Topic: LIVERPOOL TRANSFER THREAD 2023 - archived discussions about what’s offensive

[HARD AS HELL]

Well, it's slammed open.
Every time someone says "that's not how we do business" take a drink.

[Samie]

Transfer window is open but we'll be closed tighter than a nun's wazoo.

[DonkeyWan]

Who have we signed?

[Crosby Nick]

Transfer window is open but we'll be closed tighter than a nun's wazoo.

Wazoo yes we can!

[PeterTheRed ...]

Who have we signed?

https://youtu.be/-kFR5MP8Ft0

[Caston]

Window open. Where the f is our midfielder

[Asam]

Who have we signed?

A Wide forward who can also play down the middle

[JP!]

35 mins in and only signed Gakpo.

Edit: Lol so the hashtag for FSG Out can't be used here even in jest.  Good stuff.  Wish it could be banned from fucking Twitter.

[RedSetGo]

Klopp: “He [Gakpo] is a young player with a lot of potential. If he would have already been scoring 40 goals in Spain or whatever he would be unaffordable."


Last 4-5 years its been said that LFC monitor superb talents, but wait until they move to & play well in one of the 5 major leagues before targeting them. There are exceptions, of course, but on the whole, most players we've bought under Klopp have proved themselves in a major league first - Alisson, VVD, Mane, Salah, Jota, Diaz, Darwin, Konate, etc.

What Klopp said about Gakpo (above), plus his recent comments that sometimes he'd like to "take more risks" in transfers, I think shows a clear tweak in LFC transfer policy.

I think we are going to see LFC target players straight from their first club, before they become, as Klopp says, "unaffordable."

It's about time we did too.

[JasonF]

Klopp: “He [Gakpo] is a young player with a lot of potential. If he would have already been scoring 40 goals in Spain or whatever he would be unaffordable."


Last 4-5 years its been said that LFC monitor superb talents, but wait until they move to & play well in one of the 5 major leagues before targeting them. There are exceptions, of course, but on the whole, most players we've bought under Klopp have proved themselves in a major league first - Alisson, VVD, Mane, Salah, Jota, Diaz, Darwin, Konate, etc.

What Klopp said about Gakpo (above), plus his recent comments that sometimes he'd like to "take more risks" in transfers, I think shows a clear tweak in LFC transfer policy.

I think we are going to see LFC target players straight from their first club, before they become, as Klopp says, "unaffordable."

It's about time we did too.

I guess you could argue Díaz and Núñez were a step in that direction too. Both were having a breakout season in terms of end product like Gakpo and from a non major league. If we'd let one of them join a top 5 league team then they'd have been out of reach now.

[PeterTheRed ...]

Klopp: “He [Gakpo] is a young player with a lot of potential. If he would have already been scoring 40 goals in Spain or whatever he would be unaffordable."


Last 4-5 years its been said that LFC monitor superb talents, but wait until they move to & play well in one of the 5 major leagues before targeting them. There are exceptions, of course, but on the whole, most players we've bought under Klopp have proved themselves in a major league first - Alisson, VVD, Mane, Salah, Jota, Diaz, Darwin, Konate, etc.

What Klopp said about Gakpo (above), plus his recent comments that sometimes he'd like to "take more risks" in transfers, I think shows a clear tweak in LFC transfer policy.

I think we are going to see LFC target players straight from their first club, before they become, as Klopp says, "unaffordable."

It's about time we did too.

To be honest, I wouldn't mind if Benfica/Porto and Ajax/PSV become our new Southampton ...

[Sangria]

To be honest, I wouldn't mind if Benfica/Porto and Ajax/PSV become our new Southampton ...

Southampton players would be cheaper than Benfica or Ajax players.

[PeterTheRed ...]

Southampton players would be cheaper than Benfica or Ajax players.

The likes of Mane and Van Dijk were not exactly cheap ...

[Sangria]

The likes of Mane and Van Dijk were not exactly cheap ...

Cheaper than Enzo Fernandes and Antony though.

[PeterTheRed ...]

Cheaper than Enzo Fernandes and Antony though.

Not if you take inflation into consideration ...

[J-Mc-]

Klopp: “He [Gakpo] is a young player with a lot of potential. If he would have already been scoring 40 goals in Spain or whatever he would be unaffordable."


Last 4-5 years its been said that LFC monitor superb talents, but wait until they move to & play well in one of the 5 major leagues before targeting them. There are exceptions, of course, but on the whole, most players we've bought under Klopp have proved themselves in a major league first - Alisson, VVD, Mane, Salah, Jota, Diaz, Darwin, Konate, etc.

What Klopp said about Gakpo (above), plus his recent comments that sometimes he'd like to "take more risks" in transfers, I think shows a clear tweak in LFC transfer policy.

