{"id":1905,"date":"2021-01-11T16:11:38","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T16:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1905"},"modified":"2021-01-11T16:11:38","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T16:11:38","slug":"liverpool-need-a-defender-but-transfers-are-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/liverpool-need-a-defender-but-transfers-are-complicated\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool Need A Defender, But Transfers Are Complicated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have just about calmed down in the wake of Liverpool\u2019s first-half performance against the Aston Villa youth team. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I completely understand that there were all sorts of mitigating circumstances around the match, not least of all the fact that the Reds will have had no information whatsoever on the players that they\u2019d be going up against. Even Sky Sports\u2019 app listed all but two of the Villa lads as \u2018unknown\u2019 ahead of kick-off, so it\u2019s not a major surprise that we weren\u2019t up to speed with what they were going to perform like. That being said, the Liverpool team was made up mostly of players who have won the European Cup and Premier League in successive seasons, so taking on Aston Villa\u2019s youth team really shouldn\u2019t have posed too much of a problem. My anger came from the fact that we were watching the same players make the same mistakes.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">HT: Villa 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> 1: Embarrassing. Klopp&#8217;s men failed to build on Mane&#8217;s early goal, got sloppy and conceded an horrendous equaliser coolly converted by Barry.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JamesPearceLFC\/status\/1347642538056966148?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 8, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Despite going up against a bunch of kids, our front line continued to struggled to create decent chances and barely tested an inexperienced goalkeeper. Having gone 1-0 up, we again failed to make it 2-0 and therefore gave the opposition hope. The same slow, ponderous play was stopping us from extending our lead. It was only once Thiago Alcantara came on in the second-half that we started to move the ball quicker and with a sense of reason. The brief period in the second forty-five when we turned it on and scored three was what we should have been doing from the off but didn\u2019t, causing me my angst. We also conceded another daft goal, with Rhys Williams lacking the pace and know-how to deal with young striker. He took his chance brilliantly, but it doesn\u2019t happen with an experience centre-back on the pitch. It\u2019s why we need to buy one, but transfers are complex.<\/p>\n<h2>There Are Moving Parts At All Times<\/h2>\n<p>Right now, the global pandemic means that the Liverpool hierarchy has to think long and hard about spending money that won\u2019t be recouped for some time. It\u2019s interesting to note that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/football\/premier-league\/arsenal\/arsenal-covid-loan-government-ccff-b1783947.html\">Arsenal have decided to take out a loan<\/a>, presumably to allow them to make some moves in the transfer market. Our owners have been clear that they don\u2019t want to do that sort of thing, instead opting to run the club in a fiscally responsible manner. It is with that way of working in mind that we\u2019re not just splashing the cash around, with even our summer moves for Thiago and Diogo Jota done in such a way that payments were structured sensibly. I think the likes of James Pearce are being extremely truthful when they say that we won\u2019t be making a move for a centre-back this window <em>unless things change<\/em>, but it\u2019s what those things might be that I\u2019m most interested in.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Think Liverpool will have to reduce their value of Divock Origi by at least 50% in order to sell. Should have sold at end of 18\/19 season post CL win when his value was at his highest. Shadow of that player but still think he could offer a lot of PL teams something.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 #19 #6 &#x1f534; (@KingMo11LFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KingMo11LFC\/status\/1348311258399965189?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 10, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>There have, for example, been numerous rumours recently about the future of Divock Origi. If the Belgian striker were to move away from Anfield in a deal worth, say, \u00a325 million, that would obviously put some money into the coffers that could be spent on a defender. Equally, should the club and Adrian come to a mutual understanding about his future and his contract get terminated, it would open up a space in the squad for a foreign player. Too many people are simply ignoring the rules about the number of players in squads <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11661\/12052427\/do-premier-league-clubs-need-to-sign-homegrown-players\">that need to be home grown<\/a> and pretending that it\u2019s not an issue, but that\u2019s not a luxury that Michael Edwards and J\u00fcrgen Klopp have at their disposal. There might well be a player lined up that we\u2019re simply not allowed to bring in at the moment, but that won\u2019t necessarily be the case for the entirely of the the transfer window, hence the \u2018not right now\u2019 briefings.<\/p>\n<h2>They May Know Something We Don\u2019t<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s fair to say that this is more like wishful thinking than anything based on reality, but another reason why the backroom staff might be reluctant to make a move is because either Virgil van Dijk or Joe Gomez is closer than we think to a return to first-team action. No, there hasn\u2019t been any sign of them returning to training, with the only thing we\u2019ve had to go on being the pictures and videos of the Dutchman doing some solo strengthening work. Yet the reality is that most Liverpool supporters want another defender to be brought in because the idea of having to play the rest of the season in the two main competitions with Fabinho and one of Rhys Williams or Nat Phillips is terrifying. If we know that van Dijk would be back for March, would we be a little more willing to wait? Certainly I imagine that Klopp and Edwards definitely would, which is colouring their thinking on what to do.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Former footballer &amp; current pundit Carlton Palmer says <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> may not need to go into the market for a CB because of the way that Van Dijk\u2019s recovery is looking, and that it wouldn\u2019t surprise him to see Virgil back in February or beginning of March. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FootballFanCast?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FootballFanCast<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Thoughts? &#x1f9d0; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/K5wr23NUfK\">pic.twitter.com\/K5wr23NUfK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LFC Transfer Room (@LFCTransferRoom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LFCTransferRoom\/status\/1348551733312675841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 11, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>There are other things that they may know that we don\u2019t. It\u2019s not out of the realms of the possible, for instance, that we\u2019ve reached a tentative agreement with RB Leipzig over the transfer of Dayot Upamecano, but because we\u2019ve drawn the German club in the Champions League they\u2019d only be willing to let him go now for an additional \u00a325 million. The idea of transfers being filled with moving parts could also be true in the sense that a deal for a forward player such as Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho to even Kylian Mbappe would be derailed by spending \u00a330 million or so on a defender right now. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m not defending the club\u2019s stance. I personally think it would be negligent not to bring in a defender before this window \u2018slams shut\u2019. I\u2019m just trying to think of what us as supporters don\u2019t know about but the club has to weigh up before making any moves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have just about calmed down in the wake of Liverpool\u2019s first-half performance against the Aston Villa youth team. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I completely understand that there were all sorts of mitigating circumstances around the match, not least of all the fact that the Reds will have had no information whatsoever on the players that they\u2019d be going up against. Even Sky Sports\u2019 app listed all but two of the Villa lads as \u2018unknown\u2019 ahead of kick-off, so it\u2019s not a major surprise that we weren\u2019t up to speed with what they were going to perform like. That being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1906,"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\/1905"}],"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=1905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1907,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905\/revisions\/1907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}