Klopp Needs To Loook At Himself
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Not really if his budget is £40m.
Arteta over his tenure has spent how much?
If you look at these options, with how they are playing, and you think "this is easy, I can come up with a formation that will consistently have defensive stability while scoring goals," then you're a fucking idiot.
And who's fault is that?
We needed a midfielder and we spunked the better part of 50m on a slow winger.
We need both players, and more. Gakpo isn't going to be a winger for us, he is also not slow, he just isn't fast. But that's ok, if he remembers how to play football. He's not as shit as he currently appears, but that's true of most of the players.
He runs slower than me after 8 pints and a donner calzone.
Do the plod pull you back by the shirt because you are away?
And I’m still leaving him behind.
The shits gives you wings.
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How about giving us the Binny treatment?
Is there anything about what the plan was / is to rebuild the team? Because from the outside looking in, they've done a fucking shit job so far.
We qualify for Europa, its a chance for Klopp to get the full sweep of trophies.
Anyways, what point will Klopp realise
Trent is not suited to RB anymore.
4-3-3 doesn't work the, MF is too slow and predictable
High Line doesn't work as Fabs leaves legs at home
Millie is 37 he can do occasional job, that's it
Naby isn't that good but Hendo and Fabs are so dreadful it makes Naby look decent
Anyways, what point will Klopp realise
Trent is not suited to RB anymore.
4-3-3 doesn't work the, MF is too slow and predictable
High Line doesn't work as Fabs leaves legs at home
Millie is 37 he can do occasional job, that's it
Naby isn't that good but Hendo and Fabs are so dreadful it makes Naby look decent
Trent can more than do a job there but it needs and effective front line doing their job. Even Robbo was caught out yesterday because we couldn’t either get the ball forward with consistency or keep it there.
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I thought to be honest that Klopp got a lot of it right yesterday. The subs were ok, the first lot anyway. It was when he then threw Jones and Fabinho on that it all just got even more shit and disjointed.
If the idea is to give Fabinho time and for him to make a difference shoring up the midfield late in games, it isn't working. He looks just as bad from the bench as he does starting. Henderson isn't much better but at least he knows when to play it safe and he knows his limitations. Fabinho seems to think that coming on and kicking players lends him some sort of kudos. He's fucking awful at the moment.
Trent was MUCH better at the start of the game yesterday. He held his position better and was sharper and more decisive. He was up against a good player and got done a few times, we know that will happen, but Klopp then did the right thing putting Milner on to give us more stability at right back. It worked, and then sods law the same player goes and scores anyway, from the other side of the pitch. But the idea was right, I just wish he wouldn't go like for like with the Milner/Trent swap, keep Trent on and push him forward. You're not telling me that Jones is a better option than Trent to have on the pitch.
If the idea is to give Fabinho time and for him to make a difference shoring up the midfield late in games, it isn't working. He looks just as bad from the bench as he does starting. Henderson isn't much better but at least he knows when to play it safe and he knows his limitations. Fabinho seems to think that coming on and kicking players lends him some sort of kudos. He's fucking awful at the moment.
Trent was MUCH better at the start of the game yesterday. He held his position better and was sharper and more decisive. He was up against a good player and got done a few times, we know that will happen, but Klopp then did the right thing putting Milner on to give us more stability at right back. It worked, and then sods law the same player goes and scores anyway, from the other side of the pitch. But the idea was right, I just wish he wouldn't go like for like with the Milner/Trent swap, keep Trent on and push him forward. You're not telling me that Jones is a better option than Trent to have on the pitch.
We can’t look after the ball at all.
I’ve fixed the unfortunate typo but you got the gist.
Can someone post this full article, please? Some very revealing quotes in there, seems it’s as bad as we suspected behind the scenes:
https://www.skysports.com/football/...een-hurt-on-the-pitch-by-a-brain-drain-off-it
https://www.skysports.com/football/...een-hurt-on-the-pitch-by-a-brain-drain-off-it
[article]
Liverpool: How Jurgen Klopp's Reds have been hurt on the pitch by a 'brain drain' off it
Sky Sports News' senior reporter Melissa Reddy takes a look at the factors behind the scenes at Liverpool that are contributing to slump on it; "There has been a steady "brain drain," categorising Liverpool not just as a team in transition but a club in one"
Melissa Reddy
Senior Reporter
Friday 3 February 2023 12:55, UK
Image:FSG president Mike Gordon (left), Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and outgoing sporting director Julian Ward - AP Photo/Getty
With Liverpool lying ninth in the Premier League table and yet to win a top-flight game in 2023, Sky Sports News' senior reporter Melissa Reddy analyses how the departure of key figures has left them as a club in transition.
