The Midweek Maxi #11: Henderson's Hypocrisy, Classy Curtis & a Grotesque Twist of Fate
Our new Liverpool FC weekly compendium. News. Stats. Views. Debate. Links. Data. Insights. Delights.
To read about why we’ve replaced Free Friday with The Midweek Maxi, see the intro to the first edition.
So far the bumper weekly roundup is going down extremely well with paying subscribers:
This week:
Excerpts and links to the different pieces we've published across the TTT Substack network, prior to the paywall kicking in;
Then, some of the best comments from the site this past week;
Next, Daniel Zambartas’ bumper LFC News, Media & Transfer Round-Up;
And then finally, bit of Midweek Moby (the TTT stalwart, not the beautiful bald middle-aged man), for the third mini-article of new writing within this week’s Maxi.
Job done! (Oh, and it’s also a discussion thread for the issues raised.)
Note: the Maxi may exceed the email size limit on Substack, but the whole piece can be read online by paying subscribers.
TTT Network Roundup
Links and excerpts to articles on the various TTT sites, which are run by different people and require separate subscriptions to this, the TTT Main Hub.
The Main Hub
It’s been a busy week on the Main Hub, though the primary focus is certainly the news that Henderson had accepted an offer from Saudi Arabia as well as Fabinho being left out of the tour squad after the club received a £40m bid from the same league. Here’s Paul’s look at all the issues from the above breaking news (though it does seem to have gone eerily quiet on that front since the weekend).
I'm disappointed in Henderson, given his stance on social issues; but I always find those stances often involve posturing, and rarely do footballers genuinely care deeply about major issues (and it's all good PR). I don't think footballers should be paragons of virtue, but if you heighten your marketability by doing such things, and then ignore that when offered mega money, it rings a bit shallow.
I don't know if stripping him of the captaincy would help, if he does stay, but he feels tainted now. We should be forgiving of mistakes, but you can't immediately trust someone as much anymore.
I'm currently writing a piece about Curtis Jones for my ZenDen Substack (which I’ll now finish on Monday), but he is a massive beneficiary in all this, having looked like a harsh loser when the two new guys arrived (albeit he would have expected that, and expected to compete with them). Just a few months ago, Jones’ entire future looked uncertain.
Indeed, I'd now expect Jones to start the season in the XI, if he's fit and sharp, for continuity's sake; certainly the season won't start with new new midfielders in the XI.
A lot of the midfielders the Reds were linked to were at the Euro U21s, and others had complicated contract situations.
Khéphren Thuram seemed to have been an alternative to Szoboszlai as a number 8, and deemed inferior; but was also owned by the club whose owner is trying to buy Manchester United. Could he be an option again, as someone who also plays as a no.6?
Ryan Gravenberch, a superb all-rounder and one of the youngest but also most experienced linked with the Reds, was frozen out at Bayern when Liverpool got interested, then unfrozen by Thomas Tuchel's arrival.
Moises Caicedo, I was told (and I mentioned on here last autumn), was due to join Liverpool for £35m in 2022, until his confusing multiple agent setup asked for more and more money; and while meeting their apparent ransom demands would still have got a bargain, were it to top out at (say) £45m, this was then a less proven player, and that's a bad habit to get into.
He might still wish to join the Reds, and team up again with Mac Allister; and Liverpool could presumably now afford the newer fee (complete with new agent). But will he feel let down by the Reds last summer, if that's all true?
And while everyone else in the past two years has come in on £150k a week or lower – so, Ibrahima Konaté, Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez, Cody Gakpo, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai (average them all out and it's barely over £100k a week) – you sense that Caicedo is being pursued by clubs paying £300k-a-week to new signings.
That goes against the Reds' way of bringing people in on mid-money (at best), and having them earn the rises. (Thiago was the only exception.)
Plus, Liverpool may not have enjoyed dealing with him and his now ex-agents last summer. On paper he's the best player out there (to my mind), but it's not all about that.
