Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2014 - Mod Note in OP, 1/09

Harry Palmr

Just watching Arsenal on MOTD, so slow! Easy to get your lines right against that kind of walk the ball play.

Also this from guardian about Sunderland

Borini, despite enjoying a successful loan stint last season, has been stalling on that mooted £14m return but unwanted by Brendan Rodgers at Anfield, now looks poised to choose between Milan, QPR and Sunderland.

Jesus Wept

Ah now Gordon wasn't muck.

MarkY91

the options we have to bring on from the bench is amazing. we still got lallana to come back. brendan will have alot of headaches every week choosing his starting 11

Mr Alan

Kess73 wrote: »

Henderson was muck for the best part of his first 40 or so games for the club, now he slots into the first team like he belongs there thanks to the massive effort the player has put in since Rodgers looked to get rid of him.

Actually IMO it was always apparent that Henderson has had the class to be in our first team. And I said as much early on

Kess73

i heart chewy louie wrote: »

Ah now Gordon wasn't muck.

Typical Tory MP really, but back to the footy..... :P

cunnifferous

Mr Alan wrote: »

Our best defender at passing

Just admit it, to date he has not been very good overall

Sahko terrifies me everytime I see him. He's a good player but every pass or tackle he does seems to be millimeters away from disaster, but somehow still hit it's target. Maybe it's just his style!

Kess73

Mr Alan wrote: »

Actually IMO it was always apparent that Henderson has had the class to be in our first team. And I said as much early on

Again it is a matter of opinion. In his first season with the club I do not think I have seen a more cowardly player on the pitch. Seemed to vanish on a regular basis and rarely showed for the ball.

The same certainly cannot be said about him now.


Sakho seems to be similarly divisive amongst Liverppol supporters across various sites, and I think the one thing we are going to agree on with regards to him is that it is going to be up to the player to prove himself to be a quality Liverpool player, and that he will make or break his own LFC career on the back of what he does this season.

Kess73

cunnifferous wrote: »

Sahko terrifies me everytime I see him. He's a good player but every pass or tackle he does seems to be millimeters away from disaster, but somehow still hit it's target. Maybe it's just his style!

The thing is that he has had that ungainly look about him for years now, and his passing has stayed very acurate for those same years, so I think it is safe to say that the one aspect about his game that does not really need to be worried about is his distribution.


He still has things to prove in a Liverpool shirt, but he has not been a disaster to date, and I think the coming three to four weeks will tell us a lot about him and Lovern as a pairing.

Charlie19

Jennifer Lawerence for anyone that hasn't got twitter.

I dont see what all the fuss is.



Mod Edit: Post a link like that again and you get banned.

jcsoulinger

the worst thing about sakho is players from other teams are catching on that he's no that comfortable on the ball and today I noticed spurs closing him down quicker than other players. Skrtl is a much better option IMO,A mad part of me would like to see us sign another cb before the deadline.

Gbear

Charlie19 wrote: »

Jennifer Lawerence for anyone that hasn't got twitter.

I dont see what all the fuss is.

Thanks.
Thanks a lot.

rob316

Charlie19 wrote: »

Jennifer Lawerence for anyone that hasn't got twitter.

I dont see what all the fuss is.

Kess73

jcsoulinger wrote: »

the worst thing about sakho is players from other teams are catching on that he's no that comfortable on the ball and today I noticed spurs closing him down quicker than other players. Skrtl is a much better option IMO,A mad part of me would like to see us sign another cb before the deadline.

Would sooner bring in a quality midfielder to compete for Gerrard's spot than get another centre back. Not a hope in hell of that happening tomorrow but is what I think we need.

OwaynOTT

I like Sahko and think he will be a good signing but people need to look pass his passing accuracy. He gave Allen a terrible ball today when he was surrounded and possession was lost but Sahko kept his passing % up.

cunnifferous

Kess73 wrote: »

The thing is that he has had that ungainly look about him for years now, and his passing has stayed very acurate for those same years, so I think it is safe to say that the one aspect about his game that does not really need to be worried about is his distribution.


He still has things to prove in a Liverpool shirt, but he has not been a disaster to date, and I think the coming three to four weeks will tell us a lot about him and Lovern as a pairing.

Yeah I guess if I could use just one word to describe his few appearances to date it would be uncertain.

Doesn't seem to know whether to stay or go and generally looks a bit hesitant. That's all something that could be solved by playing more games an becoming familiar and comfortable with the movement of his teammates.

