Topic: LIVERPOOL TRANSFER THREAD

[DelTrotter]

Waiting worries me because I want us to be the best we can now not in 12 months, we have loads of incredible players so can obviously be competitive with anyone but acknowledging a fault and leaving it for a year is a bit mad to me. Waiting for Bellingham as is often said on here is nice but what happens if we have a mare of a season and what can go wrong does and we finish 5th? He's not playing Europa league and we couldn't afford him without CL anyway (I don't think there's much chance we don't get top 4 btw). We need more than 1 CM in the next 12 months anyway. And in a year other problems can pop up whether it's a player going to shit or getting a bad injury so it's often never as simple as "oh we'll just fix midfield next summer then it's all perfect".

Unless Thiago gives us about 28 league starts which seems impossible I find it hard to see us winning the league.

[DonkeyWan]

It's been horribly mismanaged and its hard to know if its hubris or financial limitation or a bit of both that's caused us not to address it this window

It's been the same for years. The midfield issue will be addressed next summer, if we are lucky, in January. By then the next problem (aging CBs) will have become more pressing, but the usual voices will reassure us that it will all be good, we don't need replacements, it's all City's fault for spending so much and anyway, looking at the youths, all the jams, just tomorrow. And once again LFC will go through a tricky patch, overcome it and barely miss out and so on, ad infinitum. Meanwhile the 5th richest club in the world breaks even every year and has spent a net £150m since Klopp's arrival.

[El Lobo]

But to a certain degree he definitely should be thinking that. And if he’s not he needs people around him to help him see it. And it’s Klopp and he’s a football genius so I suspect he does see it. And Harvey is great, I’m really glad that we’re playing a more creative 8 in him. But creative 8s aren’t our midfield issue.

We were ready to drop huge money on Tchouameni this summer. I’m not sure if that needs repeating….but seemingly so. Jurgen has been here for seven years and at no point has it been even remotely suggested that we would ever work in a manner that sees us bid for a monster CM and when he goes elsewhere we use that money to sign a striker instead. So it seems quite obvious that money is available for a CM.

However you want to come to terms with why we’re not signing one is up to you, but you do yourself (ves) no favours in thinking that this is some example of the manager not being backed, the constant jibes about ‘oh we’re keeping our powder dry again?’. The manager, the club, the recruitment team are in the midst of deciding they think we can manage without another midfielder. These are fhacts. I suspect it’s somewhere between showing loyalty to players who we think are declining, thinking he can use youngsters in there at least until January, and there being no-one available who would justify the fee they’d cost us (Chelsea lobbing money around like a drunk billionaire probably isn’t helping in that respect). And we’re now into the season, so any new signing is going to cost even more. And on the face of it….we could have everyone apart from Ox fit in a month.

[Knight]

It's been the same for years. The midfield issue will be addressed next summer, if we are lucky, in January. By then the next problem (aging CBs) will have become more pressing, but the usual voices will reassure us that it will all be good, we don't need replacements, it's all City's fault for spending so much and anyway, looking at the youths, all the jams, just tomorrow. And once again LFC will go through a tricky patch, overcome it and barely miss out and so on, ad infinitum. Meanwhile the 5th richest club in the world breaks even every year and has spent a net £150m since Klopp's arrival.

It’s also just hard isn’t it. We’ve done really well to plan succession for the front 3 but we’re still left with Salah into his 30s on a massive contract, Firmino declining physically and not offering much anymore, Diaz who may or may not score enough and Nunez who is very, very raw. In midfield we’ve not done well. And it shows. But even if we had done a good job there’d be no guarantees. At its best this team (19/20) was just so, so good that keeping that up was always going to be difficult.

[Knight]

We were ready to drop huge money on Tchouameni this summer. I’m not sure if that needs repeating….but seemingly so. Jurgen has been here for seven years and at no point has it been even remotely suggested that we would ever work in a manner that sees us bid for a monster CM and when he goes elsewhere we use that money to sign a striker instead. So it seems quite obvious that money is available for a CM.

