I think we did want Werner, but agree that he could have been great under Klopp. He's never been the most clinical and needs a few chances to score, and he strikes me as the sort who needs an arm round him. In both those respects Chelsea (and to a certain extent the national team) always seemed a poor fit.
I think he certainly has it in him to be better than he is now, I doubt we'll see him anywhere near what he was though. Part of his problem at the moment is drive, fix that and he'll score more goals again... but he's definitely slowed significantly and I don't think he can get pace back, so he'll never be considered one of the best in the world again. He could be a very useful and dangerous attacker again, but not the award winner of past years.
That seals it for me, you're absolutely right, he's definitely a Liverpool type player. Sign him now.
He's just on the other side of his peak isn't he. He also likes playing with a partner, Bobby is his partner of choice, and we haven't managed to keep anyone fit for long enough for him to play off. No doubt we will see more glorious goals from him, it's just taking him a bit longer to find his sweet spot.
50:50 tbh. He was absolutely top quality but no way of have given him the new contract, he was already looking a spent force and now we're stuck with him.
Interesting question. Don't like the idea of losing a player for free but he's not hit any form for fourteen months so wouldn't be as difficult to replace now as he once was, he's on mammoth wages too so would free up a tidy sum for recruitment. Honest answer, I don't know but suspect that's me being overly loyal tbh The pandemic ****ed us over. I'm convinced we'd have looked to have moved Salah, Bobby and/or Mane on and recycled the cash to keep the quality conveyor belt running. By the time clubs were recovering, they were all past their best and in clear decline.
You say that but he won the golden boot and top assists in the league. That's not the profile of someone who's a spent force. This season, so far, he's hardly the only player underperforming.
Not just this season though, it's been over a year. He was quality, not doubting that, but nothing lasts forever and there is no room in this game for sentiment
I suspect if we had any notion of selling him last summer, he would have moved. He would have leapt at the chance to get 400k to 500k a week from somewhere like PSG or Real Madrid if it looked like we weren't interested in keeping him and he'd be doing an extra year on his sub-250salary. I don't believe it was give him more money and watch him walk free the next summer.
lets be honest, he hasn’t been the same since he returned from Afcon. Last years stats were the result results before the African tournament. The difference between us and the rich boys is that he could have been properly rested at somewhere like City, at Liverpool he had to come straight back into the team, knackered and broken emotionally. He hasn’t recovered since imo.
That's my point though, he won both those individual awards last season which goes against the idea that he was a spent force last season. I think he's set such an incredibly high bar for himself and for us watching him that anything less than magnificent, looks poor. He's currently 11th top scorer, (only 3 goals behind 5th place) and 3rd for assists. That's not terrible it's just a level below what we've come to expect. I can't write Salah off because of a dip in form. He's underperforming in an underperforming team atm. I know you see it differently. That's the beauty of conversations around football.
You're right he hasn't been the same since the AFCON. I disagree about the stats though. He won the awards for his season's contribution which didn't stop when he went off to the Nationals. After AFCON he played 15 more games, scoring 7 goals and 4 assists. In fact of all his 90 minute games after, there were only 2 in which he didn't score.
