da prosport bet： After a frustrating summer, it’s fair to say that Liverpool fans didn’t panic – though they might well have been entitled to at various points. In the end, it all seems to have worked out rather well.
da cassino online： At the start of the summer, a left-back, a centre-back, a defensive midfielder and a pacey winger were needed at Anfield. But even though Mohamed Salah arrived early in the window, as Virgil van Dijk and Naby Keita sagas raged on, it seemed like less than ideal preparation for the new season. Especially as a tough draw against Hoffenheim in the Champions League play-off round necessitated a speedy start.
Instead, the signing of Andrew Robertson from Hull City seemed underwhelming, and Alberto Moreno’s appearance as the apparent first-choice left-back for the Watford and Hoffenheim games seemed to signal a club who hadn’t really strengthened as they might have done.
The reason, though, may well have been that play-off itself: teams who can’t 100% guarantee Champions League football often have to wait until they can to attract the players they want. And that means leaving transfer dealings later than they might usually like.
And so, this deadline day, Liverpool now look in a much better position. Van Dijk may still arrive, whilst Thomas Lemar is touted as a potential signing which could be made today. But the most likely to happen is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, for whom Liverpool have reportedly agreed a £40m fee with Arsenal.
This represents a different kind of signing, though. Of all the players needed at Anfield this summer, Chamberlain possibly fits into the ‘pacey winger’ category, but they’ve already signed Salah and the England international himself isn’t keen on playing in that position. He’s not a player who relishes running in behind, despite his pace and skill on the ball. He’s a player who likes the ball to feet and options ahead of him.
Strangely, though, Chamberlain seems to float around the positions these days. He wants to play in the centre of midfield, but he wasn’t trusted in there by Arsene Wenger, and with the form of Emre Can, the seniority of Jordan Henderson and the brilliance of Georginio Wijnaldum, you get the feeling that Chamberlain would struggle for minutes in the centre of the pitch. Just as Adam Lallana and even Philippe Coutinho might find it hard to crowbar their way into the midfield three when back up to full-fitness / finished with tantrums.
That means that Chamberlain’s role at Liverpool looks more like that of James Milner’s than anyone else’s.
Perhaps the stat that bears this out the most is that the Arsenal man has scored just nine league goals in his time at the club. That’s a terrible return if you consider Chamberlain to be an attacker – the winger-forward that most people think that he is. But it’s a fairly unsurprising return if you think of him as a creative central midfielder whose pace and athleticism saw him stuck on the wing in the mistaken belief that his attributes were best suited to that role.
But what Chamberlain will give, then, is a diversity within the squad, the ability to come on and give something different, or to combine his athleticism with a role which suits his more technical talents. Because whilst he certainly is a physically gifted player, he does see a pass, and he can be good on the ball. And in that way, perhaps he’s best suited to the sort of game that Jurgen Klopp likes to play: fast-paced, press-heavy and creative. He’s the perfect central midfielder for a counter-attacking team, for example. And against teams where you think you’ll dominate more, he does have the ability to unlock defences by running at them – something Liverpool missed greatly when Sadio Mane was missing.
The price tag that comes with the player might seem a steep, and it certainly is a high price to pay for a player with Chamberlain’s record, but there’s still a potential that’s untapped, and when you look at his attributes, Liverpool’s high-intensity play coupled with the fact that they’ll face plenty of stubborn defences in slow-paced games where it’s attack v defence this season might just suit him down to the ground.