James Pearce saying there will be #NoMoreTransfers
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Liverpool’s show of ambition off the field was followed by a show of force on it.
If the club’s initial lack of transfer activity this summer — coupled with the unconvincing opening day win over Leeds United — gave genuine hope to the chasing pack that the Premier League champions’ standards may slip this season, it’s been swiftly dented.
Having completed the quickfire signings of Thiago Alcantara and Diogo Jota, senior sources at Liverpool have told The Athletic that there will be no more incomings before the October 5 deadline. Sunday’s dominant victory over big-spending Chelsea at Stamford Bridge showed why they are satisfied with their lot.
What a difference a week makes. Both the fans and the dressing room have been energised by the injection of quality. Cover for Andy Robertson at left-back? Greece international Kostas Tsimikas was brought in earlier in the window to fill that role.
The addition of a midfield playmaker capable of dictating play and threading a pass through the most stubborn of defensive lines? Thiago, who made an eye-catching debut off the bench against Chelsea, is one of the best in the business. The 75 passes he completed in the second half was the most by any player over the course of 45 minutes since such Premier League data was recorded and more than any Chelsea player managed over the full match.
How about easing the burden on the deadly front three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino? Finally, that concerning drop off in quality when one of them is missing has been addressed with the purchase of Jota.
The Athletic can reveal that Jonathan David joined Watford’s Ismaila Sarr on Liverpool’s shortlist for an attacker. Liverpool extensively scouted the Canada international but decided to focus their attention on Sarr and Jota instead. David moved from Gent to Lille for €30 million last month.
The one remaining area of the squad seemingly in need of bolstering following the deals for Thiago and Jota was centre-back. Liverpool have been heavily linked with Schalke’s Ozan Kabak but club sources have dismissed talk of making a move for the Turkish defender.
Before the trip to Chelsea, Jurgen Klopp had decided that he was happy to push on with what he’s got. Klopp views Fabinho as effectively his fourth choice centre-back behind Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip. The manager sees French teenager Billy Koumetio, who enhanced his reputation in pre-season, as his fifth pick.
Not directly replacing Dejan Lovren is a risk given that he played 15 games last season. However, Klopp believes Fabinho is ideally suited to dropping from the holding midfield role into the back line when needs must and the win over Chelsea will only have strengthened that belief.
With Gomez and Matip both sidelined by minor injuries, the Brazil international was pressed into action alongside Van Dijk. All the talk pre-game was about how he would handle Timo Werner. Would he be a weak link? There was only one winner. Fabinho excelled. Time after time he was in the right place at the right time to deal with danger.
No Liverpool player could match his tally of four tackles, four interceptions and regaining possession on 12 occasions. He completed the most passes (86) with an accuracy of 97 per cent.
“Fab helped us a lot with the ball and with defending as well — a proper performance,” says Klopp. “He enjoyed it a lot and did outstandingly well.”
There’s a fear factor with Liverpool. Despite their hefty summer outlay, Chelsea showed little ambition. They were set up to try to frustrate the champions. When Liverpool dominate possession and territory like this, Klopp believes having a ball player like Fabinho in the back line can be a major asset. A first clean sheet in seven league games was protected by Alisson’s penalty save from Jorginho.
And a week after Salah took centre stage to torment Leeds, this time Mane did the damage as he put the finishing touch to a classy team move to open the scoring and then punished Kepa’s blunder. Mane’s intelligent run to latch on to Jordan Henderson’s pinpoint pass had led to Andreas Christensen’s red card.
Considering the fee payable to Bayern Munich for Thiago could rise to £27 million and the package agreed with Wolves for Jota amounts to £45 million, some will question why there’s been such a big focus on the financial impact of COVID-19 on Liverpool this summer.
Were they bluffing? No. For a start, it was the structure of the deals for Thiago and Jota which ultimately made them doable. Liverpool have only had to pay around £9.5 million in total in initial payments for the two players and part of that’s been covered by the sale of Ki-Jana Hoever to Wolves for £9 million potentially rising to £13.5 million. Watford would have wanted a much bigger down payment for Sarr.
What has changed for Liverpool is that they finally have some clarity about when revenues are likely to recover. The commercial side has picked up with CEO Billy Hogan recently informing club staff about record kit sales following the launch with Nike. They are up by more than 20 per cent.
And the hope is that the return of some match-day revenue isn’t far away as they work towards getting around 12,000 to 13,000 fans back inside Anfield for October’s visit of Sheffield United. Dialogue with supporters’ groups is continuing. The Centenary Stand, with its narrow gangways, is proving the trickiest in terms of trying to adhere to social distancing measures. More than 600 stewards are being trained on how to get fans in and out safely.
With Thiago and Jota on board, the focus between now and deadline day for Liverpool will be on offloading those on the fringes. The match-day squad at Stamford Bridge didn’t include Rhian Brewster, Xherdan Shaqiri, Marko Grujic, Harry Wilson, Loris Karius and Nathaniel Phillips. Divock Origi, an unused substitute at Stamford Bridge, is another player expected to attract interest.
One man who won’t be leaving is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Despite speculation linking him with a move following the arrival of Thiago, Klopp believes the England international still has a key role to play this season. Oxlade-Chamberlain is a couple of weeks away from fitness following the knee injury he suffered in pre-season.
Barring a dramatic change of heart, Georginio Wijnaldum is expected to stay put for the final year of his contract and then leave as a free agent next summer. “We’ve had a lot of good weeks in the past but this was a good one as well. I get that,” said Klopp.
That’s something of an understatement. Liverpool were as decisive and ruthless off the field as they were on it at Stamford Bridge.
