Jarell Quansah had England caps at every level from U16 to U20 before this season started… He captained Liverpool’s team in the UEFA Youth League and was an automatic starter for us in successful youth teams since his arrival in 2008.

Yet, for some reason, there was little or no hype. No fans were hoping Jurgen Klopp would give him minutes this term. There was no clamour for his promotion to the first-team. Quansah had a fairly mundane loan spell at Bristol Rovers in League One last season under Joey Barton, where he didn’t always start.

There was an incident with a red-card in which Quansah was criticised by an opponent for his recklessness.

Joe Morrell told BBC Radio Solent: “I’ve got up. Maybe he’s started a bit and he’s headbutted me. I think it’s probably [worth] two red cards.

“I haven’t made a tackle like that in my career and I certainly wouldn’t do that.”

Despite then Bristol Rovers manager Barton taking him in and out of the side, he did have big words of praise for the towering defender, which surprised many given the average performances.

“Jarell’s been excellent since he’s come in, he’s gone away with England and done well with them, got a goal and he’s come back and it looks like he’s figured out how to head the ball.

“He would probably be our top scorer if he’d had known that before,” he said in March, cited by TIA.

During the summer, Liverpool fans desperately wanted the club to sanction a deal for a new centre-back, but they refused and that decision has actually allowed Quansah minutes in the cup competitions.

So far, he’s played two full games in the EFL Cup and four in the Europa League. He’s had one start in the Premier League and come off the bench in three more to shore up matches. Without exaggeration, Quansah hasn’t put a foot wrong.

Strong, fast and imposing, he has the physical traits required of any elite centre-half, but he backs it up with composure and technical skills on the ball. It’s obviously a silly comparison right now, but aesthetically, he passes the ball like Virgil van Dijk with his relaxed gait and effortless side-footed balls into midfield.

His performance on Thursday night against LASK was again, faultless. Check out the highlights of his outing in the video, below. His passing and interceptions are good, but I especially like the recovery pace and timing of the last ditch tackles you see in the second-half.

Liverpool will always give other teams chances due to our ultra-attacking style, so you need defenders and goalkeepers who can get you out of jail when big moments arrive. He did exactly that.

Quansah vs Lask pic.twitter.com/9YfwhBTGUg

— 1947 (@1947production) November 30, 2023

Klopp was very keen to laud Quansah post-match and spoke about his new defender in length, referencing the decision not to buy a centre-back before the season as a good one.

“For us it was absolutely perfect. Jarell played a super game,” Klopp said, cited by Anfield Watch.

“There couldn’t be better news for the club, to be honest. Before this season, people told us we should buy a centre-half. We knew we had Jarell. Did we know that he would show up like this? Not exactly, but we were pretty hopeful. So the future’s bright. He is our own boy, calm on the ball, good in the challenges, quick, ruthless in the right moments.

“Besides Caoimh he had the most spectacular defensive situations when he saved our backside in some moments, so that’s really top news for us.”

“That couldn’t be better news for the club, to be honest. I think before this season a lot of people told us we should buy a centre-half. “We knew we had Jarell. Did we know that he will show up like this? No, not exactly, but we were pretty hopeful, so the future is bright. “It’s cool. Our own boy, calm on the ball, good in the challenge, quick, ruthless in the right moments and besides Caoimhin, who had one or two saves, [he] probably had the most spectacular defensive situations when he saved our backside in some moments. So, that’s really good. [It’s] top news for us.”

The great thing about our defensive situation is that it’s not only Quansah who is playing above expectations.

Joel Matip is enjoying a brilliant season. So much so, he’s arguably climbed above Ibrahima Konate in the pecking order, who himself hasn’t done anything wrong other than picking up a few niggling injuries.

Van Dijk is back to his absolute best, which helps tenfold. The Dutchman is oozing the confidence that made him stand head and shoulders above any centre-back on the planet and is clearly relishing the full-time captaincy.

Joe Gomez is showing he can play the inverted right-back position but also cover in central defence, too. What a squad player he is, capable of both.

Even at fullback, Kostas Tsimikas has found form while deputising for Andy Robertson.

With our attack always firing and our midfield finding its feet, should Liverpool find a way to become ultra-solid defensively, we really do have a chance in all four competitions this season.

Klopp will prioritise the Premier League, but don’t be surprised to see the Reds pick up at least one cup, too, with Quansah likely to be in the side for any run.

The post Editor’s Column: Jarell Quansah, from League One head-butt to Liverpool’s next centre-back superstar appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

The two best teams in the country will play each other on Saturday lunchtime, in a match which will see the victor top the Premier League table and put down a marker for the season.

Liverpool have dropped silly points at Luton and Brighton, while being robbed at Spurs, but are still in a very strong position, thanks largely to our unrivalled home form.

Manchester City look ominous. They’re top of the table with their best player Kevin de Bruyne injured, but they have a few top players also racing to get fit for for the blockbuster clash.

Ederson, Rodri and Erling Haaland missed their national teams’ fixtures due to fitness concerns, but no doubt Pep Guardiola was exaggerating the extent of their issues so he could get them a rest before our trip to the Etihad.

Liverpool’s players scored goals and shone during the international break, but played lots of football. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Darwin Nunez, Virgil van Dijk, Alisson, Alexis Mac Allister, Dom Szoboszlai and Diogo Jota all played twice, much to Jurgen Klopp’s likely annoyance.

Hopefully our South Americans will be ready… Nunez, Mac Allister and Alisson all played in the hours of Wednesday morning and will only have one session on Friday before the game.

Tactically, Klopp needs to win the transition battle with City, who are lethal when the ball is turned over. They have pace down the flanks and Jeremy Doku will be hoping to exploit the space Alexander-Arnold leaves at right-back when he drifts into midfield. Haaland is obviously lethal and will be constantly running in behind to exploit a line which will is always high, no matter where or who we’re playing.

City though will also deploy a high-line and our best chance to create chances is by using the pace of Nunez in behind. The Uruguayan is flying at the moment. He scored three times for his country and is oozing confidence. He was Liverpool’s best player last time out versus Brentford, registering an assist and having two goals disallowed. It’s admirable how he’s got over the open-goal miss against Luton, which was a real shocker.

Nunez is extremely fast and physical. Salah’s creativity will provide him opportunities to run, with Trent also capable of putting in longer balls past the defence, too.

It’ll be interesting to see who Klopp picks on the left. Jota has been in better form than Cody Gakpo or Luis Diaz and is the best finisher of the three. He can fight and press, which may be beneficial, but rest assured, all five will feature at some point.

That’s the benefit of having five elite attackers. Klopp is spoiled and our offensive options are potentially the best of any side in Europe. They complement each other well. Diaz needs to return to his swashbuckling, dribbling best, when he loved taking on the right-back and Nunez needs to get better at finishing his easier chances – but there really isn’t much to complain about.

It’ll be interesting who Klopp picks in midfield. Hopefully Curtis Jones will be fit and can take his place alongside Mac Allister and Szoboszlai. That is our best midfield right now. Gravenberch is also hoping to be fit, but whoever Klopp picks will be a slight risk given the intensity of the game and the fact they’re coming off the back off injuries. Wataru Endo simply hasn’t got the pace or ball-retention skills to anchor the midfield against City, while Harvey Elliott has proved himself to be a brilliant sub but not yet a consistent starter.

Kostas Tsimikas will keep his place at left-back, you’d assume, with either Joel Matip or the hopefully returning Ibou Konate alongside van Dijk.

We’ll need the Dutchman at his very best to deal with Haaland’s strength and movement. This season, van Dijk has been the best centre-back in the Premier League and it’s fantastic to see how confident he looks again. At his best, nobody comes close.

As always, we may need Alisson to pull off a few saves in one-on-one situations, as even at our vest best, Klopp’s Liverpool teams always give up a few chances.

