Last year is a whole different story. It feels like everyone aged overnight because Henderson, Milner, and Fabinho are playing like absolute dog bollocks this season. This midfield is full of senior citizens, walking wounded, and barely finished high school kids. It’s no wonder we got bossed by Brighton! Sadly subbing out the 18 year old, Bajcetic, who probably doesn’t even shave yet, with the likes of Fabinho actually made us worse!
Maybe something changed in the toilet break I took.
But Brighton did not boss us. No team could have complained if it had been a draw or we had scored the winner.
Granted it went off the boil around 70 minutes but up until then we looked the more likely.
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How dare you go against the narrative of we need to SPEND SPEND SPEND!
Obviously if we bought Ronaldo at £250m it’d be the best deal ever and if we got Bellingham on a free it’s cheap FSG…
We should buy his brother and have two Bellingham’s this summer
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But we have spent. We gave Salah a HUGE contract and were willing to let Mane walk away for very little so we could have a real go at the Quad last season. We spent on attackers like Diaz, Nunez, Carvalho and Gakpo in the past year.
We have a huge squad and a lot of midfield numbers, but if we had let the underperformers (e.g., Henderson and Fabinho) go in the summer would you have been pleased? In retrospect, we can criticize but I think most of us would not have been happy if we had done that. Keita and Ox were pretty much unmovable (due to injuries).
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I mean yes of course we’ve spent, that’s not the question…the question is do we spend in line with what LFC measure up to? Absolutely not, take as an example…we had a minus net spend the summer that followed us winning the league…plus you forget we’ve also sold? When you sell the instant reaction is you have to buy which is what we did in summer.
Gave Salah a huge contract yes…he’d be gone for nothing in 4 months time otherwise and we’d have to look in the market to sign another 40-50m right forward …on top of the 3 new midfielders we also need. Wasn’t ever going to happen.
What do you think of Adarabioyo? Will have a year left on his deal this summer.
I like his height, calmness, ability to pass the ball, ability to play both RCB and LCB. Will be 26 this summer and obviously English.
Question how he’d function in a high line defence, does he have the pace needed. But seems to tick a few boxes for a Klopp CB here. Potential Gomez or Matip replacement?
Not saying I’d necessarily go for him, but I think he’s one of those doing well and often not mentioned. Maybe I don’t see him that often to see his downsides.
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I’ve always really liked him - definitely some questions about his overall ability but I love his size and physical ability. He’s a better ball player than he gets credit for also, came through that Man City academy.
As for his downsides, he does make a few errors - a little bit of ball watching sometimes. He’s fantastic aerially though and he’s so long that he’s very hard to dribble around. A player I’ve always wanted us to take a flyer on. For some reason I don’t see it happening though. He’ll probably end up at a mid-table club.
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I know nothing about him other than he was the kid who got caught up in the issue with Sterling calling the portrayal of black footballers racist (being criticized for buying his mum a house as an example of footballing largesse while Foden was framed as a good son and family man for doing the same).
A quick search reveals Pep having referred to him as fast, good in the air and good at playing out from the back, which at least seems to tick the right boxes
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Yeah, I’m just throwing a name here that might be available for decent money (as we put big focus on midfield and he either fights with Konate or becomes 3rd choice). Knowing that he might come a bit short to improve us. Not much in it if he’s only a bit better than Gomez. Maybe we have to aim higher and better.
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Evan Ndicka… refused a new contract, available for free in the summer, would be a smart pickup.
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I’m going to be optimistic and believe a rebuild is coming in the summer along with the funds needed (within reason). As such this would be my “overhaul”.
Out;
Adrian (GK) - Free
Kelleher (GK) - 20mil
Matip (CB) - 10mil
Fabinho (CM) - 15mil
Salah (RF) - 80mil
Oxlade (CM) - Free
Firmino - Free
Phillips - 10mil
Total - 135mil
In;
Ron-Robert Zieler (GK) - Free (counts as home grown)
Ndicka (CB) - Free
Bellingham (CM) - 125mil
Caicedo (DM) - 65mil
Kvaratskhelia (RF) - 60mil
Total - 250mil
With my rational we’ve held back the Bellingham money so that’s available along with everything recouped through sales.
This would leave our squad;
Alisson (Zieler)
TrentAA (Ramsay) - Konate (Van den Berg) - Van Dijk (Ndicka) - Robertson (Tsimikas)
Bellingham (Henderson) - Caicedo (Bjatecic) - Thiago (Jones)
Kvaratskhelia (Elliot) - Nunez (Gakpo) - Diaz (Jota)
Sub Options - Carvalho, Gomez, Doak, Keita
Squad numbers - 26
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Just worth saying, if we’re talking about Ndicka, that he’s a left footed CB (so right now would be more of a Virgil backup).
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Good point!
While I’d love it if Van den Berg became a resounding success at Liverpool, it seems that he’s suffered another injury and that it’s not know how long he would be out for. I was hopeful that he would take Gomez’ place in the squad from this summer on, while Gomez would be sold. It doesn’t look to be the case anymore, at least not just yet.
I assume Inglethorpe wanted him to play something like a hundred professional games before everyone involved made a decision on whether to hand him a first team role. Ironically, a full season at Schalke would have probably got him there.
I like your list (I’d add Gomez as an outgoing, though, maybe in Matip’s place) but I don’t think anyone’s getting Kvaratskhelia for that kind of money… Napoli can use the likes of Antony or even Nunez as examples of big fees. Unless there’s a release clause, that’s probably too optimistic for any club out there.
I can’t think of many Salah replacements at the moment, though. I wish we could “invent” our own Kvaratskhelia or Mitoma, only for the right side. Maybe Salah staying for one more season wouldn’t be a disaster but at the moment I’d say that two midfielders and a centre back are an absolute priority. I’m really not sure about Caicedo, I have a feeling that a rival will pay much more money to get him, I wouldn’t be surprised if Arsenal had some sort of a deal with his agent in place for the summer.
My absolute dream list would be Bellingham, Rice and Gvardiol, though. Nothing to dislike about them aside from their respective price tags…
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Been banging the drum for Kudus at Ajax. Left footed, buckets of pace, and can play deeper in an ACM role. Looked best player on the pitch for Ghana in WC. Think his price tag would be in the £30-40M range.
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Before even starting to think about potential Salah replacements, I’d like to hear some smoke about where he might even go in the first place. I don’t think he goes anywhere.
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By all accounts Brighton are fuming at Arsenal for how they conducted themselves, hence why I think we’ve got a chance.
Kvaratskhelia still hasn’t signed a new contract so there is a chance, but yes if he does then he’s going into the silly money catagory… I really like him through, he is a proper live wire.
Doak could be us making our own but not for a few years.
that’s a small list of options
PSG
Newcastle
Madrid
Saudi
remember when we used to include Barca?