“Good day, I am... a centre back! Who has recently signed for Liverpool, and I'm having a house-warming party... to which I'll be inviting a lot of the local Liverpool players...”
Well, it's an adult doing adult things, don't adults play CB for Liverpool? If it was 3 kids in a trenchcoat I'd understand the skepticism, but it's not the case, so
His best two games, by some margin too, were against arsenal. That’s why I can’t lose the annoying feeling that he’s holding himself back this season and that’s the cause of his championship level play
Considering we haven’t renewed Ibou, Gomez is probably leaving and Virg is maybe 2-3 years from leaving + the Academy desperately needs investment, it makes sense
I was suggesting him at the start of this season. But got laughed at saying he wasn't good enough.
While he's actually looked really solid for Brentford and is way more dependable than Gomez in terms of fitness.
Never said he was better than Konate, as Konate on his day is quality. But Konate has been very poor this season and Van Den Berg would have been good competition at the very least.
He also looked very good in the preseason games before we sold him and seemed to get the system comfortably. Understood why we sold him but he's a very good CB and would have been nice to have in the squad.
Mate I'd take Ben Davies back at this point. Our current CB situation is unsustainable, especially now Bradley's probably out for the next year so Gomez will need to be RB cover as well.
Why? Having a path way for youngsters attracts the best talent.
If a 18 year old can handle the pressure and do well, just like Leoni, then they deserve to be in a top team. Rio is also a good example.
Considering most of these signings are of players who are too young for them to be ready for the first team in the next two years, the first team situation isn't the reason. We're going to need to sign multiple senior defenders as well.
He has NOT been good the last month, he’s been Average. I’ve watched him closely. He’s been a very lucky boy. We’ve been getting results but his defending has been still been shocking at times.
I dont think many people here actually realise how bad the current state of the academy is.
The u21/u18s are performing very poorly in their respective leagues and the talent that we DO have is in the process of leaving.
We lost Isaac Moran to Newcastle who was a very promising young player and captain at youth level.
Farkas and Abe are in the next crop and both seem destined to leave. Abe is egregious. He's off to Real Madrid by the looks of things.
We need to bring in the elite crop of 16-18 year olds because we are utterly failing at recruiting and keeping local kids them at present. Many are heading to City at young ages.
I also think its possible that this signals that a 2nd club may be close. At least in the case of Ndukwe, he cannot join until the summer due to age. But players would be able to join European clubs before then
I do hope that internally they are assessing the way that the academy works, because to me its clear something should change. With the work we did on the new facilities, the standard of the academy at present doesnt match that level of investment.
And i also hope that there are changes to the loans. More players loaned out, and to teams that we know will use them and use them well in similar systems.
In terms of the 4 CB's we are trying to buy or already bought: Ndukwe and Mor Ndiaye are both youth internationals and were in team of the tournament for the u17 world cup. Dara Jikiemi is 15 but seen as a huge talent. Noah Adekoya is the least hyped of the 4. He is really there to allow Nallo to head on loan
I imagine the theory is to look at Leoni: we spent near £30m on him at 19. If we can spend <8m on 4 talents combined and 1/2 work out we more than make the money back in performances
Abe is egregious. He's off to Real Madrid by the looks of things.
Real Madrid can't buy U18 players from outside of the European Union, I'm not aware if Abe has any other nationality, but if he doesn't he's most likely not joining Real Madrid. It's Chelsea he's most likely off to.
We need to get the second club in europe bought. We need a place to buy lottery tickets younger, in higher volume and get them quality minutes without the volatility of loans. Also it seems like our loan process is kinda shit. Maybe its just bad luck but we seem to have a lot more loans going poorly than well.
I wonder what's going on with the academy. Things haven't been the best in at least 2 years now, I get that we made huge changes, but I didn't expect them to be so negative. Wonder who's to blame.
There are probably several reasons, but I doubt it helps that Slot seemingly doesn’t give the academy a second thought.
Obviously the youngsters shouldn’t be playing 30 minutes every game, but atm Rio, who is our top prospect, gets to play 5 minutes and then don’t see the field again the next 5 games.
