It won't be a big loss providing we don't have big injury problems but all it'll take is 1 injury for us to need to have him on the bench just to have an option, even if he's not used.
The striker situation is always going to be tricky because of the likes of Firmino and Salah and I've always been against spending any significant sum on an out and out striker for that very reason. As I said earlier, one way or another Origi will go before the start of next season and it's very possible Sturridge will be gone too - his contract is up in the summer and although there's talk that we've offered him a new deal, I'd be surprised if what we've offered him (both in terms of money and playing opportunities) will be enough for Sturridge to want to stay around. We're going to have to make some sort of attacking additions in the summer and I think we need to have at least 1 natural centre forward in the squad just to offer us something different. The question is whether we sign a prospect that'll be happy to be a squad player and then sign another flexible wide attacker that will free Firmino and Salah up to play more centrally or whether we go big on somebody like a Werner. Although Werner's not played much in wide areas in the last couple of seasons and primarily played through the middle, I think history has shown us not to pay too much attention to where somebody has played before when Klopp signs them. Werner to me looks very much like a right footed Salah in terms of the positions and roles within our side that he could play - you could imagine him playing high and wide on the left in the way Salah plays on the right when we play a 4-3-3 and equally you can see him playing as a central striker too. Being able to play in a couple of different positions makes it so much easier to bring in a quality attacker than if they could only play as a centre forward.
The striker situation is always going to be tricky because of the likes of Firmino and Salah and I've always been against spending any significant sum on an out and out striker for that very reason. As I said earlier, one way or another Origi will go before the start of next season and it's very possible Sturridge will be gone too - his contract is up in the summer and although there's talk that we've offered him a new deal, I'd be surprised if what we've offered him (both in terms of money and playing opportunities) will be enough for Sturridge to want to stay around. We're going to have to make some sort of attacking additions in the summer and I think we need to have at least 1 natural centre forward in the squad just to offer us something different. The question is whether we sign a prospect that'll be happy to be a squad player and then sign another flexible wide attacker that will free Firmino and Salah up to play more centrally or whether we go big on somebody like a Werner. Although Werner's not played much in wide areas in the last couple of seasons and primarily played through the middle, I think history has shown us not to pay too much attention to where somebody has played before when Klopp signs them. Werner to me looks very much like a right footed Salah in terms of the positions and roles within our side that he could play - you could imagine him playing high and wide on the left in the way Salah plays on the right when we play a 4-3-3 and equally you can see him playing as a central striker too. Being able to play in a couple of different positions makes it so much easier to bring in a quality attacker than if they could only play as a centre forward.