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      Squad overhaul

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      Brian78
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #138: Mar 09, 2021 07:12:05 pm
      Although needed it ain’t gonna happen this summer, I think the majority of what we have now will remain but I do see us off loading those  who don’t feature at all, and perhaps bring 1-4 higher quality to fight for places,
      Like the idea of rebuilding slowly over a couple of seasons but this covid sh*t has probably scuppered the initial stages of that this summer, it isn’t just about buying what we need, we need to be buying for the next few years and perhaps beyond, players like Gravenberch as what Brian alluded to,  We already have wee Harvey Elliot, it’s this kind of age group we should be going after, Trent already established, Gomez if he can stay injury free, Kelleher another future star, so some of the blocks are already here,

      I’m not up on the U23 or U18 ressies but I’m sure there are one or two who potentially can come through, Billy Koumetio for example probably 2 or 3 others,

      Overall I think next season will be for consolidation, seeing where we’re at financially once things settle down, we might not be in Europe so that could have a negative effect on transfer targets and probably monies available,

      But, don’t get too downhearted, we will have enough for us to get through another season, a season where we will be back competing for the title, and without getting too far ahead of myself,( I know, I always do)  I can next season being a three horse race with the Chavs joining the race.



                                                                                   Y  N  W  A

      Someone only said last week our 18s has a lot of prospect, more then our 23s

      While Id love 5 or 6 in I think getting VVD and Joe back plus signing Gravenberch a striker and cover for Trent might do it
      TheleftpegofRayKennedy
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #139: Mar 09, 2021 07:12:26 pm
      Yeah not sure about Ward Prowse. Although maybe for his free kicks alone wouldnt be completely a waste of time. Think we can get better. Haland probably out of reach but Grealish I think if we put down a good offer is doable. If not Grealish, Aouar from Lyon is a baller. Would take Tielemans from Leicester too.

      I like Tielemans. Reminds me of early Bobby, and not just for the no-look pass!
      Defensively I’d have a look at Ben Mee - he’s underrated in favour of Tarkowski and a top lad. Not sure we’d convince FSG to spend on a CB for the next 5 years though, we now have too many (quality notwithstanding).
      Can’t believe how many loaners are out there too - have any (apart from Elliott) got a cat in hells chance of being good enough?
      firminofanboy1
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #140: Mar 09, 2021 07:15:01 pm
      Abraham's sh*te and wouldn't want him anywhere near Anfield.

      Hmm I think he is decent. 47 goals in his last 94 matches is a good return. Think him and Salah could be a superb partnership. Robbo + Trent would love his movement + presence. Think he would kill it here tbh. Right kind of age for our club too.

      We need a striker who offers us something different. Physicality + aerial presence.

      Haaland of course would be amazing but Abraham for me is a great plan b option. He would definitely outscore our attackers besides Mo - I am sure of it.

      Out of curiosity who would you suggest as a realistic striker target to improve us?
      firminofanboy1
      • Forum Dean Saunders
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #141: Mar 09, 2021 07:17:48 pm
      I like Tielemans. Reminds me of early Bobby, and not just for the no-look pass!
      Defensively I’d have a look at Ben Mee - he’s underrated in favour of Tarkowski and a top lad. Not sure we’d convince FSG to spend on a CB for the next 5 years though, we now have too many (quality notwithstanding).
      Can’t believe how many loaners are out there too - have any (apart from Elliott) got a cat in hells chance of being good enough?

      Yeah he pretty much has it all. Can score aswell. I did see an interview last week saying he was happy at Leicester so I doubt we would get him but still a man can dream ;D Belgium are lucky to have him and KDB in the same midfield. They will be a good watch at the Euros.
      TheleftpegofRayKennedy
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #142: Mar 09, 2021 07:18:00 pm
      Great to read a thread full of differing opinions without insults and wummery. Makes me proud!
      RedWilly
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #143: Mar 09, 2021 08:13:05 pm
      Seems every few years we call for a squad overhaul and I don’t think I can ever remember what I would consider an ‘overhaul’ happening (I.e lots of comings and going’s all in one window).

      Tends to happen over time and whilst I think we need to get rid of a few injury prone players (Ox, matip, Keita), we need to consider the fact we will need to still replace them in the squad as well as signing a few players for the first XI. Think our attack could do with freshening up, some real competition for Trent and I’d like another CB to come in who can compete with Joe to start alongside VVD. 

