We not got any youth prospects for left back?
Bradley is doing really well at Bolton but he’s a right back.
Is Chambers good enough to step up next season?
Owen Beck 
Kilmarnock fans very complimentary of Chambers. Seems he’s already their best defender despite only joining a month ago.
I think he isn’t quite ready physically for the PL though.
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I dont know if it’s sentimentality as much as practicality. The list of players who are playing their way out of the side is too big to turn over in one summer. We are almost certainly going to be faced with a situation in which we’re having to find viable roles for people to fill, amd that may guide how we prioritze the exits.
I thought he was excellent the first couple of times I saw him at Arsenal and could never understand why he was used so little, especially given how shit their other options were.
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Sentimentality or not I’d say is being more pragmatic.
I look at it as a first team and a squad as needing an overhaul, two interdependant sections of the same but different equation.
If we take the midfield as an example and Bellingham (or another player of his ilk) he is clearly a right sided no.8 a player who I’d argue slots right into our current set up. A very square peg in a square hole.
Who plays there currently? Henderson, Keita and Elliot… Bellingham will be our primary starter so this means it pushes our current starter Henderson further down the pecking order, a bit like domino’s the next step of this is Keita becomes 3rd choice and is actually leaving… So by buying a ready made player we improve our 1st team and our squad. The pragmatism here is dropping Henderson and letting Keita leave.
The no.6 position 2 months ago was a much bigger conundrum, our starter Fabinho struggling, so we if applied the Bellingham principle a new midfielder comes in and Fabinho goes to back up, which wasn’t an ideal circumstance as Fabinho just looks done as a midfielder. Luckily Bajcetic has been a little beauty in turning this sticking point come summer into an actual easy win… Bring in a new no.6 and they rotate with Bajcetic. The pragmatism here is accepting Fabinho is done, thanking him for his service but getting rid as he no longer fills a purpose.
By improving our no.6 and right sided no.8 this means we have more options for the left sided no.8 and again Bajcetic has made this far easier than it could have been. Our depth would be like this;
No.6 - Kone (or another) + Bajcetic
LNo.8 - Thiago + Bajcetic + Jones
RNo.8 - Bellingham + Henderson + Elliot
Outgoing - Milner,
Now we may be worried about Jones and his long term future/fitness (I’d be giving him another 12months) hence why the Mount links make sense for the left sided no.8
Defense is where I think we just need to be ruthless - Matip and Gomez are our weakest center backs so ideally here bring in 1 top class defender and a cheaper option (Ndicka on a free would be ideal!) improves us no end, whilst Van Dijk and Konate remain as our first choice.
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Pragmatism - practicality, we’re talking about the same thing, I am just pointing out an element of it that you have not acknowledged.
As to the specifics, I may agree with your individual observations and preferences, but if we’re being pragmatic we may have to accept that it is not possible to turn over the number of players in 1 summer that even the median poster here thinks is required. That doesnt mean keeping Fab per se, but it does mean that things like whether the player is HG, or whether they might be able to be a 3rd choice options for several positions might have to factor into who gets to stay one more year.
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Fair point, hopefully someone like Morton comes back and adds us even more depth.
I doubt Fabinho is happy playing 3rd choice though!
I do think the midfield will see a huge overhaul i.e. 3/4 players out and 3 players in.
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I think it warrants more exits and probably wont accommodate 3 players coming in
If we retain, Hendo, Bajcetic, Elliott, Jones, and Milner (as an example of the pragmatism of keeping someone you might otherwise move on) then options who expect to play, like when we bought Keita and Fabs, should be sufficient. ***acknowledges Thiago is the controversial one.
But if we are surgical we can probably do this with only 3 new players - 2 in midfield and 1CB. Even when getting rid of as many as 8 players (Phillips, Matip, Thiago, Fabs, Ox, Keita, Arthur, Bobby) that still leaves us pretty much fully stocked
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Agree with the thrust of this post, but on the Bellingham thing, we can’t overstate the impact of Bajcetic on the summer plans.
