Naby Keita is what all the talk is about following is first half performance. I still believe that his actual performances as a Liverpool player have always been good. In fact he has been at the center of some our best games under Klopp. His abilities cannot be doubted. The only question is if he can stay fit long enough to build up some momentum and finally establish himself.
Van Dijk’s rehabilitation is apparently going well, but he has yet to appear in either of the preseason friendlies so far. Although we’re all eager to see the best defender in the world return, he’s unlikely to feature in the next match either. And it’s the same story for his center back partner, Joe Gomez. “Yeah, it would still be a surprise, unfortunately,” Jurgen Klopp explained, “But they look really good. Look, I think, they do everything, they play football, we keep them in training, we do the things we can do. “We just have to be patient – we prepare for a full season, not for a pre-season game. I will not risk it for a game here, so we have to see. We have a lot of games still coming, pre-season games, but I don’t see them being involved for the next one.”
With Konate and Matip good to go right now I think Klopp can take his time to ease both Virg and Gomez back into the lineup.
Let's hope Joel stays fit more often this season. Not sure with a 25-man squad if Jurgen can carry 5 senior center backs so Phillips might not be able to stay. Is Rhys Williams still young enough to not count against the limit?
from the Premier League site (which is out of date, still shows Gini Kabak and Hardy). [edit: with Hardy gone, we are down to only 7 Home-Growns .... needs to be a minimum of 8. not sure how we'll do that unless we just add (say) Harvey to the 25? and it adds weight to the need to keep Nat, and maybe Ben also.] Liverpool 25 squad players (*Home grown) Alcantara Do Nascimento, Thiago Alexander Arnold, Trent* Barbosa De Oliveira, Roberto Firmino Becker, Alisson Ramses Davies, Benjamin Keith* Gomez, Joseph David* Hardy, Joseph* Henderson, Jordan Brian* Henrique Taveres, Fabio Keita, Naby Kelleher, Caoimhin* Mane, Sadio Matip, Job Joel Andre Milner, James Philip* Origi, Divock Okoth Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexander Mark David* Phillips, Nathaniel Harry* Robertson, Andrew Salah, Mohamed San Miguel Del Castillo, Adrian Shaqiri, Xherdan Teixeira Da Silva, Diogo Jose Tsimakis, Konstantinos Van Dijk, Virgil Wijnaldum, Georginio U21 players (Contract and Scholars) Balagizi, James Bearne, Jack William Garrad Beck, Owen Michael Blair, Harvey Antonio Boyes, Morgan Bradley, Conor Cain, Jake Steven Cannonier, Oakley William Chambers, Luke Clarkson, Leighton Clayton, Thomas Andrew Cordoba, Anderson Arroyo Corness, Dominic Coyle, Liam Davies, Harvey De Araujo Pitaluga, Marcelo Dixon-Bonner, Elijah Malik Elliott, Harvey Daniel James Frauendorf, Melkamu Benjamin Daniel Gallacher, Tony Glatzel, Paul Milton Grabara, Kamil Hill, Thomas Daniel Hughes, Liam John Jaros, Viteslav Jonas, Lee Jones, Curtis Kabak, Ozan Muhammed Kelly, Oscar George Koumetio, Billy Dawson Larouci, Yasser Lewis, Adam Longstaff, Luis James Millar, Liam Morton, Tyler Scott Mrozek, Fabian Musialowski, Mateusz Konrad Norris, James Barry O'Rourke, Fidel Ojrzynski, Jakub Quansah, Jarell Amorin Ritaccio, Matteo Savage, Remi Eugene Sharif, Abdulrahman Mohamoud Stephenson, Luca Stewart, Layton Rhys Van Den Berg, Sepp Walls, Jack Williams, Neco Shay Williams, Rhys Wilson, Sean William Woltman, Max Reuben Woodburn, Benjamin Luke
I'm not sure , Sam . It looks like we need to generate sales to boost the kitty and Nat would likely bring in close to 15m plus clubs are interested .Also I feel Nat would jump at the chance to go somewhere for regular football tbh and we'd still have Davies as an emergency backup
I just posted though speke - need to watch the home-growns list. also at the moment we are one Matip injury away from Konate plus Nat as the only 2 fit + experienced CBs.
We got burned last season and would be fools to repeat the mistake. Do we really need to bring in [new] players this season at the expense of decent backups?
That's assuming the backups continue to wish to be backups , RB. It's been reported that Neco has already expressed a wish to leave for regular football and Bradley is being touted as Trents cover this season. I've read where Nat has said he'll assess his situation too. Bottom line it is realistic to see that some of these guys don't want to sit and pick up scraps of a few mins here and there. Last season we made the mistake of starting the season with only three cb's. Liverpool will still have five cb's on the books even if Nat leaves. Davies is unlikely to get much in the way of playing time barring injuries but possibly may be happier to warm the bench.
No way do I want to let Nat go until Virg and Joe have a few real games under their belt. I really don't care if we'd get good money for Nat or how he could get a good career move. He can do both those things in January.
Agreed that we should wait until January unless there is a 20m offer. if they get a 15m offer (or lower) - just wait because that will still be there in January.
change of tune ... Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk could make his long-awaited return from injury against Hertha Berlin; fellow defender Joe Gomez is also progressing well as he nears a return to the side following his own injury lay-off https://www.skysports.com/football/...n-to-return-from-injury-against-hertha-berlin
in all the excitement about (maybe) seeing a healthy Virgil and Joe soon, it suddenly struck me that being fit and regaining their previous form are 2 different things. a lot of players have suffered those kind of injuries and simply aren't the same again.
this is from the Echo - nothing showing on the official site. Liverpool are expected to fly to Evian next week ahead of a friendly game with Italian side Bologna. The Reds are currently into the third week of their training camp in Austria and made the move from their Saalfelden base to Tirol on Sunday ahead of the second leg of their summer schedule. Liverpool will spend most of the week in the Seefeld area and Jurgen Klopp will have Andy Robertson, Diogo Jota and Virgil van Dijk available to him for the remaining summer friendlies.
I'd say that even if either have lost a step in pace that they're still better and quicker than most. As long as they don't have any further recurring knee issues I think both will be okay.
I hope so, but I'm thinking back to Owen, never the same after his injury (hammy IIRC). The club will be taking Virg and Joe's re-entry very cautiously.