Liverpool Begin Recovery Amid Calls For A New Midfielder

Liverpool FC’s principal owner, John W. Henry, must have wondered what all the fuss had been about as he made an appearance at Anfield for the club’s Premier League meeting with Bournemouth on Saturday.

Liverpool had endured a difficult start to the season leading to some discontent among the fanbase, but this latest match resulted in a 9-0 win, equaling the Premier League record for the biggest win while also being the first time Liverpool had scored five goals in a first half of league football since 1958.

Though it was convincing in isolation, this was Liverpool’s first win of the 2022/23 Premier League season, four games in.

Despite lifting the Community Shield after defeating Manchester City in the season curtain-raiser, Liverpool had stuttered early on in league play, failing to pick up a win from their opening three games, falling seven points behind early leaders Arsenal and five behind their perennial title rivals, Manchester City.

To win the Premier League title ahead of City, a team usually needs to be almost perfect, and Liverpool’s start was far from it.

This led to louder calls for reinforcements in midfield and John Henry could literally hear them at Anfield on Saturday.

The issue had rumbled in pre-season but was now an all-out clamour. A poor start to the season which saw Jürgen Klopp’s side only manage to draw against Fulham and Crystal Palace, turned into a mini-crisis following defeat to rivals Manchester United last Monday.

“John, we need a midfielder. A midfielder!” came the shout from one supporter as the owner made his way down the tunnel after taking in the sunny Anfield atmosphere pitch-side during the pre-match warm-ups.

Two of the players seen as part of the solution for Liverpool, for the future as well as now, are teenagers Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho. Both found the net against Bournemouth—their first goals in the Premier League.

But they are only part of the solution, especially when other midfielders Thiago, Naby Keïta, Curtis Jones, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are on the sidelines through injury.

This has left Liverpool relying on one defensive midfielder, Fabinho—on whom there can be a heavy burden if those in front of him are not carrying out the defensive side of the game effectively—plus 32-year-old Jordan Henderson and 36-year-old James Milner.

Stefan Bajcetic and Bobby Clark, both 17, made their debuts off the bench on Saturday, with Klopp taking the opportunity to give some experience to these young players and rest some of his first-team stars, but that they are on the bench in the first place hints at Liverpool’s problems.

Henry’s presence at the game may have led some to believe that new discussions were taking place around bolstering the squad further in the transfer market, but others at the club have already been considering the club’s options in this area.

“We are looking for it, and if it’s the right player we need to move and if it’s not the right player we don’t need to,” Klopp had said in his pre-match press conference.

“I know we had this discussion since this all started and I’m the one who said we don’t need a midfielder, and now we go for a midfielder and you [the media] were all right and I was wrong.

“But that specific point doesn’t change—if we do something, it has to be the right [player], that’s how it is.”

Henry couldn’t have picked a better game to attend as Liverpool racked up goal after goal, but his visit to the soccer team he owns came with them in a far from comfortable position at the start of the new season.

The club’s principal owner witnessed the beginning of a recovery rather than the solution to a problem, and much bigger tests than newly-promoted Bournemouth wait around the corner in the Premier League and the Champions League.

Even Klopp—a head coach known for getting the best from what he has—is now admitting that Liverpool may need a new midfielder to help them pass these tests, but only if it is the right player.

The club will now try to find that player before the transfer window shuts on Thursday.