Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 12/13

Einhard

Andy Carroll wrote: »

Some before and after pictures of Fenway Park, pre and post changes that were made over the course of ten years.

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2012/03/27/fenway-park-images.html?s=image_gallery&date=2012-03-27

That's a really interesting photo-article. The fact that they don't seem to have undertaken a comprehensive overhaul of Fenway in one go, but rather added new sections of seating and made improvements over time is particularly interesting. It'd slightly strange, when stadium improvements seem to focus on adding tens of thousands of seats in one fell swoop, to see projects aimed at adding a few hundred here and there as seems to have been done at Fenway?

Does anyone think this approach might be adopted at Anfield? Of course, Fenway was/is a lot more open and less cramped than Anfield, so I imagine there was much more room for manoeuvre.

Kess73

djPSB wrote: »

Sigurdsson position?

Not really. Adrian is more of a support striker/second striker, similar to the traditional number 7 role, when played centrally, and Sigurdsson is a CAM/AM who would be closer to the traditional number 10 style player in terms of his function/role.

Basically Sigurdsson would link the midfield and the attack, and be capable of playing a role in both the final third and the middle third, whereas Adrian would do nearly all his work in the final third and would be capable of working across the line in that final third.

djPSB

Kess73 wrote: »

Not really. Adrian is more of a support striker/second striker, similar to the traditional number 7 role, when played centrally, and Sigurdsson is a CAM/AM who would be closer to the traditional number 10 style player in terms of his function/role.

Basically Sigurdsson would link the midfield and the attack, and be capable of playing a role in both the final third and the middle third, whereas Adrian would do nearly all his work in the final third and would be capable of working across the line in that final third.

Okay I'm going with Luis Garcia II so.

Laika1986

CL7 wrote: »

Who is this Agent ITK guy? What's his track record with rumours like?

He's been hit and miss but the ones he has got right he did so well before it was obvious. For example he called Borini over 2 weeks ago if not more. As ITK twitter goes hes pretty dependable

Kess73

djPSB wrote: »

Okay I'm going with Luis Garcia II so.

Defo not Luis Garcia mark II The closest that I can think to him in style would be Swansea's Stephen Dobbie, although Dobbie would be a lower quality version of Adrian imho. But Dobbie was moved to a similar number 7 role in the Swansea team after he flopped when tried as a striker.

Funnily enough Dobbie was used as a CAM when on loan to Blackpool late last season, and Sigurdsson came to Swansea during the same period and played in the same type of CAM role that Blackpool were using the player that was loaned to them in.

Jayob10

I'm a bit nervous with all this talk of Joe Allen for 15million. Good player no doubt but I genuinely don't think he will be a vast improvement on what we already have.

Like Henderson he is another British player we are buying in hope that he develop's into a world class player.

If we are throwing that kind of money around on a central midfielder i'd like to see us move heaven and earth to sign Nuri Sahin.

Fernando Gago has signed for Valencia for €3.5million and I think we missed a trick there. He is exactly the kind of value signing we should have been looking at. Undoubted talent, but his star has fallen give his stop start career at Madrid. With the right surroundings and man management he can be an inspired signing for Valencia.

Joe Allen for £15million or Gago for €3.5million?

I know which choice i'd have made.

BorneTobyWilde

djPSB wrote: »

WOW WOW

Some great assists there, Who's responsible !
Calm in front of goal! I like that, No rush of blood,

opr

Rodgers saying he may send Sterling out on loan this season.

"He is a talent, but he's not ready for the first team yet," Rodgers told Liverpool's official website.

"One of the things I've done over my career is manage the expectation of young players and the reality is he is still very, very young.

"There are very few players in the world who get into a Premier League team at 17, never mind a top club. He has certainly shown qualities and we'll decide over the next few weeks whether he stays and he's involved now or if he goes for a loan period. That's a decision for me over the next few weeks."

Thought he might get enough game time with us this season as not like we have a huge amount of talent in the wide forward areas ourselves.

