Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14 Mod warning post#7005

K-9

Dickerty wrote: »

+1 on this. This summer is a huge one. We know the players we can rely on today, but some big calls to be made at FB positions, for Gerrard's long-term replacement, additional striking options, and hat to do with the likes Suso, Borini, Wisdom, Robinson and Ibe...

We've a lot of young lads to try and give first team experience to. I suppose Suso, Wisdom and Alberto have more PL experience, I could see Alberto getting a loan out of those 3. I'd be surprised to see both Borini and Aspas here next season and my guess would be both Kelly and Coates and 1 other CB gone.

LB/CM/CB and a Salah type player for me will get signed, back up keeper as well, but God knows how this transfer committee prioritises things!

D'Agger

Knex. wrote: »

Allen is quietly efficient and I've said it since he first joined, I'm happy to have him in the squad.

He's not always what we need, but you always know what you're going to get from him. Football is a squad game nowadays, and he has an important role to play for us.

Allen has suffered from his pricetag in the same way Henderson has really, he is a very good footballer and Rodgers using the term 'recycler' is perfect for him. He is one of the best players on our team for getting a foot in and nicking the ball away. Much like Henderson, he doesn't do much fancy stuff, but he works very hard, doing the closing and pressing that is incredibly tiring but something that's vital to the way we play.

He's not the most physical, but he plays a huge part in our ability to turn over possession and put pressure on our opponents. Very glad to see him doing well on Sunday in a big match, hopefully more to come from him too

mike65

billy2012 wrote: »

Gerrard manages it

I look forward to Lucas taking free-kicks and corners

Kess73

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Dcully

More than anyone else in the squad im delighted for Henderson and how things have turned around for him.
For so long he was being slated from all angles,i recall the lads on off the ball on newstalk laughing their heads off about him a few times,id love to hear their thoughts now.
Pretty much everything written about Liverpool mentioned how Jordan Henderson just wasnt good enough and a waste of money.
I try to get to atleast two games a season and every time i watched the lad play he was non stop,incredible engine,always tracking back when needed,closing down, his appetite for work was just amazing and that was before he came of age this season.
For me he really stepped things up when Gerrard was out of the team for a few games, no more looking for the easy ball to Stevie, he took on the responsibility himself and looked like he could pass the ball aswell as everything else,that spell seems to have given him real confidence,i read that Rogers had him have some one on one sessions with a psychologist to address his confidence, if its true its worked a charm.
Delighted for the guy,surely a cert for the England squad, he certainly deserves it ahead of Tom Cleverly.

rob316

Really looking forward to Borini, Suso and Wisdom coming back, they have there part to play next and I reckon wisdom and suso could push for a starting place.

Paulegend

i actually cant wait to see if ossaidi can bring this seasons form back with him. if he can he will be a great addition to the squad

Morzadec

rob316 wrote: »

Really looking forward to Borini, Suso and Wisdom coming back, they have there part to play next and I reckon wisdom and suso could push for a starting place.

Absolutely they should all have a part to play next season. We will need a bigger squad and it's great that we already have some of the work done with 3 players who have had good experience on loan and should be capable of playing squad roles next season.

Making a push for starting places? I'm not so sure. Competition will be stiff.

HOwever next year with more games (assuming we dont f up CL qualification!) we will probably see much less of a settled starting XI than what we have seen these last months

Grayditch

Those signing might not turn out to be so bad if they can be used in the squad, alright. Bornini seems to be doing well, I wonder if loaning Aspas out would be as effective.

kfallon

K-9 wrote: »

LB/CM/CB and a Salah type player for me will get signed, back up keeper as well, but God knows how this transfer committee prioritises things!

Speaking of him, has he played at all for Chelsea yet or is he injured?

D'Agger

kfallon wrote: »

Speaking of him, has he played at all for Chelsea yet or is he injured?

Came on for 15-20 mins of some game they played recently

He can't play CL anyway right?

Morzadec

whatawaster wrote: »

At the same time we don't need to overstretch ourselves.

