- 2 months ago
Liverpool have signed French winger Bradley Barcola for a staggering £123m. But with Iraola's men starting the season with two disappointing draws against Newcastle and Nottingham Forest, is another left-sided attacker what they need to kick start their season.Adam Clery examines the player's incredible ability, and the wider problems in Liverpool's squad, to show why it's a transfer that both solves and creates issues.
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00:00Right, hello amigos and amigos femini, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel,
00:06where the biggest transfer of the summer is happening, or has happened, depending on when
00:12you watch this. Bradley Borkola, Liverpool, the Dr. Evil price tag. This is genuinely massive,
00:19but it is also the most good idea, bad idea transfer I've seen in a very long time. The
00:26needle has been moved, the ceiling has been raised, but my god Liverpool, this is like
00:32buying a Ferrari while your house is falling down.
00:39Alright, so we're going to start with the positives. Borkola is amongst Europe's elite attacking players,
00:45he takes on defenders for fun, he beats them incredibly consistently, he gets you up the
00:50pitch, he makes chances for his teammates, and he scores goals. These are a selection of his
00:56numbers from last season, and before you say, yeah, but it's only France, or oui, mais c'est
01:03n'est que la France, this did all hold up at the World Cup as well. He gets a lot
01:08of shots off,
01:09he is very accurate with them, and his one solitary assist in the league last season should not alarm
01:15you because that represented a massive underperformance in terms of finishing from
01:20his teammates. He makes loads of chances for others, and he makes more big chances than almost
01:26anyone else in the division. And one number that is not on these stats is the number of shot ending
01:32carries per 90, 2.06, which basically means you get the ball, you turn with the ball, you run with
01:39the
01:39ball, and you get a chance on goal at the end of that. He is number one in all of
01:45Europe, more than
01:46Lamine Jamal, more than Michael Alise, more than Vinny, the single hardest skill in football, in my
01:52opinion, and he is arguably the best at it. And he does this because he is, and this is maybe
01:58the word
01:58of the season already, such a vertical player. And you're right, you did hear that a lot in the
02:03Newcastle versus Liverpool game from the other weekend. Vertical football, it basically just means
02:09you go forwards, you go backwards, there is no attempt to control the possession, there is no
02:14probing, there are no sideways passes, you just get it, and you run it up the pitch, and when you
02:19lose it,
02:20you run back. A bit up and down, a bit end-to-end, a game of basketball, it's not a
02:25new concept,
02:26but for some reason we're all calling it vertical now, so jot that down. And just to quite nicely
02:32illustrate this, right, thank you Opta, these are all the off-the-ball runs Barcola made last season,
02:39and that is a man who, when he doesn't have the ball, is just constantly looking to stretch the
02:45opposition, get in behind, and make the games vertical. Spaces behind the full-backs, gaps
02:51between the defenders, open space in transition, his whole thing is that he just goes, and he goes so
02:57quickly, it is an absolute nightmare to try and defend against him. Like, this is that mad 10 versus
03:0410, 7-2 game versus Leverkusen last season, and it's about as simple an example as you're going to
03:09see. There is no direct danger to the goal here, but a ball in behind, and he is already away,
03:16and the
03:16full-back can't catch him. And he does what he does, he gets in behind, he rolls it across, there's
03:20a tap-in
03:20for his teammate, and the game is more over than it already was. And the thing is, like, loads of
03:26players do this stuff, and if it was just as simple as being really quick, then there would be loads
03:32of
03:32footballers as good as Bradley Barcola. But the difference is, the technique required, the ability
03:39with the ball to do what he does at the speeds he does it at, make him a very, very
03:45rare thing indeed.
03:46And when he's not bursting in behind, his ability to strike a football from range using that technique
03:53is also really, really good. But for me, the best thing about him and why he's worth this much money
03:59is his ability to know when not to do all of this stuff, when instead, he needs to pick his
04:04head up
04:04and see what's going on around him, which means defenders don't really know whether they're being
04:10attacked because he's trying to beat them, or whether they're being attacked because he's trying
04:14to push them back to make space. Now, this assist he gets for France is really, really smart because
04:19he pushes the entire back line towards their goal, but then he holds the ball up, which you'll see
04:25still worries the defender, so he continues backing off in case he tries to berth past him,
04:30but he's watching what else is going on. And when he sees Alicé arriving, he rolls it between the gaps
04:36he's created to give him this goal. And not to get carried away with this, but given the amount
04:41and the variety of box movement Liverpool are supposed to have with Isak and Eketike,
04:47that ability to know when to go and when instead to watch could be massive for them.
