Who would you buy?

The Albert
4637

The club definitely need a quality midfiedler, but at this moment it doesn’t look very possible /judging from the noise coming from every realibale LFC journo/. Strangest thing is that our number 1 priority was a midfielder and we were prepared to pay around 60-65 mln. pounds for Tchouameni, but the club spent it on a forward and now they suddnely decided that we don’t need a midfielder.

Let’s take a look at ouq squad.

GK - Alisson, Kelleher, Adrian is a very solid combination. And on the top of that we waved goodbye to Karius, who did not want to play football, but just sit on our bench and get his fat paycheck, while body building.

Defence - we are prety solid here with VvD, Matip, Konate, Gomez, Robbo, Tsimikas, TAA and young Ramsay /it is a matter of when, not if in his case/. Finally we have quality, youth and depth in defence and the sales of N. Williams, Phillips, B. Davies and possible loans of Beck, SvB, Bradley, R. Williams will be only beneficial to the club.

In midfield we have Thiago, Fabinho, Henderson, Milner, Keita, Elliott, Jones and AOC. We rae looking at a core that is getting older and every one of them has injury problems. Thiago started less than 50% of PL matches for 2 full seasons and he is 31 years old, while the physical demands of this league are not getting easier. Even at the moment he is once again injured.

Keita - last season he started 14 PL matches and that was close to his best number /16 in his 1st season/, but his injury problems never stopped since he joined LFC and the small matter of his contract - he has 1 year left and the club will risk losing 50+ mln. pounds player for free, if they don’t sign him or sell him.

Hendo - he is already 32 years old and next season he will have to play extra football with the WC in Qatar. He is much better as a number 6 and his best years are not ahead of him, but still I expect him to be solid and reliable, but nothing more.

Milner - 36 years old and next January he will be 37 years old. Another reliable player, but it was obvious from last season that if he played more frequently he got injured and it is not a coincidence that last season he started only 9 PL matches.

Fabinho - he will be 29 years old after 4 months. Top player, but every season he is missing matches because of injuries. Last season he started 26 PL matches and at the end of the season looked exhausted and jaded and he will also play in Qatar, which will only add to his match tally for the 2022/2023 season.

Jones and Elliott are young players with potential, but last season Jones missed almost 3 months because of injuries and he still hasn’t made that big step to be a starter. 2021/22 season finished and still Fab, Hendo, Thiago, Keita and even Milner are in front of him. And Klopp’s comments that Jones is a player who needs to be pushed are not a big compliment for Curtis.

Harvey has undobted and huge potential, but he needs to improve the defensive part of his game and I am not sure if this awful injury did not stop his development for some time. He will get better, but in my opinion will be a much more useful option on the wings.

AOC will probably be sold and that is another one off the wage bill /probably 120 000 pounds per week/, while Morton is definitely not ready to play for a club of our stature and I expect a loan for him and that will only help him instead of sitting on the bench in 95% of the time.

In attack we already lost Origi, he was a vital player for us too. Last season he singlehandedly won us 6 points vs. Everton and Wolves and was instrumental in our quest for the domestic cups. Absolutely the same is valid for Minamino, who will also be sold. And on the top of that we will lose one of the best players in the world /top 10 in my opinion/ - Sadio Mane.

We are reaplicing /Taki, Div and Sadio/ with Darwin Nunez and Carvalho. Nunez will need time and patience, the potential is there, but don’t forget that when he signed from Almeria /2nd Spanish division/ he scored only 6 goals in the league/, now he is making a similar step, coming from Primeira division to the Premier League. If he can score 10+ goals I will be pleased and that will still be less than what Mane delivered for us season after season.

In attack we still have Jota and Firmino, but both of them miss a lot of matches because of injuries, Jota is injured at the moment too, just like Thiago and Salah. And Bobby and Mo’s contracts end next season and at the moment there are no signs the club will manage to keep the. Diaz was a real revelation, but he needs to be more clinical in front of goal and add more end product to his game.

Carvalho is a young talent, but his best position is number 10, playing on the left is option, but there we won’t see the best of him and the step from the Championship to the PL is not that easy. Fabio will also need time and patience, lucky for him he will work with the best in business - Herr Klopp.

Looking at the situation, the club will free a lot of space and money off the wage bill - Karius, Phillips, N. Williams, AOC, Origi, Mane, Minamino. While at the same time Carvalho and Ramsay will probably earn combined less then Origi and Mane’s salary will cover Nunez’s wages.

