Do LFC still actually have a strategy?
The news that we’ve dropped our interest in Bellingham has been met with derision from a large part of the fanbase, while others never expected him to arrive in the first place and some think the money would be better spent on quantity over quality.
Whatever side of the fence you sit on however, I think the anger and frustration at the club is justified and our much vaunted transfer strategy seems to have fallen off a cliff, almost as much as the team has.
Last year we allegedly made an approach for Tchouameni and the player himself admitted our interest but he only had eyes for Real Madrid. Fair enough, it’s not often a club goes head to head with Madrid over a transfer target and come out successful. Were there really no alternatives however?
We’ve been led to believe we couldn’t sign anyone else because we were saving up for Bellingham. This season has had to be written off because we’re playing the long game and waiting for Jude. Now though, a couple of months before the window opens, we’ve withdrawn our interest and the excuses are coming thick and fast. We’ve just suddenly realised he’s going to be crazy expensive. Well no shit, that came as a surprise to absolutely nobody and made most of us doubtful of the truth in the rumours he was our top target when the news first broke but they’ve gathered a lot of traction over the last 18 months.
We need more than one player in midfield…
Uh-huh. That should have been one in last season’s window and one in this season’s.
The lack of Champions league money has affected the budget… Well getting to finals and winning the bloody thing didn’t loosen the purse strings so what difference does that make?
This brings me on to the players we HAVE signed. Can anyone tell me what the plan for Nunez is yet? I’d be amazed if it was LW and super sub. We spent a potential club record fee on a CF – a position we’ve never really used in the Klopp era and are still showing no signs of using, as Klopp seems determined to convert our most recent signing Cody Gakpo into a false 9 to replace Firmino. Now I don’t really have a problem with that but then did we need Nunez for that fee? Would it not have made more sense to target Gakpo and a midfielder last summer instead?
That brings us to the lesser spotted Ramsay and Carvalho, a player I watched for all of 5 minutes before realising he’s not physically up to the task yet, I’ve literally being saying that since his first game for us. It took Klopp a bit longer but he eventually realised it and Fabio hasn’t had a sniff in months. The jury is out on Ramsay as he’s missed almost the entire season with a back injury – an injury that was picked up in his medical by the way!
It leaves me wondering exactly what the strategy is now and who exactly is leading it. So last season the only two midfielders in the world that were possibly even considerable were Tchouameni and Bellingham, yet now there’s apparently plenty out there that we’re willing to look at. We then have a forward line who I don’t think anybody knows what the long term plan is for them. Nunez and Gakpo have both shown glimpses of what they’re all about and look good players. Nunez more so, as Gakpo has had very mixed success in the false 9 role but Nunez himself is very raw. He’s far from the finished article and his game needs a lot of polishing, considering the financial outlay on him.
In Pep Ljinders much maligned book, he said the transfer strategy going forward was “youth and game changers”. Well we’ve plenty youth, what’s happened to the game changers? The sudden links to Alex Scott made me roll my eyes as well. Surely not another one for the future? We badly need the here and now.
In our current squad, here’s the players listed that are taking up a place but for a variety of reasons, have been offering absolutely nothing…
Adrian, Ramsay, Phillips, Ox, Keita, Arthur, Jones, Carvalho.
It’s not a million miles off being a full squad! Add to that the likes of Gomez, Matip, Konate and Thiago who struggle with injuries at varying degrees of regularity and it’s not easy to see why the players left get overused and burnt out. Squad players are vitally important at the elite end of the game but they need to be available and actually be able to contribute. Origi being a good example from the first part of the Klopp era.
We used to sing the praises of Klopp and Edwards during the building of Klopp’s first LFC team and rightly so as we brought in the likes of Robbo, Gini, Mane and Salah to very little fanfare at the time and they proved to be huge successes. As for game changers, you’d be hard pushed to find another transfer that was more transformative for a team than Virgil was for us and Alisson’s not far behind.
Klopp 2.0 is going a lot less smoothly though and I think even the most rose tinted of fans would have to admit mistakes have been made.
It actually started a couple seasons back when we went into the season with only 3 CB’s. We knew we were light but only had eyes for Konate the following year and we couldn’t POSSIBLY have made a stopgap signing, what do you think we are, a team winning Premier and Champions leagues? Oh wait…
We had to write that season off, albeit we pulled a rabbit out the hat and somehow finished third but we clearly learned nothing as we’ve gone into this season knowing we’re light in midfield and now we’ve had to write this season off and it been WAY more damaging. Not just psychologically for fans, players and manager but also financially with the likely loss of CL money next season and also to the club’s global standing.
Anyway, I needed that rant. Now, I still believe in Klopp and we may sign 2-3 midfielders this season that turn into world beaters and next season at this time we’ll be cruising towards another PL title but even if that’s the case, it will be by luck rather than design. It clearly wasn’t the plan and the shambles this season – which was mainly justified in the talk of us saving up for Bellingham, has left me asking what the plan actually is.
This is a huge summer for Klopp, FSG and the club in general. FSG need to get the wallet out and back the world class manager they’ve got, as good luck finding someone as good to replace him. The club need to get their transfer targets right and Klopp needs to decide on a system, stick with it and make it work again.
I think part of what made Klopp’s first team so successful WAS the system. We had such a nailed on identity, it made it easier to identify the characteristics of the type of player we were looking for in each position, whether it was goal scoring wide players in terms of Mane and Salah, or an industrious, possession rotating midfielder in Gini or a marauding fullback in Robbo. We knew exactly the type of player we were after.
What’s the identity of this current team? We’re not a pressing team anymore, we’re not really a possession team, as much as we might try to be, our passing is atrocious at times. Even when everyone’s fit, what’s the plan for the front 3? With all of them fit, who plays? And where? We can’t even bloody decide what position Trent is playing, never mind Nunez, Gakpo and Jota.
For the first time in the Klopp era, I feel like things are a bit of a mess, from boardroom where there is uncertainty about the owners long term commitment, to the bootroom where the wheels have come off this year.
Like I said then, it’s the biggest summer window in the Klopp era coming up and will likely shape our fortunes for the next 2-3 years. Walk on!!
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