However you want to come to terms with why we’re not signing one is up to you, but you do yourself (ves) no favours in thinking that this is some example of the manager not being backed, the constant jibes about ‘oh we’re keeping our powder dry again?’. The manager, the club, the recruitment team are in the midst of deciding they think we can manage without another midfielder. These are fhacts. I suspect it’s somewhere between showing loyalty to players who we think are declining, thinking he can use youngsters in there at least until January, and there being no-one available who would justify the fee they’d cost us (Chelsea lobbing money around like a drunk billionaire probably isn’t helping in that respect). And we’re now into the season, so any new signing is going to cost even more. And on the face of it….we could have everyone apart from Ox fit in a month.

Yeah I don’t think it’s finances straightforwardly. The Nunez money and the midfielder money are different things. And yet, it’s clearly the cost of certain players that is an issue, hence Klopp saying words to that effect. But the bigger question is how we let it get to this point. The point where if we didn’t get the ONE player we wanted we’d be left with a really quite unsuitable group of players in midfield.

[lfcred1976]

Wolves agreed a 38m fee for Matheus Nunes.

Heads about to fall 

Never seen him play, but if he’s as good as people are making him out to be, surely better clubs than Wolves would be bidding for him?

[Stockholm Syndrome]

I have nothing against the lad, but I hope Nunes is fucking shite at Wolves just to make a few people here look stupid

[Trump's tiny tiny hands]

Maybe he is literally thinking it needs to be a monster to justify messing around with the midfield which is why it’s seemed Tchouameni, Bellingham or nothing.

This what I don’t get though, we always had options to move on to. We always backed the coaching to integrate a players into the set up. Christ, we moved onto the then attacking midfielder Wijnaldum and turned him into a metronomic, central midfield workhorse who was a vital cog for years.

[JackWard33]

I have nothing against the lad, but I hope Nunes is fucking shite at Wolves just to make a few people here look stupid

Who are the Nunes fans?

[amir87]

Who are the Nunes fans?

More Nunes fans then Nunez fans on here tonight.

[El Lobo]

Yeah I don’t think it’s finances straightforwardly. The Nunez money and the midfielder money are different things. And yet, it’s clearly the cost of certain players that is an issue, hence Klopp saying words to that effect. But the bigger question is how we let it get to this point. The point where if we didn’t get the ONE player we wanted we’d be left with a really quite unsuitable group of players in midfield.

Well because again uncomfortably for some, the manager quite clearly doesn’t think that it is a really quite unsuitable group of players in midfield. It always seems to come down to ‘I don’t rate this midfield….must be FSG neglecting it’. Look all over the pitch. In attack, in defence, in goal, wide, full back, centre forward. It could be that the club is knowingly neglecting midfield to save money, or it could be that the manager you know….still quite likes it. He loves Henderson and he loves Milner. Straight away that’s two players who we all think are declining that he’s constantly stuck with. He’s then got Fab and Thiago who are seen as stonewallers in the starting line up. You’ve got Naby who has incredible numbers, great results with him in the team. Harvey he obviously loves too. So immediately that’s six in there who I doubt he’s thinking are really unsuitable. He’s maybe just not as ruthless as people think.

[Phineus]

Who are the Nunes fans?

Don’t look at me, I wanted Guimaraes 

Though I do like Nunes from what I’ve seen of him, which is admittedly more in champions league. He did stand out against city.

[naYoRHa2b]

I'm not sure we need anyone.

We've got injuries but the reaction seems a bit kneejerk. I'd like to see our rivals get a point from Fulham and Palace with these levels of injuries we've sustained.

[Samie]

Yeah, Lobo does seem like a 13 year old girl. I don't want to test out that theory though.

[TepidT2O]

Has anyone considered that nunes might not be good enough for us, but is good enough for wolves?

[DonkeyWan]

Has anyone considered that nunes might not be good enough for us, but is good enough for wolves?

