Watch and learn, kid. 
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People keep saying we need a physical striker - someone we can throw on in the last 5mins if we need a goal.
Is there anything to stop us subbing on Kelleher and throwing Alisson up front.
This is a (semi) serious suggestion.
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yes, lightening doesn’t usually strike twice - AKA the David James effect…
More seriously, the option of having a more traditional 9 is not just for the last 5 minutes but can be used whenever the manager feels it would be appropriate. Klopp’s Mainz and Dortmund teams were similar to ours, with I thought the only difference being our use of a false 9 and I dont think that was a deliberate decision, but s just something that seemed to work and he stuck with it.
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I think it was basically the consequence of having Firmino in the squad, and pretty much building the rest of the attack around him. If he played more as a 9, looking for the space in behind, I’m guessing maybe we would have bought a different type of winger/forward than Salah. Maybe more of a creator, I don’t know.
In some games we’ve seen the value of having three players who kind of do the same thing. Most notably Atalanta away, when we killed them with runs in behind. So it’s good to have the option.
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Arsenal are set to complete the signing of Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana, 25, from Ajax , potentially for only £1.7m. (NOS - in Dutch)
I’d be all over this.
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Achraf Hakimi anyone? God I hope its only a short term issue for Trent!
Don’t Inter want €80m for him?!
I’d take Lamptey, as I’ve mentioned before.
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He is suspended for doping at the moment though and no guarantee he’ll win his appeal.
Having said that he’d be a great back up for the second half of next season but doubt he’s looking for a backup role when he’s pretty highly sought after.
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Yep, I’d be getting him on the basis he’d be available from January but if even earlier, great.
Thing is, if he’s thinking Arsenal then not sure there’s a guarantee he won’t end up being back-up there, either.
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They can ask for what they want, the whole world know they are in severe financial dire straits and need £80m just to balance the books before they even start buying replacements. It’ll be up to the players where they are willing to go out of the interested parties and Inter will need to accept what they can get. Usually clubs have the ability to say “not at that price, we will just keep him” but in this situation it looks like that ain’t a course of action left open to them. Not that I really expect us to go for him, would be an amazing signing for RB and LB if we did (a third player at Robertson/Alexander-Arnold kind of levels) but whoever signs him will get him for less than Inter want.
No guarantee right now but apparently Leno has told them he wants to leave to go and play CL football. If that happens he would pretty much have no competition for the number 1 shirt.
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Yeah I get your point but there’s already one definite club interested in him…PSG so the price they’re touting probably isn’t that far off from what they’re likely going to get. Even if it’s 20M less that’s still probably 40M then we’d ever consider. It’s ok every once in a while to just let someone else be right. I enjoy your content but sometimes others’ opinions are just more correct
Cheers
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Paulo Gazzaniga on a free for 2nd choice Keeper.
Sven Botman to partner Konate as our other CBs get back to fitness and long term successor to the starting role at LCB.
Eduardo Camavinga, Jude Bellingham or Ryan Gravenberch as our new CM option.
Tammy Abraham as an Origi replacement.
If all of Shaqiri, Ox, Keita, Minamino and Wilson are sold some form of AM 8/10 hybrid, Dele Ali would be the dream or maybe Christian Eriksen for a couple of seasons. Don’t think we will end up buying for this role this summer as we won’t be too many.
If Trents injury is serious, Tsimikas is wanting to leave for playing time or something else needs doing at FB Achraf Hakimi would be the dream but not really expecting much movement on this area. If Neco goes on loan maybe a cheap RB.
If Firmino goes either Jadon Sancho or Pedro Goncalves.
If Mane or Salah go nothing short of Mbappe would be good enough.
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What type of player is Pedro Goncalves, did you watch him?
He’s the player everyone thinks Bruno Fernández is. Err bit like Coutinho, maybe a bit quicker. More of a goal threat less creative. Really exploded into form this season still quite young. Apparently €55m release clause. Not an expert though I’ve not seen loads of him.
Obligatory YouTube clip I suppose;
Neither of them appeal to me particularly - if I had to pick one, I’d go Dele, but even then, he never seems to put a shift in. Klopp can work wonders though.
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Yep and rejected a bid of around £52m from PSG already.
Unless there’s an outgoing we’re not expecting then we don’t really need to do wholesale work. If anything, we need to focus on getting some out the door to reduce both the squad bloat and the wage bill to allow us to bring some quality in select areas.
Keeper
If Adrian wants to go, then we go looking for an experienced number two but a nominal fee or freebie at most. Heaton would have been a good option, John Ruddy is available for nowt. That type of player. If Adrian wants to stay then let him and keep Kelleher in the squad.
Defence
Think the addition of Konate means our business in this area is done and dusted. I’d keep Nat unless someone offered £10m plus for him. With Gomez, Virg and Matip back we’ll hopefully have the cover we need and mean we’re able to give some game time to Tsimikas and Neco Williams alongside players who can help them through games. Don’t think we need to rock the boat by pushing either of them out and adding another CB is just overkill when money will be tight.
Midfield
We have a lot of numbers but losing Gini means losing a lot of minutes. I’d expect Jones to get more game time but Milner is probably in his last season and with the injury record of some of the others it feels like if we can get one in there then we should. In an ideal world I think Keita going would be best for all involved and allow us to go after a proper player in there. Doubt we’ll get near Bellingham or Camavinga but a Bissouma or Neuhas type maybe and let Jones play a bit more advanced.
Forwards
Keep swinging between wanting a proper number nine or a flexible forward that plays wide. Raphinha just seems too perfect a fit for us not to have him on our radar but he’ll be hugely expensive now, possibly prohibitively so given we’ve already spent £30m ish on Konate.
France is somewhere I’d be looking at and Lille in particular have two interesting players that will possibly be sold to help clear their debts. Jonathan Ikoné is a left-footer that plays mainly off the right but can also play left if needs be. Similar in that sense to Raphinha but would surely cost a lot less. Right age profile too and rumoured interest of Dortmund turning to him should Sancho go.
The other is Jonathan David. More of a centre forward type and only got his big money move there last summer. After a slow start, he seems to have settled in but perhaps not the body of work to show he can make the step up yet.
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Hopefully we are putting in the leg work for him next summer to replace Henderson, holy shit balls he is a player and a half. Seems a decent lad as well.
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And judging by his twitter likes a real Steven Gerrard fan-boy.
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