Topic: Age profile of the team

[kcbworth]

I'd even go a step further and say one or two players per window or season is the perfect speed of transition. Any more starts to become disruptive

Maybe, maybe not. Klopp overhauled the whole squad fairly quickly to turn us into contenders. Celtic in Scotland this year had up to 10 new players signed from deadline day and christmas windows and they were an amazing team that won the league there. I think it's possible.

Agree we're currently such a well oiled machine though it's hard to imagine what a non-disruptive overhaul would look like to us

[jepovic]

I'd even go a step further and say one or two players per window or season is the perfect speed of transition. Any more starts to become disruptive, especially when we have the closest thing to a well oiled precision machine in world football.

Assuming a player stays 5 years on average, we need 4-5 signings per year to maintain a squad of 22 players.
2 signings per year would require each player to stay more than 10 years on average, which is completely unrealistic. Then we cant sign anyone older than 21

[spider-neil]

Assuming a player stays 5 years on average, we need 4-5 signings per year to maintain a squad of 22 players.
2 signings per year would require each player to stay more than 10 years on average, which is completely unrealistic. Then we cant sign anyone older than 21

That doesn't take into account the players we introduce from the reserves.

[Aceldama]

Mane - 30 (he has a good 2 years in him) / NO DANGER
Salah - 30 (he has a good 4 years in him) / NO DANGER

The danger with these two is they both have only 12 months left on their contracts and it's far from certain either will sign new ones.

None of the OG front three would be happy with 2/3 year extensions but handing out multiple 4/5 year extensions for players that may only have good 2 years left is clearly a bad idea.

[Sheer Magnetism]

I love Salah as a player but I'm not sure why people think he's still going to be at his peak at 34 or 35 when his dribbling and quick feet are such a big part of his game. Suarez looked unstoppable at Salah's age and he's still effective given his finishing ability, but there was a gradual and noticeable drop off once he hit 30, even at La Liga pace.

And Salah is a lot closer to Suarez's playing style than he is to Benzema or Lewandowski, who are essentially traditional number nines who combine size and strength with exceptional game intelligence and finishing ability.

[Aceldama]

Didn't want to get into this conversation but let's do it.

So simply from squad perspectives:

We got 27 players averaging 27.2 years. City has got 22 (23 with Haaland) and is averaging 27.6 years.

Foden is 21

Dias, Rodri  25

Grealish is 26

Laporte, Stones, Aké, Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, $terling 27

Ederson 28

De Bruyne is 30

Mahrez, Walker, Gündogan  31

snip

This is a good demonstration of why averages are deceiving on this topic. We have very similar average age but very different age profiles. We're a mix of old and young, they're more focused around the average age. Man City will need a deeper overhaul than us because of their lack of young players but they'll need it ~3 years later than us and look pretty set and stable for the next few seasons.

To throw some numbers at it: Man City have 9 players in that 25-27 year old 'approaching prime' age bracket and 6 of them were in their 10 most used players last season. We have 5 players in that age bracket (discounting Origi who is leaving) but only 1 of them is in our 10 most used players. If you look at the rest of the most used players lists: we have 4 30 something players in our top 10  (+ Salah who turns 30 in 3 weeks), they have 2.

[Aceldama]

I love Salah as a player but I'm not sure why people think he's still going to be at his peak at 34 or 35 when his dribbling and quick feet are such a big part of his game. Suarez looked unstoppable at Salah's age and he's still effective given his finishing ability, but there was a gradual and noticeable drop off once he hit 30, even at La Liga pace.

And Salah is a lot closer to Suarez's playing style than he is to Benzema or Lewandowski, who are essentially traditional number nines who combine size and strength with exceptional game intelligence and finishing ability.

Suarez's drop off still saw him score 20 goals and win the league last season. But yeah, extending Salah would really need to take into account him losing pace, how that would change his role and how that would work for the team.

[ScouserAtHeart]

https://theathletic.com/3340132/2022/05/31/liverpool-season-data-analysis/

[RedG13]

https://theathletic.com/3340132/2022/05/31/liverpool-season-data-analysis/

I would expect Henderson minutes to go down next season, hopefully Fabinho a little too. Jota Possible too with Diaz, Thiago, Jones, Elliott,Keita getting more minutes. Milner hasnt signed offically irc, and Possible Ox is gone would open up some more minutes too.
I think Mane and Salah minutes would go down a little too assuming Mane is still here, just help manage with 3 comps with 5 subs too.
Matip/Konate/Gomez Minutes we will see. Dont expect Virgil or Alisson minutes to change same with Trent. Robertson might get managed minutes a little more the 5 subs too, same with Trent. FB, MF and Forward would be most subbed positions for the squad next season