I think this is my favourite thread at the moment.
How far away are we really? Why good outweighs bad yet isn't seen on the pitch
Firstly, I want to talk about what went right and what went wrong in the summer, mainly to say that for all the criticism of the transfer committee that we did actually make more positive decisions than negative ones in the summer transfer market. I still believe that of those we signed Lallana, Can, Markovic, Moreno, Manquillo and possibly (despite an awful season so far) Lovren can have a successful long term future at the club.
6 signings with twice as many defensive errors leading to goals as actual goals. For £90m. Also quite charming that Liverpool fans think only £20m of their summer spend was misspent.
There is a lot of argument about how far away this team are from being a top 4 side, but the answer for me personally is not far at all, in fact, I don't think we're all that far away from being a title challenging side. We've shown the world last season that defensive stability isn't vital if you can score enough goals, and to be honest I don't think the individuals in our defence are as bad as they are made out to be - but that at least in part our other issues contribute to our poor defensive record. Firstly, the lack of mobility in midfield not only allows us less of the ball, it exposes our defence to players running at them with the ball and it is far too easy for players to find pockets of space behind our midfield from which to work. Secondly, when the team isn't scoring freely it adds a pressure to the defence, because they know a single goal will ruin the result as often as not.
Last season they scored over 100, at their current rate they get 53 and less than Southampton, Tottenham, West Ham and Everton. So while a bad defence can win a title, albeit they don't that often, a goal difference of plus 1 is less to hoop and holler over.
Add the players into both the side and squad and then see where you think that side/squad would finish. I am going to post mine up but please don't post yours in response, it can get very dull that way:
Valdes
Manquillo
Lovren
Sakho
Moreno
Can
Pogba
Coutinho
Sterling
Aguero
Lallana
Encouraging to note that £150m and the long costly process of hypnotising Pogba and Aguero into accepting massive career down steps, still leaves only a team amongst the 2 or 3 best scorers in the league, reliant on their injury prone striker staying fit and still rubbish defensively.
the team that started against Swansea had an average age of just under 24 i think, when you consider that its hard not to be optimistic about the future.
The Spurs team that beat Chelsea 5-3 had an average age of 24. Interestingly, only Chelsea, Everton and Man City of the so-called bigger teams have a considerably higher average squad age and only Everton a squad smaller than Liverpool's.
With all the talk of Liverpool's new found squad size and unbelievable youth, the sort that guarantees improvement because Denilson, Diaby and Bendtner went on to dominate world football, they're actually worse off than United, Spurs, Arsenal, Newcastle, Swansea and Southampton across both departments.