Without a doubt though I think Lovern will start each game if fit, so he will have to seize his opportunities when Skrtel is out.

Mr Alan

Using a pass completion stat to defend Sakho is beyond straw clutching.

He has been very disappointing to date. Hopefully he turns it around over the next few weeks. Why everyone can't just echo that sentiment instead of pretending he has done ok, is beyond me.

Agent Coulson

Mr Alan wrote: »

Using a pass completion stat to defend Sakho is beyond straw clutching.

He has been very disappointing to date. Hopefully he turns it around over the next few weeks. Why everyone can't just echo that sentiment instead of pretending he has done ok, is beyond me.

This is a discussion forum where people are allowed express there feelings and opinions right or wrong or different to what you or I or someone else believes I thought.

Kess73

Mr Alan wrote: »

Using a pass completion stat to defend Sakho is beyond straw clutching.

He has been very disappointing to date. Hopefully he turns it around over the next few weeks. Why everyone can't just echo that sentiment instead of pretending he has done ok, is beyond me.

Why should people echo that sentiment if they do not agree with it?

Personally I don't think he has been very disappointing to date. I think he has been solid more often than not, but certainly not outstanding. He has had a few shakey performances like he had today, but I can also see a player that has not played very much for us over the past 12 months and as such has not had a chance to get settled into the back line.

But I don't expect everyone to agree with me, and certainly would not ask why everyone cannot just do so.

Knex*

Mr Alan wrote: »

Using a pass completion stat to defend Sakho is beyond straw clutching.

He has been very disappointing to date. Hopefully he turns it around over the next few weeks. Why everyone can't just echo that sentiment instead of pretending he has done ok, is beyond me.

Because that's your opinion, Alan, rather than an absolute fact.

Personally, I think he has shown promise and has been far from our worst defender in the short period he has been at the club and available to play. I'm looking forward to him playing alongside Lovren now.

rob316

Mr Alan wrote: »

Using a pass completion stat to defend Sakho is beyond straw clutching.

He has been very disappointing to date. Hopefully he turns it around over the next few weeks. Why everyone can't just echo that sentiment instead of pretending he has done ok, is beyond me.

You mean just agree with you and not bother with our own opinion? Your posts just keep getting more arrogant.

Harry Palmr

Anyway net spend?

Is Rodgers now officially as good a manager as Shankly and Benitez?

Utopia Parkway

Mr Alan wrote: »

Using a pass completion stat to defend Sakho is beyond straw clutching.

He has been very disappointing to date. Hopefully he turns it around over the next few weeks. Why everyone can't just echo that sentiment instead of pretending he has done ok, is beyond me.

I'm guessing because they don't agree with you?

Kess73

rob316 wrote: »

You mean just agree with you and not bother with our own opinion? Your posts just keep getting more arrogant.

Mod Post: Keep it on the right side of attack the post and not the poster please.

OwaynOTT

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Anyway net spend?

Is Rodgers now officially as good a manager as Shankly and Benitez?

Needs to be winning stuff.

klose

Fwiw if we had thiago silva here we would still ship goals with gerrard being the deepest midfielder. Reference madrid tonight for what happens when you have an overly offensive midfield, souness probably seething at the mouth at the thoughts of it.

Charlie19

rob316 wrote: »

You mean just agree with you and not bother with our own opinion? Your posts just keep getting more arrogant.

I would have to agree with him about Sakho, I dont think the player has done anything of yet that would make me think the 20 odd million we paid was worth it. I would rather see Skrtel and Loveren get a good run of games to see if they can form a understanding plus there would a better balance.

Its up to Sakho now to make that position his own after the injury to Skrtel.

klose

Charlie19 wrote: »

Its up to Sakho now to make that position his own after the injury to Skrtel.

Made a good start of it no? We can reference his bad passes but the fact is spurs didn't really get much of a sniff at goal today with him playing, the only time they did and chadli was through was lovrens fault anyways

Utopia Parkway

klose wrote: »

Made a good start of it no? We can reference his bad passes but the fact is spurs didn't really get much of a sniff at goal today with him playing, the only time they did and chadli was through was lovrens fault anyways

I like Lovren but he made the two worst defensive errors today but Sakho is still the one getting stick.

rob316

klose wrote: »

Fwiw if we had thiago silva here we would still ship goals with gerrard being the deepest midfielder. Reference madrid tonight for what happens when you have an overly offensive midfield, souness probably seething at the mouth at the thoughts of it.

