While Liverpool made a few signings fans can get behind, they left themselves short in other areas, as the transfer window comes to a close…
AND that’s that. Well, pretty much.
Welcome Victor, Bradley, Ronald and Jeremy. Farewell Mo, Ibou, Robbo, and Curtis. Welcome to a weird halfway house/Schrodlinger’s Cat territory, Cody. The club seemingly want you, but only if there’s no one else about.
Ask Steve McManaman for advice on that.
It’s another period of enormous churn and that alone marks the summer as something of a failure. The whole point of last year’s window was to buy the stardust in Isak, Ekitike and Wirtz and then tweak the squad accordingly. Maybe two or three in for cover this summer. Nice dream.
The problem with that model was the emerging problem of Mo Salah’s eventual departure, the full-back cover and the inevitability of injuries. None of that was news to the club last Christmas, yet here we are.
Liverpool currently have no direct replacement for Alexander Isak. Cody Gakpo maybe, but he’s hardly a prolific number nine.
Liverpool’s first-choice right back is 5ft7 and 9st12lbs. Any muscular winger worth his salt can knock him off the ball. See Nottingham Forest on Saturday. The backup right back hasn’t played a minute since January 8.
The best fullback on the pitch this past weekend was one we gave away.
Another window closes, and we’re still playing Dominik Szoboszlai as an emergency right back. The club seem fine with that, as we were mostly linked with wingers and auxiliary strikers, but that can’t be the long-term solution.
Unless it is. But. There’s always a but.
Bradley Barcola is genuinely a coup. His signature took time and dominated the summer, as it was never going to be easy. The club have done well there. That needs saying. Credit where it’s due. Bradley Barcola plays for Liverpool now.
The two centre backs already look comfortable, and their ability is already making a difference to me at least (Ibou scared the hell out of me). Victor Munoz made his home debut on Saturday and walked away with the man of the match award. Absolutely walked it. We’ve done well there.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that transfer windows are hellish for clubs and overall we’ve bought pretty well. The problem is that we simply haven’t bought enough. We’re still a striker, a central midfielder and a right back short. These are issues we faced at the start of the summer, and they haven’t been addressed.
Maybe this can be fixed in January? I don’t know, but next summer already looks tricky. It looks like being the final one for Alexis Mac Allister, Allison Becker, Virgil van Dijk and Cody Gakpo. That would leave us seven players short before a manageable equilibrium can be reached. All those players are big hitters. All expect to start games.
There’s more churn to come. We’ve got to replace two of Jürgen Klopp’s and the club’s most significant signings. One of them is a captain.
The whole thing speaks of a lack of planning. A lack of organisation. That’s deeply concerning.
A poor transfer window can so easily bleed into another one.
But it is what it is. When everyone’s fit, we’re still someone to be reckoned with, but there’s seldom a minute when we have an embarrassment of riches.
We’ll have to wait and see, but I can’t help but feel that we’ve been unprepared for the vagaries of the market and it’s not the first time.
Finally, I’d just like to add to the sentiments expressed on yesterday’s show at the passing of Pauline Cox.
She didn’t support Liverpool and didn’t even care much for the game, but if you’ve been around the city you’ve probably had dealings with her or at least recognise her name.
She had an energy which lit the room and improved any mood. An absolute one-off and I’m so pleased that I was her friend.
We’ll miss you, Coxy.