I think we are going to see LFC target players straight from their first club, before they become, as Klopp says, "unaffordable."

It's about time we did too.

Said it earlier in the thread but I’d definately be keeping tabs on Xavi Simons.

19, already got decent numbers in the dutch league and shouldn’t command a massive fee.

[PeterTheRed ...]

One interesting player who we can get on the free in the summer, or on the cheap in January, is Daichi Kamada from Frankfurt. Very versatile player who could be a very valuable addition to our squad ...

https://youtu.be/AwxRu45typQ

[Red Cactii]

Fuck, he's gone to Villa...

Imagine if he signed for them having had his shirt number retired at Birmingham City

[Knight]

Not if you take inflation into consideration ...

Yep. We’ve bought at the top end of the market before. Why can’t we now, when we’re far richer? Nothing about Klopp’s comments here are reassuring.

[killer-heels]

Listen to your father Jude……

[GreatEx]

12 pages since yesterday's visit... Has anything happened apart from the Jude dad rumour?

[killer-heels]

12 pages since yesterday's visit... Has anything happened apart from the Jude dad rumour?

Our transfers under Ward of Gakpo, Diaz and Nunez all came out of nowhere in that the deal was done quietly and quickly so that just tells us that we will hear no news until we are close to announcing someone. It wont be in the United style of chasing Gakpo or Chelsea signing every player in the world.

I fully believe we have another player to come in January.

[Fromola]

Klopp: “He [Gakpo] is a young player with a lot of potential. If he would have already been scoring 40 goals in Spain or whatever he would be unaffordable."


Last 4-5 years its been said that LFC monitor superb talents, but wait until they move to & play well in one of the 5 major leagues before targeting them. There are exceptions, of course, but on the whole, most players we've bought under Klopp have proved themselves in a major league first - Alisson, VVD, Mane, Salah, Jota, Diaz, Darwin, Konate, etc.

What Klopp said about Gakpo (above), plus his recent comments that sometimes he'd like to "take more risks" in transfers, I think shows a clear tweak in LFC transfer policy.

I think we are going to see LFC target players straight from their first club, before they become, as Klopp says, "unaffordable."

It's about time we did too.

The Enzo Fernandez thing has changed things. We could have got him cheap last summer but wanted him to develop at Benfica first. 6 months later and he's 130 mill. We cannot hope to compete with what the likes of Chelsea are doing.

[Ghost Town]

12 pages since yesterday's visit... Has anything happened apart from the Jude dad rumour?

Quite a lot of people have made complete tits of themselves, but other than that, no.

[royhendo]

Just watched this video from September: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP7qVASkfPg
Very reassuring, Klopp takes a short and long term view. We are in good hands.

Very helpful - it’s a worry for the remainder of this season though!

“We started the season with nine midfielders, and everything you need, creativity, speed, excitement because they’re young, technique, fight, runners, whatever you want, it’s all in, and they all have contracts, and then you start a pre-season. And then a player who has one year or two years left on their contract says they didn’t  play enough last year and they want to go, then in that moment they go, but we don’t actively push people out. We had all different aspects of a midfield game. You asked if we need a midfielder - a tenth midfielder. But we were going for a midfielder, but the midfielder decided to go to another club. That can happen. So in that moment, it’s not like “we don’t get him, let’s get the other one. Some players are in this moment not available. But to us they are really interesting. So that’s how it is - we can make the decision - is it the right one? I’m not 100% sure. Short term yes? But for the long term? How would that affect the next one? We cannot just push the button and then worry about all the problems it would create next year, later on… and then we get injuries and all of a sudden it looks like we need another midfielder. So we always wanted [another midfielder], but it was always about the right one.”

[plura]

I wondered who he meant when he talked about speed.
If anything speed was obviously missing from that midfield. And apparently after several hard core seasons topped with an extremely long and game filled season last time we discovered quickly that fight and runners part was not up to the expected standards.

[Knight]

I’m confused by his comments about players leaving. None of the midfielders with a year left on their contract ended up leaving. Is that confirmation that some of them wanted too? Presumably this is Keita and/or Ox?

His comments about our midfield having speed and running seem like wishful thinking now!

[lionel_messias]

Diaz - Nunez - Salah
Carvalho - Gakpo - Firmino - Jota

Thiago - Fabinho - Henderson
Arthur - AOC - Keita - Elliott
Jones - Bajcetic - Milner

Robertson - Van Dijk - Konate - TAA
Tsimikas - Matip - Phillips - Gomez - Ramsay

Alisson
Kelleher - Adrian

Happy New Year! This thread continues to be amusing and tiring in equal measure.

Here's our midfield in reality:

Thiago - 1st choice but injury prone, needs rotation.
Fabinho - Same as Thiago.
Henderson - Needs to be dropped, legs and intensity gone. Good for 30 mins.

