18 Jul 2026 14:45:38
Not seen him mentioned but would Leon Goretzka on a free not be worth a punt?
Still only 31 and plenty of experience.
18 Jul 2026 15:20:42
Very good player but probably not able to deal with the heavy running required at this stage in his career.
18 Jul 2026 15:22:24
He makes Macca look mobile. We need more legs in midfield, not oldies.
18 Jul 2026 16:07:38
Is Goretzka really that good? I've seen him play about 20 times, and he hasn't caught the eye once. He has physicality but doesn't use it particularly well. He has absolutely no defensive awareness, he isn't very good on a technical level, and he can't run anymore.
He's not even a decent option off the bench for Bayern anymore and was making a huge amount in terms of wages.
18 Jul 2026 17:15:55
Goretzka? No thank you. There's far far better and more suited than Goretzka out there.
18 Jul 2026 17:19:04
For what? We're not short in the middle of the park, and his wages would be far too expensive to justify sitting on the bench all season.
18 Jul 2026 17:29:33
No thanks. So far past his best that if he was a horse his name would be Bostick.
Our midfield is short on legs, defensive nous and physicality. Why add one more who can't run and can't defend.
18 Jul 2026 17:40:20
We are short of a top quality defensive minded midfielder, Chewy, but agree we don't need bodies for the sake of it or to pad out the squad numbers.
18 Jul 2026 17:43:17
Would be a Van Gaal Man U signing that.
18 Jul 2026 18:19:48
Grav is our DM, he signed a 280k pw, 6-year contract in March, clearly the club is confident in his abilities. We won't be signing the type of DM that the fans on here want. Let's not forget people were calling Grav the best DM in the league 12 months ago.
18 Jul 2026 18:35:45
Gravenberch has been found out, and also he doesn't fancy the position either. It'll be another year of failure because we'll still be a soft touch in midfield, there's absolutely no physicality among any of our midfielders, and we'll be bullied to kingdom come again. Not one of our midfielders has any fight about them.
18 Jul 2026 18:36:47
Some fans on here want Chewy. I've never called for a ball winning DM because I don't think we need one.
Not many top teams have a Makalele, Kante, Fabinho type ball winner anymore. City have Rodri, but he's hardly a beast of a tackler. More a very clever, technical player, which I think Grav has all of the attributes to be if we just persevere with him in that position.
One of Slot's biggest and most baffling mistakes was taking Grav out of that position in the first place, and then, when it clearly wasn't working, not putting him back there.
18 Jul 2026 18:39:19
Another option is Harvey Elliot, who, Andoni said in his first press conference, has come back a week earlier to improve his fitness and obviously try to impress the new manager on the USA tour with his footballing skills.
It is "now" or "never" for Harvey. This is his third LFC manager; I very much doubt he will still be here for his fourth LFC manager either way!
18 Jul 2026 19:01:03
007, Not surprised he came back early. Size of him.
18 Jul 2026 19:05:48
Chewy, but he didn't play there last season n was very below par, when Klopp was manager, everyone was expecting Grav to be one of the first sold, he needs to get back to sitting in front of the defence otherwise he is a liability.
18 Jul 2026 19:09:42
I like the idea of an older head in the team, remember Gary Mac n Molby, not the fastest but faster in the football brain than most midfielders.
18 Jul 2026 19:25:13
Grav was very good when he sat in a more structured role, he’s only done it one season in three though so let’s hope he can reproduce it. I think Iraola will play with two more deep lying centre mids, but not sure whether Wharton is going to be the second or whether they’ll try again with Macca.
It’s risky not buying a more mobile specialist who can sit in there.
That leaves Szob playing more advanced centrally, so it’s a mystery where Wirtz fits in.
18 Jul 2026 21:42:57
@Strom, ideally we should be playing young players with really good football intelligence who can also run quickly. Best of both worlds.