I am at the end of my wits, and should be at the end of my words, considering the amount of writing that has been churned out in the last couple of days of the transfer window. The transfer window did start brightly with some much needed reinforcements, most tellingly at the centre-back and the goalkeeping positions with Joel Matip and Loris Karius, and then Ragnar Klavan. The transfer that has stood out the most, though, was the big money move for Sadio Mane, which, if he maintains his run of form, could be the buy of the season so far. But then again, as displayed vs Tottenham, his fatigue in the second-half of the match, made our attacking prowess limp.
Now, before I go into this rant, you must know that I’m writing this after a long day’s work and with a tired mind, and may regret half the things I put out there, which will be mostly incoherent, but in the purity of the moment’s disillusionment, it would be equally insincere if I were not to capture the honesty of the feeling I feel.
As a Liverpool fan, I firmly believe that the transfer committee or whoever in the higher ups, who make the executive footballing decisions, has screwed us over for the remained of this season, up until the transfer window opens up again in December – by which time we may be lagging and out of pace with any hope of a title contention that Herr Juergen spoke of so optimistically at the start of the season.
I do rate Alberto Moreno, in fact, enough to have him follow me on Twitter, but his form has been on the downturn ever since the Christmas period of last season’s physical expenditure – a player who was arguably one of our finest performers till the aforementioned period, on the sheer basis of a lack of cover and jadedness, lost his confidence and resulted in waning concentration levels that saw him being ridiculed all across the length and breadth of social media forums. Now, while Klopp maintains faith, which is heartening. But with James Milner papering over the fissures, it begs to ask – what if there’s just one injury?
Liverpool’s left-back slot has a bullseye on it, and Arsenal, Tottenham, and Burnley all looked to have exploited that position to their best efforts. If Liverpool really wanted to protect the young Spaniard, a reinforcement would have been doubly reassuring – but, lo!
Same is the case with Liverpool’s defensive midfield position – which has all the structural solidity of a caramel-centred mudcake, which invites the opponent’s midfield to bite in – and gobble it up with all the ease of a fat kid named, Dudley. Even if you have passable industry and fight, a midfield of Adam Lallana, Genie Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson are all too ready to accommodate you.
Now, there’s Emre Can who has been intermittently struggling to get himself together, Marko Grujic, who like Emre Can is more of a box-to-box foil of a midfielder – all that leaves us with, is the erroneous Lucas Leiva – the only proper defensive midfielder, who since his back-to-back cruciate ligament injury has lost his touch.
All I’m saying is that, I fear, genuinely, as a fan, that these two glaring chinks in our armour may give our opponents enough opportunity to twist the knife in, and set the tone for the rest of the season. And I know, who I’d have to blame.