Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/2014

Paulegend

dont get me wrong its great to have some of the lads training with the first team but surely it would be better for the likes of flano and ibe to be playing in a game like this rather than train with the first team and not play at all. why not let all the players train together and if players under 21 arent going to be playing the weekend let them play these games. why not keep them match fit

mike65

FT Liverpool 3 - 4 Southampton

Controlled football? Nope. Helter skelter stuff from start to finish, some terrible finishing and worse defending. Throwing together such a young side seems a bit foolish, some coherence is needed. One can only hope that the more senior players will be back for the next game - against Manchester Utd.

Also the game not helped by the usual Melwood gale.

billymitchell

SlickRic wrote: »

i'm not childish.

oh, and it's fellas.

Touché :pac:

slingerz

Scott Sinclair the wide left player with pace that can score goals???

KingJamsie

slingerz wrote: »

Scott Sinclair the wide left player with pace that can score goals???

Rumors started when spotted at Kirkby watching his brother play, probably nothing more.

Paulegend

i know that the role of the "reserves/under 21's" is to basically get players ready to feed into the senior squad. but why doesnt it make more sense to keep the group together playing them week in week out. surely if the 21's trained with the first team every week it would help their development. then it wouldnt be a case of going away with the under 21's or senior squad. it would be training together and if your in the first team for the weekend you arent in the first team for the 21's. simple. john flanno is constantly with the first team and he has had great runs in the set up. he has also suffered injury set backs and poor games nut by in large the kid has done well. but with glen and martin ahead of him in the pecking order why not let him play under 21's games.

if the set up was as i just stated we could easily be fielding teams such as the example below. i know we have sent some of these out on loan but thats my point exactly. if instead of a season at sheffield wednesday where coady may or may not get a game why not keep in the set up where the players will develope together get use to winning and make the leap to the senior squad together. whats the worst that can happen?? they win the resie league?? surely our training facilities are better than most teams we would loan to.

---

Ward
flano----wisdom----jones

---

robbo
---Trickett-Smith---Teixeira---Coady

---

Ibe

---

sinclair

---

Sterling


is there a reason that we dont do this that im just not seeing??

5starpool

slingerz wrote: »

Scott Sinclair the wide left player with pace that can score goals???

I hope not. I've seen his name mentioned on the twitterbox alright this afternoon, but he is hardly the finished article.

ush

Don't know if its been mentioned, but Doni has retired from football. Health problems.

Dickerty

Paulegend wrote: »

if the set up was as i just stated we could easily be fielding teams such as the example below. i know we have sent some of these out on loan but thats my point exactly. if instead of a season at sheffield wednesday where coady may or may not get a game why not keep in the set up where the players will develope together get use to winning and make the leap to the senior squad together. whats the worst that can happen?? they win the resie league?? surely our training facilities are better than most teams we would loan to.

---

Ward
flano----wisdom----jones

---

robbo
---Trickett-Smith---Teixeira---Coady

---

Ibe

---

sinclair

---

Sterling


is there a reason that we dont do this that im just not seeing??

But we don't loan out to reserve teams. Robinson and Coady will learn a lot more about themselves (and we'll learn about them) at Championship level, that's a big step up from reserve level. Also, players improve through training against and with better players.

They don't necessarily improve together. They may get better results as a team by playing with the same guys every week, but then they step up to the first team, and they have to start again, and it's a HUGE step up.

Best scenario would be like Spain - allow Reserve teams to enter the league by right, and be promoted and relegated. Then in a few years, you might have your own reserve team in the Championship. But the Football League would never allow it...

5starpool

Paulegend wrote: »

i know that the role of the "reserves/under 21's" is to basically get players ready to feed into the senior squad. but why doesnt it make more sense to keep the group together playing them week in week out. surely if the 21's trained with the first team every week it would help their development. then it wouldnt be a case of going away with the under 21's or senior squad. it would be training together and if your in the first team for the weekend you arent in the first team for the 21's. simple. john flanno is constantly with the first team and he has had great runs in the set up. he has also suffered injury set backs and poor games nut by in large the kid has done well. but with glen and martin ahead of him in the pecking order why not let him play under 21's games.

if the set up was as i just stated we could easily be fielding teams such as the example below. i know we have sent some of these out on loan but thats my point exactly. if instead of a season at sheffield wednesday where coady may or may not get a game why not keep in the set up where the players will develope together get use to winning and make the leap to the senior squad together. whats the worst that can happen?? they win the resie league?? surely our training facilities are better than most teams we would loan to.

