Liverpool Discussion

[Rick]

2 hours ago, LFCMike said:

Only pre season and all that but Liverpool looked good today. First game I've seen of pre season. All really good goals and played some really good stuff.

The last three games have been similar performance. Some promising stuff on show. I think we’ll be very entertained. 

[LFCMike]

49 minutes ago, Rick said:

The last three games have been similar performance. Some promising stuff on show. I think we’ll be very entertained. 

0-0 in the second game today. Slot out! 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Looks like we won't be signing a midfielder until January at the earliest, with Zubimendi now turning us down.

[Rick]

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Looks like we won't be signing a midfielder until January at the earliest, with Zubimendi now turning us down.

Ridiculous situation to be in. I’m fairly annoyed at how public this whole back and forth has been, it’s made us look silly. Dilly dallying about with a player who was clearly never close to being convinced. I refuse to believe we only have one target for that position either, but I think it’s likely nothing gets done. We might sign that keeper and send him on loan. 
 

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Just now, Rick said:

Ridiculous situation to be in. I’m fairly annoyed at how public this whole back and forth has been, it’s made us look silly. Dilly dallying about with a player who was clearly never close to being convinced. I refuse to believe we only have one target for that position either, but I think it’s likely nothing gets done. We might sign that keeper and send him on loan. 
 

 

I don't really see the point of signing that keeper and sending him out on loan unless we're thinking Alisson's not got much time left but we're also planning on not keeping Kelleher (who tbh I thought we would have sold this summer - but I guess not). It is frustrating though because it's what... 3 times in the last 5 years that we've been kind of insisting on only going after our top targets - when we don't get them, we don't do much... and it's definitely hurt our chances of success those seasons.

I guess having said that, it's not like Endo's a bad option - although I think there's question marks over whether he can do that #6 role in Slot's system or whether we'll be playing Gravenberch a bit deeper than normal (which has me a little worried about our defensive solidity tbh).

I guess contract extensions for Mo, Virgil, and Trent should be up next on the drawing board for Hughes. But if we don't get that done pretty soon, we could be looking at a summer we've got to replace probably the 3 biggest leaders in the side. A bit stressful, but guess we've just got to wait and see what happens next.

[Rick]

8 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I don't really see the point of signing that keeper and sending him out on loan unless we're thinking Alisson's not got much time left but we're also planning on not keeping Kelleher (who tbh I thought we would have sold this summer - but I guess not). It is frustrating though because it's what... 3 times in the last 5 years that we've been kind of insisting on only going after our top targets - when we don't get them, we don't do much... and it's definitely hurt our chances of success those seasons.

I guess having said that, it's not like Endo's a bad option - although I think there's question marks over whether he can do that #6 role in Slot's system or whether we'll be playing Gravenberch a bit deeper than normal (which has me a little worried about our defensive solidity tbh).

I guess contract extensions for Mo, Virgil, and Trent should be up next on the drawing board for Hughes. But if we don't get that done pretty soon, we could be looking at a summer we've got to replace probably the 3 biggest leaders in the side. A bit stressful, but guess we've just got to wait and see what happens next.

I just don’t get the point of having a shortlist of targets if you’re not serious about any of them other than who’s top. Zubimendi has fucked up about (with respect, Liverpool shouldn’t be having to convince a Real Sociedad player that we’d be a good move) and we’ve not mad any moves on any other outfield players.
 

[Spike]

San Sebastian > England’s northwest

[Stan]

1 hour ago, Spike said:

San Sebastian > England’s northwest

It really is a beautiful city.

[LFCMike]

It seems to me like Liverpool were taking a punt on someone they thought would fit Slot's Liverpool better than Endo. They thought the player was willing to move but has then changed his mind. There probably isn't a need for an Endo type player from everything I've read and the little I've seen of Liverpool under Slot. They currently have other players who can play in the midfield two so there's not really a need to go out and panic buy and they can review what they've got as the season progresses 

[Rick]

There must be a feeling that the position needs filled if they were ready to spunk a 51m lump sum on this guy just 24hrs ago. 

