Hindsight is a wonderful thing. No one could have predicted that Fabinho would go down to the extent that he has. Few would have anticipated the arrival of November without a single assist from Trent Alexander-Arnold. Even our rivals accepted that Virgil van Dijk was as close to a perfect central defender as ever…
So the decision, at the time, to give these players new contracts, as well as the likes of Alisson, Andy Robertson and Jordan Henderson, was never considered controversial, or even a risk.
Indeed, the club would have been punished by the fans and the media if they let these contracts run out and if any of the above names came out at their so-called peak.
So Liverpool signed them all in big deals that will last well into their thirties.
Based on this season’s performances, it might have been a mistake to unilaterally renew their deals instead of picking and choosing…
We can all agree that getting Mo Salah to put pen to paper was smart. But what will a 33-year-old Fabinho look like if the current 29-year-old looks like he’s running on concrete? Can Andy Robertson, 32, run up and down the left flank three times a week? What will Jordan Henderson really offer us at 35, given his current limitations…?
Have Liverpool put their eggs in the baskets of the brilliant players who did so well, simply assuming they could go on… forever?
Liverpool might have lost to the 20th-placed Premier League side on consecutive weekends, but the players haven’t gone bad overnight. They are just physically and mentally fried. These same guys were two games away from a quad last season, remember. They have given everything for Liverpool, but they need help. When you combine these factors with injuries, poor finishing, woeful defending and a new belief from all sides Liverpool are up against that we can attack each other, you understand what’s happened this season.
It is no coincidence that the players in the Liverpool team who seem (when fit) capable of injecting dynamism and excitement into matches are the ones who have not been working for us for five years, as they are recent signings…
Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Ibou Konate. These three are between 23 and 25 years old. They have legs left to run. In Klopp’s pressure system, a player’s peak is likely to be a little earlier than the imagined 27/28, but if you check the squad, we hardly have any players in the 23-26 group.
Konate, Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Diaz, Jota, Darwin Nunez, and Kostas Tsimikas. That’s just seven players out of a 27-man team in the right age group. However, there are nine players over the age of 30.
Succession planning has been poor. After winning the Champions League in 2019, we signed Sepp van den Berg, Harvey Elliott and Adrian. In 2020 we did a little better, with Thiago, Tsimikas and Jota. In 2021, two more in DÃaz and Konate, in two windows.
Time will tell if Núñez and Fabio Carvalho will do well with the additions of 2022.
The players we have signed have been good, but not many given that we have also been losing players from the squad in each of these windows, and in particular, only one midfielder in Thiago. (Arthur Melo, injured, on loan and in panic, does not count).
Now Liverpool’s problem is that our previously salable assets are worth much less due to their age and poor shape. FSG is tight on transfer budgets, which means the kind of rebuilding required – with a new centre-back, full-backs and at least three central midfielders – could be unaffordable, especially given what we’re already spending on contracts.
Ideally we’ll find some bargains, but good value now is still over £30m, like we spent at Konate for example. There is no way we spend £8m like we did on Andy Robertson and realize six months later that we have one of the best in the world for him.
If it were up to me, I would take advantage of Fabinho and Gómez. I’m not sure they’re up to the task anymore, despite having been brilliant on occasion before, and would still charge decent rates. We need to back Alisson (always brilliant anyway), van Dijk and Trent to be with us for years to come as their pedigree is incredible. Thiago is a luxury in midfield and no plans should be made around him given his availability.
We can always expect FSG to go on a huge spending spree and provide Klopp with the weapons he needs, but transfer fees have skyrocketed due to the influence of petrostates buying from the same market. We could be in a little trouble.