---

Ward
flano----wisdom----jones

---

robbo
---Trickett-Smith---Teixeira---Coady

---

Ibe

---

sinclair

---

Sterling


is there a reason that we dont do this that im just not seeing??

The reserves/u21 league is a means to an end, and the end is the first team squad. I'm sure there is a point where it is decided among the coaching staff that a player cannot develop any more at that level, and training with the first team squad to see how they compare to those they are trying to dispalce, with a possible view to promote them to the matchday squad is the next step. Loans to championship/league 1 sides is also far better development for a young player than u21 games as well in terms of physicality, competitiveness, etc. It would be madness to do as you suggest above on a sustained basis. Having those who are most ready train with the first team squad, and dropping down to play some u21 games is a good strategy generally.

Most young players will not be good enough. As promising as they are, I doubt all of Sterling, Ibe and Suso will be at the club in 3-5 years time and integral parts of the first XI, and of that u21 squad today, if 5 of them are still at the club in 5 years time I'll be surprised, and most of them are still very young, even for u21.

It might seem counter productive, but it is a weeding process, and at some point they have to be able to make the step up and prove they are good enough, and they can't do that training and playing at u21 level.

5starpool

Martin Atkinson the ref for our game on Saturday.

Nuri Sahin

ush wrote: »

Don't know if its been mentioned, but Doni has retired from football because he's too good.

FYP. He's OP.

Devilman40k

ush wrote: »

Don't know if its been mentioned, but Doni has retired from football. Health problems.

Was to be expected really, if the rumours are true he "died" at Melwood last year after a training session due to his arrythmia, hence why he was moved on.

Very sad though

slingerz

5starpool wrote: »

I hope not. I've seen his name mentioned on the twitterbox alright this afternoon, but he is hardly the finished article.

was hoping for a higher profile player myself but he may well be an option especially on an initial loan deal.

El Inho

Just after re-reading BR's comments there on signings and Suarez. I will be NOTHING short of amazed if we don't bring in at least 2-3 new players. Sigueria is really gathering speed (which is worrying considering how hard it is to spell his name). And I feel that could be locked down within 48 hours.

That signing is typical of what we can expect. An improvement on a position that for the time being we can manage without. Enrique can play the first couple of games while Sequeria gets up to pace.

As with the other comments from BR, he wants Inho to shift into the no. 10 role. This again makes sense, as he can play on the left until the new first teamer that we get between now and the close of the window can get up to pace.

For the first game of the season I imagine it will be something along the lines of this.
v Stoke (possible squad)


With the side growing into this once all the dust has settled on the signings. I'm leaving Suarez out simply due to the fact that after 6 games, its 50:50 whether or not he will be involved or not.

Strongest XI close of window


Obviously a lot to try get right with that formation...like with Inho in the no. 10, will gerrard go into a flat 2 man midfield with Lucas? ur play central with leiva in behind him.

Also hard to know if defensive reinforcements are a priority. LB seems to be, but isn't Kolo, Skrtel and Agger a little light? Coates will likely be off on load while Kelly won't be match fit for a while. Wisdom isn't really quite 'there' yet either.

Another GK, free, experience and likely old would be a nice addition too. Love Jones' pluck and dedication, but sentiments get clubs into bad positions.

Order of business by priority.

1. Left Wing
2. Left Back
3. Centre Back
4. Keeper
5. Suggestions?

least that's what I think.

Knex*

At this stage, Sinclair for around 7m and I wouldn't be too bothered if we signed him.

We need something. Hardly ideal however.

Devilman40k

slingerz wrote: »

was hoping for a higher profile player myself but he may well be an option especially on an initial loan deal.

Cheaper version of Downing to be honest

SlickRic

Scott Sinclair couldn't get a game from the bench for City.

Spurs land internationals like Paulinho, Soldado and Chadli. we get Sinclair?

fúck right off. that better be completely made up bollocks.

5starpool

SlickRic wrote: »

Scott Sinclair couldn't get a game from the bench for City.

Spurs land internationals like Paulinho, Soldado and Chadli. we get Sinclair?

fúck right off. that better be completely made up bollocks.

I'd be surprised if it isn't.

Devilman40k

SlickRic wrote: »

Scott Sinclair couldn't get a game from the bench for City.

Spurs land internationals like Paulinho, Soldado and Chadli. we get Sinclair?

fúck right off. that better be completely made up bollocks.

Then again...his brother Jake is a trainee at Southampton... maybe he isn't coming to us

opr

Why do you have Gerrard in the forward position of the midfield three in the first team? It would solve a few problems in my eyes but I don't think Rodger's has ever used him in that position and I doubt he will start with the first game of the season.

