Judging by Klopp's press-conference it doesn't sound like Gravenberch's injury is too bad. He said he's out of tomorrow and Saturday's game and then we'll see from there. We've got Europa League next midweek so if not then, hopefully by the City game he'll be back.
The Liverpool Club Thread. **No Spoilers**
- Thread starter BaZ87
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Michael Edwards would want full control to consider Liverpool return
Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, ready to put former sporting director in charge of club as they prepare one final attempt to lure him back to Anfield
www.thetimes.co.uk
I've seen a lot of comments on this on twitter and seems as if people only read headlines and not what Klopp actually said:
Lijnders already confirmed that he's out until after the internationals - our next game after then is approx 4 weeks away so I doubt he'll miss many (if any) games after then.
All confirmed in a statement from FSG now.
A key detail in the statement is FSG's intentions of buying another club (maybe clubs) too. This has been rumoured on and off for sometime now with reports that they were trying to buy a club in Brazil a season or two ago.
A key detail in the statement is FSG's intentions of buying another club (maybe clubs) too. This has been rumoured on and off for sometime now with reports that they were trying to buy a club in Brazil a season or two ago.
Injury update from Klopp in his press-conference. Konate probably won't be back for Sunday but it'll be tight, Gravenberch is back, Jones could be back from Brighton after the internationals with Trent & Jota a week later. I don't want to temp fate as he's been almost back every month since September but Bajcetic hopefully isn't far away too - Klopp said he's doing his own pre-season at the moment and will join full training after the internationals.
I don't think it'll be quite like City with multiple clubs dotted around the world. I suspect it'll be one club, whether that's a smaller club in Europe that they'll use as a finishing school for players before moving on to Liverpool if and when they're ready or whether they look somewhere like Brazil for greater access to that market. The latter had been rumoured a year or so back with some reports suggesting FSG tried to buy a Brazilian side.
The biggest take away from the press-conference today is that nearly every Liverpool fan and journalist covering the club needs to redo our coaching licenses. I think we can safely say we're not going to be playing 4-2-3-1 next season which is somewhat of a relief as we're packed with midfielders that can play as an 8 but not so many 6's.
The football was terrible but the dark arts were something to behold. Watching it over in the States with loads of Colombian’s and to my surprise it was the middle aged women getting the most animated, celebrating throw-ins and cursing at the officials, Uruguay players and supporters every 5 seconds. I ended up recording the final 30 seconds but can’t post it due to the language.
Edit: they’ve just said that the fighting started when some of the Uruguay players families were attacked by Colombian fans.
Edit: they’ve just said that the fighting started when some of the Uruguay players families were attacked by Colombian fans.
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The issue I have with posts like this is you have this assumption that spending money equals strengthening. It is of course why Chelsea have done so well in the last 2 years.....oh wait. Spending money on the wrong players is easy but it won't improve the side, I'm sorry to tell you this. It would be far easier for the club to go out and spend £40m on somebody the recruitment team don't think is good enough than not to spend at all - it would shut you and the 14 year olds on twitter up for a start but we'd have blown that money and it would make actually improving the side harder in the long run.
You talk about us pursuing alternatives to Zubimendi but I assume you understand that suitable alternatives need to be available? Or are we coming back to my first point where you just want us to sign anybody because you believe that buying the wrong player somehow helps? You mention a lack of ambition but if Zubimendi doesn't **** the bed at the last minute would the club have shown ambition?
The club are clearly trying to improve the side but they also have a very different approach to what you want and Chelsea have shown which is just to sign anybody and everybody. This isn't something new. It's the same approach the club have had for 10 years - if they're not convinced they have the right, long term option then they won't spend for the sake of it unless they're desperate. Every summer the same fans act shocked and offended by this despite the fact that this transfer strategy has coincided with the clubs most successful period in modern history.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by giving van den Berg a chance? If you simply mean keeping him as a 5th CB then I'd agree but he won't be more than that. In VVD, Konate, Quansah and Gomez we've got enough quality there, you just would like a bit more cover due to Quansah's relative inexperience and Ibou's proneness to pick up the odd niggle. Long term we need to be planning for life after VVD but van den Berg isn't that.
As for Bajcetic, it's a difficult one. After 18 months out injured he needs to have a season of regular football, which he's not going to get this season for us however we'd probably be a midfielder short if we let him go without anybody coming in.
I'm a bit cautious to keep mentioning a 6 because it's starting to confuse how we're actually going to play (at least from what we saw in pre-season). We'll play with 2 sitting midfielders and 1 advanced midfielder. Although some of our midfielders can and at times will play in both roles, to simplify things I look at it as Elliott and Szobo as your main 2 for the advanced midfield position and then Jones, Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Endo and Bajcetic for the 2 deeper roles. Bajcetic will get some game time I have no doubt but not enough. Mac Allister, Jones and Gravenberch are all ahead of him right now for those 2 sitting roles.
