I hope not, but I'll definitely be annoyed if we miss out on a trip to Wembley.
Liverpool 2014/15 | WARNING: Contains strong amounts of Scouse nonsense
- Thread starter Wumminator
- Start date
I hope not, but I'll definitely be annoyed if we miss out on a trip to Wembley.
It's a big summer for Liverpool. I think they have the makings of a good side but they need to make some smart moves. Essentially, I'd be building the team around: Sturridge, Sterling, Coutinho, and Skrtel. Maybe Can too, depending on what they do with him. IMO they need to buy a partner for Sturridge (who is also capable of playing when Sturridge is out injured). They need a quality CM partner for Henderson (maybe that is Can, he should be given games there to see what he can do). I'd persist with a Skrtel and Sakho CB pairing too, maybe look at getting a better partner for Skrtel. The fullback positions are a little weak too, I'd definitely look for a RB. Maybe persist with Moreno and hope his 2nd season is a lot better.
Problem is Rodgers has shown absolutely no indication that he's capable of coaching a back four. Back 3 allows us to maintain shape with a a sweeper (skrtel) and a stopper (Lucas) and get sheer numbers in the way. Might have been a bad couple of games but I'd persist with it and maybe try playing a diamond in front Ala Swansea 2nd half.
Yeah I agree, but it just seems like teams have figured out how to play against it.
What's the reaction to Rodgers' comments about Balotelli?
Sturridge and Coutinho are the standout signings, yeah, but I think you're being to harsh on several of the others.
Borini - Not good enough.
Assaidi - Sold for a profit.
Manquillo - Loan - Better than Johnson, cheaper than Johnson... That's alright.
Sahin - Loan - Irrelevant.
Cissokho - Loan signing as LB cover while Enrique was out - Irrelevant.
Moses - Loan signing to add depth - Irrelevant.
Alberto/Ilori/Yesil - One for the future, maybe. We've not seen enough of him to write him off, or to say he's the next big thing, but could be decent.
Origi - Has looked decent at times for Lille this season (7 goals in 26 (with lots of sub appearances) for a 19 year old isn't bad) - Will be a better third choice striker than what we've already got.
Aspas - Yeah, not find of that signing at all.
Lambert - Decent 4th choice striker for the money we paid, but we've already got plenty of those, so a tad bizarre. Still, not fussed.
Lovren - You'd be hard pressed to find many people who didn't think this was a good deal. Nev & Carragher were talking about him being one of the best CB's in the league last season, and I thought he'd do well here. He's only 25, so there's still time, but he does need to improve.
Balotelli -In hindsight, rather Balotelli than Falcao, to be honest. He cost us less to buy than Falcao did to own, and probably added comparatively more to our merchandising, too. Crap on the pitch, but we'll still make most of our money back on him.
Can - Can is a CDM playing at CB because our first choice backline is doing pretty poorly right now. He's looked one of our best players for large portions of the season, and for €8m, I think we've got ourselves a good little player. He'll do well when playing in his natural position ahead of a decent front line.
Sakho - Decent, but he needs to work on his ball playing ability. I'd take him over a couple of the top four CBs as a defender, to be honest.
Lallana - Good signing, but £5m or so overpriced due to his sell-on clause, captain status, and English international status. Was one of my fave non-'pool players in 13/14, and I think if he stays here for 4-5 years, he'll be worth the money.
Markovic - We've seen flashes, but I've not seen enough to convince me we wouldn't have been better off sticking £20m on a striker and promoting Ibe to the first team a bit faster.
Mignolet - He's had his shocking moments, but for £8m (not £15m), I think we've got a decent keeper. His form since the turn of the year has been fantastic, and there's still time for him to improve.
Moreno - Either looks like a world beater or a junior. He's had enough time to adapt to the league, but there's still plenty of work he needs to do to improve. Again, he's only a kid, so time will tell.
Allen - Nothing special, but worth the money.
Objectively, I'd say the only three signings that have already failed beyond reprieve are Borini (from which we'll recoup most of our investment), Aspas (same again), and Balotelli. The rest I'm either moderately happy with, or expect them to come good in the long term.
