Double Hijacked!

Twelve Hours of Drama Around the Moisés Caicedo Transfer

At around 2 p.m. central time here in the U.S. on Thursday, Aug. 10, I finished a 4,100-word blog post – the first post I have written in seven months. This post, which you will find pasted below this introduction in its entirety, was/is a season preview, focusing on the issue that has been on the minds of Liverpool fans over the last two months – will the team be better or worse in light of the recent departures of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho? 

After I finished the piece, I logged into Twitter (a/k/a “X”) in time to learn of some strong rumors that LFC had now entered the fray to hijack Chelsea’s purchase of Moisés Caicedo from Brighton. “Wow!” I thought. “I guess I’ll wait to see if anything develops over the next day or so before I post this.” 

Well, something developed. 

At around 7:30 p.m. central time on Thursday, I learned that Brighton had accepted a British record £110 million offer from Liverpool for Caicedo. Liverpool had hijacked a deal that Chelsea had been working on for months. 

Moisés Caicedo is a game-changer.  He literally changes games every time he steps on the pitch. And, in the figurative sense, his presence would have drastically changed the game when it comes to assessing Liverpool’s chances of success this season.  

In one stroke, LFC would have not only boldly broken the record for a British transfer fee – they would have also once again made themselves genuine contenders for a Premier League title. 

Thursday was a good day for LFC. 

But now it’s Friday. And, I learned when I awoke this morning that, just as quickly as Caicedo had turned on Chelsea in favor of Liverpool, it appears that he has now turned back. After Brighton accepted LFC’s offer, Chelsea apparently went back to Caicedo’s agent with more money. With eyes only for the cash, Caicedo’s agent has now instructed his client to inform Liverpool and Brighton that Caicedo will only accept a transfer to Chelsea. Brighton will then require Chelsea to match Liverpool’s offer of a transfer fee.  At that point, Caicedo – apparently – will become a Chelsea footballer. 

So, it seems that the hijackers have now been hijacked. Tit for tat. 

Nothing is yet set in stone, but it certainly appears that Chelsea will win this particular battle. 

As I said above, Caicedo is a transformative player, and this is not a small loss – at least on the pitch. He’s also still just a 21-year-old kid, and he’s likely just trying to follow the advice of people in whom he has placed his trust. I don’t blame him. I don’t think it’s fair to say that Caicedo himself is an asshole based on this episode alone. I suspect he’s a great guy, and that he would have fit in fabulously with Liverpool off the pitch as well as on. 

At this point, it seems that Liverpool are left in close to the same position they had been in before news broke yesterday that they were attempting to hijack the Caicedo deal. 

It now seems likely that we will go back to Southampton and try to complete the deal for Roméo Lavia. LFC may find that Southampton has now raised the price on that deal. We’ll see.  

Perhaps LFC instead will turn to other options, such as Crystal Palace’s Cheick Doucouré. 

In any event, because LFC’s current situation is back to almost the same spot it had been at the point when I finished the draft below, I am putting that draft here for your reading pleasure. 

Season Preview 2023-24: New Midfield, New Hope

“From here on out, I don’t want to see Henderson and Fabinho together in the same midfield ….”

• Quickly Taken Corner, “The Wheels Are Off,” January 20, 2023

Be careful what you wish for, eh?  

I would never have guessed it at the time, but here we are. Six and a half months after I gave voice to my desire never to see them play for LFC at the same time, both Jordan Henderson and Fabinho are gone. Henderson and Fabinho made up two-thirds of Liverpool’s first-choice midfield from 2018 to 2023 – throughout Liverpool’s reign under Jürgen Klopp at or near the top of world football. 

Here’s the (multi-)million dollar question: 

Do the Departures of Fabinho and Henderson Help or Hurt Liverpool?

Let’s Start with the Pessimists’ Perspective. 

Judging from my “X” (f/k/a Twitter) feed, many Liverpool fans around the world are freaking out that, with the departures of Fabinho and Henderson, no one currently in the squad fits the role of midfield “destroyer.” That is, other than the 18-year-old Stefan Bajčetić, who is just coming off of surgery for a serious adductor injury, the squad does not include a single player whose primary position is defensive midfielder. 

Over the last six-plus seasons, Fabinho and (to a lesser extent) Henderson have (mostly) brilliantly filled that role for the Redmen. 