"We've created a situation where I can have all the best information from the best people."
As Jurgen Klopp reclined in Hope Street Hotel's Sixth Boardroom, the same spot in which he penned his contract to become Liverpool manager in 2015, he was coloured by calmness.
It was approaching the German's third anniversary in charge of the club with no silverware to show for it with Liverpool beaten finalists in the 2016 League Cup and Europa League, plus the 2018 Champions League.
Klopp, though, was unruffled. He had unwavering belief that the right people and processes were in place off the pitch to ensure success would follow on it.
His zen was warranted. Liverpool would soon scale unprecedented heights, becoming the first British team to hold the European Cup, European Super Cup, Club World Cup and league titles simultaneously.
Along with Manchester City, they redesigned what is required to be crowned champions of England. On the continent, they were the team to avoid.
Liverpool did indeed have smarts off-pitch sparking their swagger on it; chiefly Klopp, FSG president Mike Gordon, and sporting director Michael Edwards.
Image:Klopp signed a new Liverpool contract in April 2022
Only the manager remains of the 'three wise men' and when analysing what has gone wrong at Anfield - the side have already lost six times in the league, are 10 points adrift of the top four, out of both domestic cup competitions, and are at odds with their identity - it helps to start at the top.
The Klopp-Edwards-Gordon trinity worked superbly in a professional as well as personal capacity. All vastly different characters, they were aligned by a collaborative, honest approach under a shared vision for what Liverpool should be and how to sustainably compete.
Klopp and Edwards would casually discuss prospective players, potential new staff, football infrastructure improvements and other significant matters over breakfast or lunch in the canteen at the training ground, before working through a more detailed analysis.
They would present their vision to Gordon, who provided the finances and whatever other support was necessary, like when he intervened to rehabilitate relations with Southampton in order to land Virgil van Dijk.
The partnership between Klopp, Edwards and Gordon was unassailable, promoting a sense of authority, surety and harmony to decision-making at Liverpool.
In November 2021, Edwards confirmed he would step down from his position following the end of his contract in June 2022 to spend some time away from the game.
This season, Gordon ceded his day-to-day running of the club in order to focus on Fenway Sports Group's bid for investment into - or the outright sale of - Liverpool.
Two of the three most important men in ensuring the club's success are no longer in situ, but that is just the upper layer of the story.
The disruption is deeper still. When the news of Edwards' exit was announced, Liverpool flagged "continuity and a well-managed transition period" in appointing Julian Ward as successor.
But he handed in his resignation in November, leaves at the end of the season, and will have only been in the post for a year.
Worryingly, Ian Graham, the esteemed director of research widely regarded as the best in the field, is also exiting Liverpool.
It has been said the pair "no longer feel empowered to do their jobs to the best of their ability."
On the eve of the season, club doctor Jim Moxon departed without explanation amid growing friction within the medical sphere between the physiotherapists and sports scientists.
In 2020, Philipp Jacobsen vacated his post as head of performance. It was his duty to align the department and create a singular way of working but he found it near impossible.
There is large sentiment at the training complex that Andreas Kornmayer, head of fitness and conditioning and one of Klopp's most trusted figures, wields too much influence and is hard to work with.
"There has been a steady "brain drain," categorising Liverpool not just as a team in transition but a club in one."
Melissa Reddy
The counter to that is the distance he has been able to extract from players in previous campaigns and the respect he commands.Melissa Reddy
The turnover in the medical department and beyond is, whichever way you slice it, high.
Liverpool have also seen some staff pinched that were part of a proven, watertight process like Harrison Kingston, who left to become director of performance analysis and framework for the Moroccan Football Federation, and Mark Leyland, who is currently first-team coach analyst at Newcastle.
