We really need a new CB to join Sakho. Skrtel is good enough to be on bench and Lovren is good enough to be 2nd backup. Neither is good enough to be first team regular starters if we want top 4 (top 3 next year). Hopefully Gomez has a place in the future too. Toure is over the hill and somewhere down in the valley now.
Harsh to put all of the blame on Skrtel but he is a problem and has been for a while. He's been lucky to survive for so long because he's had worse players around him who took the blame - Johnson and Lovren last year spring to mind. Take away Johnson and add Sakho this year, he's now finally been found out. We need to bring in a RCB - maybe Ilori can fill a gap and finally push on, Gomez back next season as well. And most importantly, we need a DM! Lucas gets a lot of praise on this board but he is like Skrtel - makes a few tackles but his positioning and intelligence is awful, and he's also slow to cover ground. Watch him for the first goal against West Ham and he makes no effort to defend. Not good enough. Klopp will raise the bar.
Sorry to come back to this, I think Klopp has transformed some players including: Lovern Price £M20 Origi Price £M10 Firmino Price £M28 Lallana price £M25 Are we going to ship any of these players in the summer? ## I think they should all stay.
I think Lovren and Lallana can be squad players for another year but I still would look to sell. Both have improved but neither are good enough. Firmino needed time to settle so I think he would have improved regardless of manager. Origi is certainly a transformation - he had zero confidence under Rodgers, played a game under Klopp, struggled, and then Klopp took him out and worked with him. Looking forward to seeing him develop.
not sure why origi is in the list he is only a £10 mill player and young. what about adding markovic to the list, another £20 mill odd player none of us know if more value in getting rid while we can.
Lovren is performing a decent level at the mo, as Jimmy says, he can still be improved on but is certainly proving to be a good option so keep him in the squad, let him develop further, he's certainly cutting out the errors in his game, if you leave him to defend and clear the ball then he will excel, try turning him in to this ball playing CB who brings the ball out.. Then the errors will creep in. It's all about playing to strengths.
Lovren has improved his game, no doubt about it. He was the pick of our defenders last night by a country mile but he still needs to cut the mistakes out. The entire back four and keeper are so error prone still. Sakho last night was the epitome of the phrase "from the sublime to the ridiculous". Amazing tackle one minute, next minute he's missing them by miles (one in the first half was so late it was sponsored by Virgin Trains), Moreno....playing well then decides to launch a (bizarre) two footed tackle that had red written all over it, Clyne defended well and worked exceptionally hard but his passing at times was awful. Suicidal even. Much improved yes but much more improvement required yet.
Must wonder how much more klopp can get out of them. Been in a while. We have to say at dortmund he had Subotic and Hummels
I'd contend that if a single cm would drop in to let lovern run forward he could do things he did at Southampton but neither can nor henderson show the slightest inclination to do so. If you want ball playing games cb you have to cover it. Carrying the ball into midfield can be quite disruptive and space creating if done right. Do it without cover and it's virtual suicide
Feel free to rise to it if anything I said was incorrect I must admit I did have a chuckle when I saw you had given Sakho man of the match last night JS If ever a performance summed up a player then last night was it. One half utterly shocking, one half utterly superb.
I dunno... But what i can say is for southampton lovern was very much carrying the ball forward. not amazing passer but just driving the ball forward. Sahko does this too but the issue is theres nobody covering. It is a minor part of these guys jobs but when we do have the ball this kind of play is needed from CMs. not glory hunting running forward.
As you say, the reason Sakho has to play higher and play risky balls because there isn't a midfield to do it for him. Let Can be the defensive man, we need a deep lying playmaker next to him. Ruben Neves is perfect for that role.
We certainly need to trim the squad and some need to move on, with this in mind would I sell Lovren? No quite simply, he's improved enough to stay and fight for him place, I imagine we will start with Matip and Sakho next season with Lovren as cover, Gomez as the younger option and Toure and Skrtel sold.
