Danny Murphy has refused to criticise Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, over their backing for Jurgen Klopp over the course of the summer transfer window.
The Merseysiders attracted further concern with a poor outing in Naples ending with a 4-1 defeat to Napoli to kick off their Champions League campaign.
“I don’t agree that FSG have let him down with transfers,” the former midfielder told talkSPORT.
“In the summer I don’t remember any discussion about what they’re lacking in defence and midfield. They brought in Ibrahima Konate for £50million to help with Van Dijk and Joel Matip, they’ve got full-backs to cover, they’ve spent £85m on a striker in Darwin Nunez to fill the void left by Mane’s goal and assists – where haven’t they backed him?
“In the summer I didn’t see many people who weren’t expecting Liverpool to be up there with Man City again. Only three months ago we were talking about Liverpool having, or nearly having, one of the best seasons in history.”
Whilst the midfield (solved, to a certain extent, late in the window with the loan signing of Arthur Melo) remains the most problematic department for the Anfield-based outfit, successful efforts to provide back-up for the right-back spot, replace Sadio Mane and bring in an exciting talent in Fabio Carvalho deserve both attention and praise.
It’s a far cry already from how we tackled the so-called ‘group of death’ last term, though it seems a little harsh from some to load FSG with all the blame for the performances on the pitch.
Evidently, a quality midfielder would have been a superb and welcome addition to the squad and, indeed, efforts were made to bring about such an eventuality via enquiries with Borussia Dortmund and a failed move for Aurelien Tchouameni.
A refusal to compromise on quality has meant that many of the vocal members of the online fanbase have been left disappointed, though it should be remembered that patience in the transfer market has previously rewarded us with stellar additions.
#Ep58 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: Rating Liverpool’s UCL group, making a new signing… & more!
Yeah I forgot there was a world class midfield embargo this summer with more than one needed.
A blind man on a galloping horse could see the midfield was a potential mess after a 63 game season and years of under investment in the form of cover for prominent players.
Last minute panic loan of light weight Arthur is straight out of the FSG tight ass playbook.
Anyway this is where we are….burnout, overlapping injuries and a transition season.
Absolute asinine comments from Danny Murphy! Perhaps he is referring to the talking heads who were falling over themselves singing Liverpool praises and especially the recruitment team’s, but NOT the average fans! We have seen and spoken about the desperate need to freshen up this squad, especially in MF and back ups for TAA and Salah! Would Murphy consider that a youngster from Scotland who btw arrives already injured is adequate to prevent TAA from acting bigger than his boots?? Or absolutely no valuable sub for Salah? How about what all of us said all along that we should have sold this very summer while we could still make some
Money on Keita, Ox and Firmino. They would have brought in this summer easily 50 mil. Instead we get hardly anything from them one more year, pay their salaries and get zero for them next summer! Great business? Ok, we got had by Real with Thcoumeney, fine it happens, but we have No plan B??? Really, no MF In the world in the 40-50mil range is a solution??
Btw, Danny, the so called investment in Konate was already a year late and cost us the season two years ago! Exactly the same stupidity and Johnny come lately strategy as two years ago! And you claim that FSG have done right by Klopp over the last three years or so?? Seriously? Btw, we didn’t pay 85 mil for Nunez this year, stop throwing ridiculous numbers which are based on iffy incentives and spread over years!! Please!!! We only got him in as we missed out on the MF and we also lost Mane. So we are always a player or two short and a year late! In the context when all your main competitors and even average teams like WH, Newcastle, Everton and other invested massively this year?? U consider a NET investment this summer of £8 mil in a badly aging and injury prone squad in a year where UK teams have blasted the world record of investments adequate?? This is backing up your manager??? Are u from a different planet or angling for some position within the club and are here to gaslight us with your rose tinted glasses? Dude…
We have NO back up for TAA and Salah. We have NO reliable MF left in the team, maybe partially Fab but keep playing him this year every game and he will be done by next year as is now Hendo, or Thiago.
By next summer, given the current state of the squad and the non investments this year we would truly need THREE midfielders and a solid back up or replacement for Salah! At the minimum. And then the next year we ought to take another look at the LB position where Robbo also looks dead and Tsimikas is not starter material and also a long term replacement to Firmino which will also cost us another 40-50 mil..
This is the reality where we are and we would have to do this next year without, likely, the benefits of ChL revenues! We missed that boat, again. At this time we are the 3rd revenue world wide among all top teams, we passed United for the first time yet we don’t invest?? And u say that FSG zis now not the main problem?? I agree that Klopp has been publicly quite glib about the situation and is left to eat crow now. But don’t for a second think that he is that dumb as to not have seen what is happening writing his squad, he just played the good team player guy who doesn’t criticize his owners, he should have yes! But I’m quite sure he asked for help and probably was told? Not this years, squeeze more from what u have and we will see next year..
You want to compare our investments over the last 5 years to United’s or any other big club’s ???
Man, do your homework as a ‘pundit’ before you come out with such dribble! Credit due to FSG on their first 3 years for salvaging the team from the previous mismanagement, the training center, the stadium additions and the moderate but reasonable squad investments . For the last 2-3 years though they have badly allowed the level of the squad to drop to the point where in just one season (this one) the drop will be dramatic! We are currently on possibly relegation form. Will we go down? No, but surely this must be one of the most spectacularly fast falling from grace from the dominant team we have been for 4-5 years!
Scabs are off… we know what we see and what must be done if we are to match our commercial dominance with sporting ambition and super team mentality year in year out in the same league as Real, Barca, Bayern, United and of late City.