re: tOfficial Liverpool 2017/2018 Thread: “Upgrades Incoming Edition: A Great Season!”

I’m really trying to not push the panic button on the season and I get not making a rash purchase (like Lamar for 90) but I’m close. After back to back performances like I just saw against the 2 WORST TEAMS IN THE LEAGUE and the fact that we are now loaning Sturridge, Lallana is once again hurt and we aren’t even attempting to get serious about the window is worrisome at best. If we finish out of the top 4 after selling our best player mid season without a serious attempt to strengthen than Klopp will have some explaining to do.

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We had the same discussion last January when we didn't purchase anyone.. Obviously, we cant afford to take on a lot of injuries... we'll see if his gamble pays off in May..

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No CL last year either - and several of the guys were having healthier years than they are this year.

I'm not going go to panic at this point, but several of our competitors for top 4 are adding some real talent this window - you know, that January window when "no one" is available, except for our best player who we were fine to sell.

All of this is an unnecessary risk. If we don't get top 4, transfers other than Naby may be a lot harder to convince. So saving the money doesn't help anyway.

Concerned is definitely a way to describe how I’m feeling. No chance of any silver. Wtf, the needs are obvious how is it not being addressed. UCL should be a given for Liverpool year in and year out yet here we are, another January of questioning wtf is going on and if top 4 is even going to happen.

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I'm not going go to panic at this point, but several of our competitors for top 4 are adding some real talent this window - you know, that January window when "no one" is available, except for our best player who we were fine to sell.

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And so did we...

I get the concern, cause I am feeling it too... I just dont see the need to panic..

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Recall fricking Origi if we have to

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We wouldn’t need to if we didn’t just loan out Sturridge. January has been mind boggling, but I should be used to it.

What kills me, is that top form Liverpool can play with and beat anyone on the planet. If we get through Porto, we’ll face a team that wants a to go out and play football and we can beat the brakes off anyone in games like that. There isn’t an Athletico Madrid left in the field. United and Chelsea are the only teams I wouldn’t want because they’ll do what they have to do to adjust to Liverpool rather than just playing their game and letting the chips fall.

You throw a single injury into the fold and you can kiss that shite goodbye. We’re sitting here with a punchers chance of winning the champions league (obviously would be an upset, but I promise nobody wants Liverpool over two legs) and the manager and ownership are so goddamn stubborn that not only have they failed to bring in an attacker in January, they’ve sold one of our best and loaned out the only one worth a damn on the bench. I’d love to ask Klopp what the logic is. Sure, it could work out fine, but it’s a major gamble banking on the front three staying fit. Why gamble when you don’t have to with what we have on the line? We aren’t finishing top 4 of one of those guys goes down. Mane particularly is injury prone. Why risk it? We could’ve had Lemar this month but haggled over the price like a fricking gypsy at the town square.

Origi

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even if he ends up scoring a few laid on a silver platter.

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At least he scores them! I want Big Dom to succeed, but when he wasin the side with Mane, Salah, Coutinho and company he had some gilt edged chances and just couldn't put them away. Origi may not perfectly fit Klopp's system, but he can bury a chance when presented one!

I'm just venting. I think we'll be just fine, provided Salah, Frimino, Mane, Ox, Wij, Hendo, Can, VVD, Lord Klavan, Gomez, and Robertson stay healthy the remainder of the season.

https://tomkinstimes.com/2018/01/the-tomkins-times-exists-to-promote-mediocrity-for-liverpool-fc-mediocrity-rules/

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1. Read Raphael Honigstein’s wonderful book on Klopp. Read or listen to what Klopp was saying at his previous clubs about how he builds his teams, how he improves players. Listen to why he is not a chequebook manager, and understand that when he brings in new players it’s for a good reason. Dortmund were a financial mess when he got the job, close to oblivion. Understand that.

2. Be aware of the Reds’ massively above average recruitment success rate since Klopp arrived, after years of serious (and costly) mistakes. Why is this? Because players have to fit Klopp’s profile to a T, or they won’t work out. There is no “throw enough money and some things will stick” approach. And understand how he trusts the people he works with on transfers; how, rather than take all the credit, he explained that the transfer staff talked him into buying Mo Salah.

3. Understand the importance to Klopp of team harmony, and if players want out badly enough it can be wise to let them go, even if it’s not ideal. After all,some situations are not ideal either way. Team harmony is part of Klopp’s approach. Remember, he is not a chequebook manager but someone who values work, work and work, allied to unity.

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7. Shiny new signing Van Dijk, whom I think we all wanted, has not helped results; in fact, they’ve got worse. Why? In part randomness (Swansea rode their luck with just one shot of note). And in part because it’s a new player who doesn’t know his other defenders (defending being mostly about understandings), doesn’t know what his goalkeeper is going to do, and against West Brom, had a rookie full-back on one side and a returning full-back after injury on the other, while the keeper hid on his line. It was a totally new back four+keeper line-up. Plus…

7. Klopp says he prefers to buy players in the summer. Why? See van Dijk’s initial teething troubles. You have to integrate them with no preseason to work on tactics. Also, they don’t have the hard preseason training needed to play the Klopp way. In the case of VvD, he had no preseason at all at Southampton (because Liverpool were trying to buy him) and had mostly been out for the best part of a year when he arrived. So he may take time, especially in terms of fitness, even if his qualities (heading, passing) have largely been clear already. He hasn’t, however, seemed quite as quick as he will be when super-fit, unless his injuries sapped that glorious pace. By contrast, the summer signings made during the Klopp era are much more successful, on average, than the norm.

7. We cannot coach the players ourselves to improve them. We do not oversee players in training. (See my piece yesterday on how players improve and why some regress, and some of the science behind it.) So, we are helpless in that sense. But we can all talk about who the club should sign. However, Klopp said at Mainz, at Dortmund and now at Liverpool that he likes to work with players to improve them. His success at Dortmund was based on improving cheap buys and existing players.

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15. Initially, selling Coutinho and not getting a replacement seemed risky, and somewhat mad. But Klopp knows his players. And he knows how hard Barcelona and Nike were making it for Coutinho, and Coutinho was effectively on his second strike of the season. Do you have to draw a line? How many times can a player down tools? If Coutinho continued his strike beyond January, and ended up not playing, or was consigned to the reserves, his value would dip and you’d still have no Coutinho in the team. And in 2017, Liverpool had better results without Coutinho than with him, and then beat City without him. Maybe that was a coincidence, and maybe losing these past two games was, too.

16. Ditto loaning out Daniel Sturridge. But for a couple of years Sturridge was often actually fit to play when others were fit and playing better (or more in the style required for the team to function better), and then injured at the exact moments he was needed. He can no longer sprint like he used to, and logically, Danny Ings fits the profile of what Klopp wants from a striker – and Ings is happier to be a squad member right now, albeit with a burning hunger to succeed (and returning sharpness after two years out. He’s not the best player in the world but he’s a fricking fighter!). Dominic Solanke is also doing really well in games without actually scoring. Ings and Solanke may not have great second halves to the season, as we can’t predict the future (or maybe you predicted Salah’s 25 goals by January?), but Sturridge – a player I still really like – scored just one goal of any real meaning this season (plus two late goals when games were essentially over), so he wasn’t really part of a really good run of results. And the faith put in others by Klopp could help them succeed. It’s about making the most of what you have, and sometimes what you have is more than others realise.

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27. I cannot count.

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I get we're doing the rotation thing, but I'll be interested to see how this midfield does

I'll take 2-0 lead. Now we need 2-3 more to feel comfortable...