Our midfield

[J-V]

31 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Same old, same old.

 

Like wading through treacle. We need to be faster, quicker, more aggressive, more progressive.

 

Waiting 12 months for Bellingham is a risk not worth taking. We're still crying out for 2 proper midfielders, this window.

We're not even going to sign Bellingham

[Creator Supreme]

Sign someone now, or write the season off, that's FSGs choice.

[an tha]

It has been said over and over again - i know i have said it many times too.

 

Our midfield is our one weak area and it really should be dealt with.

 

Yeah we have "more than enough midfielders" if you look at it purely from a numbers perspective....but it starts to look a lot thinner when you actually dig down.

 

Thiago - will inevitably miss at least a third of our games, maybe more....Is he injured again already?

 

Henderson and Fabinho - you'd expect will alongside Thiago make up the 'first choice 3' - both are prone to missing plenty of games though.....and who in squad is similar and can do the defensive job Fabinho can? Hendo is about closest and it creates other problems when he is moved in to that role.

 

So after those 3 we are looking at:

 

Keita - The arguments can and will rage about his quality.....his inability to stay fit and be available is of course well known....still massive doubts IMO....again unavailable today.

 

Jones - hopefully this is season he really shows his potential....ultimately still unproven as being absolutely top level/what we need.

 

Milner - He'll turn 37 in January.

 

Elliott - Clearly highly rated...who knows what he might have done last season had he not been hit by that injury - but as it stands is still unproven.

 

Carvalho - Again highly rated, but as of yet unproven at this level.

 

Oxlade - Utterly pointless, a waste of squad space and wages.

 

So whilst numbers are high - there are a fair few issues - namely a fairly high amount of quite injury prone players and unproven players.

 

Now of course the injury prone players may all see improvements in their ability to stay fit -

look at Matip last season as proof it can change.....and the kids may really kick on - but it just feels short to me, not quite enough, not quite right....the balance not there - the like for like cover not really there.

 

We have a boss squad - but for me midfield is the one area where we could and should be looking to improve....we would be nigh on perfect if we did. 

 

It is also about balance and like for like replacements for me - as i say who else can do what Fabinho does when he is out and not see us become unbalanced or significantly weaker?

 

We have seen it when Henderson drops in there and plays with Keita how Henderson's ability to cover Trent is just lost - Keita can't do it....

 

I actually feel we may see us go with a 4-2-4 especially against all the dross more this season....or maybe more 4-2-3-1

 

We were very unsettled in first half of season last season with our midfield, it was changing week to week and we just couldn't get our best 3 out for various reasons and we dropped more points than we did in second half of season when the best 3 were on the park a lot more .... hopefully we are a bit luckier at start and in first half of this season and a bit more settled in there....But it has not started well.....a poor first performance and questions already about the fitness and availability of the usual suspects as well as the blend.

 

 

[TD_LFC]

25 minutes ago, Creator Supreme said:

Sign someone now, or write the season off, that's FSGs choice.

It's Klopps choice I think.

[ManéMan]

Keita was fucking shit again. 

[Moo]

28 minutes ago, J-V said:

We're not even going to sign Bellingham

We're not even waiting to try and sign him.  Everyone knows it deep down. 

No excuse.

 

[Moo]

2 minutes ago, TD_LFC said:

It's Klopps choice I think.

I don't. Opinions eh?

[an tha]

There is absolutely no chance we will be buying a midfielder.

 

The manager said: "I know what will now come up, it's clear. We said we don’t need a midfielder because we have enough - and we actually have enough, but the problem now is we get punished for something that is not our responsibility really because things like this can happen. 

"Nobody could image that Curtis gets the thing he gets; it is nothing serious but he is a young boy and it is a kind of stress reaction. Bodies are like this. Naby is only ill and he will now be back definitely next week again. Oxlade happened early and now with Thiago that is, of course, not good and we will see. 

"Look, a transfer must make sense now and in the long-term; we have midfielders, we have still enough midfielders. It is not that we lack midfielders, but it’s just some of them are injured. 

"This is not a good situation, I don’t like it at all, but we have to see how we react on that - but for sure not panicking."

[Moo]

36 minutes ago, an tha said:

It has been said over and over again - i know i have said it many times too.

 

Our midfield is our one weak area and it really should be dealt with.

 

Yeah we have "more than enough midfielders" if you look at it purely from a numbers perspective....but it starts to look a lot thinner when you actually dig down.

 

The "numbers" are being bulked out by kids who should be nowhere near a first team hoping to win the PL and CL.  Yes have kids in there if they are good enough, we know the type we mean, we've seen them with our own eyes, we have one at right back. 

But these ones are not good enough yet.

Their development does not have to be blocked, they can go on loan and bring them back when they're closer to being good enough, if ever.

It's just an excuse.

[TD_LFC]

12 minutes ago, Moo said:

I don't. Opinions eh?

There has to be some logic to opinions though.

 

We wanted a midfielder this summer who went to Madrid, Klopp has always been about giving opportunities to players over signing someone for the sake of it, Klopp is as powerful as he has ever been.

 

At what point does Klopp sitting back passively having been told he can't have something he wants or needs make any sense?

 

If Klopp wants to sign a midfielder we'll sign a midfielder, if he doesn't we wont.

 

 

[lifetime fan]

Over a million quid a month we piss up the wall on Keita and Ox. 

