Liverpool Discussion

[Rick]

48 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Tbh I'd have given it to Robertson over Virgil or Trent because I think they can be a bit sulky when things aren't going their way and I'm not sure that's the best example to set as a captain. But Trent's always going to know what the club means from a fans perspective and will take it seriously and Virgil's respected and has leadership qualities and experience that probably make him the best man for the job.

And I trust that Klopp knows better than I do.

That was a long way to go to agree with me

[Rick]

Second vid for Lavia rejected. Apparently we are going to explore a move for some young lad from Brazil. 
 

We were looking at Lavia when Fabinho was still here, so I’m hoping that there is somebody with a bit more experience coming in as well. Cause we cannot lose Henderson & Fabinho and replace them with just one 18 year old. Amrabat would be a good option, but he’s all but signed for Utd. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

5 minutes ago, Rick said:

Second vid for Lavia rejected. Apparently we are going to explore a move for some young lad from Brazil. 
 

We were looking at Lavia when Fabinho was still here, so I’m hoping that there is somebody with a bit more experience coming in as well. Cause we cannot lose Henderson & Fabinho and replace them with just one 18 year old. Amrabat would be a good option, but he’s all but signed for Utd. 

Melissa Reddy (who used to be quite reliable for us until she took the job at Sky and I think as a result, lost some contacts at the club) seems to think we're in for both Lavia and Andre (the Brazilian lad) as well as a CB.

Also after watching Amrabat play for Fiorentina a few times the past season... I'm not sure he's going to be a great option for the way we play. He looked brilliant for Morocco, but at Fiorentina he looked incredibly hit or miss and is sometimes just so pedestrian. If Fabinho was frustrating last season, I'm not sure Amrabat's an upgrade on the performances we got from him last season.

[Rick]

Admittedly, I’m judging Amrabat from his World Cup performance (the worst thing to do I’m aware) but since you watch your Serie A, I’ll trust you judgement on him. 
 

Getting both lads plus a CB would help my blood pressure level going into the new season.

[Danny]

With Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Bajcetic, Trent (inverted rb), Jones and Thiago there’s a lot of options in that Liverpool midfield. Bit light defensively and someone like Lavia would help tighten that with Bajcetic.

Add on top that there will likely be games where Salah, Nunez, Diaz/Jota and Gakpo play together there will be a real competition for places. 

[Stan]

3 minutes ago, Danny said:

With Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Bajcetic, Trent (inverted rb), Jones and Thiago there’s a lot of options in that Liverpool midfield. Bit light defensively and someone like Lavia would help tighten that with Bajcetic.

Add on top that there will likely be games where Salah, Nunez, Diaz/Jota and Gakpo play together there will be a real competition for places. 

It's seemed to have strengthened considerably with the Mac Allister & Szoboszlai signings. I really rate them, especially the former. Very cheap on FPL too!

I can see Liverpool scoring an absolute shed load this season.

[Danny]

3 minutes ago, Stan said:

It's seemed to have strengthened considerably with the Mac Allister & Szoboszlai signings. I really rate them, especially the former. Very cheap on FPL too!

I can see Liverpool scoring an absolute shed load this season.

Yeah and with Trent being the cornerstone of that midfield’s creativity, be it from an inverted RB position, they’re going to be a problem. Personally I think they win the league next season, assuming City don’t completely storm it

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

It's seemed to have strengthened considerably with the Mac Allister & Szoboszlai signings. I really rate them, especially the former. Very cheap on FPL too!

I can see Liverpool scoring an absolute shed load this season.

I think we're probably going to be pretty weak defending against counterattacks though. It's tough to say how good of a side we'll be when there's big question marks over who's going to be playing as a defensive midfielder and can we count on Virgil and Konate staying fit enough to avoid relying on Matip or Gomez for too long (and realistically... we can't rely on either of those 2 being fit for very long).

[Rick]

Caicedo & Lavia both expected to join Chelsea. What a complete and utter fuck up by the club, it’s embarrassing.
 