      Don’t think we will see huge movement in the summer though.
      MarkMitt
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #144: Mar 09, 2021 08:28:29 pm
      Abraham's sh*te and wouldn't want him anywhere near Anfield.

      Giroud is quality however. Not saying go for him, but he’s a useful target man at 6ft 4 and very skilful.
      UncleBob
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #145: Apr 15, 2021 12:29:27 am
      This is a massive summer for us. We could fix our issues and make this season a mere ‘blip’, or we could carry on this form into next season and risk undoing all the work we have done to get where we wanted to be.

      But since the palace away game where we won 7-0, our form has been fairly terrible.

      10 wins and 9 defeats and a few draws mixed in. Confidence has vanished. Teams have lost that fear factor. Nothing seems to be working.

      Alison has looked unsteady for periods of the season.
      Our back four have been strained and out of form but a lot of hope is pinned on VVD coming back but we don’t know how he will be. It’s an injury that can diminish a players attributes. At the very least he needs a reliable and quality partner.
      Tsimikas and Williams don’t seem to get any minutes either. Which, considering how poor Robertson and TAA have been in certain games, doesn’t make sense. Maybe klopp doesn’t rate them. Who knows.
      The midfield needs more. Keita and ox just can’t string a run of games together. Gini has contract issues but has been below par all season, and Thiago is still to settle. Even Milner is now looking like the veteran he is.
      And our strikers also need a injection of change. Bobby has been frustratingly bad for 18 months or so. Mane has hit some kind of mentality block. Salah scores the goals at least but something is rotten with the front three. The click has gone. Shaqiri and origi just simply need to move on.

      Personally I don’t think a small tweak will do it in the summer.
      I think 4 or 5 players are needed. And not squad players either.

      Which is why top 4 is so important now.
      Failure to get that and this blip could be hard to shift.
      brezipool
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #146: Apr 15, 2021 07:58:00 am
      Squad overhaul buy Henderson, VVD, Gomez & Matip, oh wait....  :lmao: :mad:
      HScRed1
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #147: Apr 15, 2021 08:50:14 am
      Squad overhaul buy Henderson, VVD, Gomez & Matip, oh wait....  :lmao: :mad:

      I know Virgil scores the odd goal but where’s the goals in the players above, still need to score goals to win games. A la last night.

      fields of anny rd
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #148: Apr 15, 2021 08:59:37 am
      No to Tammy Abraham. Bisouma and West Broms Perreira are 2 players that interest me.

      Perreira in an attacking side could well unlock significant improvement in his game. Left footed and cover for Mo. A player who's more creative than Salah for the rest of the side but obviously he's not got his goals.

      West Brom in all likelihood will go down and he won't want to be playing championship football and we have history of buying from those sort of clubs. I guess it depends on what we want to do with Harvey Elliott for that one.
      Brian78
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #149: Apr 15, 2021 09:04:07 am
      If Jürgen wants to continue living off crosses into the box or floating corners in to the box time after time then he better go buy a forward who suits that.

      We can also do with a natural goalscorer wholl finish 40/60 chances or get on the end of nothing

      Thats before we look at midfield
      « Last Edit: Apr 15, 2021 09:16:55 am by Brian78 »
      Rush Goalie
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #150: Apr 15, 2021 09:30:24 am
      If Jürgen wants to continue living off crosses into the box or floating corners in to the box time after time then he better go buy a forward who suits that.

      We can also do with a natural goalscorer wholl finish 40/60 chances or get on the end of nothing

      Thats before we look at midfield

      That absolutely baffles me, who are the crosses for?
      I'm not panicking too much as I'm convinced our problems have come from VVD, Gomez and Matip all being out then throw in Hendo, Fab and Thiago missing huge chunks of the season, however this only part explains our famed front three. Salah misses a lot of chances but he's still fairly reliable it's the other two that worry me, has time just caught up with them.. Maybe?
      A squad overhaul takes years but regardless of who's leaving we need a Haaland or a genuine finisher.
      Gini is nailed on to leave could TAA become a good midfielder even better than Gini, I think so?
      Dadorious
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #151: Apr 15, 2021 09:54:02 am
      Yea baffled is the appropriate term to describe the endless and aimless crossing at a 5ft something front 3.