The question must be - is our current squad an improvement on the 2021/2022 squad? I don’t think so. There is an improvement on the wage bill, but important positions are still not fixed. And what if next season Salah, Keita and Firmino leave on free transfers? Putting all eggs in one basket and hoping to sign Bellingahm next season is pretty stupid. Because Real, City, PSG, Chelsea, Bayern, Manure will be also after him and they are not afraid to spend big on transfers and wages. And is Bellingham the only option for us, I doubt it, because I am sure that we are not the only option for him. I f you don’t trust me, ask Tchouameni.

And how do you replace Salah, the best player in the world?

Klopp has a huge task and if the club don’t sign a proper midfielder this summer /maybe they think J Spearing is the scouse version of Jude Bellingham or maybe next season the club will inform us that Bellingham was always our main target, but it was Jobe, not Jude/ next season will be very similar to 2020/21 when we started the season with only 3 central defenders and we knew that 2 of them are injury prone. Now we start with 7 midfielders for 3 places, but we once again know that 4 of them are injury prone and the the starters /bar Fabinho/ are over their thirties and that Elliott and Jones are still pretty young and inexperienced and not at the same quality.

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4638

TL/DR

But i agree with every word.

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4639

I dont think this is accurate. The club do appear to have been willing to spend on Tchouameni but i think it is a mistake to assume that this meant a midfielder was the club’s priority - or that the money is necessarily the same as that spent on Nunez.

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4640

There is no indication about either of these things. Having credible links to him does not make him our priority, nor does the fee Real payed for him mean that was what we were prepared to pay.

We really dont know and we’re all inclined to believe the version of the story that fits our priors, but it seems far more likely that 1) our pursuit of him was about him specifically, not a player to fill a gap in the squad, and 2) because we didnt have a need to fill once the price got to a certain level we conceded it wasnt going to happen.

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4641

I don’t get this latest theory that Hendo is (much!) better as a #6. If that was the case, then he’d bloody play the role much more often!

What is that, frustration over some team performances near the end of the season, struggling to score here and there? So what if he comes out here and there when we’re chasing a goal or something, doesn’t mean he’s dropping in importance.

Since Klopp put Hendo back at #8 in spring of 2019, we’ve largely improved as a team and played some outstanding stuff. Of course, there was the unlucky and disruptive 20/21 season.

I’d be very careful dismissing him as still a pretty much nailed on starter in the majority of games or counting on him slowing down, we’ve seen that lesson with Milner (even if yeah, he is in that rare category), year in year out.

I know there is age and there is the need to evolve, but let’s not get too carried away and look too far ahead.

Plus, the right side of our team is specific, having brilliantly unusual right back and our main goalscorer on the right side of attack. Careful who we put as a RCM, while that dynamic is still in full flow.

And yeah, we cannot possibly know if Tchouameni was a bigger priority than Nunez. Yes, it would’ve been a big transfer, but it was possibly an opportunistic try, which is now delayed for the summer of 2023.

We’ll see next year if it’s even a Bellingham or things evolve in another way, perhaps we won’t need a massive transfer for that move.

My point is that let’s not forget we’re a fantastic side and for the short term still, Jordan Henderson is pretty much an automatic starter in the role he played the most in these last 3 years.

Who will threaten that this season? I don’t know and don’t care, that’s for other players to think and work hard. Sometimes we get too lazy too quickly as fans thinking that a Harvey Elliott will just go into the starting XI and there’s no looking back. We have lessons like that all the time.

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4642

I’ve no doubt that we were interested in Tchouameni. His age and qualities would have been a great asset for years to come. But the price spiraled, and once Real Madrid lost out on Mbappe, they were prepared to go big to land the midfielder, and that was his preferred destination too.

Contemporaneous to all that was Sadio Mane declaring his intent to leave for Bayern Munich.

We rightly bought a striker. I can’t wait to see what Darwin Nunez will do in a Liverpool shirt. I am also delighted with Luis Diaz, who was signed earlier than first planned, due to Tottenham making a move.

The squad looks brilliant, even with the anticipated sales of a few fringe players, on top of Mane.

Midfield?

Lots of numbers, but yes, a definite question mark over the durability of a few. Fabinho, Henderson, Thiago, Keita, Jones, Elliot, Milner should be enough, especially if the one we want isn’t available until next summer.

However…

If Fabinho and Henderson get injured at the same time, we might be in danger of getting overrun in the engine room.

That’s the vulnerability, so it’s a fair shout to want another midfielder this summer.

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4643

There’s no doubt right now what’s our best CM trio.

Can Fabinho and Hendo have little dips in form? Yeah, they both can. Can Hendo cover for Fabinho? Yes he can.

Was Thiago brought in as a horse for every single minute of a 50-60 game season? No, if he keeps getting to 35-40 at this stage of his career, I’m happy with that.

Keita made a step by staying fit more often last season, covering both at LCM and RCM (even if I prefer him at LCM, sort of as Thiago’s main backup, but also someone who can come off the bench and start the odd game at RCM, some games we can easily go with both Thiago and Keita).

