Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2014/15

mada999

Hollister11 wrote: »

Kuyt wasn't a failure

he was a failure of a striker tbh....

mada999

emo72 wrote: »

the best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds ands bees. i want money. thats what i want.

one of my fave tunes, you are dead right

segadreamcast

PRAF wrote: »

Delighted with the recent, sustained upturn in form. Performances seem to be much better. Results much improved too. A real shame though that we lack the killer instinct that we had last year. Praying that Sturridge is back soon and gives us a more clinical edge.

I do think that Rodgers has been a little unlucky with his strikers. Losing Sturridge for so long was bad luck. Ok, we shouldn't be so reliant on him but Rodgers did try to get Costa when it was clear that Suarez wanted out in summer 13 and then tried to get Sanchez after Suarez did leave in summer 14. Both have proven to be sensational signings for their clubs.

Balotelli was a gamble but I don't think anyone could have forseen just how bad it's worked out. The £16m is one thing, but the £16m AND his wages mean we probably can't buy another striker until we sell him. Remy might have been a better fit for us but unfortunately he failed the medical. Perhaps could have bought someone better than Balo if Borini didn't pull the plug on his £14m Sunderland transfer.

Agree with other posters though. We can't afford any more misfiring strikers. Oh to have a world class, fit striker in the team now.

I have to say even I didn't foresee it going so badly, though I cut a lonely presence in criticising him for football reasons alone. The only other reasons were for "attitude" and most other posters rebuffed my stat based analyses with "well, Suarez....." . But ah well, no points for prescience here! At the time, the one saving grace of the deal was being able to recoup most money. Like most, I'd now say this is highly unlikely. We'll end up having to shift him on loan now. Disastrous bit of business.

mada999

NukaCola wrote: »

I think Lallana was meant to be one of those "proven" attackers but he is being used sparingly for some reason....

mmmm yep, forget about about english players doing good in one season... but tbh he's a good player, not great

Lukker-

Good game tonight, thought it was pretty even over the 2 legs.

With Sturridge back I'd say ye have the beating of most teams handy enough.

I really hope ye get top 4. (at United's expense)

mada999

sure may aswell throw this in too

http://youtu.be/17auRAksrmI

mada999

billymitchell wrote: »

Sktrel has been ropey for ages, but he is doing ok since we went to a back three. Sahko and Can are the best part of that formation. imo

lol

mada999

Dirty Steve wrote: »

Balotelli is probably just happy to be getting another big pay day.
Would be worried we might not be able to get rid of him at all.
Depending on what paper is to believed, he's earning between £75-110k a week at Liverpool.
Looking at a financial loss whatever happens; lad is a waste of space and everyone knows it now.

don't even know if we'd take him at Dundalk, Towell alot better :pac:

mada999

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Skrtel also should have conceded a penalty for lunging in when he had no need to.

A bigger mistake than any Sakho made. He just got away with it.

1 mistake, Sahko made two..

Utopia Parkway

mada999 wrote: »

1 mistake, Sahko made two..

Giving away a needless penalty trumps losing possession 35 yards from your own goal.

Actually thought Skrtel played well apart from that he got got very lucky there because it was a bad error.

mada999

segadreamcast wrote: »

I have to say even I didn't foresee it going so badly, though I cut a lonely presence in criticising him for football reasons alone. The only other reasons were for "attitude" and most other posters rebuffed my stat based analyses with "well, Suarez....." . But ah well, no points for prescience here! At the time, the one saving grace of the deal was being able to recoup most money. Like most, I'd now say this is highly unlikely. We'll end up having to shift him on loan now. Disastrous bit of business.

you know, i was the same as you, if he failed we'd get the £16m back...no chance of that now... now it kills me that he will get offloaded realistically on loan and prob get the same wages or even more

mada999

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Giving away a needless penalty trumps losing possession 35 yards from your own goal.

