fred milne

Fabulous goal to score on your debut. Away to Arsenal to boot.

Xhaka?

As gifted as he is, Sturridge will never have the physical and mental toughness to lead the line for us. The best we can hope for is something similar to 2013-4 where he contributed alongside someone who had those qualities.

Sturridge not part of squad according to Simon Hughes

He was called Village by his Leeds teammates if memory recalls.

Mignolet Clyne Lovren Ragnar Moreno Can Wijnaldum Mane Lallana Coutinho Origi ...is probably what I'd go for.

He really isn't suited to playing a midfield two. He gets through a lot of work defensively in terms of harrying the opposition and is capable of switching the play nicely but he rarely plays quick incisive short passes through midfield to colleagues in space between the lines that really trouble the opposition. As you say, a good centre-mid shows for the ball when a colleague is under pressure and makes sure that when he releases it the recipient has time and space to use it. Henderson rarely solves problems in this way. Too often he passes the problem back or onto someone else. His real strengths are around his running off the ball which can really disrupt an opposition's defensive shape. That's why he's much better suited to playing in a 433 or in a midfield diamond. Perhaps that's what Klopp has in mind with Henderson on one side and Wijnaldum on the other.

I can see Origi being preferred in games like Arsenal away but Sturridge being given the nod where we expecting to have to break down a packed defence at Anfield.

Why no Can against Arsenal?

Going off the press reports, Karius was going to start at the Emirates so it's not like we've not gone through the transfer window without trying to strengthen the goalkeeping situation.

Confirmed in the echo

In fairness, his form at Utd hasn't really come back to haunt Chelsea.

its all about who has the deepest pockets. as we saw last year.

Its outrageous stuff he's coming out with.

It may well not be for Klopp, but I'd like to see someone more defensively reliable to replace Moreno. A left-sided version of Clyne would be ok with me. A bit less acceleration and comfort in possession than Moreno but still able to get up and down the wing and more robust when the opposition have the ball.

Can he? When he played there at Old Trafford, there were a couple of moments when he switched off defensively. (That's no surprise given he has played his career in midfield.) I still think we will bring someone in at LB.

Given we let our LB cover leave, I'm pretty sure we will be bringing a new LB in.

He used to set them up negatively at Anfield and wait for a set-piece opportunity or mistake from us, which we often obliged with. From the time he brought Queiroz in, these were also much more cagey in Europe with players like Park getting more of a look in.

Its only really _00_deathscar. Everyone else seems to have their head screwed on right.

Its worth remembering he was partnered by Sutton/Newell and had Sherwood and Batty/Atkins in midfield. Torres was partnered by Gerrard with Alonso and Mascherano in midfield.

Then you weren't paying close enough attention when Shearer was at his peak under Kenny.

That's true but its in an interesting discussion all the same. FWIW, I can't help thinking there is often a bias against English players in debates of this kind - a lad from Gosforth must be inferior to someone from Argentina.

Both Rafa and Klopp have implied he can play in many positions, including in centre-mid, to a high level. (Sounds a bit like Gerrard in that sense.) I thought I read he played centre-mid when he captained PSV to the title in the Netherlands but I may have got that wrong.

Apart from the account of his current manager. (And his previous manager who used to manage here.)

He isn't going to be a one man midfield. One of those other players I mentioned will have to partner him.