-
James Holmes posted an update 5 years, 11 months ago
My verdict on last night:
1) we need more strength in depth. Real Madrid could call on Gareth Bale from the bench. Who could we call upon?
2) we need a new goalkeeper and have done for several years. I’m not a big fan of Mignolet but I am as sure as I can be he would not have made two howlers like that. Klopp has been wrong to put his faith in Karius. He has never convinced me.
3) we need to be harder, smarter, and stronger. We don’t need to be as cynical as Real and Ramos but we definitely need more guile in big games.
4) Klopp’s lack of trophies is starting to concern me. It’s a long time since he last won a trophy and there must be question marks now about his ability to deliver silverware. Next season is going to be massive for Klopp.
Overall almost 3 years since Klopp took over we still remain a work in progress.
We definitely need more depth – we have been saying that all season – yet we still finished in the top 4 and reached the CL final. You can’t blame Klopp for a ‘work in progress’ and ‘lack of trophies’ when teams like City, RM etc have massive squads and budgets too. Karius is still statistically better than Mignolet – whether Migs would have made those errors or not is irrelevant – we may not of reached the final with Migs. The third goal also showed how much space Bale had to shoot – which if we had a Defensive Mid, may well of closed that opportunity down – and thus not allowed Karius to make an error in the first place. We lacked the creativity, the drive in midfield – all too often we relied on our front three to be ‘creative’ and fast enough to get on the end of clearances. You never expect Hendo, Milner or Gini to score, to get in the box, to create a good chance, to do ‘something’ special – like Modric, De Bruyne, Coutinho, Fekir etc can…
On the one had its incredibly disappointing to lose a final like that but on the other, with the size, quality and depth of our squad we reached the final – some may say we over-achieved with what we had – thanks to the quality of a ‘few’ players. Klopp, if anything, has shown he can ‘improve’ players BUT he can’t turn a Milner, Hendo etc into a world class player – not at this stage of their careers!
We need to invest in the squad, Have players that can compete with the ‘best’ in the world and affect games if they come on from the bench. You need at least 20 world class players to compete – not just 11 or even 6/7 as we probably do…