First priority should be to keep this squad together, minus the bits we could probably afford to lose. I think one or two first team defenders will leave.

Secondly, I think we need to reintegrate 2 or 3 of our loanees back into the squad. Personally, I would keep Wisdom, Suso and Borini around next season.

Thirdly, we need to add first 11 quality.
A defender
A midfielder
An attacker,

all of first 11 quality, coupled with the players back from loan, would really boost our squad. One or two other additions would be nice of course, but that is my hope for the summer - 3 first 11 additions.

Fairly spot on, I agree.

I think with the 3 loan players you mentioned coming back we potentially have much of the squad depth issues sorted.

We will need to sign a fullback (maybe 2), probably a centre-mid, a wide-forward/attacking mid (Kono? someone versatile anyway) all of first team quality to add depth, competition and quality.

I imagine we can take in 10m or so from sales. With not spending in January and (hopefully) CL qualification, surely the owners could make up to 50m available?

A budget of 60m should be enough to do what we need in the transfer window.

I do agree that we need to attack the window aggressively this summer. I didn't get my knickers in a twist like others during January as I felt we made a genuine effort and were in a decent position anyway, but as has been stated, this summer we will suddenly be in a position we haven't been for years - we will have the ability to attract a caliber of players previously unavailable to us.

We absolutely must strike while the iron's hot as we can not count on United capitulating again next year, and 5 into 4 does not go.

kfallon

D'Agger wrote: »

He can't play CL anyway right?

You're right there!

Morzadec

Grayditch wrote: »

Those signing might not turn out to be so bad if they can be used in the squad, alright. Bornini seems to be doing well, I wonder if loaning Aspas out would be as effective.

I would be surprised if this doesn't happen.

Rodgers likes Borini, he has impressed and he is more versatile than Aspas.

Aspas probably does not have much sell-on value at the moment. There would be a host of mid-table/bottom-half Spanish clubs happy to take him. A loan makes a lot of sense.

Fizman

In light of Lloyds history search, I thought I'd have a look with what I posted back then. It's funny reading back through this kind of stuff actually.

I'm a Liverpool fan. Rodgers certainly wouldn't have appeared in my top 5 wanted list, but now that he is appointed, I'll support him. I admired what he did at Swansea greatly, so I'm not going to berate him now that he has taken on a bigger job.

Football is the most fickle of sports, followed closely by the most fickle of fans.

If he was to win the first 3 matches of the season, everyone would have an erection for him.




Can we stop talking about Suarez leaving? Can we just enjoy him without all the BS talk? Christ above, as soon as we start going in the right direction, we think of other miserable things to harp on about




Genuine question. What did you actually expect Rodgers to achieve this season given the pool of sh1t he walked into?

The state of some of the squad, coupled with the strengths of the other teams over us........what did you really expect to see this year?

Me.....all I wanted to see was that he had the capability of steadying the ship, as opposed to the slippery slope we were on. DONE

I wanted to see him being capable of bringing us quality players at for the budget he had. DONE (moreso in January)

I wanted to see him get rid of most of the total dross clogging up our bench and wage fund. DONE

We finished a few points behind an Everton team who David Moyes took to the absolute nth degree. Behind a Spurs team who have a stronger squad than us which can't be argued.

Granted, it certainly wasn't an impeccable year and far from it, but it was Rodgers FIRST, and one he will learn a lot from I'm sure.

What did you want to see?

And just before the famous January transfer window of 2011 (possibly the biggest meltdown the thread ever went on):

Agreed. If I was given the option to sign one of Suarez or Aguero for say €25m, I'd go for Suarez every day of the week. His work rate alone in comparison to Kun would see me sign him. I think he'd deliver more goals in the PL too.




I'd agree with the Suarez sentiments. I really hope their low balling tactics are just that, tactics. With the view of finding a happy medium of something in or around the £20m mark. He would give a fantastic lift to the place and would be a real statement of intent from the Americans. A statement I feel is important for the likes of Torres and Reina to witness sooner rather than later.



