Karius, Hector & Chilwell Are Exactly the Type of Signings Liverpool Should Make
It’s all happening at Anfield. Manager Jurgen Klopp has wasted no time pondering the implications of a gutting UEFA Europa League final loss to Sevilla, instead pressing ahead in the transfer market to try to sign better players for his system.
Anyone doubting the overhaul that is about to take place need only take a look at the German’s first transfer window at Borussia Dortmund, where he made seismic changes to the squad and remoulded how he wanted them to play.
He’s done the latter with Liverpool since arriving—forgoing the pricey January window and only sealing a future transfer for Marko Grujic during that time—but now the revolution truly begins.
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Rumours abound that Jonas Hector and Loris Karius are close to signing for the Reds, with the latter reportedly closer to signing on the dotted line than the former.
That’d be a first-team left-back and goalkeeper sorted, and now the Mirror has suggested a £3 million deal could be in the offing for Ben Chilwell, Leicester City’s star young left-back and current England Under-21 international.
Put simply, Liverpool fans should be beaming. While signing three defensive players isn’t the “sexiest” start to a window, these men would fix gaping issues in the squad, and both Karius and Hector would upgrade the starting XI.
The most important thing is they fit the system—something you could rarely say about a Brendan Rodgers signing, largely because the former Liverpool manager's “system” changed every three months, but also because the approach to scouting was so scatter-gun.
Even if all three don’t quite come off, the intent is right, and Klopp is definitely looking in the right areas. The dramatic improvement of the current subpar crop wearing the red shirt led the club to an unlikely pair of finals this season; just imagine what he can do when he’s working with players who don’t top out at about 60 per cent of what Klopp demands from them?
Karius is one of many young, modern goalkeepers Germany have produced in the last five years, and the only reason he isn’t a major name is because of the competition he's up against. He was cut from his nation’s squad for the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championships last summer because they already had Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Bernd Leno and Timo Horn. Talk about depth!
The Mainz 'keeper is an excellent shot-stopper (which is sort of a prerequisite for a goalkeeper but still an area they’re graded on), boasts excellent reflexes and has very strong short-to-mid-range passing ability.
Rodgers always sought goalkeepers who could use their feet to instigate passing passages, but somehow he ended up with Simon Mignolet and Adam Bogdan. Karius is in the ilk of the goalkeeper Rodgers had always sought.
While Mignolet did enjoy a renaissance in the final three months of the season for Liverpool, mistakes haunt his game and always will.
He cost his club at least nine points this season in the league (the gap between the Reds and fourth place was only six in the end), and while that’s not to say “Mignolet cost Liverpool UEFA Champions League football,” it does paint a big red target on his back that Klopp has clearly chosen to take aim at.
Hector, a full-blown Germany international who is slated to start this summer’s European Championships at left-back for Joachim Low, would represent a second Bundesliga buy should the deal come to fruition.
His club Cologne aren’t opposed to a deal—coach Peter Stoger suggested they merely seek the right price when speaking to Kicker (h/t Metro.co.uk's Lee Thomas-Mason)—and all of the indicators seem to falling into place nicely ahead of a transfer.
The 25-year-old is the anti-Alberto Moreno—a sentence many Liverpool fans will be quite happy to read this week. Moreno has been haphazard defensively for two full seasons, and his awful giveaway to Mariano in the opening 20 seconds of the Europa League final second half paved the way for a Sevilla comeback win. This sort of thing has happened too many times; the patience has officially run dry.
Hector’s not perfect, either—his atypical size means he’s not as quick as most wingers and can be beaten on the outside—but he’s a far more considered player who would fit into Klopp’s framework much better. He’s tactically astute, thinks about what he does and approaches the final third with a clearer picture of what to do in mind—rather than just sprint forward and smash in a cross.
At around 6’1", he’s not winning any sprinting races, but positionally he’s strong and can mitigate via anticipation. He also offers size at set pieces that very few left-backs do—a major boon for Liverpool, who concede wilfully via corners and free-kicks on a near-weekly basis, it seems.
To move from the option of Moreno to Hector as a first-choice player would bring renewed solidity to the side, but to move from Brad Smith to Chilwell would complete the revamp in one fell swoop. The England Under-21 international is far from ready to play first-team football every week for a club such as Liverpool, but a more educational, rotational role would suit him superbly.
The biggest factor here is that Chilwell impressed at Huddersfield Town earlier this season under the tutelage of a certain David Wagner—Borussia Dortmund II’s coach during the Klopp reign (and part of the Thomas Tuchel one). They share the same philosophies and use the same tactical blueprints; anyone who thrives for Wagner from a systematic point of view will likely thrive for Klopp, too.
Chilwell was a cut above at the John Smith’s Stadium in November and December, performing with intensity and consistency detailed superbly by uMAXit Football’s Raj Bains. He pressed, he roamed and he used the ball intelligently. Then he returned to Leicester for a debut and played well against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup (despite his team losing 2-0).
Whether or not any of Karius, Hector or Chilwell are rubber-stamped and presented holding the famous red shirt, the links suggest Klopp is looking in the right areas and addressing the right problems. While “strategy” appeared to be thoroughly lacking at times under Rodgers, the weaknesses we can clearly see in this Liverpool team are being recognised and attempts are being made to improve it.
Klopp has done superbly to raise the level of some players who shouldn’t be at Liverpool, but starting from this summer, he won’t have to work so hard to improve them. He can bring in his own selections who are more suited to the task. Karius, Hector and Chilwell would all make complete tactical sense and represent a stunning start to the summer.
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