Its easy for me to talk in hindsight , but I thought he should have stayed at Ipswich to build his career. Until a team of Tottenhams level came in for him.
Wickham was also, frankly, not as talented as he was made out to be as a 16-year-old. I like him as a player, but I think the best he could have been was a decent option for the seniors in the vein of Andy Carroll.
When I think of the amount of amazing prospects we have it's frightening. Arnold for me is the best right back in the world. Sancho possibly the best right sided midfielder in the world. Odoi, foden, rashford, chilwell, Gomez, bisaaka, cheek, Madison, rice. Add that to the experienced players like kane Maguire stones sterling, we really should be there or there abouts in terms of trophies.
In time it might be better but depth wise we're still quite susceptible to injuries I think, particularly up front - the drop off from Kane is steep, and then even beyond Rashford there's very little. Centre back as well you have the main 3 Maguire, Gomez and Stones but the options beyond that are mid-table standard. Midfield actually has decent depth right now but really needs a few of them to establish themselves as genuine elite players, at the moment we have a bunch of decent players there instead. The golden generation had great depth at centre back and central midfield but was weaker out wide and up front.
He should be worried tbh. His goal scoring record at club level is not good enough (1 in 21 for liverpool, 0 in 7 for bournmouth) and hes over 21. Im wondering if hes one of those players who will always be better at international level than club level. Trouble is, if he doesnt do it at his club the international games will dry up
The "Golden Generation" had almost a full XI of world class players. The current group is not close to that yet.
The 'golden generation' did absolutely nothing for our country. In fact, all they did was make us a laughing stock and made the atmosphere poisonous for new players coming in. This new group of players have restored pride back into the jersey. Give me the current crop over that bunch of clowns any day.
The current group of players don't look as good man for man as the "Golden Generation" but have already acheived more at international level than them.And in couple of weeks some of them will equal what they did at european level.
Alot of these guys are young but i would say we have 3 world class players in arnold kane and sterling
With all due respect, Alexander-Arnold is very far from being a world class player at the moment. He is talented for sure, but not even the best right back in England.
Course he is by far. He has everything. Pace, technique, vision, crossing ability. Hes a far better player than robertson and people are claiming hes the best leftback in the world
Don't there's a full back in top level football that had a better season than TAA. He's operating at the absolute elite level and has been a key player for Liverpool in the run in - 9 assists in his last 10 games. He has to keep it up but I don't think its that controversial to call him world class.
Nobody will be world class just because one tricky corner and a few assists against the likes of Bournemouth and Fulham. Alexander-Arnold is a fantastic prospect, but he is a defender first, and as such, he is still fairly mediocre. Not a coincidence that Klopp left him out at the Nou Camp. Get a bit of a perspective, guys. But if you want to overhype some youngsters, at least do it with Sancho, the one who could be a real world beater soon.
They lost 3-0 at the Nou Camp. The role of a full back isn't the same as it used to be. Guys like TAA are valued higher than guys like AWB in the modern game.
Klopp hasn't trusted him for a reason. Don't get me wrong, I like TAA, but he is still raw, and some important aspects of his game need a lot to improve. To say that he is on the same level as Sterling or Kane is a huge overstatement.
It's not just his crossing ability. It's his ability to pass the ball. Almost Beckham-esque. It's his ability to run with the ball at pace. He's also a good defender, that side of his game is overlooked. I have seen many comments from foreign fans who all rate him as the best rightback in the world. Did anybody not rate cafu as world-class because he didn't defend?
Better season? Arnold has had a higher assist return in lesser games and he's a much better overall fullback than Robertson
Actually, Cafu could defend, Roberto Carlos was the one, who didn't. Hopefully TAA will be better than him.
I agree with your general point but I think the reason Klopp left him out at the Nou Camp was more because he didn't want both full backs flying forward and getting hit on the break countless times.
Fullbacks don’t have to defend as much enthuse days as sides either play 3cb or a dm He’s elite and made a huge difference to Liverpool
He'd outgrown Ipswich even then, I don't think a team of a higher level would have come in for him as the clear flaws in his game were there - if a bigger club was going to they'd have nicked him ahead of Sunderland as price was hardly extortionate for him.
I've been having an argument on YouTube with a German who doesn't think Sancho will be a grade a player over the next 10 years yet he thinks De ligt De Jong havertz mbappe sane and Felix will be the closest challengers to mbappe. I told him if he thinks those players are better than kane and sterling then he's dreaming. He reckons the players he mentioned don't have any weaknesses yet Sancho does. Do you guys ever get the impression that foreigners don't rate English players or is it that they are biased against english players in general? I told him that Gomez is a better centreback than De ligt and foden has more potential than De jong. I just get the impression that some foreign fans are just envious of this generation of english kids coming through
100%. Tbh I regularly take a look at other forums and subreddits of the major European clubs and on the rare occasions that Real, Barca etc are linked with English players their fans seem repulsed and angry. Kane being an example, where their fans seem to much prefer targeting Jovic for example. Whilst Jovic is a super prospect, Kane has been one of the best strikers in Europe for 3-4 seasons now but because he's English he's overrated. Whilst Mbappe is in a league of his own, Sancho is definitely staking a claim to be the best in the next tier and whilst Felix looks quality, he has so far not played at as high a level as Sancho both in terms of his domestic league or European competition