There has been a steady "brain drain," categorising Liverpool not just as a team in transition but a club in one.
"There is a lot of focus on not refreshing the playing squad enough, which is correct but it is true behind the scenes too," said an employee.
"A lot of key people have left, some have gained too much power. There's less faith in the decisions now."
Is there still trust in the process?
In the Klopp era, Liverpool have preached the maxim that what you see on the pitch is a product of what goes on off it. Does an erosion of playing identity therefore also point to a break in process or a betrayal of it altogether?
When the decision-making was optimal - guided by clear parameters, influenced by data intelligence, and collectively bought in to - Liverpool floated between being the best or second best team in Europe.
They bought surgically, factoring in a player's age, scalable output, availability, propensity to carry out the demands of Klopp's style psychically and mentally.
Selling was elite - bettered only by Chelsea who had turned it into a profit-making machine under Roman Abramovich.
Forward planning was at such an advanced level and aligned that Liverpool's academy spent three months rigorously transforming Trent Alexander-Arnold into a right-back having mapped out that it was the closest route for him to crack into the first team.
Image:Mohamed Salah has scored just once in his last six Premier League outings
The methodology worked to such a supreme state that it was copied across the continent. Then, it stopped or slumped or switched depending on who you listen to at Liverpool.
The current circumstances are predicated by a crucial period between 2019 to 2021. Before Liverpool lifted the Champions League in Madrid, after registering 97 points to finish just behind City in the top flight, they prioritised a policy of retention to keep their spine intact.
Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Jordan Henderson and Joe Gomez had inked extensions in 2018. Andy Robertson, Alexander-Arnold, Divock Origi, Joel Matip and James Milner would follow the next annum.
"The new contracts and keeping these boys here is a strong, strong signal for the outside world," Klopp would say. "It's a wonderful sign, to be honest. I like the fact that these boys are really at a good football age."
The strategy made sense at the time as the core of the team were, as the manager outlined, at the perfect stage in their careers to go further still. They were not stretched or spent and, importantly, there was the tactic to gradually refresh while keeping reserves for a certified game-changer.
But fast forward to June 2021 and Liverpool were still underscoring the retention is king line. The only players that had been added to the squad as regular starters at that point were Thiago and Diogo Jota, while Harvey Elliott was a promising kid with a high ceiling.
Ibrahima Konate was recruited a month later as the sole significant investment that summer.
Liverpool were already in a position where the spine had two more years of relentless football - at the highest intensity possible - in their legs and minds. The "good football age" was slowly being bypassed.
Play Video - Carra: Liverpool need investment | Klopp still the right man to lead them
Sky Sports' Jamie Carragher takes a closer look at Liverpool's current situation and what they need to do between now and the end of the campaign to get back to where they were in previous seasons
The club did not want to over commit with regards to contract length and a substantial increase in pay to older members of the squad, hence allowing Gini Wijnaldum to leave on a free.
However, Henderson, Fabinho, Alisson, Robertson and Van Dijk were tied into lucrative long-term deals that would require them to still perform full-throttle football on the wrong side of 30 after seasons of going all in.
Rewarding important players and protecting their values is a normal, healthy process but there was not complete agreement with the timing and the length of some of the renewals.
A big problem was the core not being sufficiently supplemented and the squad - plus wage bill - properly trimmed.
Fingers were pointed squarely at the Covid-depressed market, but clubs with tighter resources navigated incomings and outgoings better.
There had been the feeling that without the pandemic, one big sale would have funded weighty rejuvenation like Philippe Coutinho's £142m transfer to Barcelona had done.
Barca and Real Madrid had been circling Mane and Salah but the latter plumped for Eden Hazard and both clubs stitched themselves in financial shambles.
Paris Saint-Germain, another monied suitor, were focused on different priorities, namely Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi.
There were no sizeable bids, but worse, hardship in shifting fringe players off the books.
Those years between 2019 and 2021 saw Liverpool stun on the pitch but set up a steady walk into the danger zone with eyes wide open. It has been exacerbated since.
The only established midfielder permanently bought by the club since August 2018 has been the pedigreed Thiago, whose injury issues were common knowledge, in September 2020.
