I don't quite know what to think or what's going on, but it seems to me that the biggest thing lacking this transfer summer was clarity of thinking from those in charge. Many point fingers at Michael Edwards, who is in his first year of a job that he apparently wasn't adequately prepared for by his previous career as an analyst, but I think Klopp and his team can't be completely excused either, since many of these are football decisions where he must be the one in charge. Here's my list of this summer's team-building mistakes that could have been avoided with a bit of planning and common sense:
- Obviously, the VVD and Keita non-transfers and failure to find alternatives. Maybe it was just bad luck that just as we had CL and money to spend, the transfer landscape changed right under our feet and a few clubs that were previously (with good justification) classified as "selling clubs" suddenly decided to make a principled stand, holding on to their best assets no matter how much we offered. But isn't that the job of a chief executive to follow and even anticipate market trends and have a clear understanding of what's realistic right now? It seems our whole strategy has been based on getting our top defensive and midfield targets signed, with not much thought given to alternatives; the failure to do so (at least so far) has ricocheted around the squad, leading to a domino effect of imperfect compromises in other areas.
- Speaking of that, I really cannot get myself over the left-back debacle. Nobody will convince me it was always the plan to a) move Milner back to midfield, b) put faith back in Moreno as the starting LB and c) buy Robertson. Well, I think Robertson was part of the plan – plan C, to be exact. We were "keeping him on a back burner" for a while, clearly waiting for something else to fall into place and finally making the decision after other options were gone. This is not to be harsh on Robertson – if there is one thing I know about Klopp is that he doesn't sign players without real upside (even as 2nd-3rd-4th choice), he clearly sees him as someone with potential to be coached into a good player. The problem is not Robertson, but the situation he's been placed into where instead of backing up Milner, he is now competing with similarly defensively challenged Moreno, which drags the quality of our whole team down from a year ago when Milner was mostly excellent at LB.
All of this could have been avoided if we simply signed Kolasinac on a free early in the window – a player Klopp clearly rated (otherwise we would not have been strongly linked with him for several months), who would have surely chosen us over Arsenal had we showed serious interest when it mattered and who having just turned 24 could have solved our chronic LB problem for many years to come (and helped with a few more issues, such as lack of fight/physicality/height on set-pieces). This is where I return to the theme of muddled thinking and where I think Klopp has to be at fault – no matter his justifiable feelings of loyalty to Milner for being such a model pro, it's simply bad planning to forgo signing a specialist first-team quality player, one entering his prime and on a free, in order to "protect" one who is playing at LB by necessity, can be easily used in other positions and is also getting on in years. Now that Milner is back in midfield, again by necessity, how much more secure would we be with a genuine top-class LB in the team rather than the Moreno/Robertson "let's hope they can learn some basic defensive skills quickly" combo? But we waited and dragged our feet until all genuinely good options were gone. To add insult to injury, our main top-4 rivals Arsenal are now stronger for it.
- Lack of investment in strikers. If we were prepared to spend £60M+ on Keita, but that fell through – why were there no plans to immediately divert that money to signing a top-class centre-forward? Several were (or still are) available – Morata went for under £70M, Aubameyang was reportedly available for around the same money, Diego Costa is definitely for sale (not sure he would be so interested to come here, but maybe Chelsea would find a way to convince him if our offer was significantly larger than Atletico's), Lacazette went for what now seems like a bargain £45M.
Again, if we have the money and the CL to attract such players, what's holding us back – a debt of loyalty to Firmino? Similarly to situation with Milner – we seem to be holding back from buying a specialist in this position to accommodate someone who has been moved there initially by necessity and can be useful in a variety of roles, which means it would be a case of addition rather than replacement – I can very well imagine Firmino playing 2nd striker to Aubameyang, for example. Or is it loyalty to Sturridge, who frankly in Klopp's time here has not done much to deserve loyalty from the manager, clearly doesn't fit into Klopp's system as the #9 and even if he did can't be relied upon for the whole season due to fitness concerns? More muddled thinking, I'm afraid. Maybe I would have given this more benefit of a doubt if not for the other debacles, which taught me that the most likely answer to most of our transfer concerns is "they simply don't know what they are doing."
- Final example. Emre Can is close to leaving on a free next season or being sold on the cheap this summer, further weakening our already depleted midfield. The main sticking point for Can in signing his contract, as he stated many times, is the promise of consistent playing time in his favored position – the DM. Klopp likes him at the DM and plays him there every time Hendo is not available (which lately has been pretty often), but Can, being quite ambitious, wants to ensure he will spend the next few years of his career at a team where he is first choice and where his remarkable versatility isn't used to relegate him to the role of "plugging holes" (this is a common concern for versatile players; Milner was going through the same issues throughout his career).
Well, unlike some other posters, I don't mind Henderson at DM – but he has a big problem with a chronic heel injury. Just yesterday you could again see reduced mobility and passing accuracy and then he was substituted with the game in balance – all apparently because something was not physically right. Can then slotted in at DM and our midfield cohesion improved, soon after we scored the 2nd and could have put the game to bed. This might be controversial, but I believe that so long as Hendo's problem doesn't seem to be fully curable, it's simply bad planning to designate him as the undisputed starter in this position, which could very well lead to us losing Can. After all Hendo is less of a natural DM than Can, his qualities can translate to many positions and while it would be somewhat unfair to him to make him "plug the holes," I'm afraid that's what you get when you have injury issues. I can compare this to Sven Bender at Dortmund (now Bayer) who also was an undisputed starter and one of the stars of that team, but after a string of injuries became a make-shift CB/DM/CM. Klopp needs to make a difficult choice and I think the right choice is to go with Can, to build around him if in return he signs a new contract. This might still happen, but I'm getting worried that we might well lose one of our most talented and mentally strong players due to more muddled thinking.
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