Liverpool enduring ‘long-term misgivings about the failure to replace Wijnaldum’ – Bascombe

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There is an almost unanimous call from Liverpool supporters that the club needs to purchase a new midfielder and many think that this stems from a failure to replace Gini Wijnaldum, when he left in 2021.

Writing for the Telegraph, Chris Bascombe said: ‘The long-term misgivings about the failure to replace Wijnaldum with a midfielder with the same defensive capabilities look correct.

‘No manager can account for the kind of individual errors Ibrahima Konate or the usually flawless Alisson Becker have made in the last two games, but the broader issue is the back four and keeper are no longer protected as they were when Wijnaldum, Henderson and Fabinho were in their pomp’.

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There were many that spotted that the decision to allow the Dutchman to leave Anfield was a risky one but to then not fully replace him was destined to have long-term implications.

It appears that this report agrees with the above statement and there is certainly supporting evidence to say that, although we have signed Thiago Alcantara, our former No.5 was a very different player to anything we have at the club now.

The only issue with this statement is that the main target we have been linked with to join the club, is Jude Bellingham and he is a different option to what the current Roma loanee provided Jurgen Klopp.

We are experiencing a dip in form and many have suggested that this is because we need new midfielders at the club but seeing as we were two games away from winning an unprecedented quadruple just seven months ago – it feels too easy to now pin that on the player we signed from Newcastle, leaving and not being replaced.

Whether a new midfielder should have been signed when Wijnaldum left the club, in the past two windows, or in the future – it does appear that most are coming round to the idea that this is the answer to all of our current issues.

Who knows what the popular opinion will be if this doesn’t prove to be the answer to our problems?

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