Totally agree if he continues at this I’ll be gutted if we don’t.
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It’s more like who can we afford.
Or who’ll want to come to a non CL club
Plenty, the question in the last decade was is this club going be in the CL regularly and the answer was no, your not going go to a CL club that has appeared just once in the last 3 decades, I think it’s overrated as reason for players to sign for certain clubs, if it happens that one season you miss out but you are pretty sure that everything being right you wouldn’t then the player will come.
I think some European football however helps.
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I think we will finish fourth and qualify for CL that way. We will pip Chelsea to the last spot, and they will have to win the CL to get in again next season. And they might.
Warning long post incoming! Please feel free to ignore!
So been having a little think on this so whilst I’m suffering a night of insomnia thought I’d go into a bit of depth.
First what do we need? By any stretch of the imagination we need, at the very least, a CB who can join VvD, Gomez and Matip to give us 4 senior options again. Matip and Gomez are in situations that mean this CB should really be good enough to form an effective partnership with VvD though. VvD can play either side bit Gomez and Matip are far more comfortable at RCB so the player should either be a LCB or a RCB fairly competent and comfortable on the left.
Now VvD may be back for next season, but may take a bit of phasing in to shake off rustiness, get back up to proper match fitness and form and such. Gomez seems further back than him. Matip may or may not be back at the start of the season but the odds aren’t good for him staying fit for long if he is.
As such it would be wise to bring in a second CB too. This guy maybe doesn’t have to quite be the finished article, maybe a decent prospect who can do something for us now if he finds himself playing a lot but has potential to be much better.
This second CB should be able to play in a partnership with the first so needs to be compatible. It’s possible they could be our starting CBs for a bit at the start of next season.
So thinking about possible targets and the bad thing is there isn’t any 100% perfect targets out there like there was when we bought VvD. There are people who seem an OK fit at a good quality, guys who seem a great fit but have shocking injury records, young with little experience or questions over their level of quality.
First there are some guys who are “nearly perfect but…”! For RCB (although can play LCB too) Ibrahima Konate is a player in a good league, with good experience, a good age, great match to what we need skill wise and a brilliant physical fit. Worryingly though is he might cost a fair bit and had terrible availability. For LCB there is Raphael Varane, established on the top stages and top quality but maybe not quite a perfect fit for us. Likely to be expensive although mixed reports of anything from £25-60m due to him coming into final 12 months of his deal. Let’s face it links are probably part of negotiations for a new contract at Real Madrid but if not maybe he’d tempt us?
Next category is more “not a great option but maybe something there?” I guess. For RCB Kabak really didn’t have us convinced but he’s done really quite well if not quite perfect, has a bit of a miss mash with being a good fit for us too. An alternative (unpopular with many) is Johnathan Tah who fits the blueprint of what we need and is an established and experienced player but there are question marks over his quality and if he’d ever achieve his potential. LCB there are two real interesting ones we might have already tried to bring in in Botman and Caleta-Car, both are a little different from each other but seem to possess enough of the right qualities and traits to work well. However both are only really impressing in France and aren’t yet really established at international level, both are a bit of a leap of faith.
Final category is most definitely wildcards. Carmo from Portugal might have been in this group but he’s had a bad injury. Kristoffer Ajer from Celtic should be a dirt cheap pick up (they might even be open to an Ajer for Davies swap, who we would need to move on if Matip is staying I think). He’s big, physical, fast, good on the ball. A real rough diamond that may never become top end quality but (although not dominating as impressively up north) he is following the VvD path so it’s not like a rough diamond from there can’t turn out to be a real deal. Can play RCB and LCB too. Another opportunistic option may come available if Fulham do go down is Tosin Abarabioyo, playing LCB but should be fine for RCB, flying under the radar a bit but good, home-grown option that fits our CB blueprint and may become available cheap if they’re relegated. Worked with Wijnaldum, Robertson and Shaqiri to various extents. He gets played LCB but pretty sure he can play RCB too. His partner Joachim Andersen is another option but he’ll probably cost a lot to get from his parent club and may not be any more of a sure thing.
A couple of real gambles from the French league could be Loic Bade (who can play either CB role but probably best on the RCB) is a newbie on the scene and real young, low experience, not really recognised at national team level (although with the talent France has at CB that’s no slight). But he is impressing fast and seems to perfectly match what we like from CBs which has led to us being linked. Benoit Badiashile is another real young one but seems a great fit too.
Few final names Dan-Axel Zagadou seems to be another perfect fit like Konate but for LCB but is even worse on the injury front! Romagnoli and Bastoni are both good prospects from Italy that look like they may match enough of what we want from CBs to be interesting. Nikola Milenkovic, in Italy as well, seems ideal but it looks like there’s going to be a proper auction there and I fancy his price to end up way out of line. But that’s a shame he could have been a real strong choice for RCB.