[Stan]

37 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

It seems to me like Liverpool were taking a punt on someone they thought would fit Slot's Liverpool better than Endo. They thought the player was willing to move but has then changed his mind. There probably isn't a need for an Endo type player from everything I've read and the little I've seen of Liverpool under Slot. They currently have other players who can play in the midfield two so there's not really a need to go out and panic buy and they can review what they've got as the season progresses 

Do you think Elliott will play more regularly this season? Lot of sub appearances last season and he's clearly quite good so wonder if he'll play more. Has he played many pre-season games?

[LFCMike]

8 minutes ago, Rick said:

There must be a feeling that the position needs filled if they were ready to spunk a 51m lump sum on this guy just 24hrs ago. 

Well yeah but like I said they don't need to go out and panic buy if the next on their list isn't possible at the moment.

6 minutes ago, Stan said:

Do you think Elliott will play more regularly this season? Lot of sub appearances last season and he's clearly quite good so wonder if he'll play more. Has he played many pre-season games?

I'd imagine so. From what I've heard of pre season he's played a bit more of a number 10 role which probably suits him.

[Rick]

Elliot has looked great in the 10 role in pre-season. He’ll definitely play a bigger role this season. 

[Mel81x+]

I think we're certainly not going to be short of firepower at the top and watching the movement of the team in pre-season, while great, is generally a zero indicator for how well we'll do during the season. My only concern is that if you push these players like they were last season, and injuries start to creep in you're going to be back to square one with no sub options to keep players fresh as the season progresses. 

But this is a new manager with a new philosophy on how to do things, so I'll give him till Christmas to see what he has in store for this team. Won't lie, I like what I am seeing so far. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

9 hours ago, Rick said:

There must be a feeling that the position needs filled if they were ready to spunk a 51m lump sum on this guy just 24hrs ago. 

Yeah, that's the strangest part of FSG's reluctance to spend beyond our "top targets" if we can't land them imo. We've got this data driven recruitment approach - and that's fine. I'm all for using good data to bring in the right players to the squad. But it is just hard to believe that all the data and analytics can point to just one potential player with no room for backups.

I suppose a decent counterpoint is, finding a good holding midfielder in 2024 is pretty fucking challenging.

Having said that, I prefer not making any signings to having a stupid panic buy/loan - like that Arthur deal, where he came in, got injured and we never saw from him again (no fault of his own, but he was injury prone before he joined us - I'm not surprised he wasn't of much use in a more physical league and I'm happy for him on a personal level that he bounced back a bit at Fiorentina)... I'd rather give someone from the academy a chance.

Also Endo's not a bad player. He might not be ideal for Slot's system, but I think he's certainly capable of doing a job at #6. But I do think its worrying we haven't made any signings... and that we've got no news on whether we're any closer to a deal for Trent (who I think the DoF has to get him to extend his deal or he'll be under a ridiculous amount of pressure from the fans), and Mo and Virgil.

[Danny]

22 hours ago, Spike said:

San Sebastian > England’s northwest

San Sebastian > just about everywhere, struggle to find a better city in the world

[Rick]

Tchouameni, Caicedo, Lavia & now Zubamendi have all rejected us in the last three seasons. That’s a bad look.
 

Our slow movement in the market has been to our detriment quite often. Couple of years ago we had a major defensive issue, but we sat on our hands not wanting to properly invest in that position. What happened? We ended up signing Kabak & Davies. The former was shite, the latter didn’t play a minute. Neither of them an acceptable solution. We even had to stick Henderson in the back line ffs. 
 

Fast forward to us pissing about over a midfielder for the entire window, before bringing in Arthur last minute. A joke bit of business from the offset and he ended up playing 15 minutes of football all season. Then last summer we end up trying to hijack the Caicedo and Lavia moves really late on, pulled neither deal off, and ended up moving in on a 30 year old Endo, who did well, but far from a long term solution. 
 