Nyoni has just gotten his PL debut last month, which lasted 2 minutes. Then he played 2 more minutes the next game, and has been flues to the bench since.
Now, these guys, along with a few other will play on monday, but if players realistically only can get substancial minutes in cup games, depending on the strength of the opponent, then they might want to go to a team where there are more minutes.
Right now Rio and Nyoni are in a kind of limpo, where they don’t even play that much for the U-teams, because they have to be available for the first team
Jayden Danns was that. Then he got the growth spurt injuries that have weirdly plagued us like Bajcetic and Gordon.
Then they signed Will Wright this summer which was a coup given United and Arsenal were also trying everything to get him. He got injured early on. Has returned, scored 5 in his return and is likely to play against Barnsley
There is growing evidence in Sports Science and Medicine that you have to be careful with young players vis a vis over playing them in their late adolescence years.
I don’t think the strategy for the academy for some time has been to create the best youth teams or anything. It’s been to bring in specific talent and find a way to integrate them into the first team setup if possible. See Nyoni, Ngumoha, McConnell, the kid from Newcastle who went to red bull. We’re clearly still doing this. Winning games at the academy level means nothing.
With how our academy grads get treated I don’t blame the kids for looking elsewhere. Klopp used to give the kids real minutes. I don’t see that happening with the current investment in young players from outside the academy.
Why is City more attractive to the youngsters? Do they get paid more?
Whatever it is, it can't be that expensive to run the academy well even if you pay everyone well vs bringing in a player. If we invest 20m into training up our next super star striker, that's a net gain of almost 80m as good strikers are going for 100m!!
I'd love for our academy to be like La Masia...it's like a diamond mine.
Slot better be coaching up Rio, Nallo and Bajcetic if they're actually good. If we don't see any Academy players coming through, why would other youngsters sign on?
„Liverpool have strong interest in Celtic centre back Dara Jikiemi (15), though the move is understood to hang in the balance amid Celtic’s unhappiness over the proposed compensation package.“
We are farming teenage CBs while our senior defence is cooked by injuries 🥲
One thing I love about our recruitment, with both Klopp and slot, we go after the players that want to play for us. I guess we could have offered more lucrative deals to people like Zubimendi but you’ll never get the performance and passion that you get from Kerkez.
So if Guehi doesn’t really want us I’m ok with that, wanting an extra few million to motivate him to come play for us isn’t what Liverpool are about.
Our recruitment is by and large great. But still, can we just get Guehi please. Pretty sure 90% of pros are gonna play their socks off whichever top club they sign for anyway
You can, he's good but not amazing. Levels below prime van Dijk in every metric. Poor in the air. Might look good in a Palace side, but not convinced he'll be great at Liverpool with a high line.
Still, we need a CB so I'd absolutely take him in a heartbeat.
We can rehash the story about the armband, which has many nuances. Can talk about his dad etc.
But I simply don't like slandering a player with blanket statements.
Sounds like you got the wrong end of the stick. Guehi isn't gay, he's homophobic. He did something like writing religious messaging over the rainbow armband in protest to the pride movement (if I remember correctly).
Yes that is correct my friend I did not know he had done this. Have several gay friends myself and within my family and that’s not what LFC is about so as I said good riddance to Guehi he belongs at the oil club.
Spelling edit*
I bet we made profit on the ones that we’ve sold, that’ll be looked at really favourably. Plus all you need is for a single one of these of guys to end up “squad player good” and it’s worked
It is seen as a success for the academy if you sell players for profit but they are playing first team football elsewhere. At the end of the day, the role of the academy is to produce players who will have football careers, whether its at your club or elsewhere
Also GK is really the hardest position to come from youth straight into team like Liverpool because there's just no "give him 10 minutes" with goalies like there is with any other position on the field. So you need to be extremely elite from the very young age AND have "luck" with guys in front of you getting injured.
Alternative is to not purchase any youth players then complain there isn't anyone coming through.
Considering you would be looking to spend £40m on a squad player atm, spending less than half of that on youth players you can either develop or sell makes sense.