I can't believe what I'm reading, you're trying to defend that lot? I honestly can't see a decent deal in any of those the best of the bunch is probably Joe Allen who's average at best, the rest are terrible buys.
Edit: Ok Can looks decent for €8m
What did he say?
Whose laughing now?!
You absolute twats!
He said Balotelli got a slight knock to his knee and that Balotelli said he won't be able to travel with the team because of the knock.
Whose laughing now?!
You absolute twats!
Amazing, only a month ago this was a happy clappy place of the deluded. I was hounded because I wrote that the last game in Europe exposed a serious flaw in the side. Then the Bitters game was used to accuse me of being awrong but then the same side struggled against Swansea and then slipped. Yesterday was nothing less than a shambles.
Rodgers is the architect of a shambles. His squad has lost its captain, it's shape, has contract issues, and is losing home and away against bigger clubs. More serious for Scouse fans must be Rodgers' interpretation of reality. His foolish references to how well his side played, how they performed individually, and the overall condition of the squad. He said much the same the week before to a similar situation and glossed over Little Stevie's 49 seconds.
There is serious deterioration on last season and not just money will address the problems and deficiencies. The only salvage left is now the FA Cup but the fractures run deeper and success will only paper over the cracks. He's taken the club backwards in less than a season and that's dreadful even by Moyes standards because he's been solely responsible for twice failing spectacularly.
Rodgers is the architect of a shambles. His squad has lost its captain, it's shape, has contract issues, and is losing home and away against bigger clubs. More serious for Scouse fans must be Rodgers' interpretation of reality. His foolish references to how well his side played, how they performed individually, and the overall condition of the squad. He said much the same the week before to a similar situation and glossed over Little Stevie's 49 seconds.
There is serious deterioration on last season and not just money will address the problems and deficiencies. The only salvage left is now the FA Cup but the fractures run deeper and success will only paper over the cracks. He's taken the club backwards in less than a season and that's dreadful even by Moyes standards because he's been solely responsible for twice failing spectacularly.
The thing i love the most about this is how their season started to unravel after this was erected
Whose laughing now?!
You absolute twats!
Excellent, but I also think Rodgers contributed with his wizardry.
If they do lose Sterling in the summer, it could be an absolute disaster for them.
Sturridge isn't doing so well with injuries at the moment. More than likely missing out on the CL. I can't really see Balotelli, Lambert or Borini still being there (Well Borini I can, he's loving it there)
With lower budgets than most, and with a few positions need filling, it could be a tricky summer for them
Sturridge isn't doing so well with injuries at the moment. More than likely missing out on the CL. I can't really see Balotelli, Lambert or Borini still being there (Well Borini I can, he's loving it there
)With lower budgets than most, and with a few positions need filling, it could be a tricky summer for them
If they do lose Sterling in the summer, it could be an absolute disaster for them.
Sturridge isn't doing so well with injuries at the moment. More than likely missing out on the CL. I can't really see Balotelli, Lambert or Borini still being there (Well Borini I can, he's loving it there
With lower budgets than most, and with a few positions need filling, it could be a tricky summer for them
Heart strings and bleeding comes to mind.
Funny enough i can. As you said Borini isnt going anywhere anytime soon (If they do lose Sterling in the summer, it could be an absolute disaster for them.
Sturridge isn't doing so well with injuries at the moment. More than likely missing out on the CL. I can't really see Balotelli, Lambert or Borini still being there (Well Borini I can, he's loving it there
With lower budgets than most, and with a few positions need filling, it could be a tricky summer for them
) but i would add the other two to the list as well.Lambert is unlikely to leave, he signed on a 2 year deal where i can see him seeing it out and ending his career at the club he supported as a kid. Balotelli is unlikely to go anywhere because who in their right mind would think that is a good deal? With the wages hes on its unlikely anyone would match it and i get the feeling he's unlikely to want to take a paycut. Which is all a big problem for them because last year they barely got past FFP with UCL football. Without it and a lot of players on big wages it will be a very tricky summer indeed.
Who in their right mind would take Balotelli now? They'll have to subsidize his wages and ship him on loan to get rid probably.
