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

Dublin_Gunner

Kess73 wrote: »

I would imagine where Jovanovic figures in the plans of a new manager will decide if a left winger/wide midfielder is needed.

Possibly. But would he not be better suited to his natural, up front target man role?

Remember, a new manager may players in the positions they're best at, and may even change our formation.

I would like to see a hark back to a 4-4-2 or maybe a 4-3-1-2 with Gerrard being the '1' obviously.

Although, maybe even a 4-3-3 of sorts. Too many options to consider with the players we have.

Jovanovic + Torres up front. Gerrard in behind. Aquilani in a central position spaying balls out to two wide players. That could work.

I dunno. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Chardee MacDennis

Does Roy Hodgson Have The Credentials?

http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/06/does-roy-hodgson-have-the-credentials/ wrote:

Since then it’s become widely accepted that Roy Hodgson will be appointed this Thursday. This tallies with information I received a couple of days ago: that the appointment will only take place once Standard Chartered officially replace Carlsberg as the club sponsors. With this in mind, I’ve brought this piece back to the top of the site, as the main featured article.

makes sense tbh, only reading through the article now.

~Rebel~

Absofukinglutely delighted we have Jovanovic now. With Yossi gone, IMO he comes straight in as first choice on the left. Deceptively quick, very much an eye for good, very good feet, great at digging out a cross from the by-line and a big chap to boot for when the ball is out on the right and he can come centre.

I predict he will score a similar amount to what Kuyt normally gets us.

As for him being out of position on the left, where i've seen him most is playing for Serbia (and not just recently), and he always plays left wing forward for them. Has the ability to be backup for Torres or partner him up front when needed, but we should not underestimate his usefullness as a first 11 left sided player.

Kess73

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Possibly. But would he not be better suited to his natural, up front target man role?

Remember, a new manager may players in the positions they're best at, and may even change our formation.

I would like to see a hark back to a 4-4-2 or maybe a 4-3-1-2 with Gerrard being the '1' obviously.

Although, maybe even a 4-3-3 of sorts. Too many options to consider with the players we have.

Jovanovic + Torres up front. Gerrard in behind. Aquilani in a central position spaying balls out to two wide players. That could work.

I dunno. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Did he play up front more than on the left at club level?

Other than his appearances at this world cup, I have only seen him play for Liege five or six times, but it seemed he played on the left more often than not at club level, similar to the role that Villa plays in for Spain.

Now that is based on the small number of games that I have seen him in, so I could be totally wrong as to where he normally has slotted in at club level, and where he has been most effective.

rossie1977

i wonder what the odds on woy been gone by christmas are, a start like he had at fulham or a finish he had with blackburn and he certainly won't make it to 2011

Chardee MacDennis

rossie1977 wrote: »

i wonder what the odds on woy been gone by christmas are, a start like he had at fulham or a finish he had with blackburn and he certainly won't make it to 2011

or the start he had at inter. but i reckon we have Woy till the new owners come in...

LuckyLloyd

rossie1977 wrote: »

i wonder what the odds on woy been gone by christmas are, a start like he had at fulham or a finish he had with blackburn and he certainly won't make it to 2011

Ah Jaysus, if we look into sacking him after a few months in the job then the club really has lost its ****ing way. I'm not happy with his appointment at all, but once he is appointed he has to be given a decent amount of time in the job.

Chardee MacDennis

form the above mentioned article

More worrying is that Hodgson’s win percentage at Inter Milan was just 44%, and at Blackburn 35%. Over 148 games, that’s not very encouraging.

People spoke a lot about the games Liverpool drew in 2008/09, but 66% of league games were won that season. Hodgson’s record at Inter, as at other clubs, shows a lot of drawn games. When they finished 3rd, they won only one more game (15) than they drew.

so as previously mentioned he has the EXACT same style as Rafa (dont lose) but he's not as good. expect much more draws next season, unless he changes his style.

noodler

tommyhaas wrote: »

He was never consistant at Charlton, had a few good spells but overall didnt work out for him. Think they lost money selling him on to Spurs, they wouldnt have let him go cheap if he had been doing well

Crazy logic.

They sold him on for a loss of £500k to a bigger club.

He got 5 goals and 8 asissts for Charlton in 2004/2005

He got 5 goals and 9 asissts for Charlton in 2005/2006

Charlton weren't struggling as much as they would go onto at the time but I think some are misprepresenting his time there to a degree for some reason.

Anyway, couldn't see him being a necessary signing unless we lost a central player.

mike65

Hodgson played a 4-4-2 with Fulham so will that be true at Liverpool?

