Players to watch in 2022-23: Dwight McNeil

Getting the right players, as much as ‘as many of them as possible’, may have been a test of fan’s nerves, in very worrying times for the club.

Losing our best player – and a very significant source of goals to boot; a very serious issue to address.

Have we successfully achieved this through hiring Dwight McNeil?


It has been incredibly frustrating for me, when watching talented players sign for the club, give their all; but seldom fullfill their potential through an imbalance of the XI players on the pitch at any one moment. We only need to remind ourselves of the four years Romelu Lukaku spent at Goodison in a squad laced with talented right-footed wingers – but no-one supporting Leighton Baines on the left.

Therein lies a trap: it’s one thing to sign a gifted, left-footed footballer. Quite another to find a position – AND a formation - that he/she will thrive under.

A trap that may very nearly have claimed the career of what we now know all-too-well as an exceptional talent Liverpool possesses, to the envy of the entire European market. Yet how things may have been very different for Mo Salah – had Jurgen Klopp not successfully identified a way of getting the most out of the Egyptian goal machine.

Salah had been asked to play as a traditional, 4-4-2 left-winger for Fiorentina and Chelski early in his career. It didn’t bring the best from his game. Then at Roma, he’d score 15 goals in Serie A, in a squad of players in breach of UEFA’s very unfortunate FFP protocol, meaning someone had to go – and Klopp pounced.

Am I really comparing Mo Salah and Dwight McNeil in the same context?

Well, the comparisons may end at the goalscoring statistics – at least for now, but the options this player now provides us open up balance to the team’s potential 3-pronged attack that even the great James Rodriguez couldn’t, at aged 29 and unable to sustain a Premier League campaign.

But quality over quantity has been the only Lampard and co. could possibly approach hiring new players this Summer window. In McNeil, we’ve filled a round hole with the correct player. Yes, we can’t read too much into a preseason friendly against opposition with far more on their minds than just a football match. Tougher tests lie ahead.

There are players in our squad who have (and in my assessment: still do) stand accused of being afraid of heading the ball – especially in defensive situations – and I’m NOT just referring to full-time defenders. Seeing someone like McNeil put the ball in the net with his head is something I’d love to see much more from ALL our players this season-onwards.

The development of Anthony Gordon and the resurrection of Demarai Gray’s career were rare glimpses of hope in 2021-22. Whilst much hinges on getting a very positive result from the post-Chelski Goodison opener this Saturday, we do have the potential to be looking up the table – NOT down it – IF we can close out this transfer window WITHOUT losing key personnel, and if possible, relieving ourselves of a few of those one-trick-ponies.

We’ve done ourselves a power of good in signing Dwight McNeil in this process.