Far too many players injured,its time to start a pay per play contract ,players are on far to much money now to sit in the stand ,maybe that will get some off the injury list and start earning their money
But then you’re going to get the problem of players saying they’re fit when they’re not. Players are going to get injuries or feel tired if they play every week.
For the modern game, a club the size of ours who competes in several competitions, you need a big squad consisting of 22 internationals, covering each position. We don’t have that. Not even close.
I know we can’t compete with city financially but just compare the two squads. They have depth everywhere. It reduces their chances of injuries. Look at Foden this season. He plays one week and then he’s benched the next. Whenever he’s benched, Mahrez comes in for him. But the difference between the two is very little, they’re both quality players and they’re on par with each other.
We don’t have competition for places. Just look at the state of our bench tonight. You could argue Brighton had a stronger bench than us.
We have no decent back up keeper and considering our first choice has a habit of missing a dozen games or so every season then this needs addressing. A bit harsh on kelleher because he’s done alright but because alisson misses so many games then we need a proper backup premierleague keeper.
The only cover we have for Trent is neco. A huge drop off in quality between the two.
We went into this season with only Matip as cover for our cbs and as we know, he is made of glass. Hopefully the two lads we’ve just brought in are decent. But going into the season competing in four competitions with only three cbs was criminal and we only have ourselves to blame for the mess we’re in.
Tsimikas is the only cover for robbo. He’s injured so we have no idea if he’s any good yet.
In midfield we have plenty of options. Fabinho, Hendo, gini, milner, ox, Thiago, Jones. Normally that would be enough to get us through the season and there’s enough quality there too but Thiago and ox have both had lengthy times in the medical room and Fabinho and Hendo have played at the back.
We have no proper cover for the front three other than Jota. Again, that’s criminal. We’ve gone into another season with origi, minamino (before he left), and Shaq as our other backup options and it isn’t good enough. Let’s be honest, they’re bottom 6 prem standard.
So for a season where we’ve been hammered with injuries it’s been evident that our squad is 1. Short of players and 2. Not good enough anyway.
Whether it’s klopps decision or FSGs I don’t care but looking ahead to next season, the club have got to bring in better players to seriously fight for places in this team and so when we do make changes, the drop off in quality isn’t as big as what it currently is at the moment.