Not directly transfer news but in our final pre-season game we're starting with Moreno at LB and Milner in midfield for the first time (45mins vs Stoke aside) since the end of the 15/16 season. Is this a sign of what's to come and Klopp plans to solve our shortage of midfielders by keeping Moreno and moving Milner back into midfield?
Summer Transfer Window 2017/18 - Rumours & Signings
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That assumes we can get Keita next summer. You only have to look back to last summer and our pursuit of Dahoud to see that's far from certain - we were supposedly set on getting him and when we couldn't agree a deal all the talk was that we'd return this summer to sign him but he's now a Dortmund player. If Keita is as good as they say and has another season like last season then the fight for his signature will be far harder than this summer.
Milner doesn't solve our midfield problems either. We have just Henderson and Can as our only 2 midfielders that don't look out of place playing in a holding midfield role and even they aren't 100% natural holding midfielders. Even if you ignore Henderson's injury problems over the last 2 years, that's not enough. We're an injury away to being down to the barebones. We've seen Wijnaldum play the holding role a couple of times in pre-season but he doesn't look comfortable there and it's not a surprise - 12 months ago he was an attacking mid come forward. It's not even as if we've got a youngster that can fill in there now Stewart has been sold (not that he was young).
The fact that we've lost both Lucas and Stewart without replacing them also limits our options in the other 2 midfield roles too. With greater cover in the holding role, Henderson and Can suddenly become possible options in the other 2 midfield roles. As it is, with Lallana now out for 2-4 months we're left with Wijnaldum, Coutinho & Milner then the likes of Woodburn, Grujic and Ejaria. Given that Coutinho is also an option in the front 3 and the most obvious replacement to either Mane or Salah should they get injured, you're suddenly left with just Milner, Wijnaldum and 3 kids.
If we don't sign another midfielder this window I'd be surprised and more than a little worried. Ideally we need another wide forward to give us the luxury of playing Coutinho anywhere we want, a holding midfielder and a CB. Bare minimum we need a CM and a CB though.
Having Moreno and Robertson as our LB options doesn't concern me too much, neither does having Milner as an option in midfield - we were already short in midfield but Lallana's injury made things worse and could be the reason why Moreno stays/Milner moves into midfield. We need another CM though.
We need added quality at CB but numbers wise we're actually not too bad - Clyne, TAA, Gomez, Matip, Klavan, Moreno, Robertson + Milner and maybe even Sakho. Central midfield is the opposite, we have decent players in midfield but not enough of them.
I'm not a miserable git like you lot and I still think we'll sign a player or two. You only have to look at the fact that we were willing to spend upwards of £120m on a CB & CM to see that Klopp knows we need players in these positions and surely we've not let Lucas and Stewart go without any replacements.
I'm not a miserable git like you lot and I still think we'll sign a player or two. You only have to look at the fact that we were willing to spend upwards of £120m on a CB & CM to see that Klopp knows we need players in these positions and surely we've not let Lucas and Stewart go without any replacements.
No idea who'll be first choice LB but the rest is about right. Clyne and Matip are fine and Mignolet was as good as any keeper last season. If we could sign another CB and Lovren becomes 3rd choice then things look a lot brighter.
edit: As I keep saying though, our defensive issues aren't purely down to our back 4 and keeper. Look at our midfield - Henderson and Can are the most defensively minded midfielders we have and neither are defensive midfielders. Our first choice midfield 3 last season was Henderson, Lallana and Wijnaldum - a box to box midfielder and 2 attacking/creative midfielders. Klopp's idea is you defend in the oppositions half and stop the opposition getting at your defence but with so many attack minded players in our side, if we don't win the ball back early we're always going to have defensive issues.
edit: As I keep saying though, our defensive issues aren't purely down to our back 4 and keeper. Look at our midfield - Henderson and Can are the most defensively minded midfielders we have and neither are defensive midfielders. Our first choice midfield 3 last season was Henderson, Lallana and Wijnaldum - a box to box midfielder and 2 attacking/creative midfielders. Klopp's idea is you defend in the oppositions half and stop the opposition getting at your defence but with so many attack minded players in our side, if we don't win the ball back early we're always going to have defensive issues.