It’s going to be a belter. Strap yourselves in, Reds.

The post Editor’s Column: Liverpool must counter-attack v Manchester City and take chances when they come appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Remember a few years back, during our title season, when Mo Salah refused to square to Sadio Mane against Burnley?

Mane was raging and kicked off on the touchline. Then, in the tunnel while walking into the dressing room, Roberto Firmino smirked at the camera as our two brilliant wingers blanked each other. It made a great viral clip, but actually, it never mattered that Salah and Mane weren’t very close… That season we romped the title. Their rivalry actually spurred each other on, even if there were some awkward moments between the pair. It may well have resulted in Mane’s eventual exit, which was sad and unexpectedly unemotional, but his subsequent failure at Bayern Munich proved it was a smart Liverpool sale.

Throughout their entire time together, Mane assisted Salah 13 times. Salah assisted Mane 17 times, slightly more often, but not an enormous amount considering the goals both scored and the fact they were basically ever-present for five seasons together.

Darwin Nunez, in one season and a bit, has assisted Salah nine times already. In fact, every one of Nunez’s assists has been to his partner in crime. Salah has made two goals for Nunez, but it would likely be plenty more if Darwin didn’t have such a habit of missing sitters!

But I’d much rather focus on the positives. Opta state that Salah and Nunez have made more chances for each other (19) than any other duo in the Premier League this season.

They clearly have a good relationship off the pitch and there seems to be no issue between the pair in terms of who’s scoring more. Salah and Mane were in a silent battle to be considered the main man, whereas there is obvious hierarchy now with Salah above all the other attackers in Liverpool’s roster in terms of age, status, productivity and ability. This suits Mo. He likes playing with Nunez and the Uruguayan’s immense physicality benefits Salah’s creative attributes.

The Egyptian, who has lost some of his pace, likes now to cut in from his right-wing and play intricate through-balls or lofted passes behind the defence. Nunez can run onto these thanks to his incredible speed and the pair seem to have a an increasingly telepathic relationship, where Nunez begins his run early and Salah knows where he’s heading. Salah used to be a cold-blooded goalscorer first, second and third, but while he’s still an insanely good finisher, he seems more happy to make chances for team-mates than simply get himself into the box. His evolution will see him remain world-class for many years to come.

Nunez is not world-class yet. He simply lacks the composure in front of goal to be regarded as one of the best, but his overall contribution is so, so much better than last season.

His pressing has gone through the roof and his work-rate is arguably the best of any of our attackers. Jurgen Klopp made sure to voice this after our 3-0 win against Brentford, in which Nunez had two goals disallowed.

“Outstanding! Outstanding,’ he said. ‘Everyone can see; look at him how he kept the ball for us, who would have thought he could do that for us last year?” Klopp told the Metro.

“[The] standout was Darwin because Brentford wanted long balls so he started the pressing. [His] work-rate was insane.

“In all the moments we could keep the ball on the ground and we could play football, with Darwin [Nunez] connecting the game for us exceptionally, we were super dangerous,” Klopp added.

Nunez now holds the ball up better, is consistently making great runs and is always involved in our offensive moments. If he had the calmness in front of goal Diogo Jota is currently showing, we’d be talking about one of the best strikers on the planet, but his improvement is enormous and his catalogue of shocking misses demonstrates an ability to be in the right place at the right time, as well a mental-block to score these chances.

Can he change this? Well, he’s learned to hold the ball up from a situation last term where it was bouncing off him, which is surely a trickier task than putting the ball into an open net from six yards out – so I’m holding out hope!

Salah clearly loves playing with Nunez. He provides energy, strength, speed and excitement. He gets his team and the fans going. The relationship between the pair is blossoming and will continue to do so now Nunez has staked his claim as a Premier League starter above Cody Gakpo in the central attacking role.

Gakpo is a lovely player in the buildup and a great option to have, but right now, he’ll have to wait his turn.

Nunez should start against Manchester City after the international break. The fact they’ll play a high-line and dominate possession will actually suit him on the transition. No doubt Salah will provide moments of class to feed his friend, too. It would be a mighty handy time for the 24-year-old to find his finishing boots!

The post Editor’s Column: Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez’s partnership benefits everyone appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Virgil van Dijk was just a few votes away from winning the Balon d’Or ahead of Lionel Messi in 2019. The Dutchman was extremely close to being named the world’s best player – let alone the best defender. The heights he reached during Liverpool’s pomp were unfathomable and probably incomparable. I’ve never seen a centre-back as good as van Dijk was between his arrival at the club and the injury sustained in 2020. He had literally everything. He was better on the ball than any other defender, physically stronger and faster and had an aura about him that literally frightened attackers from going near him.

The Jordan Pickford tackle changed things, however. He was out for 250 days with a cruciate ligament tear and he took time to find rhythm upon his return. He was very good during our pursuit of the quadruple in 2021/22, but still not at his meteoric best. Last season, he was poor and it looked like he was on the beginning of his decline.

Van Dijk was way too passive. He would wait for an opponent to make a mistake instead of defending on the front-foot, which would lead to attackers getting easy shots on goal or putting in crosses unchallenged. This style of defending is based on risk-calculation:

‘The keeper will probably save this effort if I let him have it from this angle, so I won’t risk jumping in and giving a penalty away or making the attacker more space…’

The issue was though that van Dijk simply took it too far, and was allowing attackers freedom to get into the box and shoot far too often and was simply not showing enough aggression or proactivity to snuff out attacks.

Because he’s van Dijk, he was still one of the top four or five centre-backs in the Premier League, but it appeared his aura had diminished. He was getting dribbled past. He was losing aerial battles.

I don’t know what happened during the summer before this season, but a 32-year-old van Dijk now looks as good as ever. He’s turned it around. I hadn’t written him off; he’s van Dijk after all – but it’s not often a player of his age has a poor season and then reverses his decline the campaign after.

Check out this graph from Stats Bomb. The Dutchman has basically been the very best at every aspect of defending this season. He’s in the top percentile of all the important factors, such as aerial win percentage, blocks, tackles, dribbled past, productive passing and winning the ball back. The only sections where he isn’t one of the best is dribbling out, simply because he isn’t asked to do so; and dealing with attackers pressing him (but that’s only because nobody goes near him as they know they won’t get the ball!).

Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool 2023/24

He's back. pic.twitter.com/fPvLRBRB8c

— StatsBomb (@StatsBomb) November 8, 2023

As well as the stats, van Dijk is passing the eye-test as well. He looks more confident in his game and is clearly enjoying being the full-time wearer of the armband. Captaincy suits him. Liverpool have a young team and he’s stepped up in terms of his responsibility off the field, too.

On it, he is oozing that composure that made him unrivalled. His decision making has been spot on again. It might well be that a largely functioning midfield ahead of him is helping matters, but don’t forget, Liverpool are playing without a naturally battling no.6, and Alexis Mac Allister has definitely been guilty of giving the ball away with overly adventurous passing, inviting pressure onto van Dijk and his defenders. Thankfully, we have van Dijk at his imperious best, or we wouldn’t be three points off top in the Premier League and favourites for the two cup competitions we’re in.

Our performance against Luton Town will be used by many as evidence that we won’t win the Premier League. I’m not sure. We did more than enough to win the game – our striker just missed an open goal. If the game went on a few more minutes, we’d have won. But it’s fair to say that we cannot afford to drop points away from home in the manner we’ve done so far. We’ve left four points at Brighton and Luton. The Spurs defeat was a robbery, but that’s not what will cost us the title.

Many fans think Liverpool should enter the transfer market after we drop points, so the news we’re no longer after Andre Trindade has annoyed many. In fairness, we did buy four midfielders in the summer and have Stefan Bajcetic and potentially Thiago coming back, although the latter obviously cannot be relied on despite his brilliance.

