We’re obviously interested. I think it’s it close to nailed on.
Maybe its true to a certain extent but I am sure the criteria is more complex than that. Like Ox who was a ‘sudden’ opportunity. He definitely did not hit alot of heights during his Arsenal career, neither was he anywhere outstanding just before he joined us. And while players like Robertson definitely was outstanding in his time with Hull, its hard to also say for sure that he is at the best level having being a regular player in a relegated team. So I think some fundamentals would be skillsets they have seen that can be improved, exploited and molded, and value for the quality they are getting etc… for Mount, I definitely don’t think he is the worst we can get. Before this season, he is playing alot and definitely was one of the better English players in the league and coming through in a team and squad who keeps changing players and managers and being a key player is not an easy task especially for a young player. I definitely don’t think he is worth 70m, not even 40m. I definitely would take a look for less than 30m especially with a year left. I think his career still look like it can go either way. In the right team, he might become a regular in the national team in years to come, but he can also easily go down the route of “Dele Ali” at this critical juncture of his career.
My hope is on Mount we are going back to the data lead analysis which lead us to purchase the likes of Robbo, Mane, Salah etc. undervalued players with huge upside with the right coach and right set up.
I really hope it’s not based on playing against us 
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NEW: Mason Mount is understood to be keen on reuniting with former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel, who recently took charge of Bayern Munich. #lfc [guardian]
Annnnnnnd breathe.
Powerful players who can cover lots of ground, win tackles, win headers and give it over to our attackers and wing backs to provide the quality
This is where I am too I think. Although my biggest worry for the summer/next season is that Klopp/recruitment team don’t necessarily feel the same way.
I’d much rather see someone come in who can do what Henderson or Gini was doing 3 years ago than what Ox was doing or Elliot is trying now for example.
But in Nunes and Mount (who are the most heavily linked after Bellingham) don’t seem to be after that.
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Funny again, is Mount really what Bayern needs? I don’t blame Mason if he has a wish to reunite with a manager, but getting there is a different story.
They have Musiala, a top talent (arguably even better performing already) in Mount’s position and Muller still there on a contract until 2024. One would say they should rather focus on signing a striker.
I’ll believe it when it happens. And if it does my position will be cautiously optimistic.
Yeah for sure the first thing they need is a striker, maybe a new midfielder to challenge Kimmich & Goretszka if they dont’ see Gravenburch as the answer…those 2 must be approaching 500 games between them in a Bayern shirt.
Musiala is on a whole different level to Mount, the kids spectacular.
Yeah. Remains to be seen what structure Tuchel plays, but one would say surely a striker to play in the starting XI and maybe a deeper midfielder to either challenge or provide backup to the likes of Kimmich and Goretzka.
Will Tuchel be at Bayern next season?
If he somehow misses out at least on the league title they would have to sack him going by the logic of the Nagelsmann sacking.
By the way Bayern vs Dortmund tomorrow evening.
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Off the top of my head - Bellingham obviously but also Anguissa, Adams, Neves, Soucek, Partey, Onana, Bentancur, Rice, Caicedo, Lavia, Ndidi… even Phillip Billing has impressed me this season, he’s a giant and covers a tonne of ground making tackles, winning headers generally putting himself about, regularly Bournemouth’s best player. These kind of players that every other team in the league seems to have and manage to beat up our midfield week after week. It used to be Henderson and Wijnaldum providing that energy but now we don’t have it.
Personally I’m not particularly bothered about on the ball quality, if they are good top level players that’s nice but our midfield worked because they won the ball back, set the tempo and let our good players focus on breaking down the opposition. I want to get back to that and not trying to make the midfield more ‘technical’.
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Physicality isn’t just about height. Mascherano was tiny but he certainly put himself about like a raging bull!
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Personally would be quite pleased with Mount coming on board. Think he could be really effective in the Gini role, certainly has the work rate and fitness and then like Gini can chip in with a few goals because he has played in attacking positions and can finish when given the opportunity.
Can’t be just him though, needs to be He and Jude and a CB like Gvardiol ideally if we want to bounce back.
Looks like we have a lot of irons in the fire but for some reason my guts says Mount and Jude are done deals.
Hope my gut is right.
Gary Medel says hello…
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Some decent names in there.
Onana looks a prospect but can’t ever see them doing business with us, even if they do go down. Bentancur, Rice, Caicedo would be happy to see. Ndidi seems to have dropped off a cliff at Leicester but was a dog a couple years back.
Philip Billing though? Him and the rest are just a bit meh to be honest. And no way Partey would be coming with the rumours around him.
I see where you’re going, back to the hard running, all action midfield. We definitely need a bit more of that in there but I also think we’ve been actively looking at how we combat teams who have worked out the best way of countering that is to let us have the ball and we’ve then lacked the creativity or cutting edge to break teams down because we were very functional in midfield.