Opr

Kess73

French radio just reporting that a number of clubs have officially approached Rennes about M'Vila. Station says one from Spain, one from Portugal and four from England.


The four from England bit caught my ear. United would be an obvious guess, as would Arsenal. Be surprised if City were involved. Chelsea maybe. Figure being banded about is in the £15m to £20m range when brought from Euro to pound.

Doubt we could attract him over the likes of United if they are in for him as he has mentioned them in the past, but if the price mentioned is correct, then he is the sort that we should at least take a punt on just in case.

cson

Those loan spells can be the making of a player though - I know Wilshere's time at Bolton accelerated his development hugely.

cson

Kess73 wrote: »

French radio just reporting that a number of clubs have officially approached Rennes about M'Vila. Station says one from Spain, one from Portugal and four from England.


The four from England bit caught my ear. United would be an obvious guess, as would Arsenal. Be surprised if City were involved. Chelsea maybe. Figure bigure banded about is in the £15m to £20m range when brought from Euro to pound.

Spain = Barcelona if they don't get Martinez

Portugal = Porto if Moutinho goes

England = United, Arsenal, Chelsea and then I'm going to guess Spurs/Newcastle.

I don't think yourselves are one of the clubs because you already have Lucas and I can't see Rodgers playing with 2 DMs. Unless he's contingency planning for a Lucas departure.

My thoughts are Barcelona will sign him as Bielsa seems to be digging his heels in about Martinez and he wields huge power at Bilbao.

Nuri Sahin

Laika1986 wrote: »

Rodgers would like to bring Adrián López Álvarez to #Liverpool this summer. #LFC #Atlético. Agent ITK

I was one of his harshest critics during his Depor days (if anyone saw Depor's final game in La Liga 2 seasons ago, I think that justified me up until that point :P), but he shut up me over the Euro U21's last summer and the course of last season.

He's definitely not a Sigurdsson nor Garcia type player, Garcia and Sig are very different players for that matter despite playing in similar positions, but at the same time Adrian is not an out and out striker going on what he showed at Atleti last season at least compared to his teammate Falcao. Tbh, it's somewhat difficult to describe his set position and for that reason, much like Borini and Suarez (though I still believe he's better as RW or RWF however people want to phrase it) that he could work well under Rodgers' style of football.

But tbh, I think he'll stay at Atleti for another season or two at least before moving on. I know Spurs have been linked with him in here and there in recent weeks.

Kess73

cson wrote: »

Spain = Barcelona if they don't get Martinez

Portugal = Porto if Moutinho goes

England = United, Arsenal, Chelsea and then I'm going to guess Spurs/Newcastle.

I don't think yourselves are one of the clubs because you already have Lucas and I can't see Rodgers playing with 2 DMs. Unless he's contingency planning for a Lucas departure.

My thoughts are Barcelona will sign him as Bielsa seems to be digging his heels in about Martinez and he wields huge power at Bilbao.

Doubt if Spain is Barca. Real Madrid would be my guess given that Jose has shown an interest in M'Vila in the past. He is meant to have enquired when he was manager of Inter and again last summer.

opr

cson wrote: »

Those loan spells can be the making of a player though - I know Wilshere's time at Bolton accelerated his development hugely.

I couldn't agree more and he's certainly needs to be seeing plenty of games next season at his current stage of development. Just with Maxi/Kuyt already gone and talk Bellamy may head to Cardiff we don't have a great deal of options in the wide forward areas. I guess we have Cole back

I thought with the Europa league he would get plenty of chances with us. I think the decision will ultimately be based on who we can get in between now and the close of the window.

Opr

cson

Kess73 wrote: »

Doubt if Spain is Barca. Real Madrid would be my guess given that Jose has shown an interest in M'Vila in the past. He is meant to have enquired when he was manager of Inter and again last summer.

