Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread [mod warning #11145, #32140 (see OP)]

Dublin_Gunner

whatawaster wrote: »

Yeah and you see clubs like Newcastle now who seem to suffer perennial injury crises. It has to be more than bad luck. Good training can clearly make a difference. Our injury record over the last few seasons has been generally good, so hopefully the physio can work his magic on Aquilani.

As a matter of fact, most of our injuries over the past few years have come from bad tackles in games, with the odd muscle strain thrown in. I think its fair to say that Liverpool, along with other top clubs (United, Chelsea, Real, Barca etc) generally have extremely good training practices, and excellent medical staff. Its fairly rare that you here of anyone being injured in training from those clubs, unless its a freak accident.

Aquilani will be good for Liverpool FC. I've been touting his purchase since the rumour mill first suggested we were interested a couple of months ago.

Yes, I do believe Roma's training regime has the most part to play, plus not enough recouperation time afforded to their players.

I just hope that Aquilani is given that extra bit of freedom that Alonso enjoyed toward the end of the season - it really showed how well we can play when let off the leash.

Eire-Dearg

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/aug/06/premier-league-preview-liverpool

Guardian's preview of Liverpool. They say 1st, I tend to agree.

Boggles

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/aug/06/premier-league-preview-liverpool

Guardian's preview of Liverpool. They say 1st, I tend to agree.

Guardians last 3 predictions for the league

08/09 Liverpool
07/08 Chelsea
06/07 Chelsea

---

This season 09/10 Liverpool





.

Dublin_Gunner

Boggles wrote: »

Guardians last 3 predictions for the league

08/09 Liverpool
07/08 Chelsea
06/07 Chelsea

---

This season 09/10 Liverpool





.

So what you mean is, United will win it??


I do like the Guardians style though he he

mike65

As much as I like the Grauniads sport coverage, these previews are little more than a "hits" generator.

David Silva getting a few mentions again, could be nonsense given what he said last week (are Utd flying a kite with regard to the Valencia man?).

8-10

HashSlinging wrote: »

Thats debatable, he was Manchester uniteds best player, did he win a world cup ?

What has winning a WC got to do with it? You can be world class without it.

kida

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/aug/06/premier-league-preview-liverpool

Guardian's preview of Liverpool. They say 1st, I tend to agree.

lol - what a load of toss - the prediction does not even tally with the text

SlickRic

if people didn't say 'beckham's wasn't world class' it wouldn't have a chance to get dragged off topic.

he was, end of. it's fairly blinkered to think otherwise.

re: Aquilani...

as i said, wait until the doctors and our training regime get hold of him for a season. they'll know better than us.

i'm just looking forward to seeing what he's all about on a regular basis now. i think he could subtly and effectively change how we play; particularly attack. he has the tendency to be far more incisive than Alonso.

he might just need to improve in terms of keeping the ball. it'd be a shame if we lost that aspect of our play. it improved so much last year.

kida

Aquilani Stats

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/players/stats?id=13752&cc=5739

2 assists in his entire career :eek:
31 shots last season and 1 assist - looks like a glory boy

Dublin_Gunner

kida wrote: »

Aquilani Stats

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/players/stats?id=13752&cc=5739

2 assists in his entire career :eek:
31 shots last season and 1 assist - looks like a glory boy

Excellent

whatawaster

Some (likely nonsense) rumours from RAWK.

Apparently an ITK (have they ever let anyone down?) from a Valencia forum says Silva is on his way to Liverpool for 28 million pounds plus add-ons.

If true, then two things: 1. Great signing 2. Way over-priced.

Dickerty

Really, we should have money to spend.

Our net spend this summer is negative 3M or so (due to the Crouch money owed), and we got most of the Keane money back, so basically spent bugger all last season.

So we must have the possibility of £15M or more to spend...

Eire-Dearg

whatawaster wrote: »

Some (likely nonsense) rumours from RAWK.

Apparently an ITK (have they ever let anyone down?) from a Valencia forum says Silva is on his way to Liverpool for 28 million pounds plus add-ons.

If true, then two things: 1. Great signing 2. Way over-priced.

Last week we had a wantaway midfielder, can we finish the week with two quality players in return?

Mr Alan

I heard 23m pounds plus add on's

whatawaster

Our spend this summer is NIL

IN:
Johnson 17
Aquilani 20
OUT
Alonso 30
Arbeloa 3.5
Leto 3
Hobbs/Anderson other youngsters (approx) 0.5

So if we sell Dossena and replace him with Distin at no net cost then our defense is sorted and we still haven’t dipped into this
Summer’s kitty.

The question is really whether or not Rafa has the Keane money to spend. I don’t think he would have sold him otherwise, so I think he does.
20m kitty + say 10m of Keane money gives us scope to buy Silva or someone similar.