It's not about Nunes per se, he just represents the wider desire for a midfielder to replace the minutes, tackling and hard yards lost when Wijnaldum left. People are upset because a possible Liverpool target they were still holding on to as a late window addition has gone to another team. It looks like LFC will end the month with no further transfers and we will start the season struggling to make the midfield work. You can only afford to drop 20 points over 38 games in the current league, and Liverpool have already dropped four against mid to lower league sides. It's shit, because it could come to bite the team in the ass at the end of the year. It may have been avoided if money had been invested in the squad, but as per so many previous windows, it feels like the squad is just short. Again. So, people are pissed that Nunes is gone, but that is just a proxy for their annoyance at the lack of investment in the squad.

[JackWard33]

Don’t look at me, I wanted Guimaraes 

Though I do like Nunes from what I’ve seen of him, which is admittedly more in champions league. He did stand out against city.

ah interesting- I posted for opinions on him a few days ago as I don't have one  

[MD1990]

I do wonder if we may go for a CM now
Hendo couldnt start due to an injury.
The squad is showing signs if last season's efforts taking a toll. Injuries all over the squad & some players not at there best either

We will find form but a top quality CM does need to come on. Our midfield is too easily bypassed & probably too many older players also

[El Lobo]

It's not about Nunes per se, he just represents the wider desire for a midfielder to replace the minutes, tackling and hard yards lost when Wijnaldum left. People are upset because a possible Liverpool target they were still holding on to as a late window addition has gone to another team. It looks like LFC will end the month with no further transfers and we will start the season struggling to make the midfield work. You can only afford to drop 20 points over 38 games in the current league, and Liverpool have already dropped four against mid to lower league sides. It's shit, because it could come to bite the team in the ass at the end of the year. It may have been avoided if money had been invested in the squad, but as per so many previous windows, it feels like the squad is just short. Again. So, people are pissed that Nunes is gone, but that is just a proxy for their annoyance at the lack of investment in the squad.

You posted this in the match thread too and it was no more true there than it is here. The champions dropped 21 last season, could have dropped 39 the season before and we could have dropped 32 when we won it. We have absolutely no idea what it’ll take to win the league, so proclaiming that we’ve already dropped 4 of the 20 we can afford is pure nonsense.

[BER]

Be a shame if someone snuck and signed Nunes after Wolves have done all the leg work.

[Dave McCoy]

If you don't believe X player is better than Jones or Ox or Keita then what's the point? You'd not play him if Fabinho, Hendo or Thiago is fit so then why spend the money? I think that's really the issue here. Maybe our standards are too high? Which is laughable to say but saying someone is "perfect" and you only want him isn't a guarantee of anything. At some point you need bodies on the field unless you'd rather just chuck 17 year olds out there to get wrecked based on the current officiating.

[Asam]

If you don't believe X player is better than Jones or Ox or Keita then what's the point? You'd not play him if Fabinho, Hendo or Thiago is fit so then why spend the money? I think that's really the issue here. Maybe our standards are too high? Which is laughable to say but saying someone is "perfect" and you only want him isn't a guarantee of anything. At some point you need bodies on the field unless you'd rather just chuck 17 year olds out there to get wrecked based on the current officiating.

It doesn't seem like we're going to do anything so we will have to grin and bear it

[istvan kozma]

So I get the stuff about why we’ve not signed a midfielder this summer. There are explicable reasons. But how did we let it get to this stage? It’s been very clear that Henderson and Milner are declining, Thiago is only really good for 1500+ minutes, Ox isn’t good enough and Keita can’t be relied upon for quite a long time now. And yet we come into the summer where when we can’t bring in Tchou Tchou or Bellingham (who was always an insanely long shot) we don’t bring in anyone? There are many, many players who’d improve our first 11, let alone our 4th choice CM in world football. Did we really put all our eggs into those baskets when we knew the issues for 12+ months? We’re not even talking Van Dijk, ‘only he will do’ type reasoning here because we’ll need at least2 CMs next summer.

In terms of affordability and availability, no there isn't, people said the same nonsense when we waited for VVD. Thankfully the days of buying the likes of Aquilani & Balotelli in sheer panic are over.