Absolutely the organisation is poor at the back but the way in some games that the opposition can just run at us is alarming, he offers the 2 centre backs zero protection.

The sad thing is his performaces are going to drop further, he is playing a long time at this level and cant keep up. I hope Gerrard is the one to recognise in time that its time for him to accept a lesser role.

Charlie19

klose wrote: »

Made a good start of it no? We can reference his bad passes but the fact is spurs didn't really get much of a sniff at goal today with him playing, the only time they did and chadli was through was lovrens fault anyways

Yeah Loveren was getting drawn towards the left on a couple occasions, thats one of the reasons I'd prefer Skrtel in RCB position as its his natural side.

I wouldn't be too concerned about a misplaced pass as that can happen to anyone.

I suppose as a whole he done ok and we'll see how it goes in the future and hopefully everything goes well during the internationals regarding injuries.

Talisman

Hidalgo wrote: »

One thing I've noticed and must say I like about Moreno is that he's aggresive. Not afraid to get stuck in when trying to win the ball. Really like that in a player.

Rodgers said today that Moreno didn't train all week due to his ankle injury. Instead of training he was shown videos of how Rodgers wants him to play, focused aggression and getting stuck in to his opponent. It paid off today with the way he stole the ball from Townsend before scoring his goal.

Kess73

Charlie19 wrote: »

I would have to agree with him about Sakho, I dont think the player has done anything of yet that would make me think the 20 odd million we paid was worth it. I would rather see Skrtel and Loveren get a good run of games to see if they can form a understanding plus there would a better balance.

Its up to Sakho now to make that position his own after the injury to Skrtel.

Sakho cost closer to £15m, Lovern that was the CB that cost us £20m

Gbear

Talisman wrote: »

Rodgers said today that Moreno didn't train all week due to his ankle injury. Instead of training he was shown videos of how Rodgers wants him to play, focused aggression and getting stuck in to his opponent. It paid off today with the way he stole the ball from Townsend before scoring his goal.

That's incredible if true.

Like he just watched the videos and said "****it. How hard could it be?".

rob316

Gbear wrote: »

That's incredible if true.

Like he just watched the videos and said "****it. How hard could it be?".

So why didnt he show Moses videos of Messi last year and say thats how I want you to play son!:pac:

BMJD

Madrid's capitulation tonight was target heartwarming

djPSB

rob316 wrote: »

So why didnt he show Moses videos of Messi last year and say thats how I want you to play son!:pac:

Or show Messi videos of Moses parting the Red Sea.

Knex*

Who got MOTM today? Fantasy football gave Gerrard the 3 bonus points, which is nuts.

Had expected Sturridge and Sterling to get some bonus, but it was Gerrard (3), Moreno (2) and Henderson (1).

mosstin

Knex. wrote: »

Who got MOTM today? Fantasy football gave Gerrard the 3 bonus points, which is nuts.

Had expected Sturridge and Sterling to get some bonus, but it was Gerrard (3), Moreno (2) and Henderson (1).

Sterling. Henderson would have been my choice. Superb in everything he did.

Pilsbury Doughboy

Sakho is better than Skrtel it's plain as day, I dunno why people wont just admit this and stop pretending it's not true. :rolleyes:

Skrtel has been around long enough now, for the most part of his Liverpool career I thought he was a complete donkey, in fairness to him he played decent last season but then again we conceded bundles of goals so it's not exactly saying too much, Sakho as Kess said earlier on has played feck all games and has had niggles here and there and has not had a chance to fully settle in, saying he has been a major disappointment is way OTT imo. Lovren and Sakho has to be the way forward, I'd love to see them get 10-15 games together as I believe they would form a formidable partnership and hush up some of the premature naysayers.

Talisman

Watching the game again on LFC TV.

Gbear

Pilsbury Doughboy wrote: »

Sakho is better than Skrtel it's plain as day, I dunno why people wont just admit this and stop pretending it's not true. :rolleyes:

Skrtel has been around long enough now, for the most part of his Liverpool career I thought he was a complete donkey, in fairness to him he played decent last season but then again we conceded bundles of goals so it's not exactly saying too much, Sakho as Kess said earlier on has played feck all games and has had niggles here and there and has not had a chance to fully settle in, saying he has been a major disappointment is way OTT imo. Lovren and Sakho has to be the way forward, I'd love to see them get 10-15 games together as I believe they would form a formidable partnership and hush up some of the premature naysayers.

I think the problem is that Skrtel's faults are systematic and pretty much the same every week whereas Sakho blows very hot and cold. When he's on song he's immaculate in possession, aggressive, quick, strong, godly in the air.

