Adam Lallana Set for New Contract

Adam Lallana is set to be offered a long-term contract to extend his current deal that expires in 2019. According to the reliable Paul Joyce, Liverpool will contact Lallana's representatives before the end of the year to start discussions over a new contract.

Since Jürgen Klopp took over last October, there are a number of players that can be identified as ones the manager trusts implicitly. Emre Can, Roberto Firmino, and Adam Lallana arguably head that group. Recent statistics for distance covered in the league have Lallana in first and second place. Before the season started, he hadn't scored for England and wasn't scoring enough for Liverpool.

A late winner in Sam Allardyce's England debut during the international break along with two goals (plus an assist) in four league games has hinted that the biggest criticism against Lallana may be coming to an end. Even though Lallana is playing in a midfield three as opposed to the higher up in his previous two seasons at Liverpool, he's taking more shots on average than he's ever done in the Premier League.

In four league games this season, Lallana is taking nearly three shots a game on average at 2.8. This is quite an improvement on 1.5 shots per game in 2015/16 and 1.4 in 2014/15. At Southampton, where he became a netural's darling in the Premier League, he took 1.8 shots per game in 2013/14 and 1.7 per game in 2012/13. Combine this with hard running, an ability to keep the ball, an appetite for pressing, an understanding of space, silky touches, smooth turns, and even more turns for all sorts of goodness.

Lallana looked like he might be a key rotational piece with the addition of Sadio Mané. What Liverpool seem to have got is a blistering attacking player in Mané and a reinvented Lallana deeper in midfield. 4-3-3 has given Lallana licence to be the most attacking of the midfield three along with providing composure and customary perspiration.

At 28, Lallana has never relied on pace or power in his game. There have been times in his Liverpool career where he holds onto the ball for too long or hasn't quite looked like the player he was at Southampton. What he has always been, however, is a player that makes the team better. For a manager like Klopp, Lallana is the perfect player in many ways, and there's no reason why he can't stick around as a trusted and important part of the team into his thirties.