Because Liverpool play a very high defensive line and aggressively press, defensive midfield is a particularly critical position. When Liverpool attack, its fullbacks typically advance far up the pitch, leaving a two-man center back pairing and goalkeeper as the last line of defense.  But for years, Fabinho has shielded that last line, sliding to break up hundreds of opposition counterattacks with those long, spiderish legs. 

Even though Fabinho played poorly nearly all of last season, there’s no doubt that he still has the instincts, positioning, experience, and defensive nous to understand all aspects of this protective role. 

Large questions remain whether anyone else will be able to fill that role this season.

Neither 19-year-old transfer target Romeo Lavia, 18-year-old Stefan Bajčetić, Thiago, Curtis Jones, nor any other LFC midfielder can, at this point, replace all of Fabinho’s experience and nous as the midfield shield for a vulnerable defense. 

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s need for an experienced defensive midfielder has been on full display in this preseason. While LFC’s attack has been in free flow, the Reds have been unable to stem the tide of opposition counterattacks. In five preseason friendlies, the Reds scored an impressive 18 goals. But they also conceded 11. Ouch.

From the pessimists’ perspective, Liverpool appears like a side that is destined to leak a whole lot of goals. And one of the biggest reasons for the leaks in that defense will be the absence of a strong, established defensive midfielder, like Fabinho. 

Leadership – the Missing Intangible?

The pessimists among us can also point to a possible void of leadership in this Liverpool squad. Captains Henderson and Milner are gone, as is midfield anchor Fabinho. Roberto Firmino, a favorite of fans and teammates alike, has also flown the coop in favor of Saudi money.  For years, Firmino led Klopp’s press with a dynamism and intelligence that will be difficult to match. 

This is a real concern, but in my mind it’s an overblown one. I think I tend to place less value on these intangible qualities than many do.  It’s not so much that I think they aren’t important. Rather, I think that they are probably easier to replace than physical skills. For instance, in place of the leadership of Henderson and Milner, the squad now has Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Are these two new captains less qualified to lead than Henderson and Milner? Will they do a worse job in this department? I doubt it, on both counts. 

The Sheer Number of Personnel Changes Is Itself a Problem

For me, the bigger “intangible” concern is the fact that LFC’s squad is undergoing a pretty major shift in personnel this season. This much change, all at once, is a big deal. At the top level, football teams gain marginal success through fluency of play that nearly always requires the team to have many hours together on the pitch. 

At their peak, Liverpool’s last group of champions could exchange one-touch passes, blind passes into space, and long diagonal passes across the length of the pitch – all because they had a great understanding of where their teammates would be, what runs they would make, and where the spaces would be for them to run into. Because they knew each other so well, they could meld together with a fluency that appeared effortless. 

Of course, there’s some merit to the aphorism that “football is football.”  Highly-skilled newcomers such as Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai will often be part of interchanges with their new teammates this season that will make it appear that they have been in the team for years. But, the reality is that, regardless of skill level, newcomers are more likely to be on a different page from their teammates.  The sheer number of newcomers in LFC’s lineup will undercut Liverpool’s fluidity on offense. 

Perhaps more importantly, the presence of a lot of newcomers will also make Liverpool more vulnerable on defense. The new players are still learning where to go and what to do in certain situations, and also learning where they can count on their teammates to be in those same scenarios. Mistakes will be made. Gaps will open up. Goals will be conceded. 

Of all the pessimists’ concerns for Liverpool’s upcoming season, I regard the large number of personnel changes as the most serious.

Now, on to the Optimistic(Ish) View. 

For me, this is a simple case of addition by subtraction. Fabinho and Henderson were so bad last season … How bad were they? (And, if you understood that reference, you’re old).  They were so bad that Liverpool can only improve this year by replacing their minutes with younger midfielders who can actually run and press with energy. 

Last season, both Henderson and Fabinho were among the worst offenders in a bad Liverpool team that was full of formerly good (and great) players regularly performing abysmally. 

But before I get into the details of why younger legs are really going to help LFC’s midfield this season, let me address an even simpler issue: Liverpool DO have options to fill this midfield role. 

Liverpool DO have viable defensive midfield options

Despite the whiny outbursts on my X (Twitter) feed, the club have a number of viable options to fill the defensive midfield role. Sure, if your definition of “viable” is “ideal,” then the current options don’t qualify. But Webster’s tells me that “viable” means “capable of working, functioning or developing adequately.” Our current DM options are likely not good enough for us to win the Premier League. But, in my opinion, they are certainly adequate for LFC to improve significantly upon last season’s fifth-place performance and results.