Could well be though I was under the impression they were looking more closely at Lucas Biglia of Anderlecht. Tbh I really can't see why they need another DM, Khedira and Alonso have got a lot of mileage in them yet and if they could convince Lass Diarra to stay they've no issues in that position.

cson

opr wrote: »

I couldn't agree more and he's certainly needs to be seeing plenty of games next season at his current stage of development. Just with Maxi/Kuyt already gone and talk Bellamy may head to Cardiff we don't have a great deal of options in the wide forward areas. I guess we have Cole back

I thought with the Europa league he would get plenty of chances with us. I think the decision will ultimately be based on who we can get in between now and the close of the window.

Opr

Which is why it amazes me you didn't go for Hoilett. Regardless of how that transfer turned out you'd almost be guaranteed your money back off him in 2 years.

Kess73

cson wrote: »

Could well be though I was under the impression they were looking more closely at Lucas Biglia of Anderlecht. Tbh I really can't see why they need another DM, Khedira and Alonso have got a lot of mileage in them yet and if they could convince Lass Diarra to stay they've no issues in that position.

He was linked to Liverpool last January and again towards the end of the season. He came out though and said that a move to England would be his second choice and that playing in Spain is his dream. Think he was also linked to Spurs, Arsenal and United as well as both Real and Barca.


Very useful player who is more of a deep playmaker with very good defensive qualities rather than a defensive midfielder. Would not cost a lot either coming from Belgium. Would imagine he will move for less than £10m

Chucky the tree

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I wouldn't blame Suarez if he left. The manager who stood by him was turfed out and we're doing little or nothing to improve thus far.

The manager who tried to pair him with Andy Carroll. He's probably delighted Kenny is gone.

smileyj1987

I don't think we should go for Allen , We have a player similar to him in Henderson . I just think buck needs to have a word with him because if he makes a bad pass his head drops for 10 to 15 mins. . If you take this out of Hendersons game you have an excellent player on your hands . Plus last season he didn't get to show us what he can do because he played most of his stuff out on the right wing which isn't the position we bought him for .
I think we need to spend every penny we have got to sort out the lack of goals from the team . I think we really should be looking at spending everything on one striker .

ThunbergsAreGo

Think we were linked to Adrian under Rafa

cson

Kess73 wrote: »

He was linked to Liverpool last January and again towards the end of the season. He came out though and said that a move to England would be his second choice and that playing in Spain is his dream. Think he was also linked to Spurs, Arsenal and United as well as both Real and Barca.


Very useful player who is more of a deep playmaker with very good defensive qualities rather than a defensive midfielder. Would not cost a lot either coming from Belgium. Would imagine he will move for less than £10m

I'd take him at Arsenal if he's going to be half the price of M'Vila is all I'll say. Anderlecht have a few serious players on the books at the moment; Matias Suarez is another I wouldn't mind seeing in an Arsenal shirt. Fingers crossed Shamrock Rovers get past Ekranas in the CL because they play Anderlecht next if they do and I'll be going to that.

opr

cson wrote: »

Which is why it amazes me you didn't go for Hoilett. Regardless of how that transfer turned out you'd almost be guaranteed your money back off him in 2 years.

I'd guess the wages were somewhat off putting for lots of clubs. I can though see the logic in us having taken a punt on him.

smileyj1987 wrote: »

I don't think we should go for Allen , We have a player similar to him in Henderson . I just think buck needs to have a word with him because if he makes a bad pass his head drops for 10 to 15 mins. . If you take this out of Hendersons game you have an excellent player on your hands . Plus last season he didn't get to show us what he can do because he played most of his stuff out on the right wing which isn't the position we bought him for .
I think we need to spend every penny we have got to sort out the lack of goals from the team . I think we really should be looking at spending everything on one striker .

I think the comparisons of Henderson and Allen are somewhat lazy. Henderson has none of his dribbling ability, if you watch Allen he always gets his head up to see if he can play it forward before playing the simple pass while Henderson doesn't do this often enough. Allen copes far better in tight areas with the ball. He's much much better defensively. In terms of development on a tactical level of understanding the midfield role I think Allen is light years ahead. I think Henderson is a better long range passer but apart from that I think Allen is a far superior player at this stage.