Here is Uncle Roy talking through the formation and 4-5-1.

flahavaj

If anyone expects the style of football to change much from the Benitez reign they're very much mistaken. Hodgson's philosophy is to keep things tight at the back, he prides himself on how well orginsed his teams are and makes his teams very very difficult to break down. Players who have played under him have spoken at great lengths about how long he spends on the training ground setting his teams up in two backs of four and every player is made aware in muinute detail of their defensive responsibilities.

He will make ye very very hard to beat and ye will still be very much reliant on gerrard and Torres to provide the spark. If anything he might be even more defensively minded than Rafa.

Don't expect too many fireworks lads.

Chardee MacDennis

flahavaj wrote: »

If anyone expects the style of football to change much from the Benitez reign they're very much mistaken. Hodgson's philosophy is to keep things tight at the back, he prides himself on how well orginsed his teams are and makes his teams very very difficult to break down. Players who have played under him have spoken at great lengths about how long he spends on the training ground setting his teams up in two backs of four and every player is made aware in muinute detail of their defensive responsibilities.

He will make ye very very hard to beat and ye will still be very much reliant on gerrard and Torres to provide the spark. If anything he might be even more defensively minded than Rafa.

Don't expect too many fireworks lads.

exactly, i dont understand changing the manager to one who plays the same style. if you're gonna make a change bring in a fresh attitude and approach...

daithijjj

Lets just ignore the fact that he took over inter and blackburn when they were both rubbish. Fulham were playing cack aswel when he took over.

He took blackburn to 6th in his first season and got sacked a few months into the next. The next 2 or 3 mangers after him lasted less time in the job than he did, blackburn had their own issues. If we are sacking men 3 or 4 months after throwing a few quid at a striker who hasnt scored then maybe benitez should have left after crouch didnt hit the net in 20 games or whatever it was.

Inter were at the foot of the table when he took over and got them up to 3rd in serie A. He then got them to the uefa cup final losing on penalties.

Fulham were staring relegation in the face, he took them over, got their best finish ever in the prem table and then took them to the europa cup final.

Perspective anyone???

SlickRic

daithijjj wrote: »

Perspective anyone???

i don't think many are saying he's going to be a bad manager for us.

not at all.

but people are giving a bit of perspective that maybe he won't bring the 'freshness' to things that the team is crying out for, and he's very similar to Rafa in his footballing outlook.

mike65

Sensible read.

http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/06/what-hodgson-inherits/


Little dig! :pac:

Another problem is that the UEFA Cup starts early, but Liverpool still have six of their best players in South Africa (compared with Manchester United’s zero).

whatawaster

SlickRic wrote: »

i don't think many are saying he's going to be a bad manager for us.

not at all.

but people are giving a bit of perspective that maybe he won't bring the 'freshness' to things that the team is crying out for, and he's very similar to Rafa in his footballing outlook.

Hopefully the freshness will come from the players being motivated by a new regime, new training methods, different man-management techniques.

I personally thought, although Fulham were a disciplined, organised side, they passed the ball well (especially at home).

Dont be at yourself

mike65 wrote: »

Hodgson played a 4-4-2 with Fulham so will that be true at Liverpool?

Here is Uncle Roy talking through the formation and 4-5-1.

Had a look at his video on 4-4-2 and 3-5-2, both very interesting. He played 3-5-2 with Udinese, could he be tempted to try it at Pool?

---

Reina
--Carra-Skrtl-Agger
Johnson

---

Insua
---Gerrard-Mach-Aqua

---

Kuyt-Torres

Workable?

SlickRic

whatawaster wrote: »

I personally thought, although Fulham were a disciplined, organised side, they passed the ball well (especially at home).

and, to be fair to Hodgson, i must say he does put quite a decent emphasis on width, again, especially at home.

whatawaster

SlickRic wrote: »

and, to be fair to Hodgson, i must say he does put quite a decent emphasis on width, again, especially at home.

He'll find none of that here

SlickRic

whatawaster wrote: »

He'll find none of that here

he could find some, or bring some with him.

i'm looking for a shred of hope here.

mike65

NekkidBibleMan I really doubt either Kuyt or Masch will be at the club and the formation doesn't appear to play to the natural abilities of the likely first 11. Uncle Roy is a man for round pegs in round holes so Aquilani of the left is a no-no esp now Jovanovic is here.

Here's my 11 against Arsenal(!)