If we started this season thinking that we’d need to do three midfielders in the summer, well now I think we need two, cos Stefan is definitely worthy of being one of that trio.
In basic terms we obviously can feel we don’t have to make the pennies go as far, but also it means that we can probably afford to take a bit of a risk on whoever is the third player we bring in. We know Bellingham will be good, and Baj will have hopefully shown what he can offer.
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Not a fan of irony?
I think there’s almost no chance Thiago leaves this summer.
It could well be his final season as he will be in the last year. One of our rare performing players this season, even if at 80% of his abilities and at times his form also not being top notch.
He’s one of the midfielders I certainly don’t see leaving. I also think there won’t be as much midfield changes as some think/wish.
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Hard to tell these days!
Thiago is a strange old case, he is clearly a world class player, like he’s the best natural mover and passer of a football I’ve seen for a long time if not ever.
Yet I can’t help but think if we had purchase a Gini type player would we be in the position we are now.
I get the evolution of the side, but fundementally I think Klopp should live and die by the pressing machine he created. If that means we struggle to break down a few sides so be it.
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I don’t see why one should exclude the other.
Sides change or evolve, like it or not, we were 2 goals away from winning 4 trophies last season. So it’s better to be on top of it rather than let it happen.
I thought we needed a player like Thiago but also a new dynamic midfielder after Gini left, which we didn’t sign in following windows and years. And I also wouldn’t say it was our main problem, but yes we do need it now and most probably not one, but two.
There are players in that midfield I’m struggling to see how they remain here or get game time next season and Thiago is certainly not one of them. Some need to stay, especially those who are very good more often than not.
To go back to our “pressing machine” first and foremost it needs to start from the attack, where we have a lot of new players lately. Then add some new fresh blood into midfield. Then squeeze the side from back to front into a more compact unit and cut out the mistakes at the back.
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I dont think a Gini type player would work as teams can press us and when they do we can’t play through the press, yes Gini was good at holding the ball up but was poor at progressing it through the lines.
Yes there were times, especially the one against Barca when he turned 3 of them but that was a rarity than the norm. I feel a lot had rose tinted glasses looking at what Gini with what he offered progressing the ball.
My other issue is that 3 of our back for struggle in possession when trying to play through the press, only Trent escapes this and Joel at times when moving with the ball. We get trapped a helluva lot out on the touchline too easily and then play a hopeful ball up field.
it’s a bit infuriating, and notable that our mids really don’t show all that well to receive a pass. I think it’s a Klopp thing, that he doesn’t like losing the ball in the middle of the pitch and thus likes to play it up the wings as much as possible.
Personally, I’d like to see the ball at the feet of guys like Thiago (and Modric, goddamn he’s so good on the ball) to move it vertically up the pitch at pace. We have so much talent up there, we need to get them the ball where they still have space to run at the defender and put them on the back foot.
When we play the vertical pass successfully it causes the opposition so many problems
I don’t know if there is any kind of metric that backs this up, but I’ve felt over the last couple of years PL teams have got much better at beating the press.
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Agree too. It would have needed three this summer but his emergence really takes care of one of those needs. But, we do have to remember he’s only 18. Elliott is soon to be just 20 and Jones is only 22. Add Bellingham to that and it’s a really young group, all be it one with great experience for their ages.
If we were then adding a second CM in the summer I think we ideally want someone more in that 24-26 kind of range to bridge the gap between the old group and the younger ones.
The emergence of Bajcetic also probably spells the end of Morton’s chances of making it here. Be nice to get a few quid for him in the summer after a reasonable season on loan rather than keeping him hanging around or out on loan again.
Do you think? Apparently he’s doing really well at Blackburn. I wouldn’t mind having a little look at him next year. Doesn’t replace the need to bring in midfielders in the age range you’ve said, but he could potentially offer something as the remaining thirty-something lads age out.
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