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

martyos121

Kolo Toure has won the African Cup of Nations!

PRAF

rob316 wrote: »

I had in my head on friday we could be in touching distance of 4th in the space of a few days if this scenario played out.

Spurs beat arsenal
We beat Everton
West ham beat united
We beat spurs.

Golden opportunity pissed away by Rodgers and id be a big supporter of his.

Since when is 17 points out of 21 pissing things away? I'd say that is fairly decent form. It's frustrating when we don't win but these blips can happen.

The real test will be the next couple of league games against direct rivals of ours. A big chance against Spurs on Tuesday evening.

klose

Nice way for kolo to sign off his international career

gafferino

klose wrote: »

Nice way for kolo to sign off his international career

Scored a peno too. Good for him.

MD1990

Ibe should start at RWB again vs Spurs. Could be a big outlet for us again up against Rose.

NukaCola

rob316 wrote: »

I had in my head on friday we could be in touching distance of 4th in the space of a few days if this scenario played out.

Spurs beat arsenal
We beat Everton
West ham beat united
We beat spurs.

Golden opportunity pissed away by Rodgers and id be a big supporter of his.

Getting annoyed with a point against Everton away is beyond ridiculous especially considering the form we've been in.

The hope of top 4 is going to really hurt some people. Its not impossible but unlikely. This is down to our form at the start of the season. They are no real "Golden opportunities" when you have to rely on 3/4 teams to drop points regularly. We will drop points like others at varies stages. We aren't going to win every game. People need to readjust there expectations.

5starpool

MD1990 wrote: »

Ibe should start at RWB again vs Spurs. Could be a big outlet for us again up against Rose.

If Sturridge starts Sterling might be asked to play there unless we play something like the following. I don't think Gerrard will play on Tuesday anyhow.

---

Mignolet

---

---Can--Skrtel--Sakho---
----Allen---Henderson----
Ibe/Marko

---

Moreno

---

Coutinho

---

----Sterling--Sturridge----

Agent Coulson

5starpool wrote: »

---

Mignolet

---

---Lovren--Skrtel--Sakho---
----Can---Henderson----
Ibe/Marko

---

Moreno

---

Coutinho

---

----Sterling--Sturridge----

If Lucas isn't fit I'd go with this team.

MD1990

If Can is moved into midfield we might see Johnson at RCB. Would not be a good idea though.

Charlie19

https://twitter.com/MostarLFC/status/564559621285621760

Pyjamarama

So LVG gets to spend infinite money last summer to fix a team that retained its star players, is doing slightly better than Rodgers is, a manager who had a strict wage budget and was trying to replace the 3rd best player in the world but LVG has the hard job and Rodgers is the one who should be under pressure?!?

United can pick and choose what elite level player they want and get them even without champions league. Staying alightly ahead of Liverpool should not be their goal.

I think LVG a is a good coach with an excellent track record but give me the young hungry manager who's displayed the ability to get a team to within touching distance of the league under a budget dwarfed by those around him
Any day.

Agent Coulson

Pyjamarama wrote: »

So LVG gets to spend infinite money last summer to fix a team that retained its star players, is doing slightly better than Rodgers is, a manager who had a strict wage budget and was trying to replace the 3rd best player in the world but LVG has the hard job and Rodgers is the one who should be under pressure?!?

United can pick and choose what elite level player they want and get them even without champions league. Staying alightly ahead of Liverpool should not be their goal.

I think LVG a is a good coach with an excellent track record but give me the young hungry manager who's displayed the ability to get a team to within touching distance of the league under a budget dwarfed by those around him
Any day.

Since Rodgers became manager the club has spent nearly a quarter of a billion pounds on players!

K-9

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Since Rodgers became manager the club has spent nearly a quarter of a billion pounds on players!

But NET SPEND.

Rodgers is doing fine, well ahead of expectations 2 years ago, and weathered the storm so far this season.