I am absolutely not impressed with this summer. I bit my tongue for a few weeks, but fuck me what is going on with this club this summer. I get letting Slot look at his squad, but why are we still moving this slowly? It’s unacceptable. You should have a shortlist of players you believe would improve the team. If the first doesn’t work out, you move on to the second because you believe they can still do a job. It’s like saying “well, if we can’t sign Rodri then we won’t bother with another DM in Europe” it makes no sense. 
 

Carvalho, Morton, Van den Berg, Clark and Doak are all getting shipped out this summer by the looks of it. We will get decent money for that lot. Clark and Doak are stupid sales imo, you give them a loan at the very least. Is £10m for Clark really worth it for a lad who looks very talented? Don’t even get me started on the rumours going around that we are looking to loan out Bajcetic out this season, that’s just fucking stupidity if you aren’t bringing in a deep lying midfielder. 
 

Looking like a shite window. We needed a defender and a midfielder at the least, and neither are going to happen before the season kicks off. We better get some contract renewals done sharpish, because it’s looking like a shit start from Hughes. 

[LFCMike]

Honestly don't think the current situation is anything to go over the top on. Unless there's someone available who they think is going to be an upgrade on what we already have there, there's no point. It's not like Liverpool are short of bodies for the midfield two.

I'm more worried about the three whose contracts are up next summer. I'm sure they'll get sorted but I hope that's sooner rather than later.

[Dr. Gonzo]

I can't believe Hughes' first signing for us is going to be a keeper that's going on loan to his former club for at least a season  

[Rick]

12 hours ago, LFCMike said:

Honestly don't think the current situation is anything to go over the top on. Unless there's someone available who they think is going to be an upgrade on what we already have there, there's no point. It's not like Liverpool are short of bodies for the midfield two.

I'm more worried about the three whose contracts are up next summer. I'm sure they'll get sorted but I hope that's sooner rather than later.

What’s the point of having a shortlist of players if you don’t think the names on it improve your team? There is a definite need for a deeper lying progressive midfielder, and I don’t believe that Gravenberch is better in that position than others in Europe. 

[LFCMike]

29 minutes ago, Rick said:

What’s the point of having a shortlist of players if you don’t think the names on it improve your team? There is a definite need for a deeper lying progressive midfielder, and I don’t believe that Gravenberch is better in that position than others in Europe. 

Well of course they'll have other players on their radar but maybe those are out of each at the moment.

Or maybe they're willing to see how the current crop adapt to Slot. Some of these players will be playing slightly differently to what they did under Klopp so maybe they're willing to see how things go with them before going out and spending huge money. Liverpool can't afford to be spending big money on players and for many of them to go wrong. They need to be spending the big money on absolute certainties (Alisson, Van Dijk, Fabinho etc).

Or maybe they're working on another deal as we speak? On one hand you're moaning that the Zubimendi saga was done so publicly via the journos and then the other that they're not telling you if they're going for someone else.

[Rick]

I’m not moaning about our movements are being made public, that is just the business now. I am however, unhappy that we haven’t been able to tie up a deal for a player who has a buy out clause. That being said, I do think it’s very poor to be feeding news to journalists when you don’t have a water tight agreement with the player. 
 

If we were wanting to see how the squad would cope this season, we wouldn’t have been trying to make a deal for a £51m midfielder. Those talks wouldn’t have happened, I don’t believe you drop that kind of money on the fly. It all just screams a bit shit from Hughes. 

[Rick]

Our first signing of the summer will be playing for Bournemouth this season 

[LFCMike]

It's a good thing they're planning for the future if they've decided he's the long term replacement for Alisson, no? Assuming you're talking about the Georgian GK..

[Dr. Gonzo]

22 hours ago, LFCMike said:

It's a good thing they're planning for the future if they've decided he's the long term replacement for Alisson, no? Assuming you're talking about the Georgian GK..

It’s kind of bittersweet. It’s good to plan for life after the best keeper I think I’ve ever see us have. But at 31 Alisson’s still young for a keeper - so it makes me think his time here won’t be much longer.

Looks like it’s fallen through though, lol