Isn't that all our midfield needs to really do (especially the two behind the more advanced MF)? I mean, you have salah, mane, bobby & keita/ox whatever, win the ball, give it to them, celebrate!
I think if we really want to take the next step up, our CM needs to have two players capable of playing penetrating passes between the lines.
We need this to feed the attack quicker and better possession. But we also need more quality in possession.
Look at City this season, they have two creative players in CM in De Bruyne & Silva. If one can't play then they still have Bernardo Silva who can come in and do the same job.
Coutinho would offer this for us, although he would leave gaps defensively, we got exploited at times (Sevilla away). Naby can do what Coutinho did, but without leaving the gaps defensively. However as Klopp said himself, at times we gave the ball to Coutinho too much, we were too reliant on him as it was too easy to just give him the ball, rather than playing the right pass to another teammate. This is what we don't want to happen with Keita - the rest of the CM just giving him the ball all the time to feed the front three. That's the tough thing about City, you've got Silva and De Bruyne capable of feeding the front three with quality ball and it is too much for the opposition to cope with stopping both of the balls capable of doing it.
Ndidi should he come, would be a Mascherano type. Brilliant without the ball. But we'd still need the two ballers alongside him. We have one in Keita, I think Jorginho would be brilliant as the other one, who we have been linked with.
Personally I feel & hope Ndidi is just the option should Emre Can leave. For that reason, with Jorginho hopefully arriving regardless. If that is the case, my preference is to keep Emre, as it would save us spending the fee Leicester would demand.
Vs Man U we saw why we need our CM to do more than just break up the play and feed the front three. You have to have craft to break down these defences. We saw it vs Swansea away as well. Or Sevilla away when we needed our CM to keep the ball when we were 3-0 at half time, but all of our CM crumbled in possession that night. Ndidi offers graft, which our CM has plenty of at the moment, as we restrict the opposition to hardly any shots on our goal. What we need to really enhance this team is more craft and I don't want us relying on Keita to do that single handedly. Which is why we need our new Alonso, Klopp needs his new Gundogan / Şahin - which is why I think the Jorginho links make sense.
If we get Ndidi, I'm hoping it's merely the replacement for Can should he not sign a new deal. I really hope it's not as a Jorginho alternative.
