Shaqiri: It Just Makes Sense

Liverpool recently confirmed the signing of Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri from Stoke. The fee is rumoured to be somewhere in the region of thirteen million pounds, a relatively trifling sum in the modern market. Klopp will be hoping that the winger can deliver serious value on the investment, and he certainly has the talent to do so – even if he completely fails to show his best form at Liverpool, however, it is still hard to envisage his stock depreciating in any significant manner. As the manager said, this deal is a “no-brainer”.

Plenty of supporters will remember getting very excited about Shaqiri when he was first linked to the club, back in the summer of 2014. At the time he was a 22-year-old talent who had showcased his potential in Bayern’s historic treble-winning season the previous year; he had struggled for consistent game time in the star-studded squad, but looked capable of being a world-beater in the right side.

Now 26, he has arguably never quite found that side – his spell at Inter lasted just six months, while Stoke lacked the quality to fully unlock his potential. However, Shaqiri was able to progress a lot personally during his time at The Potters. Frequently tasked with winning matches on his own, he delivered with impressive regularity: last season proved a stretch too far even for him, as Stoke found themselves relegated to the Championship, but Shaqiri’s own numbers were the best he has posted since joining the Premier League.

His core attributes look ready-made for a Klopp system. Almost any player in the world would be required to raise their distance covered during a match in order to fit in at Liverpool, but the Swiss winger is by no means a long way off the pace – his eagerness to put in the hard yards is apparent whenever he plays, and there is little doubt about his physical condition. His versatility is also important. Few if any new signings could be guaranteed a starting berth in Liverpool’s attack, and Shaqiri is no exception; it is likely that he will be required in a variety of positions across the course of a long season. This will not be a problem: not only has he played on both wings, his average positions for Stoke reveal a significant amount of time spent in a more central and withdrawn role. He is comfortable creating chances from this pocket – with the likes of Salah and Mane as runners, his assist numbers will only improve.

Add to this package his pace, trickery and unerring ability from long range, and it is easy to see why Klopp moved to sign him. In the modern game, 26 is still young – Shaqiri represents a significant improvement on the current options off the bench even if he doesn’t develop at all in his time at Anfield, but there is no reason to think that he can’t finally unleash the potential that he has shown in flashes for years. It is no coincidence that Shaqiri has been a standout player at each of the last three major international tournaments: when he is given minutes in a side with a bit of quality, we see the best of him. Klopp, a veritable master of bringing the best out of players, will only help in this regard.

The one real question is whether the winger will be afforded the minutes he needs to properly reach his excitingly high peak, but it would be foolish to attack the signing on this basis. For one thing, he is likely to rack up significant playing time across the course of the campaign. Furthermore, squad depth is something fans have been rightly craving for a long time – Shaqiri emphatically addresses this need, and this is a cause for celebration rather than complaint.  Imagine for a moment that Shaqiri was available to call upon in Kyiv when Salah was forced off early; the outcome might not have been any different, but it seems likely that there would have been a fair amount more confidence that the team still had a fighting chance if this level of quality could have been summoned off the bench.  

Finally, on a pragmatic note, what is there to lose? The preceding points are not empty words – Shaqiri really could develop into a player to rival those currently occupying Liverpool’s front three – but even if he does not do so, the club will suffer no great detriment. Even in a worst-case scenario where Shaqiri fails to make any impact whatsoever on the first team, it is easy to imagine that there would still be a host of clubs queuing up to take a ten-million-pound gamble on a man clearly blessed with talent. In other words, the club could likely recoup most of the fee with ease even in the unlikely event that things completely fail to work out. There are still his wages to think about, but with the likes of Bogdan and Markovic still on the books it would seem odd to take specific issue with Shaqiri.

Embrace the return to the summer of 2014. Liverpool are a team on the up, and this time the top talent has not only been linked to the club but has arrived. Shaqiri will not be a guaranteed starter, as he may have been back then, but that is just a sign of the progress the club has made – this progress will only be aided by the addition of this most talented of squad players, who with a bit of luck might yet become one of Klopp’s world-beaters.

@JamesMartin013 

Time to Get Behind Coutinho

There is a lot of ill-feeling towards Philippe Coutinho in the Liverpool fan base at the moment. This is completely understandable: the manner in which he pursued his dream move was unprofessional and potentially damaging to the club at an important time. However, some empathy is surely needed – there are very few players who would not push for a move if Barcelona came calling, and it was only Liverpool’s hard stance that forced him to the extremes of not playing. The argument could be made that this stance was unfair to the player; he has contributed a lot to the team over the past three and a half seasons, and I felt that he deserved to be allowed to go once a reasonable bid was received. Of course, he has a long-term contract, and FSG were well within their rights to point to such a recently-signed 5-year deal; the same is true of Van Dijk, however, and Liverpool fans’ outrage at his desire to move is suspiciously lacking. That said, I’m thrilled that Coutinho is staying, not least because the club’s record at replacing key men in recent years is patchy at best. Now it’s important for the fans to get behind him.