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It’s also a decision on how to make best use of an asset that is already a sunk cost (Ledley King) vs spending money to address a need. There’s a damn good reason that no one ever gave Spurs any money for King.
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Still hoping we go for Sven Botman. He ticks all the boxes of what makes a good CB for Klopp. Still really young too and country man for VvD to help them play together. Lille are two games away from a shock Ligue 1 win over PSG. They’ve best defence in the league and only 4th best attack. If they see it over the line Botman will be a big reason why.
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Botman’s aggressive tackling especially around the box could lead to alot of penalties playing in PL… Especially playing for us… And with the presence of VAR…
Has all the tools needed. But may need time to adjust to PL
That would also mean moving Virgil over to RCB.
I think Pearce recently said that he doesn’t think Klopp would want to do that.
Signing Konate, Kabak and Botman would have made the CBs overcrowded. And it is obvious that Botman is better than Kabak. I mean, he is the one who can permanently displace Gomez.
Also depends which other CBs we purchase and keep. Matip, Gomez, Kabak, Williams and Phillips are all more comfortable at RCB, Davies is our only LCB and might not be staying. Konate is more comfortable at RCB too. VvD can comfortably play both. If we are bringing in two CBs it makes sense to bring in one of each. If only one it seems they’d need to at least be able to play LCB for when VvD isn’t playing.
I’m just saying if we’re bringing someone like Konate/Botman, it’s probably with a view of them starting alongside Virgil. Konate would slot in at RCB, but with Botman or any other left footed CB (who isn’t Ben Davies, someone brought in only really to be a backup), Virgil would have to move. And I don’t remember the last time he played RCB. Even for Holland (they did play 3 at the back under Koeman, Virgil would be either central or LCB). Maybe at Southampton, I can’t remember. I’m not saying he couldn’t do it, but I can understand why Klopp would want a “clear” RCB for his new partner for Virgil.
I think it will probably be:
Konate & Virgil.
Matip or Gomez at RCB if Konate takes time to settle.
Matip & Gomez as our backup duo, since Matip never played LCB for us.
Although of course, it all depends on quality, experiene, form, understanding, availability, etc.
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I think the CB dilemma depends on the injury status/ fitness of VVD Gomez and Matip closer to the start of next season.
It looks like Konate will be in soon. And any other decisions after that will probably be on hold.
So whether it’s a Kabak or caleta car or a botman. Only time will tell.
Kabak looks a front runner to join Konate. Because he is here already and has played well… But if for instance Gomez misses 1st half of next season. And his long term future looks in doubt (injury wise). Then I can see us looking To add someone better than Kabak… Like a Botman etc. To go along with Konate.
Anyways… The position with the most uncertainty is in the attack. As far as who to bring in. And what to do with front 3.
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I think we’ll sign 1 “main” CB and it looks like it will be Konate.
Possibly sign Kabak, though I think we have only a week left to activate his clause (it was said that it’s mid-May), I didn’t think and I still don’t think we’ll do it. IF we do, then possibly be open to offers for one of Matip/Gomez, but I don’t see a lot of potential for sale this summer either.
I don’t see us signing a “Konate” and a “Botman”. Especially with our season, the budget we’re likely to have to play with and be creative + Lille’s position after the season they’ll have. I don’t see Botman leaving Lille to play backup to Virgil.
I see us selling Phillips and Davies (if we really can’t sell them, probably loan them, too) and loaning out Rhys (and vdBerg again).
The rest, we’ll monitor in coming weeks and months over the summer how the 3 are doing coming back and maybe make further decisions based on that. We might change our mind of course.
That’s it.
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Let’s say we will play 50 games in the 2021-22 season. That will require at least 9000 mins from our CBs. The average pitch-time (2017-2020) of our injured CBs are; VVD 4019 mins, Gomez 2475 mins, and Matip 2068 mins.
Since they all are returning from a serious injury and a lengthy lay-off, I guess they will be used more sparingly in the coming season. I’m expecting 1500 mins (around 17 games) each for both Gomez and Matip and 3500 mins for VVD; that would leave 2500 mins for the new CB. If we have more games, then the additional minutes will be distributed among Gomez, Matip, and the new CB as VVD already has optimum number of games.
Considering the fitness history of Gomez and Matip, either can go bust for the entire season. So the fifth CB must be good enough for 15-20 games rather than some bit-part roles.
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That’s why I prefer Botman over Konate, who has dubious injury problems.
I know he’s still young, but given the unimpressive players in the Dutch squad who are still being picked ahead of him (assuming Blind and Ake are both being considered as CBs) then Im not sure he’s ready for this sort of move.
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VvD didn’t really get much of a look in till he moved here. Wouldn’t base too much on Netherlands selection choices.
He got his call up immediately after leaving Celtic and was a regular pending fitness ever since. That’s largely because he was a late bloomer who didnt think he deserved the earlier recognition. Pointing to the lack of recognition prior to that doesnt support the idea that someone else who cannot get into the Dutch side being ready for this sort of move.
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