🔴EOTK Insider Opinion: 90% of Liverpool fans want Jurgen Klopp to sign a new midfielder this summer but they're wrong ❌
Discover more from Empire of the Kop - Insider
🔴EOTK Insider Opinion: 90% of Liverpool fans want Jurgen Klopp to sign a new midfielder this summer but they're wrong ❌
In a poll held on our Twitter account, 8,729 Liverpool fans voted on 'Should we sign another midfielder before the summer transfer window closes?' and 89.2% of the people said - Yes.
It may seem a little unwise to challenge 90% of the fanbase of your own club but… here we go.
At the time of writing, Thiago Alcantara has been ruled out for six weeks following a hamstring injury he picked up against Fulham, in the Premier League opener for the Reds.
The Spaniard joins Naby Keita (ruled out with illness since the final pre-season friendly against Strasbourg), Curtis Jones (also missing since Strasbourg with ‘stress reactions’) and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (out with a ‘serious hamstring injury’ picked up against Crystal Palace in pre-season) - as our missing midfield men.
Liverpool still have the likes of Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, James Milner, Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho available for selection but this is worrying some of our supporters.
Some, apparently being nearly 90%.
The current availability of five midfielders, should soon see the addition of our No.8 and the other Scouser in our team - leaving seven men the chance to fill the three positions.
It will only be mid-September that our No.6 then returns too and the only real long-term issue is then Oxlade-Chamberlain, the man with just nine Premier League starts last season.
Despite this though, there seems to be a widespread opinion that we don’t have enough players in the squad to cope with the upcoming 103 days until the start of the World Cup.
Jurgen Klopp will then be fully aware that, other than a couple of games between the end of the Qatar tournament and the opening of the winter transfer window, he then has the opportunity to add to his squad if needed.
Seeing as Thiago (not a regular starter for Spain), Keita (Guinea not in the World Cup), Jones (yet to make a senior England appearance), Oxlade-Chamberlain (not been in the England squad since 2019), Henderson (seemingly behind Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips for England), Fabinho (battling with Casemiro for a spot in the Brazil line-up) James Milner (retired from international duty), Elliott (no senior England caps) and Carvalho (no senior Portugal caps) are all on the fringes of their national teams or not involved at all - the boss will have weighed up his options.
Even taking into account the possible travel to Qatar for some of his options, the German will still have many fresh players ready for the restart of our league season.
Our next match is against Crystal Palace and having another midfielder would be a help but we then have 36 more league games, on top of Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup matches too.
Signing another midfielder is a short-term fix that will cause long-term problems for the squad.
The players there now will feel there is a lack of faith in their ability and once everyone is fit once again - how does the manager keep them all happy?
Even for the visit of Patrick Vieira’s men to Anfield, there’s still five options available to the boss, yet this is apparently a crisis.
Fans are worried that Henderson, Milner and Thiago are getting older, that Jones, Oxlade-Chamberlain and possibly Keita aren’t good enough, Carvalho and Elliott are too young and only Fabinho seems to be universally liked by our ‘fanbase’.
Nine players into three positions is good squad depth and so why is everyone so worried?
It could be the paranoia of what happened in our title defending campaign when a centre-back crisis wiped out our squad but even then Klopp found a way to use the academy and other players out of position, to help.
We have Bobby Firmino and Trent Alexander-Arnold who could both help a midfield trio in a crisis, as well as Melkamu Frauendorf, the hugely impressive Stefan Bajcetic and (say it very quietly) yes, even Jay Spearing (as our 14th choice midfield option) - in a time of real need.
This squad won both domestic cups last season, reached the final of the Champions League and were one point away from a Premier League title - in a campaign where we played every single possible game.
The only senior midfield option we have lost is Takumi Minamino, who was rarely even used in a midfield trio.
Every player is a year older than they were last season but there still doesn’t need to be this level of worry and stress over a great squad of players and plenty of options for the boss.
We are likely to get a new player next summer but the decision to keep Oxlade-Chamberlain and extend the deal of Milner was our new midfielder this summer. Yes, our No.15 is injured and yes, the vice captain is now 36 but they have been selected as the best options for the squad.
How many times does Jurgen Klopp have to prove that he is a genius for everyone to stop questioning his decisions at every turn?
To the 89.2% of 8,729 people who voted, we don’t need another midfielder.
Stop stressing and enjoy watching the Reds for what is sure to be another memorable and entertaining season.
If you’re of fan of this kind of content, all completely ad-free, then feel free to hit the subscribe button below and become an EOTK Insider. Dig into exclusive tidbits reserved only for our subscribers!
🔴EOTK Insider Opinion: 90% of Liverpool fans want Jurgen Klopp to sign a new midfielder this summer but they're wrong ❌
Absolute delusion!! So we need to wait till Nov when our entire MF is not part of the WC (maybe the more relevant question is why do u think that NO Liverpool MF is in a national team, except Hendo who is only there as an also there..) to make ‘our move’?? Btw, by then we are out of even top 4 connection and possibly out of Europe as well! What a crock of an analysis… dude, we have the oldest most injured most games played MF in the league by far and you want to find reasons why not to sign new blood? The only true and valid reason is the cheapskate owners who play moneyball year after year hoping for miracles from Klopp. Over the last 11 years, including this one, Liverpool is #16 in net spending world wide open hole being a top 5 revenue team. 11 English teams have net spent more than Liverpool in this time frame!! Including ‘powerhouses’ such as Everton and Aston Villa!! Arsenal spent twice as much while not even being in ChL for years now!!
Please stop the appeasement…
The author of this article can be forgiven somewhat as it was written prior to the Crystal Palace game. Since then the draw against Palace and the loss to Man Utd highlighted the problems in midfield. Those problems increased the pressure on the defence, the players in midfield looked jaded, there was no energy to match that of the United players. As for the few games before the World Cup and the few games after prior to the next Transfer Window should our performances be anything like the first three then our hopes of winning anything this season could well be over.