Fully expecting somebody to try and make out that it’s all part of some master plan. Bollocks. Unless that plan is to miss out on our main midfield target and balls up trying to bid for another then it’s been nothing short of a pathetic week for Liverpool football club. 
 

Obviously, there is still quality around, but everybody knows we have 100m we can spend, so everybody is going to be 20%+ more expensive than they were a week back. But we will have to pay it, we NEED a midfielder and we NEED a centre back. That defensive display yesterday was terrible, the same terrible that we have seen week in week out for a year. It’s unacceptable. 

Edited August 14, 2023 by Rick

[Dr. Gonzo]

8 hours ago, Rick said:

Caicedo & Lavia both expected to join Chelsea. What a complete and utter fuck up by the club, it’s embarrassing.
 

Fully expecting somebody to try and make out that it’s all part of some master plan. Bollocks. Unless that plan is to miss out on our main midfield target and balls up trying to bid for another then it’s been nothing short of a pathetic week for Liverpool football club. 
 

Obviously, there is still quality around, but everybody knows we have 100m we can spend, so everybody is going to be 20%+ more expensive than they were a week back. But we will have to pay it, we NEED a midfielder and we NEED a centre back. That defensive display yesterday was terrible, the same terrible that we have seen week in week out for a year. It’s unacceptable. 

Even if we get Lavia, it’s going to be for more money than it would have been last week if we just tried to get it wrapped up before the season started.

We sort of rested on our laurels after the CL win. For years a large number of our fans have said “this midfield needs a refresh” and FSG said “nah” - then last year made that abundantly clear. Then the Saudis came in and took.2 more midfielders off us.

So now we’ve basically got a whole new look midfield to try to get all on the same page as quickly as possible. Meanwhile we also need to refresh our defense a bit. And if it’s anything like the last few years, I think FSG will say “nah” until it’s painfully fucking obvious.

It’s a shame Michael Edwards left us because we’re in desperate need of competency from our recruitment department.

[patoriku66]

I have know idea why we even made a bid for Caicedo. There were all the other players we were looking at. How can you make a bid for a player who doesn't want to move to Liverpool is beyond me.

We were always savvy with our acquisitions but someone has slipped upped here big time. All this time talking to Lavia and now he says he wants to go to the smoke???

We need to look elsewhere outside of the premiere league and hopefully find a gem. Hopefully feign interests in another player so that Chelsea coughs up and then get the player we actually want.

[Dr. Gonzo]

16 hours ago, patoriku66 said:

I have know idea why we even made a bid for Caicedo. There were all the other players we were looking at. How can you make a bid for a player who doesn't want to move to Liverpool is beyond me.

We were always savvy with our acquisitions but someone has slipped upped here big time. All this time talking to Lavia and now he says he wants to go to the smoke???

We need to look elsewhere outside of the premiere league and hopefully find a gem. Hopefully feign interests in another player so that Chelsea coughs up and then get the player we actually want.

I don't think we've been that savvy in the market for a while now tbh. Gakpo and Diaz have proven to be good signings, but for years we've needed investment in the midfield and it's taken 5 players leaving for us to bring in 2 midfielders and now we're left scratching our arses trying to bring in a DM when the whole world knows we need one.

And I think we're sort of sleepwalking into the same situation at CB. It's really neglectful by FSG and the recruitment team - we've only got so much time with Klopp and Salah, and wasting time with rebuilds is not making the most of that time. And it has me genuinely worried for when we don't have Klopp getting us punching above our weight tbh. It would take some manager to come close to him, so it's likely our next manager after him isn't going to be quite as good.

While we were at our best, we should have been investing money to keep ourselves as good as we were. Now that things have fallen apart a bit we're ready to splash the cash but we're not as attractive of a proposition.

[Rick]

We completely squandered our time with Klopp and that team that won the league. How many times have we been a point or two off city at the end of the season? Lost two champions league finals to Madrid. I’m certain we would have won more if Klopp had been properly backed like other managers at the top clubs. 