I’m not too bothered what happens against Toulouse tonight, so long as we win on Sunday against Brentford, before the two-week wait ahead of the monster clash against Manchester City. Then it’s van Dijk versus Erling Haaland.

The post Editor’s Column: Virgil van Dijk is back – and nobody right now gets close appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

There have been doubts surrounding Alexis Mac Allister’s long-term suitability as our holding midfielder, and in truth, a top performance at home to a bottom-half Premier League team won’t change that.

His naysayers suggest he is too easy to run past and that he gives the ball away too often as the deepest midfielder. And in fairness, there has been evidence this season to suggest this is the case.

After all, the Argentine wasn’t bought as an out and out no.6. It’s a role he has played for his country and Brighton, but not one that obviously makes the most of his creative attributes.

He’s obviously outstanding and progressive on the ball, but it was his work off it that really set the tone against Nottingham Forest on Sunday. Mac Allister broke up Forest attacks, not with tackles, but clever interceptions. He pressed at the right times and was there to mop up when our opponents lost possession. Being in the right place at the right time is an essential trait for a deep-lying midfielder and he nailed it at Anfield in the 3-0 win.

When he gets on the ball, he’s magic. His pass for Mo Salah led to the first goal and he consistently broke the lines with quick, forward balls. If Mac Allister nails the defensive side, we’ll be looking at a player who provides protection but is also an extra playmaker from deep, which is extremely exciting given we have Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk capable of similar things.

Mac Allister isn’t always nailed down for this role, but against lesser sides at home, it feels smart. It adds another player in who can break down deep defences; and when opponents are happy to let us have the ball, it makes sense to have another technical midfielder using it.

The question of course remains whether he’ll be able to flourish in this role against the bigger and better sides. We play Manchester City after PL games with Luton and Brentford and given how our rivals keep winning, we’ll need to go to the Etihad and get a point. Will Klopp trust Mac Allister as the no.6? He probably will.

Wataru Endo is doing well now in the cups midweek and showing he’ll provide capable backup, which is great. We also have Thiago coming back and there are big rumours Andre Trindade will be signed in January, given his recent quotes to Fabrizio Romano that he almost signed in the summer but stayed for Fluminense’s run to the Copa Libertadores Final.

With Trindade as a potential starting no.6, Klopp has the unbelievably exciting options of Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Mac Allister as the two no.8s.

Virgil van Dijk back to his best

Mac Allister was exceptional, Szoboszlai incredible, but the Man of the Match was probably Virgil van Dijk.

Liverpool’s captain endured his worst season in 2022/23 but this term he’s been back to his best. Not only was his passing sharp and precise, but he defended in that wonderfully composed manner where the Forest attackers couldn’t get near him.

It’s in vogue now to suggest he’s in decline, but the form this term has proved otherwise.

Ibrahima Konate is a great partner, while Joel Matip, Joe Gomez and Jarrell Quansah provide solid backup – which is not how it felt in the summer.

Liverpool should now win our next four games: Bournemouth in the EFL Cup, Luton and Brentford in the Premier League and Toulouse in the Europa League.

Then, it’s an international break before the City game. It’s a travesty that it’s been scheduled for 12:30 on the Saturday. At least all of their players are also on international duty.

The post Editor’s Column: Alexis Mac Allister’s best Liverpool performance shows his potential at no.6 appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

‘Endo has no clue on what we actually do,’ was Jurgen Klopp’s verdict on Wataru Endo’s full Premier League debut against Newcastle.

The surprise signing was hauled off before the hour mark and by that point, many Liverpool fans had already made their minds up on him.

30-years-old, of no real elite pedigree having signed from a Bundesliga relegation battler and physically way off the pace. It was undeniably a shoddy performance, and one which has cost Endo, given he hasn’t started a Premier League match since.

But the Japanese hasn’t sulked. Every comment he’s made in the media has been full of positivity and humility. His maturity shines through; and while the likes of Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai, two more expensive, younger and flamboyant signings, are smiling and loving every minute; Endo is putting in the graft behind the scenes, waiting to earn his opportunities.

“It was amazing to play here — a great feeling, a great atmosphere, to warm up and hear the fans chanting my name. They made such a special atmosphere and I so happy to play at Anfield,” he told the Echo after his Anfield debut, which lasted just a few minutes in the victory over Bournemouth.

But it’s his comments following his recent masterclass against Toulouse that really resonate…

“𝗜 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 (𝗳𝗮𝗻𝘀) 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗳𝗳 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗜’𝗺 𝟯𝟬 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗹𝗱, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀,” he told reporters after scoring in the 5-1 Anfield win.

“𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹. 𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗱, 𝗜 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗷𝗼𝗯. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝗜 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹, 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻.

“𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆 [𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆], 𝗺𝘆 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗼 𝗜 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲.

“𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗴𝗮𝗿𝘁. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲, 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲.”

What a brilliant attitude. And Endo truly was exceptional against the French in the Europa League. His goal was the highlight, but even without it, he was probably only second to Gravenberch as the best player on the park.

Endo passed the ball quickly and between the lines, which is not something his game is associated with. He won it back with clever interceptions and tackles, but also was good in the air, especially impressive given he’s not tall.

Klopp, who was quite cutting following that Newcastle game, lauded him.

“The forward passes he played tonight were absolutely incredible and how often he broke lines with one touch was absolutely insane – and then he scores a wonderful goal,” the boss told TNT Sports post-match.

Quite the contrast. Endo was also excellent in the EFL Cup win against Leicester City. It should be noted that his two best performances have come at Anfield against lesser opposition. His one outing against a rival was disastrous, but the midfielder is improving in every performance.

Fabinho was very poor in his early games as he struggled to adjust to the pace of English football, but eventually became the world’s best defensive midfielder for a period before his legs left him.

Endo will never reach those heights, but he doesn’t have to. Klopp likes Alexis Mac Allister as his first-choice no.6, and at some point will have Thiago and Stefan Bajcetic to choose in that role, but Endo’s naturally battling qualities will benefit in many situations.

He’s clearly a brilliant person and a player who’s probably been underrated his entire career. At 25 he was still playing in Japan and at 27, in Belgium. Now, he’s fighting for minutes at one of the world’s biggest clubs and this is testament to his character and ability. There are zero doubts about his professionalism and his attitude and often, these attributes outweigh technique and vision. Just look at what Jordan Henderson achieved at Liverpool for example.

Endo is not somebody we’ll ever regard as world-class, but as a squad player, especially during this season in which we’re going to fight on four fronts, he’ll be vital. The need for rotation has never been greater and he’ll get plenty of minutes this term, whether that’s predominantly in the Europa League or from Premier League benches.

In the video below, you can check out his performance against Toulouse. If that was Moises Caicedo producing that game, we’d be losing our minds, right?

Wataru Endo and his best performance for @LFC to date. He’s settling in nicely and we can see the results slowly.

He can definitely do the job!

: @1947production pic.twitter.com/ZActs0q4ZV

— LFC Transfer Room (@LFCTransferRoom) October 28, 2023

Again, the opposition is a caveat, and Endo is naturally slow which will affect us against fast-breaking teams, but there are clearly big positives.

If Mac Allister continues to give the ball away from his position at the base of midfield, Endo might be knocking on the door for some more Premier League starts, too.

The post Editor’s Column: Wataru Endo will prove a shrewd signing and potential cult-hero appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

It is a pretty open secret that Liverpool have a big interest in Fluminense midfielder André Trindade.

The 22-year-old has emerged as one of the best players in South America and has starred in his team’s run to to the Copa Libertadores Final, which takes place on November 4th against Boca Juniors.

Back in the summer, Fluminense director Mario Bittencourt confirmed Liverpool made contact for the diminutive anchorman but that nothing would happen until January due to his team’s participation in the tournament.

