Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

yom 1

Unless Rafa decided he is going to push someone like Nemeth up the ranks and actually give them a chance to prove themselves then there is no point selling Voronin for 3m imo.

mike65

From Guardian

Robbie Keane moved closer to his dream transfer to Liverpool yesterday as the Merseysiders prepared to make an offer worth in the region of £20m for the striker and Juande Ramos, the Tottenham manager, admitted that his club would be duty bound to consider it.

I think the last sentence needs very little translating

Mike.

dardoz

mike65 wrote: »

From Guardian



I think the last sentence needs very little translating

Mike.

obviously, its not like we have a big spanish readership in this thread...

raven136

voronin 3m
pennant 5m
carson 4.5m

that leaves us 12.5m for a wide man im guessing.For that price i see it being downing.
im factoring in that the crouch money and add ons pays for keane

mike65

dardoz wrote: »

obviously, its not like we have a big spanish readership in this thread...

/shakes fist! :pac:

Mike.

Dont be at yourself

That Voronin story seems very doubtful, though it does look as if Pennant will be going (Blackburn), and Carson has apparantly agreed a deal with West Brom. Liverpool are inserting a buy-back clause into the deal, which is nice to hear.

It looks like it will be bargain basement for players after we sign Keane. I'd be happy enough if we got Downing or Riera in

gixerfixer

If we can get rid of Voronin for 3 million it will be the best bit of business the club has ever done.Complete rubbish he is.

Karmafaerie

The year is 2007 and little bluenose(everton) Duncan is talking to his bluenose(everton) Dad.
SON "Dad, my mates in school told me that Liverpool won the European Cup for the 5th time in 2005 ? are they right dad?

DAD "Yes son, it's true, but they were dead lucky son, all the way through the tournament"

SON "Why dad?"

DAD "Well in the group stages ?.."

SON "What dad, did they have a team from Azerbaijan, Israel, and Wales in their group?"

DAD "Well no, they had Monaco, Deportivo la Coruna, and Olympiakos"

SON "Well they still sound like 3 easy teams to me dad"

DAD "Actually Monaco reached the final the year before, Olympiakos had won their league 7 times out of the previous 8 seasons, and Deportivo finished above the galacticos of Real Madrid in their league".

SON "Jeez dad, that sounds like quite a difficult group then".

DAD "yeh I suppose your right son, but they were still lucky ? it took a mi**** shot by Gerrard against Olympiakos to get through".

SON "oh is that the goal were your hero Andy Gray goes berserk shouting "you beauty, you beauty, what a hit son, what a hit!!!!"

DAD "yes son it is"

SON "oh ok. Well what happened in the last 16 dad, who did they draw?"

DAD "Bayer Leverkusen"

SON "Bayer who?"

DAD "Exactly son, but they had beaten Real Madrid 3-0 at home, and won their group that included Dinamo Kiev and Roma too."

SON "bloody hell dad, they sound good".

DAD "yes, I suppose you're right son"

SON "so did they win on away goals or something"

DAD "errrrr, no, they won both legs 3-1 each"

SON "oh ? well who next then dad"

DAD "Juventus"

SON "How the f#ck did they get past them Dad?"

DAD "Well they did ? they won 2-1 at home, and cruised to a 0-0 away draw without Juve having hardly any chances".

SON "were Juve sh#t at that time ? had all their decent players gone or something?"

DAD "well actually they still had players like Del Piero, Nedved, Ibrahimovic, Thuram, and Buffon in the side. And they won Serie A a few weeks later."

SON "wow, they beat the Italian champions elect ? which **** easy team did they get in the semi then?"

DAD "Chelsea"

SON "Chelsea ? for f#cks sake ? what a **** easy draw ? they've won nothing, Everton have won more than them".

DAD "well that season they won the Premiership and League Cup but the Red ***** didn't let them score in 180 minutes of football"

SON "Jesus Christ ? so Liverpool beat the English Champions elect too"

DAD "yes son, they bloody well did".

SON "so after all that I suppose all the good teams had been knocked out"

DAD "not quite son, AC Milan awaited them in the final"

SON "no way ? aren't they the 2nd most successful team in the competition's history".