[Redcanuck]

Reports that Salah has given Saudi Al-Ittihad the green light to negotiate a transfer with Liverpool.

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 hour ago, Redcanuck said:

Reports that Salah has given Saudi Al-Ittihad the green light to negotiate a transfer with Liverpool.

His agent's rubbished that

[Redcanuck]

44 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

His agent's rubbished that

Lucky for you guys.  You lose Salah and you would be in trouble. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

3 minutes ago, Redcanuck said:

Lucky for you guys.  You lose Salah and you would be in trouble. 

I think we're already in trouble this season tbh 

[Redcanuck]

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I think we're already in trouble this season tbh 

Only first game of the season.  You will probably score as much any team, just have to tighten up your defence.  Like United , Liverpool could use a good defensive midfielder. There has to be a couple out there, Chelsea can't buy them all.

[Rick]

We’ve made a bid for some 30 year old Japanese bloke from Stuttgart. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 hour ago, Rick said:

We’ve made a bid for some 30 year old Japanese bloke from Stuttgart. 

On the plus side, if he ever does something insane on the pitch we can use his name in shit jokes saying "Wataru doing Endo?!"

[El Profesor]

FSG transfer policy is really baffling. I mean, I really thought that with their baseball background they would explore market inneficiencies to build strong teams at ower budgets. There are so many of them, especially at a sport like football where analytics are really far behind from US major leagues. 

I am truly convinced, it is possible to build exciting and nice teams spending much lower sums than the likes of City and PSG. Real Madrid, for example, bought Vinícius and Rodrygo for a combined 90 million euros. 

IMO You have to cut the middle man, clubs like Benfica, Brighton for example. Instead of buying MacAllister after the World Cup, they should've done when he was loaned to Boca, when it was quite clear he was a class player. Moises Caicedo has been a big prospect for quite some time in south american. Buy him when he is at Independiente del Valle, instead of waiting to see if he can prove himself in Europe.

I know there is a lot of risk, but Milan, for example, returned to the top of european football not when their chinese owners spent crazy money, but when a different ownership group focused on getting young players. 

 

[LFCMadLad]

Watching the women's world Cup has been a breath of fresh air. 

Mens football in this country is fucked. It is going to be dominated by state owned clubs with no end in sight, and unless your club is owned by state owners.. it is impossible to compete.

I would rather be physically sick every day for the rest of my life than see Liverpool football club owned by an Arab state.. so that's me done...

Its been nice getting to know you all on here.. great bunch of lads/lasses.. but I have watched my last game of men's football so will probably never post on here again. 

What a shame our beautiful game has been ruined.

[CaaC (John)+]

15 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

Watching the women's world Cup has been a breath of fresh air. 

Aye, for my wife watching a footy match, there must be something good, sitting there the other day and I was watching the England v Aussie match on this laptop, looked up and the wife was watching it on TV 
Liz is not normally a footy fan, only really watches it if the likes of Scotland are playing, and loves watching rugby more than football.

[Mel81x+]

4 hours ago, El Profesor said:

FSG transfer policy is really baffling. I mean, I really thought that with their baseball background they would explore market inneficiencies to build strong teams at ower budgets. There are so many of them, especially at a sport like football where analytics are really far behind from US major leagues. 

It's weird how they never bought that aspect of their winning teams to Liverpool honestly. Either way it's not going to happen at the moment with the way the transfers have gone and how things are shaping up for this season. We're not going to be competitive in the league because we'll get jack-knifed in midfield every single game and unless this team can find a way to bypass the issue of a proper holding midfielder. I've seen Endo's highlight reel and while it looks impressive, you're not going to get that much time on the ball in a Klopp system where you have to be rotating things faster. Only time will tell how good he's going to be for us, but I remember watching Mino and thinking he was a very industrious midfielder only to then watch him not do the same on the pitch. 

I do agree you can get value for players at a much earlier point in their career, but the club's scouts seem more interested in finished products or almost finished rather than getting talent at a younger age before they find their way to Europe. 

[Stan]