[Knight]

Well because again uncomfortably for some, the manager quite clearly doesn’t think that it is a really quite unsuitable group of players in midfield. It always seems to come down to ‘I don’t rate this midfield….must be FSG neglecting it’. Look all over the pitch. In attack, in defence, in goal, wide, full back, centre forward. It could be that the club is knowingly neglecting midfield to save money, or it could be that the manager you know….still quite likes it. He loves Henderson and he loves Milner. Straight away that’s two players who we all think are declining that he’s constantly stuck with. He’s then got Fab and Thiago who are seen as stonewallers in the starting line up. You’ve got Naby who has incredible numbers, great results with him in the team. Harvey he obviously loves too. So immediately that’s six in there who I doubt he’s thinking are really unsuitable. He’s maybe just not as ruthless as people think.

Lobo I’m very happy saying that Klopp is totally wrong about that if that is indeed what he thinks. Fortunately neither of us know what he is thinking so I’m not forced into the admittedly uncomfortable position of disagreeing with Klopp, when he’s him and I’m a faceless nobody on an Internet forum. But I’ll happily disagree with this hypothetical Klopp. Because this hypothetical Klopp has got a blind spot when it comes to his midfield players and has lost sight of what he wants from his midfield.

As a group they’re not suitable, because...
Henderson isn’t able to play as a high and wide RCM for us.
Fabinho isnt able to play as an isolated 6 but we seem to be asking him too.
Milner is unsuitable to be the legs of our midfield at 36.
Thiago can only play about 1600-1900 minutes a season and we’re unbelievably reliant on him.
Keita isnt very robust and can’t cover enough ground.
Elliot is great but we’re asking him to play as a very advanced RCM when the other 2 players aren’t able to provide us the stability and cover we need when we do that.

As a group they’re slow, weak and injury prone and it genuinely wouldn’t be that hard to upgrade it. If you take out Thiago, for you only get half a season from him anyway, it’s definitely not that hard. 

[Sharado]

Lobo I’m very happy saying that Klopp is totally wrong about that if that is indeed what he thinks. Fortunately neither of us know what he is thinking so I’m not forced into the admittedly uncomfortable position of disagreeing with Klopp, when he’s him and I’m a faceless nobody on an Internet forum. But I’ll happily disagree with this hypothetical Klopp. Because this hypothetical Klopp has got a blind spot when it comes to his midfield players and has lost sight of what he wants from his midfield.

As a group they’re not suitable, because...
Henderson isn’t able to play as a high and wide RCM for us.
Fabinho isnt able to play as an isolated 6 but we seem to be asking him too.
Milner is unsuitable to be the legs of our midfield at 36.
Thiago can only play about 1600-1900 minutes a season and we’re unbelievably reliant on him.
Keita isnt very robust and can’t cover enough ground.
Elliot is great but we’re asking him to play as a very advanced RCM when the other 2 players aren’t able to provide us the stability and cover we need when we do that.

As a group they’re slow, weak and injury prone and it genuinely wouldn’t be that hard to upgrade it. If you take out Thiago, for you only get half a season from him anyway, it’s definitely not that hard.

With Elliot/Carvallo and to a lesser extent Jones [or maybe Bajetic] you have to accept that they'll be inconsistent too - they'll run very very hot at times and cold at others. They simply can't be relied upon this early in their career.

It's not really the issue but letting Morton - who played a lot in the cups and covered occasionally in the league last year - go seems a strange move given no one comes in.

I think the tear your hair out with frustration element of this is it's Winter 2021 but midfielders and not CBs. Anyone with eyes can see it. It's not an unreasonable demand, and anyone saying 'ah well I trust Klopp' is being a bit myopic. I trust Klopp, I fucking love the guy, but you can't meaningfully argue that our midfield options are good enough to win the league, given what we're up against. And just because Klopp isn't on internet forums arguing the toss about it doesn't make it less true. We were ready to drop £80m on a midfielder at the start of summer - and now there's NO ONE around that improves our midfield? Nah.