First, it’s highly unlikely that this transfer window will close without Liverpool buying at least one new defensive midfielder. Liverpool appear to be closing in on the acquisition of 19-year-old Romeo Lavia from Southampton. 

As described in the introductory section above, LFC’s efforts to secure a defensive midfielder in the transfer market now qualify for “epic saga” status. Peter Jackson may soon be optioning the film rights. I look forward to seeing Jürgen played by Viggo Mortensen in shiny armor.  And, the epic saga is still not over. We certainly don’t know how it will end. There’s still some possibility that Lavia will never be an LFC player. But, at this point, it looks like he probably will be, and relatively soon.

Naysayers can rightly point out that, even if the Lavia transfer goes through as I expect, this will not necessarily solve Liverpool’s short-term defensive midfield issues. Lavia is only 19, and there is some question how much he will be able to contribute to Liverpool this season. Given that the position of DM may be the most complex, nuanced role in Klopp’s system, I would be very surprised if Klopp simply throws Lavia into the team and tells him to swim. Lavia is far more likely to be eased into the team gradually, which means that someone else will be having to pull the heavy load in that role for at least the first half of the season. The stalwarts among you will recall that Fabinho himself was eased into the position over the course of his first season. 

Nonetheless, there’s no doubt that – unlike Curtis Jones, Thiago, or Mac Allister – Lavia’s primary position IS defensive midfielder. Thus, with Lavia coming in and Bajčetić having returned this week to team training, the club will no longer be in the position of lacking anyone who can be fairly described as a defensive mid. Both of those teenagers — Lavia and Bajčetić — have played significant Premier League minutes as defensive mids, and that position is a natural fit for both of them.

Thiago Alcântara also returned to full team training this week, and he offers another real option at this position. To be sure, no one would describe Thiago as a defensive midfielder.  Nonetheless, he has played most of his career in a double-pivot as a deep-lying midfielder, which is exactly the position that remains up for grabs with the departure of Fabinho. 

The issue with Thiago is that his primary function in the team is as a controller who sets the tempo and orchestrates the offense.  Most folks think that what Liverpool currently need most is someone who will function as a destroyer – whose primary responsibility is defensive. A destroyer screens the back line, cuts off passing lanes, disrupts opposition transitions, and wins back the ball. Thiago sometimes does all of those things, but defensive responsibilities have never been his primary function, his instinctive tendency, nor his gift.  Thiago has also demonstrated over many seasons that he is highly likely to suffer injuries. He cannot be consistently counted on to be available. 

Curtis Jones provides another real option to fill the defensive midfield role, at least on an interim basis. Curtis certainly prefers a more attacking role, and his positional instincts will always reflect more of an attacking mindset. Nonetheless, CuJo started in a double pivot this summer for the England U-21 team that won the European title. By all accounts, Curtis was extremely effective in this role, which is close to the same position that Fabinho just vacated in the new LFC 3-2-2-3 formation. I think Jones has maneuvered himself into a utility role in Klopp’s midfield – he can (and probably will) be used in any of the midfield roles. Kudos to Jones for his hard work and perseverance through some frustrating injuries, and periods when he had simply fallen down in the pecking order. He’s going to get a lot of minutes this season, and I think he will do very well. He has transformed me from a doubter to a believer in him.

Finally, Alexis Mac Allister also provides a realistic option as a defensive mid.  He played from a deep-lying position much of last season with Brighton, and he has also played in similar positions for Argentina. Thus, when Curtis Jones suffered a small knock prior to LFC’s final preseason game on Monday, Klopp used Mac Allister as the “Number Six” in midfield. Mac Allister filled the role brilliantly, at least when LFC had the ball. Klopp plainly wants Mac Allister to fill a more attacking role in this Liverpool team most of the time. But Mac Allister will also always be a realistic option to play defensive midfield when needed. 

Between Lavia, Bajčetić, Thiago, Jones, and Mac Allister, Liverpool will have many options for filling the defensive midfield role. One can fairly ask whether any of those options will protect Liverpool’s defense as effectively as Fabinho would. But to suggest that Liverpool lack any options at all is ridiculous. 

Addition by Subtraction: Why Liverpool Will Improve Without Fabinho and Henderson (and Milner As Well)

To understand why Liverpool will be better this season without Henderson and Fabinho, we must unfortunately revisit what happened last year. 