Actually thought Skrtel played well apart from that he got got very lucky there because it was a bad error.

yup they both got away with it, 2 wrong's dont make right though... he's our most consistant cb imo

Dirty Steve

mada999 wrote: »

don't even know if we'd take him at Dundalk, Towell alot better :pac:

Is Towell still there? Thought his contract was up.

daithijjj

Balotelli will be Aquilani all over again, just for different reasons. I knew Aquilani was a dud before he signed, we all knew Balotelli was a bad signing, it just depends on your mindset how much you try and get to grips with the notion we signed him, ranging from absolute horror to full support/give him a chance type stuff.

The people 'upstairs' have got it badly wrong. It comes across with arrogance the way we have gone about the striker situation in the last 18 months. Suarez was always off. And im reminded of Ayre's statement the days surrounding Sturridge arriving re Suarez fitness up to that point, he said 'we got lucky'. Well were not getting lucky this time. We are actually very lucky to have Sturridge imho, i think many players would tell us to do one in the situation he was in.

Nobody can blame Lambert, we knew what that was, a 4th striker who can put a few goals away, the problem with Lambert is, he has the physique that needs full games every week, he isnt an impact player and you need an impact player.

Borini was never good enough for this club, its just a testament to how badly we got it wrong that he is still there.

I find it disappointing seeing Sterling getting criticised tonight in any way, not on here (coz i havent read here) but its not good for a club of this stature to be going out into a cup semi final with Sterling being your best option as a striker, which he is not (a striker i mean), he is just filling in because others fked up. He doesnt have the maturity in mind to pull that off yet.

Sir Gallagher

How are we lucky to have Sturridge Daithii?

Grayditch

Chelsea would wreck yer head in general, wouldn't they. Ivan Drago head on them. ****eboxes, but sort of a begrudging respect for them... Sort of. Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever.

dobsdave

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

How are we lucky to have Sturridge Daithii?

same way ringo was lucky to have paul and john?

Dirty Steve

I don't respect Costa. That doesn't mean I wouldn't want him in our team though.

Sir Gallagher

dobsdave wrote: »

same way ringo was lucky to have paul and john?

He's no use on a hospital bed and, as good as he is, he ain't no Suarez. His move suited both parties and he's had one great season with us. We're not Accrington Stanley FFS.

Sir Gallagher

Is it true that Johnson might be offered a new contract or is it a horrible rumour? He's simply not a footballer anymore, nor a mathematician.

Vicxas

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

Is it true that Johnson might be offered a new contract or is it a horrible rumour? He's simply not a footballer anymore, nor a mathematician.

Yep 3 years apparently. That's an awful, awful move. He was his typical best last night.

Sir Gallagher

Vicxas wrote: »

Yep 3 years apparently. That's an awful, awful move. He was his typical best last night.

Oh No.

Fowler87

Vicxas wrote:

Yep 3 years apparently. That's an awful, awful move. He was his typical best last night.

John Glenson the footballer formerly known as..

gucci

I won’t dwell on the negatives, as its sometimes too easy to point finger after a big game….game for me was lost in middle of park. Gerard (40 Mins) and Lucas (probably about 60 Mins) were out on their feet….and there was nothing to bring on for them. Yes Lallana was on the bench, but was he the answer for the way the game developed? Not to replace either of those guys I think. He would have been a been a better option to replace Markovic at the time that call was made. There is a good chance neither of those guys will be at the club next year, further emphasising the lack of investment in the glaringly key positions required to win matchs! Chelsea have obviously larger resources, but had the likes of Rameires to bring on and Mikel (who wasn’t actually on the bench last night…but I would garner him as around about equal to Lucas) Willian really stepped it up a gear when Fabregas was withdrawn too.
He actually played the role that Ballotelli needed to do when he was brought on but clearly he is a lost cause now and does not have the discipline or general team play cop on that you would expect someone who is an international professional to automatically have.