[El Lobo]

Sorry but it’s not the same as CBs in 2021. We literally had no available senior CBs, last night we had six available senior CMs. It’s a big difference. If we had to use a forward or a defender in midfield last night like we had to use Hendo or Fab in defence I pretty much guarantee Jurgen would be a lot spikier when asked about signing a midfielder 

[tubby]

Klopp gets stuff wrong all the time, I'm sure if you ask him he'll say the same.  He just gets things right more than other managers.

[Sharado]

Sorry but it’s not the same as CBs in 2021. We literally had no available senior CBs, last night we had six available senior CMs. It’s a big difference. If we had to use a forward or a defender in midfield last night like we had to use Hendo or Fab in defence I pretty much guarantee Jurgen would be a lot spikier when asked about signing a midfielder

It's not as desperate, no, but it's as clear to the world and his wife where the problem is - we even tried to make our marquee signing this summer to address it.

We are playing square pegs in round holes to an extent though as no way should a 37 year old james milner be starting our first home game of the season as an LCM.

[Red-Soldier]

It's not as desperate, no, but it's as clear to the world and his wife where the problem is - we even tried to make our marquee signing this summer to address it.

We are playing square pegs in round holes to an extent though as no way should a 37 year old james milner be starting our first home game of the season as an LCM.

Correct, even though he did OK.

[Stubbins]

If there's any one poster who sums up the dumbing down of the football talk on this forum it's Lobo. It's what I imagine the chat 13 year olds have on their headphones while playing FIFA must be like. Any contrary opinion open to mockery, thinks he knows everything, chats absolute shit constantly.

Aye. The incessant and tedious need to have the first word, the last word and every other fucking word in between, each and every day.

[Legs]

Klopp isnt stupid he can see we need a CM.

Numbers arent the problem in CM being fit/available is though.

Im of the opinion we've messed up this window but we just have to get on with it.

[El Lobo]

Aye. The incessant and tedious need to have the first word, the last word and every other fucking word in between, each and every day.

I wasn’t gonna bite the first time, but I think I will here. If you don’t like it, report me, or put me on ignore, or you know….scroll past anything incessant and tedious that I post. It’s not rocket science. It’s a fucking forum, I’m certainly not about to be sermoned to for posting because you know….that’s sort of the point of one.

[amir87]

I know he might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I for one am disappointed that El Lobo stopped posting on here.

[Rhi]

The sniping and bickering in this thread gets reported more than almost anything else on the site. Pack it in and grow up. Thread locked for a while.

[HardworkDedication]

luke@Ifcluke·24m
Gary weaver the sky reporter just said:
“There is a growing concern from Sheffield United fans that he (sander) won’t be here by the end of the window, we know Jürgen Klopp has expressed interest in recent weeks”

[Samie]

Nah, not a midfielder. We don;t deal with them folks.

[67CherryRed]

luke@Ifcluke·24m
Gary weaver the sky reporter just said:
“There is a growing concern from Sheffield United fans that he (sander) won’t be here by the end of the window, we know Jürgen Klopp has expressed interest in recent weeks”

A quick look at twitter and our 'fans' on there are already up in arms at the thought of it. For that reason alone I'm totally in favour. Snap him up.

[HardworkDedication]

A quick look at twitter and our 'fans' on there are already up in arms at the thought of it. For that reason alone I'm totally in favour. Snap him up.

 

[classycarra]

luke@Ifcluke·24m
Gary weaver the sky reporter just said:
“There is a growing concern from Sheffield United fans that he (sander) won’t be here by the end of the window, we know Jürgen Klopp has expressed interest in recent weeks”

Quick google of Sheff United sources suggest he has a 35mil release clause although £25mil expected to be enough,and Brugges have been after him all summer

He had a good game against us in the CL, so for that reason I'm not shooting it down immediately

[tubby]

We were linked with him a while back but I didn't think he's anywhere near the level of player we should be interested in.