25 Jul 2025 07:34:47
I know there is a clamour to sign a young 4th choice centre back. I haven't seen any of the players linked play. Is it not worth using what we already have in, say Nallo? Are the other option that better?
25 Jul 2025 08:22:34
I think we're considering Luca Stephenson as a genuine option there during pre-season. So far he's passing the test.
25 Jul 2025 08:36:05
Who knows how he’ll step up mate. Quansah did a job but that wasn’t as 4th choice.
I’d rather have 4 relatively experienced CBs and have some like Nallo as a 5th option.
25 Jul 2025 08:54:04
Nallo was terrible last season and when given any minutes with the first team looked very dodgy he got sent off also in one game, he needs major improvement to get a sniff.
25 Jul 2025 08:57:57
Who’s the 3rd choice CB? VVD, Konate,
25 Jul 2025 09:15:51
Gomez will be 4th choice this year, Guehi brought in as 3rd or as partner to Virg.
25 Jul 2025 09:39:15
@MK I agree, I thought he looked good from what I've seen. By all accounts he is very versatile - his primary position seems to generally be listed as DM.
My concern is Gomes (and to a lesser extent Konate) staying fit so I would like us to bring in a proper CB as cover and Stephenson could offer additional cover at CB and DM as well as an option for early cup games.
25 Jul 2025 10:18:29
Stephensons not going to waste a year being the"mythical"5th centreback. nobody is going to want to.
25 Jul 2025 11:03:06
@FM Its not like it's written into a contract that he would be 5th choice and can only play CB (you could argue that Salah is 5th choice number 9 so will he want to go? ) - that's just a tag being placed on him by you. At the end of the day it is down to the player to decide how much first-team game-time he wants, in what position (if bothered) and whether he backs himself to show enough to the manager to get that game-time ahead of the other players available.
He may be ultimately eying up Endo's role, focussing on DM and be happy to cover CB as-and-when required. He may be so confident in his own ability that he thinks that he can show Slot enough to displace Konate - who knows! Taking his chance as a versatile squad player at Liverpool might just turn out to be his big breakthrough rather than a wasted year. Conversely, he may need to go out on loan again to continue his development or he may not want to have to fight for chances but to state as fact that "nobody is going to want to" is simply not true. We have more left-backs than you can shake a stick at in a worse position to get game-time and they are virtually refusing to leave!
25 Jul 2025 11:07:15
hailstones -Nallo is a young boy, that played one senior game and had a mare. He will learn from that.
25 Jul 2025 13:29:22
C'mon Shipley, displace Konate? Mo 5th choice CF? The lads had a taste of regular football. He'll go out on loan again this season at a higher level where we can get a better picture of whether he may actually be good enough for us one day.