Liverpool missing out on Nabil Fekir has greater impact on the side’s ability to attack next season than it does midfield quality.
Look at every single fan devised Liverpool team sheet for the 2018/19 season and you would have seen the same thing in recent weeks; a forward line of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino; a midfield of Fabinho, Naby Keita and Nabil Fekir.
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Fekir ain’t coming. Those fan team sheets were predicting that our ‘best six’ players would start in the first team. However I don’t think Fekir was being signed as a midfield option at all – sure he can play there and would have done at various points – but he would have a bunch more starts in the forward position than in central midfield.
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Jurgen Klopp had to run Firmino, Salah and Mane hard this year. There was precious little room for rotation and rest; such was the drop off to reserves. I think if Fekir had arrived he would have been a regular part of a forward line rotation more than anything else.
Many were saying he was a Philippe Coutinho replacement. The biggest loss of the departed Brazilain was not how he helped us in the middle but how he could play in the front three. Fekir was the same.
The Reds have Fabinho and Keita to add to James Milner, Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum. There is also Oxlade-Chamberlain to come back from injury. Remember that is where Adam Lallana played during his best season at the club in 2016/17. Marko Grujic will also be available in a pinch.
That is a good stack of options even without Fekir. Looking at the forward options from the bench next season is far less appealing. Danny Ings, Daniel Sturridge and Divock Origi may not make it through the summer without being sold and they won’t excite you next year.
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The rest of the options Dominic Solanke, Harry Wilson and Ben Woodburn are all potential at this point. Rather than seek another attacking midfield player the Reds will be better off going for a winger or a striker as Fekir alternatives.