We shouldn’t have let Quansah go, ok he made a few mistakes but no more than Konates made this season and Quansah is young he would have learned, shame Slot knocked his confidence.
Quansah buy back seems more and more appealing this summer, especially if we got Guehi on a free. Quansah, Guehi, Virgil + ibou is some crew of cbs, and 2 homegrown options there.
Letting Quansah go was always a massive mistake. Given how awful Konate has been this term, not having a CB who could come in has been disastrous.
Slot needs to accept that his treatment of Quansah as just wrong. And we had to endure an unfit, mentally and physically gassed Konate for half a season making errors, you’d not see from an under 12s defender.
Arrogance and hubris.
Great that we’re signing “potential” but we need at least two starting CBs as a pro now. Konate and VVD are not the answer anymore .
I’m sorry but it is very likely that if Quansah stayed here, Slot might not play him unless absolutely necessary and then bench him otherwise. That not even factoring in if he ever made a mistake again. I’m glad for Quansah he was able to leave and get actual playing time.
Liverpool may not be planning a widely craved January move for Marc Guehi, but supporters will have noticed that they have still been remarkably active in the centre-back market this month.
The Reds have agreed to sign 17-year-old Austria Wien defender Ifeanyi Ndukwe, who will join up in the summer, and are closing in on a deal to bring in 18-year-old Talla Ndiaye from FC Amite in his native Senegal immediately.
A third centre-half, Noah Adekoya (19), has also joined from Burnley this month, while there is strong interest in Celtic’s Dara Jikiemi (15).
And this flurry of activity begs the question whether this is the execution of a newly formed strategy aimed at stockpiling young defensive talent, or simply coincidence.
In the case of Ndukwe and Ndiaye, the timing is directly linked to the fact that both players were standouts during the U17 World Cup contested in November.
Ndukwe’s Austria made it all the way to the final where they were beaten by Portugal, while Ndiaye and Senegal topped their group before going out in the round of 32.
And both were watched durin the tournament in Qatar by Liverpool’s Matt Newberry, who took on the role of head of global talent just over a year ago having previously served as director of loans and pathways.
His remit is to find the best young players in the world, a standard the aforementioned pair are believed to live up to.
The same is true of Jikiemi, though that move is understood to hang in the balance amid Celtic’s unhappiness over a proposed compensation package.
Someone confirm for me that it says the strategy is "Sign up all the youth centrebacks now because they won't sign after we announce Bastoni, Schlotterbeck and Upemecano this weekend"
This is the first not reason I'm not at all happy with these signings , under klopp I would be dreaming of the future with these kids but right now I'm like ..... I hope you guys can at least find decent clubs to get a loan at for your own future .
But the majority of the academy players under Klopp just weren't good enough, no point keeping him here for the sake of it if they we're never going to make it to the first team.
Simply having VVD around to coach young CBs will be invaluable. Most of these signings already have the physical stature to succeed. If VVD can jumpstart their anticipation, positioning, or reading of the game with his full experience, then maybe they can achieve Huijsen-like development (approaching world-class after one top season) rather than emulate VVDs journey (stops at a bunch of clubs before being the finished article)
I support the signings of CBs. Lfc academy in recent years needs work ngl. Not brought in more players. I do think this also gives credibility to the rumour about slot and Hughes wanting him to play more youth. Club wants to do chelsea model. Play young, sell for money. Its shitth morally imo tho
We’ve got Leoni already, we’re gonna end up getting a center half or two in the transfer market, and in a few years you hope one or two of your academy players make it to the first team. Makes sense
I’m glad we are getting players into the academy but I hope getting even 1 senior defender is top of the priority list and the transfer team is just moving in silence. It cannot be Guehi or fucking bust AGAIN.
I havent read the article, so my question might already be answered, but ive wondered since we started signing these guys, was this a plan all on its own? Or is this a happy accident from our scouting department trying to find young first team CBs? Like the data models we were using to try and get first team players in also managed to shoot these guys out.
