True but if you eliminate: - Chiesa (gonna leave for sure) - Hugo (out until mid-Oct earliest) - Isak (big questions over health/fitness/durability) that means we might start the season with Cody and Rio. With no bench options at all. Even if the highly-rumoured "2 wingers' actually happens ... that leaves us very very light on bodies (of any description). edit: just checked - Danns is still "no return date" at this point.
Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson, 33, plans to tell the club's new manager that he wants to end his time at Anfield and join Juventus. (Gazzetta dello Sport - in Italian) Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Newcastle are all interested in AC Milan's Portuguese winger Rafael Leao with the 26-year-old keen to leave San Siro this summer. (Calciomercato - in Italian)
Ali leaving would be another bruise to the wound. Yeah, it's quite the mess with players leaving and last seasons purchases not bedding in. Serious question is how much money is available to spend? According to Transfermarkt, Lfc net spend was £262M last summer. I can't see them net spending even half that amount this next season and it will certainly be a serious rebuild.
Net spend may have been around 260 last year but the year befote that we spent nothing. So over the last two seasons our spend averaged about 130m each year which is no big deal for a club the size of Liverpool.
The number of signings necessary is a very interesting question. Lets start with the idea that I think we can all agree that we did not have enough players last season. We have 3 players leaving who played a lot of games last season: Salah, Konate, and Robertson. We have two players likely leaving who played a very limited role last season: Endo and Chiesa. We have two players who got injuries so serious that we can't count of them to be involved much at all next season: Ekitike and Bradley. We have already made one signing in Jacquet. We have Leoni who was not involved last season returning. So if you count both of those as new players, we would need 5 new players just to get back to the squad size we started last season with. That is before any more players leave. If Jones, Mac Allister, or Gakpo exit, you need to add to the number. I think it is fair to say that there is a lot of work that needs to be done.
At this point it's hard to see how we can build a squad strong enough to carry the load in PL, CL, FA, and Carabao next season. Can only hope: (a) whoever we bring in is effective and very resilient (b) we get a few back from injury on time, with no relapses (c) the new manager utilizes the whole bench eg Nyoni, Endo (d) some other new kids can step up from the Academy
Agreed . For me its 2 wingers , 1 midf, 1 rb and 1 cb. Depending on outgoings perhaps another midf. I think we will look much younger next season with Leoni back ,Jacquet and I expect more minutes for young Rio and Nyoni. Then if we sign 19 yr old Diamande even more so.
I wonder if there is any chance that Harvey Elliott stays with a new manager. Iraola is known for playing a 4-2-3-1 system. Harvey could be a backup number 10 for Wirtz. Having might reduce the amount of signings needed.
Possibly. I do think it will be impossible to do everything needed this window . One thing I think we have to do is toughen up all over the pitch but especially in midf. I thought we looked really soft in too many games last season. Outworked and out muscled too often.Whether Harvey fits or not I'm not sure.
Yeah we're trimming experience from the team each window it seems. Mo, Robbo, Ibou and possibly Ali gone.
If we are going to play up tempo, then we need a big squad. This is a World Cup year, plus a lot of these players will be coming back from long term or reoccurring injuries, so will need to sub a lot, in my opinion. Not sure if we need to priotize quantity over quality, this term. Quantity being good not too expensive options.