Opr

Knex*

SlickRic wrote: »

Scott Sinclair couldn't get a game from the bench for City.

Spurs land internationals like Paulinho, Soldado and Chadli. we get Sinclair?

fúck right off. that better be completely made up bollocks.

All three of the above would probably have been in the same position tbh.

Soldado isn't markedly better than Dzeko and Paulinho is coming off a relative breakout year.

Chaldi isn't hugely better than Sinclair either if that's your benchmark.

No doubting all three would improve our squad this summer, but not playing regularly for Man City doesn't mean you're a bad player.

Paulegend

SlickRic wrote: »

Scott Sinclair couldn't get a game from the bench for City.

Spurs land internationals like Paulinho, Soldado and Chadli. we get Sinclair?

fúck right off. that better be completely made up bollocks.

both teams have better squads than us and have performed better than us the last couple seasons i think its highly unlikely that we should expect to sign the same quality of player for now.

of course the scott sinclair rumours are bollox. he was there to watch his brother play ffs.

but that being said we could do far worse than scott sinclair as a loanee. he would just replace downing in the squad. he is cheaper less wages and while his crossing is poor his pace is way better than what we had from downing.

a loan signing is the best option. we dont want "OK" players at teh club when we have champions league but until then we need to best players available to US. id much prefer to loan sinclair for a year than spend 15 million on a big name dud that we will struggle to rid of when we qualify for CL

mike65

What's the ****s is going on? Sinclair was at Melwood to see his brother playing for Southampton.

as someone just said

Scott Sinclair spotted in Kirkby watching his kid brother play at the Academy therefore a move to Liverpool is a done deal #TwitterLogic

djPSB

Knex. wrote: »

At this stage, Sinclair for around 7m and I wouldn't be too bothered if we signed him.

We need something. Hardly ideal however.

Would be a horrendous signing.

No better than Sterling or Ibe.

El Inho

opr wrote: »

Why do you have Gerrard in the forward position of the midfield three in the first team? It would solve a few problems in my eyes but I don't think Rodger's has ever used him in that position and I doubt he will start with the first game of the season.

Opr

Yeah I'm always useless at getting the formations right! It's where I would play gerrard myself.

Would you consider Gerrard more likely to sit alongside lucas in a flat midfield with Inho in front of him?

gafferino

Apparently a well know broadcaster 'understands' Arsenal have bid 17.2m for Gustavo. Perhaps they are giving up on Luis.....surely they wouldn't splash out on 2 players!!

Knex*

djPSB wrote: »

Would be a horrendous signing.

No better than Sterling or Ibe.

Long term I'd have to agree, both certainly have a higher ceiling. But you would expect him to contribute more than either if he was to join.

Right now, at 24, he is definitely a better player than both.

Do think the money could be spent better, but I'm running out of ideas at this stage.

djPSB

Paulegend wrote: »

both teams have better squads than us and have performed better than us the last couple seasons i think its highly unlikely that we should expect to sign the same quality of player for now.

of course the scott sinclair rumours are bollox. he was there to watch his brother play ffs.

but that being said we could do far worse than scott sinclair as a loanee. he would just replace downing in the squad. he is cheaper less wages and while his crossing is poor his pace is way better than what we had from downing.

a loan signing is the best option. we dont want "OK" players at teh club when we have champions league but until then we need to best players available to US. id much prefer to loan sinclair for a year than spend 15 million on a big name dud that we will struggle to rid of when we qualify for CL

We could loan him and then loan him to Napoli.

Is that allowed?

Raif Severance

SlickRic wrote: »

Scott Sinclair couldn't get a game from the bench for City.

Spurs land internationals like Paulinho, Soldado and Chadli. we get Sinclair?

fúck right off. that better be completely made up bollocks.

I'll give you Soldado and Paulinho, but Chadli?

Did you know that Assaidi is actually rated higher than Chadli in the Dutch League?

The only Wingers rated higher than Assaidi in the Dutch League, are Mertens and Narsingh (Assaidi's Former Teammate).

billy2012

^^^^^^^^^But he is from BELGIUM!!!!

spockety

gafferino wrote: »

Apparently a well know broadcaster 'understands' Arsenal have bid 17.2m for Gustavo. Perhaps they are giving up on Luis.....surely they wouldn't splash out on 2 players!!

Wrong Gustavo. They're opening a Los Pollos Hermanos franchise at The Emirates.

Paulegend

djPSB wrote: »

We could loan him and then loan him to Napoli.