Despite the department carrying other players prone to spells out like Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, tiring legs in James Milner and Henderson, as well as raw youngsters, it was repeatedly neglected.
This has been put down to waiting on the right players, the paramount one being Jude Bellingham.
As brilliant as the England international is, he is not enough and his future is not guaranteed with City and Real Madrid also invested in his signature.
Liverpool need intense surgery in midfield - at a period when silly money is at play - with Milner, Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain out of contract while Fabinho and Henderson are hideously off form.
The centre of the park is being propped up by 18-year-old Stefan Bajcetic. How Arthur Melo, with his own archive of injury problems, was seen as a solution on loan is anyone's guess.
Play Video - 'I don't think that happened?' Klopp questions 'falling apart' claim
Jurgen Klopp rejected the suggestion his side were 'falling apart' in the closing stages of their FA Cup defeat to Brighton
Up front, the club allowed Mane to chase a new challenge with Bayern Munich last summer and made Salah the highest-paid player in the club's history.
It had long been established that regenerating the front three that bulldozed Liverpool to success would prove enormously challenging.
Luis Diaz acclimatised excellently prior to his knee injury, while Darwin Nunes has been an agent of chaos.
The recruitment of Cody Gakpo is intriguing as he was not of interest last summer, when he was on the verge of joining Leeds on deadline day and counted as an alternative forward target for Manchester United.
The Netherlands international, who had a fine World Cup, has been sketched as a Firmino replacement but the Brazil international, 31, is close to agreeing a new deal in a move that can be filed as suboptimal along with designs of retaining Milner.
Multiple sources have credited Gakpo and Nunez as signings led by the coaching staff.
Over the past year, Liverpool have spent £180m on their attack in an expensive dynamic shift that they hope will supply long-term gain.
Most curious has been seeing Salah diverted away from his role as the main threat and isolated in wide areas with a severe reduction in shot volume.
Salah has not stopped being Salah, the system no longer allows him to be.
Having been the smart guys, some of Liverpool's decisions are proper head scratchers.
The team that went so close to a quadruple are unrecognisable. The defence has let in 25 goals - more than the entirety of 2018-19 campaign and one shy from last season's total.
An in-depth look at Liverpool's damning statistics shows their big chance conversation per game is their lowest ratio since 2015-16.
Physical and mental fatigue has played its part, but the scale of injury issues - particularly hamstring setbacks - is alarming.
Liverpool need to remedy the ills in the medical department and the "fires" that exist elsewhere between the coaching-performance-recruitment divisions.
The suggestions that Klopp and his assistant Pep Lijnders have absorbed greater power will not abate, but it is unequivocal the German retains the backing of the dressing room and staff.
The absence of private and public briefings against him illustrate as much. Liverpool know how much is owed to Klopp, the obstacles that could not have been scaled without him, and the dreams that would have remained just that.
That the 55-year-old still has the stomach for and is fronting this fight amid all the upheaval at the club speaks volumes.
FSG are seeking investment or an outright buyer for Liverpool because the club cannot compete with state-powered teams nor the financial flamboyance of Chelsea.
Revenues are strong and they finished above United in the Deloitte Football Money League for the first time in the publication's 26-year history, but the ante has been upped in the arms race.
Klopp has flipped the finger to logic before with the help of top thinkers and built a winning machine underpinned by effective strategy.
This season will bring much pain and there needs to be clever, comprehensive investment but Liverpool have to return to who and what they were: an example on and off the pitch.
[/article]
The idea is just to save an 18 year old legs, otherwise I don't think fabinho would be in the squad right now.
[article]
On the eve of the season, club doctor Jim Moxon departed without explanation amid growing friction within the medical sphere between the physiotherapists and sports scientists.
In 2020, Philipp Jacobsen vacated his post as head of performance. It was his duty to align the department and create a singular way of working but he found it near impossible.
There is large sentiment at the training complex that Andreas Kornmayer, head of fitness and conditioning and one of Klopp's most trusted figures, wields too much influence and is hard to work with.
.........