---

Reina
Johnson--Carra-Agger-XXXX (really have to sort out this position quickly)
Maxi--Lucas-Aquilani--Jovanovic

---

Gerrard

---

Torres

Benzino

Manchester City agree deal for David Silva

Kess73

Benzino wrote: »

Manchester City agree deal for David Silva

That's two good signings by them this summer. Will be curious to see, as they buy more players, as to which players get put up for sale there and for what prices.

whatawaster

Found this gem on RAWK. Let's all hang ourselves.

I'm wondering if he's the worst manager in the 'Premier' league. I've been thinking about it - and I honestly think every other club is going to have a better manager than we have. Plus players going. Plus no real cash. Plus stupid expectations. Plus pathetic media. Plus **** owners. Plus massive fan unrest. Plus the extreme liklihood of LFC being out of business within 2 years.

Going to be an interesting couple of seasons alright

There's a sizeable group over there who clearly would relish him failing.

~Rebel~

Benzino wrote: »

Manchester City agree deal for David Silva

Meh, there wasn't a hope in hell of us getting him anyway. Would have much preferred if he went to Barca though..or just somewhere not in England.

mike65

Just read that (RAWK is like a never ending car crash these days) so many are cult-like in their devotion to Rafa, they might as well start up a whole fansite for him and quit Liverpool.

daithijjj

SlickRic wrote: »

i don't think many are saying he's going to be a bad manager for us.

not at all.

but people are giving a bit of perspective that maybe he won't bring the 'freshness' to things that the team is crying out for, and he's very similar to Rafa in his footballing outlook.

I wasnt really having a pop at anyone. I just think its a bit rich to be comparing win ratios (like tomkins is) when hodgson has clearly taken over bad teams and turned it around for them, this takes a bit of time. The expectations for struggling teams are very different from a team like ours clearly.

Imo and its just my opinion, i saw 36 of our league games last season in full and we played some of the most atrocious sh1te ive ever seen. On the other side, i watched as hodgsons side beat shaktar (massive spenders), juve, wolfsburg and hamburg (while their win ratio dropped in the league, i dont think any fulham fan gave a monkeys, only 200 showed up at sunderland after the shaktar game).

Rafa clearly couldnt instill the belief in his team last season for whatever reason, if roy comes in and gives the lads this belief, or at least some spirit of adventure, as opposed to this adopting of a siege mentality when we played at stoke for example, it will be a refreshing change.

There was a fulham fan on this thread last week saying that he expects things like a rejuvenated babel for example if roy comes in. Roy could come in and play the game in principle like rafa did but he also might come in and get rafas players playing better than rafa could. After the honeymoon period is over we will have a good idea of how roys horizon looks for this team. But it will be a nice change for roy, he wont have to start his job in a dogfight at the botton of the league table.

~Rebel~

Worst manager in the Premierleague!? Christ thats both harsh and ridiculous...

whatawaster

I could easily see the following leave this summer (I refuse to contemplate Torres leaving)

Gerrard 25m
Mascherano 30m
Riera 5m
Benayoun 6m
Aurelio 0m
Kuyt 10m

Which would generate 75m in transfer funds. Assuming nothing is added to this.


Would leave us with a squad of:

---

Reina/Cavalieri

---

Johnson/Kelly

---

Insua/XXXX

---

Carra/Skrtel

---

Agger/Kygriakos

---

---

XXXXXX/Lucas

---

Aquilani/Shelvey

---

XXXXXX/Maxi

---

Jovanavic/Babel

---

Torres/XXXXXX

---

XXXXXX/N’Gog

---

Plus young players.

We’d need:
A first choice left back
A first choice holding midfielder
A backup central midfielder (unless Shelvey is ready for that role)
A first choice winger (left or right)
A first choice strike partner for Torres (who can also be backup depending on system)

We could theoretically spend 15m average on each of those 6. We’d be losing some great players, but they can be replaced.

Benzino

Kess73 wrote: »

That's two good signings by them this summer. Will be curious to see, as they buy more players, as to which players get put up for sale there and for what prices.

It really is a good signing, a bit surprised he went to a non-champions league team though.

This season I want us to re-discover our form, and finish in top 4 (which will be tough). But if we don't get into the top 4, I hope to god Man City don't!

super_furry

Lads, does anyone know if Milan Jovanovic has signed? Seems to be some confusion over.

Edit - Nevermind he's a Red - http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_6238866,00.html

LuckyLloyd

whatawaster wrote: »

Found this gem on RAWK. Let's all hang ourselves.



There's a sizeable group over there who clearly would relish him failing.

Reading RAWK was always a waste of time.

