PODCAST: Brentford 3 Liverpool 1 - Match Reaction

Despite the result and the tone I enjoyed listening to this episode, thanks.

The discussion re Gakpo or a midfielder, Dave is right that it shouldn't be either or situation. But it is probably the reality, there's no way the money would normally be there for both. So onto John's point that the Gakpo money should have been used towards a midfielder - but what if it wasn't enough for one of the [so called] available midfielders we are interested in? Should that money have been saved until the summer which would mean neither a midfielder or Gakpo now?

14 minutes ago, Moo said:

Despite the result and the tone I enjoyed listening to this episode, thanks.

 

The discussion re Gakpo or a midfielder, Dave is right that it shouldn't be either or situation. But it is probably the reality, there's no way the money would normally be there for both. So onto John's point that the Gakpo money should have been used towards a midfielder - but what if it wasn't enough for one of the [so called] available midfielders we are interested in? Should that money have been saved until the summer which would mean neither a midfielder or Gakpo now?

That's a good point. Similarly, what if none of the midfielders on the list are available now? Keep the money until the summer or sign a forward that we need now?

None of us what the situation is in that room when they're discussing transfers. I still say the money should be there for both because we spent very little last summer but were in for Tchoemani until he knocked us back.

Absolutely no reason we shouldn't be able to make another signing if the player we want is available.

Also, Brownie does have a good audio set up so I take that back. The problem is his voice, not his equipment.

1 hour ago, Paul said:

“When”!!! 

Dream. Believe. Achieve. 

Seems clear that we have a budget and a wage limit. I think once Tchouameni knocked us back they spent that Money on Nunez, I dont believe we'd of bought both. The Nunes story about getting him next summer reaks of FSG having zero flexibility when it comes to the wage bill so we are trying to make moves for when Keita, Ox and Milner leave. Maybe that's the risk taking Klopps on about, just fucking spend when we need it knowing chancing it may pay off rather than chancing failure. I hate this writing off of seasons, it's a year of my life you bastards.

29 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

Seems clear that we have a budget and a wage limit. I think once Tchouameni knocked us back they spent that Money on Nunez, I dont believe we'd of bought both. 

I hear this a lot, but if that's true then it means there were no plans to replace Sadio. Yes, we did bring Diaz in early as Sadio's replacement, but we couldn't have gone into the season with only four strikers for three spots. To me, we were always buying a forward when Mané left because four wasn't enough (we now have six, which further re-enforces the point I think) so I don't think it was dependant on Tchouameni saying no.

That being said, we signed Darwin a week after Tchouameni joined Madrid so that does tie in with the theory. I just struggle to get on board with any notion that we wouldn't have signed a forward if Tchouameni had agreed to come here.

I think you're right Diaz was Manes replacement, done early because Spurs were going to get him. We Sign Tchouameni we still may of bought a forward but I'd be surprised if its a 60 million plus player like Nunez, more of an Origi, Minamino level replacement, obviously I'm speculating that we couldn't get the first choice midfielder so moved on our first choice forward.

The injuries to Diaz and Jota have thrown another Spanner in the works  I've no idea if Gakpo was the famous "unexpected opportunity arises" at the right time or he was always on the agenda. If he was I think we've been really bad at balancing the squad.

The thing with Klopp teams is when one bit goes wrong it all goes wrong - it is like a car engine when one part breaks, it affects the working of another part.

We are very much a unit that has to have all the different components working properly for the whole thing to work - a better analogy than a car engine may actually be clockworks - every cog needs to work properly because every cog has to work properly for the clock to show the right time.

The midfield is broken for all the reasons I and many others have repeated time and time again - we don't win enough challenges, we don't win enough 2nd balls, we lack mobility, athleticism and legs, we don't sense and snuff out danger, opposition players run past and through us, we leave too many gaps and too much space, we lose way too much from broken play, the press is dead because we can't physically do it and the physical failing to do it leads to it causing all sorts of knock on problems, our players in wrong places and opposition players able to get in places we don't want them  - and it is all causing the defence and the attack to suffer to different degrees and in different ways.

We won't fire properly or keep and tell the right time until we fix the midfield - and even any new forwards or even defenders we might or have added in would/will not be 100% effective no matter how good they are until those other engine parts or cogs are properly fixed.

I believe we need 3 new midfielders and if i was running things it would be 1 this month and 2 in the summer - the 1 this month won't totally fix us of course, but it might just improve things enough to get us Top 4 - my gut feel though is we need to accept the scale of the midfield rebuild for the massive job it is and accept that we are in transition and that the full fix can't be done this season and therefore full effectiveness won't be seen until next.

For me it needs to look like this Oxlade, Keita, Milner gone before start of next season.

Hendo takes up the Milner role of last couple of years or so.

3 new midfielders across this window and the summer in - midfielders with the attributes we sorely lack and who will be key to the core of our team for the next 5 years plus....ala the way the old front 3 were.

We start next season with the following as our midfield squad.

New signing

New signing

New signing

Thiago

Fabinho

Henderson

Jones

Bajcetic

Elliott

The big challenge between now and then and the real killer is that practically every team is going to do the same thing to us until we have put the fixes in and continue to punish us from broken play/beating us in challenges/winning 2nd balls and take advantage of our total inability to deal with the transitions that happen as a result.

We have to find a way in the short term to patch that up.