When he's off though he is an absolute disaster. The passing becomes a joke and his tackling and the way he attacks players can be reckless in the extreme. If we can get good Sakho 9 games out of 10, we can manage the 10th one. If it's more like 60/40 then he just won't be dependable.

Pilsbury Doughboy

Knex. wrote: »

Who got MOTM today? Fantasy football gave Gerrard the 3 bonus points, which is nuts.

Had expected Sturridge and Sterling to get some bonus, but it was Gerrard (3), Moreno (2) and Henderson (1).

Yeah the FF have some bogus bonus point system, all sort of stats they use but really it normally comes down to who scores the goals.

gafferino

Knex. wrote: »

Who got MOTM today? Fantasy football gave Gerrard the 3 bonus points, which is nuts.

Had expected Sturridge and Sterling to get some bonus, but it was Gerrard (3), Moreno (2) and Henderson (1).

Niall Quinn gave it to Sterling on sky sports.

daithijjj

If im being totally honest i dont know how anyone rates Skrtel, very average player, i'd take around a dozen other cb's in the EPL over him.

I havent had the chance to check this out but read some stats on twitter earlier.

1. Our last 5 clean sheets in competitive games involved Skrtel not playing.

2. We conceded 3 goals 6 times last year, Skrtel was involved in them all, Agger 5 and Sakho once.

(havent checked them but its posted by people who are reliable i would say)

The problem with Skrtel for me is a few things. He doesnt seem to be able to 'talk' at the back very well. He is as bad on the ball as any CB i can remember at the club. He makes some awful clumsy decisions. He is headless, by all means be clever at defending but when you can see him tugging shirts from the cheap seats and not giving away peno's, that is pure luck on his behalf.

What Skrtel does have going for him is he is a threat in the opposition box.

I have just never rated him that highly.

We werent 'fantastic' today at the back but what can anyone expect?. The whole back 4 has never played together before today and they only have around 2k mins game time combined for the club. 3 of them only have a couple of games under their belt.

Yet, Spurs had 1 shot on target, and we gifted them that.

We have brought in some very good players, im happy with the direction of the club now.

We still need a yard dog though imo. We need to have the capability to mix it with the physical teams like Chelsea and City over a season and that will involve some liberal application of brute force at times. Can is moving in that direction but he is new also.

I expect Lallana to prove he is LFC standard also, quality player we havent seen yet. Allen has been decent lately (still shockingly feeble in possession) but i expect him to be dropped for Lallana very soon.

djPSB

Moreno got it on Newstalk.

billymitchell

Great to get the clean sheet today, should really try get another one next day out.
I'm going to throw this out there, but does anybody else think that maybe our back line has switched off a bit in the last while because they expected the rest of the team to dig them out by outscoring the opposition?
You watch other teams and the back 4 scream and shout at each other like conceding a goal would be worse than something really bad(too tired to come up with an analagy), whereas our back 4, whoever it was for the last while, seem just resigned to losing goals whenever they take the pitch.

On todays game, can anybody tell me how Markovic and Can played when they came on, missed the second half?

SuperTortoise

billymitchell wrote: »

Great to get the clean sheet today, should really try get another one next day out.
I'm going to throw this out there, but does anybody else think that maybe our back line has switched off a bit in the last while because they expected the rest of the team to dig them out by outscoring the opposition?
You watch other teams and the back 4 scream and shout at each other like conceding a goal would be worse than something really bad(too tired to come up with an analagy), whereas our back 4, whoever it was for the last while, seem just resigned to losing goals whenever they take the pitch.

On todays game, can anybody tell me how Markovic and Can played when they came on, missed the second half?

Markovic was quite enough done ok, Can was very good, put himself about and closed down a lot exactly the sort of energy we needed at that stage in the game.

darced

This post has been deleted.

simongurnick

Thought Sturridge looked really sharp today. Not sure if it has taken him a couple of games to warm up or has Balotelli's arrival pushed him on a bit.

Talisman

billymitchell wrote: »

On todays game, can anybody tell me how Markovic and Can played when they came on, missed the second half?

Markovic didn't get much opportunity on the ball. His positioning was good - I remember three occasions around the Tottenham 18 yard box where he was unmarked and would have had a clear shot on goal but the player in possession (Sturridge, Sterling and Henderson) chose to take on the shot themselves. He played an incisive pass for Sterling that opened up the defence but in the end Sterling just played the ball to Lloris.