Jazzy

SlickRic wrote: »

and, to be fair to Hodgson, i must say he does put quite a decent emphasis on width, again, especially at home.

exactly what liverpool where missing under rafa.
in the 08/09 season the biggest difference to us was our width and our use of the pitch. man utd do it so well, spreading the area of play quickly and drawing out defenders. we need 1 or 2 players to make this a reality though

flahavaj

whatawaster wrote: »

I could easily see the following leave this summer (I refuse to contemplate Torres leaving)

Gerrard 25m
Mascherano 30m
Riera 5m
Benayoun 6m
Aurelio 0m
Kuyt 10m

Which would generate 75m in transfer funds. Assuming nothing is added to this.


Would leave us with a squad of:

---

Reina/Cavalieri

---

Johnson/Kelly

---

Insua/XXXX

---

Carra/Skrtel

---

Agger/Kygriakos

---

---

XXXXXX/Lucas

---

Aquilani/Shelvey

---

XXXXXX/Maxi

---

Jovanavic/Babel

---

Torres/XXXXXX

---

XXXXXX/N’Gog

---

Plus young players.

We’d need:
A first choice left back
A first choice holding midfielder
A backup central midfielder (unless Shelvey is ready for that role)
A first choice winger (left or right)
A first choice strike partner for Torres (who can also be backup depending on system)

We could theoretically spend 15m average on each of those 6. We’d be losing some great players, but they can be replaced.

I think you're being optimistic to assume that all of this 75 million you hope to recoup from transfers will be made available to the manager.

He'd be very very lucky to get half of it tbh.

daithijjj

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Worst manager in the Premierleague!? Christ thats both harsh and ridiculous...

And somewhat hilariously ironic considering he was voted the best in the premier league only a few weeks back.

The Recliner

whatawaster wrote: »

I could easily see the following leave this summer (I refuse to contemplate Torres leaving)

Gerrard 25m
Mascherano 30m
Riera 5m
Benayoun 6m
Aurelio 0m
Kuyt 10m

Which would generate 75m in transfer funds. Assuming nothing is added to this.


Would leave us with a squad of:

---

Reina/Cavalieri

---

Johnson/Kelly

---

Insua/XXXX

---

Carra/Skrtel

---

Agger/Kygriakos

---

---

XXXXXX/Lucas

---

Aquilani/Shelvey

---

XXXXXX/Maxi

---

Jovanavic/Babel

---

Torres/XXXXXX

---

XXXXXX/N’Gog

---

Plus young players.

We’d need:
A first choice left back
A first choice holding midfielder
A backup central midfielder (unless Shelvey is ready for that role)
A first choice winger (left or right)
A first choice strike partner for Torres (who can also be backup depending on system)

We could theoretically spend 15m average on each of those 6. We’d be losing some great players, but they can be replaced.

Sadly I think the new manger would be lucky to see half of the money raised being put back into new players

Kess73

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Worst manager in the Premierleague!? Christ thats both harsh and ridiculous...

There will always be a section of the support who see the club as Manager X FC or Gerrard FC, and for them the loss of Manager X or Gerrard means the club ceasing to exist anymore.


I cannot say that I am overly excited at the prospect of Hodgson coming in, if he does, but having said that, the least I, and every other supporter, can do is give the man the benefit of the doubt, and the time to show what he can or cannot do at a bigger English club should he get the job.

Chucky the tree

daithijjj wrote: »

Lets just ignore the fact that he took over inter and blackburn when they were both rubbish. Fulham were playing cack aswel when he took over.

He took blackburn to 6th in his first season and got sacked a few months into the next. The next 2 or 3 mangers after him lasted less time in the job than he did, blackburn had their own issues. If we are sacking men 3 or 4 months after throwing a few quid at a striker who hasnt scored then maybe benitez should have left after crouch didnt hit the net in 20 games or whatever it was.

Inter were at the foot of the table when he took over and got them up to 3rd in serie A. He then got them to the uefa cup final losing on penalties.

Fulham were staring relegation in the face, he took them over, got their best finish ever in the prem table and then took them to the europa cup final.

Perspective anyone???

Inter finished 6th in the league before he took over them, hardly "rubbish". While he took over with a diappointing Blackburn team he spend over £20m on it and still left them in the relegation zone.

Chardee MacDennis

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Inter finished 6th in the league before he took over them, hardly "rubbish". While he took over with a diappointing Blackburn team he spend over £20m on it and still left them in the relegation zone.

also he didnt get them to 3rd in his first season as daithijjj said, he got them to 7th, it was the following season he got them to third...

Sir Gallagher

I was very impressed with Portugals LB Coentrao last night, possibly somebody to look at as an option for first choice LB, has anybody seen any more of him?