By the high standards they have set under Klopp, including just one season earlier, Liverpool were terrible. But WHY were they so bad? 

Psychology Was Part of the Problem

Part of the problem, no doubt, was psychological. After all, at the start of last season, Liverpool were trying to bounce back after just missing out (in 2021-22) on achieving something no other team has done – winning four major trophies in the same season. The 2021-22 squad won both domestic cup trophies. Then they lost the Premier League on the final day by one point to Manchester City (again). Finally, two weeks later, the Reds lost to Real Madrid (again) in the Champions League Final, by a single goal in a tightly-contested match. 

Having come so close the year before, it’s understandable why the Reds would have had trouble gearing up to do it all again. Then, the preseason was shortened on both ends, both by the Reds progressing all the way to the Champions League Final in late May, and because the upcoming mid-season World Cup in Qatar meant that the Premier League season would start a few weeks earlier than usual. 

All of this would have posed a psychological challenge for any team. 

But Last Year’s Big Problems Were Definitely Physical

Nonetheless, the biggest problems for Liverpool last season were not psychological. They were physical. 

Problem Number One was injuries. But nearly as important was Problem Number Two: the team just couldn’t run far enough or fast enough. They didn’t have the legs to play with intensity, which is the only way that Jürgen Klopp tells his team to play.

This was the point of my last blog post, quoted at the top. It was only January, and several months still remained to be played. But it was sufficiently demoralizing that I would not blog about that horrible season again until now, months after the nightmare finally ended. 

By the time I had written those words in January, Liverpool’s season had fallen apart to the point that I simply lost any energy to write more about it – reminiscent of the way LFC’s old midfield had lost the energy to run. 

By January 2023, I had grown well tired of watching Liverpool lose. I had grown even more tired of watching Liverpool’s midfield try to press its opponent, only to be bypassed time and time again.

Liverpool’s Lack of Fresh Legs in Midfield Crippled the Team

Problem Number Two was exemplified by Fabinho and Henderson. Liverpool’s forwards and midfielders – especially Fabinho and Henderson – simply could not get to where they needed to be quickly enough to make the press effective. 

Against Brighton, a match Klopp described as the worst of his managerial career, Liverpool had pressed a LOT.  But that pressure was terribly, horribly ineffective at doing anything other than creating huge gaps in the LFC defense for Brighton to exploit after easily beating the pressure. 

Among the many horrific stats about that Brighton match compiled by the great folks at the Anfield Index Under Pressure podcast were these:

• Liverpool’s presses failed either to dispossess the opposition or force them backward 84 times. That was 17 more failures than the team has EVER had.
• Eight of those 84 failed presses led directly to Brighton shots. This too was a record. 
• 75 percent of Brighton’s overall xG came from LFC’s failed pressures.

The match marked one of the low points in Liverpool’s season. For me, one of the primary reasons that the Brighton match felt like a low point was not that it particularly stood out. Instead, Brighton was a low point for me precisely because it seemed like an exemplar of how Liverpool’s entire season had looked. 

And, just to be clear, Fabinho and Henderson were at the heart of the midfield, where they were routinely pressing and failing, and constantly being dribbled past. Both of them were also generally unable to provide adequate cover for the fullbacks and center backs, as their responsibilities required. 

They just couldn’t run. 

The Shift to the Hybrid, “Box Midfield” System

Then, at the tail end of the season, Klopp & Co. changed the team formation.  Rather than setting up in the 4-3-3 system that Liverpool had used since very early in Klopp’s tenure, Klopp moved the team into a hybrid 4-3-3/3-2-2-3 (a/k/a “three-box-three” due to the box-like shape of the central midfield).  In the new system, Liverpool defended in its conventional 4-3-3 shape, but the shape was very different going forward. The new shape also gave nearly everyone a very different job when defending against counterattacks in transition. 

When Liverpool were in possession in the new box midfield system, Trent Alexander-Arnold shifted from his typical right back position, and moved alongside Fabinho as a double pivot in the new 3-2-2-3 setup.  Meanwhile, the two more advanced midfielders pushed farther forward than they normally would. In the box midfield the two advanced mids play more like #10s – central attacking midfielders – as opposed to filling the more box-to-box role they had in Klopp’s 4-3-3 system.  These two midfielders take on more attacking responsibilities higher up the pitch. Effectively, Liverpool have five attackers in the new system, rather than the three attackers available in the 4-3-3 setup.

