The point that youth (yewt?) often gets a chance in proportion to how bad the starting XI is has been made here. Sometimes it (yewt) gets a chance because of fixture congestion (AKA "The Romance of the FA Cup"). So lets make a complete list of teams that have regularly started young academy graduates in PL games while losing 5 or fewer games a season. I'll start ... Liverpool (Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez) Your turn
Liverpool full-back heads to MLS for intriguing loan move https://www.thisisanfield.com/2020/09/liverpool-full-back-heads-to-mls-for-intriguing-loan-move/
I don’t know if you can count Joe Gomez as an academy graduate. Brendan Rodgers bought him from Charlton as a teenager, and he went straight into the first team and started games at left back. He is an example of a young player who was given a chance and developed into a top player at Liverpool.
The Reds have been reluctant to meet Bayern Munich’s £27m asking price and are prepared to wait until October to try and get the best possible deal. . The Reds have been reluctant to meet the Bundesliga club’s £27m asking price this summer. .... makes no football sense at all, so if any truth to it is purely a business decision "sell to buy".
Liverpool midfielder Gini Wijnaldum has had a change of heart and is now awaiting a new Anfield contract offer, reports in Holland are claiming. The 29-year-old is now into the final year of his LFC contract and has been linked with a move to Barcelona. It is believed there have been no recent contract talks between the player and the club, with reports in his native Holland suggesting Wijnaldum's wish for a four-year deal was the sticking point. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/spo...erpool-news-transfers-live-wijnaldum-18934797
I think in this case Thiago is able to sign a precontract with any club in 3 months if he isnt sold . Bayern will risk losing him for nothing if they dont sell this window so its a game of who blinks first I guess .
Does it make sense to do both? The midfield, as much as I am for rotation and for depth, is getting unwieldy. Don't know how often the likes of Ox and Milner are going to see the field as-is. Wonder if one of them could fill in as a Mane backup.
Plus there’re rumors that Utd, amongst others, were seriously sniffing his aftershave and fluttering their eyelashes.
Apparently the breakthrough in the negotiations was that Bayern allowed Liverpool to pay the transfer fee in installments over the contract. With a lack of cash on hand, this was key for LFC.
yes apparently more than a rumor - they were hoping our delay would let them get the deal done....Klopp made a big difference here. (too bad Werner couldn't wait a season)
On the flip side - we have too many midfielders now. we didn’t by a 29 year old in his prime for him to sit too much. Henderson, Fab, Thiago, Gini, Jones, keita, Ox (need to sell Grujic).
Keita, Thiago, Fabinho in midfield. those 3 at the top of their game could be a return to the Stevie / Xabi / Masch years in terms of dominance in midfield... ??. or maybe our biggest challenge is moderating expectations.
Fergie regularly had a ton of academy graduates in his squads during their reign. But that is about it as none of arsenal/citeh/chel$ki have regularly pushed through academy grads in the last two decades. Look at arsenal when their 'youth' team was in fine form during their couple years of success in the League Cup in the '00's. Did any of them ever go on to become big pros there or anywhere else? The margins are so fine at this level. We're not talking about the huge chasms in quality that you can experience in your sunday pub league matches. We're talking about the upper .01% of footballers in the world that play for one of the biggest ~20 clubs in the world. So a guy like Harry Wilson that is in the upper .03% of players in the world sure looks like he could make it to us outsiders, but it's obvious to someday working with those players everyday that he will never have 'it' in him to progress with us.
Don't forget Milner too. Yeah , I think one possibly two may go. On the plus side Klopp can field two different sets of mf's and still be stong.
Ox is very injury prone and Milner is getting on in years and Thiago is not as durable as Gini between all those issues i'm sure Klopp will field the a better/more potent midfield version
Mane .......Bobby.........Salah ..................Keita................... .......Thiago.......Fab.............. That combination when clicked into gear can be Devastating. Fab - The Destroyer Thiago - DLP Keita - The Floater with the front 3 That Midfield has Oomph.
exactly my point earlier Keita, Thiago, Fabinho in midfield. those 3 at the top of their game could be a return to the Stevie / Xabi / Masch years in terms of dominance in midfield... ??. or maybe our biggest challenge is moderating expectations.
That is a lot of midfielders, but Klopp wouldn’t have done it unless he thought he could use them all (Grujic aside). When we start playing 3 games a week, I wouldn’t be surprised if he rotated all 3 midfielders game by game. I also don’t think Klopp wanted a bigger squad, and that he sees Thiago as a replacement for Lovren in our squad. This will allow Fabinho to play more games at centerback.