I thought he did well last night but it's simply retarded to make any judgements on his performance. He had no one making angles when he had the ball for passes and the Brazilian team which doesn't really need pointing out were far superior.

Opr

willmunny1990

I think if Juventus are genuinely interested in Suarez the lure of CL football will be to much to withstand. It's also an opportunity to get out of a country where he's widely despised by almost everyone bar Pool fans.

It'll all depend on Juventus and their willingness to stump up the cash to sign him.

If he does leave Liverpool they will be in a world of trouble because he's the only top class player with a bit of flair and genuine quality in attack.

Kess73

opr wrote: »

I'd guess the wages were somewhat off putting for lots of clubs. I can though see the logic in us having taken a punt on him.



I think the comparisons of Henderson and Allen are somewhat lazy. Henderson has none of his dribbling ability, if you watch Allen he always gets his head up to see if he can play it forward before playing the simple pass while Henderson doesn't do this often enough. Allen copes far better in tight areas with the ball. He's much much better defensively. In terms of development on a tactical level of understanding the midfield role I think Allen is light years ahead. I think Henderson is a better long range passer but apart from that I think Allen is a far superior player at this stage.

I thought he did well last night but it's simply retarded to make any judgements on his performance. He had no one making angles when he had the ball for passes and the Brazilian team which doesn't really need pointing out were far superior.

Opr

They are indeed very different players in terms of style, but I think it is fair to say that Allen is the far more developed player in terms of ability and in terms of reading the game despite both being the same age. But if Allen becomes a Liverpool player this summer, then where does Henderson go in the pecking order as he is not a better player than Lucas, he is not a better player than Allen, and he is nowhere good enough or game smart enough for a CAM role. All I could see for Henderson at that point is to become squad cover and gives the ages of Allen and Lucas, Henderson could be out in the cold for a long time.

Leiva

Compared to deep lying midfielders



Compared to all rounded midfielders



Compared to Liverpools midfield



On these stats and at only 23years old the kid is a talent .

Someone fetch Charlie Adam and £8million quid quick !

klose

Nobodys gonna see more then 45 minutes tonight so a half each or else an 11 man sub or something that'd be great

opr

Kess73 wrote: »

They are indeed very different players in terms of style, but I think it is fair to say that Allen is the far more developed player in terms of ability and in terms of reading the game despite both being the same age. But if Allen becomes a Liverpool player this summer, then where does Henderson go in the pecking order as he is not a better player than Lucas, he is not a better player than Allen, and he is nowhere good enough or game smart enough for a CAM role. All I could see for Henderson at that point is to become squad cover and gives the ages of Allen and Lucas, Henderson could be out in the cold for a long time.

If we could keep Aquilani in the mix it looks even worse for Henderson. I'm not sure I'd quite like us to give up on Henderson yet but I know I would prefer Allen playing beside Lucas next season. I'm sure one thing people will have noticed about Allen last night is that despite how difficult things got he never hid and always made himself available for the ball.

Rodgers has talked at length about mentality being something which is vital and Henderson is going to have to improve immeasurably in that area from last season if he's going to convince Rodgers because I don't think he will get away with the kind of hiding he did in games last year. Still he has attributes that Rodgers will like so will be interesting to see what he thinks and can do with him.

I'd agree if we bought Allen and both him and Lucas stayed fit I can't see him getting much game time.

Opr

Kess73

Leiva wrote: »

Compared to deep lying midfielders



Compared to all rounded midfielders



Compared to Liverpools midfield



On these stats and at only 23years old the kid is a talent .

Someone fetch Charlie Adam and £8million quid quick !

Born in 1990, so is even a year younger than you thought.

Leiva

Thanks Boss.

opr

Leiva wrote: »

Thanks Boss.

Haha, did you see the picture of the kid on the tour looking at Lucas with complete awe in his eyes.



Opr

A fit Lucas will make such a difference to our team regardless of anything else.

Great to see him back.

Leiva

rarnes1 wrote: »

A fit Lucas will make such a difference to our team regardless of anything else.

Great to see him back.