“Liverpool’s executive director contacted me directly. And I replied to him: ‘My friend, I don’t sell players now and I don’t deliver now’,” Mario Bittencourt told ESPN, via O Globo.

“[I told him]: ‘If you want to buy him now to take him in January, we can start talking, or if you want to wait until December, we’ll talk in December’.”

January is fast coming around though and if the Reds are serious about the potential signing, the wheels will already be in motion.

What are the rumours?

There’s plenty from pretty reliable sources. BBC Sport journalist Tim Vickery said before the Copa Libertadores semi-final that, “Liverpool fans will be wanting to watch the central midfielder Andre, who is almost certainly, I think, on his way there.”

Transfer journalist Graham Bailey says Liverpool are very much still keen on Andre, while respected correspondent Neil Jones told told EOTK exclusively that, “There’s obviously a great feeling in Brazil that the player [Andre] is ready to leave Brazil…”

“It would be a massive statement for Liverpool to do that. I don’t know what it would say about Wataru Endo…”

There is however late interest from Arsenal according to Brazilian reporter Thiago Ferreira, so Liverpool might face a fight on our hands to get him, especially considering their sporting director is former Brazil midfielder Edu and they have proven a financial strength in the transfer market recently.

What kind of player is Andre?

A very capable one. Andre is primarily a buildup player. He takes the ball from either the goalkeeper or his centre-backs and slowly moves his team up the pitch. Andre can dribble, play off one-touch and beat opponents on the half-turn.

On the ball he’s not dissimilar to Alexis Mac Allister, who has been playing as Liverpool’s no.6 this season. But off it, Andre is more naturally robust and is producing very good numbers for tackles and interceptions. Mac Allister has given the ball away too often in our deep-lying position because of his naturally more creative attributes, while Andre has a very high-pass percentage. He rarely takes risks with his passing, although he does occasionally break the lines and switch play.

You can see some of his best bits from the season below, although as always compilations don’t ever truly describe a player.

If Liverpool sign Andre he could end up a fantastic bargain

Massive massive potential pic.twitter.com/8myXRNN1Vt

— Vision (@Lfc__vision) October 12, 2023

What role would he have at Liverpool?

Probably as Thiago’s replacement. The Spaniard is a magician, but he’s 32-years-old and his very expensive contract expires at the end of this season.

More importantly, he’s seemingly always injured and has now been out for six months and counting with a hip problem. We’d all love a healthier, younger Thiago – and the thought of him pulling strings with Trent Alexander-Arnold in a double-pivot is mouthwatering – but not consistently realistic.

Andre is a decade younger than Thiago and has no history of injury problems. It has to be caveated though that the competitions he is currently playing in are a lot slower than the Premier League. He has more time on the ball and dribbling the ball out of defence and maintaining possession while being pressed is a much harder job in England. Andre lacks Thiago’s pizzazz and finesse on the ball but in truth, almost everyone does. His availability is a less exciting but more crucial attribute.

We saw against Brighton last time out that Jurgen Klopp was very keen on a slow, patient buildup from the back. This requires defensively-minded ball-players who can work triangles and eventually give the ball to more creative players further forward.

Andre ticks those boxes and given Mac Allister’s struggles at no.6, Stefan Bajcetic’s age and the fact Klopp doesn’t seem to trust Endo yet, we might need another option in this role.

Will it happen?

Liverpool have been pretty good at getting deals done in January the past few years. In January 2023 we got Cody Gakpo and the year before, Luis Diaz.

My gut tells me this one is a go-er, although much might depend on if Bajcetic can get himself into the team and if Endo can become the player Klopp promised he was.

If those two begin to flourish, there is perhaps no immediate need for Andre, although the promise of a long-term, potentially world-class no.6 is one we shouldn’t be turning down.

The post Editor’s Column: Analysing the potential Andre Trindade to Liverpool deal appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

At the end of what was supposed to be a gargantuan transfer window for Liverpool earlier this summer, many were slightly disappointed.

We hadn’t bought a single defender and failed to secure a well-known holding midfielder, with Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia both opting to join Chelsea on eight-year-contracts instead. Liverpool almost shelled out £111m for Caicedo, which would have completely shattered our transfer record, but in the end, Dominik Szoboszlai was our most expensive recruit at £60m.

Four senior players arrived and overall, we’ve been given some exceptional moments from at least three of them.

Wataru Endo – 5/10 – Potential 6/10

So let’s go from cheapest to most expensive. Being honest, the Endo signing is as weird now as it was then, when Liverpool signed a 30-year-old from Stuttgart not many fans had even heard of.

The former Bundesliga ace has started just one Premier League game, the away victory against Newcastle, but he’d already been hauled off by the time Darwin Nunez turned it around. Endo was very poor in that match and totally off the pace. So much so, Jurgen Klopp has given him just 21 minutes of PL football across four matches since.

In fairness, he’s been decent against lesser opposition in Leicester City and LASK but it definitely says something that Klopp is playing Mac Allister out of position at no.6 instead of the only healthy natural defensive midfielder we have in the squad.

Endo seems a top lad and he bolsters squad depth. It’s unlikely he’ll go on to have a huge long-term impact on the first-team given his slow start, age and the fact Andre Trindade might sign in January. 

Ryan Gravenberch – 7/10 – Potential 10/10

The young Dutchman arrived just before the deadline closed, so missed the entirety of pre-season.

As a result, Klopp has used him consistently but sparingly. Gravenberch has played in seven matches, but amassed only 300 matches as he’s mostly been coming off the bench.

It’s a blessing in disguise we’re in the Europa League though as it enables Klopp to give Gravenberch and others opportunities to grow into the side.

Technically, Gravenberch is one of our best players. Klopp has waxed lyrical over his first touch already. He’s physically strong, although uses this more to protect the ball when on it than win it back when off it. It’s funny that many outlined him as a potential no.6 option – he looks nothing like that. Much more a bombarding, creative no.8. Stylistically, he’s not dissimilar to the proper version of Paul Pogba – and that’s a serious compliment.

At 21, Gravenberch has already shown glimpses, including a goal and two assists, of what he’s capable of. Because of his technical and physical traits, we could well be looking at one of the best midfielders in Europe one day.

Alexis Mac Allister – 6/10 – Potential 8/10

It’s hard to properly judge Mac Allister so far. Obviously, he’s a wonderful footballer, as evidenced by his sublime assist for Nunez in the 3-1 victory over West Ham. But that creativity occurred in the opposition half and much of what he’s been asked to do as our no.6 has taken place close to his own goal, with multiple players pressing him – which led to Brighton’s opener at the weekend.

Truthfully, he’s given the ball away too often, whether he’s in his best position or not. He also has lost too many 50/50s and not shown an ability to dominate a game like he did on the south coast last year.

But there’s clearly a player in there. He hasn’t sulked and it’s clear the boss loves his tactical cuteness. If he maintains possession a little better and is given more protection by another defensively-minded midfielder, we’ll see the best of him. Clearly, Mac Allister will be a mainstay for a long time.

Dominik Szoboszlai – 9/10 – Potential 10/10

Wow.

There’s a case for the Hungarian being the best transfer of the summer by any top flight club. He’s got it all.

Tenacity, incredible on the ball, an engine that lasts the entire 90 minutes, vision and a thunderous shot to boot. Remind you of anyone?

Szoboszlai’s two goals so far have been utter worldies, but so pure is the technique with which he strikes a ball, you can guarantee he’ll smash a few more in from range this term.

His personality is infectious. Already a big part of the dressing room, it’s crazy to think he’s only 22-years-old. He captains his country. He’s a leader by example and has been one of our best players in every game so far. Szoboszlai has been so good, it just about makes up for the fact we missed out on Jude Bellingham, who’s scored ten goals in ten games at Real Madrid. To think, we actually had the money for both of them, given our failed £111m Caicedo bid…

The post Editor’s Column: Rating Liverpool’s new signings; Endo confusion to Gravenberch potential appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

You will have all heard it by now.

