Which CB do you want?

Sven Botman

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Botman and Caleta Car. As George Michael sang if you gonna do it do it right.

Both??? Six senior defenders are a bit too much, don’t you think???

Phillips will be moving on, Ozan sent back possibly.

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VVD, Gomez, Matip, Davies and two new ones.

Who is this Davies you talk about, it think it’s a scam they showed pics of Nats older Brother and pretended it was a new signing. :joy:

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If we brought in two CBs of the level of Botman and Caleta-Car I doubt Matip would still be here. There also seems to be some confident expectation that appears accepted as fact that both VvD and Gomez will be back and up to speed by the start of next season. It’s not even guaranteed one of them will be back in time for the start of next season let alone both. And it may take 6 months or more of ropiness and rustiness and set backs before they are back to preinjury standards.

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Who is going to buy him???

People keep saying stuff like this and it annoys me. We seem so convinced nobody would want our players that we are unsure of keeping. If they’re good enough to have been here there will be clubs wanting them. It’s just a question of how much we want in a fee and how much the player wants in wages.

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No-one is buying Matip. Not for any kind of fee, anyway.

The lad has been unable to stay fit for more than a couple of game for two years now. He isn’t just injury prone. He is chronic. No club is going to be gambling on that, especially with money extremely tight.

Besides, Klopp alluded to him playing through injury for the team and that the club would now stand be him and get him fit.

I don’t think he’s going anywhere.

I think we’ll go into next season with a new centre back, Virgil, Gomez and Matip, and Ben Davies, as an extra body in case Joe and Virg have set backs.

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You don’t think we’ll keep Kabak then mate?

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Another season and Joel might call it a day.

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You obviously don’t pay attention to some of the dross that most teams have to pick from in the transfer market. Some absolutely shit and injury prone players get picked up regularly.

Now we might not let him go ourselves (unless he asks for it) that’s a completely different point.

What I was saying was IF we are bringing in two CBs I think it’s because he’s going.

I don’t actually think we will bring two in though. Unless the Gomez prediction is he won’t be much use next season while he gets up to speed towards the end (in which case Matip might even still stay).

Davies I don’t think will move on straight away. Maybe after he’s been here 18 months. Kabak has a little while to convince us he’s indispensable and force us to make his deal permanent. I think we will sign one of Kabak, Botman or Caleta-Car. Not two.

Personally think it’s better for all concerned for Matip to move on. I think it’d be better for him to be a reasonable clubs “Ledley King”! Head and shoulders above what else they have and walks into their side whenever fit whereas here the whole point is to get so good without him that we only use him sparingly when he is fit. Not break up settled back 4s just to get him back into the side when he’s back from injury.

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Of Danny Welback found a club then world class when fit Matip will. Under valued price of course but will sell imo

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So far, I don’t think so.

As things stand I expect both Kabak and Phillips to be at other clubs next season.

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If I were Matip, I’d be going nowhere. I have a nice contract at a successful club. Everywhere else in and Covid is a massive uncertainty. Unless something comes out of the blue, which I dont then I cant see hin going anywhere.

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Phillips, Yes. But Kabak isn’t doing his case any harm.

He is 20 years old (same as Rhys Williams) has come into to a team ‘in crisis’ and been expected to slot straight in and lead the defence. Oh, and he is playing on the wrong side to his natural preference.

I think he is doing really well, and at £18m it becoming a serious tempter.

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I’ve always found the biggest problem we had with Matip was he was always rotating with Lovren and they both have just terrible injury records. Lovren never completed something like 8 games in a row before breaking down. So they always seemed to come back from injury to get injured again…

We gambled on Van Dijk and Gomez staying fit, it back fired, especially when we realised the net negative affect of Fabinho in defence for a prolonged period was very large for the team.

Matip is a top top quality CB and reading since his last injury has been carrying something for some time. It looks like we are putting in the time now to resolve that long term, so if that happens he has to be kept as he’s not that far behind Van Dijk in terms of ability.

From what I’ve seen of Kabak I like it, he has a great passing range and his defensive lapses seem to be system knowledge rather than a fundemental core problem. So I’d hope this summer we rectify that by having 4 center backs minimum in the squad, not 3 + a midfielder “filling-in”.

If Gomez and Van Dijk come back fully fit then I’d be happy next season with; Van Dijk, Gomez, Matip, Kabak, Phillips as our center back options.

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Look decent next to Phillips, how’s he gonna look next to vvd? (The answer is not worse)

Not 100% sold on him, but won’t be devastated if we buy him.

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I agree, but looking from Matip’s perspective there’s no way I’d be thinking of moving on given the Covid mess. As it stands there’s no way I see a move that gives him a better deal than he’s already on.

Kabak is certainly staring to show promise but there are particulars to CB play that only really CB’s and top notch coaches notice. I’m not one of them so will have to simply trust the club on any decision that they make.

whatever happens our top priority has to be getting VvD and Gomez back to full fitness. I also think that is, to a degree independent of timescale.

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