Assessing Liverpool’s paper thin squad, the transfer market and why the next four weeks could define the Reds’ season.
‘Very thin’
That was the manager’s assessment of his squad as the Reds left Geodis Park, Nashville, at the weekend. It had a little more girth at the start of the game, but an injury to Joe Gomez exacerbated an already worrying situation. Ibou Konate has gone and Jeremie Jacquet is apparently nowhere near ready yet.
With the new season only a matter of weeks away, Liverpool are in the market for a right back, a centre back and two to three forwards, including a winger. Oh, and they’ve got to replace Mo Salah, which is pretty much impossible in every metric. And we’re going to have tired players with short holiday breaks thanks to the World Cup.
We’re here again. Scant resource with which to win the League.
There’s some mitigation here. The World Cup couldn’t have come at a worse time. Liverpool should only be buying in a certain shop if we’re to maintain a solid squad, the sort of shop that would involve internationals who play in such tournaments, and that’s difficult to do when any candidate would rather be thinking about the next game for their country rather than contracts, managerial meetings and then schools and houses in Formby.
Then there’s the shop above our level, though we’re loath to admit that such a place exists. The silly price shops.
The market is insane and FSG and their partners, hopefully Bezos free if we’re to maintain any semblance of soul, are risk averse personified, particularly given the free spending summer of last year. You’d assume that they’d rather wait for value than throw good money after bad when faced with an ashen faced recruitment team. This morning PSG leaked that Bradley Barcola, arguably our number one target, would cost somewhere in the region of £145m, some £20m over our record fee. Our other top target, Yan Diomande, has already decided on Madrid, at least for a year or two.
Pay the money, sure, but we still have other holes to fill. £145m gets you one player, not, say, six.
Some mitigation, yes, but also a certain amount of blame. The World Cup didn’t exactly leap up from the ground like the seven armed skeletons of Jason and the Argonauts. It’s been in the calendar for a while, possibly with the words “Work around this” written next to it. Other clubs are in the same boat and buying with ease. Tottenham, in particular. Why not Liverpool?
I suppose some of this stems from the sudden managerial change. Arne Slot was talking about bringing in a new Assistant Manager on Friday and was out of the job by Saturday morning so, presumably, any preferred targets he might have had were confined to the bin as he was. Also, it’s only natural that his replacement may want to see at least his new charges before he makes up his mind about fresh blood. Hence, the return of Harvey Elliott and the potential integration of Federico Chiesa into a starting line up.
All fair points but none of them address the stark situation. The squad is paper thin and the chance of bedding in a fresh player with a full pre season behind him before we go to St James’ Park is looking increasingly unlikely. A similar state of affairs to the Isak saga of last summer. Great to have him on board, of course, but he was still many months rusty when he finally took to the pitch.
Late signings might work in positions where a Tier 2 player, a back up, is fine, but not for the front positions. For example, I’d take anyone with a history of playing right back at the moment just so we can play Szoboszlai in midfield, but you can’t do that in the creative positions. We need world class quality there, someone with experience, stamina, fitness and a willingness to move both clubs and families quickly.
We need a lot and we need it with very little time. The next four weeks could define the next year.
We’re here again.