Is that allowed?

i think only if napoli are allowed to part loan share him with roma ala the bojan loan deal

so he could be a city player
on loan at liverpool
where his registration is owned by napoli
but plays his football at roma

maybe we can get some sort of buy back sell on clause aswell

Pepe LeFrits

spockety wrote: »

Wrong Gustavo. They're opening a Los Pollos Hermanos franchise at The Emirates.

[img][/img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7b/Gustavo_fring_breaking_bad.jpg

Wouldn't mind having Gus doing our transfer negotiations...

djPSB

Knex. wrote: »

Long term I'd have to agree, both certainly have a higher ceiling. But you would expect him to contribute more than either if he was to join.

Right now, at 24, he is definitely a better player than both.

Do think the money could be spent better, but I'm running out of ideas at this stage.

Sinclair would be awful signing. Feck all better than Downing.

I'd lose all faith if it happens.

slingerz

who do people 'honestly' think Liverpool should sign for the top left position so?

Muriel, Munain etc may not exactly be realistic. Maybe people need to better realise where Liverpool are at and the possibility that the players they desire might not want to come to Liverpool.

moving on players on high wages such as Downing while replacing them with players of a similar quality but on a cheaper basis is sound enough business logic.

probably not the logic football fans want to hear but i dont think we;ll see the massive investment in playing squad/stadium from FSG that fans are looking for. would i be right in thinking that Liverpool have a net profit in this transfer window so far with the sale of Downing?

one thing about FSG is that they have made the club a sounder business and a more attractive sales proposition than they were when they initially bought the club.

Francie Barrett

Lads, we are definitely after someone who would automatically start in the front three. The bid for Diego Costa was very real, but it looks like the player himself turned us down. There's not much you can do about that, right?

slingerz

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Lads, we are definitely after someone who would automatically start in the front three. The bid for Diego Costa was very real, but it looks like the player himself turned us down. There's not much you can do about that, right?

nothing you can do about a player turning the move down. unfortuntely for pool fans more and more players will do the same.

Paulegend

do we really need someone for there unless suarez goes??

suarez
sterling
assaidi
coutinho
ibe
enrique
sturridge
aspas
alberto

can all play there. im sure we could do with someone there but no point signing someone for teh sake of it when we do need priority signings in other parts of the pitch such as defence and a finisher

opr

El Spearo wrote: »

Yeah I'm always useless at getting the formations right! It's where I would play gerrard myself.

Would you consider Gerrard more likely to sit alongside lucas in a flat midfield with Inho in front of him?

Since he has taken over he has hardly moved Gerrard from the role in the midfield two. In some of the games last season and so far in pre-season he has persisted with Gerrard/Lucas with Allen as the forward in the midfield three. Allen hasn't looked up to playing that role at all but for some reason it keeps getting persisted with. Swapping them makes so much sense when looking at things on paper but he hasn't even experimented with it at all.

Part of it I think comes from the fact he seems to want the player in that hole role to press relentlessly from the front and lead by example. Players he has used in that role like Suarez, Allen, Henderson and Coutinho while some are maybe not natural looking number tens on the ball, off the ball they're mobile and can press, chase and harry the opposition. He had talked about it in interviews before that winning the ball back in that area is the greatest threat in transition for the opposition. If that's what he wants in that area then Gerrard's legs mean he won't give you that.

Opr

spockety

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Lads, we are definitely after someone who would automatically start in the front three. The bid for Diego Costa was very real, but it looks like the player himself turned us down. There's not much you can do about that, right?

What are you talking about? Football transfers are much more black and white than that. If you have the money, you get any player you want that you can name on a boards.ie thread or twitter. There are no other considerations.

5starpool

slingerz wrote: »

who do people 'honestly' think Liverpool should sign for the top left position so?

Muriel, Munain etc may not exactly be realistic. Maybe people need to better realise where Liverpool are at and the possibility that the players they desire might not want to come to Liverpool.

moving on players on high wages such as Downing while replacing them with players of a similar quality but on a cheaper basis is sound enough business logic.

probably not the logic football fans want to hear but i dont think we;ll see the massive investment in playing squad/stadium from FSG that fans are looking for. would i be right in thinking that Liverpool have a net profit in this transfer window so far with the sale of Downing?

one thing about FSG is that they have made the club a sounder business and a more attractive sales proposition than they were when they initially bought the club.

What is the point of reducing costs if you don't increase the quality of the team at the same time which was the stated aim? Standing still does the club no good whatsoever, and reducing costs is pointless if it doesn't ultimately help the team.

billymitchell

djPSB wrote: »

We could loan him and then loan him to Napoli.