Let him fcuk off so (referring to Torres) and get Forlan in quickly for 8-9m. With the excess 40 or so million from the Torres transfer, I propose we sign Cavani from Napoli for 20m to complete our Uruguayan 3some and commence in raping the Premiership.

With the remaining 20m, get the two Belgian lads, Adam and maybe a left full.

The sad thing is, Cavani could have been got for 20m or so back then as well, instead of big Andrew.

Kunkka

One obvious thing that I am delighted with that people have mentioned is how Rodgers has developed so many of the squad. His man management is top class. Remember when he took off Sturidge after missing the peno and not squaring it to Suarez a few minutes later in the derby, that was brilliant, it took balls to do it so quickly and it was exactly what was needed. He's trying to make every player in the squad play for the team and not themselves.

Henderson has been ****ing brilliant this season. Absolute work horse, if he could get his final pass better and finishing a bit more consistent we'll have a great player for the future. Admittedly I wasn't his biggest fan starting off but he has won me over big time. He's like that Labrador Dirk with the heart he puts in

It's an amazing feeling to be looking forward to Liverpool playing again every week without dread. Thank you Mr Rodgers!

Courtesy Flush

Grayditch wrote: »

Those signing might not turn out to be so bad if they can be used in the squad, alright. Bornini seems to be doing well, I wonder if loaning Aspas out would be as effective.

I really think Aspas could do with a loan spell. Get a run in a team in the premier league and see if he can do the business like Borini has been impressive on his loan

rob316

I'd cut my losses on Aspas to be honest he is 27 better to concentrate on developing younger players.

The players I would sell/wouldn't keep:
Moses x 100 (so disappointing)
Cissokho (not bad loan but hes just not good enough)
Agger (he has been poor for a long time now)
Toure (enough said)
Aspas (wont cut it)
Kelly (never going to make it unfortunately, he needs to go away and rebuild his career somewhere)
Johnson (not worth the wages no matter how you look at it - if he can seriously improve in the next 9 games I might reconsider

I would loan out
Luis Alberto and Texiera

You will have coming into the squad then next season
Borini, Suso, Wisdom, Ibe and McLaughlin all with another year of development and regular football under them.

We need to go out and buy then
1 x Fullback - preferably who can play left and right
2 x CB - right footed to partner Sakho
1 x CM - Strong creative central midfielder -Ivan Rakitic please!
1 x winger/forward - Konoplyanka will do nicely
1 x Striker

Fizman

rob316 wrote: »

I'd cut my losses on Aspas to be honest he is 27 better to concentrate on developing younger players.

The players I would sell/wouldn't keep:
Moses x 100 (so disappointing)
Cissokho (not bad loan but hes just not good enough)
Agger (he has been poor for a long time now)
Toure (enough said)
Aspas (wont cut it)
Kelly (never going to make it unfortunately, he needs to go away and rebuild his career somewhere)
Johnson (not worth the wages no matter how you look at it - if he can seriously improve in the next 9 games I might reconsider

I would loan out
Luis Alberto and Texiera

You will have coming into the squad then next season
Borini, Suso, Wisdom, Ibe and McLaughlin all with another year of development and regular football under them.

We need to go out and buy then
1 x Fullback - preferably who can play left and right
2 x CB - right footed to partner Sakho
1 x CM - Strong creative central midfielder -Ivan Rakitic please!
1 x winger/forward - Konoplyanka will do nicely
1 x Striker

Apparently the city of Liverpool isn't cool enough for him (according to Dnipro pres), but life with Spurs is great.

I agree with a lot of what you posted to be fair.

Nerdlingr

K-9 wrote: »

But you claimed he passes the ball back to the CB's more often than not! Which makes the stats, even more impressive as that means when he chooses attacking passes, they often lead to goals!

Goal Involvement 2013/14

Stats are stats, but it does question this cliche about Lucas. Because of the nature of his position he isn't going to get many assists.

Pity he doesnt choose them more often so beacuse he only has 4 assists in the last 5 years.
Who's to say the 5 "second goal assists" in that table werent 3 yard backward passes?
Have you any stats about the needless fouls he consistently gives away?