DAD "yes son they are"

SON "so were Liverpool lucky because Milan had all their good players out with injuries"

DAD "no ? they had Shevchenko, Crespo, Maldini, Nesta, Cafu, Kaka, Stam, Dida, Gattuso, Pirlo, and Seedorf".

SON "your 'avin a laff"

DAD "it gets worse son, Milan were cruising 3-0 up at half-time".

SON "what happened, did they have 3 men sent off in the second half ? how did Liverpool get back into the game?"

DAD "no, Milan had no men sent off, the Red ***** scored 3 goals in 6 minutes"

SON "against the best defence in Europe"

DAD "yes!!!, against the best defence in Europe"

SON "so what happened next - extra time?"

DAD "yes son, and Dudek made the luckiest save ever to stop a Shevchenko shot from a yard"

SON "why was it lucky dad ? did it hit him on the arse, nose, shoulder or something"

DAD "no son, his hand"

SON "well aren't goalies meant to save shots with their hands"

DAD "yeah but that's besides the point"

SON "then what"

DAD "penalties!"

SON "English teams are crap at penalties"

DAD "not this f#ckin time they weren't ? they only missed one. And that's how Liverpool became the luckiest team to win the European Cup".

SON "but I bet when they brought the cup home there was hardly anyone to watch as all Liverpool fans live anywhere but Liverpool you say. How many was there, 5,000 or so?"

DAD "1 million people lined the streets".

SON "so let's get this straight dad ? Liverpool had 3 good teams in their group, they then knocked out a team who had beaten Real Madrid 3-0, they then knocked out the future Serie A champions, then knocked out the future Premiership champions, before coming back from 3-0 down to beat the 2nd most successful club in Europe. And then the whole population of Liverpool came out to welcome them home!!!!

DAD "that about sums it up son"

SON "dad?"

DAD "yes son"

SON "can I have a Liverpool shirt for my birthday next week, and can you stop calling me Duncan ? I'm Stevie from now on"

Cheered me up this morning!:D

PHB

If you get Keane, which is becoming more and more likely, all that is required imo is somebody on the left wing who is good enough to challenge for the title week in and week out. Silva seems to be the touted choice, but personally I haven't seen enough of him. Certainly need another attacker, preferably one with pace and the ability to start a counter attack.

Cyrus

PHB wrote: »

If you get Keane, which is becoming more and more likely, all that is required imo is somebody on the left wing who is good enough to challenge for the title week in and week out. Silva seems to be the touted choice, but personally I haven't seen enough of him. Certainly need another attacker, preferably one with pace and the ability to start a counter attack.

like Babel

Karmafaerie

Cyrus wrote: »

PHB wrote:

If you get Keane, which is becoming more and more likely, all that is required imo is somebody on the left wing who is good enough to challenge for the title week in and week out. Silva seems to be the touted choice, but personally I haven't seen enough of him. Certainly need another attacker, preferably one with pace and the ability to start a counter attack.

like Babel

I'm the biggest Babel fan you'll find (I even have a jersey with Babel 19 on the back, and think he'll be one of the best in the world some day!:p), but I can see PHB's point.
Last season Babel wasn't consistant enough, week in, week out.
I think he will be next season, but I also see him starting more upfront towards the end of the season.
A good left winger/wing forward is needed.

raven136

with the money we have i see it being downing and i see its as being a step up.He has premiership experience and if he can make the step up to a bigger club could be excellent.
Silva is very small and slight and also moneywise is double the price of downing

Cyrus

i like the lad too, i think rafa will leave him as a left sided or right sided forward for the next few seasons and then move him more central

he can drift in and out of a game on the wing but not as the main striker

prendy

but would you have downing ahead of babel in the first 11?

personaly id like
keane----gerrard----babel

---

torres

---

loads of goals, i think downing is good but babel will offer more of a goal threat, and he's bound to improve.
If we get keane and sell carson as expected and leave the squad at that we would have the above with pennant kuyt voronin and benni as decent reserves. not bad i think.