Next up is news of Paul’s new - and final - Liverpool book.
First of all, thank you to those who have preordered 'Silver and Gold: Aka Dynasty Redux (Deluxe)', which is a project – rewriting Dynasty and bringing it up to date – partly designed to help keep TTT going through difficult times (as is selling off what's left of my back catalogue, albeit creating some space in the spare room would be handy!)
It's all explained here, along with the link to preorder:
https://tomkinstimes.substack.com/p/my-new-liverpool-fc-book-preorder
This book is obviously not included in the back catalogue sell-off!
Back Catalogue
I have enough spare copies of most of my books (and the general TTT books) – bar my earliest books (2005-2008) – to meet the presumed demand. Obviously if there’s a mad unexpected rush, it’s while stocks last!
Whatever the book, I will charge £10 per copy, and all books will be signed.
However, orders of four or more books will include discounts on the books as well as the better value per-book on postage (outside of Europe).
Further down I'll list below which books are available.
And finally is an updated repost looking at the dynamic young whipper snapper from Scotland, Ben Doak.
Since I wrote the piece last year I've seen Alex Inglethorpe say that he “loves” Doak, and Jürgen Klopp has spoken glowingly of him a the backend of last season and again in preseason.
My only doubt about Doak – who while small is clearly strong, with a low centre of gravity and insane acceleration (so height isn’t an issue) – was if he was temperamentally sound. But that seems to be answered by talk of how good his attitude is. And still only 17, Doak can get even faster, as strength, pace and stamina increase well into the 20s, and wisdom increases all the time.
There’s always a worry in overhyping kids, but Doak seems physically and mentally robust enough to handle the hype.
It may still be a season too soon for Doak to dislodge Mo Salah, but he can challenge for minutes. By next season (2024/25), Salah may be forced to fight for his spot or indeed fully usurped, but Doak is ready for some action in 2023/24.
Salah is slowing down a little (his peak speed was down 1kmh last season), but Doak will get faster and a better. Unless injuries make it impossible, no one is at their fastest at 17. (The fastest ever 100m time by a 17-year-old is 5% slower than the overall men's 100m record; and 5% is a lot when you’re talking about milliseconds.)
Plus, to save the legs of the ageing superstars who start every game (now just Salah and Virgil van Dijk), Salah will surely be rested in the earlier stages of the Europa League; which is a chance to bed-in new players and blood some youngsters, even if the XI will remain pretty strong, with game-time to keep the likes of Diogo Jota and Darwin Núñez (if they are not in the league XI) sharp.
And from a tactical point of view, there's the fact that Doak – though always happy to cut inside onto his weaker foot as a player who is so intelligent about unpredictability (which I think too many players lack), is right-footed and will also go to the byline a lot. Could that suit the team if Trent Alexander-Arnold is not overlapping but hovering infield? The old way was Salah cutting infield, Trent going outside.
The Zen Den
The focus this week was on - apart from Alexander-Arnold - the star of the Reds’ final run of games last season, Curtis Jones.
I never saw Jones as a possible no.6, and that's where he was MOTM in both the semi-final and final for England, having also been the MOTM in one group stage game (which you would think would mean better than 'only' being voted 2nd-best in the competition, especially as he was rested in the dead-rubber final group game).
While he's 22 and it's an U21 competition, the oldest players turn 24 in a few months' time. (Very few seemed to be literally under 21, but Harvey Elliott obviously was.)
It was a weird competition in that it was full of senior internationals dropped down into it, albeit not the elite full internationals (so no Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Jamal Musiala, Pedri, et al.)
So it was a good standard, and Jones played as one of two 6s. While I don't really care about pass completion stats on their own, they can be important when the additional factors are taken into account.