Anyway, we're a better team with Gerrard in there. Thats the point.

rob316

Fizman wrote: »

Apparently the city of Liverpool isn't cool enough for him (according to Dnipro pres), but life with Spurs is great.

I agree with a lot of what you posted to be fair.

Ya Champions League football isn't cool enough for him either, the Europa League is where its at with Spurs.

Speak Now

Jeepers Mike is in the United thread offering up team selections for tonight, he has Mata in both

Turtyturd

Jerry Seinfeld wrote: »

Jeepers Mike is in the United thread offering up team selections for tonight, he has Mata in both

He probably started the Flanagan for Ireland stuff too.

dzer2

Jerry Seinfeld wrote: »

Jeepers Mike is in the United thread offering up team selections for tonight, he has Mata in both

Ah its that bit of wood he is touching:D

Daemonic

Seeing the mental strength the team has at the moment, Fulham being the most obvious case of a recent game where they could have buckled, I think one of Rodger's best appointments has been getting Steve Peters to work with the team.
Gerrard spoke about it at the recent England press conferences as he works with the England team too, but having that facility available regularly, particularly for young players might just be the extra % or 2 needed to believe they can win games.

Paulegend

Jerry Seinfeld wrote: »

Jeepers Mike is in the United thread offering up team selections for tonight, he has Mata in both

trolls be trollin

K-9

Kunkka wrote: »

One obvious thing that I am delighted with that people have mentioned is how Rodgers has developed so many of the squad. His man management is top class. Remember when he took off Sturidge after missing the peno and not squaring it to Suarez a few minutes later in the derby, that was brilliant, it took balls to do it so quickly and it was exactly what was needed. He's trying to make every player in the squad play for the team and not themselves.

Henderson has been ****ing brilliant this season. Absolute work horse, if he could get his final pass better and finishing a bit more consistent we'll have a great player for the future. Admittedly I wasn't his biggest fan starting off but he has won me over big time. He's like that Labrador Dirk with the heart he puts in

It's an amazing feeling to be looking forward to Liverpool playing again every week without dread. Thank you Mr Rodgers!

The work Steve Peters is doing at the club must be a big help as well:

Breaking Liverpool's mental barriers — Playing without Fear | Liverpool FC This Is Anfield

It's a good point that we've had many players down through the years that struggled with the expectations and their price tags. I made that point at the start of the season, it was essential for Anfield to become a fortress again, or at least a difficult place to go. Once that was done the players seemed to concentrate on breaking hoodoos away from home. Combine good coaching, man management and players improving mentally and you get the whole package.

K-9

Nerdlingr wrote: »

Pity he doesnt choose them more often so beacuse he only has 4 assists in the last 5 years.
Who's to say the 5 "second goal assists" in that table werent 3 yard backward passes?
Have you any stats about the needless fouls he consistently gives away?

Anyway, we're a better team with Gerrard in there. Thats the point.

I agreed on the fouls and yellows.

Just ignore the stats, it'll be grand!

Kunkka

One thing a lot of people are probably not even thinking of with all the excitement is that we should be able to hold on to Suarez for the foreseeable as at this stage it would take a total collapse to not get CL football . 1st,2nd,3rd or 4th this summer will be the calmest in years I'd imagine.

@ K9 Good read that, makes a lot of sense with the amount of people we've signed who have flopped due to confidence issues. Kewell being the most heart breaking for me

mike65

Kunkka wrote: »

@ K9 Good read that, makes a lot of sense with the amount of people we've signed who have flopped due to confidence issues. Kewell being the most heart breaking for me

That reminds me, whatever happened to horse placenta?

Grayditch

Courtesy Flush wrote: »

I really think Aspas could do with a loan spell. Get a run in a team in the premier league and see if he can do the business like Borini has been impressive on his loan

I'm always disappointed when loanees go overseas, cause I know out of laziness, I won't bother watching them. It's been great to watch Borrini and Assaidi stuff Chelsea and United, too. The Assaidi goal literally affecting our current season is such a bonus.

