I won’t say ‘I told you so’, but Liverpool have finally caught up with my recent column suggesting it’s madness to spend their entire transfer budget on one player.
Ok, I will say that…but I take little satisfaction in pointing it out. The fact is, they have a glaring weakness in their team, and that can’t be fixed by signing Jude Bellingham on his own.
I have a question for you. What is Liverpool’s first choice midfield? Even after a shocking season, it’s probably Henderson-Thiago-Fabinho. Second question: how many goals have they scored between them? The answer is a big fat zero. Yep, you read that right. No goals from a midfield trio that so very nearly wrote history. In any competition. So far, they have made a combined 99 appearances so far, and not a single goal.
It gets worse. In all those appearances, they have three assists between them, two for Henderson and one from Thiago. And that is where the disaster of this season stems from.
You look at the Premier League table, and for all the criticism of Liverpool’s defence, they still have the fifth best record, better than Manchester United and Tottenham, and not much different to City and Arsenal.
Yet goals are a massive problem - despite Mo Salah having another inconsistent season. Nunez has done okayish, they’ve been without Diaz and Jota for long periods, and Gakpo, well, not great but he’s new.
From midfield though, it’s nothing. Keita hasn’t scored either, neither has Jones or Milner; Oxlade-Chamberlain and Bajcetic have one apiece. That’s two goals from seven midfielders. Only Harvey Elliott has a half-respectable total.
It’s the same with assists, seven from 11 midfielders used this season. Compare that to Manchester City, and you see the problem. 35 goals from midfield, 40 assists.
So there’s no way Bellingham alone will transform that. I think they need five or six new signings, but that’s not going to happen…so Klopp will have to settle for three or four. And three of those need to be established, ready to go, top class midfielders.
He’s losing three this summer, maybe five players in total leaving, and it’s clear that the likes of Fabinho and Henderson have struggled at times, while Thiago has missed a lot of games once more. So many can justifiably argue Klopp needs a new first team midfield.
So is it wise to spend most of your money - and remember Liverpool under FSG have never spent more than £150m in a single summer over more than a decade - on one player? Not a chance.
Even if they spend more than ever before this summer, if they signed Bellingham it would leave them with about £30m to buy three more players. You aint doing that in the Premier League and getting away with it.
So spread it around. I’m not being disrespectful when I say Mason Mount isn’t worth more than £20-30m. Not because he’s a poor player, but because he only has a year left on his contract. No way should any club pay more than that.
I know the likes of Mac Allister and Caicedo will cost more, but combined it probably would only be around the fee Dortmund are asking for Bellingham.
I think Klopp needs to evolve his team a bit now. When we’re talking of assists, Alexander-Arnold and Robertson have 13 between them in all competitions all season, when usually it’s more than three times that.
So have sides worked them out? If so, then they need to work a way around that, and the answer is to provide far more creativity from midfield as City do - goals and assists.
Mount will provide that, Mac Allister too. Spend the money on those two, and you still have change to buy a holding midfielder. It’s just financial reality, and I think maybe Liverpool have finally got real.