Thiago was the first step towards making that change. It worked well last season but not this. I guess it depends on the way Klopp wants to go. We’re in an odd spot. It feels like we give up too many chances and concede too many, and we do. But we’ve also looked blunt going forward a lot of the time. 34% of our league goals have come in just 2 of 26 games.
A hard running midfield brings back that pressing element, wins the ball back higher, allows us to condense the pitch. But against teams who know the way to play us is to sit in, we still need that creative aspect in midfield that we’re lacking. There’s room for our version of de Bruyne, Odegaard, Fernandez’s/Eriksson, Maddison and dare I say Mount. At the moment that’s Thiago but his injuries aren’t helping us and no one else offers the creativity he does.
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We are mixing different players and different things they do.
First and foremost, it’s clear that this midfield lacks some new fresh legs, dynamism, energy. That also means not going out to buy a player who only runs and can’t be a part of a team that has a lot of the ball and obviously has to be creative with it to be a protagonist side. Breaking teams down and get consistent wins.
Pressing is a big part of our game and of course that first and foremost needs to come back from our attack. Then midfield and then better defending at the back. We press in order to defend and also attack, it’s our complete circle. Most teams don’t want to give us spaces and then we need to be able to press well, but also have a layer of being quality with all that possession.
Thiago’s creativity is not the same type of creativity as the likes of Odegaard, Maddison, Mount. I’d even slightly separare the former from the other two, or better to say, he has showed more in recent times. What Elliott tries to do here when he plays in midfield is a bit what Odegaard does obviously better at Arsenal. Elliott might get there, but that’s not the topic right now.
Thiago mainly helps you to get the ball our from deeper areas, help his defensive midfielder/pivot and then can also get involved once we have pushed the opponent into his half. The mentioned players operate more as #10’s, be it centrally, in half-spaces, coming off the sides. Their game is much about people like Thiago getting the ball to them and then basically create openings, provide assists and goals.
I would love to get, say, 2 midfielders out of which both are providing us fresh legs, good age, mobile players. But one can be more of a physical/energetic one and the other one a bit more technical, with the elements Thiago has (because yes, he also has been missed in some games this season, even some we’ve won).
I have not much against our creativity this season. I actually want us to go back to our pressing principles again. That will help us to both attack better, score more goals, but defend better again. Which is really what’s been hurting most this season. That attack needs working on this summer on the training pitch to really know how we press and defend off the front, no matter who is the front 3 on any day. Then, the midfield is crying for fresh legs. The defence then, with better protection in front, needs to cut out those individual mistakes and some individuals need to raise their performances and be more consistent.
It’s not like adding Mason Mount necessarily means, oh well, there you have a creative #10, we are going to create more chances and score more goals. And our defending will be better because he runs a lot. I say sign 2 proper midfielders who firstly solve our priorities and then among them, still have some bottom line technical aspects (we have reached a level, or want to get back to a level where we can’t even “carry” or hide a player who cannot pass the ball well enough), with one having more than the other. They don’t have to be two physical clones for us to feel and be defensively sounds again.
And at the end of the day, a big part of us returning to our level next season will be down to what Klopp does with all players, that means the majority that remains. Massive focus will have to go on bringing our pressing back to life in pre-season, creating a base. New players will be important (hopefully, because that means they won’t flop!), but they alone won’t be able to change everything.
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I am glad you put an ‘s’ on Adam.
I appreciate and respect your posts, especially with the youth thread.
Out of interest and realistically speaking, if we are to sign two CM’s in the summer who would they be?
For me…
Bellingham would be a massive signing for any club. In my opinion he has it all, an athlete, skilled and with a very grounded mentality. £100-£150m is a big price but I believe he is worth it. Especially if you take into his age.
Additional to Bellingham, Bentacur looked really good at the World Cup and Caicedo has had really good plaudits recently. I also liked Anguissa when he was at Fulham but haven’t seen him play recently. Partey is not moving, Neves and Soucek are limited in mobility.
I personally would love Rice, he just has that drive/combative/mobile game that we scream out for.
In fact, if we were only to sign two players this summer it would be them two.
My fear is that if we fail to get Bellingham, which wouldn’t surprise me at all and it’s very realistic that we don’t get him, Nunes would be his stylistical alternative. And then the more marquee one would be Mount. But I’m still pretty sure there’s enough time for the club to surprise us with a name that wasn’t even mentioned so far. The likes of Fabinho and Jota came out of the blue.
Perhaps I’m being unfair to them, but I would be very disappointed if we end up with this pair. It’s not that I want some high-profile signing. I just don’t have any good vibes about them. I wouldn’t mind another pair of less-known/hyped players.
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Kone, Thuram, Gravenberch, Ugarte, Lavia.
If no Bellingham, 2-3 from a list like that for me, and we will be fine.
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