The timing for Ndukwe and Ndiaye is because both were standouts at the u19 FWC and the club is just trying to round up the best global talents and condition them for the first team (this is from the article)
Nallo is a walking red card and Lucky looks like the only centre back with any potential, so I think it's just a case of bolstering our options with more talented defenders.
Honestly fine with this investment if at least 2 of them become first team capable. Leoni out, Quansah sold, Nat Phillips sold. Developing talent will always be cheaper and better for the future, especially if they can qualify as HG. They just also need to address the immediate need for another senior CB
Stack them on top of each other in a trench coat and stick them next to Virgil
I'm thinking it's like Power Rangers - they can combine into one ULTIMATE Centre Back!?
That defends by just vibing
Virgil Adultman
Tough day at the football factory
Top drawer comment.
https://preview.redd.it/8axsba0lsbcg1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef6383826b93e7cde5fedd251e89f9bbb4ad3aab
“Good day, I am... a centre back! Who has recently signed for Liverpool, and I'm having a house-warming party... to which I'll be inviting a lot of the local Liverpool players...”
https://i.redd.it/soh3e0y5fbcg1.gif
Virgil Van Tyke
Vincent Adultman playing CB for Liverpool was not a timeline I expected in 2026 but here we are
Well, it's an adult doing adult things, don't adults play CB for Liverpool? If it was 3 kids in a trenchcoat I'd understand the skepticism, but it's not the case, so
Three Gomez's and a shotgun in a trenchcoat.
https://preview.redd.it/bazd1p45jbcg1.png?width=1089&format=png&auto=webp&s=b652ed74a71938733a883ab689ea55538b60d0f7
With a combined age of James Milner
Still better then 1 Ibrahima Konate
*he was alright yesterday
My biggest complaint was that he didn't shove Martinelli harder
I was in a voice chat with friends last night during the game.
It was weird having to explain why, outta nowhere, I screamed “Deck him, Ibou!!”
I really thought he was gonna
His best two games, by some margin too, were against arsenal. That’s why I can’t lose the annoying feeling that he’s holding himself back this season and that’s the cause of his championship level play
Im with you 💯. Last year of contract allergy. We've certainly seen it before.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
600 cm tall CB
We bare bears method
A 24ft centre back, I can see it working
Ffs 🤣🤣
Considering we haven’t renewed Ibou, Gomez is probably leaving and Virg is maybe 2-3 years from leaving + the Academy desperately needs investment, it makes sense
And we still need at least 2 new first team quality center backs.
Do we have buy backs on van den berg? I would gladly taken quansa and van den berg back right now.
I was suggesting him at the start of this season. But got laughed at saying he wasn't good enough.
While he's actually looked really solid for Brentford and is way more dependable than Gomez in terms of fitness.
Never said he was better than Konate, as Konate on his day is quality. But Konate has been very poor this season and Van Den Berg would have been good competition at the very least.
He also looked very good in the preseason games before we sold him and seemed to get the system comfortably. Understood why we sold him but he's a very good CB and would have been nice to have in the squad.
If we are any way serious we can't be taking back the likes of Van Den Berg.
Quansah maybe
Brentford is fifth mate, and sepp VDB started 17 times for them, vdb is probably their best CB.
VDB played really well in pre season for us in 2024, he was just sold because we did not have space for him then
Completely agree, and IMO Quansah buy-back is a no brainer. VDB at a minimum would be a fantastic rotation option
EDIT: Looks like no buy-back but decent sell-on fee, which would lower the cost
is his score not high enough for you on FIFA?
Mate I'd take Ben Davies back at this point. Our current CB situation is unsustainable, especially now Bradley's probably out for the next year so Gomez will need to be RB cover as well.
We do have a buy-back clause for Quansah
Not for another year and a half
Have you seen the way Sepp plays? Absolute muppet take if you are considering Jarrell and not Sepp.
You haven't watched him have you? Players develop. He certainly has.
One for this window. Two in the summer if we don't get one in January.
Those youngsters could be thrown in the deep end and make a name for themselves
They could
But this isn’t how a champion team should be behaving
Why? Having a path way for youngsters attracts the best talent.
If a 18 year old can handle the pressure and do well, just like Leoni, then they deserve to be in a top team. Rio is also a good example.