04:53Like having forwards who will go with him on these runs is vital. Like that Leverkusen goal is only a
04:58goal because Dembele reads what he's going to do and matches that run. But take the Isak chance
05:03from the Newcastle game, his box movement often sees him finding space by dropping off and an
05:10attacker who plays with his head up in those areas rather than just head down and running is vital to
05:16give him service. So, on a purely individual basis, is Bradley Barcola a good signing for Liverpool?
05:24Yes, massively. He gives them that creative, unpredictable x-factor that they are losing
05:31with the departure of Mo Salah. If you can spend that much money on a player that good,
05:37you've got to do it. He is as close to a guarantee of goals and assists and chances and big
05:43moments
05:44as you can get. And that is why he costs this much. However, however, however, however,
05:51the annoying thing about football for the people who run the clubs is that it is seldom a game that
05:57comes
05:57down to one player. And the issues, the quite major issues with Barcola going to Liverpool
06:04have nothing to do with him really and everything to do with the way Liverpool as a club are building
06:11the rest of their squad. And just to show you what I mean, right, this is the current depth of
06:15Liverpool FC with all of these players in their strongest and preferred position. And for starters,
06:21right, you've got Dominic Soberslay who is absolutely vital to the way this team plays,
06:26but his path to his best position is blocked by one of the biggest talent investments this club has
06:32ever made. You saw against Newcastle and throughout preseason, he gives you so much in central midfield
06:38when you have the ball. But when you lose it, his brain is just not equipped to take up the
06:43correct
06:43positions or make the right decisions as a number six defending in transition. And that is not his fault.
06:49That's not a criticism. It's just not who he is, not his game. And you've also now got two fullbacks
06:55who do not want to sit with the other central defenders because they are, say it with me,
07:00incredibly vertical players because it's an incredibly vertical team. They both want to
07:04get up the other end of the pitch. And you've also got a number six in Ryan Gravenberch who could
07:08sit in deep and indeed does in the early phases of play. But the only reason he's so good in
07:14that
07:14position is because when he gets it, he then likes to carry the ball up the pitch. He will beat
07:19the press
07:20with a turn or with a touch and get you moving. So all of a sudden, you've got all of
07:25these players,
07:26every single one of them who want to do all their work up here. And then these two,
07:31one of which is nearly my age. And what that gives them is a team with maybe more attacking talent
07:37than
07:38any other side in the Premier League, but almost no balance and no synergy whatsoever.
07:45They just commit so many players forward. And while that's incredibly exciting to watch,
07:50it makes games so chaotic. And when your captain is, again, 35 years old, he cannot be pushing
07:57all the way up to the halfway line every time you throw men forward and then sprinting all the way
08:03back to his own goal every time you lose it. He has to drop off to give himself a chance
08:08and dropping
08:08creates massive gaps, which again, you saw against Newcastle. Their ability to play in this space
08:15here is because they're so, so stretched. So for me anyway, Liverpool's priority this summer
08:21had to be here. They had to go out and get somebody who would allow all the other creative players
08:28in
08:29the side to do what it is they're good at, to give them some control in games, to speed the
08:34games up,
08:34to slow the game down, to keep a hold of it when they need to, and then also break things
08:39up when
08:40it goes wrong. But instead of fixing that problem, they've gone and given themselves another one.
08:46Bokula, Munoz, Ngomoa, Gakpo. You've got four players who all really in an ideal world
08:52need to be over here and almost nobody in the entire squad who needs to be over here. Now Gakpo,
08:59we're told we'll probably leave the club and all three of the lads who are left can technically
09:04play over on the right-hand side. But if we just go back to those numbers I showed you at
09:10the start
09:10of the video, if we take those to be his current averages, right, I went and by I went, I
09:16mean
09:16I made Archie do it and we pull together those same numbers from his last 10 starts on the right
09:24-hand
09:25side as opposed to the left, and you can see every single one of those numbers drops.