The next month will tell a lot and he doesn't have experience of this amount of games coming up.I do think some might be over estimating how much points 4th will need, as its very tight between 3rd and the rest around us.Hell, who'd have thought City would be this close, never mind United.

whatawaster

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Since Rodgers became manager the club has spent nearly a quarter of a billion pounds on players!

Net spend as a concept seems to have left this thread with Rafas exit from the club.

Pyjamarama

whatawaster wrote: »

Net spend as a concept seems to have left this thread with Rafas exit from the club.

That and the fact that we can offer a potatoe and a packet of Marlboro light as wages in comparison to the big boys of Manchester and london... Maybe we should go for young jack like the metro said. 😛

D'Agger

rob316 wrote: »

I had in my head on friday we could be in touching distance of 4th in the space of a few days if this scenario played out.

Spurs beat arsenal
We beat Everton
West ham beat united
We beat spurs.

Golden opportunity pissed away by Rodgers and id be a big supporter of his.

I love how none of the players are blamed for a failure to score - the way we were setup we dominated so tbqh I'd be looking at the team rather than the manager

noodler

whatawaster wrote: »

Net spend as a concept seems to have left this thread with Rafas exit from the club.

Its not so much that he put the club in financial trouble with the spending (since revenues were raised as you point out) but, of course, it does mean he has had £250m to shape his team and yet there are still massive questionmarks remaining.

Buford T. Justice XIX

noodler wrote: »

Its not so much that he put the club in financial trouble with the spending (since revenues were raised as you point out) but, of course, it does mean he has had £250m to shape his team and yet there are still massive questionmarks remaining.

In fairness to Rodgers, he inherited a team with a lot of ageing, highly paid , a bit above average players.

He has gotten rid of most of the experienced players and replaced them with young, hungry but inexperienced players and has seen the team perform no worse than it had over the previous 4 years.

For all the complaints about the purchases last summer, they needed time to settle and not that they have, we are starting to get a return on the money spent. But a long way to go yet, though.

I expect another similar year next year, tbh, as Gerrard, Lucas and Johnson look like they will be moving(moved?) on and the most experienced players will be Henderson and Skrtel.

5starpool

D'Agger wrote: »

I love how none of the players are blamed for a failure to score - the way we were setup we dominated so tbqh I'd be looking at the team rather than the manager

We have really struggled consistently though against teams who set up for a draw from the outset. It is difficult of course, but we had no real variation to our play last Saturday. We dominated without creating too many clear cut chances.

rob316

D'Agger wrote: »

I love how none of the players are blamed for a failure to score - the way we were setup we dominated so tbqh I'd be looking at the team rather than the manager

Listen, I spend my days on here defending Rodgers but he really dropped the ball Saturday. He brought Sturridge on with practically no one to link play between him and midfield. Starting Gerrard for pure sentiment, he has no place in our starting XI right now. Given Everton were very tough to break down I just felt the players and the managers tactics didn't have the desire to push on and win against a bang average Everton side. It was the first time under Rodgers where we looked happy with a point.

Arsenal and United dropped points and we play Tottenham tomorrow night, just saying it was a golden opportunity missed.

On top of that we play Southampton and Man City this month, you just never know we saw last season momentum can carry you far up the table. It's so tight we could have been targeting Top 2/3.

This team can certainly beat Tottenham, Southampton and Man City.

Dickerty

I agree that he made some mistakes yesterday, but seems like his hand was forced with injuries to Lucas and niggle on Coutinho, but should have kept Sterling on the wing. Keeping Stevie on was a mistake, he stank the place out and didn't deserve to stay on...

Connavar

Dickerty wrote: »

I agree that he made some mistakes yesterday, but seems like his hand was forced with injuries to Lucas and niggle on Coutinho, but should have kept Sterling on the wing. Keeping Stevie on was a mistake, he stank the place out and didn't deserve to stay on...

I thought Sterling took a knock too?

D'Agger

5starpool wrote: »

We have really struggled consistently though against teams who set up for a draw from the outset. It is difficult of course, but we had no real variation to our play last Saturday. We dominated without creating too many clear cut chances.