Dont be at yourself

I'd agree with that, he's looked fantastic this tournament. Though that's obviously not enough to base a signing on

kingshankly

Roy is now Liverpool manager and if your a fan of Liverpool you should give him your full support as I'm sure he will try his best .
he is as good as a manager as we could have hoped for being realistic.

Chucky the tree

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

I was very impressed with Portugals LB Coentrao last night, possibly somebody to look at as an option for first choice LB, has anybody seen any more of him?

I doubt he'd want to make the step down from Benfica to Liverpool tbh.

daithijjj

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Inter finished 6th in the league before he took over them, hardly "rubbish". While he took over with a diappointing Blackburn team he spend over £20m on it and still left them in the relegation zone.

Hodgson took over inter when they were 4th from bottom in the league. If anyone can prove otherwise il stand corrected. He was not appointed in the summer, he was appointed after a disastrous run of results and eventually finished in 7th. They finished 3rd the season after and the season after went to the uefa cup final (with 3 players suspended and other players missing due to a virus at the club, they lost on pens.)

Hodgson got what, 4 months? to see how those players worked out that he spent money on at b/burn?. How did that work out for blackburn?. 3 more managers in quick succession?

He had a similar run at fulham but was given more time, how did that work out for fulham? Best ever finish in the prem and a europa cup final in 2 seasons!!

DubDani

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

I was very impressed with Portugals LB Coentrao last night, possibly somebody to look at as an option for first choice LB, has anybody seen any more of him?

Bayern had a 15m Euro bid for him turned down last week, and Benfica are holding out for at least 25m Euro.

daithijjj

BastardPrince wrote: »

also he didnt get them to 3rd in his first season as daithijjj said, he got them to 7th, it was the following season he got them to third...

I didnt say he got them to 3rd in his first season, read again.

stumpypeeps

I don't know whether I'm overly optimistic or not but I must admit this signing does make sense.

Given where we are as a club, Hodgson has all the relevent experience to deal with this.

I don't think the debate should be focusing on the lack of silverware he's achieved at the highest level. He's not being brought in to win the League. He's being brought to maximise the potential of the squad we have here. Thats a top four finish but a League win is unrealistic.

Their was an article posted here a while back about the job he did at Inter. It was excellent and their are parallells at Liverpool.

Again I think Purslow has probably made another good decision. For me he's done really well since entering the club.

Chucky the tree

daithijjj wrote: »

Hodgson took over inter when they were 4th from bottom in the league. If anyone can prove otherwise il stand corrected. He was not appointed in the summer, he was appointed after a disastrous run of results and eventually finished in 7th. They finished 3rd the season after and the season after went to the uefa cup final (with 3 players suspended and other players missing due to a virus at the club, they lost on pens.)

Hodgson got what, 4 months? to see how those players worked out that he spent money on at b/burn?. How did that work out for blackburn?. 3 more managers in quick succession?

He had a similar run at fulham but was given more time, how did that work out for fulham? Best ever finish in the prem and a europa cup final in 2 seasons!!

Yes but they finished 6th the previous season, as I said he didn't inherit a squad of bad players. Same when Spurs were in relegation, the players weren't rubbish really it was other factors.

It didn't work out well for Blackburn at all. They got relegated after they sacked him, maybe it was because the following managers had to work with crap players Hodgson bought? Once they sacked Hodgson they replaced him with Kidd in November 1998, he last until October 1999, and then was replaced with care-taker manager for until March 2000 when Souness came in.

Chardee MacDennis

daithijjj wrote: »

Inter were at the foot of the table when he took over and got them up to 3rd in serie A.

could be interpreted either way tbh, i feel it was left ambiguous for a reason...

daithijjj

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Yes but they finished 6th the previous season, as I said he didn't inherit a squad of bad players. Same when Spurs were in relegation, the players weren't rubbish really it was other factors.

It didn't work out well for Blackburn at all. They got relegated after they sacked him, maybe it was because the following managers had to work with crap players Hodgson bought? Once they sacked Hodgson they replaced him with Kidd in November 1998, he last until October 1999, and then was replaced with care-taker manager for until March 2000 when Souness came in.

Sure, i never suggested he took over a squad full of rubbish. He did however, take over a squad with some good players playing very badly. I think we can draw some comparisons here with last seasons liverpool.

I think you are doing hodgson a disservice by suggesting it was his signings that got blackburn relegated. He signed stephane henchoz too, not a bad player i think you will agree. Blackburn had alot of unrest in the boardroom and the dressing room, there was also the 'loss' of chris 'im too good for england B' sutton. He had all the lovability of an itchy verruca and caused unrest within the ranks. Hodgson had to deal with infighting etc there (as did the next man who came in).