On the whole squad is stronger than last season but still leaning heavily towards the solid but unspectacular side. I do expect them to be better than last season. Central midfield is still weak for me especially if Can is going o be used as a defender.
Our Rivals Squad's next year - Liverpool 2015/2016
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Ings is a far more mobile pacier striker than Lambert and has a far better recent record in front of the net. He is a young player and should only improve, none of which applies to Lambert. Much of that applies to Origi too and as a Belgian international it would be wrong to assume he can't provide more than Borini (my grandmother would be an improvement over Borini). At his tender age and with his skills (some deftly demonstrated in the Thai friendly - regardless of the shiteness of the opposition - with two woodwork strikes and an excellent, powerful, headed goal in torrential rain, I think he may develop into a very good player in the future, though I guess he won't see much action this season.
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Losing to Brisbane Roar at the moment, they look diabolical.
just in time. 1-1
I think our squad is starting to look quite good again actually.
The bigger worry is that we might have too many squaddies in the first team. take Coutinho and Firmino out and the x-factor decreases a fair bit with a bunch of solid players looking for someone to pass to that can make things happen.
I'd love Kovacic. He's been playing deep for Inter this season too.
I don't think there is money for it though unless we shift some players quick and well. I put our net spend in the region of 40-45m (don't know the size of Milner's signing fee or Ings' fee, but I am eyeballing 10mish for that).
Lambert should be able to find a decent club - I worry about shifting Enrique, Borini and ballotelli though. There is not that much money to be found there to help us go spend another 20-25m on the kind of midfielder that would improve us.
We've done well to cover our shortcomings in a well prioritised order this summer though.
I think the issue with Benteke and his fee basically came down to getting your first choice striker or settling for second choice and finding the last 10m for another midfielder. I am happy we went for first choice up front.
Where has Luis Enrique been for the last two years? He just seemed to disappear.
Injured a long time. Then finished at this level because of it. He's too dumb of a player to adapt without outstanding physique.
Not a chance is it around £30m. Milner would have received a £4-5m signing on bonus, Ings is due to cost £6-7m at tribunal, Clyne was £12.5m, Firmino was £29m and Benteke will be £32.5m. I'd say the capital investment this Summer so far is £80-£85m minimum with around £41m coming in for Coates & Sterling.
As I said a masterstroke would be getting Moutinho on loan. Other than that I think Liverpool are done after Benteke.
40m from sterling, 4m from coates. 4,5m for Aspas so far. Add in Gomez, that still lands us at around 40m net so far.
Gomez
18 yrs old, CB. £3.5 Million (possibly rising to £6m) Signing from Charlton (fee figure edited for accuracy). Said he has based his game on Rio Ferdinand's.
My comments during & right after the Brisbane match :
In this game Gomez has shown great pace, sublime skills (dragging the ball down in the area from head height), skill and control with both feet, good passing and strength, tall lad too.
At 18 yrs old he's certainly not going to get a chance in the centre of our defence this season (especially with a number of other CBs to keep happy), however when looking at our options at LB he's shot to the top of my list, for that first half he was my MoM. I don't want to go overboard, especially without seeing him play consistently against much better opposition, but he looks the real deal. This isn't just any 18 y.o though, having just played a season in the Championship (it doesn't get much tougher than that for a CB).
BR's comments a little later :
The 18-year-old, who joined the Reds from Charlton Athletic last month, has caught the eye of the manager in pre-season training and turned in an outstanding display at left-back during Friday’s 2-1 win over Brisbane Roar in Australia.
Rodgers told his post-match press conference: “He’s staying. I’ve seen enough in this period; you judge young players, I always bring them in and over pre-season have a good idea of whether we’re going to keep them or not.
“Seeing him, in particular close at hand and his personality – he’ll be staying, he’ll get games.
“He’s only 18 years of age, but seeing him play at left-back for the first time, he looked an outstanding athlete and a really good footballer. I’ve seen him at centre-half and at right-back, but I wanted to see him at left-back – and I thought he was outstanding.”
It’s not just in the full-back berths where Rodgers sees Gomez providing competition to his teammates – the manager feels the England U19 international has the qualities required to operate centrally.