Liverpool have also seen some staff pinched that were part of a proven, watertight process like Harrison Kingston, who left to become director of performance analysis and framework for the Moroccan Football Federation, and Mark Leyland, who is currently first-team coach analyst at Newcastle.
There has been a steady "brain drain," categorising Liverpool not just as a team in transition but a club in one.
"There is a lot of focus on not refreshing the playing squad enough, which is correct but it is true behind the scenes too," said an employee.
"A lot of key people have left, some have gained too much power. There's less faith in the decisions now."
Is there still trust in the process?
.........
But fast forward to June 2021 and Liverpool were still underscoring the retention is king line. The only players that had been added to the squad as regular starters at that point were Thiago and Diogo Jota, while Harvey Elliott was a promising kid with a high ceiling.
Ibrahima Konate was recruited a month later as the sole significant investment that summer.
Liverpool were already in a position where the spine had two more years of relentless football - at the highest intensity possible - in their legs and minds. The "good football age" was slowly being bypassed.[/article]
🙄
I wonder if the dig at Kornmayer is a trial balloon, so to speak, at a coming attack on Lijnders. Hard to imagine that Ward and other high-ranking people left over a disagreement with a head of fitness and conditioning. Everything points to the fissure and major disagreement on strategy between the "data guys" Edwards, Ward at al and the coaching staff, who as a result "gained too much power" over transfer decisions.
Trent was the best RB in World football. Was he the best defender? No. Was Cafu or Carlos the best defensive full-back in the world? No. Did their other contributions mean that you'd drop them to shoe-horn in some other make-shift cunt like Dunga or Gilberto Silva? No.
He's been (probably) our best (and most creative) player since 2018. Would we have beat Barca 4-0 without him? No. Ergo, no 6th big ears. If he was up for sale who would take him? Erm, every single best club in the world.
His issues have been exacerbated in a world of other mediocrity. The first time in his young career he hasn't been the best in the world and people want him out. To be honest, do me a favour. Trent stays.
He's been (probably) our best (and most creative) player since 2018. Would we have beat Barca 4-0 without him? No. Ergo, no 6th big ears. If he was up for sale who would take him? Erm, every single best club in the world.
His issues have been exacerbated in a world of other mediocrity. The first time in his young career he hasn't been the best in the world and people want him out. To be honest, do me a favour. Trent stays.
[article]
Liverpool: How Jurgen Klopp's Reds have been hurt on the pitch by a 'brain drain' off it
Sky Sports News' senior reporter Melissa Reddy takes a look at the factors behind the scenes at Liverpool that are contributing to slump on it; "There has been a steady "brain drain," categorising Liverpool not just as a team in transition but a club in one"
Melissa Reddy
Senior Reporter
Friday 3 February 2023 12:55, UK
Image:FSG president Mike Gordon (left), Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and outgoing sporting director Julian Ward - AP Photo/Getty
With Liverpool lying ninth in the Premier League table and yet to win a top-flight game in 2023, Sky Sports News' senior reporter Melissa Reddy analyses how the departure of key figures has left them as a club in transition.
"We've created a situation where I can have all the best information from the best people."
As Jurgen Klopp reclined in Hope Street Hotel's Sixth Boardroom, the same spot in which he penned his contract to become Liverpool manager in 2015, he was coloured by calmness.
It was approaching the German's third anniversary in charge of the club with no silverware to show for it with Liverpool beaten finalists in the 2016 League Cup and Europa League, plus the 2018 Champions League.
Klopp, though, was unruffled. He had unwavering belief that the right people and processes were in place off the pitch to ensure success would follow on it.
His zen was warranted. Liverpool would soon scale unprecedented heights, becoming the first British team to hold the European Cup, European Super Cup, Club World Cup and league titles simultaneously.
Along with Manchester City, they redesigned what is required to be crowned champions of England. On the continent, they were the team to avoid.
Liverpool did indeed have smarts off-pitch sparking their swagger on it; chiefly Klopp, FSG president Mike Gordon, and sporting director Michael Edwards.
Image:Klopp signed a new Liverpool contract in April 2022
Only the manager remains of the 'three wise men' and when analysing what has gone wrong at Anfield - the side have already lost six times in the league, are 10 points adrift of the top four, out of both domestic cup competitions, and are at odds with their identity - it helps to start at the top.
