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The squad 2 years from now

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Why is he wearing a kit from 2 seasons ago?
It’s not even a Nike one and I thought Nike were buying him for us.

Obviously this deal has been a long time in the making as Edwards has been moving pawns around his 4D chess board behind the scenes.

Here is a more recent one:

0_Mbappe-Liverpool-Sim.png
 
Obviously this deal has been a long time in the making as Edwards has been moving pawns around his 4D chess board behind the scenes.

Here is a more recent one:

0_Mbappe-Liverpool-Sim.png

I can't believe we've had Mbappe for 2 years now, and not one first time game. Shocking.
 
Will give this thread a read shortly but i think we’ve missed an opportunity to sell one of the front three and reinvest well. Perhaps we would have done without covid changing the transfer market.

whilst we have an ageing squad i still only think we’re a small number of players short to keep it title challenging. Notably a forward we are willing to play and a full back we trust.
 
In a normal world I’d have expected Salah to have left by now for a record fee. Firmino would’ve been shifted too.
 

[article]In the afterglow of Madrid, Liverpool holding a sixth European Cup aloft as they secured the first trophy of the Jurgen Klopp era, the club's outlook was picture perfect.

Having being crowned continental kings after registering 97 points to finish just behind Manchester City in the top flight, there was credence that a three-decade wait for the title would be ended.

After all, Liverpool had constructed one of the best XIs in world football and prioritised a policy of retention to keep their spine intact.

Good seasons past had always spelled the exit of core players, but the Merseysiders had now guarded against that.
It was a unique position for the club in the modern era, but also for the manager.

At Borussia Dortmund, Jurgen Klopp would often be left wondering ‘what if?,’ as he continuously ceded key cogs to apex predators: Nuri Şahin left for Real Madrid, Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski were poached by Bayern Munich, with Shinji Kagawa making the switch to Manchester United.

Now, the manager finally had what he craved: a crack at consistent development with the same group.

"That's actually our transfers, but nobody’s interested in hearing that really because that's how it is," Klopp said two summers ago.

“You have a player, he’s good, you want to keep him, if he signs a new contract then for a few people, it means only that he will be more expensive when we sell him or whatever, or that it doesn't mean anything nowadays. In our case, these are our transfers. The new contracts and keeping these boys here is a strong, strong signal for the outside world. It's a wonderful sign, to be honest. I like the fact that these boys are really at a good football age.

“They won the European Cup, which is good and helps of course because it increases your base.”

It did. Fast forward and it’s difficult to critique that approach which delivered the simultaneous status of being champions of England, Europe and the world.

Liverpool’s decision to invest in the group, prioritising lucrative extensions and bonus structures as wages prove to be the biggest correlation with success in football, undoubtedly paid dividends.

To drill into the salary side of things, the club’s 2019-20 financial results showed the wage bill rose from £310m to £326m despite a drastic revenue fall due to Covid. Over the past three years, Liverpool have seen the highest growth of the Big Six in terms of compensating players and only Manchester City have a greater figure in the Premier League.

While the wage bill should very slightly reduce given there were no performance bonuses paid out for trophies last season, that will be offset by contract renewals and recruits like Thiago that command a big salary. Liverpool’s wages-to-turnover ratio was 66 per cent for the accounting period, the most since 2016 as per the excellent Swiss Ramble’s research. On that front, it can’t be argued that the club aren’t doing enough to keep up with and steer in front of rivals.

But through this lengthy stretch of time post-Madrid to now, has enough been done to aid the evolution and refreshing of the squad, and if not, why?

This summer, the line from the club remains as it was two years ago: retention is king. However, the need to inject fresh talent with a view to long-term planning has never been more pronounced.

Crucial personnel Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho are out of contract in 2023, with Alisson’s running a year later, although the latter two are expected to ink fresh terms soon.

With the exception of the defensive midfielder, all will be into their thirties at the end of their current deals. This is no longer the “good football age” Klopp referenced, especially considering the taxing demands of his high-intensity style and preference to use a small group of players.

As seen with Gini Wijnaldum, Liverpool do not want to over commit with regards to contract length and a substantial increase in pay to ageing members of the squad. Neither can they guarantee playing time, nor their level of importance within the group.

The news of talks with Henderson stalling, as it had done with Wijnaldum, could become the norm as there has to be a reduction in sentiment to oversee a successful modification of the squad.

