Who would you buy?

[Limiescouse]

I think any delay in getting in new players could be down to a few factors. Copa America, AFCON, lack of major player movement generally, and a desire by Klopp to give returning loanees and academy players a proper opportunity to show him whether they're ready and capable of making the step up. The squad is generally in a very healthy position, which allows the club to be patient. For the first time in years there are no glaring holes in (/obvious upgrades to) the first team.

So to that point, what are the thoughts on Wilson now after a few pre-season games? Do we think we're seeing enough from him to suggest the can fill an important role?

 

[MarcusBerglund]

We need to improve the squad. Our starting eleven is on par with the best in the world, but you can't play 60+ matches only with your best eleven in modern football.
LFC lost Moreno and Sturridge.

At the moment and at least for a season Larouci and Lewis are not and will not even be close at the required level of playing for a team fighting for the title and trying to win the CL. Milner is not the right option to play left back, especially when other teams play specialist winger vs. him. Just look at the way Zaha played vs. Milner, looked like there was no resistance at this situation and that is what happens when you don't have a specialist full back to cover you /happily for us Palace also did not have enough cover at GK and we won, but that is another reminder/.

We have a lot of players with poor injury record - Gomez, Lallana, Lovren, AOC, Matip. Sadly even Naby Keita is slowly going into the same group.

Matip has never played more than 29 PL games for Liverpool and every season since he signed for us he missed at least two months because of injuries.

Lovren has also never played more than 29 PL games for Liverpool and he has never managed to stay injury free and start 6 consecutive games for LFC.

Joe Gomez best season was in 2017/2018 when he played 23 PL games, after 4 seasons at Liverpool he has played just 53 PL games for LFC /that is exactly 13 games per season/. The talent is there, the quality is also there, but injuries happen every season and it is not a coincidence.

Lallana had two decent seasons for the club, but from 2017 till now he has played 26 games in the PL /only 7 starts/. And at the moment he is injured again, and competitive football is 3 week away, but still the same story.

Keita missed almost 3 months last season because of injuries. And at the moment he is still injured, I am not sure if he will have a proper preseason.
Shaqiri is injured too and there is a growing probability he won't be ready for the start of the season.

Mane is in top 8 of the players who played most minutes in Europe for the past 2 seasons, Salah has played more than him.
Firmino had a long and exhausting season and for a first time in his Liverpool career he missed more than a month because of injuries. On the top of that Bobby played almost every minute of Copa America.

There is no adeqaute cover for Robertson and in attacking areas. Kent and Wilson are good players, but if we aim for the highest prizes, they won't be the solution.
Sadly the club and some fans had the same hopes for players such as Klavan, Karius, Solanke, Ings, Ojo, Markovic, Ward.
Last season was the prime example of improving not only the first 11, but also the squad - Keita, Fabinho, Shaqiri, Alisson.
I don't want the club to spend money for the sake of it, but there are holes in the squad that must be fixed.
For example player like Ryan Sessegnon is available and with one strike we can solve two probles - left footer who can cover two positions on our left side.
Phillip Max is also a decent option for cover of TAA and Robbo.
Timo Werner is alailable for less then 35 mln. pounds.
Signing two young and promising players for 55-60 mln. pounds at today's crazy market is a no brainer, epsecially when LFC need bodies.
Now you can continue with the mantra that Wilson, Kent and Brewster are enough for us to win the title, but they are not. Rhian has the talent and hopefully he will become a great player for us, but at the moment he has never started for the club in any competition and nobody knows what will be his season. I expect that he will mostly start in cup competitions and Klopp will introduce him slowly as he does usually.
And every journos /with connections to the club/ wrote that if the right offer arrives Kent /club is asking 10-12 mln. pounds/ and Wilson /25 mln. pounds is the quoted number/ will be sold. In my opinion they are expendable for Klopp and that means only one thing, Juergen doesn't think that they can reach the level of Salah and Mane. As I said Brewester is a different story /it is enough to read how many times Klopp praised him which is not very usual from our manager/, but he will need time and guidance /again Klopp's words./

 

[Sweeting]

We need to improve the squad. Our starting eleven is on par with the best in the world, but you can't play 60+ matches only with your best eleven in modern football.
LFC lost Moreno and Sturridge.

At the moment and at least for a season Larouci and Lewis are not and will not even be close at the required level of playing for a team fighting for the title and trying to win the CL.

That's OK, neither was Moreno.

 

[ILLOK]

That's OK, neither was Moreno.

Or Sturridge.

And neither is Werner or Sessegnon.

And I'm sure if we'd had this discussion last year it would've been laughable to suggest Origi is good enough to win the CL.

 

[Limiescouse]

That's OK, neither was Moreno.