[Moo]

2 minutes ago, TD_LFC said:

 

 

At what point does Klopp sitting back passively having been told he can't have something he wants or needs make any sense?

 

If Klopp wants to sign a midfielder we'll sign a midfielder, if he doesn't we wont.

 

 

 

It makes perfect sense. 

Klopp is not an agitator, he is all about togetherness, it's one of his biggest qualities. And I admire him for it.

[Moo]

4 minutes ago, lifetime fan said:

Over a million quid a month we piss up the wall on Keita and Ox. 

And get very little in return.  But it's what Klopp wants.

[aws]

1 hour ago, VERBAL DIARRHEA said:

To be fair we came within a point.

And have added Carvalho since. 

[Megadrive Man]

Who do people think we should bring in out of interest?

 

I think De Jong would be a good signing, but his massive wages would be a problem.

 

I don't think there are lots of great midfield options out there.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

1 hour ago, Captain Howdy said:

A fair point but can we keep doing it with that midfield. I honestly don’t think so especially with more competition coming through with Spurs and Chelsea in particular. Obviously here’s hoping but I just don’t see it.

Doubt we can to be honest.

[clangers]

I'd be surprised if we landed Bellingham next summer, there will be so many clubs after him. 

 

We have an ageing injury prone midfield that needed to be upgraded beginning last summer ideally. I doubt that Klopp would be opposed if we had the funds but we appear to be run on the basis of largely balancing the books most windows. We must be pretty close to that now?

 

I would have thought the season before last might have taught us a few lessons?

[Carvalho Diablo]

It seemed to me that early on today, particularly Thiago, was trying to dictate the play by spraying a few passes around.

 

Premature, surely a team has to earn that right, by first getting stuck in and winning the ball and imposing ourselves upon our opponents.

 

We are terribly short of ball winners. Fabinho is one but he is very slow around the pitch. Crying out for an aggressive young midfielder who's got self-confidence and who's keen on a tackle.

 

Get stuck in, win the ball, earn the right to play.

[Mil-ing Around]

37 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

 

 

Premature, surely a team has to earn that right, by first getting stuck in and winning the ball and imposing ourselves upon our opponents.

 

We are terribly short of ball winners.

 

Get stuck in, win the ball, earn the right to play.

Never a truer word spoken at any level of football. If you don't, you turn into Arsenal the late Wenger years.

 

Fabinho needs two energetic runners infront of him to make him effective. He can then read the game and mop up what those two players don't get.

 

I started this thread, as it was pretty obvious, even last season and the season before. It's been coming, especially after we didn't replace Wijnaldums legs and actually replaced him with a slower player in Thiago.

 

Henderson has alot of miles in his legs now, he just can't do what he did two or three years ago, which is hide his deficiencies with work rate and energy. He doesn't cover the ground quickly enough anymore to plug the gaps.

 

 

 

[3 Stacks]

This is what the club want to do, what are you supposed to say every time? It's always wait for targets and fine if you can't get them.

[Section_31]

1 hour ago, MegadriveMan said:

Who do people think we should bring in out of interest?

 

I think De Jong would be a good signing, but his massive wages would be a problem.

 

I don't think there are lots of great midfield options out there.

I don't think anyone we bring in needs to be great, it's be good if they were, but Oxlaide Chamberlain, Keita, Jones, Milner aren't anywhere near the level of where Liverpool should be looking right now in terms of quality. None of them would look out of place actually at Fulham.

 

The gulf in class between our midfield and the rest of the team is absolutely immense.

[an tha]

3 hours ago, Moo said:

The "numbers" are being bulked out by kids who should be nowhere near a first team hoping to win the PL and CL.  Yes have kids in there if they are good enough, we know the type we mean, we've seen them with our own eyes, we have one at right back. 

But these ones are not good enough yet.

Their development does not have to be blocked, they can go on loan and bring them back when they're closer to being good enough, if ever.

It's just an excuse.

I think Elliott and Jones would benefit from loans.

 

Carvalho i think can and will do ok for us this season.

 

The other big issue is of course how reliable our most experienced and best midfielders are and their back ups when it comes to being fit.

[Megadrive Man]

48 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

I don't think anyone we bring in needs to be great, it's be good if they were, but Oxlaide Chamberlain, Keita, Jones, Milner aren't anywhere near the level of where Liverpool should be looking right now in terms of quality. None of them would look out of place actually at Fulham.

 

The gulf in class between our midfield and the rest of the team is absolutely immense.

I agree!

 

There are lots of players that we could bring in that would be better than most of our midfield options. We could have got gini back on loan or we could have signed Bissouma from Brighton.

Players like Tielmens and Ruben Neves would be well within our financial reach if we wanted them and would be better than most of our current options. So this is what tells me that clearly we've decided that we want to wait until next summer. 

 

I think it will really cost us this year, especially now that Thiago is injured. 

 

 

[Megadrive Man]

6 minutes ago, an tha said:

I think Elliott and Jones would benefit from loans.

 

Carvalho i think can and will do ok for us this season.

 

The other big issue is of course how reliable our most experienced and best midfielders are and their back ups when it comes to being fit.

I don't think Jones will ever make it here.

 

I think he's just not quite good enough and I don't think he is suited to the way we want our midfield to play.

[TheHowieLama]

Tielemans and Ruben Neves to upgrade our midfield adding athleticism and bite?

 

Erm, no.