 In defense, the left back (Andy Robertson) is supposed to shift into a left center back position in a new “back three,”  alongside a middle center back (Virgil van Dijk) and a right center back (Ibou Konaté). 

Last season, Liverpool played its last 10 games in this new hybrid system, coming away with seven wins and three draws. Although LFC’s schedule across those last 10 games was soft, the results were so dramatically improved over the rest of the season that they demanded further attention.

During this preseason, Klopp has exclusively used the new hybrid formation. In an interesting twist, when Trent has been out of the lineup and the “reserves” have occupied the pitch, Klopp has flipped the hybrid role so that Kostas Tsimikas has moved into the double pivot from the left side. In those situations, Joe Gomez has acted as the right center back, pushing Joël Matip into the central CB spot. A young left-sided CB (Jarell Quansah) has filled the left CB role. 

Mac Allister and Szoboszlai Will Delight Us While Playing As Attacking Mids

To improve both our attack and our press, Liverpool recruited two excellent young midfielders to fill the advanced midfielder roles in the new system.  

Mac Allister is not the fastest of Premier League players, but his energy, decision-making, and technical skills are among the best of the best. Like Thiago, Mac Allister has an incredible knack for understanding where the spaces are on the pitch, and also where spaces are about to open up. Also like Thiago, Mac Allister has the skill to execute difficult passes under pressure to find his teammates running into those open spaces. Mac Allister is going to delight Liverpool fans immediately, and his presence will be key to both the Liverpool attack and the counter-press. 

Meanwhile, Dominik Szoboszlai has become Liverpool’s newest Energizer bunny. His pressing is relentless, and he covers enormous areas on the pitch when Liverpool do not have the ball. Across Europe, Szoboszlai was coveted for his ball-striking, vision, and passing skills. But Jürgen Klopp and many of the Liverpool faithful are going to love Szoboszlai most for what he does off the ball. I  believe he will be the key to Liverpool’s defense this season. 

The Other Midfield Spots Will Be Filled by Trent and Someone Else Who Can Also Run

We don’t yet know who will be playing most of the minutes this season in the “defensive midfielder” role alongside Trent in the double-pivot line of the 3-2-2-3 formation. For the first game this weekend against Chelsea, however, it looks like the most likely candidate is Curtis Jones. As noted above, Curtis lacks Fabinho’s defensive instincts and nous. But, unlike Fabinho, Curtis has plenty of legs. CuJo will run and run and run, and he can run fast. 

So, instead of our midfield being composed of two or three players who can’t run at all (Fabinho, Henderson, and one other — often the ancient James Milner), the midfield now has four players who can all run for days. 

Because there are new players and new combinations in this new midfield, they will make a lot of mistakes. But they are fast enough and energetic enough to recover from most of those mistakes. 

With these fresh legs in midfield, Liverpool’s overall team balance should be vastly improved over last year’s nightmare.  

And That’s Why I’m Optimistic

The tremendous results Liverpool achieved using the new hybrid system across its last 10 matches last year, along with the fact that the midfield has been completely re-energized this season, give me lots of optimism about the coming season. 

Sure, plenty of questions remain. Over time I plan to discuss all of them in this blog. For now, here’s a list of some of the big ones: 

• What roles do we still need to fill in the transfer window?:
  • DM
  • LCB/LB
  • Another backup CB
• Will our defense be bad this season?
• Will the hybrid 4-3-3/3-2-2-3 be our only system this season? Should it be?
• What should our first-choice front three be?
• How good will our attack be?
• How awesome is 17-year-old Ben Doak? Is he Mo Salah’s primary backup?

What To Expect Against Chelsea on Sunday

The short answer is: I have no idea what result to expect in our opener against Chelsea. While I’ve just written a whole lot of words describing the myriad ways in which Liverpool have changed over the off-season, those changes pale in comparison to the changes that Chelsea have undergone. 

At least for us fans, and perhaps to some extent for the managers and players as well, the Caicedo transfer drama adds further spice to this matchup. Caicedo is unlikely to play (for either team), or maybe he will end up playing for different teams in each half.

