{"id":1415,"date":"2018-12-17T17:56:23","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T17:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1415"},"modified":"2018-12-17T18:11:05","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T18:11:05","slug":"a-look-at-liverpools-transfer-business-under-jurgen-klopp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/a-look-at-liverpools-transfer-business-under-jurgen-klopp\/","title":{"rendered":"A Look At Liverpool\u2019s Transfer Business Under J\u00fcrgen Klopp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As most Reds wake up this morning and bask in the glory of a 3-1 win over Manchester United, a fair few of them will be raising a toast to Xherdan Shaqiri. The diminutive midfielder that signed from Stoke City in the summer wasn\u2019t high on the list of most people when they were drawing up potential transfers in the summer, with many feeling that he was too selfish for Liverpool Football Club. The vast majority have been happy enough to eat humble pie in the months that have followed, given how influential he\u2019s been for us on numerous occasions. His brace against Jos\u00e9 Mourinho\u2019s team helped to send us back to the top of the Premier League table, but he\u2019s not the only payer signed by the German who has an impact at Anfield.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\">&#x1f60d;&#x1f525;&#x2764;&#xfe0f; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/XS23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#XS23<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/weareliverpool?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#weareliverpool<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LFC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/h1wuYzWrK9\">pic.twitter.com\/h1wuYzWrK9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Xherdan Shaqiri (@XS_11official) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/XS_11official\/status\/1074410062947463170?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 16, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As the January window draws ever closer, many will be wondering whether or not the club will be looking to bring anyone in during the month. The defensive woes we\u2019re currently facing might tempt the manager, but he\u2019s never been a fan of short-term solutions &#8211; Steven Caulker aside. If he does decide to spend some money, therefore, it\u2019s likely it will only be on a player that he was thinking of bringing in in the summer regardless. Rumours of a move for a defender seem the most likely to me, with Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren surely on the chopping block given their lack of reliability over injuries, meaning that moving at least one of them on and bringing a replacement in would tick my personal box. It naturally begs the question: how good has Klopp\u2019s transfer record been so far during his time in the Anfield dugout?<\/p>\n<h2>A Look At Each Of The Players He\u2019s Signed<\/h2>\n<p>The most important thing to point out from the outset here I that this is all just my opinion. You might read what I\u2019ve got to say and completely disagree, which is entirely fair. The joy of football is that it\u2019s an entirely subjective thing to discuss. Obviously Michael Edwards deserves as much credit as J\u00fcrgen Klopp, but the manager\u2019s hit-rate has been excellent. Here\u2019s a look at the players in my opinion of their order of importance to the team:<\/p>\n<h3>Alisson Becker<\/h3>\n<p>For me, the most important signing Liverpool have made in more than a decade. Many will point to Virgil van Dijk as the reason for our defensive revolution and there\u2019s no question that he\u2019s been incredible. Yet it\u2019s also true that our defence wasn\u2019t the all-encompassing disaster that some people painted it as. For example, we notched up nine clean sheets in our first twenty league fixtures before he arrived and seven in the eighteen after we\u2019d signed him.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_1305\" style=\"width: 277px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1305\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1305\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/800px-20180610_FIFA_Friendly_Match_Austria_vs._Brazil_850_1625-267x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"267\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/800px-20180610_FIFA_Friendly_Match_Austria_vs._Brazil_850_1625-267x400.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/800px-20180610_FIFA_Friendly_Match_Austria_vs._Brazil_850_1625-133x200.jpg 133w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/800px-20180610_FIFA_Friendly_Match_Austria_vs._Brazil_850_1625-768x1151.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/800px-20180610_FIFA_Friendly_Match_Austria_vs._Brazil_850_1625.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1305\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">By Granada [<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\">CC BY-SA 4.0 <\/a>], <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:20180610_FIFA_Friendly_Match_Austria_vs._Brazil_850_1625.jpg\">from Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p><\/div>The difference more than anything was that neither Simon Mignolet nor Loris Karius were good enough to rescue us should the defence allow a shot on target, meaning that more often than not we\u2019d concede if the opposition had a shot. Alisson\u2019s arrival means that we\u2019ve got someone who can dig us out when the rare occurrence of a big chance being given away and that is game-changing. I don\u2019t want to lose either through injury, but if one of them were to go missing for a month I\u2019d prefer it to be van Dijk than our Brazilian shot-stopper.<\/p>\n<h3>Virgil van Dijk<\/h3>\n<p>Having said all of that about Alisson, I don\u2019t want to give the impression that I don\u2019t think that Virgil van Dijk has been a phenomenally important signing. The former Celtic and Southampton man has given the defensive line in general a massive boost, organising them and giving the impression that they\u2019re a well-drilled unit regardless of opposition. There\u2019s an extent to which I think you could probably put them alongside each other in terms of importance, given that we look like an entirely different team at the back since they both arrived.<\/p>\n<h3>Mohamed Salah<\/h3>\n<p>Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker might well have revolutionised the backline, but Mohamed Salah has been just as influential with our attacking ability. The Egyptian King might not offer the pure, unadulterated enjoyment of never knowing what he\u2019s going to do next that you used to get from Luis Suarez, but he\u2019s offering even more goals than the Uruguayan and without the fear of what mental thing he\u2019s going to do next.