I think this is absolutely fair but there’s a couple of reasons I think there might be people in the club who aren’t looking at it this way.
having more than enough in terms of numbers is exactly what Klopp spent 90% of last summer saying, only to get found out once the season started due to injuries, form or legs. They won’t wanna make that mistake again and half the lads you’ve mentioned still pose the same problems as last season.
if we only get two in then one of the lads who burnt the managements head out last season is gonna be starting next season. Fab or hendo most likely and I’m confident no one wants that. An injury to one of the two new lads and two of last years failures are probably starting again.
Even removing those you mentioned that don’t have a long term future here left, that still leaves us with the core of:
Jones
Elliott
Kone/Thuram
Mac Allister
TAA
Bajcetic
In my mind that is an extremely promising midfield. ‘Promising’ is actually underselling it. That is a ‘performing’ midfield. There is enough depth there on its own long term without taking into account how we are going to rotate in Fab, Hendo for the next few years (and potentially Thiago, at least next season).
That’s not really Szoboszlai’s strength though. He’s very much a between the lines type of player. If he starts of defends now more off the right, on the ball he looks to come inside more.
Next season we don’t really need to have 6 main attackers of a crystal clear Salah backup. Especially without CL football. When he’s not available or we want to rest him, we’ll have enough other options.
I would hope we get away from ‘the plan’ kind of thinking. The corollary to having the discipline to wait a window or two for the desired target rather than settling for a lesser player is taking advantage of opportunities in the market as and when they arise.
I think I may have seen all of 10 minutes of Thuram, so no strong opinion on him in particular.
Milner
Hendo
Thiago
Fabinho
Keita
Ox
Jones
Elliott
Bajcetic
to
Hendo
Fabinho
Thiago
Jones
Elliott
Bajcetic
then adding 3 more would mean the numbers are the same. There’s still then a chance that Bajcetic is given a loan or an outside chance we might yet receive an acceptable bid for Thiago or Fabinho. Elliott might be used more as an alternate for Salah.
It would be unlikely that we buy three and they go straight into the team together, there would be a bedding in period for some or all of them. In that respect the Europa League could be a really useful arena for experimenting with different line-ups.
Two still seems most likely to me, but if so I’d expect further arrivals next summer.
I would have added ‘Head’ as the first option here. Our players were mentally lost this season. And that IMO was the biggest factor in our form, much more than injuries. We didn’t have anywhere near the required desire to win difficult matches, probably because of how we ended the previous season. We’ve cut a lot of the dead wood from this season in terms of permacrocked midfielders - Bajcetic and Curtis, from Klopp’s comments, appear to have injuries that must be given the time to heal correctly. I feel both will stay fit next season.
Its really now only Thiago that will carry the torch in Naby’s absence of helping keep the treatment table lit.
Yes. Thuram and Kone seem very similar to me, so even outside of the unliklihood of buying that many new midfielders, Im not sure how they fit together. Neither is a pure single pivot style DM, but mainly because of the Kante issue in that they are so athletically impressive that you dont want to limit their ability to get forward, but either in the second player in the base of our new 4 man midfield alongside tent would be dynamite. I dont see where the room is for the second of them though in that set up.
Interestingly, they have both been called up to the France U21 side for the summer Euros so it will be interesting to see how their manager will pair them.
There is a small chance for a Bajcetic loan, but from what Klopp said between the lines, I believe he will be with us next season. Can see him playing a lot of EL and cup games.
Klopp just doesn’t flog off an entire position in the squad and replace it with another. Far too much integration and expectations that the plans for integration will work. It may seem comic to say it given their injuries but we have just moved on 3 midfielders from the club. The players we have left is a very very good chance of being what we take into next season.
Which is why I singled him out in my post below that one as not really needing to be part of the discussion. IF we get minutes from him, brilliant. But no expectation on that.
GKs - Alisson Ziegler Adrian
DFs - Trent Timber Matip Konate Virgil Robertson Tsimikas
MFs - Gravenburch Macallister Kone Asensio Henderson Jones
FWs - Salah Jota Nunez Gakpo Diaz
u21s that don’t need to be registered but will still be part of the squad - Morton Bajcetic Elliott Bajcetic Morton Bradley Doak etc
Leaves us with a 21 man squad (17 non and 4 homegrown) let’s make it happen…now you’re talking about a squad that can go again for 4-5 years…maybe a tweak here and there when Hendo/Mo/Virg are done.
Maybe with a few more able bodies in the squad we could be more selective with his game time and minimise his injuries a bit.
Personally I don’t really understand why we bought him. He was a complete change to the type of midfielders we had and we knew he was prone to absences during the season. But because he’s so unique as a player for us, when he is absent we bring in someone entirely different to him and it changes the way we play somewhat.
Lovely player on his day but a bit of a head scratcher for me. Would be okay with him leaving but don’t see it unless someone in a gulf state comes a calling.
I’ll imagine there was a comma after that and add: one is young and has a long way before establishing himself as first teamer for a club like Liverpool (Bajcetic), one is coming to the age where he needs to grab the opportunity before him with both arms (or maybe legs) otherwise he is in the danger of being a perpetual squad player (Jones), one is young and has shown the quality needed for our first team with decent consistency, but there are question marks whether he complements the strengths & weaknesses of his fellow right sided players who are undroppable (Elliot), one is a world-class right back who Klopp has for years backed to stay as a right back and there are no guarantees whether the midfield “experiment” will be permanent.
I think we definitely need three midfielders if we are looking to compete immediately. Maybe by out-laying a few existing players will make the list more palatable just based on numbers, but I definitely think we need at least that much competition.
It’s not what I’m expecting either, just if we were to sign 3 then there is an option there. I suspect with his injury we’d rather ensure he is eased back and used sparingly at first.
Wasn’t that the point. Since Klopp has been here there has been criticism from fans and some commentators about the lack of craft from our midfield.
Given how we face so many teams defending deep against us bringing in a player like Thiago in gave us a new dimension and an opportunity to evolve. I think we tried to get Gundogan but he chose to go to City instead, Thiago became available and we thought why not.
That was also one of the reasons that probably attracted us to Arthur, in that I think he could play in a similar way to him.
