There were familiar problems for Jurgen Klopp to scratch his head over during the 90 minutes of action against Darmstadt at the Deepdale.
Opposition attacks gliding through the midfield with ease at times – despite almost £100m worth of new talent being having been pumped into the department in the form of Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister – and a superb diagonal ball leaving the backline exposed.
Most baffling of all, however, is the fact that Liverpool are still yet to land a new number six to fill the Fabinho-sized void left in the starting-XI, nevermind a replacement for ex-skipper Jordan Henderson.
The options in the market are admittedly limited but does it all come down to money for the Reds? Very much so, according to Gary Neville, who took his opportunity to poke holes in FSG’s stewardship of the Merseyside giants.
“I think with Liverpool, [in] the last two years Chelsea have spent huge, Arsenal have spent huge, [Man] United have spent huge, City are City,” the former Manchester United fullback spoke on The Overlap’s Fan Debate (via the Liverpool Echo). “I think the market has shocked them, the [Jude] Bellingham £100m deal, the [Declan] Rice £100m-odd deal, [Enzo] Fernandez, [Moises] Caicedo, they’re [Liverpool] at that £50m or £60m and they’re comfortable there but I think they’re at their point where they’ve hit the ceiling lower than where the other four or five clubs are at.”
That said, patience has generally paid off as far as we’re concerned in the market, even despite the irrefutable financial superiority of some of our rivals. At the very least, it once did under the guidance of former sporting director Michael Edwards.
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It’s worth emphasising in all of this that our opening two purchases in the window are far from appalling; Mac Allister, signed by Jorg Schmadtke’s predecessor in Julian Ward, looks an absolute pinch at £35m, whilst Szoboszlai clearly has a lot of potential to realise.
With Chelsea pushing up to £80m for Moises Caicedo, however, whilst we squabble over loose change in negotiations for Romeo Lavia, however, you can see where Neville is coming from in his analysis of our efforts in the market.
Speaking of the Blues… though a meeting with Mauricio Pochettino’s outfit is drawing ever closer, there is still time for Liverpool to realise an ideal transfer scenario – the signing of two further midfielders and a left-sided centre-back.
To truly go one step up and respond to the Monday Night Football pundit’s point – we’ll have to go one step further in our pursuit of a new holding midfielder with a big move. Perhaps, dare we say it, a late hijack for our upcoming opponent’s current top target in Brighton’s No.25.
With a fee more than likely to exceed £80m (and that’s without even considering the Ecuadorian’s potentially significant wage demands), of course, we won’t be holding our breath on this one. Particularly, not whilst there’s much else to do to restore our squad to a level capable of genuinely challenging on all fronts.
If FSG are prepared to help Jurgen Klopp and Co. bend the status quo on sustainability, then they have one obvious way of doing so.
I am so real very badly extreme serious sensitive deep fucking totally powerful strongest super true direct free personality automatically pure simple fully special direct private secret disguise and dislike plus hate with never like include put me off added not good euough waste energy and money plus time black player like a Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia but I am so real very badly extreme serious sensitive deep totally really powerful strongest super true direct free personality automatically pure simple fully special direct private secret fan and flavourite plus love with success world class players is a Federico Chiesa and Hirving Lozano to Liverpool FC maybe end of this summer 2023 Transfer Window Market End in September
Caicedo’s what we should aiming for, no question but FSG are planning 10 year value in Lavia but want him on the cheap when clearly the priority would have been to have paid the money and got him in early.
It’s about needing every penny to buy others.
They treated the RedSox the same at home in a sport they really like. They have no shame and will have no problem fronting it out again at Anfield with Klopps protection and approval
These guys play on the financial margins hoping along with cherry picked coaches that it will bring success. They love building infastructure, like stands., as this is where the money is on sale.
They hit the jackpot with Klopp.
They need to sell Liverpool as they’re out of their financial league now
These man united ex players are sore becayse they never have simething good to say on other clubs. Always criticism of LIVERPOOL but yet they were disgraced with the whipping from Liverpool. Gone are the Ferguson’s days where he had most officials in his pocket.