Liverpool were prepared to spend a lot on Martin Zubimendi - they still need to buy in January
Ryan Gravenberch has saved the owners a lot of money this season. He has saved them a fortune! They were prepared to bring Martin Zubimendi in and spend a lot on him.
For it to work out how it has for them has been a bonus. But I’ll say it again, before the end of January, I do think that we need to bring someone in.
If we bring someone in to feel his feet before next season, who is already as good as what we’ve got, then go and buy him. Whether it’s a full-back, an out and out goalscorer or a superb midfielder.the goalkeeper really because he only had to make a couple of saves, and he made them well, but still doesn’t get his clean sheet.
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You’ve got to build on what you’ve got. Go and get him, go and get him. If he’s available out there, make sure we have another insurance policy to keep us where we are at the top of the table.
Leave out Salah and Van Dijk vs PSV
We want to finish first in the Champions League table, but we’re going to get very little for it beyond the prestige. All you get is €2.1m for the win.
You’d rather miss out on the €2.1m if it means you can safeguard all your players for the weekend away at Bournemouth, who are flying! It depends what you want.
I would love to see us finish top, but it’s no good finishing top of the league if we then go out in the last 16. It’s only prestige between us and Barcelona.
So I would only play the lads who need the game, on top of maybe some players who can put in half an hour.
I want to see Chiesa and Elliott start against PSV. It’s a great opportunity for them. I want to see Nunez, Quansah, Conor Bradley and Tsimikas too.
There is plenty of scope to rotate. Gakpo and Diaz can have a half each, but I’d leave Salah at home, personally. I’d give Van Dijk a day off too.
We can still try and go for the win, the squad is still strong enough. But if we don’t win, it doesn’t matter. As long as we go to Bournemouth and get three points, that’s all that matters.
Huge away tests await
Bournemouth will be tough at the weekend, but so was Brentford. So was Forest away. It comes into the same category.
They’ll be confident. They have a very good coach in Iraola, he’s done brilliantly there. He’s gone under the radar, how he’s transformed Bournemouth, with it only really getting noticed more in the last few weeks.
They won’t sit back. It will be a good game, a really good game. We will have to defend well. Kluivert has come on leaps and bounds. I played against his dad, he was superb.
It’s a test, another test. We have to be prepared to grind it out. If we come away from there with three points, it will be huge.
The next three Premier League away games at Bournemouth, Everton and Man City are huge. They’re massive.
If we get four points from the next two, you’ve got to try and get the six, but if you get four it’s a positive.
Everton have now turned it around under David Moyes. They’ll be really tough and these games are huge for us.
But you just take it one game at a time. We can’t look further ahead than PSV on Wednesday and then Bournemouth.
