spacemonkey

Makes sense that Real would want to sign the CB who is used to having to cover the space that's left behind when Trent is caught upfield.

The size of the squad is ok for me but Slot would presumably quite like a first choice LB and no. 9 with Nunez and either Tsimikas or Robbo departing. That's before tackling the replacement of up to three pillars of the team in the summer. Wouldn't be surprised if FSG is happy with all three leaving, recalibrate the wage structure downwards, bring in high potential younger players and accept that fighting for the title is probably out of reach for a couple of years (!) again. I can see the benefits of that sort of longer term thinking in that it possibly reduces the risk of a major drop-off like City have experienced this season (or like we experienced in the 22/23 season before the midfield overhaul) but right now Mo and Virge remain absolute top level performers despite their age and whoever their replacements end up being, it seems highly unlikely that they'll reach the same heights. Could potentially win the league twice if they stay and maintain their level but looks like the club are willing to sacrifice next season to avoid being on the hook for their wages when age does eventually catch up with them.

Can't help thinking that Sam McGuire doesn't actually have any inside knowledge and this Darwin story is based on little other than his former manager being there and Anfield Watch being keen on ad revenue.

Tzimas would be a bit of a departure from our approach to date. Paying relatively significant money for a player who has had one good half season in a second tier league. Marmoush had similar numbers in that league 3.5 years ago so could well be that Tzimas ends up at an elite level but even if he does it could be that he takes another 2-3 years to get there, playing somewhere else on loan presumably. Guess you could say they did similar with the goalie in the summer but he's proven himself at a somewhat higher level already. Sceptical.

In terms of left field options, Fabian Hürzeler took over St. Pauli after 17 matches last season with the team one point off the bottom, proceeding to win his first 10 in the league and finishing the season 5th with 2.41 PPG since he took over. This season has continued in a similar vein, unbeaten until match day 21 and sitting top of the 2. Bundesliga. His contract is already up this summer and he's struggling to agree a new one as he's insisting on a release clause which the club don't want to agree to. He's only 30 so quite the start to his management career. Somewhat animated on the touchline, picking up two suspensions in quick succession recently and reacting to his red card by joining the fans in the standing area from where he continued to shout instructions. He uses a similar 3-4-3 setup to Xabi and is getting a fair bit of hype in Germany without giving off the vibe of loving himself a bit too much like Nagelsmann. Not that I'd take him over Xabi. Or Frank Thomas, of course.

Seemed to me to just play right back first half and then switch to playing the Trent hybrid role second half which due to us having a lot of possession meant he was largely to be found in midfield. Thought he did well anyway.

Wonder if we're going to see both Dom and Trent move forwards when Mo leaves with a new starting RB then coming in. Wouldn't be surprised if Dom saw minutes in Mo's position in January anyway. Hopefully not already later this month.

Guess he'd be good for the homegrown quota.

He gave away the penalty this evening against Turkey. Handball, bit unlucky. I've seen him a couple of times for the national team and he hasn't stood out to me particularly. Not surprising amongst such illustrious company, perhaps.

According to Transfermarkt our net spend over the past 10 years is about 3 x that of Real Madrid. Over the past five Real have taken in more than they've spent. The combined net spend of all current La Liga clubs over the past 10 years is less than one tenth of that of the current PL teams. If he goes to Madrid, I don't think it's because we can't keep up with them financially at this point. Different story with City, United and Chelsea though.

Ake and Carson also qualify as homegrown but you don't need to fill all the homegrown slots, it's just that any that aren't filled reduce your maximum overall squad size. City only declared a 20 man squad last year of which 5 homegrown so no problem. We declared a 24 man squad with 8 homegrown. Sadly we've lost Joe Hardy over the summer (huh?) but we did add Ben Davies of course and Ojo came back from loan as did Woodburn. I make it 10 homegrown currently but expect Ojo, Woodburn and one of Nat and Ben Davies will leave so we'd then be one down.

On the subject of players who have left, I see Can has been left out of Juve's squad for the CL group stage and Coates picked up a red card after conceding three penalties in Sporting's 3-2 defeat to Rio Ave at the weekend. Oof.

Kruse was great on the counter (fast and good finisher) for St. Pauli 10 years ago and it was cool to see him step up to Freiburg, Gladbach and the national team but he has since fallen out with Hecking at Wolfsburg and Low for the national team due to his various off-field antics so not sure that fits in with the emphasis that Klopp puts on the character side of things. On the other hand, he probably does qualify as a "versatile forward" (also attacking midfield) is a goal threat and would be free. He won't be short of options anyway.

Adler might have been decent in the past but never really managed to deliver consistently in Hamburg. More mistakes in him than Mignolet these days.

The Hertha coach was quoted a few days ago saying that they haven't had a midfielder like Grujic in his 22 years there. He could still work out for us, either on the pitch or just financially.

To be fair to Tuchel, the quotes are from the interpreter's version of Tuchel's response which was itself in fairly broken French. The journalist had asked him whether he felt the result was "logique" and I think he was just stating that he didn't feel it was inevitable, they could have got a draw or even a win. True enough. Don't think he was suggesting that they deserved more than they got.

Other possible alternatives with whom we've been linked previously, if memory serves: Kai Havertz, James Maddison, Bruno Fernandes.

Was this from Trent's tackle? http://www.goal.com/en/news/graphic-content-evra-shows-off-gruesome-leg-injury-that/1h2ozsx0pxlef1jyo917i5rouk

Not sure that's right about Can. Could only find sources stating that he's on 8 cards for the season so he should be ok for the next couple of games at least. Could be tight until the end of the season though so he's likely to miss two at some point. Would be handy to have him for United and Chelsea.

Klopp was being rather guarded when asked about Ward a few days ago, wasn't he? Said he would be talking to the player before talking to the media but in any case that he wanted to work with Ward. Made me think he was contemplating a loan but given Mig then being dropped and making comments today about a conversation after the Burnley match, perhaps Klopp was just anticipating that Mig might leave this month with Ward then being number 2 until the summer and potentially getting some cup action. Will be interesting to see who starts against West Brom.

Thought it noticeable that Karius was trying to throw quickly when he got the ball in his hands. Put the recipient under a certain amount of pressure on a couple of occasions but managed to worm our way out each time. Give him the ball to feet though and he's just going to punt it, and not necessarily all that far. I reckon Virgil and Matip give us decent options for playing out from the back which may help us keep possession better when we're winning and needing to close out the match. Suspect Klopp is now trying to see whether Karius can distribute the balls better short than Migs who seems to have resigned himself to just kicking long more often than not because he fears mistakes (or getting it back under pressure) when playing it short. We had about 36% possession last night. Bit much to expect our front 3-4 to keep pressing with the same intensity for 90 minutes - we need to hold on to possession better once in the lead, starting from the back. Doubtful that Karius is the answer but guess that's who we'll see until the summer now.

It's "kann mir mal in die Schuhe blasen." So more blow into his boots than cause them to explode! Meaning is along the lines of "can kiss my...".

Was my thought too.

We have a habit of following wins against big teams with dropped points against the smaller ones. Can we maintain the aggression at home to Hull or will we just take that one for granted and not turn up? If we can maintain the level against the small teams, that would be the big progress compared to last year.

I think this has more to do with it than his marriage, yes.