā.
Listen, of course heās a top player and a top versatile player (but that is also taken too lightly, he canāt play all these positions equally well literally anywhere and under any coach).
Every top club/side that can possibly make it happen needs to stop for ā5 minutesā and think do we need him. Iām glad that we reviewed it already, but have no problems if we judged that this one is not quite for us.
As for the public and especially us fansā¦ just look at it for a second. You get too much of all sorts of ideas (not that Alaba is a crazy idea, heās not, but he doesnāt have to be for us to say itās not quite worth the money), like itās so easy to buy and throw on the pitch like itās a FM game.
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I wonderā¦ he played so well against Tottenham, and while Kane isnāt the fastest, Son has more than a bit of pace to burn. I canāt remember seeing him exposed to this in the same way than in the following matches. Maybe itās not a lack of pace per se which is lacking right now (after all, Matip isnāt the fastest either), but rather a lack of experience in his positioning when having to deal with players trying to break our offside trap.
Against Tottenham, he played with Matip, who certainly told him how to position himself. With Fabinho, heās maybe more on his own, and it shows.
Just a hypothesis. But at this stage, I think that heās very gifted, and Iām not ready to give up on him and hope that heāll get further chances to play with the first team.
As for that latest rumour.: Alaba is a fine player. I wonder if having Thiago here already is a plus or minus regarding our chances to land him.
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If these wage demands from Alaba are true (and Bayern chiefs spoke of them as being extremely unrealistic, that his agent asked for parity with Lewandowski), I understand why club didnāt want to pursue him. I think heād be a quality addition but not for a specific role, Iām not even sure what his best role is - whichever he plays, heās excellent at it. Heās not a flashy player, though, maybe thatās why his name doesnāt generate enough buzz among casual football fans. I think he would have been a great replacement for Wijnaldum (and Milner) but I think that Klopp will be looking for a specialist centre back, rather than a versatile player who can play there.
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Upamecano available for 42 mil Euro in the summer, has us listed as interested, with clubs sniffing around now asking if they can have him for a bit more than that in Jan as heāll be leaving for lower fee in summer.
Maybe why weāre reluctant to purchase a CB now?
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Perhaps, but also thisā¦
Unless we manage to off-load either of Adrian and Origi, we canāt register another non-home-grown player.
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Well that or we delist VVD or Adrian/Origi when we submit our registration info Feb 1.
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Weāve already de-listed Van Dijk. The question will be whether to list him again in February but that will be one for nearer the time.
This really isnāt an issue though. Assuming we didnāt sell anyone and were forced to de-list someone to make space it will be done with any one of Gomez, Origi, Adrian, Van Dijk potentially being removed (or not put back on) the list. If it was Gomez his replacement would need to be home grown.
Lusby missing the obvious, as usual.
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Twist my arm. Remove Origi (or Adrianā¦ 
). Done. Bring in a CB.
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If only someone made a decent offer for Origi. Even loan deal would suffice. Iām pretty sure if this starts a few games, he will find some rhythm.
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So, thatās Ā£37-38m for Upamecano as things stand.
Will be interesting to follow the last months/weeks of the season, Iām pretty sure weāll have something wrapped up in time. Or maybe before/during/just after Euroās.
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I wonder where Bastoni would fit on that?
Heās contested 44 of which heās won 32 in 20 games (Serie A and Champions League). 73% success rate.
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