The Sterling situation is fecked up. I genuinely think it's good to see ex-United pros being amongst the masses telling him to cop himself on and stay where he is, Liverpool genuinely is the best place for him to be for the next few seasons at least.
That said, I wonder what their other main players are thinking at the moment, the likes of Sturridge and Coutinho, even Skrtel. They must be looking at it thinking of a second summer when the talk is going to be of players leaving, this time Gerrard and maybe Sterling, rather than improving the squad. Someone like Sturridge may very well be thinking that there's only so long of his career he can watch his club sticking band aids over holes left by departing players. I wouldn't be surprised if he was thinking of getting a full season injury free under his belt and then to start looking elsewhere himself.
That said, I wonder what their other main players are thinking at the moment, the likes of Sturridge and Coutinho, even Skrtel. They must be looking at it thinking of a second summer when the talk is going to be of players leaving, this time Gerrard and maybe Sterling, rather than improving the squad. Someone like Sturridge may very well be thinking that there's only so long of his career he can watch his club sticking band aids over holes left by departing players. I wouldn't be surprised if he was thinking of getting a full season injury free under his belt and then to start looking elsewhere himself.
Sturridge will end up back at City soon. He'll count as a club grown player for them and has proven that he can do a decent job up top when he's fit. There'll be less pressure on him to lead a line and stay fit for a whole season too, because City will inevitably have two other decent strikers to share the workload.
Is it Sterling setting the pace or is it Sterling's agent? Off the field most of these young players are just glove puppets for their agents to manipulate.
Whose laughing now?!
You absolute twats!
Thanks Paddy Power, their form dipped and our form has got steadily better since this statute was erected.
They were so fecking giddy at this point, they thought it was their time and that we would crumble. Daft cnuts.
Agree with this. I also get the feeling that quite a few of the players don't like him. Let's face it, it's not good man management to come out and always throw players under the bus like he tends to do from time to time. It's never his fault.
It's like the story of the Trojan horse....
The way Rodgers wasted the Suarez money is just hilarious. Why on earth spend lots of money on mediocre dross instead of 2-3 really good players who could have strengthened them? heir defense is just shite, and it has been for quite some time now. Squirtle is decent, but the rest are just wage thieves. Fair enough, Arsenal were pretty good yesterday, but the way they picked them apart were just brutal.
That's true. But I wonder if we're not missing something here. No one knew Sterling had been offered a new contract by Liverpool until Rodgers opened his mouth in the press. Then it seemed there was a subtle media campaign to put pressure on Sterling to sign the contract - the undertone of those articles inferring that Sterling is greedy (which he is regardless but..), and I think the club had something to do with those stories. Maybe Sterling feels if my manager can discuss my personal business with the press, then so can he? I dunno... nevertheless, disagree with Sterling and his agent for the way they've gone about it. But you have to wonder if it's not as straightforward as it's being made out to be...
They seem 'better connected' media-wise than was previously the case. There were ''Stevie is Great'' articles in the Indy & Torygraph the week after the stamp. Mirror has a scouser in there & Bascombe joined the T'Graph this year. And I read their stuff and quite often think Brenty's been briefing this - the middle of the night tea/toast/tactics being a recent one.
Reaction to the Suarez debacle, maybe.
Reaction to the Suarez debacle, maybe.
I think Liverpool would have to take a massive loss to get rid of him now. And by massive i mean putting him on sale with no transfer fee just to get him off the books and penny up the difference of the loss in wages. But then it goes back to a point i made in a earlier post - who would take him for footballing reasons?
Paddy Power have always struck me as ABU (what other betting firms go to such lengths to pull a stunt like this?) so seeing this backfire on them and the Scousers was very nice indeed
Paddy Power have always struck me as ABU (what other betting firms go to such lengths to pull a stunt like this?) so seeing this backfire on them and the Scousers was very nice indeed
They were Liverpool's Official betting partner for a while.
Somebody will. At one time I would have said Stoke but Sparky's not going to touch him. Maybe he'll end up at West Ham to reap the benefits of Fat Sam's management methods for troubled souls.
