THERE has been something distorting about what Chelsea have done so far this season. Something which has damaged perceptions across the division, especially within the other sides in the top six. The rate they have notched points up has left everyone else searching for shortcomings. Why can they do that when we cannot?
Every other side in the top six has therefore both got on their own back at some stage, egged on by some in the media, taking turns to be in a crisis while all going at two points a game. None have been consistently terrific but taking the season as a whole none have genuinely underperformed.
For Liverpool it has manifested as criticism of the strength of the squad, especially in attacking areas. Yet if we look at every rival we have with one eye on the summer gone and the summer to come, we can see they all have issues and holes. None have the combination of both incredible first team quality across the pitch and remarkable depth — referenced here by Paul Tomkins — when we think back to Manchester United and Chelsea 10 years ago.
Let’s be clear about this:
a) Liverpool should have invested in one more forward similar to Sadio Mane last summer. I understand why it didn’t happen. No-one is hugely culpable but it looks an error which needs learning from. Gerard Houllier’s maxim: You cannot programme success, only prepare for it. Atkinson’s maxim: There’s no point aiming for fourth any more, aim for first.
b) Liverpool could do with one more quality option in every position down the spine until we get to the attack where they could do with another Mane at least. On a great free show last week Sean Rogers pointed out that this is how Liverpool bought last season and we would take the same again. Lines like that make you wonder, but this is the nature of football. Again, a look around our rivals tells you that.
Arsenal still look a quality centre-back and a centre midfielder light while Petr Cech hasn’t had a good winter. They bought in both of those positions in the summer. They have a surfeit of attacking midfielders but only one good right-back (who has had a poor and injury impacted second half of the season). If they change the manager it will be chaos. Maybe good chaos but chaos nonetheless.
Spurs are so reliant on Harry Kane and it would be fair to say Anfield showed their midfield deficiencies, as did the Champions League. They bought in those positions in the summer too. They lashed £30 million on Moussa Sissoko. Walk around that.
Manchester City spent big money on goalkeeper and centre-back. And guess what? Yep. Could arguably do with the same again. Gabriel Jesus and Leroy Sane look potentially marvellous footballers, though. Regardless they need another big window. We presume they will have one because of their manager, their money and because we fear the worst. I reckon they will do alright which would arguably be an improvement on their last three summers.
The current league leaders didn’t get a single one of their top targets last summer according to Rory Smith. The lads currently in sixth got all of theirs it appeared. One to remember. Both have strange squads, Chelsea look like they have the strongest 13 in the country; Manchester United look closest to two very good players for every position.
Chelsea have essentially gone top with the same first 11 plus Willian and Cesc Fabregas. They use Kurt Zouma and have recalled Nathan Ake, having sold Branislav Ivanovic as he could no longer turn around. Their number two centre forward has barely kicked it in the league. They have had massive good fortune with injuries to date. They are likely champions but their summer will be fascinating.
Manchester United’s squad should be the envy of the league yet they sit sixth. I expect they will have a whale of a time as the season closes because of their depth but there isn’t a genuinely terrifying 11 they can put out. I remember Manchester United sides which terrified me. Therefore they can also be expected to buy down the spine — Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Michael Carrick cannot keep on keeping on forever and it wouldn’t surprise if Jose Mourinho buys another centre-back. He’ll also be looking to do some jiggery-pokery in wide areas. (I expect United will be the team to beat next season, by the way).
The Tomkins piece should be required reading as it explains how all of this has come to pass and why we can expect these imperfect situations to continue. The scale of the problem is there but so is the potential opportunity for Liverpool. Rafa Benitez had to be perfect. Be perfect and make hard choices. Jürgen Klopp probably doesn’t need to be as perfect, though the choices will remain as hard. In short, the Liverpool manager needs to find his way to 60 points with 10 games left for four of the next five seasons. If he does that what we want will surely come.