The Klopp-Edwards-Gordon trinity worked superbly in a professional as well as personal capacity. All vastly different characters, they were aligned by a collaborative, honest approach under a shared vision for what Liverpool should be and how to sustainably compete.
Klopp and Edwards would casually discuss prospective players, potential new staff, football infrastructure improvements and other significant matters over breakfast or lunch in the canteen at the training ground, before working through a more detailed analysis.
They would present their vision to Gordon, who provided the finances and whatever other support was necessary, like when he intervened to rehabilitate relations with Southampton in order to land Virgil van Dijk.
The partnership between Klopp, Edwards and Gordon was unassailable, promoting a sense of authority, surety and harmony to decision-making at Liverpool.
In November 2021, Edwards confirmed he would step down from his position following the end of his contract in June 2022 to spend some time away from the game.
This season, Gordon ceded his day-to-day running of the club in order to focus on Fenway Sports Group's bid for investment into - or the outright sale of - Liverpool.
Two of the three most important men in ensuring the club's success are no longer in situ, but that is just the upper layer of the story.
The disruption is deeper still. When the news of Edwards' exit was announced, Liverpool flagged "continuity and a well-managed transition period" in appointing Julian Ward as successor.
But he handed in his resignation in November, leaves at the end of the season, and will have only been in the post for a year.
Worryingly, Ian Graham, the esteemed director of research widely regarded as the best in the field, is also exiting Liverpool.
It has been said the pair "no longer feel empowered to do their jobs to the best of their ability."
On the eve of the season, club doctor Jim Moxon departed without explanation amid growing friction within the medical sphere between the physiotherapists and sports scientists.
In 2020, Philipp Jacobsen vacated his post as head of performance. It was his duty to align the department and create a singular way of working but he found it near impossible.
There is large sentiment at the training complex that Andreas Kornmayer, head of fitness and conditioning and one of Klopp's most trusted figures, wields too much influence and is hard to work with.
"There has been a steady "brain drain," categorising Liverpool not just as a team in transition but a club in one."Melissa ReddyThe counter to that is the distance he has been able to extract from players in previous campaigns and the respect he commands.
The turnover in the medical department and beyond is, whichever way you slice it, high.
Liverpool have also seen some staff pinched that were part of a proven, watertight process like Harrison Kingston, who left to become director of performance analysis and framework for the Moroccan Football Federation, and Mark Leyland, who is currently first-team coach analyst at Newcastle.
There has been a steady "brain drain," categorising Liverpool not just as a team in transition but a club in one.
"There is a lot of focus on not refreshing the playing squad enough, which is correct but it is true behind the scenes too," said an employee.
"A lot of key people have left, some have gained too much power. There's less faith in the decisions now."
Is there still trust in the process?
In the Klopp era, Liverpool have preached the maxim that what you see on the pitch is a product of what goes on off it. Does an erosion of playing identity therefore also point to a break in process or a betrayal of it altogether?
When the decision-making was optimal - guided by clear parameters, influenced by data intelligence, and collectively bought in to - Liverpool floated between being the best or second best team in Europe.
They bought surgically, factoring in a player's age, scalable output, availability, propensity to carry out the demands of Klopp's style psychically and mentally.
Selling was elite - bettered only by Chelsea who had turned it into a profit-making machine under Roman Abramovich.
Forward planning was at such an advanced level and aligned that Liverpool's academy spent three months rigorously transforming Trent Alexander-Arnold into a right-back having mapped out that it was the closest route for him to crack into the first team.
Image:Mohamed Salah has scored just once in his last six Premier League outings
The methodology worked to such a supreme state that it was copied across the continent. Then, it stopped or slumped or switched depending on who you listen to at Liverpool.
The current circumstances are predicated by a crucial period between 2019 to 2021. Before Liverpool lifted the Champions League in Madrid, after registering 97 points to finish just behind City in the top flight, they prioritised a policy of retention to keep their spine intact.
Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Jordan Henderson and Joe Gomez had inked extensions in 2018. Andy Robertson, Alexander-Arnold, Divock Origi, Joel Matip and James Milner would follow the next annum.
