We are 50 days left until the start of the new season and new excitement in the most competitive football league in the world, the England Premier League. As a big fan of Liverpool, I have not been so excited since the season 08/09 when we had one of the best tandems in the world of football, Gerrard - Torres.
During the previous seasons, the biggest problem in LFC was squad depth. After the injury of some important players from the first team, we are forced to rely on players from the youth team who have no experience and sufficient quality at the moment to oppose other quality teams in the league. Due to Klopp's strong intensity training and in general his style of play based on a lot of movement and running (Liverpool's players run by far the most km in the league), there are many injuries of players, usually in the middle of the season (end of December and January) when schedule of games is the densest. It is usually the period when Liverpool, from being main contender for the title, becomes a team that is not certain to qualify for European competitions.
I sincerely hope that this season is different and we will not justify a nickname that many people call us "FC Next Season". I believe that Klopp finally managed to create a team capable of fighting for the league title. The title we have been expecting for 27 years. Recently I read a statistic which says that Liverpool has spent nearly one billion euros from the previous title to date, which is the record in the world.
This transfer period began with a new record, Mohamed Salah was bought for 39 million pounds, making him the most expensive footballer in the history of LFC. Frankly, I'm not very happy with this purchase, primarily because Salah was on the verge of transfer to Liverpool a couple of years ago, but he decided to sign for Chelsea. I know he had a great season in AS Roma and undoubtedly he will bring a certain quality to the Liverpool attack.
In my opinion, the most important thing for the coming season is that we have a healthy Daniel Sturridge. We do not need a new attacker, because when Sturridge is at his best, there are a very few better strikers than him. In addition we have recovered Danny Ings, which I greatly appreciate, and Divock Origi as a backup striker, so I think that the attacking line is quite strong. Of course, when we add Mane, Coutinho, Firmino, Lallana and now Salah, we will have the best attack line in England.
A lot is written about the possible transfer of Aubameyang in Liverpool, it would be a fantastic boost, but I think that he is an unrealistic option for now, especially because of his price of over 70 million euros.
When talking about midfield, I think we need one world class defensive midfielder, who would spoil the opponent's game. The midfield made by captain Henderson, Emre Can and Wijnaldum is fairly solid, but we need one player who is similar to our former player Mascherano.
Another player whose transfer to Liverpool is speculative, which I would like to see on Merseyside is Dusan Tadic. Not only because of the fact that he is a Serb, I think he is a great player and he can bring additional creativity and depth to our squad, which will be crucial considering the great number of games that await us.
What has proved to be true more than once, the title brings the defense, not the attack, and that is certainly Liverpool's problem for many years. Very poor organization and communication in defense, especially during set pieces. Lovren and Matip on the centre-back positon are solid, but we need one more quality centre-back that will make the competition to the aforementioned duo.
Since they had problems with injuries in most of the season, so they did not play a lot of matches together, Lucas Leiva and Klavan proved that they are not good enough to replace them. I would love to see Mamadou Sakho back in Liverpool shirt as he had an excellent half-season in Crystal Palace, but unfortunately I do not think that is possible with the conflict he has with Klopp. Van Dijk is certainly a player who would be a great boost and I think that the transfer committee should do their best to bring him to our club.
The position of the right-back belongs to Clyne, and with the return of the scouser Flanagan from loan at Burnley FC, we are secured at that position. In addition to the aforementioned critical positions of the defensive midfielder and centre-back, the most critical position is left-back. The only natural left-back in the team, Alberto Moreno, does not have the quality for a club which wants to fight for the title and definitely he has to be sold. James Milner, who forcibly played as a left-back in the last season can not be the first choice on that position in my opinion. He has an excellent work rate and he is very disciplined, but we need a quick and prodigious player on the left side. I'd love to see the wunderkind from Fulham, Ryan Sessegnon. Although he is still a kid, I think he could be a great player in this squad. In that case, Milner would have to return to his natural position in the midfield where he would fight with other midfielders for the place in the team.
I expect Simon Mignolet to keep his place on the goal, since he improved his form quite a lot. He still has problems with crosses, but he made some progress in that segment too.
There are a couple of young players in the team I would like to mention, and I expect from them to have a more important role in the coming season: Joe Gomez, Alexander Arnold, Ben Woodburn, Sheyi Ojo and especially Marko Grujic, who could breakthrough to the starting eleven if he continue with the development of his game.
For some this is all an adventure, for the others fulfillment of a business plan. With the same goal. Aware that they can not remain forever young, but they know that they can become eternal.
Aca Stojanovic
YNWA red brothers!
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