See i look around the league and i cant see anyone that would take a punt on him. Anyone in the top 7-8 will not take a chance on a player that is as unproductive as him and the further down you go you cant see any manager thinking "hes got a lot to offer". Most of the teams in the lower half of the table tend to have grafters who put the effort in up front, you dont get that with Balotelli. Unless they intend to build a team around him (why would you) i just cant see one of those clubs go for him.
As for the foreign leagues i dont see him fitting well in Spain or a third return to Italy. Liverpool are stuck with him which is awesome
We needed options & depth. Our best bench options last season were players like Victor Moses
Compare that to the Arsenal bench yesterday... Gibbs, Gabriel, Rosicky, Walcott, Flamini, Welbeck. That's a huge step up from any bench we had last year, but we've now got a better set of players than we did outside the first XI for a while.But yeah, I think it's fair to say we overdid it a bit. Instead of Balotelli & Markovic (who I think is a good prospect, don't get me wrong), we could've promoted Jordan Ibe & spent £35m on a more complete forward for now - Not next year.
I'll be annoyed if we go into this coming transfer window and buy anything other than ready to go players that will improve the first XI immediately. To be fair, we thought we had that with Lovren & Lallana, but Lovren hasn't worked out so far, and Lallana has been unlucky with injuries. If we come out of this transfer window with a £50m spend and 6 new players...
Possibly but I'm sure a player of his age is under an agent's contract that instructs him to behave in a certain way. With the monies involved I don't think he's making the pace and he will not be contract savvy for these situations. However, both sides look inept, caught up in slanging match without any sign of mediation - but hey isn't that modern football?
See i look around the league and i cant see anyone that would take a punt on him. Anyone in the top 7-8 will not take a chance on a player that is as unproductive as him and the further down you go you cant see any manager thinking "hes got a lot to offer". Most of the teams in the lower half of the table tend to have grafters who put the effort in up front, you dont get that with Balotelli.
As for the foreign leagues i dont see him fitting well in Spain or a third return to Italy. Liverpool are stuck with him which is awesome
When he was at City, he had players around him willing to do the donkey work but at Liverpool, he hasn't got that luxury. Maybe they'll terminate his contract and make him a free agent but there will always be someone who thinks he knows how to manage such a player. As you mentioned Italy, wasn't Mancini making noises about bringing Balotelli home just a few weeks ago?
Anyway, I'd much rather see him taking up space at Anfield and sowing discord than elsewhere.
We needed options & depth. Our best bench options last season were players like Victor Moses
But yeah, I think it's fair to say we overdid it a bit. Instead of Balotelli & Markovic (who I think is a good prospect, don't get me wrong), we could've promoted Jordan Ibe & spent £35m on a more complete forward for now - Not next year.
I'll be annoyed if we go into this coming transfer window and buy anything other than ready to go players that will improve the first XI immediately. To be fair, we thought we had that with Lovren & Lallana, but Lovren hasn't worked out so far, and Lallana has been unlucky with injuries. If we come out of this transfer window with a £50m spend and 6 new players...
Too many punts like Balotelli and not enough long term construction. Few of yesterday's players look long term options, yet collectively having cost a lot of money. Now it looks as if the options are declining, and can only reflect on Rodgers 'strategy'.
They're very well connected at The Times as well(Evans, Barrett, Rudd etc) and Henry Winter is joining The Times as well. Not to mention the various ex players with columns. I remember Graeme Souness(who would be one of least biased ex Liverpool players) in his Sunday Times column before the Liverpool-United game recently saying that he and other Liverpool players felt the media had a soft spot for United when they were players(because of the Munich Air Disaster etc). I'm sure Man United players of recent years, and players at certain other clubs would feel that the many in the media have quite a soft spot for Liverpool, not just known Liverpool fans.
It's the GK signing that mystifies me. Even when Mings is making saves, no other aspect of his game inspires any confidence and he's so bad with his feet I'd have ruled him out straightaway. This was done in the context of them only having Brad Jones.
Priority position for Brenty & his style of play hasn't Brenty also said.
Must have been better alternatives out there somewhere.
Priority position for Brenty & his style of play hasn't Brenty also said.
Must have been better alternatives out there somewhere.