Positives: Mingolet was strong and confident last night and very sharp when called upon. Great to see he has seemed to up his game and stand up for himself lately when he was exposed as a fall guy.
Skrtel I have always being underwhelmed and a bit unconvinced by. Don’t get me wrong, he is often the best defender, but that is more down to gross incompetency all around him. But he seems to work best when he is brought into a slugging / wrestling match with Costa which generally neutralised him.

marklazarcovic

It was was good to compete at that level again..on chances created we should have won over the two legs ..we were wasteful in front of goal .. there obviously are reasons we don't know of as to why we haven't bought a striker.. ffp being main one... availability plus them wanting to come being another...


but we have a very good core now of young hungry players..I'm pretty optimistic tbh.. were not miles away which is encouraging ... ya can't always be negative or blame the club or staff...sometimes mistakes are made and it takes time to rectify them..its life..I would replace Rodgers with ancelotti only tbh... I love our style of play... we can destroy teams. building a team takes years and were well on course imo

klose

*opens twitter*

Majority of chat about balo, you would swear most people thought he was the reason we lost.
He was clearly told to play wide left and nowhere near the box, of course he was going to be ineffective. The real pressing issues should have been gerrard being crap, hendo bottling his chance and another set of ineffective set of substitutes from the manager.

PRAF

klose wrote: »

*opens twitter*

Majority of chat about balo, you would swear most people thought he was the reason we lost.
He was clearly told to play wide left and nowhere near the box, of course he was going to be ineffective. The real pressing issues should have been gerrard being crap, hendo bottling his chance and another set of ineffective set of substitutes from the manager.

Didn't see much of either game (cancelled Sky Sports to save a few shekels) but from the twitter feeds, stats, match reports, etc. the primary cause seems to have been a lack of a lethal striker to finish off the chances we made.

For me, the reason we don't have that lethal striker is part bad luck (Sturridge injured, Costa & Sanchez didn't want to sign, Remy failed medical) and part bad judgement (should have got Bony rather than Balo).

We have a real problem attracting the foreign world class superstar player. Some would rather live in London, we can't match City or Chelsea wages, while others want to go to the teams who have been more successful than us over the last 10-15 years.

Boom_Bap

I just read this and giggled out loud:

"One more stamp by Costa and he's gets a free coffee"

I had f*cking rage watching Balotelli last night. He started dropping in for some link up play with Coutinho and Sterling....what's this, he's taking on board what the manager asks of him? But then he does idiotic things like get the ball down the channel and instead of looking up, just kicks it off a defender and loses the ball and fall on his arse.
Then he tried to chip/curl/lob the keeper from an angle outside the box when we had numbers in the box.
The most annoying thing, he has started to do some chasing down, but he runs, gets close to the defender with the ball and doesnt even make a f*cking attempt to try win the ball, just stops dead in his tracks. I think that he is expecting opposition to just give him the ball.
I would take a bag of seedless grapes in exchange for him at this stage.

Fair play to the rest of the lads out there. They were immense. We just need a finisher.

I also got a bit of rage brewing when Lambear and Gerrard took some wild shots at the end. But if either had o went in I would have been jumping about the place.

If we can continue playing like this, there is a good future ahead.

Can is boss.

the kelt

klose wrote: »

*opens twitter*

Majority of chat about balo, you would swear most people thought he was the reason we lost.
He was clearly told to play wide left and nowhere near the box, of course he was going to be ineffective. The real pressing issues should have been gerrard being crap, hendo bottling his chance and another set of ineffective set of substitutes from the manager.

The chatter isnt in regards to how ineffective he was. Its in regards to the fact he just decided to not bother marking Ivanovic allowing him an easy chance to net the winner.

Your right on the ineffective subs though, Balo being prime suspect in this regard.

Vanolder

Very good performance over the two legs against a very good team. If the middle of the park can be sorted and another forward with Sturridge- I really like the system and the football being played.

8-10

the kelt wrote: »

The chatter isnt in regards to how ineffective he was. Its in regards to the fact he just decided to not bother marking Ivanovic allowing him an easy chance to net the winner.

