Jim Boardman and Jay Reid return after a short break just as proper football has been stopped again for another international break. As good a time as any to take stock on the season so far and how Liverpool have adapted to life under the new boss, Arne Slot, and his boss, Richard Hughes.
As Jay and Jim discuss, the season has started as well as either could have asked for, with just one defeat in all competitions and the Reds top of the Premier League, still in the League Cup and joint top – goal difference aside - in the Champions League.
Given how the summer window went, maybe that’s a better position than anyone expected for Liverpool. With just one player added to the ranks – in the already well-equipped front line – and many more players leaving whether at the end of their contracts or because offers were made that the club didn’t want to turn down, it was a long way from being a dream window.
Maybe it’s too early to say if that will hurt as the season goes on, but Jim wonders if it was a calculated risk by the club to give both Slot and Hughes more time to really assess what the budget should be spent on?
Part of the reason the club are doing so well might be down to the lack of generosity being shown to opposition forwards. Two goals conceded in the League, one in the Champions League, one in the League Cup. That’s down in no small part to Slot having at his disposal such a top-quality centre-back pairing, one which Jay argues may be the best in the world. As good as they both are, and as hard as it would be to displace them, should we be looking for extra backup for those slots beyond Quansah and Gomez?
The last line of defence, when all is well, is the best goalkeeper in the world, Alisson Becker, who has saved Liverpool far too many times to remember, and that’s just this season. Sadly, he’s not the most injury-free keeper in the world, and as Jim and Jay discuss, maybe that injury record was part of the reason for signing a new keeper for next season, one who might be more than a number two to the Brazilian, without being a number one. It’s explained better on the podcast.
With the Reds’ international players busy for their countries the inevitable interview quotes keep coming in, and with Liverpool fans waiting to hear if new contracts will be signed by certain key players those quotes can sometimes carry more weight than they should.
It does feel as though it would take a monumental mess-up for Virgil Van Dijk not to sign for at least a couple more years, whereas with Salah it’s hard to tell what will happen, he’s still too good to drop down to Saudi football, but will Liverpool offer him enough financially to stay around?
With Trent it seems odd to even be considering the idea he might not sign a new deal, or that he’d only be offered one well below his worth to the club. He’s living the dream that Jay and Jim had back when they were kids, the dream of any Liverpool fan growing up on Merseyside and beyond, so won’t that be enough to keep him at Anfield?
Well, that’s where those quotes come in, with him talking about what he’s going to be looking back on when his career comes to an end. Is he hinting at going somewhere where trophies might be easier to come by? As Jim and Jay point out, would those trophies mean anything like as much as winning them in the Red shirt of his own childhood dreams?
The international break also reduces the hilarity that flows so naturally across Stanley Park from the neighbours, but that’s fine, they aren’t the only side whose name begins with ‘E’ to give us all a lot to laugh about.