Karmafaerie

Cyrus wrote: »

i like the lad too, i think rafa will leave him as a left sided or right sided forward for the next few seasons and then move him more central

he can drift in and out of a game on the wing but not as the main striker

I still have my fingers crossed that we'll see a flowing attacking formation like Spain.
With Torres, Babel, Keane, and even Gerrard, drifting all over the frontline, pulling defences apart.:)

DeadSkin

IIRC Babel did most of his damage from the bench last season, but yeah I do have higher expectations from him next season.

I wouldn't mind seeing Downing out on the left for Liverpool. I must say I've been intrigued by the players we've been linked to over the past few weeks with Downing/Keane/Barry, all good proven Premiership players

IrishMike

Karmafaerie wrote: »

I still have my fingers crossed that we'll see a flowing attacking formation like Spain.
With Torres, Babel, Keane, and even Gerrard, drifting all over the frontline, pulling defences apart.:)

I still have my fingers crossed we sign Messi

But i agree a spanish style formation with an on form Alonso for me would be
the perfect resolution to this transfer window.
Even the signings of just Keane and a winger like Marin, Downing or even
pederson from Blackburn at this stage would keep me very happy indeed

mike65

Degan--Carra-Agger-Dossena

---

Masch

---

"Alonarry"
--Gerrard

---

Babel

---

Keane

---

Torres

bench -GK, Skrtle, Yossi, Lucas, Kuyt, Insua, Pacheco

Mike.

PHB

Babel is still massively inconsistant. Scores spectacular goals, but doesn't score enough of them yet. Quite like Nani actually. But I wouldn't want Nani starting out for United, not for 1-3 more years.

I don't necessarily think that Downing is much better to be honest, but if you look at it this way

United's front 4 next season:

---

Berbatov

---

-Rooney

---

Tevez

---

Ronaldo--

Chelsea:

---

Drogba

---

-Malouda

---

Deco

---

Cole----

Arsenal:

---

Adebayour

---

Van Persie

---

-Rosicky

---

Nasri---

Can you really tell me you think Babel is good enough? You might say he's as good as Malouda, maybe so, but Chelsea want to bloody replace both their wingers cause they don't think they are good enough.

Liverpool need somebody of top quality for their attack, even after Keane. Pretty much every post at the end of last season agreed you needed at least 2 more attackers.

IrishMike

Babel played a lot better after xmas last season and was even better still in the last 4-5
games of the season.
He is not going to improve quickly enough unless he plays so you are in the same
situation that United were in with Ronaldo 3 seasons ago.
Play him even though he does stupid things at times because when he is brilliant he is
unplayable or else bring him on as a sub and stunt his development.
For me he should start the majority of games as the players in the side around him can
make up for him on his off days and when he is on form he can turn games by himself.
Oh and Babel is a better player than Malouda thats not even a debate.
Malouda has been completely and utterly awful for Chelsea all last season.

joker77

My brother was at the game against FC Luzern the other night. In his words:

"That Degen lad really doesn't look like a footballer though!! I will be surprised if he's not warming the bench most of the season. Don't know what Finnan did wrong!"

Doesn't inspire confidence...

Chardee MacDennis

PHB wrote: »

Babel is still massively inconsistant. Scores spectacular goals, but doesn't score enough of them yet. Quite like Nani actually. But I wouldn't want Nani starting out for United, not for 1-3 more years.

I don't necessarily think that Downing is much better to be honest, but if you look at it this way

United's front 4 next season:

---

Berbatov

---

-Rooney

---

Tevez

---

Ronaldo--

Chelsea:

---

Drogba

---

-Malouda

---

Deco

---

Cole----

Arsenal:

---

Adebayour

---

Van Persie

---

-Rosicky

---

Nasri---

Can you really tell me you think Babel is good enough? You might say he's as good as Malouda, maybe so, but Chelsea want to bloody replace both their wingers cause they don't think they are good enough.

Liverpool need somebody of top quality for their attack, even after Keane. Pretty much every post at the end of last season agreed you needed at least 2 more attackers.

no one knows how Nasri and Deco are going to settle, i would definitely take babel over those two. Imho uniteds is the only better line up than Torres, Gerrard, Keane and Babel.

joker77 wrote: »

My brother was at the game against FC Luzern the other night. In his words:

"That Degen lad really doesn't look like a footballer though!! I will be surprised if he's not warming the bench most of the season. Don't know what Finnan did wrong!"