Still not the reason for losing, we still had to score, and Henderson for me was the player most guilty of not putting a chance away

tok9

The major thing that was highlighted when Sakho went off was how much less possession we had.

He gave 2 absolutely awful passes through how much he tries to maintain possession but generally his passing is excellent.

When he went off.. any ball that came at us was hoofed straight back and chelsea retained possession.

Is it too much to hope Lovren becomes good?

OwaynOTT

Mada really went on a steamroll of posting last night, if he keeps it up we will need to rename the the thread Mada FC Mada Talk/Mada/Mada Thread 2014/15.

You have to beat the best to win the cups and we couldn't beat the best last night. We left the final behind at Anfield and never really looked like getting there last night.
Anyway lads we can still win a league and cup double.
There's no big teams left in the FA Cup and we need to go all out for the other side of the double to ensure Vhampions Legue next year.

monkey9

I really hope Sakho is not out for too long. A couple of dodgy moments aside last night, I think he's been very good since he got back into the team.

MD1990

Sakho was a bit shaky last night. But he has been superb last few weeks. Having a very good left footed ball playing CB is vital for the system we are playing. Hopefully is injury isn't too bad.

rob316

Moreno, Can, Lucas, Mignolet and Skrtel were excellent last night. Don't think it was as well rounded performance as the 1st leg but still very good.

We pushed Chelsea to the edge over two legs and limited them to very little. We should have went to Stamford Bridge with a 2 or 3 goal lead that's where the tie was lost.

Gerrard shouldn't have been left on, I was screaming for Lallana to come on instead of Balotelli. His fresh legs pressing late in the game could of made a big difference.
Balotelli is hopeless, his and Johnson's defending for the goal was pathetic and just summed up the 2 players. Lazy and brain dead.

I know we wont be I'm praying we can get in a decent striker before the window closes.

If we can keep Sturridge fit he will get goals and that's what's missing right now. First choice defence is looking good, Mignolet looks a lot more confident and the midfield is functioning well. Drop Sturridge in there we should be seriously pushing Top 4, late stages of FA and Europa cup.

What this tie showed to me is we can mix it with the better teams still and have huge potential to mount a title challenge next season provided we make 2/3 key signings in the summer.

the kelt

8-10 wrote: »

Still not the reason for losing, we still had to score, and Henderson for me was the player most guilty of not putting a chance away

No one player can be blamed for the loss of a game or tie.

But his contribution in 50 mins of football was appalling. Lazy pass which resulted in the free kick. Didnt bother to mark his man from subsequent free kick. Numerous cases of possession wasted, selfish attempt on goal when team mates in the middle etc etc.

And earlier this week people were arguing he was thrown under a bus by the manager and the manager wasnt using him properly, basically blaming Rodgers for the way Balo is!

LuckyLloyd

Eh:

- Balotelli wasn't that bad. He didn't do brilliantly every time he got it obv, but he made some positive contributions and was certainly trying;
- Gerrard was clearly left on for delivery from set pieces. He did put in some great balls from same during extra time but we couldn't quite capitalise;
- Gerrard and Lucas were clearly knackered by the end;
- We clearly need a striker;

Sir Gallagher

Serious question, is Andy Carroll a better player than Balotelli?

Nerdlingr

Lambert with his glory hunting wild shot into the stands at the end did my head in. You could see Rodgers wanted to roar abuse at him but had to hold back. Also Moreno badly needs to improve his final ball, a few times he got in good crossing positions and wasted the opportunity.
Very pleased with how the team is performing as a whole. As everyone knows all we seem to be missing is a striker to finish off our chances... and we have one of those close to full fitness now.
Pity we couldnt get past Chelsea, would have been lovely to beat them in their own back yard, however...onwards and upwards...lets beat West Ham at the weekend and get that 4th spot!

rob316

Lucas picked up his 5th yellow last night does that mean he misses the West Ham game? Or is that card thing finished now.

