Archives for July 2018

Ok. I’ll say it. I think that Liverpool, with the players and manager the team now has, can challenge for and WIN the 2018-2019 Premiership.

The team looks very balanced to me with world class players and some pretty good youngsters. Of course, there is no guarantee that the team chemistry will be good but, if there is one manager in the world who knows about instilling team chemistry grandly, it’s Klopp!

On 20 July 2018, Liverpool named a 29-man squad for their USA tour to play against Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Manchester United which includes Karius, Clyne, Fabinho, van Dijk, Wijnaldum, Milner, Keïta, Mané, Salah, Gomez, Sturridge, Grujic, Klavan, Moreno, Lallana, Shaqiri, Robertson, Origi, Solanke, Matip, Phillips, Jones, Markovic, Ojo, Woodburn, Kelleher, Camacho, Chirivella, Grabara.

Notable absentees (except, of course, WC players still on vacation) include Simon Mignolet, Connor Randall, Ryan Kent and Danny Ings who will surely leave Liverpool this year. Mignolet and Ings are simply not good enough to play in a top team and Randall and Kent have failed to impress as youngsters and they are both 21+ now. It also looks like the young Allan Rodrigues de Souza will leave after failing to earn a work permit for so many years…

Among the 29 are five academy players accompanying the first team to the USA:

• Two goalkeepers (one of them will be the 3rd Liverpool goalkeeper after Alisson and Karius): Kamil Grabara (19 years old) and Caomhin Kelleher (19 years old),
• one defender: Nathaniel Phillips (21 years old),
• one midfielder: Curtis Jones (17 years old)
• and one forward: Rafael Camacho (18 years old).

Among the first team players are the following four young players who will try to push for a place on teamsheets this year:

• One holding midfielder: Pedro Chirivella (21 years old),
• two attacking midfielders: Marko Grujic (22 years old) and Sheyi Ojo (21 years old)
• and Ben Woodburn (18 years old), a forward.

Some of them will probably have an important role to play this year, whether it is in the leagues, in cup games or in the Champions League. It is going to be an interesting year for Liverpool supporters and players.

I’m am very confident that Liverpool will excel this year and will win the 2018-2019 Premiership.