Davey Sulls Liverpool FC Transfer Season Review

Davey Sulls here with an article on LFC’s transfer season. I’m sure there is a rule among journalists about the length of an article, attention spans, structure etc. Rest assured my uncapable, novice hands will break every one of them. I know already length is an issue as I’m writing this first paragraph at the end as a way of mentally preparing you for a long read. I should rewrite it a few times to really narrow it down to the gold, but then it would only be one or two sentences. So no, It’s a long version for you so suck it up.

As I mentioned earlier on in the window, I plan to do a review of Liverpool’s transfer window 2023 when the window was over. Well wait no more my loyal comrades (lets pretend people were waiting for it), let’s jump into a window that turned me from mister optimistic happy go Davey into a frustrated figure. I’m now back to my former self especially with our great start to the season, which I must admit probably improves my outlook and scoring. However I think it was important to wait until the end of the Saudi Transfer window to see exactly where we ended up with the squad.

Let’s start with my expectations at the start of the window. My thoughts from the strong rumours going round that the thought was LFC were going for two CMs, a DM and CB. This made perfect sense to me and were we to buy successfully for these positions would really put us back challenging for the League. The forwards and goalies were completely set with perfect blend of starters, youth and exciting backups. Midfield needed a lot of work with aging legs despite some exciting youth available and an extra quality CB was needed to deal with injuries and become and understudy / challenge to Van Dijk. 2 CMs, DM and CB. The task was set so how did we do?

I want to start with key outs. All the expired contracts that left made sense to me. It was all their times to go in my opinion. Even Firmino to make room for Nunez/ Gakpo. I expected some players to leave in addition to the out of contracts to make room and not have a bloated squad/ wage bill. Fabinho was not a surprise to me that he was sold. Especially with that offer and my expectation a new top DM was coming in. Henderson was a surprise for me given he was captain. He also returned in phenomenal shape. I thought he was up for the fight but obviously he had different ideas. Losing Henderson was a lot of experience/ leadership out of the team which had me a little concerned I must admit but not overly so. Phillips, I just don’t know why we can’t sell him. It makes no sense to me. But I hope his loan works out and he gets a home next season. The only other player that surprised me that he stayed was Thiago. I really thought he would go for some reason. I think he is an unbelievable player but I’m pretty done with his fitness issues. With his ability I thought someone might have taken a chance, but he can help us when he’s fit this season. I just knew Matip and Tsimikas were going to stay. Gut feeling. None of the outs bothered me too much particularly were we to add a CB, DM and 2 CMs. They all made reasonable sense. Don’t get me wrong, these are players I love. Legends of our club. But I must admit, with my incoming expectations, I have no problem with these outs.

Now, to the incomings, a lovely parting gift from Ward to deliver Mac Allister and Schmadtke was early to the races with Szoboszlai at the release clause. I would say close on universal delight at these transfers amongst Liverpool fans. I think the sheer quality was obvious from both and with room to grow. These were as close to guarantees as you could get and perfect for Klopp’s style. At this point, we have 2 CM positions filled early and almost above my expectations, reasonable outs and if the DM / CB were to match this standard we would be looking at an A++ window. My excitement was sky high. I never expected my frustration would get to the level it did after this start.

And it all began with the Caicedo / Lavia chase something I probably never recovered properly from until Nunez scored those two scorchers against Newcastle. My main issue with the whole situation was that I highly rate Lavia and we just completely messed it up. Caicedo is a player I rate too but it was clear his heart was elsewhere so I don’t know why we got involved. But I felt Lavia was perfect for us and very doable had we not messed around. My main aim for DM was speed, strength, tackling and good passing / technical skills. Lavia offered all this with huge potential to grow much much further. Add that he will be home grown. It was a perfect choice. He also offers flexibility to play the CM position too for a tighter formation. He could have dove tailed with Bacjectic or play with him. I think they would have been really good for each other. Two elite talents that could have grown together. The process was also ridiculously slow. Total indecision on target. We lost weeks on this nonsense. I could not believe why the follow up bids for Lavia (who we knew had interest elsewhere) were so far apart. It was a complete and utter mess up and it was at that point I knew Schmadtke was well out of his depth. I can’t even remember other cases where fees were publicly agreed and players refused to join the club. Certainly not a club the size of Liverpool. Serious minus points for me on this whole debacle, but once it was all over, it was time to move on to our next target and quick.

Rumours Florentino, Andre and Dacoure got me excited again. But the club went down the route of Endo. Now I must admit, I hadn’t watched Endo at this point. To my quick review, he looked a good player and brought in leadership we lost. It made a load of sense to me as a squad player (who you could trust to start games when needed). But he lacks two things I was desperate for in my shared starting (with Bajcetic) position. Pace and Power. Personally I would have foregone the experience for a younger powerful player like Lavia or any of the aforementioned. Unless you are buying young potential, I expect any older purchases to be first team upgrades and this is not quite what Endo is for me. Still, he covers 2 positions, is hungry, is experienced and wants to be here. I don’t know the nicest way to say this. He is a solid choice who WILL help the squad but there was better out there I think like the aforementioned players.

