The Official Liverpool FC Thread [Vol 11]

[Pommygranite]

I think the best of Klopp is yet to come but let's be honest - he's had 28 games and a transfer window with a 42% win %. That's not brand new out of the box.

We've judged players and ex managers in shorter time as being not good enough yet Klopp is immune?

I also think a good manager and coach should also be able to get the best out of his players (ala Ranieri...) and not just buy his way to wins.

Time will tell and to be clear I think Klopp is the right choice but I'm not seeing much difference between he and BR in the results...

[Flip Martian]

jammy_basturd said:

Not to piss on your chips RT, but Ranieri had almost feck all to do with the transfers of most of the current Leicester team.

In fact early on in the season, when they were attracting attention, some footy pundits on the radio (can't remember who) were basically saying it was Nigel Pearson's team and Ranieri can't take any of the credit for how well they're doing "as they were already starting to come good" under Pearson. Sounded more like Nigel was a mate of theirs, tbh. Utter tosh. They were his team perhaps but Ranieri and his team have clearly got them playing far better than they did last season. And sustained it.

Which, given we all (mostly) accept Klopp is a really good manager, doesn't say much for the quality of our lot as a team at all.

[m3sye]

Black can man said:

Although i agree with the stance the supporters have made i'm not so sure that the owners give two hoots tbh.

I get the feeling that FSG would rather have the oot's & the tourists in the ground spending bundles on their one off trip to Anfield than the ordinary supporter that is not buying this years shirt because he has last years one.

This is what FSG do for their living & let's be here they are no mugs.


For every fan that is protesting about the increase in his/her season ticket there are probably 2 or 3 waiting & willing to pay the price the owners want.

Although i do admire the Liverpool fans in this protest but unless all the other perm clubs supporters do it , then you just as well be pissing in the wind.


Spurs have something like a 40,000 waiting list prepared to pay top dollar for their football fix.


I do wish you all well though.

Edited by Black can man on Monday 8th February 12:27

Did you see my posts - ref Tony Barret ?

[anonymous-user]

RedTrident said:

Leicester seem to be a lot more coherent and together in their approach on and off the pitch.

Coherence on and off the pitch is the key.

As long as we have discord then it will never work - Klopp is obviously genuine about having a bond with the fans and I can see him walking if it isn't sorted out.

Rodgers should take his share of the blame for the transfer workings but he also needs his share of the credit.

The success and failure of 2013/14 is as much his as anyone else's.

Klopp is demonstrably of a different league.

I would support replacing ANY current player with proven talent from a higher level. Can't see the point of replacing the current lot with another bunch of 10-30 million quid players.

It's ridiculous but 30 million is entry level first team these days. Players for less than that can come good but the ration reduces.

I'd much rather see us buy 2 x 50 million that 5 x 30 with loads of coming and going.

Leicester are proving what a system and some belief can do.

I really maintain our squad to 2 x world class additions will be there or thereabouts.

[revrange]

jammy_basturd said:

Not to piss on your chips RT, but Ranieri had almost feck all to do with the transfers of most of the current Leicester team.

Sorry, but what he did was add a couple of players which transformed the side. The key is the club brought what they need, got a run and now find themselves where they need to be. Also not having a big squad maybe doing Ranieri a favour, he can't tinker, one match a week helps. BR nearly won the league with the same set up.

As RT says, Liverpool have brought badly last few years, 2 x £20m left sided centre backs, one transfer committee Sakho, BR wanted Lovern. Sakho until his last injury was showing some form it has to be said and becoming a cult hero, he hasn't sadly got back to that level yet.

the reality is money in the BPL is now such that smaller sides can compete and not sell best assets. The big teams will have to now spend £30-40m plus to get buy the best players from these smaller clubs, and i am not sure the owners of those sides have got that yet. Southampton will now sit there and want £20m for Long, no more bargins.

Anyway its a joke people of slagging off Klopp, i have seen in patches play working better. I believe the defensive organisation is better, however we are still prone to individual errors, Ibe not closing down the man utd corner, Mign at the weekend. The spine of the 13/14 team which worked well Gerrard/Surez/sterling/sturidge/Countiho has fallen apart, and there wasn't a defensive side to that team anyway.

This summer, Klopp will weld the axe and bring in players he wants and needs. It will take at least 2 years to build that new team, same way it took Rafa a few seasons to get the 08/09 team built.

The rebuilding job at liverpool will take 2 years at least before you can judge the guy.

[revrange]

i should add he had little or no training time with the players

Its been pretty much a game every 3 days, and with injuries, he hardly had a chance to work on defence etc.

[jammy_basturd]

revrange said:

jammy_basturd said:

Not to piss on your chips RT, but Ranieri had almost feck all to do with the transfers of most of the current Leicester team.

Sorry, but what he did was add a couple of players which transformed the side.

Which players did Ranieri bring in?



I do wonder what the response would have been on here had we bought Vardy a few years ago, or Mahrez, or Kante!

[revrange]

Kante/Huth to name a few?

I never knocked Claudio to much, have a look how many of the great Jose 1st team to win the league he had signed and developed.

[jammy_basturd]

Don't get me wrong, I think Leicester's success so far as been as much about Ranieri as it has about the players. But Huth signed before Ranieri arrived, as did Vardy, Albrighton, Mahrez, Schmeichel, Okazaki. So really only Kante could be anything to do with Ranieri.

[GloverMart]

jammy_basturd said:

Don't get me wrong, I think Leicester's success so far as been as much about Ranieri as it has about the players. But Huth signed before Ranieri arrived, as did Vardy, Albrighton, Mahrez, Schmeichel, Okazaki. So really only Kante could be anything to do with Ranieri.