The priority for the Liverpool manager if he intends to keep Liverpool’s style of play the same should be to ensure its attack can withstand increased games and intensive periods without having to change approach. Undoubtedly they should look to add a centre-back to compete with Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren but Klopp’s move if he isn’t going to shift his on-field approach should be a classic Alex Ferguson one. Go big on one defender, buy forwards in bulk.
They should look to invest in a player who will offer genuine numbers from the left-hand side of the attack and get another player to compete with Mane. The manager has committed to Roberto Firmino as his main man for this campaign. It will take some player to shift him and/or Liverpool’s style of play. Liverpool should look for that player but acknowledge it may not come and be prepared to add an unfashionable physical centre forward who works hard but won’t expect to start. This is especially important for the winter months should a perennial world class option not be available.
In different ways — and not entirely their own fault — both Divock Origi and Daniel Sturridge haven’t done what their manager and teammates needed in the winter. The former deserves another chance. The latter deserves to showcase his talent weekly, something which now looks unlikely here.
Seeing Philippe Coutinho as a midfield option boosts that area of the pitch should Adam Lallana pick up a knock or need a rest but if Emre Can won’t sign a new deal something more dramatic may be required and it should see a player who can play if Jordan Henderson can’t be added. If Can stays I think it should/could well be in midfield and full-back Liverpool gamble just as all these sides will gamble somewhere.
Next season will see the same stories written — only one side can win the league and therefore everyone will be in crisis at some stage. Everyone will be underperforming somewhere. When the manager speaks about keeping our nerve it is this he is referring to. Liverpool can’t plan for that, though.
Liverpool can come first next season; they could still come first this and could certainly — partially through luck, partially through their own shortcomings — have more points on the board now. They could come sixth this season or even lower next. Next international break I’ll write about the pressure this puts on the ownership, have a look at the top six and FFP, and examine Klopp’s position in this.
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That was a fantastic read… I love the way it was analysed in a fair way to all clubs.
Really insightful…
The funny thing is I think Arsenal and United clearly have the best squad depth of any of the top 6. However, they play their best when they have 30+ year old midfielders playing and they struggle when they’re out. Arsenal are basically a title team when Santi Cazorla plays but they collapsed last year after he got injured and this year they have struggled to create even though they have grinded out more wins than usual. United have also won much more than when Carrick plays when he doesn’t. It’s just a tough business.
Is Klopp going to replace Karius with a world class keeper? It seems unlikely considering the plaudits the kid received last year in the Bundesliga. Perhaps then we might look to strengthen our keeper competition. Possibly more of a steady, consistent, mature keeper as opposed to Mignolet who can pull off a worldie one moment and drop a clanger the next?
This season, Milner has left back locked down, but we must be looking to the future, surely. Finding another academy player like TAA for the left would be great because despite all of his capabilities, Moreno still does some stupid stuff that he should have ironed out of his game by now. I see we’ve again been recently linked with Chilwell, so amaybe he is the clubs long term target/or its just rehashed paper talk.
Definitely buy a big centre back to compete with Lovren and Matip. In my humble opinion Klavan looks a classic 3rd/4th choice whilst we see where Gomez is & can get to.
Englands Kev Stewart and Lucas ‘God love him’ Leiva would appear to be question marks for the future but Klopp doesn’t seem to play out and out defensive midfielders. He seemed to give Stewart a few games to check him out but we’ve seen less and less of him. If Henderson is the metronome, do we bring in an out and out DM, a Deep Lying Playmaker or some sort of hybrid as competition? If the skipper gets injured for any length of time, would you trust Lucas or Stewart for an extended stint in the side?
Perhaps the links with Dahoud will resurface in the summer. I think Wijnaldum took the spot we wanted Dahoud for, but maybe Can’s contract situation brings the young Gladbach midfielder back into play?
I’m also in general agreement that with Coutinho (and even Firmino at a stretch) able to cover the third centre midfield role, we will not be looking to bring in direct competition for Lallana unless the perfect fit comes available at the right price.