Then came Gravenberch. Pace and Power no issue for him but he is young and raw and not exactly a required position in my view as we already have both the CMs. It will be interesting to see his identity in this team. Is he going to convert to DM or be a rotation option at CM. I’m not sure he has it in him to forgo attacking in favour of sacrificing himself for the team as a DM. One thing I will say is that his profile is one that Klopp excels working with. If you are fast, good technique and don’t get injured a lot, I don’t think Klopp has ever failed to make it work. Not my first choice again, but I must say I’m very excited to see how he works out.

And we’re done. But no high profile, speedy DM and no CB.
The DM is still a disappointment for me. I think nothing would improve the first 11 more right now than a top class DM. It could push us right into strong title contenders. You must understand Bajcetic has spent the majority of the last two years out injured. I’m as excited as anyone about his potential but he has to rid himself of those injuries. He can also play CM so I think it would have been wise to improve the first 11 was to buy a first team DM with power and pace to challenge Bacjetic, Rotate with him, play together whatever. It would have pushed us to a new level I think and I see it as an opportunity missed. This is our last season of Salah. I think it was there to be done and we messed it up due to poor negotiating, indecision on options etc. Perhaps, Bacjetic will rid himself of injuries and grow this season into our starting DM and that is exciting. I hope so but I can’t deny I would like another option there rather than playing players out of their natural position.

On CB, I definitely thought we were short of options to challenge Van Dijk and Konate before the season started. And they need the push. Van Dijk was woefully out of form at times last season and it does seem it doesn’t matter how bad those two play, their place is not under threat. Not saying they are always bad. They are not but there should be a challenge in top sides. I’ve been massively impressed like everybody with Gomez. Perhaps the lack of transfer could reignite his Liverpool career in a big way and it could all end up a blessing in disguise, but equally this could be the midfield of last season. The defence could have done with a little freshening up and we didn’t do it.

On player recruitment, I give this window a B-. I like the players we bought in. The energy and quality they bring improve the first 11 and squad overall. Had we not weakened the defensive midfield options (I rate Fabinho higher than Endo) and addressed CB this could have been one of the best windows of my lifetime. But equally, when you bring in the players the quality of Szboszlai and Mac Allister who will be long term cornerstones of this midfield, it’s hard to score it lower.

On FSG, I said I would judge them at the end of the window. Listen, I’ve never loved them. I don’t think you love owners. There’s a sense that they push a value model that can be restrictive on the decision makers in the transfer market. For me they are responsible for the decision makers at the club and right now it seems a little all over the place. Ward leaving under one year, then hiring a short term DOF. All this indecision spilled out into the Transfer market this season. They are not the worst owners however clearly. They stumped up the money for Caicedo and they didn’t sell Salah while under huge pressure to do so. That shows commitment to the cause from the decision makers who they appointed and ultimately them. So overall, I think there’s most likely better owners out there but they are passable owners. What they need to do is clean up the back office ASAP.

First order of business is Schmadtke needs to go for me. It was a tough job to come in 3 month period to a new country with a new team. I give him that. But the Caicedo/ Lavia thing was an unforgivable mess for me. There was a bit of scrambling at the end, we are not usually used to as Liverpool fans. It all had a sense of lack of leadership.

Once that is done, I think we need an external world class DOF to be strong with Klopp, but also work with him in a good way. It is a key appointment. Someone we can have long term who could also successfully manage the transition from Klopp one day. Someone strong enough to do it. What we don’t want is a Klopp lacky all of sudden responsible for leading the club when he leaves at the end of his contract. Once we have that in place, I think we can be optimistic about how we get on in the future.

And finally, where I think we end up this window. I think we are a Darkhorse contender. There’s a chance with what we’ve done this window that we can challenge. But there’s a few if scenarios I think we could have eliminated in the window. If the CBs stay fit, if Gomez can maintain his form, if Bacjetic can stay fit and return to good form and improve, if Quansah can step up (early promise is good). I think there is perhaps too many ifs, but they are within reality. And if some of those ifs come true, then perhaps not buying will turn out to be good. However, personally I would have bought. 😊

Thanks to everybody who stayed with me through that. Feel free to disagree with any or all of it. I never understand why we bite each others heads off in discussions. I think it’s perfectly fine to be negative about aspects of the club if that’s how you feel. You can be all one way or the other. Or as I genuinely try to be, a balanced poster. We all want the same thing – A Liverpool Quadruple. And now, in my final thoughts (I’m not dying, I just meant the article), those ‘what ifs’ are going to happen, we’re going to do it. We’re going to win the Quadruple. It’s all ahead of us lads 😊.

Written by Davey Sulls September 11 2023 15:28:04