Liverpool FC Premier League Champions 25/26 - Talk /Gossip/Rumours

Stefan Bajcetic

He's not a realistic depth option anymore but at the start of the season he was. He was asked for on loan last summer but Slot and team decided to loan out Tyler Morton and James McConnell instead and have Bajcetic with the first team

He got injured straight away and then had setbacks and is still not back yet

Ship has sailed on him now I'd say. Will be 2 and a half years since his last appearance for us come start of next season

😅 I see what you mean but I was saying that none of us want the club to be run like Chelsea who go through managers like brown paper bags.

But I can see what I wrote looked like a contradiction😉

I think Van Dijk has been one of our best players this season, he can't be expected to play every single minute at his age and he does have some bad lapses in concentration but there were comments in here over the weekend saying he should be "fcuked off" and sold.

Just because he's not the best CB in the world anymore doesn't mean he's not still really good, we can't even find someone to replace Quansah but fans want VVD gone?

EDIT: Liverpool have more possession than any other team in the entire league, yet Virg is third in the league for most total clearances and tops the charts for headers won, ie every single time we lose the ball he's the one dealing with the oncoming attack.

His "drop off" this year is completely exaggerated.

He held the team together for the first few months of the season.

But as you say, had to play every second at 34, babysit Kerkez who he still seems reluctant to pass to, whoever was at RB, of course Konate and even the new backup goalie somewhat struggling.

All this while dealing with an absolute mess on front of him.

I'm surprised he's lasted this long without errors.

I don't think the plan was to utilize 34 year old VVD under the above circumstances tbh.

One of our best players, if not the best player in the team, for the first couple months of the season.

In terms of squad, aside from spotty defence we still have an incredible team on paper imo, which has the capability to go all the way in the CL, but is just not performing at the required level at the moment.

Yeah our starting lineup that went out against Marseille is, on paper, bursting with talent. That lineup should fear no-one. Only doubt is (still) Salah. It's just not working for him any more on that wing. While we have some good options off the bench (Gakpo, Robertson, Rio, Jones, Chiesa, Endo), we still so soooo fragile in our depth (and how Slot uses) them. Not having Ekitike in the starting lineup just kills our attack IMO. I know he needs to be minded so if that's going to be the case, how does Slot solve the problem. Is there an argument to play Salah up top and have Gakpo, Wirtz and Mac behind him, with Kerkez and Frimpong up the wings. That leaves Dom and Grav to be the engine in midfield and support for the CBs if the FBs get caught out of position.

To clarify: I agree Virgs "drop off" is being exaggerated, but also some drop off is to be unfortunately expected from a player another year older and yet expected to maintain his ridiculously high standards of previous years.

I was absolutely agreeing with you for the record.

Just reemphaising that we have decided to ask more, not less, of our 34 CB than last year which is ridiculous.

VVD is still obviously our best CB, but, he has dropped off, which is to be expected, the big problem is the club haven't allowed for that, like, he shouldn't have to play every minute of every game, but, the fact is we are barely able to cover his CB partner at the moment, I can't understand why the club continues to neglect CB, do they think VVD is going to last forever?, plus Gomez is injury prone, Konate is out of contract in the summer and Leoni out for the year ( and we don't really know if he's good enough), surely there is some CB out there we can bring in this month, even until the end of the season.season. Thus us another example of poor planning from a recruitment side, which has left us with massive strength in depth issues throughout the squad. I think we only have about 4 sensenior squad players out injured, we should be able to cope with that!

Van Dijk has already played 2,880 minutes as a 34 year old, he's 34 until the summer and with 15 PL games, plus at least a couple more from the cups he could easily tally well over 4,000 minutes.

Just to compare to some of the other big name PL CBs over the years, at 34 years old:

Sami Hyypia played 2,905 minutes, he left Liverpool the following year

Jamie Carragher played 2,462 minutes, he retired 3 months later

John Terry played 4,033 minutes

Rio Ferdinand played 2,773 minutes, he joined QPR the following year

Sol Campbell played 3,135

Tony Adams played 3,317

Vincent Kompany, Nemanja Vidic, and Ledley King were all retired by 34

Not sure Ledley King is a good reference or in good company here. 😜

Did he ever play more than a couple of thousand minutes in a season?!?

I seem to remember him being very talented but injured more often than available!

Read today that the team conceded five goals in the 95th + minute of 5 games this season in the league that has costed them 7 points.

If you put those 7 points on the current total Liverpool would be on 43 points and at least still in the race.

Its mad, a few positive results and we are in the title race still. A few more positive results and we would still be on here saying we are **** probably.