Yesterday, after pressure from Liverpool and the Premier League, the PGMOL released the audios and visuals from the disallowed Luis Diaz offside goal – and you cannot turn on the radio or open social media without hearing somebody else’s opinion on it.

| BREAKING: Here’s the full VAR audio for Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal against Tottenham Hotspur. pic.twitter.com/KDaq4FAT3f

— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) October 3, 2023

What a shit-show, eh? To think, this is where we’ve got to after 150 years of football evolution. This is the best system we’ve come up with.

It’s nonsensical. How does three men anxiously shouting at each other and ignoring what their colleagues have just said create an atmosphere where logical decisions are made? You can hear the tension in their voice. You can hear the reluctance in Darren England’s ‘I can’t do anything,’ when he absolutely could have done something and told referee Simon Hooper to stop the game.

As a Liverpool fan, it’s still frustrating me four days later and will likely continue to do so for years to come. After all, we don’t know what’s going to happen this season. If we’re in a title race, it could well be the defining moment. Just imagine.

When Pep Guardiola is championing Liverpool’s argument, we’re probably in the right.

“I understand completely how upset Liverpool must be in that case,” he said.

“Everyone knows they made a mistake and Liverpool suffered the big consequence of that. In this type of game, it is so important. But, no worries, the consequences will be on the players and the managers.”

What really makes me angry about this whole thing is not actually the incompetence of the officials on that day, though. I genuinely don’t think they did it on purpose and froze after making such a calamitous error. It’s not corruption. It’s people being very bad at their job. There’s a small part of me that feels sorry for them, given the backlash.

The thing that has riled me most is the reaction from the football universe to the fact Liverpool tried to do something about it. And this isn’t just from fans of rival clubs on the internet; it’s from respected, normally coherent journalists. It has baffled me.

Let’s take this chronologically, to show you where I’m at. The incident happened and literally everyone said it was horrendous and that Liverpool have been stitched up. Everyone said there is something categorically and functionally wrong with VAR and football’s use of it, if that can happen in a Premier League match.

Fine. We’re all on the same page. We all want something to change. It’s not a Liverpool issue – although we’re bore the brunt of it on this occasion – it’s a football issue.

Liverpool agreed and released the following statement: 

“We fully accept the pressures that match officials work under but these pressures are supposed to be alleviated, not exacerbated, by the existence and implementation of VAR.

“It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not afforded to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention.

“That such failings have already been categorised as “significant human error” is also unacceptable. Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency.

“This is vital for the reliability of future decision-making as it applies to all clubs with learnings being used to make improvements to processes in order to ensure this kind of situation cannot occur again.

“In the meantime, we will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution.”

I’ve read this again and again and I honestly think it is completely reasonable. We need change. This statement applies pressure on the PGMOL to implement change.

Good, right? That’s what everyone wanted.

Apparently not. What followed was two to three days of utter, tribal rubbish from the same people who said the incident proved the system is inept.

There are literally millions of tweets that entirely miss the point, but here’s a select few.

replay spurs v liverpool. replay the 2005 champions league semi final. replay france v ireland. replay the beachball game. replay the entire 1978 world cup. actually on reflection let’s just start the whole sport again

— Jonathan Liew (@jonathanliew) October 1, 2023

They should replay that game with the beachball goal

— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) October 2, 2023

Where in Liverpool’s statement does it suggest the club want a replay?

Nobody wants a replay. I don’t want a replay. It would tarnish any success we had this season if the game was replayed. So, these sarcastic straw-man arguments from Guardian journalists are completely unhelpful and simply poke at the embers of a ‘Liverpool versus everyone else’ fire. That’s not what this is.

Here’s BBC Sport’s Tim Vickery acquainting an administrative VAR error that failed to award the Liverpool goal against Spurs to a contentious handball from years back.

How can a journalist not know the difference between a subjective and an objective decision?

silly statement from Liverpool
what options do they want to explore? Does this include replaying the final of the 2019 Champions League because of the wrongly awarded hand ball penalty at the start of the game?

— Tim Vickery (@Tim_Vickery) October 1, 2023

The Liverpool error is like the scoreboard in the game accidentally malfunctioned and said it was 2-1 rather than 2-2, and everyone just went, ‘Ah, that’s a mistake, but nothing we can do now! Look, it’s up there already!’ 

It’s not the same as a dodgy handball.

Then you started to get the predictably stupid stuff from former pros, who went with the, ‘Yeah but what about that time Liverpool got a bad decision in their favour?!’ nonsense.

So Liverpool FC are going to explore all options open to them after the decision yesterday, presumably they are going to explore all bad decisions that have gone in their favour too or is it only them that have had a bad decision. Very poor I must say.

— Micky Hazard (@1MickyHazard) October 1, 2023

I’ve got a timeline full of Liverpool fans moaning ‘The game needs to be replayed’ ‘Sign this petition’ … just bore off.
Someone made a big error and said sorry. It’s a mistake so move on.
There’s been plenty of mistakes this season with red cards, penalty decisions and goals…

— Jonathan Walters (@JonWalters19) October 2, 2023

Before Liverpool’s statement, the football world was furious at VAR for ruining their game, but as soon as Liverpool insinuated they wanted to do something about it, they changed their story.

Why? Simon Jordan on talkSPORT spoke of Liverpool’s victim culture and explained our reaction to the injustice as a result of this inherent trait. Yep. He said those words.

Can’t they see that this isn’t about Liverpool? If your club was hard done by last season and you didn’t say anything, you should have. You should have rallied around each other as a club and applied pressure. This invokes change.

FSG wouldn’t have have lowered ticket prices if Anfield hadn’t walked out back in 2015. The government would never have issued an apology for the failings at Hillsbrough had we not pushed for one. Liverpool fans are good at standing up for what they believe in and making things happen. Football would be better if everyone did it. We’re more alike that we’re different.

Whataboutery is the least helpful thing in football.

Like when people who supported the Qatar World Cup said, ‘Well, it was illegal to be gay in England in 1966, so…’ 

Yeah, and this was a terrible thing. So people spoke out, protested and implemented change for the better. Now it’s not illegal to be gay in this country. That’s good. Can’t they see this is how things get done? YOU SPEAK UP.

The situation reminds me of when people get angry at nurses and doctors on strike, and go, ‘Hang on! She already earns more than me!’

So maybe you’re not paid enough either. Do something about it. Support each other. Speak up against systems that keep you subservient, quiet and skint.

Liverpool’s noise made the PGMOL release the audio. This is a start. This has showed people how confusing awkward and crude the VAR system is.

Shall we maybe get it sorted then rather than farting about the topic and approaching everything with a can’t-do attitude?

Much sympathy for Liverpool on those calls yesterday but you can’t “escalate and resolve” a refs cock-up. https://t.co/qEIieivuv5

— Adam Crafton (@AdamCrafton_) October 1, 2023

And to Adam Crafton, I’d say, ‘Yes. Yes you can.’

The post Editor’s Column: The VAR audio is embarrassing but it’s national journalists who’ve really let themselves down appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

When Liverpool signed Dominik Szoboszlai for £60m in the summer, fans were happy. We’d got an attacking midfielder through the door for big money. It all happened relatively quickly and the Reds beat a deadline to pay his £60m release-clause from Rb Leipzig. There were no celebrations in the street, though.

No other big European clubs were especially interested. There were rumours Newcastle United were keen, but none of the behemoths who challenged and beat us to other targets, like Real Madrid with Jude Bellingham and Chelsea with Moises Caicedo, fought us for signature.

It’s fair to say that no supporter anywhere had any idea he’d be this good.

