The transfer window is closed. Deals have been done and targets have been missed. We can’t do anything about it now except enjoy watching Liverpool play football every week.
That being said, I’ve had a niggling thought for a while now even before we had appointed Jürgen Klopp as our manager and it’s become even more evident after the summer. Liverpool’s scouting network just doesn’t work. Now to a lot of fans this isn’t anything new but you could be forgiven for thinking that with Klopp’s arrival it’s nothing to worry about. Well to me, it is something to worry about.
In October Klopp made it clear that when signings are made the ball drops with him and he needs the advice of others to help him – referring to the transfer committee. Yet when I look at this summer’s business I don’t think the transfer committee had much input to be honest. If there was no transfer committee I think the business would be similar, if not the exact same. So what exactly are they doing then?
Let’s look at the signings we’ve made under Klopp. Loris Karius, young German goalkeeper from his old club Mainz which he follows regularly. Joel Matip, young experienced centre-half at Schalke who Klopp saw whilst at Dortmund as their rivals; brings him in with no delay. Marko Grujic, young Serbian prodigy who just won the title with Red Star Belgrade; his first signing. Sadio Mané, Georginio Wijnaldum, Ragnar Klavan, Alex Manninger, all our signings look to be largely influenced by Klopp and his backroom staff.
Even our missed targets like Mahmoud Dahoud, Christian Pulisic, Ousmane Dembélé, Mario Götze, I highly doubt that the transfer committee suggested these players to the manager. If anything Klopp had earmarked them with Michael Zorc at Dortmund early on and it’s their scouting system which is to thank – not ours. I mean is it any coincidence that a number of the players we were linked with just so happened to sign for Dortmund in the same window? Even Ben Chilwell, a young unproven left-back, was recommended to us by Klopp’s best friend, David Wagner – otherwise his name wouldn’t have even been mentioned this summer.
Now, let’s look at the recent signings before Klopp. When we sold Luis Suarez we replaced him with Ricky Lambert, Javier Manquillo and so on. Two years on and only 3 or so players remain. They weren’t bought for a plan, there was no strategy to our transfers. Instead of using our resources to scour the globe for the right players we decided to adopt a scatter-gun approach. In 2014 we were adamant that Alexis Sanchez was coming to fill that Suarez-shaped hole. He didn’t come, panic ensues and we buy Mario Balotelli. Not much of a transfer strategy is it?
A year later we lost Raheem Sterling to Manchester City. We replace him with Roberto Firmino and Christian Benteke. The former I am perfectly happy with and I think he’ll be a top player in his years at Liverpool. The latter, however, one of our most expensive ever signings, has been sold to Crystal Palace for almost the same price we bought him. Again, no transfer strategy.
Obviously not every signing Klopp makes is going to be a success, football isn’t that easy. But there’s an idea for the type of player he wants in each position. One of the reasons he was a success at Dortmund is because when he lost a star player, he had a player in the wings waiting to take the helm. Whether it was through the academy or transfers he made sure that his squad wasn’t left depleted.
Time will tell if this window has been a success but what about the next one? He’s a manager first and foremost, he’s too busy coaching the current crop of players to be looking for new ones. FSG have chosen this model, if they are going to persist with it then they have to do one of two things: hire better scouts or assign a director of football to do the job instead.
I’m not against FSG at this moment, but if they don’t get their act together they’ve got to take real, hard look at themselves at whether they can bring the glory days back to Anfield. They got their man, now give him the support he needs.
