Editor of Empire of the Kop – Jordan Chamberlain – @Jordan_AC90
Pre-season is over, and now the manager and his squad will be tirelessly preparing for the Premier League opener away to Stoke City in less than a week’s time.
Following six fixtures (five won and one drawn), Brendan Rodgers will have a much clearer idea of his starting XI at the Britannia, with excellent performances putting some previously less fancied names into genuine contention.
Below, we’ve named three candidates who’ve boosted their reputation during pre-season, and three who’ve come out of it, for whatever reason, worse off.
Winners:
3) James Milner
The summer arrival from Manchester City enjoyed an excellent pre-season and has essentially secured a starting spot in his favoured central midfield role. The 29-year-old has only been used in the middle, which was one of the conditions of him signing (via Independent), and not once on the right or left as he was for the Sky Blues. From the middle, Milner’s showed an ability to control the tempo and spray accurate long passes, while he’s tellingly weighed in with two goals as well. As a result, he looks a certainty to start the campaign in Rodgers’ XI – and could even be given the assistant captaincy as well.
2) Jordon Ibe
Ibe’s pre-season performances have given Brendan Rodgers a real selection headache. Before the tour of the Far East and Australia, it was assumed by most fans that Adam Lallana, Coutinho, new signing Roberto Firmino and probably Lazar Markovic were ahead of him in the pecking order, but now that can no longer be considered the case. Ibe’s probably been our best player this summer. Combining pace and power down the right, he’s showed increasingly intelligent decision making and an increasing demand for the ball. He capped off superb performances with a wonder-goal against Malaysia All-Stars – and he definitely provides the speed and acceleration our other attacking midfielders lack. What’s more, Raheem Sterling has left – which will aid his chances of starting on the right wing.
1) Joe Gomez
For us, the biggest individual winner of Liverpool’s pre-season by some distance. Arriving from Charlton, Gomez was an unknown quantity, and many fans had never heard of him prior to the transfer and were actually criticising the club for signing untested players. But Gomez has literally not put a foot wrong during the pre-season fixtures, and has been so assured at left-back, he could possibly start the season ahead of Spanish international Alberto Moreno. Many assumed Gomez will be loaned immediately to the Championship, but instead he’s going to bypass Under-21 and loan football to be fast-tracked into the first-team due to his pre-season exploits.
Losers:
3) Mamadou Sakho
Through no fault of his own, we’re going to have to include the French powerhouse in this list. Sakho’s been defensively perfect when selected, scoring a towering header against a Singapore XI during our fist pre-season fixture – but for a reason we simply cannot fathom – it doesn’t seem like Rodgers trusts or rates him. Dejan Lovren has been selected ahead of Sakho nearly every time alongside the automatically selected Martin Skrtel, indicating that the £20m Croat (who was appalling last term and was shaky in pre-season) will start the season. We don’t know what Sakho needs to do in order for Rodgers to put faith in him, as our defence was dramatically improved in 2014/15 when he was fit and selected. Despite strong pre-season performances, it looks like Sakho’s starting the campaign on the bench.
2) Lazar Markovic
Markovic started brightly against Singapore XI, scoring a goal from a central position at the tip of the diamond – but since his minutes have been very restricted and he’s clearly fallen below Adam Lallana and the impressive Jordon Ibe in the pecking order. If Markovic struggled for minutes in the Far East and Australia, he’s going to find them even harder to come by back in England – when Rodgers has Coutinho and Roberto Firmino to call upon as well. The young Serb hasn’t been given many chances to justify his £20m price-tag since arriving last summer, and unfortunately for him – we’re now very well covered in his favourite position. What’s more – Adama Traore is on his way (via talkSPORT) – meaning Markovic seems almost surplus to requirements if the talented Spaniard does arrive. Perhaps a loan deal could benefit the 21-year-old, as he’s going to stagnate if stuck on the bench for the season.
1) Tiago Ilori
Tiago Ilori is a curious, curious case. We spent £7m on him in the summer of 2013, and when he arrived, Brendan Rodgers lauded his talent (ESPN).
“We were fortunate in that two became available, one that we had been tracking for a year in Tiago Ilori, a young talent but who can be a big talent,” he said at the time.
“He is 6′ 3”, super quick, power, can jump, and he just needs to adapt to the pace and physicality of the Premier League. He is one for the future, but he can be a really big talent.
“Sakho is 23 but he is an experienced player. He has senior international caps and looks an absolute monster in training. He is one who is ready for now and that is what we want.
“We had a chance to do that and protect the club for maybe the next ten years and that is what we have done.”
But two years later, Ilori has still not played a single minute of proper action for the first-team. This summer, he was left out of the pre-season touring squad to the bemusement of many after he impressed with Portugal Under-21s at the Euros.
Ilori is 22-years-old now, and is ready for first-team football, yet Rodgers clearly doesn’t rate him at all anymore – perhaps after seeing him in training. We can’t think of any other reason he’s been so underused, especially when Dejan Lovren’s been so poor -with Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho making defensive mistakes too.
It’ll be best for the youngster to leave the club on loan to a Premier League club, as perhaps that’s going to be his only chance of testing his mettle in English domestic football right now.
