dont see us buying another defender just because the other 3 may not be quite fit enough yet. Would be very short sighted and would leave us with a 5 first team defenders plus Williams, Phillips & Davies as back up. We don’t need 8 centre backs at the club I can see us just holding onto Phillips if one or two look a bit off, but to go spend another 30m on a defender would be crazy.
Wiliams, Phillips and Davies aren't good enough options to rely upon. We could bring in someone like Kabak now with the view of selling Phillips and then shifting Matip out eventually. That's good planning IMO. No matter what we do, we cannot be rushing VVD, Gomez and Matip back. They need to be eased in.
Don’t get why anyone would want us to spend £30m on another CB to leave us with 5 first team centre backs plus 3 back ups when it’s we need to freshen up the forward line and replace gini.
He said a tearful goodbye last week. Dunno why. At £18m he's deffo a better punt than Willaims and Davies, imo. And great and noble job as Phillips did, he's not one for the future. I would keep him to do the job Klavan did, if he wants to stay though. But your point is right - VVD and Joe will not be up-and-running in August, that means Konate is our only match fit CB of any class, and he's in a new team. I wouldn't be letting anyone go in this window, tbh.
makes sense, these were serious injuries…Matip will be continually injured anyway and I can still see one of VvD and Gomez missing significant chunks of next season…..Phillips should be a ‘must keep’ if we don’t buy another CB.
Can’t see Tsimikas going. Think Klopp juat didn’t want to put him into a really inexperienced defence last year. Think he’ll play more of a part this year after being around the squad for a year. Hoping similar to Robbo and Fabinho just being given time to settle
As Jimmy said, it could be Kabak (at £10m). We won't be spending £30m on a defender. It's just another opinion and actually given the injury histories of two of them and complete unknown in terms of Virgil, it makes some sense. Would you be happy going into the season with question marks over our three senior CB's? It's too important a position to get wrong ...... again.
Who is saying we should be spending £30m on another CB? My concern is that we have 3 senior centre backs who are ALL coming back from serious injuries. It may be possible but I think it's highly unlikely that all of them will be ready for the start of the season and be able to play week in week out straight away. If they were in peak condition, then fair enough, I dont think we need to sign another centre back But bear in mind that all 3 need to be eased in plus Konate is a young defender coming into a new team and will also need to be eased in as well. I think it's very risky IMO which is why another CB should be signed (maybe a person who can cover both CB and RB). Phillips is simply not good enough even as a back up to the back ups. Not saying that we need a world beater but we need someone who suits our style. Phillips will never suit our system.
I agree with that. I'm not saying we should be selling Phillips for the sake of it but we do have to be mindful of the fact that his value is at it's peak now and it will not get any higher. We're better off selling him and reinvesting in another option who is a) better and b) better suited to our team.
Just butting in on this, That's a very old way of thinking from the red men. The medical staff will have a very good idea where the 3 cbs are in their fitness and klopp will be well aware of what he needs already. Anything is possible once the intensity increases but it's actually rare for the same injury to reoccur with knees. I think klopp already knows matip is brittle and has bought konate. Hes talked the inexperience and development angle so far but we have already done the deal. The news for preseason is the vvd is ready for day 1. The Gomez news is less clear We just need to wait and see, no big deals. For midfielders we have 3 separate highly touted rumours now so clearly theres a lot of rubbish being spouted
We were interested in Caleta Car, not sure if the interest is still there. He looked pretty solid for Croatia.
We have to hope that at least one of the buggers is fit, or else we're struggling again. Shoving anyone who isn't top-class is fantasy football - and certainly not the reality at our club atm. Williams and Davies could perhaps go, but Phillips needs to be held on to for now. That is my opinion of good planning. He isn't the level we need for a first-choice, true - but that isn't being asked or expected of him. Lose him and just who do we have to turn to? Kabak is still young and inexperienced, so he doesn't fit the criteria that you seem to be demanding either. Konate is new to the league, and we've seen often enough that that can throw many a good player. Plus he doesn't seem any more immune to injuries than the ones we've got.
Which is also another valid argument. He wouldn't be my number 1 pick either but is someone who is solid and young enough to develop.
I think VVD is most likely to be up and running because his injury is more straight forward to recover from (in modern times) plus he's a physical freak of nature. I know Joe has been in and out of the gym quite frequently but from what I read, his injury is the most concerning and can take another year to get back to anywhere close to his peak level. No idea how Matip is! And I agree - getting rid of Phillips just to raise cash and not reinvest is silly and pointless. My overall argument (which is getting lost somewhat) is that we should be looking to bring in another centre back this window with the view of not having to ever rely on Phillips, Williams, Fabinho or Hendo again. And we have to remember that even if Joe and Joel are back up and running, it's highly unlikely that they will be fit and available for the entire season. Then you're left with just Vvd and Konate. Reason I push for Kabak is because he had a solid audition, he's used to our system, young enough to develop and young enough to expect to not start every game. And the chances are quite for Matip not to be with us after this season.