Agreed - it happens sometimes, it's situations like that where the bench is required and admittedly as I'll get to in response to rob316 - substitions and changing of shape are sometimes what's required to get more than a point out of a match.

rob316 wrote: »

Listen, I spend my days on here defending Rodgers but he really dropped the ball Saturday. He brought Sturridge on with practically no one to link play between him and midfield. Starting Gerrard for pure sentiment, he has no place in our starting XI right now. Given Everton were very tough to break down I just felt the players and the managers tactics didn't have the desire to push on and win against a bang average Everton side. It was the first time under Rodgers where we looked happy with a point.

Arsenal and United dropped points and we play Tottenham tomorrow night, just saying it was a golden opportunity missed.

On top of that we play Southampton and Man City this month, you just never know we saw last season momentum can carry you far up the table. It's so tight we could have been targeting Top 2/3.

This team can certainly beat Tottenham, Southampton and Man City.

Have to agree on the link point - it was a game crying out for Lallana in my mind and the decision to put on Rickie Lambert sealed the point really - we did a Roy Hodgson on it imo, lumped on two strikers and hoped we'd get a goal. To that end Rogers deserves stick - he, not for the first time this season, got his subs wrong imo.

However, we dominated and created some chances - Chelsea, United, Spurs etc. will have games where they'll create as many if not less chances but will get the 3 points from being clinical. To me - the players were in control of a game and didn't finish - the bulk of the blame should fall on their shoulders.

LuckyLloyd

Augeo wrote: »

I think he's a dinosaur, PL management is a tough gig, coming from an international role is not advantageous. He's doing little better at OT than Moyes did.

I reckon he will want to spend buckets of cash in the summer on defenders and forwards, there's no significant spine to the first 11 and I hope De Gea leaves.

VG has a mountain of work ahead

whatawaster wrote: »

He has Di Maria, Falcao, Rooney, Van Persie and Mata. That's probably the best attack in the league. He had as much money as he wanted to spend in the summer.

He has underperformed.

The fact that he is ahead of Liverpool is irrelevant to the discussion because a) Liverpool have also underperformed and b) Liverpool do not have as good a squad as LVG does at his disposal.

If he were not LVG (the big name, big record) then he would be getting far more criticism

Why the **** would ye be putting me in a position where I have to defend Utd and their manager.

BUT, the squad he inherited is top heavy at one end of the pitch and was severely lacking in midfield and at the back. He's making them tough to beat (2 losses in 22 games now) and grinding out the results that will get them back in the house.

rob316 wrote: »

I had in my head on friday we could be in touching distance of 4th in the space of a few days if this scenario played out.

Spurs beat arsenal
We beat Everton
West ham beat united
We beat spurs.

Golden opportunity pissed away by Rodgers and id be a big supporter of his.

Saturday's result was fine. Unfortunately, we need to be pretty much perfect AND have multiple teams drop points ahead of us to close the gap. That's why our awful rubbish form to start the season is killing us. But a draw away at Everton on a Saturday evening is never ever going to be a bad result.

Pyjamarama wrote: »

So LVG gets to spend infinite money last summer to fix a team that retained its star players, is doing slightly better than Rodgers is, a manager who had a strict wage budget and was trying to replace the 3rd best player in the world but LVG has the hard job and Rodgers is the one who should be under pressure?!?

United can pick and choose what elite level player they want and get them even without champions league. Staying alightly ahead of Liverpool should not be their goal.

I think LVG a is a good coach with an excellent track record but give me the young hungry manager who's displayed the ability to get a team to within touching distance of the league under a budget dwarfed by those around him
Any day.

lollingtons - I suppose Van Gaal probably doesn't have a portrait of himself hanging in his sitting room.

I don't think anyone said 'LVG has the hard job and Rodgers should be under pressure'. LVG is on course to achieve what is required from this season, we are not. We can like it or dislike it as much as we want but if we end up 7th at season's end points adrift of 4th it will have been a poor league regression. An FA Cup / EL run would make up for it though to some extent, we'll see.