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Salah-533x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Salah-533x400.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Salah-267x200.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Salah-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Salah-65x50.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The press might want to paint a picture of him being moody and not celebrating his goals, but I think he\u2019s just working an on-pitch persona that he established after scoring the goal against Manchester City at the Etihad. Anyone who watched Roma in 2016-2017 knew that he was a talent, but the extent to which the manager has helped his career shoot to the next level cannot be understated. If we win the title this season then Salah will be a large part of the reason why.<\/p>\n<h3>Andrew Robertson<\/h3>\n<p>Arguably the biggest influence on what the Liverpool team can do from match to match is Andrew Robertson. Left-back has been a notoriously difficult position for the Reds to fill for as long as I can remember, yet we now have a lad that we signed from Hull that plenty in the wider media are referring to as the best player in the position in all of Europe on current form.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Mourinho: &#8220;LFC play 200mph with and without the ball. I am still tired to look at Robertson. He makes a 100m sprint per minute! Incredible.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CcJK7IpYkQ\">pic.twitter.com\/CcJK7IpYkQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Anything Liverpool (@AnythingLFC_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AnythingLFC_\/status\/1074397734659067904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 16, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>His energy is demonstrative of exactly what the manager wants from his side and even Jos\u00e9 Mourinho was full of praise after this weekend. An amazing signing who seems to be going from strength-to-strength, his presence in the squad means that we no longer have to worry about teams attacking us down our left.<\/p>\n<h3>Sadio Man\u00e9<\/h3>\n<p>The Senegal international can consider himself unlucky not to be higher on the list, such is the extent to which he\u2019s surprised most people since his arrival from Southampton. I\u2019m quite sure that we\u2019d cope perfectly well if we lost any of our front three, including Roberto Firmino, but the reason they work so well together is that they all offer something different. Sadio Man\u00e9\u2019s direct nature, strength and speed mean that he causes defences all sorts of problems, even when he\u2019s not in particularly great form.<\/p>\n<h3>Georginio Wijnaldum<\/h3>\n<p>Would I have put Gini Wijnaldum so far up my list this time last year? Probably not, but he\u2019s really grown into his role so far this season. The former Newcastle man is someone that critics say goes missing in big games, but he\u2019s been ever-present this campaign and is helping us to control the midfield. J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s vision of what he would be able to do has seen him shift from an attacking midfielder to a defensive one in recent times, dovetailing brilliantly with Fabinho. An absolute revelation.<\/p>\n<h3>Xherdan Shaqiri<\/h3>\n<p>The Little Swiss Cube has impressed everyone since he pulled on the Red shirt, as I said in my intro. He\u2019s offering the connection between attack and midfield that we\u2019ve been lacking since Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got injured, chipping in with really important goals, too. I was always behind signing him, mainly because the rumoured \u00a313 million seemed like an absolute steal for a player with Premier League experience. Yet even I must admit to being surprised just how influential he\u2019s been and how often I\u2019m crying out for him introduction against low-block teams.<\/p>\n<h3>Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain<\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019m struggling to think of a player who\u2019s reputation has improved so markedly when not playing as much as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He was the driving force of our midfield last season, stepping up to the plate when Phil Coutinho departed for Barcelona and getting between the lines brilliantly. Since he picked up his injury, however, the extent to which he would apparently be the saviour of us when we were struggling to create goal-scoring opportunities early in the season grew and grew. I can\u2019t wait for him to come back, but I\u2019m glad we\u2019re no longer having that issue.<\/p>\n<h3>Fabinho<\/h3>\n<p>No doubt plenty of you will be furious that my next two players aren\u2019t higher up the list, but the reality is that they haven\u2019t yet had the opportunity to settle and make a proper impression. Fabinho\u2019s first performances were indicative of someone who wasn\u2019t quite up to speed with the fast-paced nature of the Premier League. We saw against Manchester United that he gets it now, but then Mourinho\u2019s side were the poor that I\u2019m not really sure what the performance tells us about anything.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_1328\" style=\"width: 344px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1328\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1328\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Monaco-Zenit_5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"334\" height=\"380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Monaco-Zenit_5.jpg 334w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Monaco-Zenit_5-176x200.jpg 176w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 334px) 100vw, 334px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1328\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">By \u0412\u044f\u0447\u0435\u0441\u043b\u0430\u0432 \u0415\u0432\u0434\u043e\u043a\u0438\u043c\u043e\u0432 (fc-zenit.ru) [<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\">CC BY-SA 3.0 <\/a>], <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Monaco-Zenit_(5).jpg\">via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p><\/div>I have no doubt that Fabinho will be a massively important part of the Liverpool team in the second-half of the season. My only complaint about the way people talk about him is that some people feel the need to use praise of him as an excuse to criticise other players that are part of this amazing side. J\u00fcrgen Klopp has deliberately signed a whole host of midfielders with different styles to mean that he can use the right ones at the right time. Fabinho\u2019s performances have been understated so far in his Liverpool career, but there\u2019s a long way to go yet and he\u2019s got plenty more to show.