Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez could be on the move on deadline day
Jurgen Klopp insists Liverpool won’t ‘collapse’ despite FA Cup elimination at the hands of Brighton, but are the Reds ready to give up on saving anything from what has been their most difficult season?
The fact that transfer deadline day seems to be quiet at Anfield – at least in terms of income – seems to indicate this.
With Arsenal and Chelsea looking for big midfield deals, the Reds are ready to sit on their hands and disappoint their fans, ready to wait until the summer to begin the belated and clearly needed overhaul of the club. Klopp’s team.
They are betting on Jude Bellingham, in other words, the Borussia Dortmund star is still on the agenda and would be the man to lead the club’s next big team. Whether Liverpool can convince the 19-year-old, who is also being courted by Real Madrid and Manchester City, of an election is another matter.
Bellingham’s obsession, while understandable given the England international’s incredible talent and potential, meant no midfield reinforcements at Anfield this month as Liverpool completed their ‘January’ deal with the signing of striker Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven on December 28.
Of course, there were plenty of rumors that just about any two-legged midfielder and half-decent agent would be linked with a move to Merseyside. The likes of Sofyan Amrabat, Declan Rice, Sander Berge, Joao Palhinha and Teun Koopmeiners have all been mentioned and then quickly dismissed by sources close to the club.
The same is of course true for Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, players who are certainly in the game in terms of profile and who have many admirers at the club. It must therefore come as a shock to Reds fans to think that not only will neither player go to Liverpool, but that both could line up against Klopp’s side before the end of the season for their Premier League rivals.
Wanted by Arsenal, Caicedo has expressed his desire to move from Brighton to the Emirates Stadium, while Chelsea are hoping to secure a 120m-euro (£106m/$131m) deal by deadline day for Benfica’s Fernandez . they aim to continue their rather substantial spending.
Meanwhile, Liverpool appear to be sticking to whatever midfield options they have; namely an 18-year-old rookie anchor, a player whose contract expired in four months and started one Premier League match alongside him throughout the season, and a disappointing collection of out-of-form, aged, young and unfit , Moreover.
Hardly the kind of cast to turn doubters into believers, right? Liverpool’s problems at the center of the park have been evident for months, but they continue to resist the temptation to solve them by spending money. Aside from Stefan Bajcetic, who arrived at Celta Vigo as a youngster two years ago, Thiago Alcantara was the only permanent signing in midfield since the summer of 2018. Arthur Melo was naturally loaned from Juventus at the end of August, but the Brazilian played just 13 minutes of competitive soccer before tearing a thigh muscle in October, and he’s still at least two weeks away from returning to full training.
And what you have now is a group of players who are no longer fit for purpose, certainly not for a team that expects and demands to challenge for every major trophy, as they have for the past five years. One might reasonably expect Fabinho and Jordan Henderson to improve after poor runs and Bajcetic, Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones to continue to develop, but what more can Klopp squeeze out of a 37-year-old James Milner? Do Liverpool really expect Thiago, a player with a history of injury problems, to play every game at the age of 32? And if Naby Keita or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are the answer, why does neither of them have a new contract offer on the table?
Klopp currently looks like a man in a dark room looking for the light switch. He talks about small steps and small improvements—things like running, knocking out opponents and making a tackle—and insists that he or his team won’t give up. “There’s nothing to do but fight,” he said after Sunday’s Amex loss, “and we’ll do it.”
However, there is a growing suspicion that Liverpool are already starting to see this season as such a write-off that even they think the gap to fourth place is now too large. Ten points with 19 games to go aren’t impossible to win back, for a team that plays well, but for one that plays like Liverpool? It might as well be 58 points.
The Champions League, in which they play a round of 16 match against old foes Real Madrid, represents their last chance at glory, but even the optimists are starting to worry. After all, the Reds failed to win against Carlo Ancelotti when they were at their best last May, why should they do it now, at their worst?
Of course, stranger things have happened: remember 2005? – and Real themselves have barely snatched it this season, but it’s hard to have faith in this Liverpool team at the moment. Every game feels like a banana peel, every performance is delivered as if under duress. Nothing feels comfortable, whether at home or on the go. No one is in good shape.
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