It seems to last longer every year but, finally, the focus is fully on football. With the summer transfer window closed, there was plenty to reflect on for This Is Anfield and The Late Challenge’s podcast hosts, Gareth Roberts and Paul Cope.
Speaking on Wednesday’s show, the pair agreed that Liverpool’s window has had more positives than negatives, but there was a nagging sense that the Reds didn’t quite push the boat out.
Roberts explained: “I’m not standing outside Anfield with a pitchfork about how it’s gone, but I do feel it could have gone better.
“You’ve got to have a system behind the scenes, you’ve go to have enough targets lined up where you say: ‘There’s no way we’re starting this season without a centre-half because there’s an obvious gap there’.
“There is a positivity about Liverpool but you can see, when the manager himself is saying: ‘We need to be lucky with injuries’, that’s not a good message.”
Cope had a similar reaction, emphasising he was pleased with Jurgen Klopp‘s starting XI but feels we’ve been left short in defence.
He said: “Gomez, Konate and Matip have got really poor injury records, Konate’s already injured. He (Klopp) literally said: ‘We need to be lucky with injuries’ and he’s already injured.”
It wasn’t all negativity, though, for the Liverpool supporting duo. While Cope rated Liverpool’s transfer window at 6.5 out of 10, Roberts went slightly higher with a seven.
The match-going Red added: “I’m going to give them a little bit more credit because I like the look of the midfielders they’ve got in, but I think you do have to knock points off for the centre-back situation.”