There is no path with Slot in charge
Gravenberch can play cb, even Endo, we can even drop Szobo at cb to do it. All part of the plan
If that's the plan no wonder we've been pretty shit this season.
don’t worry, we are going to sign a striker, that will fix things. 😎
Nah buy another GK, then Ali can go up top.
I gotta agree with you on this, Ali up top and we keep sending the crosses in. Ali will come clutch with those header goals
love seeing redditors miss obvious sarcasm
absolutely, they missed the sarcasm just like our midfield misses second balls 😂
None of them start, or really ever play there, for a team with ambitions like ours
Considering most of these signings are of players who are too young for them to be ready for the first team in the next two years, the first team situation isn't the reason. We're going to need to sign multiple senior defenders as well.
At this point not renewing ibou is a good thing. Real doesn’t even want him anymore and hes playing like a midtable CB.
He’s been good the last month. Was trash before but he’s been quite good in this recent run.
He has NOT been good the last month, he’s been Average. I’ve watched him closely. He’s been a very lucky boy. We’ve been getting results but his defending has been still been shocking at times.
If last.month is January then its true
Ibou and Joe leaving that would require us making atleast 2 very good CB signing
Will we?
Find out on the June episode of Dragon ball z
I feel like every time "Gomez is finally getting sold" pops up, someone gets hurt and it nullifies his transfer.
If Bradley really is out for the next year, I don't see Gomez leaving, especially with only a year left on his contract.
I dont think many people here actually realise how bad the current state of the academy is.
The u21/u18s are performing very poorly in their respective leagues and the talent that we DO have is in the process of leaving.
We lost Isaac Moran to Newcastle who was a very promising young player and captain at youth level.
Farkas and Abe are in the next crop and both seem destined to leave. Abe is egregious. He's off to Real Madrid by the looks of things.
We need to bring in the elite crop of 16-18 year olds because we are utterly failing at recruiting and keeping local kids them at present. Many are heading to City at young ages.
I also think its possible that this signals that a 2nd club may be close. At least in the case of Ndukwe, he cannot join until the summer due to age. But players would be able to join European clubs before then
I do hope that internally they are assessing the way that the academy works, because to me its clear something should change. With the work we did on the new facilities, the standard of the academy at present doesnt match that level of investment.
And i also hope that there are changes to the loans. More players loaned out, and to teams that we know will use them and use them well in similar systems.
In terms of the 4 CB's we are trying to buy or already bought: Ndukwe and Mor Ndiaye are both youth internationals and were in team of the tournament for the u17 world cup. Dara Jikiemi is 15 but seen as a huge talent. Noah Adekoya is the least hyped of the 4. He is really there to allow Nallo to head on loan
I imagine the theory is to look at Leoni: we spent near £30m on him at 19. If we can spend <8m on 4 talents combined and 1/2 work out we more than make the money back in performances
Real Madrid can't buy U18 players from outside of the European Union, I'm not aware if Abe has any other nationality, but if he doesn't he's most likely not joining Real Madrid. It's Chelsea he's most likely off to.
Thanks for the insight. It really is bewildering that we spent so much on the facilities but seemingly neglected the academy.
We need to get the second club in europe bought. We need a place to buy lottery tickets younger, in higher volume and get them quality minutes without the volatility of loans. Also it seems like our loan process is kinda shit. Maybe its just bad luck but we seem to have a lot more loans going poorly than well.
I wonder what's going on with the academy. Things haven't been the best in at least 2 years now, I get that we made huge changes, but I didn't expect them to be so negative. Wonder who's to blame.
There are probably several reasons, but I doubt it helps that Slot seemingly doesn’t give the academy a second thought.
Obviously the youngsters shouldn’t be playing 30 minutes every game, but atm Rio, who is our top prospect, gets to play 5 minutes and then don’t see the field again the next 5 games.
Nyoni has just gotten his PL debut last month, which lasted 2 minutes. Then he played 2 more minutes the next game, and has been flues to the bench since.