Oh yes but imagine having sufficient cover on the bench aswell .
That would really boost confidence and put us back on a firm psychological footing also.

Kess73

Leiva wrote: »

Oh yes but imagine having sufficient cover on the bench aswell .
That would really boost confidence and put us back on a firm psychological footing also.

Or better yet imagine having another player beside him in CM that was as good in his role as Lucas is in his.

jethro081

fcuking lucas lads

i am excited

cson

Was going to say; best get a first XI together first before you go looking for depth. What would you think of something like this as a line up;

---

Borini

---

Dempsey

---

Suarez

---

Gerrard

---

---

Lucas

---

Allen

---

Obviously I'm assuming here re Dempsey and Allen but I think it'd have a nice balance to it imo.

cson

cson wrote: »

Was going to say; best get a first XI together first before you go looking for depth. What would you think of something like this as a line up;

---

Borini

---

Dempsey

---

Suarez

---

Gerrard

---

---

Lucas

---

Allen

---

Obviously I'm assuming here re Dempsey and Allen but I think it'd have a nice balance to it imo.

Looks good tbh.

Would be interesting to see would it work.

amiable

Laika1986 wrote: »

Rodgers would like to bring Adrián López Álvarez to #Liverpool this summer. #LFC #Atlético. Agent ITK

He is absolutely useless.
He claimed Rodgers wouldn't be Liverpool manager.
He claimed Vertonghen had signed for Arsenal.
He blocks people who question the stuffe he gets wrong which is quite a lot of stuff.
He simply reads lots of internet stuff and follows people on Twitter.
Michael Bridge of Sky Sports(very reliable unlike most in Sky) has callled him up several times on his bull.

Laika1986

amiable wrote: »

Laika1986 wrote: »

Rodgers would like to bring Adrián López Álvarez to #Liverpool this summer. #LFC #Atlético. Agent ITK

He is absolutely useless.
He claimed Rodgers wouldn't be Liverpool manager.
He claimed Vertonghen had signed for Arsenal.
He blocks people who question the stuffe he gets wrong which is quite a lot of stuff.
He simply reads lots of internet stuff and follows people on Twitter.
Michael Bridge of Sky Sports(very reliable unlike most in Sky) has callled him up several times on his bull.

I wouldn't blame him for blocking people with the sheer amount of abuse he gets. He's not going to get everything right but since I've been following him he has got a good bit right so i thought it was worth posting.

mike65

cson wrote: »

Was going to say; best get a first XI together first before you go looking for depth. What would you think of something like this as a line up;

---

Borini

---

Dempsey

---

Suarez

---

Gerrard

---

---

Lucas

---

Allen

---

Obviously I'm assuming here re Dempsey and Allen but I think it'd have a nice balance to it imo.

Said the same thing a couple of days back (with minor placement difference)

opr

On paper I love the look of that team. I think all three up front will work their socks off while having plenty of invention/flair about them together. The middle two I think can go toe to toe with any midfield pairing in the league and it all frees Gerrard to just go and be the creative offensive force in the role we want to see him play.

Opr

MD1990

opr wrote: »

Haha, did you see the picture of the kid on the tour looking at Lucas with complete awe in his eyes.



Opr

Lucas's long lost son :eek:

ShamoBuc

jethro081 wrote: »

fcuking lucas lads

i am excited

:eek: You are:eek:

LuckyLloyd

cson wrote: »

Was going to say; best get a first XI together first before you go looking for depth. What would you think of something like this as a line up;

---

Borini

---

Dempsey

---

Suarez

---

Gerrard

---

---

Lucas

---

Allen

---

Obviously I'm assuming here re Dempsey and Allen but I think it'd have a nice balance to it imo.

That would be fine, and would crucially leave Gerrard to do what he does best.