Zaha is one of the best open space dribblers in the world. Using one time when he went by Milner as a reason for Milner not being good enough there is nuts. In that situation I dont expect TAA or Clyne to have done much better. It was also not something else he was able to replicate for the rest of the game, and Milner more than made up for it with the rest of his game.

 

[ILLOK]

Could've sworn I saw Milner bossing it at LB in a CL semi-final. I must have been dreaming.

 

[Sweeting]

Zaha is one of the best open space dribblers in the world. Using one time when he went by Milner as a reason for Milner not being good enough there is nuts. In that situation I dont expect TAA or Clyne to have done much better. It was also not something else he was able to replicate for the rest of the game, and Milner more than made up for it with the rest of his game.

Zaha rips us apart everytime we play Palace. He took Milner apart last season, Trent the year before - people pretend he's an average player because Moyes mismanaged him at Utd but he is easily the best player outside the top 6 and would start for everyone besides us and City (but he would be heavily used in rotation)

 

[Zinedine Biscan]

So to that point, what are the thoughts on Wilson now after a few pre-season games? Do we think we're seeing enough from him to suggest the can fill an important role?

If it was up to me I'd absolutely keep Wilson as part of the squad this season. Everything I've read covering our preseason though has suggested he's expected to leave on loan or be sold, though.

 

[ILLOK]

Back to the actual topic at hand, if I was picking a winger from the league to play second fiddle I'd probably look no further than Anderson. His workrate is phenomenal, but he has some quality too.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1135222370409623553

 

[MarcusBerglund]

Could've sworn I saw Milner bossing it at LB in a CL semi-final. I must have been dreaming.

Yep, but the difference was that Barca played without recognised wingers against us. And when Valvered played Semedo /as a winger and while he is a full back, but a player with great speed/ Milner struggled for several minutes and Klopp answered by playing Gomez. on the left.
If you think that Milner won't struggle against typical wingers next season, you'd beter replay the moment when Zaha passed him as there is no one there.

 

[ILLOK]

Yep, but the difference was that Barca played without recognised wingers against us. And when Valvered played Semedo /as a winger and while he is a full back, but a player with great speed/ Milner struggled for several minutes and Klopp answered by playing Gomez. on the left.
If you think that Milner won't struggle against typical wingers next season, you'd beter replay the moment when Zaha passed him as there is no one there.

If you think the 'typical' winger is as good as Zaha at running with the ball, you should replay some of Zaha's matches.

Milner has played at fullback 50 odd times for us and has rarely let us down.

 

[Nikola]

Back to the actual topic at hand, if I was picking a winger from the league to play second fiddle I'd probably look no further than Anderson. His workrate is phenomenal, but he has some quality too.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1135222370409623553

Between Zaha and Anderson, I'd definitely go for Anderson (but I don't think that a "playmaking" winger is what Klopp needs at the moment). I liked him at Lazio, too, and I did think he'd be playing for a much stronger side at this point of his career. Probably has only himself to blame, though, I'm not sure if he had any off-the-pitch issues while at Lazio but he didn't quite apply himself on it. Pellegrini changed that in the second half of last season, Anderson's still a bit selfish at times but he's slowly taken on that "one brilliant attacking player that West Ham have got" mantle. That said, between Fornals and Haller arriving, I doubt he'll be the only good attacker they have.

 

[redbj]

Scientifically, sure. To all intents and purposes, he is not.

These pre-season sessions will be more taxing on the body than whatever goes on during the season. You're simply far more likely to pick up a virus during the winter. It's that simple.

Strenuous exercise will increase that risk, but there is no way around that for professional footballers. Klopp gave these players plenty of rest in the january and they were still picking up viruses. They did not pick up viruses due to an overly high workload, in fact IIRC a lot of these viruses were picked up in the breaks between matches.

Yeah I think a few came back from Dubai with a virus.

Someone even tried to put two and two together and blame the citeh owners!

 

[redfanman]

Yeah I think a few came back from Dubai with a virus.

Someone even tried to put two and two together and blame the citeh owners!

At least 3 or 4 of the players had it. Milner, Gini, VVD and Bobby.

 

[gasband]

Looking at the lack of incomings probably, I would buy a vowel, solve the puzzle and win the wheel of Fortune

 

[cynicaloldgit]

Looking at the lack of incomings probably, I would buy a vowel, solve the puzzle and win the wheel of Fortune

We’re saving all our money for next year.

#Mbappe2020

 

[MinniMo]

We’re saving all our money for next year.

#Mbappe2020

Only problem there is, as fast as we save our pennies for him - his price rises by £££'s. Admit though, he is one player I would love us to get.