No, I don't think it was the same. It was clear that we were seriously in for both Keita and VvD - the latter we still might sign. I agree that we almost certainly won't spend that now though but not because we're unwilling to but because Red Bull have point blank refused to sell Keita and we're not going to pay £70m on any old midfielder now.
This will cheer some of you up:
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/spor...erpool-transfers-defender-virgil-van-13438462
Klopp basically saying that he's happy with the CB options we have and won't just sign any old CB. So it's pretty much VvD or nobody :/
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/spor...erpool-transfers-defender-virgil-van-13438462
Klopp basically saying that he's happy with the CB options we have and won't just sign any old CB. So it's pretty much VvD or nobody :/
I don't think I've post more than 5 times on RAWK since I got accused of working for Hicks & Gillet for calling the resident ITK out for being full of ****.
I should have added to my post, I'm certain Klopp doesn't truly believe what he's said. He's got form for being overly defensive about players and bigging them up when the reality is he thinks very differently. You only have to look at the opening day of last season - Moreno had a shocker and Klopp defended him to the hilt. Moreno barely kicked a ball again all season.
I should have added to my post, I'm certain Klopp doesn't truly believe what he's said. He's got form for being overly defensive about players and bigging them up when the reality is he thinks very differently. You only have to look at the opening day of last season - Moreno had a shocker and Klopp defended him to the hilt. Moreno barely kicked a ball again all season.
We took the same stance last summer and we moved forwards. We have to accept this is how Klopp works. He won't just sign a player for the sake of signing one and to be fair, we only have to look back to Rodgers time at Liverpool to see how pointless doing so can be. How many players did we sign that Rodgers didn't really want and how successful were they?
You have to take what Klopp says with a pinch of salt too. He was adamant 18 months ago that we didn't need a keeper and he was fully confident in Mignolet and Bogdan - a few months later we signed Karius. Most managers and Klopp in particular will always talk up their players even if they don't believe what they're saying. Until they're replaced Klopp's always going to say the players we have are amazing.
You have to take what Klopp says with a pinch of salt too. He was adamant 18 months ago that we didn't need a keeper and he was fully confident in Mignolet and Bogdan - a few months later we signed Karius. Most managers and Klopp in particular will always talk up their players even if they don't believe what they're saying. Until they're replaced Klopp's always going to say the players we have are amazing.
I think we need to put Klopp's comments into context here. Klopp hasn't just decided to come out with this comment. He was almost certainly asked by a reporter after the Bilbao game about our defensive options and hinting at signing a CB - what is Klopp going to say? "Have you seen Klavan? Of course we need a CB"? 99% of managers will publicly be supportive of their players to the death. As I said, look at Klopp's comments about Mignolet and Bogdan 18 months ago - he was full of praise for them and ruled out signing a keeper only to sign Karius a few months later. Same story with Moreno - after the opening day of last season Moreno took a battering from supporters and the press but Klopp was incredibly defensive of him, Moreno barely featured afterwards though.
Klopp didn't say we're not going to sign a CB, just that he won't sign somebody for the sake of it but that to wait until the end of the window before we complain about the strength of the squad.
Klopp didn't say we're not going to sign a CB, just that he won't sign somebody for the sake of it but that to wait until the end of the window before we complain about the strength of the squad.
Doesn't Klopp do that in what he said? He says we have the need (to sign a CB) but that we won't just sign anybody and they'll keep trying until the end of the window.
As chroniclard says, the press focus their articles on one tiny part of what Klopp said.
Yes. Some selected quotes from the article:
"We have the need, we have some but you don’t take any. It doesn’t work."
"You can imagine we still work on different things and we will see if it works."
"Let’s wait until August 31. Then we will talk about it (the strength of the squad). Why should we talk about this today?"
