The importance of the squad

Rather than analyse the game in this article, I thought I’d focus more on what a good squad we have now. Tonight Slot named more or less the team I did at the end of my last post match article, the only exception was he selected Jota over Nyoni and tweaked the formation to something more resembling a 4-2-4 in order to accommodate him and to it worked to be fair.

I mentioned when selecting this team in my last article that despite basically changing the entire team, it’s not like we’ve seen in years gone by where we’d see a mix of (usually not good enough) squad players alongside a smattering of kids, making it a team of of players who have never played together which inevitably leads to a disjointed performance and invariably defeat. The team we named tonight however, was all first team players who may not be automatic starters or first choice when everyone’s fit but they’re a far cry from the days when our squad players consisted of the likes of David N’gog and Nabil El-Zhar. Our squad players now ALL regularly feature for the first team so they’ve all played together many times, get plenty minutes and don’t generate the groans from fans when their name appears on the team sheet the way we once did at the sight of the likes of Voronin starting, or Brad Jones in our goal (shudder). No, these lads are almost all full internationals and while maybe not first choice, most are certainly knocking on the door and giving the manager something to think about.

What this means is that instead of a player coming in who feels under appreciated by the manager, is rusty and low on confidence and/or motivation to play a league cup game because they know that even if they score a hat trick and are MOTM, they’ll be back on the bench for the next league game, the players we have coming in for these are the complete opposite. They view it as a chance to further stake their claim to be starting, they’re highly motivated with a point to prove. Gakpo has been the best example of this so far this season, he’s been excellent when he’s played and if it wasn’t for the scintillating form of Diaz so far this season, Cody would be starting. Diaz will know this himself and it’s likely contributing to his early season brilliance.

There’s plenty more examples as well. We saw what Darwin at the weekend and I mentioned in my previous article that Jota would be sitting up and taking notice of what Gakpo and Nunez had shown and be conscious of the fact his place in the team is far from guaranteed, especially after he had a couple of quiet games, after an excellent start to the season. It’s no surprise then that he should pop up with a brace tonight on his return. All of the aforementioned will also be conscious of the fact Chiesa has also come in – another player with who’s hungry and has a point to prove, albeit for different reasons. The players won’t be foolish enough to underestimate him because of his low price tag though, this is a quality player as we saw in flashes tonight. What he did show was confidence and a willingness to take people on and try and make things happen and was rewarded with an assist on his first start. Salah aside, who needs no motivating given his drive for records and personal accolades, none of our attackers can relax for a minute or they’ll be out the team and you see the result as they’re all impacting games when they play.

We saw the effort of Endo tonight, giving absolutely everything he had in the press and winning the ball back. It would be easy for him to sulk or let his head drop but instead he tried like a bear to try and convince the manager that there’s a place for a player of his skillset in the squad at least, if not a regular in the first team. Curtis also came in determined to catch the gaffers eye and he’ll have done himself no harm, especially with that build up and assist for Jota’s second.

As for the defence, Bradley and Tsimikas well understand their standing in the squad and are both happy with it and desperate to make their mark when they do play, especially Bradley. Quansah is a bit of a strange one. He was given the nod ahead of Konate in Slot’s very first game which was a big call, so the boss must see something he likes. Having been hooked at halftime however, he’s not had a sniff since. I doubt the gaffer’s written him off after one half though, I suspect it’s because Slot is working with him on the training pitch, teaching him what he wants from his CB’s U.K. the same way Klopp did with Fabinho and Robbo when they were barely seen in their first 6 months. Once again though, it gives Jarrell a point to prove when he does get game time. That just leaves Gomez and Kelleher who even if they both know this will be their last season at Anfield, they have the motivation of playing for their next move so once again will not want to let their standards slip. I’ve just gone through the entire team that started tonight and every single one of them has something to play for and reasons to be highly motivated. That is an incredible culture to have at a club and something so rare and unique.

The most important thing though, is that every single one of them are real quality players. Up until around halfway through the Klopp era, basically my entire life of supporting LFC we had a good first XI that were capable of giving anyone a game but the drop off in quality from first choice to squad was like going from an M&S fillet steak to a frozen turkey twizzler from Farmfoods. It was stark and the reason that even in the seasons we came close to winning the PL in 08/09 and 13/14, I enjoyed the ride immensely but I never REALLY believed we’d win it, simply because our opponents were better.

I’ve had many an argument with people over the years about the need for two top players in every position. I remember Stu once saying that it’s difficult to keep that many good players happy and while it’s a fair point, I remember saying that City seem to manage it, as have Chelsea and United over the years. Madrid, Barca, Bayern etc. don’t seem to struggle to hold onto their players. If you’re competing for trophies every year and pay them competitively then they’ll be happy but the latter was always a problem for us over the last couple of decades.

That’s where FSG deserve credit. They can frustrate at times but they’ve built our financial muscle to put us in a position where we CAN put a proper squad together and pay them competitively. We’re never going to pay the best, just like we’re never going to target the world’s very best players. Not at their peak anyway. Klopp proved there’s another way to do it however and as a club we’ve become very astute at opportunistically taking advantage of certain situations and getting incredible value for money. We were aware of Macca’s very reasonable release clause last year and signed him basically the day the window opened for a reported £35 million, although there will likely be add ons that will ultimately make that fee a good bit higher over time but it will still be a damn good deal. We’d have been wanting at least double that had we been looking to sell him this summer. We’ve taken advantage of a number of club’s financial problems to sign the likes of Chiesa ridiculously cheap but we’ve done it with our new keeper. Valencia were in desperate need of a cash injection snd so we’ve managed to sign the player for what will likely be half his market value by the time we actually expect him to become our no1, likely in two years time. I didn’t understand the signing at the time but in hindsight, it’s a stroke of genius. Diaz was another one who’s club needed a reported £20 million cash boost to keep the wolf from the door. Spurs were in for him but not willing to pay that upfront. We were and that allowed us to skip straight to the front of the negotiating queue and conclude the deal quickly and for a very reasonable fee. Sometimes I wish they’d push the boat out a bit more but you have to admire what they do. Always looking for innovative new ways to improve.

I think we can only be heartened by that display. The score was a bit flattering in the end but we changed our entire outfield team and you’d have never guessed that to watch us. We still played with quality, an obvious system and witnessed a number of excellent individual displays. If we can rotate properly and avoid an injury crisis, which with this squad of players should be possible as there should be no need to overplay anyone, there’s no reason at all we can’t have a proper tilt at the title this season. With City and Arsenal already missing arguably their most important midfielders, you just never know if the stars may align for us this year. Especially given nobody was talking about us as title contenders so there’s no expectation on the team and they should just be able to play with freedom.

Forest blip aside, we’ve had an excellent start to the season and I for one am starting to get just a little bit exited about what might be possible this season. Walk on!!