Now, these guys, along with a few other will play on monday, but if players realistically only can get substancial minutes in cup games, depending on the strength of the opponent, then they might want to go to a team where there are more minutes.
Right now Rio and Nyoni are in a kind of limpo, where they don’t even play that much for the U-teams, because they have to be available for the first team
I don’t understand how the academy can’t give us 1 striker with pace that’s not bad at fishing who can sit on the bench just 1
They did.
Jayden Danns was that. Then he got the growth spurt injuries that have weirdly plagued us like Bajcetic and Gordon.
Then they signed Will Wright this summer which was a coup given United and Arsenal were also trying everything to get him. He got injured early on. Has returned, scored 5 in his return and is likely to play against Barnsley
There is growing evidence in Sports Science and Medicine that you have to be careful with young players vis a vis over playing them in their late adolescence years.
*cough* Rio Ngumoha *cough*
Frustrating watching it happen again 25 years on from Fowler and Owen.
I don’t think the strategy for the academy for some time has been to create the best youth teams or anything. It’s been to bring in specific talent and find a way to integrate them into the first team setup if possible. See Nyoni, Ngumoha, McConnell, the kid from Newcastle who went to red bull. We’re clearly still doing this. Winning games at the academy level means nothing.
Yeah apparently unless we're buying players ready for the first team there's no point getting them in.
FSG rarely panic buy and would rather wait for the right player at the right price.
We did put 10mil into renovation of academy grounds. Which should be done next year I believe. But yea its criminal how we treat ladies and kids.
With how our academy grads get treated I don’t blame the kids for looking elsewhere. Klopp used to give the kids real minutes. I don’t see that happening with the current investment in young players from outside the academy.
Wait a minute, so we made our youth coach our set piece coach, then both went to shit? Damn that was a bad decision
Briggs wasnt a youth coach. He was a development coach with the senior team
Why is City more attractive to the youngsters? Do they get paid more?
Whatever it is, it can't be that expensive to run the academy well even if you pay everyone well vs bringing in a player. If we invest 20m into training up our next super star striker, that's a net gain of almost 80m as good strikers are going for 100m!!
I'd love for our academy to be like La Masia...it's like a diamond mine.
Junior coaching budget, facilities (until recently), even long term prospects for their careers. Look at the outcomes for careers in each academy
Slot better be coaching up Rio, Nallo and Bajcetic if they're actually good. If we don't see any Academy players coming through, why would other youngsters sign on?
I see the point of these, but I also think we still need 2 senior level signings at CB.
2 before next season realistically, and maybe even a third before 27/28. That really depends on Leoni and this youth development strategy though.
CB + RB for Jan
„Liverpool have strong interest in Celtic centre back Dara Jikiemi (15), though the move is understood to hang in the balance amid Celtic’s unhappiness over the proposed compensation package.“
We are farming teenage CBs while our senior defence is cooked by injuries 🥲
I think that is the tactic, out of the 5, 2 will be usable and we’ll have a bigger choice in the future
in the future, like in 3 years? Who will be our CB for the next three years?
37yo van dijk and broken spirit of Gomez?
are we replacing Van Dijk by averaging his stats
Recreating him in aggregate
Collect them all before Arteta knew about them. Good plan.
We’ll be making bank when Mikel comes for them in 5-6 years, for his penultimate 11 CB squad
can we just get Guehi please
One thing I love about our recruitment, with both Klopp and slot, we go after the players that want to play for us. I guess we could have offered more lucrative deals to people like Zubimendi but you’ll never get the performance and passion that you get from Kerkez.
So if Guehi doesn’t really want us I’m ok with that, wanting an extra few million to motivate him to come play for us isn’t what Liverpool are about.
Our recruitment is by and large great. But still, can we just get Guehi please. Pretty sure 90% of pros are gonna play their socks off whichever top club they sign for anyway
Prefer not to
For sporting reasons or homophobic ones ?
The latter. The integrity of the club ethos is more important than a centre back.
Can't fault his sporting qualities
You can, he's good but not amazing. Levels below prime van Dijk in every metric. Poor in the air. Might look good in a Palace side, but not convinced he'll be great at Liverpool with a high line.