The Rooster

Personally wouldnt sell Dossena. With Aurelio's injury worries, we're very bare at left back. Plus Dossena even played reasonably well towards the end of the season a few times (tho' mostly at left midfield it has to be said). Another Italian in the squad might also be a big help in getting Aquaman settled faster.

I think with Carragher-Agger-Skrtel-Kelly, we have better cover at centre back than left back.

rosboy

whatawaster wrote: »

Our spend this summer is NIL

IN:
Johnson 17
Aquilani 20
OUT
Alonso 30
Arbeloa 3.5
Leto 3
Hobbs/Anderson other youngsters (approx) 0.5

So if we sell Dossena and replace him with Distin at no net cost then our defense is sorted and we still haven’t dipped into this
Summer’s kitty.

The question is really whether or not Rafa has the Keane money to spend. I don’t think he would have sold him otherwise, so I think he does.
20m kitty + say 10m of Keane money gives us scope to buy Silva or someone similar.

Might be worth noting Chris Mavinga in the "In" calculations. He's only 18, and the fee should be pretty insignificent, but if we mention Hobbs and Anderson in the "Outs" we should include Mavinga for thoroughness...or we might all forget he arrived;)

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2009/07/08/liverpool-fc-sign-french-starlet-chris-mavinga-from-paris-st-germain-100252-24103429/

Eire-Dearg

Football Weekly is back, huzzah! http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/audio/2009/aug/06/football-weekly-podcast-season-preview

JPA

"Roma have allowed us to talk with him, so that's good and positive. He is a player with the quality we are looking for," said Benitez.

"He can play a little bit higher than Javier Mascherano - maybe between him and Steven Gerrard.

"He has good passing - the final ball is good - and he also works. If he can settle down properly in England he can be a very good addition.

"I think the signing should excite the fans. He won the U19 European Championship with his country, and U21 too. He has some trophies - including the Italian Cup.

"I always remember one game - England versus Italy U21s at Wembley, and he was man of the match in a 3-0 win."

I posted this last night but noone responded. This 3-0 match never happened.
There was a 3-3 game between England and Italy u21s to open Wembley but Aquilani didn't play in that either. And it's still on the Liverpool site, should someone tell them?

daosulli

So Aquaman likes to shoot from everywhere & rarely scores, I hear he got injured tackling trying to prove he was up to the physical stuff . . hhhhhmmm sounds like the new Jamie Redknapp!! .. OH NO

Dickerty

JPA wrote: »

I posted this last night but noone responded. This 3-0 match never happened.
There was a 3-3 game between England and Italy u21s to open Wembley but Aquilani didn't play in that either. And it's still on the Liverpool site, should someone tell them?

It was 3-3, but he did play, I was watching some of his goals last night. He scored with his left past Carson, edge of the box, and he hit the crossbar with another.

kida

"He has good passing - the final ball is good.

not according to the facts Rafa

Dickerty

whatawaster wrote: »

Our spend this summer is NIL

IN:
Johnson 17
Aquilani 20
OUT
Alonso 30
Arbeloa 3.5
Leto 3
Hobbs/Anderson other youngsters (approx) 0.5

We didn't pay that amount for Johnson, Pompey owed us about £5M. So in that case, we are in net credit of that amount...

JPA

Dickerty wrote: »

It was 3-3, but he did play, I was watching some of his goals last night. He scored with his left past Carson, edge of the box, and he hit the crossbar with another.

No he played in a 2-2, not in the 3-3.
Factually it's very wrong from Rafa.

Mr Alan

are you's for real?

who gives a ****?seriosuly

mike65

Now thats a fact.

Dublin_Gunner

Anyway lads, back to things that matter - anyone know of a link to watch the Dunmanway match live? Or at least get updates?

whatawaster

Dickerty wrote: »

We didn't pay that amount for Johnson, Pompey owed us about £5M. So in that case, we are in net credit of that amount...

i'm not getting into this again

rosboy

For those on this site who like their stats (and I think there are a lot of them here), you might enjoy the pdf suplement to Paul Tomkins new book.

http://www.paultomkins.com/Red_Race_Fact_Pack_v1.pdf

The stats start a few pages in.

Dickerty

whatawaster wrote: »

i'm not getting into this again

Fair enough, still widely regarded as being true though...

whatawaster

Dickerty wrote: »

Fair enough, still widely regarded as being true though...

No it’s not. This is my last post on the subject.

You’re assuming our transfer budget is on the basis of cash inflow and outflow rather than on the actual value of transfers.
So it you’re discounting the Crouch money you will also have to take into account the money we will be paying this season for previous year’s transfers – I’d wager that some of Skrtel, Mascherano, Riera, Torres and Babel aren’t fully paid for. Of course nobody takes this into account because it doesn’t suit their argument.

Dickerty

You know, I am going to be the bigger man here and say...you are absolutely right.

Seriously, no argument!

jesus_thats_gre

rosboy wrote: »

For those on this site who like their stats (and I think there are a lot of them here), you might enjoy the pdf suplement to Paul Tomkins new book.

http://www.paultomkins.com/Red_Race_Fact_Pack_v1.pdf

The stats start a few pages in.

