Frimpong Will Add Something LFC Lacked; Kerkez, Hato & Ekitiké To Follow?

Liverpool can be better next season with players like these (and Conor Bradley)

Anyone thinking that Jeremie Frimpong is only going to play right-back, I’d assume, is wrong. (Assuming he has passed his medical!)

His versatility is like that of many others in the Liverpool team – a real asset. I’d say the same about Conor Bradley, who merited his new four-year deal, and who will also get plenty of minutes next season if fit; his pacy stride and direct, ceaseless running created yet another goal, at Brighton.

Frimpong is a utility right-sided player, not a “right-back”. I think we need to get that clear right away. That means he can play right-back, but that’s not all he is.

Indeed, in time, Bradley himself can play in different positions, but Frimpong can excel in various roles. Sky’s heatmaps from this season show that Frimpong is likely to either get much further forward than Trent Alexander-Arnold (in the way that Bradley does), or play much further forward.

Judging results when individual players are being given time off, and the whole team is having trips away, with nothing to play for, is silly (as with preseason, dead-rubbers in general, and cup games where the priorities are not winning but giving players minutes and hoping for the best, such as at PSV or Plymouth).

The aim for this brilliant bonus of a final month, as everyone else fights hard and some go off for crazy summer tournaments that will sap their energy, is to wind down, protect and use the cotton wool, ahead of a short summer break, and then ramping up hard in preseason. Slot is not about ego or vanity; the points tally does not matter any more this season – it’s next season where points become important again. And that means preparing for it in different ways, and not trying to do everything to win any of those after the title was sealed.

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Flogging the players until June would have been madness; results can gladly suffer. Giving fringe players minutes helps those who will be at the club next season, thanks those who won’t, and protects many of those already hard-run for eight or nine months.

But if you play games with all of Bradley, Kostas Tsimikas, Chiesa, Jarell Quansah, Wataru Endo, Harvey Elliott, the badly-faded Darwin Núñez and other squad-men in the XI together, it makes it difficult for all of them, as none of them is in a strong or balanced team. It was a makeshift back-four, for starters; ending with Endo at right-back.

Such players – certainly those younger and on the rise – can only be at their best surrounded by the best players, who are hungry; not coasting, and conserving energy (or in Mo Salah’s case, trying too hard to break a record). Bradley shone, Elliott scored, Quansah did well, but the team was not “normal”, nor was the situation (an excellent, fast and feisty Brighton needed to win. Liverpool did not.)

Liverpool were already a pretty complete team back in August, when I said I felt they could win the the title this season – but my one main concern (other than a wrong one, that Salah might be slowing), was that the Reds lacked pace.

“I think we can find one or two extra weapons this team doesn’t have,” Arne Slot said this week.

I’d say one weapon is pace, and another is a complete no.9.

With less pace in the side, passing therefore had to be more accurate, as beyond Dominik Szoboszlai and the unreliable and thus less-used Darwin Núñez, no one had elite pace (of the kind that Salah used to have, and Sadio Mané brought from the other wing; Federico Chiesa has it too, but never got going after a lack of preseason and then injuries).

Sometimes the play broke down, as the one thing Liverpool couldn’t just do was attack with raw speed, or just hit balls over the top in many situations; even if fast breaks were still possible with the players at the club.

No one could dribble past the fastest defenders, or run in behind (and stay onside). Pace isn’t everything, but ideally a team would have plenty of all the key physical attributes, shared amongst the players, even if you won’t have eleven players who can do it all.

That Liverpool won the league was a sign of how well most players played (and passed, and competed), and the tactical setup, but it was a team lacking in areas that could be improved upon. With all the wide players being fairly swift but not rapid, and Andy Robertson (whose top speed used to be deceptively rapid) and Trent Alexander-Arnold of a similar middling speed, the benefits of searing pace were absent.

Whether Jeremie Frimpong plays at right-back, right-mid or right-wing (and he could play all three within the same game if required), he has pace to burn, and can finish, too. He could even play in the same XI as the quick, hard-running Conor Bradley, and add both cover for Mo Salah, and just be an alternative (Salah will miss a big chunk of next season at AFCON).

Critically, Frimpong is not some clueless pace merchant, but smart and super-skilful too, with incredible stamina and work-rate, and a proper eye for goal.

I’ve read and watched a lot about Frimpong, and can now offer more nuanced insights. I’ve also been thinking about Jorrel Hato, another pacy, versatile Dutch player linked heavily with the Reds. I’m also still thinking about the sensational Hugo Ekitiké, and a deal for Milos Kerkez seems to be underway at last.

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