Liverpool v Swansea

Allen will be gone in the summer, I'm 100% certain of it. Thankfully.

As I said, Lovren puts here and there nice passes. But he panicks too much when the opposition attacking player try to take on him. He has improved a lot but not to command a starting place yet.

Allen is not suitable for a CM role ahead of the deepest midfielder.
Allen is not suitable for a deep lying CM role.
Then what Allen is suitable for ? A BIG BIG question mark ! Like against Bordeaux, he protected the ball really well and played some nice forward passes. But I still expect much more from a midfielder playing in a Liverpool shirt.

He did more than just protect the ball...led the team in tackles + interceptions (even more than any of the defenders or Lucas), tactically and positionally sound, made good movement off the ball making himself available and as always his passing is spot on.

Even if you don't think he's good enough to start (and he isn't when we're fully healthy) he's a good option to have on the bench for Cup games and as depth.

What makes him unsuitable to those roles btw? He has been very good in pretty much every game he's played this year. He really helps control the tempo of the game and is very good at the quick pass and move philosophy that Klopp employs.

Klopp views Allen as a bench player. Behind Can, Lucas, etc. As he should be since he ain't as good as those guys.

Now that David Brent and his nepotism are gone, we finally have some meritocracy back at the club.

So if he's viewed as a bench player and he should be a bench player (which he is) why should he be sold?

Yes for the simple fact that he's NOT good enough to play for a club with the aspirations of challenging for titles.

He's a mid table player at best.

We MUST buy a quality CM no matter what. Which means displacing one of Can, Milner, Hendo, Lucas out of the starting XI and onto the bench. There's no room for average players like Joe Allen anymore thankfully.