The Mig

rob316 wrote: »

Lucas picked up his 5th yellow last night does that mean he misses the West Ham game? Or is that card thing finished now.

It never came up on Sky that he misses next game when it confirmed his booking. Hopefully he isn't!

5starpool

rob316 wrote: »

Lucas picked up his 5th yellow last night does that mean he misses the West Ham game? Or is that card thing finished now.

That expired on Dec 31st. It's 10 now.

rob316

Costa is a nasty piece of work alright, would have been some duo if we had signed him when we had Suarez though. :eek:

Suarez, bit people and dived a bit but this guy has a serious aggression and is trying to hurt people. You can cause ligament damage the way he stamped on Can.

I watched a lot of Atletico last season and the opposition had no problem giving it back to him, couple of punches in his face and side. Same will happen here too.

Saying all that I'd absolutely love him in our team

Francie Barrett

daithijjj wrote: »

Balotelli will be Aquilani all over again, just for different reasons. I knew Aquilani was a dud before he signed, we all knew Balotelli was a bad signing, it just depends on your mindset how much you try and get to grips with the notion we signed him, ranging from absolute horror to full support/give him a chance type stuff.

The people 'upstairs' have got it badly wrong. It comes across with arrogance the way we have gone about the striker situation in the last 18 months. Suarez was always off. And im reminded of Ayre's statement the days surrounding Sturridge arriving re Suarez fitness up to that point, he said 'we got lucky'. Well were not getting lucky this time. We are actually very lucky to have Sturridge imho, i think many players would tell us to do one in the situation he was in.

Nobody can blame Lambert, we knew what that was, a 4th striker who can put a few goals away, the problem with Lambert is, he has the physique that needs full games every week, he isnt an impact player and you need an impact player.

Borini was never good enough for this club, its just a testament to how badly we got it wrong that he is still there.

I find it disappointing seeing Sterling getting criticised tonight in any way, not on here (coz i havent read here) but its not good for a club of this stature to be going out into a cup semi final with Sterling being your best option as a striker, which he is not (a striker i mean), he is just filling in because others fked up. He doesnt have the maturity in mind to pull that off yet.

I agree with that.

Lambert was brought in as a rotation player who could cover for injuries and give us options when we wanted to rest players. Balotelli on the otherhand was essentially brought in to replace Suarez, so that is the benchmark in which we must measure him again. Of course, he will never be another Suarez. No player will be. However, Balotelli has just fallen so hopeless short of the mark, that we're going to seriously need to address this issue.

T-K-O

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

Serious question, is Andy Carroll a better player than Balotelli?

Yes.

I am one of those hoping Mario can / could be effective in our team. Last night we saw a guy trying hard but ultimately lacked the skills / knowledge to effect the game.

If his attitude and desire remains at that level, he could improve but I cannot see him as anything other than a secondary option.

kevohmsford

I think a lot of managers and fans in the past had hoped Mario Balotelli would turn into a great player. It just has not happened. He has so much talent but little drive.

Turtyturd

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

Serious question, is Andy Carroll a better player than Balotelli?

Much of the same Imo...will give Balotelli the edge because he hasn't thrown himself on the ground to avoid scoring against his boyhood team.

But both are sh*te.

noodler

daithijjj wrote: »

Balotelli will be Aquilani all over again, just for different reasons. I knew Aquilani was a dud before he signed, we all knew Balotelli was a bad signing, it just depends on your mindset how much you try and get to grips with the notion we signed him, ranging from absolute horror to full support/give him a chance type stuff.

One of the few times in my life I am actually disappointed at my consistency in this regard!

Nerdlingr

Why do people think Balotelli has so much talent? Apart from penalties his scoring rate isnt great, his assist rate is worse and his work rate is worse than that. He has consistently proven over the years, at every club he's been to, that he doesnt seem to give a sh*t. Once, in the Italy-germany semi final a few years back where he scored a corker and ran germany ragged did he reach any sort of level approaching international class...since then? Nada.