There’s no question that Liverpool needed to make good additions this summer if they were to take another step forward in their development under Jurgen Klopp.
The German boss has made great strides toward rebuilding the team as one which can compete for major honours—already he has reached three finals, though each have been lost—but to continue the progression, both greater quality and numbers are required.
For the final two months of the season just finished, the Reds essentially played with around 14 men, unable to rotate the team without significantly lowering the quality on show. The few matches where Klopp felt he had no option but to leave out a handful of starters, the difference was painfully obvious.
The area of greatest need for depth is in attack, but in terms of quality, the midfield needed an overhaul. Naby Keita was already en route, a deal agreed a year ago, but the sudden and unexpected addition of Brazilian holding midfielder Fabinho brings a whole new level of competition to the centre of the park. And that’s without even considering a likely swoop for Nabil Fekir.
Keita, Fekir and Fabinho could, in theory, be a starting three: entirely new, entirely capable...and with plenty of others looking on and fighting for a chance to start alongside them. One or two of the current crop might feel as though they don’t deserve to be displaced after a campaign which saw the Reds finish in the top four again and reach the Champions League final, but it’s unlikely that Fabinho is coming in to play a support act.
It might seem obvious to point to Jordan Henderson, as the Reds’ regular holder this term, as the one who stands to lose most from Fabinho’s arrival.
But Klopp has continually backed and trusted his captain, and while wearing the armband doesn’t make Henderson immune to being dropped—he was left out of the Europa League final in 2016, after all—his versatility, determination and work rate could easily see him remain heavily involved.
As a No. 8 in the current setup, Henderson can comfortably play an aggressive presser, shuttling his runs into the channel and delivering early passes from deep. He’s not on the same level of creativity as Keita, perhaps, nor as adept at getting into the final third as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but there will be plenty of games to go around.
Instead there are two others who might be more fearful of their place.
Adam Lallana, for starters, couldn’t have picked a worse season to spend sidelined through injury.
He was a Klopp favourite, a regular starter and, in 16/17 in particular, one of the trigger players to initiate the all-important midfield press. Lallana switched from attacking midfield to central, but now appears ill-suited to either role. He doesn’t have the pace to contribute as a wide forward, and each of Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Henderson offer more as an aggressive, quick mover of the ball in the No. 8 role than Lallana. He may have the technique and vision, the ability to extricate himself from tight spaces and the two-footed ability to be an asset, but he also slows down the build-up play too much at times.
And, of course, he barely featured this term as the team took a giant step forward. If Fabinho’s arrival pushes Henderson forward more often, it could be the skipper’s compatriot who ends up worse off.
Secondly, there’s Gini Wijnaldum.
The Dutchman had enjoyed a renaissance over the last third of the season, playing largely well and proving his all-round ability, but a lack of top-level consistency and productivity in the attacking half might count against him in harsh terms.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, Keita, Fabinho, Henderson, James Milner and quite possibly Fekir: it’s already six options for three spots, and that’s without counting on a returned from loan Marko Grujic, or indeed Lallana...or Emre Can, though he’s widely expected to depart anyway.
Wijnaldum showed he can operate as both a No. 6 and an eight this term, and perhaps even excelled at the former, but Fabinho is a specialist, and there’s no need for a second versatile cover option with the captain playing a mixed squad role. It would be harsh to suggest Wijnaldum should simply be offloaded, his performances certainly don’t warrant that, but if it’s a simple matter of game time and numbers, it might just be that what he can offer the team doesn’t stack up as much as others’ attributes.
The saving grace for next term, or at least the first half of it, is Oxlade-Chamberlain’s injury. Klopp will be wary of heading into the season without a full complement of players in a key area. Henderson will have been at the World Cup, while two others will still be settling in.
Even so, in the medium term, across the entire campaign and with no sales to senior midfielders, it appears Lallana and Wijnaldum have the most to lose and the biggest battles on their hands to retain a key role in Liverpool’s midfield.