      It’s predictable and easy to defend against our fullbacks are in auto pilot aimlessly dinking it into the box with no target. Need to find a more effective way to penetrate crosses can be a powerful weapon but they can’t be the only one in our arsenal.
      Brian78
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #152: Apr 15, 2021 09:58:32 am
      Yea baffled is the appropriate term to describe the endless and aimless crossing at a 5ft something front 3.

      It’s predictable and easy to defend against our fullbacks are in auto pilot aimlessly dinking it into the box with no target. Need to find a more effective way to penetrate crosses can be a powerful weapon but they can’t be the only one in our arsenal.

      Highlighted by Robbo in the first half. Clear opportunity to shoot, think he was actually in the box, but he went to cross it!! Made a sh*te of it by the way and they broke with the ball
      AlwaysTheKop
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #153: Apr 15, 2021 10:47:22 am
      Gini & Keita out - Gravenberch & Bissouma in
      Origi out - Andre Silva in
      Matip & Phillips out - Konate & Kabak in
      Adrian out - Maximiano in
      Oxlade out - Malen in
      Shaqiri out - Elliott in

      Convert Firmino to CAM or cash in to help fund.

      Starting 11 isn’t changed drastically, just all the big boys are back, but the bench is much younger and capable of growth instead of stagnating or getting worse.

                       Alisson
      Trent - Gomez - Dijk - Robbo
                      Fabinho
                 Hendo - Thiago
              Salah - Jota - Mane

      Bench: Maximiano, Konate, Kabak, Neco, Milner, Bissouma, Gravenberch, Elliott, Malen, Silva
      0112358
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #154: Apr 15, 2021 11:29:26 am
      We need not much, just a guy who can come and start. This team could rock PL and CL:

      Alisson
      Trent-Konate-VVD-Robbo
      Hendo-Fab-Thiago
      Salah-Bobby-Mané

      We'd have enough back-up's (Kelleher, Matip, Gomez, Keita, Ox, Milner, Jones, Jota) to overcome injuries. Thiago is a very gifted player, so we can assume he will get Jürgen's ideas implemented by next season. Of course a lot depends on how massive VVD's and Matip's absence was this season. Here I assume that it was massive and not just covering for more fundamental flaws.
      JD
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #155: Apr 15, 2021 12:39:32 pm
      With Wijnaldum on the way out, Henderson continuing to suffer injuries, Milner another year older and Thiago looking like someone on his final paycheck then I'd say from a glut of riches a couple of years back we've now got some big problems to solve in the middle of the park.
      asharma.lfc
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #156: Apr 15, 2021 12:50:32 pm
      Gini & Keita out - Gravenberch & Bissouma in
      Origi out - Andre Silva in
      Matip & Phillips out - Konate & Kabak in
      Adrian out - Maximiano in
      Oxlade out - Malen in
      Shaqiri out - Elliott in

      Convert Firmino to CAM or cash in to help fund.

      Starting 11 isn’t changed drastically, just all the big boys are back, but the bench is much younger and capable of growth instead of stagnating or getting worse.

                       Alisson
      Trent - Gomez - Dijk - Robbo
                      Fabinho
                 Hendo - Thiago
              Salah - Jota - Mane

      Bench: Maximiano, Konate, Kabak, Neco, Milner, Bissouma, Gravenberch, Elliott, Malen, Silva

      Our main issue would be the player sales here. Earlier our big buys were helped by money we received from sales. Even Solanke fetched as 15 odd millions. But with the current situation we would struggle to get anything meaningful for them .

      Gini & Keita out - Gini is leaving as free transfer, With the injury record and the showings in the field , the best we would get is a loan option to take him off the wage bill .
      Origi out - Player in the last year of contract, plus the mediocre showings in the field
      Only players we may get decent money are Nat and Oxlade . Though Ox had injury issues, he is english and started showing some sharpness in the last games.
      Dadorious
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #157: Apr 15, 2021 12:57:32 pm
      Highlighted by Robbo in the first half. Clear opportunity to shoot, think he was actually in the box, but he went to cross it!! Made a sh*te of it by the way and they broke with the ball

      Yep he’s been doing it week in and out and despite it being totally fruitless it continues to happen.
      brezipool
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #158: Apr 15, 2021 03:11:04 pm
      I know Virgil scores the odd goal but where’s the goals in the players above, still need to score goals to win games. A la last night.



      Its just been a knock on to the whole squad losing those players, the whole dynamic has changed, then confidence has gone, and longer barren runs go for players, the worse it gets, snatching at shots etc.