Negotiations beginning when there is two years left of a deal is normal practice and failed discussions, it should be noted, are not solely down to the club. Players are more empowered than ever and fully recognise their worth as well as the fact that the free-agent market is thriving. Gianluigi Donnarumma, Sergio Ramos, David Alaba, Sergio Aguero…

This has been the case even stretching back to Emre Can. When evaluating the circumstances around the German and Wijnaldum – transfer outlay, the service gained against the fee, and reduction in their future value – Liverpool will feel waving goodbye to both on a free was decent business.

Now though, being in a position where the very foundation of the team – still heavily relied upon – can run down their deals in unison and are passing their prime (while remaining a formidable XI, it should be emphasised) is far from an ideal scenario.

Since the summer of 2019, Liverpool have introduced a sense of newness, but there will be an understandable sentiment that it hasn’t been enough. The overriding view is that will need to be furthered in the current window.

Thiago arrived to evolve the playing style and lessen the creative burden on the full-backs, but he does not fall into the long-term planning category.

Diogo Jota, 24, was brought in to provide competition and greater quality of the depth in attack, with Ibrahima Konate, aged 22, recently added to fortify a central defence that was ravaged by injury.

Kostas Tsimikas had an awful debut season, dealing with multiple setbacks, but is tipped to properly stand in for Andy Robertson in the new campaign. Takumi Minamino’s Liverpool career remains in doubt and there is still a sense of sadness amongst the backroom team that his settling-in period coincided with the first lockdown, making an already difficult adjustment nightmarish. Harvey Elliott and Kaide Gordon are filed under the young prospects with high ceilings that have the potential to develop into elite players.

The above does not read as especially considerable renewal for a club targeting continued domestic and continental success.

One of Liverpool’s big issues has been shifting fringe players, not just in a monetary sense but in freeing up non-homegrown squad spaces and assessing how to get that balance right per rules for a 25-man roster.

Financially, the club had become supremely skilled in profiting from player sales, with only Chelsea outdoing them in the past six years.


There has been quite a drop in money received for outgoings in the past three seasons (circa £112m) than the £412m banked in the four campaigns prior.

Liverpool have finally managed to get Taiwo Awoniyi and Marko Grujic off the books permanently, with Harry Wilson shaping up to be next out the door, while Nathaniel Phillips has generated plenty of interest.

Finding suitors and adequate fees for Divock Origi (six starts last season) and Xherdan Shaqiri (seven starts) is where the real trimming success would lie.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who looks to be getting repurposed as a No 9 to add to where he can fill in, and Naby Keita really need to make significant contributions again. The pair had a combined 11 starts, the majority of them held by the Guinea international.

Liverpool are actively looking to recruit in midfield and attack. In the former department, the Fabinho-Henderson-Thiago trio is an excellent one, but not guaranteed for an entire campaign and there is very little to complement it when looking at the reality of Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain’s recent history. Curtis Jones impressed in large swathes, before hardly being used towards the latter stage of the campaign.

Given the ages of Thiago and Henderson specifically, as well as the latter’s contract situation, refreshing in this area with a long view is imperative.

Jota has been a supreme addition to the offensive line, but given the lack of trust in the other options beyond the front three and with the African Nations Cup at the turn of the year, Liverpool are eyeing a profile similar to the front three when they were bought.

The problem with bringing in the “next Salah” or the “next Mane” is the original versions didn’t have world-class attackers ahead of them to compete with as they developed, nor did they join a Liverpool side that had conquered England and Europe.

If Real Madrid and Barcelona hadn’t stitched themselves into such a financial shambles, it might have been a different picture altogether; there was the lingering feeling in the past that the Egyptian and Senegal speedsters could be seduced by La Liga’s giants after being instrumental in securing silverware for the Reds.

Anyway, the complexities and expectations transfer-wise are greater now for Liverpool, but they need to be mastered to avoid the worst-case scenario of an entire spine rebuild when it’s too late.

Liverpool, as was evidenced with Jota and Thiago last summer, will be patient in securing the right deals on the right terms that tallies with the approach which delivered success. But the club have also illustrated a tendency to risk not recruiting– see their centre-back crisis –in the face of all logic.

More often that not, Liverpool, labelled analytics leaders in recruitment, have made smart decisions in the market.

The landscape ahead, contracts ticking away, is morphing into their greatest challenge yet.

[/article]
 
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Obviously this deal has been a long time in the making as Edwards has been moving pawns around his 4D chess board behind the scenes.

Here is a more recent one:

0_Mbappe-Liverpool-Sim.png
Looking a bit porker there ... doesn't the PS guy/gal know how to use the transform tool ?
 
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