The sheer joy of these three is palpable in this video. That’s what they lack these days. Look at Bobby the other day against Villa: scores a beautiful goal right before half time, from a beautiful pass coming from Jota. He doesn’t celebrate at all. As if he already knew that the VAR would spoil it by taking it away from him.
But the point is: he didn’t know. No celebration at al. Nil.
The joy is lacking, that’s what is hampering us. And no new CF on earth can bring us that. Only a full-again Anfield can.
Crazy isn’t it seeing them this year v’s the previous two.
They aren’t finished either, they have a few years left, maybe Mo moves on next summer for one final challenge, but I think they will give us 1 more year together under the dizzy nights of Anfield.
Back to the topic slightly, I’ve read today Haaland would be an investment of £400mil over 5 years… That’s utter insane really so he’s just not viable.
Thinking about long term i.e. the summer after this and my gut tells me Salah moves on to enjoy Spain whilst still at the peak of his powers. So what we need to replace is him but the summer before. That brings me to Raphinha… He stylistically and physically very similar… Right sided player who favours their left foot, capable of huge minutes, flexible position wise, tactically able to play a high intensity press, Premiership “ready”. He’d be my number one choice to come in and be part of a 5 - Salah, Mane, Jota, Firmino, Raphinha… With us shifting to 4231 to get more of them on the pitch at one time.
3 years left on his contract so should be obtainable, 6 goals + 6 assists in his debut season (26 games to date) is promising. 24 years old - Same as Jota so perfect age wise for the next evolution of the red arrows!
A swap deal with Shaqiri or Origi + cash would be ideal, but also highly unlikely. Maybe Wilson as a sweetner?
Beradi is another one. At one point 4 years ago or so, you could throw a blanket over he, Belotti and Dybala in terms of who was the best prospect, but the two Italians appear to have stagnated a bit since and are now sneaky old (26-27…not kids anymore). At this stage they are both the sort of player that I wouldn’t be demanding we go out and sign, but if there were credible links to either then the faith I have in Edwards/Klopp’s decision making then Id be stoked as fuck about it and fully expect them in a Liverpool shirt to be the player they were imagined they were going to be back when they were 21-22.
I think a lot about which (type) CF we will sign will depend on the future of the present trio. All three are contracted till June 2023 and we should be entering (or maybe already into) negotiation with them this summer.
Don’t think we will have a roster of five senior attackers. If we retain The Three, we will be looking for some young blood, if we are serious about some matured attacker, then one of The Three will be leaving. Just my thoughts.
Not really a CF anyway but think we’ve moved on from Sarr. Can argue we need a traditional number 9 type in the existing squad or a big, top line, forward to replace one of our traditional front 3. But don’t think we need Sarr anymore. That need was resolved, spectacularly successfully from the looks, with the Jota recruitment.
Was looking and not really that impressed with what he’s achieving in the Championship, got a goal or assist every 145 minutes which is decent but not mind blowing. Ojo has goal contribution every 194 minutes and Wilson every 162 minutes and they both probably have no future here and are at a club really not doing as well as Watford is. Then at a club doing far far worse you’ve got Elliott much younger than all of them on a goal contribution every 155 minutes.
I’d be giving Elliott any minutes you’d find for Sarr and if we need real emergency cover Ojo or Wilson can be kept. Those three will all qualify as club developed for squad list rules too which makes it even better, are already owned and cheap on cheap wages. Sarr would cost more to buy than fees for all of them being sold put together.
Think both of those choices are sticking our heads in the sand and assuming all our problems are due to injuries and no fans in the ground. I think there are other issues too.
This one. I just don’t think Taki is going to cut it here. Perhaps he needed a move to a club like Southampton first before he got to us. Perhaps the disrupted nature of his first six months set him back too far. Maybe he’s just not good enough.
Whatever the reason, it’s very rare we send a senior player out on loan and then he comes back into the squad.
I also don’t think he’s the type of striker we need. If we can, I’d be moving him on for what you’d hope would be a reasonable profit and investing that into a player we think will offer us more than Taki has been able to.
