The Official Liverpool FC Thread [Vol 12]

[anonymous-user]

m3sye said:

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/foot...

Maybe that's It?

A radox bath and a bit of deep heat and he may be able to play at the weekend then.

[type-r]

I think we have seen enough in the Watford game alone to suggest we will continue to struggle defensively with the centrebacks from last season. Set pieces certainly remain a big problem. Of course judge a team by their results but if the personnel haven't changed, there is a high probability that similar results will follow this season, especially against lesser teams. There is an opportunity right now to at least try and attempt to reduce that risk.

Happy to reserve judgement until the window closes however.

[m3sye]

Citys bench alone tonight is £168.3m
That's with 1 youth player on

[NRS]

RedTrident said:

Anyone seen Henderson or Wijnaldum play so far?

As for our midfield 3. Without Lallana or Coutinho in whatever combination, we have no creativity.

Can is the only one of the 3 we have playing that is anything other than a squad filler. Henderson, Wijnaldum and Milner will all have good games, but ultimately they are lacking imo.

Depending how you look at the formation you can look on it as we have Lallana, Coutinho, Mane and Salah as creative midfielders to push on. That is not bad at all. The players behind them are not exciting, but you have always missed that we need at least 1 boring player to hold up play when needed, switch the ball from side to side with easy passes. With only creative midfielders you lose the ball too much when trying for the creative long pass etc.

That said, we do need one of the "defensive" midfielders to be replaced with someone who can get the ball forward quickly (unless Klopp is deliberately asking them to do that to keep possession/ to remove pressure from them having the ball). I've always thought it a bit odd we are quite slow breaking forward with the players we have. Then they get players back and jam up their box.

[jammy-git]

m3sye said:

Citys bench alone tonight is £168.3m
That's with 1 youth player on

There's rumours gathering that City are looking to pay Messi's €300m release clause...

[TTmonkey]

jammy-git said:

There's rumours gathering that City are looking to pay Messi's €300m release clause...

If they do, someone should complain to the home office if he gets a work visa....

[RedTrident]

m3sye said:

Lovren in for Klavan RT? I'd rather keep the left side we saw Sat

Klavan is less error prone than Lovren, but he's really slow and next to Matip that is worrying. I always thought of him as the guy you bring on with 5 minutes to go to tighten a narrow lead.

I'm bemused with our central defence. Matip gets injured and its as bad as a relegation team's pairing. How can we not have identified a centre back after that letter before the window even opened? Unbelievable.

[m3sye]

Same here too

Julian #Draxler certainly won’t be joining #LFC as #Klopp is happy with the options he’s got in terms of his front three. (@JamesPearceEcho)

You just need to look at what city and UTD have options wise, it's not just about the front 3 we need a front 5 all good enough that our team is not weakened when 1 out...
1 Injury to our front 3 and we are instantly weekened...why are we never allowed to build a squad capable of winning the prem rather than just a team

[RedTrident]

Flip Martian said:

type-r said:

It's not about slagging off FSG. It's simply about stating the facts. Benitez style. This would still represent a missed opportunity if nothing changes in the next 10 days.

What facts?

The time to moan is after the deadline.

The season has started and we haven't strengthened in the areas Klopp himself identified. Only Salah is a genuine first 11 player. The other 2 lads are punts who might step up. Those are the facts.

The time to start complaining was the start of the season, the time to get angry may indeed be after deadline day. Do you honestly think we're still in for anyone?

[RedTrident]

m3sye said:

Same here too

Julian #Draxler certainly won’t be joining #LFC as #Klopp is happy with the options he’s got in terms of his front three. (@JamesPearceEcho)

You just need to look at what city and UTD have options wise, it's not just about the front 3 we need a front 5 all good enough that our team is not weakened when 1 out...
1 Injury to our front 3 and we are instantly weekened...why are we never allowed to build a squad capable of winning the prem rather than just a team

The kind of players they are that rely on speed, both Mane and Salah cannot play every minute of every game. I'll pass on Origi or Sturridge as I will on moving Firmino out wide. It's stupidity not to have 3 players for the 2 wide positions and another striker that can push Firmino.

If Coutinho stays then sure he can play out wide, but then the 3 man midfield of ours looks very ordinary, particularly with Lallana out.