Tor-Kristian Karlsen, scout and former DoF at Monaco (and a guy I used to chat to a lot privately via email and DM on Twitter as we picked each other’s brains), wrote of Jones in ESPN:
"With England already through, Jones was rested for the Germany game but was on song against Israel. Not only did he register in excess of 100 touches (with a 95% passing accuracy) but he distributed with intent, especially over long distances, organised the flow of the game and shrugged off opponents in crowded areas."
Dynasty
The next instalment of this major series on Dynasty continues with this poetic tour de force of the impact of a club legend on a Liverpool supporter.
Originally a series of articles covering the period 1992 to Klopp’s arrival in 2017, it was written by TTT Subscriber Anthony Stanley, serialised on The Tomkins Times and then published by TTT as a book called A BANQUET WITHOUT WINE - A Quarter-Century of Liverpool FC in the Premier League Era.
In her dreams, he never slips. The grotesque twist of fate never takes place, none of it takes place. Her mind has ejected the entire game from her memories; there is no pass from Mamadou Sakho, there is no Demba Ba, the countless attempts at atonement from Stevie don’t occur, there is no tragic denouement as a former Red breaks clear for Chelsea.
She has, almost subliminally, airbrushed those ninety minutes from her brain. The build-up remains, the parade of red and white, the heaving throngs bedecked in red, the coach arriving, carrying the heroes to their date with destiny, to the Premier League title.
The final memory she allows herself is of Stevie as he waits in the tunnel. She savours his eyes set in concentration; she knows the formidable intelligence and the brooding intensity that lurk behind those crinkly eyes.
Then there is a mental blink, a slip in her consciousness, and as she lies in the early morning sun, as a stream of light meanders through her blinds and into her apartment, she mouths the words, paraphrasing as a tear slowly rolls down her cheeks:
‘Another sunrise with my sad captain.’
The song ‘My Sad Captains’, from Elbow’s album The Take-off and Landing of Everything, is a constant soundtrack to this grief. It is the day after Crystal Palace and every fibre of her being screams at the injustice of it all.
“Another sunrise with my sad captains
With who I choose to lose my mind
And if it's so, we only pass this way but once
What a perfect waste of time.”
Steven Gerrard – her captain – will not get a Premier League title. Not now. Fate has again conspired against the Reds. The cruelty of it is rending, a slashing knife, a scythe from a robed spectre. It has consumed her every waking thought.
There is another mental blink and suddenly she is transported to a pub in the city centre. She is sitting with her father – a Liverpool season ticket holder and the person most responsible for her obsession – and his brother. The pub is packed with supporters who could not make the trip to Newcastle this soon after Christmas, jubilant at another convincing win for Rafa’s Reds. She is nineteen years of age and enjoying the warmth of a pint and the delicious feeling that Liverpool are top of the league.
Her father turns to her uncle, while simultaneously gathering her by her shoulder, welcoming her into the fold. He knocks back approximately half of his pint, his Adam’s apple bobbing furiously, and then exclaims:
“I’m fucking well telling yous, Gerrard’s the best in the world at the moment. You can take your Ronaldinhos or your Rooneys…Stevie’s better than the lot. That was the best I’ve seen from a Liverpool player since Kenny in his pomp.”
She nods in silent acquiescence, her pride at hearing these words from the one man that can rival Stevie in her affections, robbing her of her speech. Instead she mentally probes the highlights of the game for the umpteenth time since the final whistle as she raises a glass to her lips.
The Transfer Hub
With all the midfield talk, it was a centre-back - and a player linked with Liverpool - who was the focus for Mizgan’s weekly analysis.
The Dutchman is just over 60 percentile in aerial duels won (FBRef). His rank in Italy in that metric shows that he can uplift his game in this area, especially when referencing how many he is contesting on an average. If he comes to the Premier League, that average would definitely be more than 4.17.
But, as mentioned above, the former Ajax defender is pretty good at reading the game and snuffing out opposition attacks. His interception and the possession-adjusted version of it are at a high level.
His passing accuracy is excellent too. There is a trust to be had when Schuurs is on the ball trying to play out from the back.
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