And I definitely do dislike it, but there's no ignoring some of Utd's late equalisers this season. I think they are being rebuilt psychologically and will continue adding quality defensive pieces.

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Since Rodgers became manager the club has spent nearly a quarter of a billion pounds on players!

whatawaster wrote: »

Net spend as a concept seems to have left this thread with Rafas exit from the club.

Well net spend becomes less relevant when it is massively skewed by a single purchase or acquisition. But that being said, I'm not going to argue the assertion that the club is underinvesting in the playing squad. But people who defend our current transfer approach and philosophy can hardly then use it to deflect criticism if we fail to achieve on the field?

And moreover, when you look at our transfer acquisitions there is too high a volume of overpriced guff. Now I understand that every good signing is Rodger's player and every bad signing is the committee's (:rolleyes:) but nonetheless our business has been very poor in the main over the past couple of years. And not just in terms of the individual deals but also in terms of the strategic composition of the squad.

Pyjamarama wrote: »

That and the fact that we can offer a potatoe and a packet of Marlboro light as wages in comparison to the big boys of Manchester and london... Maybe we should go for young jack like the metro said. 😛

Again, if Utd go out and do what must be done to secure CL football and we end up in 7th place because we were fecking around signing 'young hungry (cheap) players with potential' well **** us. The big bullies will win and we'll be outside the house moaning. I guess our FFP compliance will keep us warm at night.

Dickerty

Connavar wrote: »

I thought Sterling took a knock too?

He didn't look like it, but I didn't Rodgers said that yeh. To be fair, we'd want him fresh for tomorrow night as well.

And I will take a bow now for suggesting we play Ibe at RWB in the match thread. The boy done good!

Make or break time for this team.

Spurs home and Southampton away.

If we really want to put our stamp on a top 4 challenge 6 points is needed.

We are always 4 or 5 behind. That could change with 2 wins.

gafferino

rarnes1 wrote: »

Make or break time for this team.

Spurs home and Southampton away.

If we really want to put our stamp on a top 4 challenge 6 points is needed.

We are always 4 or 5 behind. That could change with 2 wins.

Its huge.

The next 10 games are everything.


Barclays Premier League Tottenham H

FA Cup Crystal Palace A

Europa League Besiktas H

Barclays Premier League Southampton A

Europa League Besiktas A

Barclays Premier League Man City H

Barclays Premier League Burnley H

Barclays Premier League Swansea A

Barclays Premier League Manchester United H

Barclays Premier League Arsenal A

Fitz*

Lucas out for a month.

Do we play Allen CM or bring Can up into midfield and give Lovren a file shot at salvaging his LFC career, playing as the RCB? I would go with the latter.

michael999999

FitzShane wrote: »

Lucas out for a month.

Do we play Allen CM or bring Can up into midfield and give Lovren a file shot at salvaging his LFC career, playing as the RCB? I would go with the latter.

Ah bolex!

Thoughts of Allen playing, fill me with dread. I still can't see what he does!

Harry Palmr

FitzShane wrote: »

Lucas out for a month.

Do we play Allen CM or bring Can up into midfield and give Lovren a file shot at salvaging his LFC career, playing as the RCB? I would go with the latter.

That's yet to be confirmed, just media chatter right now.

gafferino

Harry Palmr wrote: »

That's yet to be confirmed, just media chatter right now.

Well by the looks of the way he sat down in the centre circle it is going to be something significant.

D'Agger

FitzShane wrote: »

Lucas out for a month.

Do we play Allen CM or bring Can up into midfield and give Lovren a file shot at salvaging his LFC career, playing as the RCB? I would go with the latter.