WTF is this crap?

gucci

This is what Totti and Riise has to say about Aquilani (from an article in Irish Times)

Aquilani's departure from Roma comes with the club captain Francesco Totti claiming: "Alberto will be missed very much by everyone here."

That includes Riise, who joined Roma from Liverpool for €5million in June 2008.

Riise said: "When I first came to Roma, I didn't know a thing about Aquilani.

"I knew all about Totti, Daniele De Rossi and Philippe Mexes, of course, but Aquilani was the player who surprised me the most in my first months with what he could do.

"He's really good on the ball, with good passing and good movement. He works hard and is a good professional.

"He likes to have the ball at his feet but not because he likes to dribble, he just wants to keep the team moving. He never stands still, he is always on the run.

"He certainly runs more than Xabi and is probably more dangerous in terms of getting in the box and trying to score goals.

"When I came to Rome he was my neighbour and helped me out a lot. He is a good friend. Liverpool will be getting a very good player."

rosboy

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

WTF is this crap?

Starts on page 18.

Its stats on rotation, player costs, player costs per game played etc.

jesus_thats_gre

rosboy wrote: »

Starts on page 18.

Its stats on rotation, player costs, player costs per game played etc.

Have looked through it. It's strikes me as being complete toss.

Dickerty

I see AC Milan have agreed a four-year deal with Real Madrid for £12.8m for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

That is NO money for him, I think he is worth far more, he would have been a good option, except he'd have wanted a starting place...

rosboy

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

Have looked through it. It's strikes me as being complete toss.

Fair enough.

I've read the actual book though, and in my mind the analysis was excellent. I don't agree with some of his application of the data, but I found the data itself very impressive.

dobsdave

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

Have looked through it. It's strikes me as being complete toss.

It reminds me of one those projects I would do as a kid during the long boring summer holidays, and half way through get even more bored and throw it in the bin:D

Dublin_Gunner

Dickerty wrote: »

I see AC Milan have agreed a four-year deal with Real Madrid for £12.8m for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

That is NO money for him, I think he is worth far more, he would have been a good option, except he'd have wanted a starting place...

Well thats the trouble with us buying a striker - we have possibly the worlds best, and a fair few decent back-ups as it is.

Unless we switched to 2 out and out strikers, there's no place for someone like him.

shotamoose

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

Have looked through it. It's strikes me as being complete toss.

Why?

spockety

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

Have looked through it. It's strikes me as being complete toss.

At least he tries to justify and back up his arguments with relevant information and stats.

Unlike most of the baseless vitriolic bile that gets spouted on this thread.

(Whether you agree with his findings/methodology or not)

Kirby

I've found facts and relevant information have no place in a fans thread. sad truth.

Regarding the roma wonder boy, the lack of assists would concern me. Strikes me as a defoe like player in that, if he's in the final third you arent getting the ball and he is going to shoot regardless of position. Still, liverpool have unselfish players so it might be a nice balance.

Cyrus

well its not as if alonso was very high up in the assists charts over the years either lads, and he was playing in a better team than aquilani that scored more goals

whatawaster

Cyrus wrote: »

well its not as if alonso was very high up in the assists charts over the years either lads, and he was playing in a better team than aquilani that scored more goals

He also played about 1/3 of the games Alonso did.

I can see this signing going one of two ways –
He’s obviously extremely talented, and he was a much sought after player as a kid. Hopefully he’ll blossom away from the pressures of his hometown club and like Torres will become World Class. By all accounts he has the talent.
Or he will never adjust to the pace of the prem and be sold next summer for 10 million.

Cyrus

whatawaster wrote: »

He also played about 1/3 of the games Alonso did.

I can see this signing going one of two ways –
He’s obviously extremely talented, and he was a much sought after player as a kid. Hopefully he’ll blossom away from the pressures of his hometown club and like Torres will become World Class. By all accounts he has the talent.
Or he will never adjust to the pace of the prem and be sold next summer for 10 million.

a fair summary

hopefully we dont end up like united when they tried to replace keane (still not done imo)

whatawaster

Cyrus wrote: »

a fair summary

hopefully we dont end up like united when they tried to replace keane (still not done imo)

You just don’t replace someone like Keane.
Alonso, good as he was, is replaceable imo. There are players out there near his level. Let’s just hope Aquilani can be one of them.

Boggles

Cyrus wrote: »

well its not as if alonso was very high up in the assists charts over the years either lads, and he was playing in a better team than aquilani that scored more goals

Over the past 5 years Roma have outscored Liverpool by quite a bit.

daithijjj

Ive not seen much of aquilani but.........

Ive looked at him on wikipedia.

Hes always injured.

He never passes the ball.

(source;, boards.ie).

Just one question?......how much should i lump on chelsea to win the league?

deadhead13

Dunmanway v Liverpool

0-1