The midfield
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Long-term we need more than one addition though - like others have pointed out, Milner and Ox are done after this season, Keita might leave too and I personally think if Jones doesn’t find his way in the team this season, he should go elsewhere. Plus Fabinho, Hendo and Thiago are not getting any younger and even our first-choice midfield can at times lack athleticism and bite. There are lots of issues to sort out and Bellingham alone would not be nearly enough to fix everything.
It's likely Jota and Konate would have started against Fulham if they were fit. Plus Elliott was considered to be good enough to be a starter at the start of last season with the performances to justify it. So it's not like we aren't evolving the team.
You can't blame age for our performance on Saturday. It was just a bad attitude and when it comes down to it, not giving Fulham enough respect.
I broadly agree.
We also have Morton and Bajcetic coming through - so a midfield group of Jones, Elliot, Morton, Bajcetic with potentially Carvalho capable of playing there and Bellingham seemingly the priority - that’s a pretty good starting point.
Fabs and - and I get it, this is questionable - Kieta have a few more years left in them (and you have to look at it like that because we’re trying to extend his contract).
You can see why adding Tchouameni made sense - so we’d be wanting someone with that sort of skill set, attributes & high potential.
I agree there’s a question about Jones - he needs to step up this season or we should look to sell and I’m all for selling Kieta (Klopp clearly isn’t) and replacing him because of his inconsistent form and persistent injuries.
This.
The first thing we need to address is not signing a new midfielder - it’s getting the ones we currently have playing better and at the level they should be and are well capable of.
If injuries force us to bring forward plans l, etc - great - but there’s a high chance anyone we sign, even if we’d signed them 6 weeks ago - would spend the next 6 months integrating.
We should just bite the bullet and buy Bellingham now. It's the obvious solution.
Our players aren’t stupid, they’ve experienced enough to know you can’t take any game lightly in this league….I do believe a big part for the flat performance was due to Fulham having fresher legs…far fresher.
The midfield were so sluggish in everything they did, tracking back, so many simple passes going astray…that’s not down to complacency….it’s the fitness and durability.
That is if you believe he is the solution to all our midfield problems, and right now I don't think he is.
We surely do need more in midfield but there was a broader problem which Klopp spoke about the need to identify in his post match interview.
I’m not if he thinks it’s complacency, tiredness, inability to raise their game for a lesser opponent or what but the back 4 were shite too so I don’t think midfield is the entire issue. The malaise was right across the team.
I’m not if he thinks it’s complacency, tiredness, inability to raise their game for a lesser opponent or what but the back 4 were shite too so I don’t think midfield is the entire issue. The malaise was right across the team.
It's very exciting to be linked with the likes of Bellingham who are are such gifted dribblers and posses great individual flair but once they get here,it's likely they'll be yet another conservative "system" player. For a hundred mil I think not, but it isn't my money
I have been trying to find out more about him, played 50 games last season and 39 the year before. So fitness wise he is alright. The clips I have seen of him even against man city, he has the brains and trickery, and seems to come in deep to do defensive work, even seen a clip of him do that Gini type move against Barca. Yes I want him, but I honestly think he would goto City if Silva leaves them. He looks a proper city player, plus he is tall, and fast, and an eye for the pass. We would be stupid not to get this guy, if we look to the future...him, Fab, and Jude would be the Bollox. Only 38M pounds.
You have me convinced.
Its seems clear we would have, if Dortmund were actually minded to sell him this transfer window - which they aren’t.
He is not gonna be enough for even next season, and right now we need someone older than our young lings and younger than the likes of Nabi etc al. Matheus Nunes fits our current need.
Here we go - some Twitteratti type links Nunes to Liverpool to get click or views or whatever and two weeks later we’re in full on “we’re doomed if we don’t sign this guy!!!! He’s the bestest player eeeeevvvaaaaa!!!!!”.
Guy’s likely after a new contract, it’s been called rubbish and he was linked with Wolves immediately after us.
Not happening @moron - try not to take it too badly when it doesn’t happen.
Guy’s likely after a new contract, it’s been called rubbish and he was linked with Wolves immediately after us.
Not happening @moron - try not to take it too badly when it doesn’t happen.
See… this is what I mean about being a hysterical fanny - we’re now doomed, not only this season, but next season if we don’t sign some player none of us knew existed 6 weeks ago, even if we spend a fortune signing Jude Bellingham.
Not quite sure why you’ve chosen this hill to die on. Certain posters may be a bit more err expressive shall we say than others in this matter but broadly most fans agree we should’ve bought a midfielder this summer.
“Well, alright smarty pants, who should we have signed” and “We have 45 midfielders already including Ox and Morton” are not valid responses.
It will just be a matter of money.
I’m sure it will be - but I don’t want us becoming the c**ts we laughed at Barca becoming over Coutinho, by madly overpaying for someone just to get them 12 months early.
And my tongue is a little bit in my cheek - I have no problem with us buying anyone and I’ll be as happy as anyone (well maybe not as happy as a couple of posters), it’s more about how certain people get wound up about “MUST HAVE” players.
