January transfer window/End of summer

[TheDOC1979]

Marginally missing out in winning the title or a cup won’t bother me to be honest. I just want us to be able to compete with the rest. On our day, we beat anyone. Think we’re all still suffering from last seasons horrid run and don’t want to be in a similar situation.

It’s a gamble not adding to the squad. Klopp might just be saying what the owners want him to say. Who is to know what he genuinely feels?

Fingers crossed for an injury free season and Keita continues to show why he is better than Wijnaldum. He could be our game changer in midfield.

Midfield, based on who we have is actually not too bad. Think it’s the person up top that has a sense of goal (Suarez/Torres) that we are missing

[Insidious]

Marginally missing out in winning the title or a cup won’t bother me to be honest. I just want us to be able to compete with the rest.

Same really. We haven't made a habit of winning the League in our recent history and 97 points wasn't enough when we finished second.

Don't think anyone gets on a "Klopp Out" train if we finish 2nd/3rd and are 7-10 points off top spot, nor get beaten in injury time in the second leg of a Champion's League quarter-final. Equally if we finish 4th but are 25 points off top spot and we end up in the Europa League due to finished 3rd in our group, then are knocked out before the quarters, everyone will (rightly) be disappointed.

I'm mainly interested in the Premier League and Champion's League campaigns. The ridiculous lengths Man City have gone to in terms of the transfer fees with squad depth or attempting to buy every full-back on the World means I'm relatively resigned/not arsed about the League Cup until/unless we reach the quarters or so.

[LFC-DPG]

We clearly have no money to spend so I think it’s going to be a season of making do with what we’ve got. Which is still a very good side.

Even if Phillips and Origi go I can’t see anyone else coming in.

[Insidious]

Even if Phillips and Origi go I can’t see anyone else coming in.

Could always get to January and see where we are.

Even if money is tight, there are forwards out there who don't have massive contract lengths but score regularly in other Leagues, if our scouts/data analysts don't mind a calculated risk.

Sardar Azmoun for example scores a lot of goals for Zenit and is entering the final year in his contract. At 26 he fits the age profile and he wouldn't be terribly expensive. The biggest question mark I suppose would be the League he plays in, but a big part of me has a curiosity for footballing experiments so I hope our recruitment team have at least had a look.

[Kev0909]

Sounds brilliant sid, we can always loan him out next season and make a few million too!

Get it done.

[Insidious]

Sounds brilliant sid, we can always loan him out next season and make a few million too!

Get it done.

Haha!

In all seriousness though, we play with a front three - all of whom are on high wages, with Jota, our primary back-up, on decent enough money. We simply aren't going to bring someone in for big money on big wages that pushes, let's say, £180k-per-week Firmino into a position where he's getting something like 8 starts in the League. We also seem to view Elliott as a midfielder now.

So, if we can't do that and if (big if) there is a forward out there available for less than the price of Origi (who didn't make the bench today) and Phillips (who now has Van Dijk, Matip, Gomez AND Konate ahead of him in the pecking order) who can be maybe halfway between Origi and Jota in terms of contribution, whilst being a closer "fit" to what our side needs and is happy as a pig in shit to move to Liverpool, then I'd be all for it - it's just that I do prefer to give who we already have on our books a fair go. I want to see if this experiment of Ox in the Firmino role can work, I want Minamino to get match time and I want us to think carefully about who we bring in when we're probably weighing up giving an appearance or two to Kaide Gordon this season.

Contenting ourselves until January and then assessing where we are seems sensible to me.

[teesred]

Haha!

In all seriousness though, we play with a front three - all of whom are on high wages, with Jota, our primary back-up, on decent enough money. We simply aren't going to bring someone in for big money on big wages that pushes, let's say, £180k-per-week Firmino into a position where he's getting something like 8 starts in the League. We also seem to view Elliott as a midfielder now.

So, if we can't do that and if (big if) there is a forward out there available for less than the price of Origi (who didn't make the bench today) and Phillips (who now has Van Dijk, Matip, Gomez AND Konate ahead of him in the pecking order) who can be maybe halfway between Origi and Jota in terms of contribution, whilst being a closer "fit" to what our side needs and is happy as a pig in shit to move to Liverpool, then I'd be all for it - it's just that I do prefer to give who we already have on our books a fair go. I want to see if this experiment of Ox in the Firmino role can work, I want Minamino to get match time and I want us to think carefully about who we bring in when we're probably weighing up giving an appearance or two to Kaide Gordon this season.

Contenting ourselves until January and then assessing where we are seems sensible to me.

Sid that's where the problem is. We are still talking about the original 3 as being unmovable. Years down the line. No other team dies that yet we do /are and we still expect to maintain what we had.
It's crazy to think it would happen.
Jota is a back up, squad player. No way he's good enough for a starting place in any of the top 4 sides.
We need to move on from thinking Salah,Mane and Firmino cant be replaced.

[TorresGoalGoal]

Our second half performance was shocking against 10 men. Klopp has no trust in the bench so god knows what’s going on. Is he trying to make a point to the owners that he needs to spend?

[Insidious]

Sid that's where the problem is. We are still talking about the original 3 as being unmovable. Years down the line. No other team dies that yet we do /are and we still expect to maintain what we had.
It's crazy to think it would happen.
Jota is a back up, squad player. No way he's good enough for a starting place in any of the top 4 sides.
We need to move on from thinking Salah,Mane and Firmino cant be replaced.

I think what we'll see is us having Mane and Salah tied down a bit longer, with Firmino seeing out his contract like Gini did - and perhaps with one season of his contract left (next Summer) we'll look to bring a forward in ahead of time as we phase him out.

Mane and Salah take care of themselves and I see them as still being at a pretty high level for another 2-4 years, so I think we'll be hoping to bring that forward player in (next Summer), whilst Jota sticks around/rotates, whilst also developing youth to help with depth, whilst keeping our eye out for bargains as well.

May not pan out that way, but that's how I'd call it at present.

[justme]

I think Mane is waining a bit. he doesnt seem as fluent has he use to. hes played an hell of a lot of football in the last few years