Fixing the Roof

The difference between change and evolution.

So I’m going to use this week’s Friday post to answer a question submitted by one of my loyal subscribers. Signing lots of players is cool, but hang on. Didn’t the current version of Liverpool just win the Premier League with a month to spare?

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Shahid asks:

‘We won the league. Got to a final. Dominated the Champions League and lost to the eventual winners on penalties. Great season, everything going well. So why are we changing so much? Jeremie Frimpong is so different to Trent Alexander-Arnold. Florian Wirtz is very different to Dominik Szoboszlai if he plays as number ten or winger on the left. A lot of changes to a successful team. Did you see this coming?’

It’s a fair question. The man on the street is generally over the moon whenever Liverpool sign a new player. Even happier when the Reds sign two or three. And even happier again when a transfer record gets broken in the process.

Lots of business is generally viewed as a good thing. It translates into ambition in the eyes of many supporters. Signing fresh faces automatically equates to better performances and results next season, right?

Well, that isn’t always the case despite the clamour for a million incomings. Change isn’t guaranteed to be positive. For every 100 players who transfer to the Premier League every summer, roughly 50 of them tend to succeed.

Shahid is right to err on the side of caution. It’s a minefield out there. But I’m not personally looking at this as a period of change for Liverpool, no. There’s definitely a degree of transition in there, for sure. But it’s more about evolution in my eyes. Adding layers. Widening the gap.

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Steven Gerrard isn’t known for his poetic wisdom. He was too industrious and aggressive as a player to be perceived as in any way philosophical. But there’s a witty quote that has followed him for some time now.

Indeed, he used ol' reliable in a recent interview when speaking about Liverpool. But it formed part of his mantra during his time in Scotland, too. “Fix the roof while the sun is shining,” he says.

A great line, and one that goes some way towards explaining Liverpool’s approach in the transfer market this summer. Build from a position of strength. The change involves Alexander-Arnold, now officially known as Trent. There’s a Kanye West joke in there somewhere. But beyond him, this is about improvement.

Over the course of the past year, Arne Slot has essentially managed Jürgen Klopp’s squad. And it’s worth remembering that Liverpool haven’t really made a notable addition since Ryan Gravenberch in 2023. Think about that for a second.

Transfers aren’t everything. But it’s hard to spice things up using the same ingredients every single week. You need to buy new tools. Invest in players who offer perks that you don’t currently possess.

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In Trent’s case, there’s no other version of him on the market. So if he decides to learn Spanish — apparently overnight — and move abroad, you’re virtually guaranteed to replace him with something different.

Frimpong is still offensive — which is the important thing — but he’ll offer speed in comparison to the man before him. Constant overlaps and underlaps, with Milos Kerkez likely to offer the same on the opposite side once Richard Hughes eventually picks up the phone and calls his former employers.

Liverpool had more answers than any other team in the Premier League this season. That’s why they won it. But they didn’t have all the answers. That’s the end goal.