This is an excellent summary!
When we look at last season, we should have in mind the last part, and then go from there. Three quarters of the season was a disaster, for numerous reasons. Then towards the end we got something back, made some tactical adjustments, pressing more cohesively and judiciously, and even though we just missed out on the CL, we had reason to have hope as you could see we were reforming again, and Klopp 2.0 was on the way.
Now, it’s still a work in progress, but there are good reasons to believe we will be better again, even over the last part of last season.
The creativity and control we are looking for is ramped up with the signings of Mac and Dom.
Trent has some decent experience under his belt in the inverted role, and if we extrapolate his numbers out over a whole season, we are about to see new territory being forged.
Jones is a very good player who, fingers crossed, looks to have the worst of his chronic injury issues behind him.
Nunez did ok, looked threatening, but didn’t quite explode on the scene. We can hope for more to come from him as he integrates.
Diaz looks fit and raring to go.
Gakpo is a great addition.
Loads of reasons to be hopeful.
We need a defensive midfielder, someone with more legs and pace than Fabinho, as far too many teams ran through us last season. Lavia fits the bill, and hopefully we close on that deal today or tomorrow. He is young, so will need to integrate and grow into, and with, the team.
The defence needs some work, and ideally we would see a very good Matip replacement being signed, someone who would have every chance to go straight into the first eleven, or at least, be ready to come in, and take over as one or two age out.
Klopp 2.0 is being built. We are going from front to back. Front, sorted. Now to find the blend, and maximize the excellent array of attacking options we have…
Midfield. Lots of changes, some planned, some unplanned. Mostly this department has been refreshed, with one, or two, more changes to finish the job.
Defence. After the midfield is sorted, we need to boost the defensive ranks.
In the meantime, I would say we should be a solid CL team this season, and with a fair wind we can be the closest to Man City.
The following year I expect a strong title challenge.
The team is being rebuilt. Klopp 2.0 is emerging. Let’s enjoy the ride!
I did find it slightly amusing that they did nothing against Gomez and Matip.
Liverpool Departures and Salary savings:
Roberto Firmino Free 9.36m
Naby Keita Free 6.76m
James Millner Free 6.24m
Oxlade Chamberlain Free 6.24m
Jordan Henderson 12m fee 7.28m
Fabinho 40m fee 9.36m
Total Annual Salary saved 45.24m
Total Fees received 52m
Incomings
Mac Allister 35m fee Salary 7.8m
Szoboszlai 60m fee Salary 6.24m
Incoming fees 95m
Incoming salaries 14.04m
Net Spend 43m spent
Net Salary 31.2m savings
Bottom line. Liverpool is not hurting for money. If anything we have more payroll freedom than ever. We have 6 first team departures but only 2 first team reinforcements. That’s 4 player slots unaccounted for compared to last season. Now what are we going to do about it?
We have 38 games in the league, Europa League games, and Cup games. Over the course of a season that’s over 50 games. Your reply also makes the assumption that players NEVER get injured or tired which is a Fallacy. So the REAL answer is we need BOTH Quality and Quantity.
Maybe we had too many players last season and a bunch of them were getting paid to sit in treatment rooms.
There’s also the mid-season signing of Gakpo that seems to be overlooked whenever someone does this exercise. And nowhere does anyone account for the new contracts handed out or the ones we’ll be needing to renew in the next 12-24 months. The likes of Trent, Virgil, Kostas and Salah will all be into the final year of their deal come next summer and Konate and Robertson the one after that.
This season to season accounting just isn’t how it works.
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It isn’t just Trent though at some stage each one of our defenders hss been guilty of not being in line with others and caused us to concede.
At times we play the offside to a scary degree and teams are aware and all it needs is a good timed run and with the amount of space we leave the pass doesn’t have to be perfect
Carragher is an utter tool.
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20 years ago maybe but a fullback is more an integral part of the attacking play now.
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From 1st of Jan Ox played 313 minutes Keita 244 minutes Melo 13 minutes all season. Thats whats baffling now with a lot of fans revisionist history that they were key squad players.
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I can’t even remember Ox playing much in the middle.
I remember he played two games up top.
Yeah, the last 2 seasons at least what few appearances he had were almost entirely as an attacker. He still counted towards the depth in midfield, just was almost never used there.
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We have a good number of technical players, now we need a fighter like Docoure or Palinha in front of our defence
Paulinha is injured right? Remember he picked up some shoulder injury during pre-season.
A permanent DoF…based in Liverpool
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Don’t think you’d find a single person even remotely close to suggesting any of those players “were key squad players” then or now, you did however conveniently leave out the other 4 who each played their fair share of minutes.
We have enough players to cover the minutes, I don’t get the fixation on that.
We need another couple of players because we lack quality in certain areas.
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Our front line(all 5) are the best to chose from in the league.I think if we were to bring in a CB and a DM who could seriously challenge for starting 11 positions as well as a fit Thiago then we’d have the strongest squad in the Premier league.
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That’s not going to happen though is it?
We aren’t bringing in a CB unless it’s the best kept secret ever.
We aren’t getting a DM unless we pay 50m for a 19 yr old.
Thiago staying fit all season is a pipe dream worthy of the Dude.
So we’re three improbabilities away from challenging.
You can kill the dreamer but you can’t kill the dream