My point further up was meant to make more of the overall Leicester City transfer policy rather than state one manager was better than another. It comes down to who has the final say on transfers... at Leicester last season, was it Pearson or the chairman or a committee? Whoever it was deserves massive credit, Ranieri has just come in and used evolution, not revolution.

[Flip Martian]

m3sye said:

https://twitter.com/LFCFansCorner/status/696648546...

Should be 2 pages there from 1 article from the Times... by Tony BARRET

A bit wordy (maybe he's paid by the word!) but well worth a read. Agree, obviously. Klopp is probably pretty powerless in the decision making I would think though, as is Ayre probably at the end of the day. Ayre is there to front the operation here, and does as he's told, ultimately. FSG have got this one very very wrong.

I suspect they're now seeing if there's a way of back tracking without losing face.

[m3sye]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50kM3wj04_E

Klopp pre match presser v West Ham

[Black can man]

m3sye said:

Did you see my posts - ref Tony Barret ?

No .

[m3sye]

Black can man said:

No .

@TonyBarretTimes
Liverpool considering a review of elements of their new ticket price structure in light of Saturday's protests at Anfield.

Edited by m3sye on Monday 8th February 15:59

[jammy_basturd]

Flip Martian said:

A bit wordy (maybe he's paid by the word!) but well worth a read. Agree, obviously. Klopp is probably pretty powerless in the decision making I would think though, as is Ayre probably at the end of the day. Ayre is there to front the operation here, and does as he's told, ultimately. FSG have got this one very very wrong.

I suspect they're now seeing if there's a way of back tracking without losing face.

Surely Ayre, as CEO, runs the business and it would be his job to ultimately come up with a ticketing structure and propose it to FSG to agree on?

[Frankthered]

Murph7355 said:

With just 9mins to go you were 2-0 up! How many do you need against Sunderland!?

You put 5 past Norwich and still only won by 1 goal.

3 past Arsenal...1 point for your trouble.

Only 2 teams outside of the relegation zone have a worse defensive record. Half of the teams (8) in the same position have a worse attacking record.

They may well have had bucket loads of chances missed. But if you can't stop the leak in the bucket you're not going to make progress.

I'd really love to see Liverpool in the top 4. I would have loved to see them take the title when they choked the other year. Get a much better keeper (or pair of) and a decent back 4 (even just bin Sakho and drill the rest hard) and you could easily be there IMO.

(Especially if you could persuade Sturridge not to be such a girl and play to Benteke's strengths a bit more )

You're quite right, of course, 2-0 with less than ten minutes to go should be enough especially considering how poor Sunderland were. But given Liverpool's dominance, it wouldn't have been unreasonable to expect Liverpool to be three or four up if we had a proper finisher on the pitch.

As it was, when Mr Flappy let the free kick in, we ended up in panic mode for the last few minutes and conceded again. So, yes, a better defence (and/or midfield) that takes charge when under the cosh would be great, but better strikers who take full advantage of dominance would help!

And, of course, both would be better still!

[NRS]

RedTrident said:

Leicester have a proven manager. We had Mr Rodgers.

One of Mr Rodgers last signings was Benteke whilst one of the transfer committee's last signings was Firmino. In what scenario are those 2 ever going to play well together? Especially when you already have Coutinho and Lallana who was bought the season before for the best part of 30 million.

Leicester seem to be a lot more coherent and together in their approach on and off the pitch.

Klopp has yet to have the opportunity to make his mark. I expect to see a situation where signings make sense, regardless of how much they cost. Case in point, buy a left sided centre back for 20 million in one window and then in the next window buy another left sided centre back.

That's rubbish - Ranieri has had a very up and down past and a lot of people said it was a bad decision by Leicester at the time. The real weakness of Rodgers was his buying of players IMO (and refusing to critise players when needed). Same players and nothing new under Klopp.

jammy_basturd said:

Aside from the ticket protest, I really want to hear people's thoughts on what Leicester are doing right now.

I know after the last few seasons, the "moneyball" approach to transfers is pretty much dead in the eyes of most on here, in fact it's been largely derided as something that works in baseball but not the Premier League.

But the moneyball approach is exactly what Leicester have used perfectly. Huth, an old stalwart thought to have no value by Chelsea now a rock in defence. Mahrez and Vardy both talented forwards plucked from the lower leagues. Tottenham to some extent too. They may have spent a bit of money to get to the squad they have today, but the actual cost of their starting XI and squad is really not that high.

Surely our transfer committee must be looking towards Leicester quite enviously right now? Or do you think that there are differences between us and them which means this moneyball approach works for them but not us?

Edited by jammy_basturd on Monday 8th February 11:39

Moneyball is perfectly fine, but you need to use it the right way if you are going to use it. The problem I see with Liverpool is that we have used it to get players who fulfill "xyz" stats for metres run, numbers of tackles etc. However it's ended up with us being full of very similar players who run a lot and are technically creative but lack backbone and so on, instead of players who balance each other. Or in the case of attack someone that runs around, not just has a 1 goal in 2 games or similar stats.

[RWD cossie wil]

So no one can see the similarity between our 13/14 season & Leicesters run this season??

Couple of the "big teams" being well below parr, a strike force going through a purple patch & everyone suddenly thinking they have it cracked?

I'd love Leicester to win it, but I think ultimately the squads & experience of City & Arsenal will shine through....

[m3sye]

Talksport doing phone in on ticket prices now

[tali1]

£77 ?
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/10/14/article-...