Ah so you are making 2 assumptions which I don't agree with, (firstly) that Karius will bounce back, I think no way, especially when opposition fans start taking the piss, which you know they will. (Secondly) you assume that the keepers that we are linked with Allison and Oblak are not a big improvement, I do and I think the acquisition of either will give us probably an extra 5-6 points at least per season.
With Keita, Fabinho and hopefully Fekir coming in our forward and midfield options are infinitely strengthened so the next area to look at is GK and then an extra CB if there money to spare.
1. I understand there is risk in how Karius recovers from the CL final because the only way to find out is when he's on the field. however, let's not pretend his mental recovery is the reason you want a new #1. You have slagged him off long before that
2. Oblak and Allison could very well be improvements (as i've said, not totally sold on Allison being an improvement beyond what appears to be better distribution) but i don't think whatever improvement you would get out of them is worth the 60-80M+ you'd have to pay.
As much as it hurts you to acknowledge it, Karius performed at a very high level since he took over with the 10 clean sheets and 14 gls allowed in 19 games. Spin it any way you want, but those stats over a full season would result in us having a top-3 defense in the league and goalie with most clean sheets. Someone mentioned here we had the best defense in the 2nd half of the season (i cannot confirm or deny the stat) and that is in part because of Karius, so why would i want to break that up when we have other areas of need?
Keita, Fabinho and Fekir are all great additions, or would be in Fekir's case, but that still leaves me with Ings coming in for Salah/Mane/Firmino when one goes down or needs rest. I much rather take that 60-80M and throw it at Lemar / Pulisic / Werner so that when one of the big 3 comes off the field there is not a huge drop off.
Resources are not unlimited (you're looking at well over 200M for all of Keita/Fabinho/Fekir/Lemar or Pulisic), and i think there is a bigger margin of improvement and future potential from Ings -> Lemar / Pulisic than Karius -> Oblak / Allison
« Last Edit: Jun 07, 2018 05:12:01 pm by CT_LFC »
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