If we ended up not signing anybody else I'd concerned and it would certainly be an underwhelming transfer window. I accept what Klopp says regarding the emergence of a few youngsters improving the depth of our squad but in key areas we'd have left ourself short. At CB Gomez may have replaced Lucas as our 4th CB but that doesn't address the lack of quality in the 2nd and 3rd spots and taking into account the extra games we'll have, we're effectively lighter than last season. And holding midfield, we might have Milner & Coutinho (+ Woodburn & Ejaria) providing us great attacking midfield options this season but with Lucas and Stewart leaving we're now left with just 2 proper central midfielders that are semi comfortable playing the holding role.
That said, I accept that this is the manager Klopp is. Generally speaking we were all extremely happy when he got the job and we have to accept that his views on transfers are part of the package and if we want him as our manager we have to accept that too.
I should also add, 12 months ago I probably had the same concerns over our midfield and LB spots as I do our central defence and midfield this season and I think it's fair to say that Klopp proved he knew a little more than we all did. The way he converted Milner into a LB (he was no Roberto Carlos but he proved a solid option there) and Lallana & Wijnaldum (particularly the latter) into more orthodox midfielders showed that we weren't as desperate as we thought. Who knows, maybe Klopp's seen enough from Wijnaldum to believe he can drop a little deeper and be equally as effective in the holding role as he has been in the box to box role and I'm worried about nothing.
I think you have to look at our midfield in 2 parts, the holding role and the 2 more advanced roles. We've got lots of different options in the more advanced roles but the holding role we have just Henderson, who's missed a lot of football in the last 2 years, Can and if we're really desperate, Wijnaldum. When everybody is fit it looks like we're fine but semi serious injury to Can or Henderson and we're really short in that role. At least last season we had Lucas & Stewart in emergencies or on the bench.
If the Sky story is true then it only makes me even more confident that he'll stay. Most of the reports coming out of Spain are saying Barca are unwilling to pay over the top to sign him and if he's not going to push for a move then why on earth would Liverpool sell him?
Unless there's something specific wrote into his contract then the actual transfer request doesn't count for a great deal. It's the statement that he's released alongside the transfer request which might prove to be more important. He's done his best to burn all bridges and to make his position untenable. Southampton now are left with the option of cashing in on him or facing an uncertain future - I'm not sure whether he's the type of character that will continue this attitude if he doesn't get his transfer and even if he does knuckle down, will Southampton get a £50m+ offer for him next summer?
It all depends on just how strong Southampton's stance is. I don't believe for a second that they care about us tapping him up - every club, including themselves do it. The issue is that we've picked off their players every single summer and their fans really don't like it. They don't want to sell to us, certainly not without it appearing to be on their terms because their fans will turn on them. We already know VvD chose us over Chelsea and I imagine that if he was willing to join Chelsea it would have been done by now. If this drags on though and Southampton continue to refuse to sell to us, will VvD buckle and accept a move elsewhere?
He wouldn't be the first to be set on a move somewhere only to settle for another club. Owen initially refused to join Newcastle, holding out for a move back to Liverpool but didn't have the balls to push Real to the limit. Same story with Dempsey - he was set on joining us but when it got down to deadline day and we still hadn't upped our offer and Spurs paid the asking price he joined them. I suppose the difference this time is that we're willing to pay for VvD where as we were trying to pick up a bargain with the other 2.
He wouldn't be the first to be set on a move somewhere only to settle for another club. Owen initially refused to join Newcastle, holding out for a move back to Liverpool but didn't have the balls to push Real to the limit. Same story with Dempsey - he was set on joining us but when it got down to deadline day and we still hadn't upped our offer and Spurs paid the asking price he joined them. I suppose the difference this time is that we're willing to pay for VvD where as we were trying to pick up a bargain with the other 2.
Real do play around 60 games per season though. Instead of looking at how many games he played, look at how many he was injured for. According to transfermarkt - he was injured for 29 games last season and 15 the season before last or 209 days in 2 years.
Where's this report come from? As of a couple of hours ago a few journo's had responded to Duncan Castles rubbish by saying that Liverpool were completely unaware of reports that Barca were travelling to England to negotiate a deal for Coutinho and in fact Barca's reps were in Germany talking to Dortmund for Dembele.