Is that allowed?

Didnt we loan Pacheco to Athleti and didnt they loan him on after that to somebody else?

The Rooster

opr wrote: »

Since he has taken over he has hardly moved Gerrard from the role in the midfield two. In some of the games last season and so far in pre-season he has persisted with Gerrard/Lucas with Allen as the forward in the midfield three. Allen hasn't looked up to playing that role at all but for some reason it keeps getting persisted with. Swapping them makes so much sense when looking at things on paper but he hasn't even experimented with it at all.

Against Celtic the midfield trio was 1-2 rather than 2-1.
Lucas sitting behind Gerrard-Allen.

Sappy404

slingerz wrote: »

who do people 'honestly' think Liverpool should sign for the top left position so?

Muriel, Munain etc may not exactly be realistic. Maybe people need to better realise where Liverpool are at and the possibility that the players they desire might not want to come to Liverpool.

moving on players on high wages such as Downing while replacing them with players of a similar quality but on a cheaper basis is sound enough business logic.

probably not the logic football fans want to hear but i dont think we;ll see the massive investment in playing squad/stadium from FSG that fans are looking for. would i be right in thinking that Liverpool have a net profit in this transfer window so far with the sale of Downing?

one thing about FSG is that they have made the club a sounder business and a more attractive sales proposition than they were when they initially bought the club.

Probably Atsu. I think there's some brinksmanship going on, with Rogers saying a few weeks ago that we're sticking with Ibe and Sterling shortly after reports that the clubs were in advanced talks. There was news today of Spurs going for him, which smacks of a lazy attempt to get Liverpool to move for him.

billymitchell

The Rooster wrote: »

Against Celtic the midfield trio was 1-2 rather than 2-1.
Lucas sitting behind Gerrard-Allen.

Allen really needs to keep improving on his performances. He has been better in most of preseason than he was at the tail end of last season, but his score card would still say "Must do harder"

billy2012

Sappy404 wrote: »

Probably Atsu. I think there's some brinksmanship going on, with Rogers saying a few weeks ago that we're sticking with Ibe and Sterling shortly after reports that the clubs were in advanced talks. There was news today of Spurs going for him, which smacks of a lazy attempt to get Liverpool to move for him.

If he was good enough I'm sure AVB would have him signed up already.

Turtyturd

gafferino wrote: »

Apparently a well know broadcaster 'understands' Arsenal have bid 17.2m for Gustavo. Perhaps they are giving up on Luis.....surely they wouldn't splash out on 2 players!!

Leaves them with 22,800,001...Henry killed the deal...signing Gustavo should kill any zombie version of the deal that exists in arsenal supporters heads....would still love to see him choose Napoli too though.

Raif Severance

With Spurs signing him, I guess he now goes into the Good Category.

BackPage. ‏@BackPage 3m
Sky Sports are reporting Tottenham are making a move to sign Porto winger Christian Atsu in a bargain £1million deal. #THFC

Muriel or Muniain?

@AnfieldInsider_ 3m
Can confirm #Liverpool made July enquiries on the availability of #Udinese 's Luis #Muriel & #Bilbao 's Iker #Muniain.
#goals #pace #topleft

Ayre not on his Bike?

MrBoywunder ‏@MrBoywunder 1m
Sky Sports news say Siqueira deal could be completed in the next 24 hours. Ayre flying out to Spain.

Messi is a Skint. Should have given JC a Rolex.

barcastuff barcastuff 2h
Quote: Liverpool's Jamie Carragher on the retirement gift he got from Lionel Messi #fcblive

Knex*

opr wrote: »

Since he has taken over he has hardly moved Gerrard from the role in the midfield two. In some of the games last season and so far in pre-season he has persisted with Gerrard/Lucas with Allen as the forward in the midfield three. Allen hasn't looked up to playing that role at all but for some reason it keeps getting persisted with. Swapping them makes so much sense when looking at things on paper but he hasn't even experimented with it at all.

Part of it I think comes from the fact he seems to want the player in that hole role to press relentlessly from the front and lead by example. Players he has used in that role like Suarez, Allen, Henderson and Coutinho while some are maybe not natural looking number tens on the ball, off the ball they're mobile and can press, chase and harry the opposition. He had talked about it in interviews before that winning the ball back in that area is the greatest threat in transition for the opposition. If that's what he wants in that area then Gerrard's legs mean he won't give you that.

Opr

Allen is now being played the same as Sahin was. A CM used to playing deep being told to play as a CAM.

Gerrard is not moving from that deeper CM role alongside Lucas unless he's injured, it would seem.