Doesn't inspire confidence...

i would be absolutely shocked and amazed if Arbeloa was not our starting right back, he is horribly under rated on these boards...

IrishMike

First game of preseason though after being out with a serious injury for most of last season.
Ill give him a few months to get up to speed before i make any sort of judgement.
Its not as if he was ever brought in to be first choice

joker77

I don't underrate Arbeloa, and I think Degen would come in as third choice. With Aurelio / Dossena at left full, if they're both injured Arbeloa would slot in there. Not doing too badly overall with full backs, hopefully

mike65

Could be Finnan is still the primary RB for the start of the season. Its the most "open" postion.

Mike.

Cyrus

BastardPrince wrote: »

i would be absolutely shocked and amazed if Arbeloa was not our starting right back, he is horribly under rated on these boards...

QUOTED FOR TRUTH

raven136

liverpools front line compares favourably with the other top 3 teams and i wouldnt expect nasri to have any major impact.Skillwise he has it all but it takes size and strength to succeed in the premier league.He will be fantastic,i just dont expect it straight away.
Just because someone plays for boro doesnt make a french guy automatically better.We see these foreign players on you tube and becuse they are well known then we expect greatness.Downing isnt messi but he slots striaght into your team,crosses well and creates goals.
keane-15 goals
torres-24
babel-4
gerrard-12
total 55 goals

rooney-12
ronaldo-31
tevez-14
berbatov-15
total-72

liverpool need more goals from babel or whoever is in his position as otherwise we are man for man as good.Also even if ronaldo does stay he is injured for 2 months and wont equal his same record.

DeadSkin

From the Echo

LIVERPOOL will look to tie up a deal for Robbie Keane in the next 48 hours after Tottenham gave up the struggle to keep their star player at White Hart Lane.

And on Barry:

The England international has held clear the air talks with O'Neill - which were described as "cordial and positive” by Barry's agent Eric Black - giving Liverpool renewed hope that O'Neill might finally be willing to bring the long-running saga to a close by agreeing to a compromise deal which would suit all parties.

Karmafaerie

raven136 wrote: »

liverpools front line compares favourably with the other top 3 teams and i wouldnt expect nasri to have any major impact.Skillwise he has it all but it takes size and strength to succeed in the premier league.He will be fantastic,i just dont expect it straight away.
Just because someone plays for boro doesnt make a french guy automatically better.We see these foreign players on you tube and becuse they are well known then we expect greatness.Downing isnt messi but he slots striaght into your team,crosses well and creates goals.
keane-15 goals
torres-24
babel-4
gerrard-12
total 55 goals

rooney-12
ronaldo-31
tevez-14
berbatov-15
total-72

liverpool need more goals from babel or whoever is in his position as otherwise we are man for man as good.Also even if ronaldo does stay he is injured for 2 months and wont equal his same record.

And I think that Babel will score more goals.
:cool:

yom 1

Assuming the Keane deal is finalised over the weekend, and that if the above reports suggest the Barry deal gets finalised too, what would people think of the following?

---

Mascherano

---

Alonso

---

Keane

---

Gerrard

---

Barry

---

Torres

---

Karmafaerie

yom 1 wrote: »

Assuming the Keane deal is finalised over the weekend, and that if the above reports suggest the Barry deal gets finalised too, what would people think of the following?

---

Mascherano

---

Alonso

---

Keane

---

Gerrard

---

Barry

---

Torres

---

If Barry comes, Alonso will go (IMO).

I just can't see them both here.

Mr Alan

^^^^
that'd be sweet.

mike65

Will Liverpool end up selling Alonso in a late August fire sale?

Mike,.

Karmafaerie

mike65 wrote: »

Will Liverpool end up selling Alonso in a late August fire sale?

Mike,.

Doubt it.
Can't see us getting less that £15,000,000 off of Atletico for him.

raven136

would be great to see barry and xabi together.Nothing better than a good squad depth,there would be no problems with rotation in the media then.

Anyone seriously think we will use the 3-5-2 or 4-4-2 more next season?

Jazzy

would much rather:

---

Gerrard

---

Mascherano

---

Babel

---

Barry

---

Keane

---

Torres

---

Mr Alan

the line up of.......