09:30He still creates chances, he still gets shots off, but his expected assists drop in half and
09:36both his dribbles and his successful dribbles are nowhere near, showing you that he is way less
09:41comfortable taking players on and doing his whole thing from that side of the pitch. And if we go again,
09:48right, to Opta's off-the-ball runs graph, you will see he still does make those runs from this part
09:53of
09:53the pitch, albeit a lot less, because he's playing out there a lot less. So you still do have
09:59that element of his game, his ability to stretch defenses and get him behind. But if we also look
10:04at this, these are his goals and his chances, and there is only one assist and this one goal
10:11that derived from any actions he's completing off the right-hand side. So you cannot spend the cost of a
10:18small hospital on Bradley Barkola and stick him out on the right-hand side. That is a complete
10:25waste of money. He is not worth that if he's playing on that side. So now you've got two really
10:31talented and exciting young players, one of which you've just spent quite a bit of money on, whose
10:36minutes are either going to be extremely limited or out of position. And that is just, that's really
10:43basic bad squad building. And the trade-off is you've got one of the best attacking players in
10:48the world. So don't get me wrong, Liverpool will score gold and they will win games, the direct
10:53result of this transfer. But you've also not solved the major problem you already had and made a brand
10:59new one in the process. So it's, it doesn't feel very well thought out is my only thing. Like I
11:05said at
11:06the start of the video, it's buying a Ferrari while your house is falling down. Like it's probably
11:11loads of fun. You've got a Ferrari. That's really cool. But sooner or later you are going to be sat
11:17brushing your teeth in the driver's seat thinking might not have been a great use of money. But then
11:24of course you can just go and drive your Ferrari around for a bit to take your mind off the
11:29whole
11:29thing. So chaotic neutral, this transfer, neither truly good nor truly bad. Just very entertaining
11:37for everybody watching. And sorry, what was that? Any concerns about him? Yes, one or two,
11:44but they're not really born out of the numbers. They're more to do with the eye test. He's got a
11:48really big miss in him on occasion. His first touch can sometimes let him down under pressure and his
11:54off the ball work is incredible when he's pressing. Like I can't remember which start I'm pointing at
11:59here. Like defensive contributions, balls, one of the final thirds, something like that.
12:04He's amazing at that. So Areola will love him when they're being front foot in the opposition's
12:09half. But there is occasionally, occasionally a bit of an inference that once the ball passes that
12:14initial stage, beats the press, he is a little bit unwilling to work back into the areas of the
12:21pitch he doesn't like being. But that's the kind of thing you coach. That's the kind of thing a
12:24manager sits you down and says, I don't care if you were let off without your last place,
12:28you run back here. So that's a test of Areola, not inherently a flaw in the transfer.
12:34But these are all, I stress, very small things. The positives of him as a player are enough that
12:39they put him right at the very top elite bracket of professional footballers. And he will be amazing
12:46at Liverpool, provided Areola can make these four in particular, the rest of the team work around him.
12:53Because of course, the real issue here is your next two major footballing investments are currently
13:00not delivering for you and in the two positions most adjacent to where Barcola is going to come
13:05in. So Areola either has to fix these two in a way that works with him or make some pretty,
13:12pretty tough choices. So yes, that is why Bradley Barcola is a fantastic signing for Liverpool,
13:18provided they fix the other major issues currently going on with that team. But Liverpool fans,
13:24what do you think? Did you want him? Did you want someone on the right? Do you want a central
13:27midfielder?
13:28Let us know in the comments down below. Are you expecting a good season? Because that was a weird
13:32start. I watched it, obviously, and it couldn't work out whether you played well and were unlucky or
13:36played terribly and were slightly lucky. But I digress. Let me know all thoughts, feelings,
13:40of course, down in the comments below. The run, I must remind you about the run. It's now only two
13:45weeks
13:45until the Great North run. And we're like actually maybe going to hit the fundraising target I set,
13:51which is, seemed nearly impossible. £5,000 to make 10 for the year. That's absolutely crazy.
13:56And it's all for Mind, a mental health charity here in the UK. I say it all the time. If
14:00you've
14:00ever had to use mental health services in this or any other country, you will know how badly
14:06underfunded they are and how the work of charities like mine to pick up the slack is so important to
14:11so many people. Anything you can donate to that, it goes way further than you think. They will
14:15get the absolute most out of it. And I will think fondly of your donations, and thank you personally
14:21when I get the chance, when I'm at like mile 10 and my knees feel like they are full of
14:27bees.
14:29Anyway, why am I wearing this red top? It's not new merchandise. It's the league final, effectively,
14:34of the Fleet Street League. I'm going to put the table up before we go. It's our second last game,
14:39and we are playing the mail, and we are second. And if we beat the Daily Mail, we pretty much
14:45win
14:45that league tonight. And if we don't beat them, they do. So it's as close to a final in a
14:50league
14:50format as you're ever going to get. So I'm a bag of nerves at the minute, because I really do
14:55want
14:55to win that. It's a nice little trophy. Get me across all the social medias at Adam Cleary,
14:58see LELY to see how we did in that. And yeah, that's it. That's the video.
15:04Well done, Liverpool. You've spent a lot of money. We're all very impressed. Goodbye.
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