"The new contracts and keeping these boys here is a strong, strong signal for the outside world," Klopp would say. "It's a wonderful sign, to be honest. I like the fact that these boys are really at a good football age."
The strategy made sense at the time as the core of the team were, as the manager outlined, at the perfect stage in their careers to go further still. They were not stretched or spent and, importantly, there was the tactic to gradually refresh while keeping reserves for a certified game-changer.
But fast forward to June 2021 and Liverpool were still underscoring the retention is king line. The only players that had been added to the squad as regular starters at that point were Thiago and Diogo Jota, while Harvey Elliott was a promising kid with a high ceiling.
Ibrahima Konate was recruited a month later as the sole significant investment that summer.
Liverpool were already in a position where the spine had two more years of relentless football - at the highest intensity possible - in their legs and minds. The "good football age" was slowly being bypassed.
Play Video - Carra: Liverpool need investment | Klopp still the right man to lead them
Sky Sports' Jamie Carragher takes a closer look at Liverpool's current situation and what they need to do between now and the end of the campaign to get back to where they were in previous seasons
The club did not want to over commit with regards to contract length and a substantial increase in pay to older members of the squad, hence allowing Gini Wijnaldum to leave on a free.
However, Henderson, Fabinho, Alisson, Robertson and Van Dijk were tied into lucrative long-term deals that would require them to still perform full-throttle football on the wrong side of 30 after seasons of going all in.
Rewarding important players and protecting their values is a normal, healthy process but there was not complete agreement with the timing and the length of some of the renewals.
A big problem was the core not being sufficiently supplemented and the squad - plus wage bill - properly trimmed.
Fingers were pointed squarely at the Covid-depressed market, but clubs with tighter resources navigated incomings and outgoings better.
There had been the feeling that without the pandemic, one big sale would have funded weighty rejuvenation like Philippe Coutinho's £142m transfer to Barcelona had done.
Barca and Real Madrid had been circling Mane and Salah but the latter plumped for Eden Hazard and both clubs stitched themselves in financial shambles.
Paris Saint-Germain, another monied suitor, were focused on different priorities, namely Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi.
There were no sizeable bids, but worse, hardship in shifting fringe players off the books.
Those years between 2019 and 2021 saw Liverpool stun on the pitch but set up a steady walk into the danger zone with eyes wide open. It has been exacerbated since.
The only established midfielder permanently bought by the club since August 2018 has been the pedigreed Thiago, whose injury issues were common knowledge, in September 2020.
Despite the department carrying other players prone to spells out like Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, tiring legs in James Milner and Henderson, as well as raw youngsters, it was repeatedly neglected.
This has been put down to waiting on the right players, the paramount one being Jude Bellingham.
As brilliant as the England international is, he is not enough and his future is not guaranteed with City and Real Madrid also invested in his signature.
Liverpool need intense surgery in midfield - at a period when silly money is at play - with Milner, Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain out of contract while Fabinho and Henderson are hideously off form.
The centre of the park is being propped up by 18-year-old Stefan Bajcetic. How Arthur Melo, with his own archive of injury problems, was seen as a solution on loan is anyone's guess.
Play Video - 'I don't think that happened?' Klopp questions 'falling apart' claim
Jurgen Klopp rejected the suggestion his side were 'falling apart' in the closing stages of their FA Cup defeat to Brighton
Up front, the club allowed Mane to chase a new challenge with Bayern Munich last summer and made Salah the highest-paid player in the club's history.
It had long been established that regenerating the front three that bulldozed Liverpool to success would prove enormously challenging.
Luis Diaz acclimatised excellently prior to his knee injury, while Darwin Nunes has been an agent of chaos.
The recruitment of Cody Gakpo is intriguing as he was not of interest last summer, when he was on the verge of joining Leeds on deadline day and counted as an alternative forward target for Manchester United.
The Netherlands international, who had a fine World Cup, has been sketched as a Firmino replacement but the Brazil international, 31, is close to agreeing a new deal in a move that can be filed as suboptimal along with designs of retaining Milner.
Multiple sources have credited Gakpo and Nunez as signings led by the coaching staff.
