‘That’s been a mistake’: Carragher thinks Liverpool have been making the same miscalculation for years now

Add as preferred source on Google

Jamie Carragher says one Liverpool plan under Jürgen Klopp has ‘been a mistake’. The Reds have stuck with it for years.

Liverpool aren’t playing well this season. They’ve had their moments, of course – beating Manchester City in the Community Shield, the 9-0 win over Bournemouth, beating Manchester City again, and two wins over Ajax were wonderful. The 7-1 win against Rangers was a lot of fun, too.

But they’ve also consistently dropped points and lost to two relegation candidates in their last two Premier League games. That’s not exactly the season they planned for – this was supposed to be a march towards the title.

So what’s happened? Well, it’s unclear. There’s certainly no quick-fix as Jurgen Klopp has tried three different formations in an attempt to find a solution. This could be a real problem, then – one that’s been going on for years and is finally taking a toll.

That’s the opinion of Jamie Carragher, who took to Twitter to label one plan under Klopp ‘a mistake’.

“It is plan A or no one, in terms of players coming in,” wrote Carragher. “Thats exactly what Pep Lijnders says in his book. That’s been a mistake.

“Players [leaving] for free is a consequence of Liverpool getting high fees for players. They don’t budge on what fee they want & that’s proven successful.”

Liverpool transfer plan under Jurgen Klopp

Carragher is right, of course. Liverpool have been reluctant to budge on their primary targets – possibly a consequence of the Virgil van Dijk deal. The Reds tried to sign him from Southampton in the summer, saw the move collapse, but decided to wait and try again the following winter.

That proved wildly successful as an idea, of course. Van Dijk will go down as one of the best centre-backs we’ve seen at the club – possibly in the top two. Waiting was the right move in that case but we’d argue he’s a unique case.

Van Dijk has been considerably better than any other possible option at centre-back. How many other signings have been that? Alisson Becker is one but we’re not sure there are any others.

Mohamed Salah is a fine example of that as he wasn’t Klopp’s first choice. Liverpool took a chance on him, though, and reaped the rewards.

And so when they failed to sign Aurélien Tchouaméni this summer, the Reds signed no one until Arthur on loan in the last moments of the transfer window. That’s not good enough – there will have been a midfielder available to improve this squad.

If that wasn’t abundantly clear in the summer, it certainly is now. We can only hope that the message has been received and Liverpool use this as a learning experience. One they possibly act on come January.