“I don’t want a massive group, we want a tight group with a real core of 17 or 18 players who feel they should always be playing and then supported by a few of our top young talents.” - Rodgers
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/liverpool-boss-brendan-rodgers-says-1949271#ixzz2WXsphhnd
This comment has been on my mind for a few days and I'm a bit surprised that it hasn't been discussed here. Anyway, it does seem like we're looking to get rid of a few players during this window.
So he's looking to have 17 or 18 experienced players with a bunch of kids/reserves as back up.
So what's our "real core"?
Looking at the current squad it should be this bunch (I've included Aspas and Touré):
GK's:
Brad Jones
Pepe Reina
DF's:
Glen Johnson
José Enrique
Daniel Agger
Martin Škrtel
Sebastián Coates
Martin Kelly
Kolo Touré
MF's:
Steven Gerrard (captain)
Philippe Coutinho
Oussama Assaidi
Jordan Henderson
Stewart Downing
Lucas Leiva
Joe Allen
FW's:
Luis Suárez
Daniel Sturridge
Fabio Borini
Iago Aspas
So that's 20 players. Then there's the "kids" and the "outcasts". Despite Sterling and Jonjo's involvement this past season, I think they belong to the kids list.
KIDS:
Suso
Raheem Sterling
Jonjo Shelvey
Conor Coady
Samed Yeşil
Jon Flanagan
Ryan McLaughlin
Jordon Ibe
Stephen Sama
Andre Wisdom
Jerome Sinclair
Jack Robinson
Adam Morgan
Lloyd Jones
Danny Ward
Outcasts:
Andy Carroll
Daniel Pacheco
Jay Spearing
So basically, it looks like there's gonna be a lot of movement this summer.
Looking at our list of core players and the impending signings like Mignolet, Alberto, Illori and Mkhitaryan, I'm guessing that we'll see at least 5 players leave this summer and that's excluding our kids and outcasts.