<\/p>\n<h3>Naby Keita<\/h3>\n<p>I was concerned about the way some people reacted to Naby Keita\u2019s performance against West Ham in the opening game of the campaign. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I didn\u2019t think that it was poor. I just thought that people were reviewing the performance that they wanted him to have put in rather than the one that he actually did. They were raving about him as though he\u2019d scored a double hat-trick, rather than dropped the shoulder and lost a lad at one point.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_1327\" style=\"width: 361px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1327\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/RB_Leipzig_vs._FC_Liefering_Testspiel_9._August_2016_24-351x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"351\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/RB_Leipzig_vs._FC_Liefering_Testspiel_9._August_2016_24-351x400.jpg 351w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/RB_Leipzig_vs._FC_Liefering_Testspiel_9._August_2016_24-176x200.jpg 176w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/RB_Leipzig_vs._FC_Liefering_Testspiel_9._August_2016_24-768x875.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/RB_Leipzig_vs._FC_Liefering_Testspiel_9._August_2016_24.jpg 1052w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 351px) 100vw, 351px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1327\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">By Werner100359 [<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\">CC BY-SA 4.0 <\/a>], <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:RB_Leipzig_vs._FC_Liefering_(Testspiel_9._August_2016)_24.jpg\">from Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p><\/div>My skepticism about him has been justified in the months that followed, with his performances being distinctly average whilst punctuated with a few moments of magic. That\u2019s not because I don\u2019t think he\u2019s a good player, by the way. Much like with Fabinho, I think he\u2019s struggled to get up to the pace of the Premier League and we\u2019ll see the player we thought we\u2019d signed once he has. Again, I\u2019m certainly not suggesting that I think he\u2019s a poor signing, I just think he\u2019s going to grow into his role in the coming months rather than already being the player he was at RB Leipzig.<\/p>\n<h3>Ragnar Klavan<\/h3>\n<p>The departed Estonian might be looking at our current defensive woes and wondering if he made the right decision to depart for Cagliari Calcio in the summer. He was exactly what you want from a fourth-choice centre-back: seemingly always available, more than capable of stepping into the team without a major drop in quality and happy to wait for his chance to prove himself. Though he might have left the club now, we\u2019ll always have Burnley away.<\/p>\n<h3>Loris Karius<\/h3>\n<p>I have long been on record as believing that Loris Karius was a significantly better goalkeeper than many people gave him credit for. His exploits in the Champions League will forever mean that too many Reds will discuss him with no sympathy whatsoever, but for me there will always be an asterisk next to his name that\u2019s the shape of Sergio Ramos.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_1295\" style=\"width: 421px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1295\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/512px-Loris_Karius-e1531743404742-411x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"411\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/512px-Loris_Karius-e1531743404742-411x400.jpg 411w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/512px-Loris_Karius-e1531743404742-205x200.jpg 205w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/512px-Loris_Karius-e1531743404742.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1295\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">By \u0410\u043d\u0442\u043e\u043d \u0417\u0430\u0439\u0446\u0435\u0432 (https:\/\/www.soccer.ru\/galery\/1050902\/photo\/728326) [<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html\">CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\">CC BY-SA 3.0 <\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html\">GFDL<\/a>], <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Loris_Karius.jpg\">via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p><\/div>Whilst he was never good enough to push us to the level of title challengers in the same way that Alisson is, he was always a much better fit for this Liverpool team than Simon Mignolet. It was right to move him on after he was clearly affected by what happened in Kiev, but I feel sorry for the way some people talk about him.<\/p>\n<h3>Marko Grujic<\/h3>\n<p>To some extent it\u2019s slightly unfair on Marko Grujic to see him this far down the list, but the reality is that he hasn\u2019t made anywhere near enough appearances to be any higher. Many wondered if he had a place in this Liverpool team in the future, but his appearances for Hertha BSC this season have suggested that he might well do. It\u2019s unfortunate that his loan spell has been broken up by injury, but with any luck he\u2019ll return to full fitness and carry on where he left off. If I do another list in the future the I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see his name much higher up it.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>You can argue whether Michael Edwards and his team deserve the credit for identifying the players in the first place or if J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s coaching and management is the most important factor to how good all of these signings have been, but the reality is that the combination of a team that know what they\u2019re looking for and a manager who knows how to use what he\u2019s given is propelling Liverpool to the highest of heights. Thirteen players and not one outright flop is remarkably impressive going in this day and age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As most Reds wake up this morning and bask in the glory of a 3-1 win over Manchester United, a fair few of them will be raising a toast to Xherdan Shaqiri. The diminutive midfielder that signed from Stoke City in the summer wasn\u2019t high on the list of most people when they were drawing up potential transfers in the summer, with many feeling that he was too selfish for Liverpool Football Club. The vast majority have been happy enough to eat humble pie in the months that have followed, given how influential he\u2019s been for us on numerous occasions. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1415"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1423,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions\/1423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}