Chelsea: The Changes Are Overwhelming

First, and most importantly, Chelsea is now being managed by the great Mauricio Pochettino. When last we saw Poch in the Premier League, he took an underfunded Tottenham squad to the brink of both Premier League and Champions League titles, without quite getting over the line in either instance. Pochettino’s teams press with discipline, defend with meticulous, coordinated organization, and counterattack mercilessly. I will expect Chelsea to demonstrate some of all of these qualities on Sunday. But I also expect that they will be even farther from the finished product than Liverpool will be. 

Beyond having a new manager, Chelsea’s list of departing players this summer is extraordinary. It reads like an all-star list of Premier League players from about three to five years ago (plus some others who were still pretty good): 

• N’Golo Kante
• Mason Mount
• Cesar Azpilicueta
• Pierre Emerick Aubameyang
• Mateo Kovacic
• Christian Pulisic
• Edouard Mendy
• Kai Havertz
• Kalidou Koulibaly
• Tiemoue Bakayoko
• Ruben Loftus-Cheek

Meanwhile, since American Todd Boehly took over the club in May 2022, Chelsea has spent ridiculous sums acquiring new talent, including:

• Raheem Sterling
• Carney Chukwuemeka
• Marc Cucurella
• Wesley Fofana
• Benoit Badiashile
• Mykhailo Mudryk
• Noni Madueke
• Enzo Fernandez
• Christopher Nkunku
• Nicolas Jackson
• Lesley Ugochukwu
• Robert Sanchez
• Tyler Adams (apparently just canceled in light of the Caicedo deal)
• And now, apparently, Moisés Caicedo

All told, Boehly has reportedly spent the outrageous sum of more than £840 million (if we assume a deal for Caicedo goes through at the price of £110 million). Eight hundred and forty million pounds. That’s $1.067 BILLION. OMG. 

According to the website transfermarkt.us, over the course of his managerial career at Mainz, Dortmund, and Liverpool combined, Jürgen Klopp has spent a total of €1,068,615,000 on transfer fees. That figure is very close to what Todd Boehly has spent for Chelsea since he took over in May 2022.

From the above list of new Chelsea players, Fernandez, Jackson, Mudryk, and Sterling are all likely to start on Sunday. Christopher Nkunku suffered a knee injury requiring surgery during a preseason match, and will be out about four months. The others have not yet shown enough to be counted as starters (or, in Caicedo’s case, he won’t quite be ready because he hasn’t yet had a chance to train with the team). 

It’s tough to know who Chelsea will play against us on Sunday.

What To Expect From Liverpool 

Liverpool’s lineup, on the other hand, is fairly easy to predict.  Alisson, Robertson, van Dijk, Konaté, and Trent will make up the back five (with Trent moving into midfield when LFC have the ball); Curtis Jones is most likely to fill the other deep-lying midfielder role (with Mac Allister being the other possibility while Bajčetić and Thiago work themselves into game shape); Mac Allister and Szoboszlai will play as the advanced mids (with Gakpo filling in for Mac Allister if he drops into the deeper defensive role); and Mo Salah will play on the right side of the forward line. 

The only real questions about LFC’s lineup are who will lineup in the forward line alongside Salah. All four of the other forwards have had great preseasons. All four of them are likely to play in this match at some point.

For what it’s worth, I believe Klopp highly values Cody Gakpo’s defensive qualities, along with his ability to hold up the ball and bring his teammates into play.  Gakpo truly appears to be a great replacement for the unusual skillset of Roberto Firmino.

Luis Díaz seems the most likely to play on the left side, although no one could fault Klopp from choosing Diogo Jota instead. 

Thus, I think the team on Sunday will look like this:

Darwin Núñez currently appears to be Klopp’s fifth favorite in this highly-talented forward group.  Although Núñez has more scoring potential than any of the other forwards bar Mo Salah, neither his pressing nor his passing are as good as the other four. Núñez will get plenty of opportunities this year, and I believe he will score plenty of goals.  But, at least for now, he’s not a first-choice starter. 

Liverpool’s attack has looked tremendous during preseason, and I see little reason to expect anything different on  Sunday. Pochettino will likely have Chelsea set up well, but I still believe we will create lots of decent chances. 

Unfortunately, our transition defense has been quite poor during the preseason, and I similarly don’t have any objective basis to believe that will change on Sunday, either. Chelsea should also get its fair share of good scoring opportunities. 

Klopp’s team has fewer new parts, and at least equal talent. I’ll give us a slight nod. But anything could happen. 

Chelsea 2 – LFC 3