---

Alonso--Mascherano

---

--Gerrard

---

Keane

---

Barry-

---

Torres

---

would be quite excellent, especially in Europe and against the other top 4 in the league.

maybe Rafa sees Barry (if coming to us) featuring out on the left quite a bit?

could easily adopt 4-4-2 aginst weaker opposition or when needed with 2 of Barry/Alonso/Masch in the middle. and Keane and Torres up top.

colly10

yom 1 wrote: »

Assuming the Keane deal is finalised over the weekend, and that if the above reports suggest the Barry deal gets finalised too, what would people think of the following?

---

Mascherano

---

Alonso

---

Keane

---

Gerrard

---

Barry

---

Torres

---

I know we have a habit of buying strikers and playing them on the wing but if were going to do that would we not be better off buying wingers?

PHB

Buying Barry and not selling Alsono would be ludicrous considering the other problems in the squad.

Mr Alan

emmm that formation does really have wingers in the typical sense, behind the main striker has always been Keanes best position.

colly10

Jazzy wrote: »

would much rather:

---

Gerrard

---

Mascherano

---

Babel

---

Barry

---

Keane

---

Torres

---

It looks great on paper but Babel was awfull any time I seen him played on the right last season

Dave!

I dread the notion that the Pool might get Keane Gwan Robbie, join Sunderland!

That:

---

Gerrard

---

Mascherano

---

Babel

---

Barry

---

Keane

---

Torres

---

...would be quite formidable

leninbenjamin

Dave! wrote: »

I dread the notion that the Pool might get Keane Gwan Robbie, join Sunderland!

That:

---

Gerrard

---

Mascherano

---

Babel

---

Barry

---

Keane

---

Torres

---

...would be quite formidable

very vulnerable in the midfield though. Gerrard plays too high up the field to be partnered effectively with someone who sits so deep imo. leaves too much space for someone like Scholes or Fabregas to exploit. would never see this being effective against the bigger sides.

yom 1

Karmafaerie wrote: »

If Barry comes, Alonso will go (IMO).

I just can't see them both here.

I can't either, but with the Juve deal dead in the water there seems to be very little else in terms of concrete reports regarding Alonso.

I would hate to see us have to sell Alonso on the cheap just for the sake of it. If we got upwards of 15m fine but anything less would just be stupid imo

Mr Alan

leninbenjamin wrote: »

would never see this being effective against the bigger sides.

this on the other hand:

---

Mascherano--Alonso

---

Gerrard

---

Keane

---

Barry---

---

Torres

---

would be ****ing awesome against the big sides.

with the likes of Benayoun,new young talented wide player, babel, lucas, kuyt to come on and make a difference.

jesus_thats_gre

---

Mascherano

---

---

Alonso

---

--Kuyt

---

Gerard

---

Keane-

---

Torres

---

This is how I expect us to be lining up at start of the season. I expect the 3 behind Torres to regularly switch position, with Keane spending alot of time in the middle.

I really do not think that Babel will be in the starting line up. If Barry is signed (unlikely now IMO), he could play on the left but I think this would be a waste.

Blackhorse Slim

IF Alonso goes and Barry arrives, I'd expect something more like this;

Mascherano

Gerrard Barry

Keane Torres Babel

with all 5 in front of Masch being fluid and interchanging when attacking, or dropping into this formation when defending.

astrofool

Mr Alan wrote: »

this on the other hand:

---

Mascherano--Alonso

---

Gerrard

---

Keane

---

Barry---

---

Torres

---

would be ****ing awesome against the big sides.

with the likes of Benayoun,new young talented wide player, babel, lucas, kuyt to come on and make a difference.

I think that would be far too narrow a formation against a big team, their centre backs will mop it up all day.

Daemonic

Dave! wrote: »

I dread the notion that the Pool might get Keane Gwan Robbie, join Sunderland!

That:

---

Gerrard

---

Mascherano

---

Babel

---

Barry

---

Keane

---

Torres

---

...would be quite formidable

Given that front 6 I'd prefer

---

Barry

---

Mascherano

---

Gerrard

---

Babel

---

Keane

---

Torres

---

Bounty Hunter

Barry is not a left winger