We owe Phillips a lot buy its telling that nobody has yet jumped at the chance to snatch our hand off for a young, English CB at around £12-15m! Even clubs like Watford and Newcastle are only considering him as a squad option to challenge for starts and not a default starter. Should always get a warm reception here for heroics playing out of his skin for us last season but even if he was available on a free none of our rivals would sign him as one of their first 4 CBs. He definitely shouldn’t fill that role for us.
There’s some kind of disconnect if people are legitimately preferring Phillips as 4th choice CB over Gomez regardless of the finances involved. Gomez and VvD at one point was performing at a truly world class level.
If memory serves here… didn’t Joe get one bad injury just before Jurgen arrived when he was playing in the team as a left back… then another bad injury at Burnley Thugs FC playing right back… Then another bad injury under the guidance of Numpty Southgate…
Playing in his normal position of CB, he seems to be able to do it and come out unscathed…!
I don’t think Jurgen is the type of manager to sell players for the sake of it… If he wants Joe to stay for the good of the club, I’m sure a simple discussion laced with his charm offensive along with the way he explains things in such a positive way… Joe will obviously be swayed to stay at LFC for life…
But if Jurgen doesn’t want him, well that becomes a whole different ball game.!
He has had (I think) three serious knee injuries now. The latest one was I think considered to be the worst. That’s not including getting his leg snapped by a Burnley thug.
That’s my only reason for concern. I said when he got the bad one with England that I thought it might be game over for him. A third ACL type injury is a lot to come back from, even with the advances in medical science and rehab in recent years
Injuries aside, I hope he can get back because I love the lad. I think he is absolute quality. Compliments Van Dijk beautifully, and if all three of the non-Virgil options were available at their peak, Joe is the one I’d have next to the big man.
I think Gomez actually can still develop a lot more, although for me at the moment I don’t see much difference between Matip and him in terms of their quality. Konaté I feel is one who would be more of a Virgil replacement alongside Gomez rather than a direct competitor. I don’t think the club have yet given up on Gomez.
Your earlier post I replied to charged posters as saying no games, which isn’t the same as us saying he is unlikely to get a run of games or that he can’t be given a guarantee of a run in the side.
If he isn’t fit, he is unlikely to play. If he is currently fit and not being picked ahead of Matip and Konate, then he is 4th choice (or lower), so in order to get a run of games he is going to need to be fit, and for other players not to be fit, otherwise at best he will pick up the odd game here or there.
He isn’t suddenly going to be picked ahead of Matip when both are fit unless Matip’s form drops off a cliff as he has rarely done so before except when Gomez had already had a run in the team because Matip had been out injured.
Even your own post suggests any such game time is probably reliant on resting VVD and injuries to Konate and Matip.
I can literally remember only one moment of his in a Liverpool shirt, the goal against Olympiakos. I am pretty sure he played other games and scored other goals (not alot) but I can only picture him that one time.
Not the most impossible player for us to sign in terms of profile and talent but he is already earning as much as Salah in Juve now, he would not be accepting anything less than 300K coming on a free. My guess is Juve will find a way to renew his contract or another top club in Italy like Milan will sign him or a club like Newcastle, PSG etc who has money to burn.
Don’t see us being in for him if truth be told. Like you say, wages are likely to be a big stumbling block and it’s another hefty investment in someone who’ll have limited resale value in 3-4 years time when his contract starts to wind down.
Yeah we need to dramatically lower the age of the attack as its all aging together except Jota, we’ve left ourselves a big task to renew and refresh a world class attack without having a diminishing quality level and it now probably needs to happen in a small window of time. As things stand an 18 month window but I’m hoping for at least a Salah renewal as he can then be a bridge and experienced figure from this attack to a new, younger attack that is built around Jota. Just a question of whether we need to replace one starting level forward this summer, 2 or all 3! Further complications are Origi looking like he’s off and may need replacing, ideally an upgrade on Minamino at some point this summer or next and what we can expect from the likes of Ox and Gordon and when/how long.
Florence Cinema Popcorn. He also did that sharp turn. Can’t remember who it was against. So, a good two highlights from his time with us. Well worth it!
Diaz is an interesting one. I think we like him, but not at the price. But if Spurs are in for him at a more reasonable price, we might go back. And Spurs need to appease Conte or he will leave, by the looks of it. So you never know. Diaz would be nice. Seems like he is really going up a level.
As for Dybala, good player but seems the wrong fit for us. Wages high. Age not on his side. And not really explosive enough so I get the impression he might struggle a bit in the Prem.