IF Aqua stayed then he could pick up for the half of the season Gerrard won't be around. Really though the depth chart version of the above highlights the issues we face:

---

Borrini / Carroll

---

Dempsey / Downing

---

Gerrard / Aqualaini

---

Suarez / Bellamy

---

Lucas / Spearing---Allen / Henderson

---

Shelvey
Sterling
Adam
Pacheo

And six of the above are various shades of unlikely to be around at the end of the Transfer Window...

cson

That's kind of what I'm getting at with that formation; it liberates Gerrard to play the way he plays. If I'm not mistaken you lined up something similar to that in the Rafa hey days except with Mascherano and Alonso in for where I have Lucas and Allen.

I wouldn't be hesitant in signing Allen and giving him that deeper role - Arteta made a big impact for Arsenal last year playing that role and they're players that wouldn't be a million miles away from each other.

Morzadec

Laika1986 wrote: »

Rodgers would like to bring Adrián López Álvarez to #Liverpool this summer. #LFC #Atlético. Agent ITK

djPSB wrote: »

WOW WOW

Jesus I would absolutely love it if we could somehow get our hands on Adrián.

I'm a (sort of ) Atleti fan and I was a season ticket holder at the Calderon last season so I know him quite well.

IMO at his age and in today's market if we were to get him for under £15m we'd be very doing well. I would imagine Atleti would be looking for at least this fee. What might stand in our favour is that he is not quite good enough to attract the likes of Barca and Madrid, and that also Atleti are quite broke.

He was so unlucky to miss out on the Spain squad this summer (such is the quality of the squad) and I know a lot of people who said they felt he should have gone instead of Pedro, so this is the kind of quality we're talking about.

As for position - he is not an out and out striker. He played up front several times for Atleti when they played 4-4-2, slightly off Falcao who is a traditional number 9.

But when they played 4-5-1 he played on one of the two wide positions, interchanging with Turan. Diego would play in the hole as a playmaker in this formation. I would describe him as a forward, not a striker nor an attacking midfielder.

So to echo what Kess has said, he's not really a 'Sigurdsonn' or a 'Carroll'. If we were to sign him I would imagine he would be signed to play in on of the wide slots of the front 3. I think he would fit in brilliantly.


Adrián - Borini - Suarez


That is a real quality front line that we could get very excited about. I think they would all work hard and compliment each other well and be far more of a goal threat than what we had last year. This would obviously change around a lot - all 3 would be flexible in interchanging roles so we could see Adrián on the left, Suarez in the centre and Borini out right for example.

I believe Adrian is a player coming right into his prime and could chip in with 15 goals in all comps next year and a few assists too. He has a good attitude, works hard, gets in good positions, a pretty consistent player and you'll rarely see him have a terrible game. He's not a box of tricks, but he can beat a man, he's got a fair bit of pace to do so.

From what I've seen of him he's fairly composed and clinical when presented with a scoring chance. His stats show that he's not much of a goalscorer, but as I said I believe he's a player who is entering his prime now and for me his finishing has been impressive whenever I've seen him. Also before he was playing for Depor who were struggling at the lower end of the league.

Anyway don't know if there's much truth about the rumour but thought I'd give my 2 cents. He'd be a fantastic addition.

We could have got him for free last year - instead we paid £20m for Downing!

Gbear

cson wrote: »

Was going to say; best get a first XI together first before you go looking for depth. What would you think of something like this as a line up;

---

Borini

---

Dempsey

---

Suarez

---

Gerrard

---

---

Lucas

---

Allen

---

Obviously I'm assuming here re Dempsey and Allen but I think it'd have a nice balance to it imo.

We'll have to wait and see what Borini is like and if Allen actually signs for us but I wouldn't be brimming with confidence going up against the Man City's of this world with that sort of lineup. I don't think that's top 4 quality by any stretch.
If we're playing % football and play to the best of our abilities you could see it getting us comfortably top 6 but I'm not sure there's enough match-winning quality to break deep defences or get the better of the teams in the top 4/5 unless we're solely relying on Suarez pulling something out of his arse.

Nuri Sahin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUItR_sDCVs

Bowlardo

what channel is the liverpool match on tonight?

Glico Man

Bowlardo wrote: »

what channel is the liverpool match on tonight?

ESPN

Samich

On paper that team doesn't look great, but they could work pretty well together.