[ferrisbueller]

m3sye said:

Same here too

Julian #Draxler certainly won’t be joining #LFC as #Klopp is happy with the options he’s got in terms of his front three. (@JamesPearceEcho)

You just need to look at what city and UTD have options wise, it's not just about the front 3 we need a front 5 all good enough that our team is not weakened when 1 out...
1 Injury to our front 3 and we are instantly weekened...why are we never allowed to build a squad capable of winning the prem rather than just a team

When was the last time we had genuine strength in depth?

As discussed previously, we should be all over Draxler. Seri would have been worthwhile, too.

[Ructions]

Champagne tastes, lemonade money.

[RobDickinson]

Do we want to be like manc? £160mil on the bench and looking at £250mil for one additional player? how the fk coul we compete with that . looks like barca are penniless after a few years of galactico's

[700BHP]

Mateo Kovacic has 'verbally' agreed to join us.

Hhhhhmmmm...

[Flip Martian]

desolate said:

Surely the time to moan is after the results are in - does it matter who we sign if we play well, win a few and compete in and around the top and in the cups?

We could sign my mum as playmaker and if we play good stuff and get up nr the top and progress in the champions league then I will be happy

Agreed. I meant the moaning at a perceived lack of signings - which won't be confirmed until after the deadline. But yes, to be honest if we get results I honestly don't care if there are no signings. Although despite the addition of Salah it seems the squad is already being written off as not good enough, despite a positive pre season and 4 points from 2 games, despite not hitting our stride yet.

[hornetrider]

700BHP said:

Mateo Kovacic has 'verbally' agreed to join us.

Hhhhhmmmm...

Sounds legit.

[jammy-git]

hornetrider said:

700BHP said:

Mateo Kovacic has 'verbally' agreed to join us.

Hhhhhmmmm...

Sounds legit.

The Daily Star...

[RedTrident]

RobDickinson said:

Do we want to be like manc? £160mil on the bench and looking at £250mil for one additional player? how the fk coul we compete with that . looks like barca are penniless after a few years of galactico's

Big difference between being like them and being out spent by Huddersfield.

Their commercial success is way beyond ours.
Their footballing success, especially in the Premier League Era, pisses all over ours.
Their stadium has been steadily expanded to seat both ordinary fans as well as the corporates, again unlike us.
Even though they make huge transfer mistakes, they seem to have no trouble going out and buying more players.

I'm not saying we want to be like them, though there are features to their model that are undeniably successful. Meanwhile we have won nothing at all under the stewardship of FSG and any off pitch revenue growth has not translated to a better squad. Our strength in depth for instance was better under Rafa.

In this modern game you need a squad that has at least 16 players that are competing for the first 11. The 5 extra players are

1 centre back
1 full back
1 midfielder
1 wide player
1 striker.

The other cover can be with youth or veterans that were once in a starting 11.

Our first 11 has in it players that should be in that 5 and even in the cover list.

Under FSG we continue to reinvent football. I'm waiting for their suggestion for a longer half time break....

[Old Man Fred]

jammy-git said:

hornetrider said:

700BHP said:

Mateo Kovacic has 'verbally' agreed to join us.

Hhhhhmmmm...

Sounds legit.

The Daily Star...

I don't think he will be going anywhere. Zidane has recently said he wants 2 players for every position and he identified him as the second in the DM position behind casemeiro.

I like Grujic but he played 45 mins in the U23s on Sunday and looked poor. One maybe for the future is Matty Virtue, he replaced Grujic and scored a couple of goals and looked like he had great awareness of the game

[700BHP]

Old Man Fred said:

jammy-git said:

hornetrider said:

700BHP said:

Mateo Kovacic has 'verbally' agreed to join us.

Hhhhhmmmm...

Sounds legit.

The Daily Star...

I don't think he will be going anywhere. Zidane has recently said he wants 2 players for every position and he identified him as the second in the DM position behind casemeiro.

I like Grujic but he played 45 mins in the U23s on Sunday and looked poor. One maybe for the future is Matty Virtue, he replaced Grujic and scored a couple of goals and looked like he had great awareness of the game

It's pretty much irrelevant what Zidane says. You can't expect someone to just sit around playing second fiddle all the time and waste their career. He's far too good for that and he knows it. He'd walk into most teams.

Doesn't mean he's coming to us though!