 

[Kopstar]

We could try the following:

Bring in Philipp Max (£20m), get Ousmane Dembele on loan (Barca must need to get wages off the books), and agree a Keita-type deal for Jadon Sancho for next year (when we give Dembele back). Then that could be it.

 

[Anfield rd Dreamer]

We could try the following:

Bring in Philipp Max (£20m), get Ousmane Dembele on loan (Barca must need to get wages off the books), and agree a Keita-type deal for Kylian Mbappe for next year (when we give Dembele back). Then that could be it.

Fixed it for you.

 

[Sweeting]

We could try the following:

Bring in Philipp Max (£20m), get Ousmane Dembele on loan (Barca must need to get wages off the books), and agree a Keita-type deal for Jadon Sancho for next year (when we give Dembele back). Then that could be it.

Or even better - bring in Philipp Max and don't sign Dembele:well done:

 

[Kopstar]

Or even better - bring in Philipp Max and don't sign Dembele

Do you not rate Dembele, think his personality is toxic, both?

 

[Sweeting]

Do you not rate Dembele, think his personality is toxic, both?

Personality for me, he struggles to fit in anywhere he goes and has taken on a party lifestyle. I've seen nothing to suggest he has matured or is even attempting to change his ways.

Klopp seems the type who wouldn't mind taking on the odd lunatic if he thinks they will help the team but in the case of Dembele I think he doesn't have the basic team or work ethic required to be a success here and would likely only be a distraction.

 

[SirBillShankly]

We could try the following:

Bring in Philipp Max (£20m), get Ousmane Dembele on loan (Barca must need to get wages off the books), and agree a Keita-type deal for Jadon Sancho for next year (when we give Dembele back). Then that could be it.

A nice plan, however I would swap Dembele for Havertz and then we would be in business. We would then be unstoppable.

 

[Zoran]

I think Klopp would take Dembele tomorrow if he could (and if it would be financially right for us, not that I think it will happen, I don't think Barca are yet willing to give up on him easily, they'd probably rather offload Coutinho if they could and we'll apparently eye someone young, cheaper, more under the radar than Dembele). I think there are different types of problematic. It really depends from player to player. I don't even think Dembele is that. Sturridge also had bad apple that reputation when he came from Chelsea, but we quickly "saw" those reports were false (sure, he's maybe not a Milneresque professional, his body wouldn't whitstand it even if he wanted, but he's not bad). But the stories that have come out is that he's been a bit lazy in learning the new language, taking on new diet, learning Barca's tactics. More a lack of maturity, maybe being shy, taking his current situation for granted, perhaps too relaxed relying on his pure talent. Let's not forget he had absolutely meteoric rise. In two years, he's gone from absolutely nowhere, a season in Rennes and Dortmund (both successful), to being the world's 3rd most expensive player at the time, a quick reaction to Neymar's transfer (which took even Barca by surprise, played well by Neymar's dad and entourage, which is still on court). I understand this reaction over players with question marks, but I think Klopp actually loves it with certain players. The challenge of finding a serious player in there, believing he could help them with their career. We know he can say things that he perhaps doesn't really mean (heap praise on all sort of players like Arry Redknapp), like all managers, but when he spoke/joked about Dembele a few times in the press here, I think he meant it (really rated him and would be interested if he was on the market again, like when we wanted him when he was at Rennes in Klopp's first season).

 

[jackh1092]

Sell Kent, around 10 mill + Wilson 15-20mill. Bring in Pepe. I think this is the likeliest outcome. We patiently wait and get him for around 50mill. Obviously some will question whether we would spend 50mill on a back-up, but 30 mill of that will have been from sales + if we are actually interested, then they must believe he has the potential to improve for the move. In a season or two that could look good business.

 

[Trader]

Is Lallana injured again? He works hard when fit but realistically how many appearances are we likely to expect?

 

[GaryBarlow99]

Is Lallana injured again? He works hard when fit but realistically how many appearances are we likely to expect?

Dead leg. He should be available for Sporting but a small injury takes a few weeks for him to heal so who knows?!?

 

[redfanman]

Sell Kent, around 10 mill + Wilson 15-20mill. Bring in Pepe. I think this is the likeliest outcome. We patiently wait and get him for around 50mill. Obviously some will question whether we would spend 50mill on a back-up, but 30 mill of that will have been from sales + if we are actually interested, then they must believe he has the potential to improve for the move. In a season or two that could look good business.

Pretty sure we are not in for Pepe.

 

[KillerBeeLFC]

If i could choose one realistic target it'd have to be Havertz. Looks like he's got everything. Could play anywhere in midfield or attack in our team I reckon. He's going to be a star 100%

 

[jackh1092]

Pretty sure we are not in for Pepe.

Why you sure? I saw your post on his position, but personally i think we need cover for Salah too...