BrookieD

just picked up my winnings from the weekends win over Utd - while not huge in total is was very satisfying to collect......

Grayditch

BrookieD wrote: »

while not huge in total

The downside of being favourites, eh?

kfallon

Kunkka wrote: »

One thing a lot of people are probably not even thinking of with all the excitement is that we should be able to hold on to Suarez for the foreseeable as at this stage it would take a total collapse to not get CL football . 1st,2nd,3rd or 4th this summer will be the calmest in years I'd imagine.

Suarez ends up top EPL scorer with 30 odd goals! CL football is guaranteed next season. Suarez goes to World Cup in Brazil, scores 5 or 6 goals and fires Uruguay to semi finals. Real Madrid do their usual of trying to take the WC star player and come in sniffing around....what happens then?

At least we know that we'll get a significant fee for him but I'm just hoping he is now very happy here. Unfortunately Real and Barca have immense pulling power over players so I'm not counting any chickens about him being here next season yet.

Sorry to be the pessimist

djPSB

Kunkka wrote: »

One thing a lot of people are probably not even thinking of with all the excitement is that we should be able to hold on to Suarez for the foreseeable as at this stage it would take a total collapse to not get CL football . 1st,2nd,3rd or 4th this summer will be the calmest in years I'd imagine.

@ K9 Good read that, makes a lot of sense with the amount of people we've signed who have flopped due to confidence issues. Kewell being the most heart breaking for me

Keeping Rodgers is going to be key as well imo.

Grayditch

Keeping Rodgers is a non issue, if you ask me. Unless we send Ayer to negotiate the contract, in which case he'll end up at Spurs.




I'm joking...

Dickerty

One small concern I have for the run-in is that Stevie has 8 bookings. 2 more and he misses 2 games.
He needs to be on egg-shells for the next few games!!

djPSB

Grayditch wrote: »

Keeping Rodgers is a non issue, if you ask me. Unless we send Ayer to negotiate the contract, in which case he'll end up at Spurs.




I'm joking...

I think Rodgers is in it for the long haul as long the owners provide adequate resources.

However, if the likes of Barcelona come calling then he's going to be left with a difficult decision to make. He speaks Spanish too as far as I know.

gafferino

Ronnie O Sullivan, who has worked successfully with Peters, predicted Liverpool would win the league with Peters on board within 5 years.


Peters seems to be held in very high esteem across several sports. Fascinating side to it in my opinion.

5live

opr wrote: »

I really don't get this Agger bashing. I certainly don't get it in the context of this Sakho defensive savior stuff which seems to happen most of our players when they spend extended periods on the sidelines. The tomkin times did a huge analysis recently on defensive errors by players which has led to goals this season and I believe Sakho led the number of errors. Agger had a tough game on his return which was quite natural given his lengthy time out due to injury. Since then we've kept two clean sheets away from home, something which we've really struggled to do all season but yet somehow Agger is a problem. That's a tiny sample I know but Agger's stats over a much larger sample bear out that we're more defensively solid with him in the team.

Opr

+1

I brought this up a few days ago, about a site that compared both Agger and Sakho. I cant find the site but it basically said that results with Agger were better than those with Sakho in terms of goals conceded, clean sheets gained and points earned.

Great post Lloyd, only seeing it now. You had more or less the same feelings as myself, perhaps a tad stronger.

Gbear

Dickerty wrote: »

One small concern I have for the run-in is that Stevie has 8 bookings. 2 more and he misses 2 games.
He needs to be on egg-shells for the next few games!!

Is it that straightforward?

Did he miss 1 game for 5 cards already?
I think that has to happen for him to get a 2 game ban for 10.

5live

mike65 wrote: »

That reminds me, whatever happened to horse placenta?

Apparently it was being made into burgers but the food safety authority stopped it last year, the fekkers:pac:

dzer2

Gbear wrote: »

Is it that straightforward?

Did he miss 1 game for 5 cards already?
I think that has to happen for him to get a 2 game ban for 10.