This dramatic headline isn’t based on last night’s thunderbolt in the League Cup, but on the fact he’s pretty much been the best player on the pitch every time he’s stepped on it. A pitch including the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Alisson, Luis Diaz, Alexis Mac Allister and the only player who has arguably topped his performances, Mo Salah.

If a ten-year-old was asked to draw a perfect midfielder, it would look much like Hungary’s captain. He’s played 90 minutes in every Premier League game so far, proving Jurgen Klopp trusts him entirely but more importantly that his natural fitness is exceptional. He’s 6ft 2′ and can more handle himself physically. Against Wolves, he was clocked at 36.76 kph, making him the second fastest player in the competition’s history.

Technically, he oozes class and finesse. Szoboszlai can stroke the ball around like Thiago, but also absolutely leather it like John Arne Riise. He can dribble through central areas and play clever through-balls. The assist for the disallowed Curtis Jones goal v West Ham was chipped perfection. He’s so good on the ball, you’d forgive him for being a passenger off it, but he works harder than any player on the pitch; closing down, pressing, battling in the air, tracking runners and putting in tackles.

Stylistically, there are undeniable similarities with Steven Gerrard, and based on ability, we haven’t had a more rounded, talented midfielder since the legendary no.8 started out. That includes Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano, Fabinho, Gini Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson. Szoboszlai has Alonso’s composure, Mascherano’s bite, Fab’s physicality, Wijnaldum’s ball-retention skills and Hendo’s leadership. He’s a Gerrard re-gen.

What’s crazier is that he’s only 22-years-old. He’s younger than up and coming players like Morgan Gibbs-White, Jadon Sancho, Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez, who are all 23. The ceiling for what Szoboszlai could become is incredibly high, especially under Klopp, who is failing to hide his excitement about the player in every interview.

To think, we might not have bought Szoboszlai if Mason Mount pushed for a Liverpool transfer instead of a move to Manchester United. The Englishman cost the same money but there is nothing he does better on a football pitch than Szoboszlai.

In the summer, Liverpool’s players were astonished by how powerful and accurate Szoboszlai’s shooting was. So far, he’s scored two pile-drivers from outside the box and there will be plenty more this season. His shooting technique is perhaps only paralleled by Kevin de Bruyne.

It’s no wonder that Henderson pushed for a move to Saudi Arabia after realising he’d be fighting with Szoboszlai for minutes. The difference between the levels our former captain produced last season and Szoboszlai this is enormous.

Szoboszlai isn’t perfect. He’s so many skills and tricks in his armoury, sometimes he overcomplicates and tries something too difficult when a simpler option would be better. He’s also been guilty of being too far ahead of his team-mates who haven’t read or made a run for the pass he’s seen. This leads to him giving the ball away in the middle, which is more dangerous for us now he’s playing as a no.8 and not a no.10. But as mentioned before, he’s 22. He’ll improve on this.

Watching Szoboszlai gives you the feeling, ‘What’s the catch?’

How did we get someone this good, this perfect for Liverpool 2.0, for just £60m?

Missing out on Bellingham hurt, but at the moment, Szoboszlai is proving his equal. Long may his sublime form continue. The best signing of the summer in world football.

The post Editor’s Column: Dom Szobozlai is Liverpool’s best midfielder since Steven Gerrard appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

I never thought I’d say this, but I’m quite excited about this season’s Europa League competition.

Although we’ll miss out financially (it’s not like we spend the money generated from the Champions League anyway!) and in terms of the glamorous ties this club is associated with, it may have a long-term benefit to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool 2.0.

Firstly, Klopp has the genuine ability to rest his best players mid-week for the entire group stages.

No disrespect to LASK, Union Saint-Gilloise and Toulouse, but if we can’t beat those teams with our squad players then we’ve got bigger worries than what happens in Europe.

In the past six seasons, in which Liverpool have always been in the Champions League, there is no letup. The best XI starts in the Premier League and barring a few changes for injury and fatigue, the same lads go again midweek. And given how we’ve consistently been rivals to Manchester City, every game feels like a must-win from September onwards.

While that remains the case in the Premier League, the likes of Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah can expect the week off in terms of match participation before going again at the weekend, fully charged. It’ll make a big difference to their form, fitness and ability to fight down the home-straight, especially as we’re hoping to be involved in something exciting domestically come the end of this season.

On top of this, it gives Klopp an opportunity to blood a number of young talents. The group stages provide six guaranteed matches for the likes of Caoimhín Kelleher, Ben Doak, Stefan Bajcetic and Jarell Quansah.

On top of those names, we will get to see deserved starts for the squad players who so far have struggled to assert themselves as starters, such as Harvey Elliott, Kostas Tsimikas and Joel Matip. New signing Ryan Gravenberch is guaranteed minutes, too, in a less pressurised environment. The reason I say this is if something strange happened and we didn’t make it out of the group, or lost in the Round of 16, it doesn’t really matter. It just means less games to play and less tired legs at the end of the Premier League campaign. Arsenal benefited from this last term massively. Obviously, if we’re in a competition, we want to win it, but much like the League Cup and even FA Cup nowadays, you only need to use your best players towards the end, perhaps from the quarterfinals onwards. It expends less legs and gives everyone minutes.

We have a big squad nowadays and the Europa League will help keep them all happy.

I’d like to see Liverpool line up something like this on Thursday, when we are annoyingly kicking off at 5:45pm:

Kelleher; Gomez, Matip, Quansah, Tsimikas; Endo, Gravenberch, Elliott; Doak, Jota, Gakpo.

Then, Bajcetic can feature off the bench, given he’s 18-years-old and hasn’t played for five months. There’s also youngsters like Bobby Clark and Melkamu Frauendorf who are candidates for minutes off the bench if we’re in a winning position. This is before even mentioning Thiago, who will hopefully come back and provide the classy moments that have seen him recognised as one of the world’s best midfielders over the past decade.

By fielding an XI like this on Thursday, we can go back to full-strength versus West Ham at the weekend:

Alisson; Trent, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Mac Allister, Jones, Szoboszlai; Salah, Diaz, Nunez.

It’s unlikely Klopp will make XI changes and I’ve got this spot on, but expect to see something similar. How much will our starters benefit from a week’s rest after the gruelling international break? Hopefully quite a bit.

It’s really nice having that feeling when you’re genuinely excited about watching the Reds again. Last season, it went away, but the fight and desire they’ve shown early on to come back from a goal behind on three occasions to win, has relit the spark for everyone.

The post Editor’s Column: Europa League is a blessing in disguise appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

The Saudi Arabian clubs and their financiers – PIF – which is simply the financial investment arm of the government, don’t half have some cheek…

Firstly this summer, they tried to acquire our club captain Jordan Henderson for free. They thought we’d just give him away, despite him having two years left on his contract. Obviously, Liverpool scoffed at the idea and eventually got Al Ettifaq to cough up £12m.

Their attempts to sign Mo Salah, however, were even more absurd.

A first offer of around £100m was lodged in the days before the English transfer window shut. Why Liverpool would consider selling one of our best players of all time for what is nowadays a fairly normal transfer fee, without having the time to replace him, is anyone’s guess. They upped their bid to £150m, but Liverpool’s answer stayed the same. No.

Obviously we couldn’t sell our best player and essentially sacrifice a season in which we’ve started brilliantly. Maybe if they’d have made their offer early in the summer and Liverpool had time to replace him, it would’ve made sense to the owners at least, if not Jurgen Klopp, but they didn’t. They came in last minute and tried to bully us with their financial clout. Thankfully the club proved they can’t be shaken down for prized assets.

