The Premier League season has come to an end but we’ve still got one final game to play in just five day’s-time.
We’ll push the Champions League final game to the side for a minute although it is all I have thought about since the final whistle went in Rome. I want to talk about how I feel our Summer signing have done this season.
We’ll go back to pre-season and during the transfer window, we signed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Dominic Solanke, Andy Robertson and Mo Salah, not bad on Jürgen’s part. Out of the four you could say Solanke has performed the worst but he hasn’t been a bad player, he did only score his first goal for the club last weekend on the final day of the season against Brighton but throughout the season he has shown signs of being a good player in the future and Klopp seems to like him so he must be doing something right.
Andy Robertson got off to a shaky start with his Liverpool career having had to be second choice to Alberto Moreno for the first half of the season and probably only got into the starting eleven due to Moreno being injured. Fast forward to May and he is one of the most loved Liverpool players that there has probably ever been. His performances since coming into the side have been second to none and he has fully implemented himself into the squad and maybe put on hold any search for a left back that may have been coming this summer and with reports circling that Moreno is set to be offered a new contract means he will still be battling it out with the Spaniard next season.
A lot of people doubted Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain when he first signed for the club and with a £40 million price tag, some fans were unsure how his Liverpool career would go. Like Robertson, he didn’t make an immediate impact and struggled to hold down a starting eleven place. However, come October it looked like he was starting to find his feet at the club and featured in the 7-0 win against Maribor where he scored his first goal for the Reds and featured in a handful of games up until the end of the year scoring two goals. His best game in a Liverpool shirt this season for me was the 4-3 win at Anfield against Manchester City in January where he scored a great goal (not as good as the one in the Champions league) from outside the box which set the tempo for the rest of the game.
He continued to be in some great performances right up until he got injured in Liverpool’s 5-2 win over Roma in the Champions League semi-final first leg. The injury will keep him out until November meaning he will miss the Champions League final this weekend, England’s World Cup campaign this summer and the beginning of the 2018/19 season.
We also captured Chelsea youngster Dominic Solanke early on in the window and with a lot of people in the football industry saying he was a great talent and that Chelsea are gutted he has left, but he didn’t really hit the mark this season for us. Featuring in 26 games and it wasn’t until the final day of the season that he scored his first goal for the club. Having a front three of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah to compete with, it would have been hard for any striker to keep up with them and having shown some positive signs in matches this past season I have no doubt he will be able to improve massively over the next couple of years.
And finally, the best summer signing of the year.
Mo Salah. 49 games. 42 goals. 14 assists. 7 LFC Player of the month. PFA Player of the Year. PFA Fan’s Player of the Year. Golden Boot winner. LFC Player’s player of the year. LFC Fan Player of the Year. A whole album of songs and every other accolade you could think of, he has done it all this year.
He was unstoppable this season and going back to when Klopp bought him in the summer, no fan would have thought he was going to be this good. Having been linked with us a few seasons ago and choosing to go to Chelsea rather than here where he performed not so well and was sent out on loan to Italy, fans didn’t hold high expectations. Yes he did have a brilliant season for Roma last year but could he hack it back in the Premier League? Yes he could.
He has been our stand out player this season and hasn’t put a foot wrong and scoring 42 goals in 49 appearances is just incredible. There will be some high expectations for him next season but I have no doubt he will be able to live up to them and I’m looking forward to seeing him bag a goal against Madrid at the weekend.
Fast forward to January and the capture of Dutch defender Virgil Van Dijk was the best Christmas gift a Liverpool fan could have asked for. Having been linked with us for over a year and a lot of back and forth with Southampton, the deal was finally completed and with a huge price tag of £75 million, he hasn’t let us down. Before he signed for the club Liverpool had conceded 28 goals in 23 games, since joining us we have conceded 10 goals in 15 games which is a good improvement and having him playing in central defence alongside Dejan Lovren who have formed a great partnership together makes our defence woes a little bit better.
We also captured Naby Keita who will join the club this summer having been loaned back out to RB Leipzig and I can’t wait to see him in a Liverpool shirt having performed so well in the Bundesliga this season.
Looking ahead to potential summer signings this year, Nabil Fekir seems like it could happen in the coming weeks and I think he would be a great addition to the squad having scored 23 goals and seven assists in all competitions for Lyon this season. The rumour mill is also reporting that Klopp is interested in Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele with reports suggesting that the Catalan side are willing to let the youngster go out on loan next season. Reports over the last few days have also suggested that we are interested in signing Tottenham centre-back Toby Alderwield who would make a great addition to our squad and would fit perfectly with Van Dijk in central defence, there were also reports that Klopp is interested in Newcastle defender Jamaal Lascelles who has also performed well this season. I still think we need to add a new goalkeeper to help challenge Loris Karius and maybe another striker that can help compete with Firmino.
Overall, I think we can be happy with how the team has performed this season after qualifying for Champions League football again next season and a European final on the horizon.
Article by Lauren Black [email protected]
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