Still, we need a CB so I'd absolutely take him in a heartbeat.
Who isnt?
Sorry but guehi is gay? Is this actual facts? Im not homophobic or anything just haven't heard of this
He's homophobic, not gay.
Ohhh, thanks for letting me know
Wow didn't know this.
Good riddance then leave City have him
He isn't homophobic. But yeah, just continue to spew that lie.
He definitely is, but if it helps you cope to say he's not, go right on.
We can rehash the story about the armband, which has many nuances. Can talk about his dad etc. But I simply don't like slandering a player with blanket statements.
Didn’t even know he was inclined that way! Are some fans really opposed to his signing because of this? Disgusting if so
He's not gay (to our knowledge), he's one of the captains who has had issues with the pride armband.
Opposed to signing him because he's homophobic is disgusting? What are you on?
Is this reply to me? If you read my comment you’ll see I’m in agreement buddy. We’re not CFC
Sounds like you got the wrong end of the stick. Guehi isn't gay, he's homophobic. He did something like writing religious messaging over the rainbow armband in protest to the pride movement (if I remember correctly).
Yes that is correct my friend I did not know he had done this. Have several gay friends myself and within my family and that’s not what LFC is about so as I said good riddance to Guehi he belongs at the oil club. Spelling edit*
When he had the option to just not wear the rainbow armband
I wish we would sign at least one we could use rn you know.
It makes sense, but for god sake strengthen the actual playing squad in defence
That bench looked bare last night.
It will now have 4 young CBs
It'll look bare young now.
4 different version of Ozan Kabak
We all dream of a team of Nat Phillips’
We wouldn't ever concede from set pieces
And Ben Davies
He was great for us that season.
Excellent, our CB crisis will be solved once we get to 2029.
We're future-proofing the future so much, we forget the immediate future.
We're like me, I'm always saving for the future but not spending on things I need now.
It's a problem for future Liverpool.
Previous seasons "Quansah has to go" "Quansah not good enough" "Hands off Konate Real Madrid" "Konate the next VVD"
This season "I can't believe we kept Konate the worst CB in history and got rid of Quansah I just can't believe it"
Reminds me of a few years ago when we started signing a bunch of young GKs…I don’t think any of them really worked out
All you need is one Kelleher and you make more money than you spent signing the 3-5 other goalkeepers combined.
Jaros looks like he could be the next one.
Mrozek, Jaros, Grabara, Pitaluga etc.?
I bet we made profit on the ones that we’ve sold, that’ll be looked at really favourably. Plus all you need is for a single one of these of guys to end up “squad player good” and it’s worked
It is seen as a success for the academy if you sell players for profit but they are playing first team football elsewhere. At the end of the day, the role of the academy is to produce players who will have football careers, whether its at your club or elsewhere
i mean the money we got for Grabara should have covered all the money spent for them all and we still have Jaros who looks good
Also GK is really the hardest position to come from youth straight into team like Liverpool because there's just no "give him 10 minutes" with goalies like there is with any other position on the field. So you need to be extremely elite from the very young age AND have "luck" with guys in front of you getting injured.
Kelleher worked out
Alternative is to not purchase any youth players then complain there isn't anyone coming through.
Considering you would be looking to spend £40m on a squad player atm, spending less than half of that on youth players you can either develop or sell makes sense.
Is the strategy to sign them before they become victims of Artetanyahu’s centre back fetish?
Happy with the investment in the future if we also get a CB and FB who can cover us for the next few years too. Without Bradley we're in trouble.
WE SIGN WHO WE WANT (youth level centre backs)
We shouldn’t have let Quansah go, ok he made a few mistakes but no more than Konates made this season and Quansah is young he would have learned, shame Slot knocked his confidence.
Quansah buy back seems more and more appealing this summer, especially if we got Guehi on a free. Quansah, Guehi, Virgil + ibou is some crew of cbs, and 2 homegrown options there.
Not signing an experienced centre back, and now a right back, in this window would be incredibly stupid...it would make zero sense
Letting Quansah go was always a massive mistake. Given how awful Konate has been this term, not having a CB who could come in has been disastrous.