      Guarantee, there wont be a massive change in playing staff, I expect a few fringe players to move on be replaced with whoever know, sure klopp and edwards already are working on a shopping list. ;D
      sore monad
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #159: Apr 15, 2021 03:40:01 pm
      Don't think we need a clear out, just improve our back up options/competition for places so we can rotate more to keep people fresh, plus drop players that are out of form. Our injury prone players could do with going - Keita, Ox and (maybe) Matip. I quite like Origi as an option, but Jürgen hardly uses him, so sell him. Despite what some think on here, he is the one we will probably get the most money for - a lot of clubs will be interested, we'll get >£20m for him. Unlikely to get that for any of the other 3 cos of their injury proneness.

      Should we keep Kabak? If he's gonna cost £18m, probably not. He's a decent player and has done pretty well to come in, cope with the pressure and form a not bad partnership with Phillips. But his lack of pace doesn't suit our high line. Same could be said for Phillips. Either one would be better with a pacy partner, but I wouldn't keep them both. We're unlikely to get much over £10m for Phillips (although no way should we sell him for less than that), so I'd probably keep him as a good header of the ball in case Virgil is out, and bring in somebody with pace instead of Kabak.

      Up front, we can forget about buying Haaland. His wages will be off the charts and FSG won't pay them. I don't blame them either - it would be mistake for us to try and outspend the sugar daddy clubs. We won't win at that game. Sancho might be a possibility. If Mo leaves then I suspect we will go for him. if Mo stays, I reckon we will go back in for Sarr, who looks a decent player to me and would give us another good option.

      The solution to Bobby's lack of goals is just to start Jota up front. It's frustrating that we haven't seen much of him through the middle (surprised he came on to play on the left yesterday again) but he looks potentially pretty prolific when played there, so I would go with him next season, with Bobby as a back up (and potential AM option as well).

      I think we really need to bring in better back up fullbacks (although can only really judge Tsimikas on the basis that Jürgen clearly doesn't want to play him). Everybody is ignoring this cos Trent and Robbo have been fit all season. But every season is different and,unlucky as we have been this one at CB, if we have half that bad luck with our FBs we will be screwed. They are so important to our play and we need better cover. Not sure who to be honest - Mourinho doesn't like Matt Doherty, maybe an option? Or we could bring in a first choice RB and play Trent in midfield. (But just having the option of another RB would mean we could play Trent in midfield in the event of injuries there.)

      Other than that the squad is good enough. It still wouldn't surprise me if Gini stays. Jürgen obviously really rates him, and he doesn't really seem determined to leave. If he stays, and Trent (and Sarr and Bobby and Jones) were AM options, there is no need to bring in anybody else to replace Ox and Keita. If Gini leaves, we might need another quality "water carrier" type CM.

      I think the above is realistic, and would leave us with a squad that can compete for the league and European Cup. If one or more of our front 3 leave, then we should spend big on a prolific replacement. But I am in no rush for any of them to go. I think they are tired and unfortunately out of form at the same time. [Edit -Bobby is maybe a slightly different story. He's never been prolific, and it may be we've run up against the limits of relying on the wide men to score so many of the goals. Opponents know that if they can stop Mo and Sadio running inside, we don't have much threat through the middle. So they double up on them every time the ball goes wide, and we end up either going back and trying the same thing on the other side, or throwing hopeful balls into a centre forward who generally isn't there, cos he isn't really a centre forward.] But Jota starting instead of Bobby makes sense to give us more goal threat thru the middle. That plus one more goal scoring back up out wide, and our attack should be firing again next season.
      « Last Edit: Apr 15, 2021 04:15:01 pm by sore monad »
      CT_LFC
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      Re: Squad overhaul
      Reply #160: Apr 15, 2021 05:01:23 pm
      This team is not in need of an overhaul this summer, it just needs the continuation of slowly turn the team around to the next wave of players. Gini is likely to leave and I imagine fringe players like Origi and Ox will too since Jürgen doesn’t seem to rate them anymore.

      We have too many players at CB right now so expect some consolidation there with Van Dijk and Gomez as the only 2 that are certain to stay.

      The biggest name I could see moving this summer is Keita as it simply doesn’t look like it’s going to work out for him at Liverpool.

      I expect one of the front 3 to leave sooner rather than later, but see that happening next summer and not this one.

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