Over the past year, Liverpool have spent £180m on their attack in an expensive dynamic shift that they hope will supply long-term gain.
Most curious has been seeing Salah diverted away from his role as the main threat and isolated in wide areas with a severe reduction in shot volume.
Salah has not stopped being Salah, the system no longer allows him to be.
Having been the smart guys, some of Liverpool's decisions are proper head scratchers.
The team that went so close to a quadruple are unrecognisable. The defence has let in 25 goals - more than the entirety of 2018-19 campaign and one shy from last season's total.
An in-depth look at Liverpool's damning statistics shows their big chance conversation per game is their lowest ratio since 2015-16.
Physical and mental fatigue has played its part, but the scale of injury issues - particularly hamstring setbacks - is alarming.
Liverpool need to remedy the ills in the medical department and the "fires" that exist elsewhere between the coaching-performance-recruitment divisions.
The suggestions that Klopp and his assistant Pep Lijnders have absorbed greater power will not abate, but it is unequivocal the German retains the backing of the dressing room and staff.
The absence of private and public briefings against him illustrate as much. Liverpool know how much is owed to Klopp, the obstacles that could not have been scaled without him, and the dreams that would have remained just that.
That the 55-year-old still has the stomach for and is fronting this fight amid all the upheaval at the club speaks volumes.
FSG are seeking investment or an outright buyer for Liverpool because the club cannot compete with state-powered teams nor the financial flamboyance of Chelsea.
Revenues are strong and they finished above United in the Deloitte Football Money League for the first time in the publication's 26-year history, but the ante has been upped in the arms race.
Klopp has flipped the finger to logic before with the help of top thinkers and built a winning machine underpinned by effective strategy.
This season will bring much pain and there needs to be clever, comprehensive investment but Liverpool have to return to who and what they were: an example on and off the pitch.
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This is so confusing. I cant handle this multiple villains. I need one person to act as a scape goat - Kornmeyer or Lijnders or Henry. I hope those in the know provide a clear picture on whom I should focus my frustrations on.
We’re turning into Game of Thrones with plenty sub plots, machinations and backstabbing!!!
Plenty of tits on show as well….. we’re just missing a few dragons.
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Check this for an unpopular opinion - Thiago's shit.
What does he bring to the team?
Positives - he spots a pass, he calms stuff down
Negatives - he's about as mobile as Steven Hawking's corpse
He's part of the problem. We need energy, he has none. How many great games has he had? Man U when we beat them 4 or 5 nil? He was imperious.
He's a player who, when everything's going well, he's an added dimension. When you're scrapping, he's next to useless.
Slotting into the best team in the league, which we were, he looked ace. Pulling the same team out of the mire, he's worthless. Great at Barca, Bayern and Liverpool when they're ace, not when they're shite.
What does he bring to the team?
Positives - he spots a pass, he calms stuff down
Negatives - he's about as mobile as Steven Hawking's corpse
He's part of the problem. We need energy, he has none. How many great games has he had? Man U when we beat them 4 or 5 nil? He was imperious.
He's a player who, when everything's going well, he's an added dimension. When you're scrapping, he's next to useless.
Slotting into the best team in the league, which we were, he looked ace. Pulling the same team out of the mire, he's worthless. Great at Barca, Bayern and Liverpool when they're ace, not when they're shite.
Well, I think Rushie is still somewhere around the club...but we sold Neco Williams
Who would’ve thought that the backroom shenanigans are a big factor of our decline eh ? After all doctors are not important. Physios are. Lol.
Meanwhile 99% of the blame are directed towards the players.
And the other 1% (made up of mainly Donovan and the trio of 6CM loons) blame the club and Klopp.
How about everyone’s responsible instead ? It’s a collective issue. So Keita can feel more relieved now. The poor sod.
Meanwhile 99% of the blame are directed towards the players.
And the other 1% (made up of mainly Donovan and the trio of 6CM loons) blame the club and Klopp.
How about everyone’s responsible instead ? It’s a collective issue. So Keita can feel more relieved now. The poor sod.
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I agree with most of that. But he’s trying. Unlike Hendo and Fab.
You're right about Trent but then wildly wrong with Thiago but it's a game of opinions.
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