Slot needs to accept that his treatment of Quansah as just wrong. And we had to endure an unfit, mentally and physically gassed Konate for half a season making errors, you’d not see from an under 12s defender.
Arrogance and hubris.
Great that we’re signing “potential” but we need at least two starting CBs as a pro now. Konate and VVD are not the answer anymore .
I’m sorry but it is very likely that if Quansah stayed here, Slot might not play him unless absolutely necessary and then bench him otherwise. That not even factoring in if he ever made a mistake again. I’m glad for Quansah he was able to leave and get actual playing time.
I’m not saying Quansah wasn’t right to leave. Just saying that it was a mistake, given that Konate has been awful all season.
I’m also glad that Quansah is getting the regular game time he deserves and needs. Honestly, hope we re-sign him.
I just think both Slot and Hughes made a massive mistake.
For those interested:
Someone confirm for me that it says the strategy is "Sign up all the youth centrebacks now because they won't sign after we announce Bastoni, Schlotterbeck and Upemecano this weekend"
Can we get one that is ready for the first team now? Wtf.
I hope we go after Schlotterbeck and Bastoni
I see no future for academy players with Slot here. best case scenario they get loaned out to other clubs then sold for cash
Yep and to be honest I really, really do not like this about him as a manager, to me it needs to change
This is the first not reason I'm not at all happy with these signings , under klopp I would be dreaming of the future with these kids but right now I'm like ..... I hope you guys can at least find decent clubs to get a loan at for your own future .
But the majority of the academy players under Klopp just weren't good enough, no point keeping him here for the sake of it if they we're never going to make it to the first team.
We want to become Arsenal by 2030?
If 1 of them end up in the first team it's a success
Must be planning on switching managers. Slot will never use them
Simply having VVD around to coach young CBs will be invaluable. Most of these signings already have the physical stature to succeed. If VVD can jumpstart their anticipation, positioning, or reading of the game with his full experience, then maybe they can achieve Huijsen-like development (approaching world-class after one top season) rather than emulate VVDs journey (stops at a bunch of clubs before being the finished article)
Voltron CB!
Yeah and sell them like Quansah when Slot doesn't trust them because they're too inexperienced.
But can they play CB? Oh wait
someone tell Hughes we need cbs for first team too, first man team just in case
Hey that’s all fine and dandy, we need cover that slot in immediately without a drop in quality
"Targeting a fourth"
I support the signings of CBs. Lfc academy in recent years needs work ngl. Not brought in more players. I do think this also gives credibility to the rumour about slot and Hughes wanting him to play more youth. Club wants to do chelsea model. Play young, sell for money. Its shitth morally imo tho
Any of them good enough to play this season?
We’ve got Leoni already, we’re gonna end up getting a center half or two in the transfer market, and in a few years you hope one or two of your academy players make it to the first team. Makes sense
Only if Slot actually tries using them
I’m glad we are getting players into the academy but I hope getting even 1 senior defender is top of the priority list and the transfer team is just moving in silence. It cannot be Guehi or fucking bust AGAIN.
It's embarrassing that a club of our calibre has such an underwhelming academy.
Cant wait for 2036 is going to be a blast
I havent read the article, so my question might already be answered, but ive wondered since we started signing these guys, was this a plan all on its own? Or is this a happy accident from our scouting department trying to find young first team CBs? Like the data models we were using to try and get first team players in also managed to shoot these guys out.
The timing for Ndukwe and Ndiaye is because both were standouts at the u19 FWC and the club is just trying to round up the best global talents and condition them for the first team (this is from the article)
The other 2 I’m not sure
Nallo is a walking red card and Lucky looks like the only centre back with any potential, so I think it's just a case of bolstering our options with more talented defenders.
Youth CB FC
Honestly fine with this investment if at least 2 of them become first team capable. Leoni out, Quansah sold, Nat Phillips sold. Developing talent will always be cheaper and better for the future, especially if they can qualify as HG. They just also need to address the immediate need for another senior CB
Who are the three we’ve got so far?
Strategy and Liverpool is an oxymoron