I'd move Can to CM & give Lovern a shot in the back 3

Sink or swim time for him

rob316

Allen is hopeless, time for Can to step into midfield and give Lovren another go I think. Lovren's Liverpool career looks all but over so this could be his lifeline. There is a good player there.

shamrock55

I never want to see lovren play for us ever again tbh

djPSB

shamrock55 wrote: »

I never want to see lovren play for us ever again tbh

Jaysus.

Fitz*

shamrock55 wrote: »

I never want to see lovren play for us ever again tbh

Would you rather play Johnson as a CB or Lovren as a CB with everything to prove?

Or play Allen against Eriksen, one of the form players in the league.

rob316

shamrock55 wrote: »

I never want to see lovren play for us ever again tbh

Its a different formation now and midfield offers more protection to the centre backs. I'd give him a go, if he fails, out the door in the summer he can go.

Talisman

rarnes1 wrote: »

Make or break time for this team.

Spurs home and Southampton away.

If we really want to put our stamp on a top 4 challenge 6 points is needed.

We are always 4 or 5 behind. That could change with 2 wins.

Yes 6 points would be good but we are still relatively toothless in attack. We have gained a single point on Tottenham in the last six games despite the fact that they had to play Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd while we faced relegation fodder. They are doing very well at the moment and will be motivated to end any challenge we offer for fourth place. We need everything to go right for us and both ends of the pitch and if we are without Lucas I don't see it happening.

googled eyes

Bild is claiming we're gonna sign Immobile in the summer.....

Harry Palmr

Sheyi Ojo debut check that pass at 1 minute in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhrdch2hEUw

rob316

So sterling is the next barnes, Ibe is the next sterling, Ojo is the next Ibe. Conveyor belt just keeps going :pac:

gafferino

shamrock55 wrote: »

I never want to see lovren play for us ever again tbh

Ah thats a bit much to be honest. We were pants until December and it wasnt down to him being a bad player (yes he had some bad moments). There is a decent player there and I think he would be ok in our current system with the right protection in front of him. Obviously Lucas was the linchpin to that system working so well and with him out thats a massive issue. I would rather play Can there than Allen for sure.

Harry Palmr

rob316 wrote: »

So sterling is the next barnes, Ibe is the next sterling, Ojo is the next Ibe. Conveyor belt just keeps going :pac:

Wilson/Kent/Canos is the next Ojo. Liverpool could end up fielding a team with 8 wingers!

Vicxas

So Can needs to be moved into DM and Maybe give Lovren a chance again. I think with more midfield cover he should be a little more shielded.

For the love of god don't put Allen in, he was absolutely lost on Saturday.

Our last 12 games is decent and largely without Sturridge, maintaining that form to season end puts us on 69 points, I honestly reckon just north of 70 points is not at all unlikely now.

Dickerty

rob316 wrote: »

Allen is hopeless, time for Can to step into midfield and give Lovren another go I think. Lovren's Liverpool career looks all but over so this could be his lifeline. There is a good player there.

It has to be this. The change to back 3 is as much the difference and he hasn't had a chance to be a part of that. Given what he showed last season, this is the most sensible approach. Can has shown his value coming through midfield, and we know he'll protect the CBs as well as Lucas does...

Agent Coulson

If Gerrard or Allen starts in the DM role now Lucas is out it's a joke.

Can needs to start there now.

D'Agger

Ojo looked good, worked hard but still a bit raw - his touch and composure on the ball will need to improve if he's to make the step up in the next two years or so

Knex*

rarnes1 wrote: »

Make or break time for this team.

Spurs home and Southampton away.

If we really want to put our stamp on a top 4 challenge 6 points is needed.

We are always 4 or 5 behind. That could change with 2 wins.

I can't help but feel we'll be left disappointed. We've given ourselves too much to do, and beating both those teams is no easy task.

the kelt

Agent Coulson wrote: »

If Gerrard or Allen starts in the DM role now Lucas is out it's a joke.

Can needs to start there now.

The problem with starting can there is we are breaking up what has been a very settled back 3.

Maybe, just maybe it's time for Lovren to step up to the mark but if he plays anyway close to how he has been playing to date we are screwed.