“Gomez has played there a lot of his career,” continued the boss. “We took him in from Charlton where he played as a centre-half as a two, played in a back three and he’s also played as a right-back, so he’s got all the tools to play across the back four. You saw him tonight play at left-back – he’s a big talent.”
18 yrs old, CB. £3.5 Million (possibly rising to £6m) Signing from Charlton (fee figure edited for accuracy). Said he has based his game on Rio Ferdinand's.
My comments during & right after the Brisbane match :
In this game Gomez has shown great pace, sublime skills (dragging the ball down in the area from head height), skill and control with both feet, good passing and strength, tall lad too.
At 18 yrs old he's certainly not going to get a chance in the centre of our defence this season (especially with a number of other CBs to keep happy), however when looking at our options at LB he's shot to the top of my list, for that first half he was my MoM. I don't want to go overboard, especially without seeing him play consistently against much better opposition, but he looks the real deal. This isn't just any 18 y.o though, having just played a season in the Championship (it doesn't get much tougher than that for a CB).
BR's comments a little later :
The 18-year-old, who joined the Reds from Charlton Athletic last month, has caught the eye of the manager in pre-season training and turned in an outstanding display at left-back during Friday’s 2-1 win over Brisbane Roar in Australia.
Rodgers told his post-match press conference: “He’s staying. I’ve seen enough in this period; you judge young players, I always bring them in and over pre-season have a good idea of whether we’re going to keep them or not.
“Seeing him, in particular close at hand and his personality – he’ll be staying, he’ll get games.
“He’s only 18 years of age, but seeing him play at left-back for the first time, he looked an outstanding athlete and a really good footballer. I’ve seen him at centre-half and at right-back, but I wanted to see him at left-back – and I thought he was outstanding.”
It’s not just in the full-back berths where Rodgers sees Gomez providing competition to his teammates – the manager feels the England U19 international has the qualities required to operate centrally.
“Gomez has played there a lot of his career,” continued the boss. “We took him in from Charlton where he played as a centre-half as a two, played in a back three and he’s also played as a right-back, so he’s got all the tools to play across the back four. You saw him tonight play at left-back – he’s a big talent.”
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You spent 10m on an 18 year old centre back at Charlton? I completely missed that.
If LvG made a pamphlet of the times Rodgers said outstanding it would have many pages. Would be an outstanding documentary effort on LvG's behalf.
Not that LvG would do a pamphlet on another manager.
Not that LvG would do a pamphlet on another manager.
3.5m is what I heard
Hmm, think I got that figure wrong. B20 thinks it £3.5m, I read £10m on another forum but a quick Google came up with £6m (£3.5m possibly rising to £6m with add-ons). Whatever, he looks the Bees Knees for an 18 year old defender
1. Does he? Never knew that. Unless you're basing this on last season alone.
2. That's what you hope. Ings has shown potential but he could quite easily join the 95% of other young players who fail to make the grade and end up being nothing more than lower-mid table talent.
Lambert scored more goals in 13/14, you know, when he actually played, than Ings did in 14/15. The only difference is one might improve.
Origi is better than Borini... Based on what, exactly?
Benteke is a player I wanted us to sign, and I'm happy he's here. He's an improvement on Balotelli, and a big one at that, but it's not like we signed a top tier player.
Hmm, think I got that figure wrong. B20 thinks it £3.5m, I read £10m on another forum but a quick Google came up with £6m (£3.5m possibly rising to £6m with add-ons). Whatever, he looks the Bees Knees for an 18 year old defender
£3.5m was the official fee, whether there are any add on's I am not sure. However, as per the rules on here on Liverpool signing a player you have to add (for no reason whatsoever) at least 10-20% on to that.
Ings scored way more than Lambert per mins played in 2014/15 .. the definition of recent
There is no comparison re. mobility, actually today's match (even though Lambert only got ca. 10 mins) a perfect example. Ings was alert, involved and unlucky not to score, due to an excellent save, with one quality move in the box. Lambert was anonymous.Based on Borini being utter shite and on I really like what I've seen of Origi (he's young and makes mistakes but there looks to be plenty to build on).
He scored 11 or 13 in the PL, right? I'd be surprised if he gets five in all competitions as he'll be our number 3/4/5. Hope I'm wrong, of course.
