Youre seriously comparing Chelsea to us? Chelsea have spent a billion in last 10 years on players and have been challenging for title every year apart from year which was a one off freak because Mourinho had a hissyfit. Our problem is just quality of squad. We've shown when fully fit we can compete with anyone and win games in style even with a dodgy defence. Klopp got us looking great when we play well, just needs to work out how to beat lower teams that don't roll over to us. We need quality players to push the average players out of the first team. Once Klopp has had another summer window to do his business sure he'll invest to same levels of our rivals.
Yep, first season with Brendans players 2 cup finals but a lower league finish. 3 transfer windows later and with some of his own players, no cup finals and god knows where they will finish
I sometimes wonder whether Klopp realise that in the premiership you need more than a top quality 11. A whole squad of quality players is needed because of international tournaments, suspensions, injuries and loss of form. All these are predictable and things like tournaments are already in the diary. So why did we not prepare by recruiting the necessary players? Surely identifying the right players needed is part and parcel of the manager's job. Watching our bench today you could cry as it was so pathetic. Palace's was better. Ours had 4 teenage academy players who had hardly played before. A club in our position with no European football should be able to focus on the domestic cups. We got eliminated quickly. Why? Because our second strings are simply not good enough. No European football, early elimination from the domestic cups: the very least that Klopp and the players should deliver should be top 4. If not, then on any objective measure, we've gone backwards from last season, when at least we had European football and reached 2 finals.
A lot of crowing about a low "net spend" and whinging about the fact he couldn't get his first choice players. With a squad as thin as yours, surely it would have been better to have a slightly higher net spend and some 2nd/3rd choice players that could become good squad players next season when the first choice come in.
Short term, maybe. But long term you end up with a lot of duds not getting game time and/or with the ability to actually perform when put into the team. Look at Arsenal with the likes of Mertesacker, Ospina, Debuchy, Perez etc. knocking about their squad on huge wages when they barely play. Even though its disappointing now that we lack depth long term for the club its much better to avoid buying players just for the sake of buying some in rather than buying senior players just to get some extra numbers in.
So how long do you envision it taking to build a squad (not a first 11 because you are quite close to that)?
It depends on a lot of things, but lets assume he gets a decent sized budget in the next few windows and we don't lose any key players then I can see him having his 'ideal' squad in a season or two.
He has had a decent sized budget in the last 3 windows. When a team has a paper thin squad the manager should be thinking I have 40/50/60mil to spend, I have a 5 year contract with similar budgets so, if I can't get my first choice this window I will try to get my second/third choice, that way next year when I get my first choice I can keep the 2nd/3rd choice and get rid of the dross and my squad will be really strong. Otherwise you will often miss out on first choice and have a great net spend (and possibly good first 11) but **** squad.
Its not FM though. You can't just 'get rid off dross' especially if they are a year or two into a 5 year contract on 100k a week. You can't just move people on that easily. Plus Klopp has had 1 proper window, in that time he brought our current beat CB, our best wide forward and a very good CM in Gini. 3 players that have improved the first team and Karius who has certainly pushed Mig on and is better competition and potential than Brad Jones. The 3 windows thing needs context. The first was when he was in the job 3 months and was finding out about his squad. Can't blame him for not buying anyone, would have been really short term view to do so. Plus Klopp is the type to want to develop players not just replace everyone with expensive signings. This January, who knows maybe he had a few lines up but clubs weren't willing to sell. Maybe he just doesn't feel can get value or that buying in Jan gives enough time to embed them into the squad to hit the ground running. Its clear most sides do their business and successful business during the summer. If this summer he doesn't strengthen the defence, midfield and up top where we all know needs strengthening then questions will be asked. But until now he's probably thought he can coach the players to improve to standard needed, now I hope he's realised that some just won't be good enough.
Well Sanchez was choice 1, we didn't get him so Balotelli was the only other option and Rodgers took him over no one. He then had bad influence on team and we couldn't just flog him so ended up paying him off. Big waste of money. Now it's an extreme example and some examples will go the other way and the 2nd choice will turn out to do very well, but it's what could happen if you settle for 2/3rd choice.
What amazes me is 72% possession and only 1 shot on target? Am not going to gloat too much but how many teams have won 3 years on the bounce at Anfield? Out of all the big teams inc those Mancs I want Liverpool to win the title,Liverpool fans I've met since the cup semi in 89-90 have always been gracious and so have so much more class than all the other so called big teams!
There are around 15 other teams who don't have European football each season but struggle to finish top 4. Our squad is painfully thin and our best player is out injured for rest of the season. We're still on course to finish with second highest points in recent times so there has been progress.