With the forward line, its pretty obvious that Firmino, Mane and Coutinho is the preferred trident. Moving Bobby to the left didn’t get the best from him, so I can’t imagine that a Mane equivalent for the left is not a top priority. It would also be nice to get cover for Mane as well.
Will Ings get another chance at the top level considering the development he’s lost? Origi probably gets another season but what about Sturridge? Seemingly a poor fit, he also seems to have lost a yard of pace which might have covered the poor fit argument as his pace was what got him in to goal scoring situations. Whoever it is, I think pace and goals are needed in that front three.; just look at how our attack faltered without the pace of Mane. My Fantasy Manager wishlist would include a left footed version of Mane and perhaps another player who is comfortable out wide as well as centrally. That enables Bobby to continue as the main man with Origi as back up with cover from the wide spots.
In summary: a steady consistent back up keeper, a boss centre back, left back competition, cover at No. 6, a Mane replica for the left, cover at wide forward. I’m not sure we’ll have that sort of money to splash about unless we’re able to get half decent money for Mignolet, Bogdan, Moreno, Ings, Sturridge, Sakho, Flannagan, Wisdom and Markovic (60-65m?)
sounds like xmas.i want santa,there a guy who knows what he is doing.were not far off a great team yes a great team,just have faith.opions are fine,the big man know what he doing and wants,stick together s a team,on the field,and off,
Don’t comment when you’ve been out all night, Roy; things could go horribly wrong.
The adage “You build from the back” is as true today as ever. Priority number one is replacement of the weak, feeble Mignolet,.
“the pressure this puts on the ownership, have a look at the top six and FFP, and examine Klopp’s position in this.”
With this in mind, and its maybe not the most thrilling of subjects, but a TAW special with a football finance expert could be quite enlightening. Someone who can put finances into lay terms for the rest of us – how are transfers financed, is net spend that relevant, does the adage “simply lash another 15m at the player and get the deal done” actually make any sense, where does all the rest of the cash go as to most fans a 350m income versus 170m in wages means there’s loads left over, right?
A great read; but the analysis of Chelsea forgot about their main man Kante, bought from Leicester for £30m in the summer, who has made an enormous difference. And to a lesser extent Luiz !! … so they also invested heavily in their spine.
The Tomkins article is a ‘must read’ in my opinion. It is full of insights, opinions- backed up with evidence- and treats the reader as if s/he has a brain! I love that website.
If we were an ordinary club, every summer we’d look at our starting XI, ask where the biggest upgrade would be, and spend big on that spot. I’m pretty sure that would mean upgrading on Lovren with someone like Van Dijk. Some other conventionally sensible suggestions might be trying to improve depth GK or LB. Lots of us still have fantasies going about a “real” DM.
But this is Liverpool and we fire all weapons. We aren’t ordinary. Klopp does total football and without a collective dynamism we offer almost nothing. Our biggest problem this season has not just been that Mané and Coutinho weren’t available, but that the manager reacted by completely upsetting team chemistry and unsettling the entire front six.
So forget an ordinary approach. We are built on fast, technical players who can run all day and we need six of them fit for every match. It makes sense to sign another two this summer — the Mané clone everyone wants plus someone who in Klopp’s mind is a better Hendo sub than Can. That’s why Neil’s (a) and (b) seem right on. Last summer Klopp spent £60m on these qualities and just £10m trying to pick up the pieces at the back, and if all goes well he’ll do that again.
Critical that we buy a top quality centre midfielder. Nzonzi has been the best midfielder in Spain this year and has a 30 million release clause. This is a great article from Sid Lowe about him.https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/feb/21/stoke-sevilla-steven-nzonzi-champions-league-leicester
Watched Inter Roma last last and NAINGGOLAN ran everything. 9 goals from a defensive midfielder.
Top centre back needed.
A left back is needed.
Back up to Mane.
Another left sided midfielder who has numbers.
A different option up front on the cheap.
No way we will pay for all of those even if we did sell Mignolet, Moreno, Sakho, Can, Markovic and Sturridge and Ings/Origi