Jones looked like he was on the verge of playing a lot of games and then he picked up a tricky injury. Up to him to keep working/learning/pushing. I’m not going to cry all night if he’s not the next local legend in the making. Very few players will succeed at that, it’s just the reality. If he’s a good player for us for a few years and not more, so what? That’s actually good at this level. He’ll be here as long as he merits it and that’s it.

Exact same goes for Elliott. And I’m not impatient at all, just that it’s only up to them. Does the fact that they’re part of a first team squad for one of the world’s best sides mean they’re already pretty good, considering their age? Yes it does. Is the next step hard? Yes and it bloody should be. Elliott had a really promising start, who knows what would’ve happened if he wasn’t unlucky with that injury.

Hendo just came off the back of a season where he played the most games since he’s here, 57.

Thiago settled even more, both sides have learned more how to play with each other.

There are never any guarantees but there are also recent signs that our situation is pretty good?

I think we’re fine, unless something really terrible happens like at CB in 20/21. Next summer we’ll most probably do something in that area of the team and that’s it.

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4644

Pretty much every year he has been here a large collection of fans have imagined their dream team for the following year to be one that doesnt include him. And yet here he is, year after year still not only hanging around, but central to our success. Hendo is a good player in his own right, but he’s also the sort of player you can think of as a multiplier…someone whose presence just seems to magically make the performance of his team mates get better.

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4645

We always have these ‘same same but different’ discussions every transfer window of how and where we should be strengthening. And as a fan, I really hope to see players coming in to strengthen but what I love about Klopp and the club’s ethos now is that they have never waver from their principles. That we will strengthen only when necessary and then only if we have the right player. He respect every member of the squad, he sees them as part of the squad not just as bodies to make up the numbers. As far as our midfield goes, we have enough numbers on paper and of course we can go on talking about possible injuries, the qualities of our options and renewal and so on and on…Klopp does not just go out and buy a new player to fill every possible gap, he looks at what is really urgent to fill and those that is not urgent now, he will coach and tries to utilize our current options. That is most evident when we had our CB crisis because he, contrary to what everyone was shouting for, did not replace Lovren. But that is what he does and why he gets so much respect from us and from his players. For good or for bad, we have principles and we will stick by it. Will we deviate, we will when its absolutely necessary but I really think unless a player comes out for availability that we really want, we will not get a midfielder this window because on paper, we have all possible options and like what happened the last season when we had everyone healthy and players like Minamino and Ox are not even getting enough minutes and imagined if we had gone out to get more players just because Ox was not ‘good enough’, these players will get even more disillusioned.

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4646

Bit left field but with PSG restocking in central midfield (Vitinha and Sanches apparently) I’d be looking at Wijnaldum’s situation and whether there’s a loan deal to be had there.

Low cost, low risk, short term solution that knows our way of playing inside out. Wouldn’t impact our plans for that area next summer.

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4647

Sort of makes sense in theory. I just really think Klopp has a lot more faith in Elliott and Jones than a lot of other people do and he will give them a proper chance to take on Ox’s minutes and provide cover for injuries/fatigue.

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4648

Wouldn’t it mean displacing Fab, which isn’t going to happen. He is really only cover there.
Hendo’s main strengths are his work rate, leadership and versatility.

4649

It’s a logical suggestion but his form in his last season with us, and then this season at PSG, would not suggest he’s good enough for us anymore.

It seemed to pass without much comment but he slowed down massively that final season for us. His pressing numbers were way, way down.

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4650

PSG simply under-utilised him. His last season with us was the covid season and that was an aberration for everyone. His main quality of keeping possession under heavy pressure, then being able to come out of those situations with possession intact is still there I’m sure

4651

No thanks to Gini, that period is done. He was really poor in his last season here and isn’t doing well at PSG.

We’re much easier on the eye with more technical players in the midfield. We’ve evolved our game a bit, I don’t want to see a regression.

6 Likes
4652

let it go GIF

4653

Have a very strong feeling that we will sign Jarrod Bowen next year.

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4654

We need another Salah esque player…we need to start looking now…

4655

I think the Nunez signing gives us some flexibility there, in terms of player type. With a link player in the centre forward position, we would have been more locked there in our Salah replacement. Now though, they can replace him with more of a creator, as I think it’s more likely Nunez will be the one chasing the goalscoring positions, which is what Salah often has done. So with a more face forward type of striker, it opens things up in the winger position.

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4656

I’m not a huge fan of Fab’s main cover being a starter in a different position (Hendo). Milly will surely be an emergency backup this year and Morton not quite there yet. I think a decent DM cover will help a lot if Fab ends up being out for a stretch.

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