The dislike for his attitude, coupled with Liverpool’s relative success in his absence, has led some fans to play down the importance of Coutinho to the team. This is simply revisionism: he is the best player at the club. Mane is catching him rapidly, but for the time being the Brazilian playmaker is on a level of his own. His vision unlocks defences that nobody else can break down, and the creativity he injects into the midfield three is vital to the long-term success of the team. Furthermore, he is the most capable of producing a ‘moment of magic’ to swing a tight game – Klopp has assembled an attacking unit which contributes (and scores) remarkably equally, but Coutinho is the most capable of winning points on his own.  Talk of leaving him ‘rotting in the reserves’ is frankly absurd – why hang on so determinedly to a prized asset only to refuse to utilise him? Rather he should be unleashed on opponents as soon as possible: our attack has already notched eight in three Premier League games, and it is frightening to think what they could do with Coutinho providing them service.

Such a lethal combination could go on to big things this season, both domestically and in Europe. Particularly given Barcelona’s apparent decline, who can say what Coutinho will want to do next summer? One thing is for sure: regardless of how much the club progresses, he will not want to stay at Liverpool if the fans are on his back all season. At a time where it feels as if seismic shift is taking place amongst the European elite, Liverpool need to be attracting rather than repelling top talent in order to stand a chance of filling the power vacuum and re-establishing themselves as a dominant club force. To this end, fans must try to put this unfortunate transfer saga behind them: loyalty in football is an extreme rarity in the modern game, and as long as Coutinho continues to perform on the pitch he is just as worthy of support as the rest of the team. 

I can still understand why some supporters are unwilling to forgive him. Nonetheless, the form that some of the criticism has taken is unpleasant. Neymar’s comment that Coutinho was in “a moment of great sadness” was met with derision – many seemed angry that he dare be unhappy when he earns so much money. This is clearly nonsense; his wealth does not guarantee him happiness, and by extension his sadness is not illegitimate purely because he gets paid a lot. Some of the abuse has also highlighted the toxic masculinity particularly prevalent in football: Coutinho was visibly emotional during Brazil’s win over Ecuador, and the manner and form of the insults that followed was ugly.  It’s a personal decision whether or not to get behind him, but ignorant insults are far more worthy of criticism than wanting to move to Barcelona.

To sum up, I would strongly advocate getting fully behind Coutinho. He has given a lot to this club, it was natural for him to want to move, and although he went about trying to do this in a less-than-ideal fashion he remains a world class player who we want to perform well for us. It would be self-destructive to potentially prevent him from flourishing. Even if you can’t bring yourself to back him, at least be wary that the form of your criticism doesn’t say more about you than it does him.

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Shelvey to Swansea- Good Deal?

Today, Liverpool announced the sale of midfielder Jonjo Shelvey to Swansea City. The fee is believed to be £6million. A lot of people are happy to see the back of Shelvey, but many others believe that he has a very promising future, and we shouldn’t have let him go.

Personally, I’m thrilled with Shelvey’s departure. Although he did show some potential when he played for us, there are clear flaws to his game. Firstly, he is extremely selfish. Often we would see him squander a good opportunity by going for an ambitious long shot when a pass would have been the better option. Admittedly we have seen him score some stunning goals from long range, particularly at under-21 level, but more often than not they don’t meet their intended target. This wastefulness and selfishness is evident in his goals/assists statistics. Despite playing 47 Premier League games for Liverpool, he only managed to score twice, and didn’t get a single assist. Although this will most likely improve a little as he matures as a player, selfishness is a trait that is hard to ever fully shake off.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, Shelvey is very much surplus to requirements. At Liverpool, we have a wealth of talented midfielders. Jordan Henderson, Joe Allen, Phillipe Coutinho, Steven Gerrard and Lucas Leiva all occupy central positions, and at the moment they are all better than Shelvey. On top of this, Liverpool are trying to bring in Heinrich Mkhitaryan, who also plays in a central attacking role. Even without Mkhitaryan, Shelvey was still a 6^th choice midfielder at Liverpool, so to get 6 million pounds for him is a very good bit of business.

Some would argue that Shelvey would have grown into a regular starter for us, but this suggestion is flawed. Shelvey is 21 years old, which, though young, is not much younger than most of our regular midfield starters. Of the six players mentioned above, only Gerrard is over the age of 26. This puts Shelvey in direct competition with all of them. Brendan Rodgers is building a squad for the future, and this is apparent in the midfield. Nobody would argue that Shelvey is as good as Coutinho, and yet they are the same age. Coutinho is good enough to make our first team already, and hopefully has a great career at Liverpool ahead of him. There is simply no point ‘investing in the future’ and holding on to players who show a few signs of potential if we have players the same age as them who are already good enough to make the first team!

Shelvey is not a bad player, and I’m sure he will improve with time. However, there are flaws in his game, and he cannot compete with the rest of our midfield. I wish him all the best at Swansea, but I don’t think we need him at Liverpool, and now we can invest the six million pounds in areas of the squad that actually do need strengthening.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

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