From a purely footballing and romantic perspective, I want Salah to stay with us his entire career. He’s currently on 188 goals and needs 40 more to overtake Billy Liddell into fourth place in our overall records. He needs a little under 100 more to overtake Roger Hunt in second; certainly not impossible if he stayed for another four or five seasons. Ian Rush’s 346 won’t be caught, but it’s important to note Salah’s games per goals (1.64) is far better than the Welshman’s (1.91).

On top of this, he’s still performing to a ludicrously high standard. He is a goal and assist machine. From the right-wing, he more or less guarantees 30 goals a season and double figures in assists. Even better, he’s never injured. Physically, Salah is a unicorn. He plays every game. Salah hasn’t missed a game through injury since the 2019/20 season.

He’s 31-years-old, and his insane pace is quietly diminishing, but he’s a better creator now. What you lose from Salah in-behind, you gain in chance-creation in front of the backline – and we’ve got speed-demons like Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz in the team now who ease the burden of Salah’s acceleration.

So, he’s still one of the best players in the world. If the Saudis hadn’t entered the fray, we wouldn’t be having this conversation – and there’d be nobody speculating about whether it would be smart to ‘take the money’.

But money talks. Especially for our owners FSG, whose biggest dream ever would surely be to sell a player in his thirties for £200m+. The problem is though Liverpool fans assume this money would simply be reinvested into the playing squad. That’s just not how they work. The idea has always been that there is money available for the ‘right player’ – instead of going out and strengthening positions where we are potentially lacking. (Just look at the failure to buy a single defender this summer…)

After all, Liverpool had a £111m bid accepted for Moises Caicedo this summer. We didn’t get it over the line, but obviously the money is there – we just don’t spend it as much as the fans – or probably Klopp – would like.

A lot of the sense in selling Salah surely depends on this season. If he scores 30-40 goals and Liverpool 2.0 starts to grow into a side that can challenge Manchester City again, can you really put a price on him?

He’ll be 32 by the end of this season, but a 32-year-old Salah who is still scoring plenty might have four years left at the top, considering his insane fitness and no history of injury problems.

As a result, Liverpool should not sell in January and once next summer comes along, should only do so for ridiculous money. The kind of money that a European club couldn’t spend. We’re talking £200m-odd. Salah is worth it to the Saudi clubs. He’s the biggest player from the Arabic region football has ever seen – even if Egypt is in Africa. He’s a devout Muslim. He’s the number one priority for the Saudi project and remember, they have a bottomless pit of wealth. They should pay a ludicrous price to get him and if they want him as badly as they clearly do, Liverpool should ask for an unreasonable amount – a silly sum. I bet they’ll eventually pay it.

With £200m, plus the money we didn’t spend this summer during our supposed rebuild, Klopp can fill the remaining gaps, namely in defence.

Fans assume that we would simply use that money to replace Salah, but how can you? What other left-footed right-winger scores that many goals? There isn’t one in world football. The next best is maybe Bukayo Saka, who doesn’t get near to Salah in terms of output. Saka is world-class, but Salah is in a different league even to him.

So instead, Liverpool should buy a new right-back, a new centre-back and possibly even a new left-back considering Andy Robertson’s best days are behind him. We would need a new right-winger, so maybe a project player, like Johan Bakayoko of PSV could be signed. He’s 20 and turned down a deadline move to Brentford.

The £142m sale of Coutinho to Barcelona funded moves for Virgil van Dijk and Alisson and we never directly replaced the Brazilian. Perhaps a similar revamp might be necessary, especially considering the brilliance of the attackers who already play alongside Salah.

He’s the best and the most experienced, but Cody Gakpo, Diaz, Nunez and Diogo Jota are four of the most exciting forwards in the Premier League who could still shine without him.

I’d rather Salah stayed and the Saudis left him alone – and they’ve got no chance of signing him in January, either. Next summer though, selling £200m, when he’ll have one year left on his contact, might be our best option from a business point of view considering the other areas of the squad that require attention.

Maybe Mo will tell him them where to go, you never know.

The post Editor’s Column: How Liverpool play the Mo Salah/Saudi Arabia situation smartly appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Naby Keita was injured and never played. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was a crock and Jurgen Klopp didn’t like him as an option centrally. James Milner was a loyal servant but 37-years-old. Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, both in decline. Arthur played 13 minutes of football last season.

Liverpool lost six midfielders this summer, but only two of them started regularly; both of whom had poor individual seasons. £52m for Fabinho and Henderson, even if it was unplanned and risky, is looking like increasingly good business.

Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister have come in as automatic starters and on their own are basically replacing the minutes we’ve lost from the departing six. Obviously, they need to stay fit, but both are in incredible shape and young at 22 and 24 respectively.

What’s more, they’ve fitted into the team and apparently the squad seamlessly. They just feel like Liverpool players.

Mac Allister has had it slightly harder so far for a few reasons. Firstly, his unfair red-card cost him a happy debut versus Bournemouth. Rightly, it was overturned so no suspension followed, but he’s also had to play in different positions; both the no.6 and no.8.

Long-term, his future will surely be at no.8, but he proved against Aston Villa at the weekend he can perform admirably at no.6, thanks to his composure, tenacity and ability to see a longer pass. He plays the role more as a deep-lying playmaker than a destroyer, but it’s a nice option to have, especially at home in matches we should dominate.

While Mac Allister has been promising, Szoboszlai has been a revelation. It’s crazy to think he’s only 22-years-old. He won’t peak for another three to four years. The Hungarian scored his first goal at the weekend but it’s his overall contribution that has fans worldwide purring. He is an animal off the ball; pressing, running, tackling. He is physical; big, strong and fast. And his technical skills are incredible. He can pass, dribble and shoot. He is the closest midfielder to Steven Gerrard we’ve had since the talismanic no.8 departed in 2015, and it’s fitting Szoboszlai has inherited that number.

The expectation is these two will start most Premier League games, meaning there’s a plethora of options for the remaining spot. Wataru Endo is a specialist defensive midfielder with experience and battling qualities. His start has been a tough one since his arrival from Stuttgart, but he looked much more assured against Villa when Klopp brought him on. It probably helps playing alongside 11 men instead of 10!

Thiago is injured and should be considered a luxury option, really, given his constant unavailability. But what a luxury to have. At full fitness, surely he walks into any side in the country, including ours. The thought of Thiago at no.6 with Szoboszlai and Mac Allister either side is mouthwatering. It won’t happen often, but surely there aren’t many better midfield trios in Europe. Thankfully, we don’t need to rely on the Spaniard anymore. He can play when healthy and rest when not. It’s unlikely his contract will be renewed as he’s one of our highest paid players, but we can get one more season out of him and enjoy the class he oozes and the depth he offers as much as we can.

Like Thiago, Stefan Bajcetic is coming back from an injury and we expect to see the Serbian starting League Cup and Europa League games before Christmas. He burst onto the scene last season and was our best player in our really horrible period. Bajcetic is phenomenally talented and a natural no.6. We have Endo, Thiago, Bajcetic, Mac Allister and possibly new signing Ryan Gravenberch as options for the holding role, so perhaps the demand for a new anchorman was exaggerated.

Gravenberch is only 21, but a huge talent. Klopp hinted he would be used as a no.8 in the 4-3-3, providing competition for Szoboszlai and Mac Allister. He demanded an exit from Bayern Munich though due to a lack of minutes, so perhaps he will be retrained as a controlling no.6 in a similar manner to how Gini Wijnaldum’s attacking instincts were culled. The fact he’s similar in frame to Fabinho and technically exceptional makes this an interesting possibility.

But we’re not done yet. Curtis Jones returned at the weekend and was solid. He looks so much more mature nowadays. A genuine starting option. He carries himself like a player who knows this. He’ll get plenty more starts than some outside observers realise this season.

Harvey Elliott has come off the bench in our past two matches and looked excellent. The youngster can drive through central areas, pick passes and play off one and two touches. He also looks more tenacious nowadays, willing to put a tackle in, as it was previously his defensive side that made him a liability in midfield. Not anymore, it seems.