Arthur - Doubt we ever see him, we play at high tempo so fitness disaster for him.
AOC - Nice lad, career gone, Leaving in summer.
Keita - See AOC. Good for 30-35 mins max.
Elliott - NOT A MIDFIELDER
Jones - See Elliot, needs a 12-month PL loan.

Bajcetic - VERY promising ✅ Will get minutes this term and maybe rotation next as #6
Milner - Legs gone for midfield. Barely good for 10-12 mins.


So: the need for a midfielder is extremely urgent, there is no alternative, as poor
Aston Villa and Leicester sides just demonstrated.

The fight for 4th spot will be close and our midfield is where it will be won or lost, as we
exciting players in both attack and defense and the best goalie around.

✅🦾

[royhendo]

For me if you’re Curtis and Bajcetic you have to grab it.

[RedG13]

For me if you’re Curtis and Bajcetic you have to grab it.

Would Love to see Curtis be able to get a run of games, when he back.
Dont expect Bajcetic to be starting much at this time(outside of the FA cup)

[royhendo]

I think he’s gonna play a lot of minutes regardless of how the CL and FA Cup go.

[PeterTheRed ...]

Happy New Year! This thread continues to be amusing and tiring in equal measure.

Here's our midfield in reality:

Thiago - 1st choice but injury prone, needs rotation.
Fabinho - Same as Thiago.
Henderson - Needs to be dropped, legs and intensity gone. Good for 30 mins.

Arthur - Doubt we ever see him, we play at high tempo so fitness disaster for him.
AOC - Nice lad, career gone, Leaving in summer.
Keita - See AOC. Good for 30-35 mins max.
Elliott - NOT A MIDFIELDER
Jones - See Elliot, needs a 12-month PL loan.

Bajcetic - VERY promising ✅ Will get minutes this term and maybe rotation next as #6
Milner - Legs gone for midfield. Barely good for 10-12 mins.


So: the need for a midfielder is extremely urgent, there is no alternative, as poor
Aston Villa and Leicester sides just demonstrated.

The fight for 4th spot will be close and our midfield is where it will be won or lost, as we
exciting players in both attack and defense and the best goalie around.

✅🦾

None of our players is as bad as you described them. Just 6 months ago, these players were on the break of achieving something no team has achieved before. I understand the desire for improving the team, and I certainly wouldn't mind another quality midfielder added to our team in January, but lets try to be supporters for a change, not merely fans ...

Happy New Year 🥂

[Solomon Grundy]

I think he’s gonna play a lot of minutes regardless of how the CL and FA Cup go.

I agree.

[Fromola]

Very helpful - it’s a worry for the remainder of this season though!

“We started the season with nine midfielders, and everything you need, creativity, speed, excitement because they’re young, technique, fight, runners, whatever you want, it’s all in, and they all have contracts, and then you start a pre-season. And then a player who has one year or two years left on their contract says they didn’t  play enough last year and they want to go, then in that moment they go, but we don’t actively push people out. We had all different aspects of a midfield game. You asked if we need a midfielder - a tenth midfielder. But we were going for a midfielder, but the midfielder decided to go to another club. That can happen. So in that moment, it’s not like “we don’t get him, let’s get the other one. Some players are in this moment not available. But to us they are really interesting. So that’s how it is - we can make the decision - is it the right one? I’m not 100% sure. Short term yes? But for the long term? How would that affect the next one? We cannot just push the button and then worry about all the problems it would create next year, later on… and then we get injuries and all of a sudden it looks like we need another midfielder. So we always wanted [another midfielder], but it was always about the right one.”

Top 4 is a real ask with our current midfield options. Particularly without Jota and Diaz for months who could still see us outscore most teams with all our forwards fit.

Klopp said himself the importance of getting 4. In the short term we don't necessarily need a world class complete midfielder to help us scrape 4th place. Just someone who can run would be a start and with the fitness levels to play 90 minutes. The mistake he made was thinking we could get by with what we had this season just because we had '8 midfielders' but he's operating with one hand tied behind his back with these owners. Someone like Ox should have just been moved on if it's purely about numbers or not renewed Milner.

[JerseyKloppite]

snip

I agree with the general gist of your post but think you're overly dismissive of a couple of our options.

Hendo's legs have not "gone". You're talking about the guy as if he's in his 40s. He's probably shattered after years of endless, relentless football for LFC and England. He was excellent against France in the WC QF (though I do admit England play a less demanding system). He needs a proper break and a chance to recuperate and refresh. I'm not saying we'll see 2017 levels of fitness from him again but he has a role for us that's more than just 30 minute cameos from the bench, and even if we sign another couple of midfielders I would still expect him to start a significant number of games in the next 2 or 3 seasons.