Don't disagree on Borini being bad, though
Don't disagree on Borini being bad, though
It's a stupid way to look at it (goals per mins) as they don't show Lambert was in and out of the team while Ings was a much more permanent fixture. Compare Lambert's 13/14 stats to Ings 14/15 ones if you want a more representative image of whether or not one is an improvement on the other.
it's far fairer than GPG which is most often quoted. Though I've an even better way ... my own eyes, both last season and today when they both actually played in Red shirts.
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If we were to go for Illarramendi he wouldn't cost that much, Kovacic quite a bit more but I didn't realise that he had been playing deeper last season, it wasn't obvious to me in the few Inter matches I've seen but then I wasn't particularly watching him per se. If we do get one of those we could let Allen or Lucas go and still have Can to back up in that deeper position. I don't believe Can is good enough or experienced enough to start there yet though.
Ings' mobility should suit Rodgers more than Lambert's qualities.
What's funny about Pool is that they keep signing players in the same positions without really looking towards putting together a first 11 that can compete with most in football. Firmino, Coutinho, and Markovic all specialise in the same role and are of the same profile(young and very talented). That alone cost them 70mil. Why? Its clear as daylight that the man running the football project is hoping on stumbling onto a solution rather than knowing what the solution itself is.
Sturridge, Ings, Benteke and Origi is a decent group of forwards. Nice depth and variety. Now you can't under and conditions say the same thing about their midfield. You'd think they'd have learnt after the football lessons by madrid last season, but it seems they haven't. The defence is really short of quality and they haven't done anything to improve that. They need to stop this scatter gun approach and focus instead on building a functional unit. Stop being phased by all these flavour on the months and apply some logic to what they have and can get.
They've spent so much money in recent years and its only due to the men running the club not having a clue that they are still a club that's not expected to finish in the top 4.
Sturridge, Ings, Benteke and Origi is a decent group of forwards. Nice depth and variety. Now you can't under and conditions say the same thing about their midfield. You'd think they'd have learnt after the football lessons by madrid last season, but it seems they haven't. The defence is really short of quality and they haven't done anything to improve that. They need to stop this scatter gun approach and focus instead on building a functional unit. Stop being phased by all these flavour on the months and apply some logic to what they have and can get.
They've spent so much money in recent years and its only due to the men running the club not having a clue that they are still a club that's not expected to finish in the top 4.
Problem is, we play in a league that has 4 clubs who have a bigger status, higher profile, & has greater financial resources than we do. I mean, it's not like we're exactly in the mix for players like Di Maria, Falcao, Costa, et al is it ? & even when we do unearth a gem, chances are we'll lose them to one of the big money clubs anyway.
Hopefully for your clubs case this sort of defeatist attitude isn't one that's prevalent within the confides of the club. There's a lot of quality out there and pool can afford this quality, sign them and make something of them. We're living in a time where throwing away talent is a passion held by most of the clubs in football. Signing Allan, Kovacic, and banega to supplement what's already at the club would propel the club to the next level. Instead the team will most likely field Milner, Henderson, and Lucas in the first match of next season.
IMO that's reckless management. The sort where the men behind the scenes don't really know what's going on and are hoping to get lucky rather than have a clear plan.
The excuse of prestige doesn't fly when considering the poor work the other big english clubs themselves are doing in the market.
Echo : Firmino's transfer fee was £21million up front with a further £8million to be paid in add-ons.
Even better than I thought.
Even better than I thought.
Watched the game against Brisbane. Thought Gomez looked pretty good. Apart from that it wasn't overly impressive. Just a pre-season match though so who really cares.
Agreed. AS you can see above I really though Gomez had a great game and looks a huge defensive prospect considering he's only 18 yrs old.
Sterling was played out of position for most of the season, though.
I can imagine Ian Ayre, "we'll give you an extra £8m if we win the league" - Hoffenheim CEO "Agreed!" - Ayre *haha, suckers*
Rodgers will now play firmino as a wingback
Hush now, that's where Benteke is playing. Firmino is our holding mid, and Markovic will be the lone forward.
Is the Benteke transfer confirmed? I thought it was just speculation, but people on here seem tho think he is definitely joining them.
Supposedly his medical is on Monday (ITK). And part of the short hold up being Ayre having to return from Aus. The lack of any denials from Villa is telling though.
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