No 5 in the first half of season equals a one game ban and then 10 for a game ban in the second half of the season.

Morzadec

Agger is 29. How much would we get for him?

I do think Sahko will oust him for the starting spot on the left side eventually, but this season has shown just how important it is to have cover in key positions.

Keep Agger. Lets see who's better.

And Skrtel? The guy has been 50% solid, 40% immense and maybe 10% dodgy this season. I see no reason why he should not hold onto his RCB spot next season.

The full back positions are the ones we need to take a look at in defence imo. We have had a gaping hole on the left side all season, so we absolutely need to sign a player of quality to compete with a hopefully fit-again Enrique. Right back is harder to say what will happen. A call needs to be made on Johnson - I think he's a good right back, but could possibly be improved uopn and probably does not quite justify the reported wages he's on. If Rodgers is happy to keep him then Johnson/Flanagan on that side will probably do (Wisdom or Kelly as added backup), if not then we need a signing of high quality here also.

retalivity

kfallon wrote: »

Suarez ends up top EPL scorer with 30 odd goals! CL football is guaranteed next season. Suarez goes to World Cup in Brazil, scores 5 or 6 goals and fires Uruguay to semi finals. Real Madrid do their usual of trying to take the WC star player and come in sniffing around....what happens then?

At least we know that we'll get a significant fee for him but I'm just hoping he is now very happy here. Unfortunately Real and Barca have immense pulling power over players so I'm not counting any chickens about him being here next season yet.

Sorry to be the pessimist

Much more likely is that he goes to the world cup and there is an incident in Uruguay's game against England (He eats Gary Cahill or punches Woy or something). He is vilified by the English press again, and then Madrid and/or Barca come sniffing

Dickerty

Shaqiri please!!!
Quotes from is brother/advisor -

"Xherdan is 22. At this age, he needs to be playing regularly, which is not currently the case (at Bayern Munich).
We are waiting now until summer. Then, when clubs make approaches such as Liverpool, Manchester United, Inter Milan and other top clubs, we can listen to their offers.
That said, Bayern stills remain our first point of contact before we talk to other clubs."

I know he is name dropping, but we have to be contenders.
He'd work very well for us, can play across the front 3, is different in style to our other attackers, and is physically right for the challenge. And has top level experience at a young age.

Also, he'd work well with Kroos coming out of DM...

Agueroooo

Dickerty wrote: »

Shaqiri please!!!
Quotes from is brother/advisor -

"Xherdan is 22. At this age, he needs to be playing regularly, which is not currently the case (at Bayern Munich).
We are waiting now until summer. Then, when clubs make approaches such as Liverpool, Manchester United, Inter Milan and other top clubs, we can listen to their offers.
That said, Bayern stills remain our first point of contact before we talk to other clubs."

I know he is name dropping, but we have to be contenders.
He'd work very well for us, can play across the front 3, is different in style to our other attackers, and is physically right for the challenge. And has top level experience at a young age.

Also, he'd work well with Kroos coming out of DM...

If he is coming, or not, it is good to hear Liverpool being mentioned in the conversation about possible destinations for high calibre players, and I am guessing our current league position, and potential finishing spot may have something do with that

Speak Now

Dickerty wrote: »

One small concern I have for the run-in is that Stevie has 8 bookings. 2 more and he misses 2 games.
He needs to be on egg-shells for the next few games!!

Gbear wrote: »

Is it that straightforward?

Did he miss 1 game for 5 cards already?
I think that has to happen for him to get a 2 game ban for 10.

dzer2 wrote: »

No 5 in the first half of season equals a one game ban and then 10 for a game ban in the second half of the season.

Changes to 15 games after the second Sunday in April.

Ramires and Flamini are the 2 players on 9 at the moment, the former will have to avoid a booking the week he comes back from current suspension to possibly avoid missing the trip to Anfield.

Vanolder

Jerry Seinfeld wrote: »

Changes to 15 games after the second Sunday in April.

15 game ban seems a bit much...