Likewise Keita is not only useful for 30-35 minutes, he's perfectly capable of starting and putting a shift in. The question is more about how likely he is to do so and how often he's injured. It's largely irrelevant as he's off anyway.

I don't think AOC'S career is gone, I think he could go off and play a significant role somewhere else. Again, the demands of our system are significant and he's sadly never recovered the levels he showed before his injury. When the pressure is off and he's given a bit more licence to get around, he can still look excellent. I could see him following in Lallana's footsteps and playing regularly for a club like Brighton.

I'm still undecided on Elliot. I think he could play very effectively as the most advanced midfielder in a 3 (akin to a number 10), and frankly I think he could probably develop into a box to box midfielder too, but he's not there yet and we're putting a lot of pressure on him to improve quickly which doesn't seem fair. I might be wrong but he doesn't seem to have the pace to be a winger in our system so developing him as a midfielder might be our best bet. Agree he and Jones would benefit hugely from a loan move, to play regularly and with less pressure on them.

Still agree we need two midfielders fairly urgently. We're losing three senior players this summer.

[royhendo]

It’s got nothing to do with the owners. Klopp is the one who decides not to buy people or “push them out”.

[Fromola]

Happy New Year! This thread continues to be amusing and tiring in equal measure.

Here's our midfield in reality:

Thiago - 1st choice but injury prone, needs rotation.
Fabinho - Same as Thiago.
Henderson - Needs to be dropped, legs and intensity gone. Good for 30 mins.

Arthur - Doubt we ever see him, we play at high tempo so fitness disaster for him.
AOC - Nice lad, career gone, Leaving in summer.
Keita - See AOC. Good for 30-35 mins max.
Elliott - NOT A MIDFIELDER
Jones - See Elliot, needs a 12-month PL loan.

Bajcetic - VERY promising ✅ Will get minutes this term and maybe rotation next as #6
Milner - Legs gone for midfield. Barely good for 10-12 mins.


So: the need for a midfielder is extremely urgent, there is no alternative, as poor
Aston Villa and Leicester sides just demonstrated.

The fight for 4th spot will be close and our midfield is where it will be won or lost, as we
exciting players in both attack and defense and the best goalie around.

✅🦾

I think Henderson can give you a good game a week (for 60-70 mins at least) but you don't want him starting twice in 72 hours. He should be playing 90 minutes a week, 60-70 on the weekend and 20-30 in the midweek (or vice versa). Instead he's still first choice when we should have had his long term replacement in place by now. Henderson was the player who for years was the midfield's legs and now he needs carrying a bit. Problem is, when you're starting him twice in 3 days and then he gets judged by not being up to it in the 2nd game.

Fabinho we're totally dependent on to play as a 6 unless Bajcetic is really fast-tracked. Problem is Henderson isn't really up to that role anymore and Bajcetic is still very inexperienced. Therefore Fabinho gets run into the ground as he's played that role exclusively since 2018 (save for when he got shunted to CB with predictable consequences for the midfield).

Thiago is also a 60-70 minute player now like Henderson. Okay you can keep him on for his quality but you can't carry him and Henderson's lack of legs. You're also looking to keep him injury free.

Keita - an effective sub for Henderson or Thiago on 60-70 and can start some games with rotation. His injuries are the problem. When fit he can do a similar job to Gini.

Arthur and Jones when actually fit - probably same as Keita

Ox - barely even an option for midfield

Elliot - far too slow and slight with minimal defensive abilities - cannot be carried given our current midfield issues

Milner - good off the bench when you're seeing out a late lead or to bring on for Henderson.

[JerseyKloppite]

It’s got nothing to do with the owners. Klopp is the one who decides not to buy people or “push them out”.

Yeah it's frustrating to see this going round and round. If we don't sell a player it's probably a number of factors - Klopp wanting to keep them, player not wanting to move, lack of interest/offers. It's not something you can just blame the owners for.

[Phineus]

Yeah it's frustrating to see this going round and round. If we don't sell a player it's probably a number of factors - Klopp wanting to keep them, player not wanting to move, lack of interest/offers. It's not something you can just blame the owners for.

Yeah I think we’re facing the consequences for not been ruthless enough, which is easier for us fans to say and call for here. It’s part of what makes Klopp such a great man manager afterall.

I was very happy, like all Liverpool fans, that we’ve kept the group together but I was expecting more succession planning in the midfield like we have done in defence and attack.

I’d also argue Ox, Keita and possibly Milner still been here isn’t a lack of ruthlessness but too far the other way on the loyalty spectrum.

[has gone odd]

It’s got nothing to do with the owners. Klopp is the one who decides not to buy people or “push them out”.

How much is too much in the owners eyes though roy? If Klopp asks for a 100m Jude, do the owners back him or say its too much. It's that bit I cannot fathom out