I’m more suggesting - no-one had ever heard of, mentioned or suggested Nunes on here till a few weeks ago - now he’s being positioned as our one and only saviour.
That’s not a bad thing - it’s more of a commentary on the “human nature” of the madness of transfer angst.
It happens every year - half the players we get linked to don’t move, etc
Is it partly driven by people looking at Chelsea & Arsenal signing loads - I don’t know.
Im also working of the basis that Klopp knows what he’s doing and their is sone sort of plan rather than him going all Wengerish.
That and I like the way we do transfer business now - compared to the old way of signing loads of shite that sort of got us excited before disappointing the fuck out of us.
Maybe I just can’t get excited about whether we do or do not sign another over-priced moron with bad tattoos and a shit haircut anymore.
Blame Torres - the bastard.
A week ago we had the best side we’ve ever seen after beating shitty. Now we are doomed. Something happened in training this past week. In the charity shield we looked energetic and crisp. This weekend it was flat and lazy.
Going bat shit crazy about midfielders is bloody weird to me. We know who we are getting and when. We’ve spent 8 weeks moaning about certain players not going anywhere and had suitable offers come in, no doubt we’d have sold them and bought in a whorthwhile replacement. That didn’t happen so we are moving on to plan B.
This is our only quite spell of the season. I’m okay having to choose from Fabinho, Henderson, Keita, Milner, Elliott and Carvalho for now. We can manage between now and early September. If Thiago is out for a lengthy period of time then we may need a rethink but it needs to be bringing in actual targets we have identified and not just getting anyone in just for the sake of getting anyone in. We would end up in the same shitty scenario in a few years time having a sub-par player we just can’t get rid of which sends people here mental.
Going bat shit crazy about midfielders is bloody weird to me. We know who we are getting and when. We’ve spent 8 weeks moaning about certain players not going anywhere and had suitable offers come in, no doubt we’d have sold them and bought in a whorthwhile replacement. That didn’t happen so we are moving on to plan B.
This is our only quite spell of the season. I’m okay having to choose from Fabinho, Henderson, Keita, Milner, Elliott and Carvalho for now. We can manage between now and early September. If Thiago is out for a lengthy period of time then we may need a rethink but it needs to be bringing in actual targets we have identified and not just getting anyone in just for the sake of getting anyone in. We would end up in the same shitty scenario in a few years time having a sub-par player we just can’t get rid of which sends people here mental.
Maybe we could move Trent into midfield instead.
I am not concerned about the result of the Fulham game. You'll get bad results, it happens.
I could blame both Fulham goals on bad refereeing that cost us, but I am sure we will have games where bad refereeing decisions that will go in our favour, and we win games as a result.
I think we need a CM this season , the Liverpool recruitment has a list of targets other than Jude. I think we stand a better chance of winning the league with an extra CM or we might go into October struggling to cobble together 3 players for the MF roles.
I could blame both Fulham goals on bad refereeing that cost us, but I am sure we will have games where bad refereeing decisions that will go in our favour, and we win games as a result.
I think we need a CM this season , the Liverpool recruitment has a list of targets other than Jude. I think we stand a better chance of winning the league with an extra CM or we might go into October struggling to cobble together 3 players for the MF roles.
But thats always the case, "longterm". Here and now we need one top quality addition. We've still got good quality there, despite the injuries, we don't need to panic buy, which is what it'll be if we'd already decided to wait for our top targets.
And Gary, I'm not dressing it up in any way, you said we'd signed one midfielder since 2018, which is selective bullshit to fit your "it's grim" narrative. We needed a midfielder, it's now been magnified because of four injuries. Thats the only reason its grim, regardless of previous injury records, I don't think we were expecting to lose four at once.
I don't know what the answer is, we all know the pros and cons of our transfer policy. The last time we had an injury crisis, we ended up playing two reserves we already had, ahead of a panic buy.
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Well, even klopp was saying we might need to do something now that Thiago got injured (again), so yeah, fingers crossed we do something.
And it doesn't have to be perfect all the time, like Bellingham/Tchoumaeni who is/was the first choices, sometimes you need a stop gap.
With Thiago made of paper and Hendo getting on, that player might even become a regular.
Klopp is also known to be loyal, but there is a backside to all traits, sometimes a bit of Rafa's cold ruthlessness is also needed. I am thinking about Keita and Ox here. Too late now perhaps, but something needs moving on.
And it doesn't have to be perfect all the time, like Bellingham/Tchoumaeni who is/was the first choices, sometimes you need a stop gap.
With Thiago made of paper and Hendo getting on, that player might even become a regular.
Klopp is also known to be loyal, but there is a backside to all traits, sometimes a bit of Rafa's cold ruthlessness is also needed. I am thinking about Keita and Ox here. Too late now perhaps, but something needs moving on.
"Liverpool are keen on a swap deal for Inter Milan's Croatia midfielder Marcelo Brozovic, 29, with Brazil forward Roberto Firmino, 30, or Guinea midfielder Naby Keita heading the other way. (Calciomercato - in Italian)"
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