As for van den Berg, he's only playing in emergencies. As I said, I'd like a 5th CB in case of emergencies so I'd be comfortable with him hanging around but he's unlikely to feature.
If spending doesn't necessarily mean strengthening then how did you determine that all our rivals have strengthened? You've clearly drawn the conclusion that spending = strengthening.
It's easy to say there are alternatives but name them. I'm sure there is more than one DM around that can do what we need but you need to identify them, they need to be available and affordable. I have no doubt the club have a list of a dozen+ names for every position in the eventuality that they need to sign somebody there. Whether the club ultimately follow through in making those signings will be determined by a combination of factors - the quality and number of players we have in that position, the quality of the potential replacements, their potential to improve and the price.
Just scrolling through transfermarkt's most valuable DM's in the world and you'll see the that outside 2-3 players, that are clearly unattainable, the's very little obvious top quality players out there. You've got a choice of fairly mediocre players (many of whom would cost a bomb) who you hope can do a job until you find somebody better or taking gambles on youth.
With Endo + the change of system and playing 2 of Mac Allister, Jones, Gravenberch & Szobo deeper, I'm not sure the club are in a desperate position where they need to go out and spend £60m on Cheick Doucoure from Palace. I think we're in a position where it makes better sense to wait until we can find the long term option rather than accept 2nd rate players or gamble on somebody.
I've never said the approach is perfect and have numerous times over the years said we've missed out on players due to being overly cautious but you cannot measure the success of the strategy the club have based on individual cases but based on what they've done over time.
You say we missed out on CL qualification the other year due to this approach, I say it resulted in us signing VVD & Alisson which contributed to us winning the CL and PL. I'd bet my left nut that you (I was too btw) were saying we had to sign a CB when we missed out on VVD in summer 2017. Had the club listened to us then maybe we'd have ended up with Jonny Evans and very likely the VVD signing wouldn't have happened 6 months later.
As I said above, it's not perfect but it's a strategy that has (on the whole) served the club well and I can never get my head around supporters getting wound up that the club aren't buying players that they clearly don't feel are good enough.
City have signed one relatively unproven attacker and let a far better one (on paper at least) leave - how have they strengthened or added players where they need?
No, they've decided (if it proves to be the case) that there was only one attainable long term solution for the role that they were convinced by. Had there been others out there (and the fact that you nor I can think of anybody, shows you how slim the pickings are) then they would have had other options that they'd have moved on to. Very quickly off the top of my head, when we signed Wijnaldum he was signed after we couldn't do a deal for the Polish midfielder at Udinese(?). If there were other options the club believed could do the job then they'd move for them, I promise you they're not just doing this to wind you up.
I don't think you understand what the strategy is by what you've said. Yes we've been trying to sign a DM for 2 years (not 3) but we did sign one last season
The issue is you want a top class one (I do too) but fail to acknowledge that there isn't one available. So instead you're going to complain that club either won't offer £1bn for Rodri at City or sign a Unicorn.You want the club to go out and spend £50m on some foreign name that all the plums on twitter will tell you is amazing and when it turns out he's not, you'll want the club to do the same in 12 months. The club doesn't work like that. After the Endo signing we're no longer in a situation where we're desperate so they're not just going to gamble on somebody or settle for 2nd rate players. If they can't sign the right player then they won't sign anybody and this is the same strategy that resulted in us signing VVD, Alisson, Robertson and Fabinho.
Yes it just so happens that we only had to wait 6 months before we finally landed VVD however we needed a CB before that too and were desperate when Klopp binned Sakho, so much so that we signed an Endo to tide us over rather than spend £30m on Jonny Evans. We spent 12 months with Milner at LB before we signed Robertson. We were after a DM for at least 1 if not 2 summers before we signed Fabinho. As I've said, it's not perfect and we are too cautious at times but the way we work hasn't changed.
Anyway we're just going round in circles so I'll leave it there.
And he's the perfect example of why the club are overly cautious. We pay huge wages and as a result, when signings fail it becomes near impossible to shift them, making it harder to then sign a replacement.Naby Keita enters the room
Quansah's signed a new deal and reports last night suggest that talks over a new deal for Ibou are happening too. Not the big 3 contract renewals we're hoping to hear about but important ones never the less. Quansah's got a massive future ahead of him and the sky's the ceiling for Ibou. He had a little dip at the end of last season but at his best he's as good as anybody about. His physical attributes (possibly even greater than VVD's) mean he can dominate almost every forward he comes up against 1v1 - if he can improve his concentration at times (and score a few more goals) then he can be the long term successor to VVD for us.
News this morning that Alisson's going to be out until after the November International break. The worst part of that news is finding out there's another ****ing International break!
On a more serious note, this injury will now mean he'd have missed around 20 games with muscle injuries since the start of last season. That's impressive for a keeper.
On a more serious note, this injury will now mean he'd have missed around 20 games with muscle injuries since the start of last season. That's impressive for a keeper.