So, that’s Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Endo, Thiago, Gravenberch, Jones, Elliott and Bajcetic competing for three positions. That’s plenty of options. For comparison, Manchester City have six central midfielders, one of which is Kevin de Bruyne who will miss half the season.

Last term our options were: Henderson, Fabinho, Thiago, Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Milner, Jones, Elliott, Bajcetic and Arthur. Ten players, but no balance, lots of crocks and the wrong age profile.

We messed up by not strengthening the defence, but the work done on the midfield appears exceptional and providing the best players stay fit, there’s no reason we cannot continue this excellent start to the season following the international break.

The post Editor’s Column: The Midfield Glow-Up is beautiful appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Darwin Nunez’s brace against all odds versus Newcastle United was a genuinely iconic moment, ignoring the fact his first season in England was a difficult one.

Down to ten men for most of the game and on the end of some horrible refereeing, Liverpool fought bravely and turned the game on its head at the death with the Uruguayan scoring two nearly identical goals.

Jurgen Klopp simply has to start him against Aston Villa this Sunday. It would not only be cruel to drop him after his exceptional impact at St. James’ Park, but a poor piece of man-management.

Nunez is a confidence player, for better or for worse. He’s physically exceptional – the fastest and strongest forward we have at the club – but when he’s not backing his own ability – his composure can be the worst.

He missed 28 big chances last season. He scored 15 goals, but if he’d notched half of these opportunities on top, that’s 29 goals for the campaign in which he started less than half the games. His numbers once he begins to finish with regularity could be astonishing because he gets in good positions so often.

And his finishes versus Newcastle were exceptional. The way he took the first one and blasted it into the only corner of the net the keeper wasn’t covering was sublime; as was the manner in which he ran around the ball from Mo Salah’s straight pass to make himself an angle for a similar shot.

As a result, his confidence is the highest it’s been since joining the club from Benfica. It’s a shame we didn’t have a midweek game as Nunez will be chomping at the bit for more action following his 13-minute cameo. Putting him on the bench in a winnable home game will pause his momentum. We need him to build rhythm, work on patterns of play and benefit from the through-balls of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.

It’s not a great metric for future success, but Nunez scored every 45 minutes in pre-season. If we start him up top, he will score a bucketload, especially with this newfound self-assurance.

Klopp however was quite unemotional when asked if Nunez would be in the side for Villa’s trip to Anfield.

“I never made a decision about the line-up the week before the game, we will see. But you can have worse arguments, I would say,” the manager told Liverpoolfc.com

“He is not happy for not starting, that’s how it is but somebody, in this early stage of the season, cannot start. We cannot have 11 players and play them all the time, so we need to find stability is the discussion… I don’t know if the public discusses it but of course players are not happy [when they do not start],” Klopp said.

“But after the international break we play every three days and nobody can play all the games so we have to make sure we have different options to go for. And we need to create a new way to play football and, of course, Darwin can be a super part of that. His key strengths are exceptional, absolutely, but we need to find stability as well. So, for him everything will be fine but it is just maybe it had to be like this – if he wouldn’t have been that angry and started the game today, he wouldn’t score two in the last six minutes or whatever, so let’s take it like that.”

You can see where the manager is coming from but sometimes you need to be less robotic and pick on instinct, especially when we have a week between games at the moment, meaning tiredness isn’t an issue and rotation unnecessary.

Diogo Jota has been decent up top so far this term, while Cody Gakpo didn’t do much in the false-9 role at Newcastle and has been in midfield in our other two games. Nunez has had the fewest minutes but looks the most dangerous, even if his touch outside the box is the worst.

In bigger games away from home, I’d always start Gakpo. His linkup play will be huge for us in these games, and Jota is a great option in two different positions. Nunez is not a left-winger and Klopp needs to use him centrally now his confidence is up.

The player himself hinted at a strained relationship with Klopp in a recent interview with Sport890, cited on Reddit.

“Klopp is the coach and I respect his opinion. I keep working in silence and I’m going to do my job in the minutes that I have. When the game ended, he hugged me. If I deny him the hug, he crosses me and I don’t play more,” he joked.

“I went into every game angry. You always want to play from the start. My fever has gone and everything is fine with the Manager. There are players of a high level. It is a big club and there is healthy competition between the players.”

Nunez’s emotions have so far been a weakness, but the manner in which he battled and celebrated on Sunday convince me that could become a strength.

He is not a natural pressing monster yet, but with his speed and physicality, he could do wonders in this area.

Despite his brilliance last time out, there are many that need convincing is his ability. Fair enough. He’s frustrating. But if Klopp puts him back on the bench now, we won’t find out.

The post Editor’s Column: Start Darwin Nunez on Sunday or risk bursting his bubble appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Few expected Liverpool to sign Dominic Szoboszlai this window. But out of nowhere, the Reds triggered his £60m release-clause and our second midfielder of the summer was signed after Alexis Mac Allister.

Fans knew more about the Argentinian World Cup winner on the whole, having watched him for Brighton in the Premier League and in Qatar, while Szoboszlai, despite being more expensive, was more unknown.

He’s the captain of Hungary but in general, English supporters are not watching too many Bundesliga games, forming an opinion of Szoboszlai primarily from his Champions League outings.

Granted, he’s only made two proper appearances so far, but we’re all very much aware of his potential now.

Szoboszlai was the best player on the park against Bournemouth and it’s his combination of physical and technical attributes that make him so exciting.

The 22-year-old is 6ft 2′, fast and strong, with a wonderful first touch and an ability to pass off either foot. What’s most noticeable though is his ability to dribble with the ball centrally. He can drive past opponents with speed or beat them with skill – and without wanting to put too much pressure on the new signing – the last midfielder we had who could do that also wore the no.8 – and it wasn’t Naby Keita…

At Anfield, Szoboszlai registered the most passes, touches, progressive carries, distance covered and dribbles. Even when his team-mate Mac Allister was unfairly sent off, Szoboszlai still looked to play aggressive, front-foot football and his stinging effort from outside of the area led to our third goal, which killed the game.

Szoboszlai seems perfectly suited to the Premier League. He can handle the physicality and likes to play fast, off one and two touches, something fellow new signing Wataru Endo will have to learn. It’s intriguing that Jurgen Klopp has decided to play him the full 90 minutes in both fixtures so far, given he normally lets new signings bed in by subbing them off after an hour, although in fairness, there are not too many other options from the bench right now.

Watch his best bits v Bournemouth, here:

Official MOTM in his first outing at Anfield. Szoboszlai pic.twitter.com/zJ4iYAlf9y

— The Anfield Talk (@TheAnfieldTalk) August 19, 2023

He oozes confidence. This is not a player who has any doubts about his own ability. You can see that in the expression with which he plays and the manner in which he takes on opponents.

Klopp had to pull him back in the second-half because he was having so much fun.

“He was the only one [after the red card] who really felt like he had power for more, because he was part of the double six and running everywhere,” the manager told his press-conference.

“I had to hold him back a little bit.

“But, the general performance level he shows since he’s here is really, really good, to be honest, and the involvement in the third goal obviously super-important.”

Mac Allister got a red but he’s also shown why he’ll be a very good signing. We definitely need another defensive-minded player, even with Endo, as at 30, the Japanese is not a long-term option.

James Pearce in the Athletic has hinted we’re not signing another holding midfielder, but that seems nonsensical – and in truth – no journalist has known much about the incomings so far and the reporting has largely been based on guesswork.

We have a week before a very challenging trip to Newcastle United. Hopefully, Mac Allister’s red will be overturned, as without the Argentine, we look scarce in central options.

Szoboszlai will be a guaranteed starter of course, looking to carry on the exceptional work we’ve seen so far.

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