Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2015 Mod Note in OP 9/4

djPSB

Gbear wrote: »

You can certainly make the case that Balotelli was a bad signing or the wrong signing, but if he finishes the season on 7-10 goals, is that a terrible return for £16m?

Not the best, but far from the worst either.

Poor signing imo.

Can't be relied upon when Sturridge inevitably misses games.

He's grand as a third option but we needed more than that at the time.

Dickerty

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Still two points off Utd with them having a significantly better GD. Rein yourselves in lads. Lots of work left to be done.

Rather that EVERYONE ELSE being reined in, how about you get excited about our progress and improvement??

x43r0

Dickerty wrote: »

Rather that EVERYONE ELSE being reined in, how about you get excited about our progress and improvement??

He's right though

It was a great win and we're playing well but still a lot of work to do

marklazarcovic

we can all still enjoy it without reigning anything in...makes the losses harder to take but that's what makes us follow our teams

Hidalgo

Gbear wrote: »

Looking back on it, I don't think we actually played with a huge amount of quality on the ball yesterday (two brilliant strikes notwithstanding).

Our execution in the final third was largely terrible. Sterling had a pretty poor game. His touch was woeful.

It's not like working hard or being resilient aren't important elements of a top side, but that was a very different performance to us at our peak last season.

It was efficient, workmanlike but punctuated with a couple of bits of individual brilliance.

Bar the first 5 or so minutes, City were absolute pants.
If they'd played like that against us last season we would've completely demolished them.

Wins like this count for more in some ways than twatting teams while playing fancy stuff. You can't always turn the quality on like the flick of a switch but having the sort of grit needed to stay in games like this will always hold you in good stead.

Fair assessment imo.
You're not going to execute those type of strikes into goals too often that Henderson and Coutinho pulled off yesterday. One area City were much better than Liverpool was tight short passing to open up space around the Liverpool area.

Hopefully Sturridge gets regular starts from now on with his fitness built up. Sterling just won't do there (nor trying to be harsh on him as he's playing out of position)

Grayditch

As we used to say in the dial-up days, wait until the whole picture has loaded before ya start jackin' it.

SlickRic

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

You should all know better!

i promise you I do know better.

Just because the team is proving that it's actually a good team, contrary to a lot of popular belief, does not mean I think we're nailed on for fourth. far from it.

I still put us 5th favourites as I can't see Utd not having a period in the season where they go on a run. here's hoping though.

LuckyLloyd

Dickerty wrote: »

Rather that EVERYONE ELSE being reined in, how about you get excited about our progress and improvement??

Unfortunately we were so hapless in the first portion of the season that we are still only trading at 1.78ppg overall. We need to keep winning to get over the line at the end in 4th place. Our form since mid December has been excellent yet:

- we're still behind in the table;
- still outsiders to finish top four with the vast majority of books;
- eliminated from European competition twice this season;

If we fall off from here - even a little - we'll end up 6th / 7th and trophy less facing into a summer of recrimination and doubt.

So let's not start dancing for joy yet. We need to keep winning. Not easy.

noodler

Gbear wrote: »

You can certainly make the case that Balotelli was a bad signing or the wrong signing, but if he finishes the season on 7-10 goals, is that a terrible return for £16m?

Not the best, but far from the worst either.

7 goals for 16m would be poor yeah.

1 Carling Cup goal
1 League goal
1 CL goal

Is pretty terrible.

gafferino

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/watch-liverpool-fcs-lucas-leiva-8740426

Lucas was back running last week (in Brazil with Gremio) so hopefully we might see him back in the next couple of weeks. Physioroom has him back in 3 weeks.

Also physio room has Gerrard and Sakho back this week....would be great to have those options.

slingerz

Some value in the free signings in the summer.

GK: Romero,
CB: Reid, Vlaar, Scharr
RB: Alves
MF: Milner, Khederia
FWD: Ings

noodler

Delighted with yesterday, more than happy to say Rodgers had turned it around.

Although hopefully next season we can start better and not need a miraculous second half to secure our initial aim of fourth.

All this amazing form has only brought us back into the race for 4th good and proper though, so much more to be done although I'd almost rather be in our position of momentum than have Utd's extra 2 points.

You do feel like we have gotten over a hump with recent fixtures.

Augmerson

Flanagan is back in training I read.

MD1990

slingerz wrote: »

Some value in the free signings in the summer.

GK: Romero,
CB: Reid, Vlaar, Scharr
RB: Alves
MF: Milner, Khederia
FWD: Ings

Not the type of signings we need. Would take Ings but none of the others.
We should target a top class CM & Striker & a LWB to rotate with Moreno who is playing very well.

klose

Good to see flanno nearly back, don't think he will be involved much this season with the length of his lay off and the options ahead of him in his position though.

Iused2likebusts

All the talk in both threads seems to be liverpool and Utd fighting it out for 4th. Arsenal may end up being the ones that miss out.

Agent Coulson

MD1990 wrote: »

Not the type of signings we need. Would take Ings but none of the others.
We should target a top class CM & Striker & a LWB to rotate with Moreno who is playing very well.

You would take Ings but not Khederia who is a top class CM.

brevity

Khedira would walk into the team and give us the experience we have lost.

MD1990

Agent Coulson wrote: »

You would take Ings but not Khederia who is a top class CM.

Khedira has not played well since his knee injury last season. Would prefer a quicker CM to suit our pressing game like Nainngolan.

Luckycharms_74

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Still two points off Utd with them having a significantly better GD. Rein yourselves in lads. Lots of work left to be done. We have no margin for error as of yet.

Put it this way, there would be lots of posts on here yesterday and this morning that could be thrown back in your face if Utd picked us off on the 22nd. Head down, keep working hard and leave the celebrating until there's something to celebrate - at least that's what I'm hoping the attitude amongst the players is. You should all know better!

At least its in OUR hands now for top 4.
Beat UTD and match their results between now and end of season.
Simples

Dickerty

slingerz wrote: »

Some value in the free signings in the summer.

GK: Romero,
CB: Reid, Vlaar, Scharr
RB: Alves
MF: Milner, Khederia
FWD: Ings

Romero, Reid, Milner and Ings are all good options.
Alves and Khedira would very expensive and we'd be outsiders.

But for Reid, we have to figure out our long term play for RB or RWB.
Last 2 seasons, we have played Flanagan, Johnson, Marko, Ibe, Manquillo and Wisdom there. We don't need another option, would rather spend on a first teamer. In reality, maybe Alves is the better option, would start every week?
And if we let Johnson go, probably only like for like in terms of cost.

Milner would give us another CM and RM option, he's shown this season that he can still be effective in occasional starts and off the bench. And we are losing experience in Stevie and Johnson (probably).

And you can't Ings, he's young and scoring a lot at the PL level, he's a better option that either Borini or Lambert...

TitianGerm

MD1990 wrote: »

Not the type of signings we need. Would take Ings but none of the others.
We should target a top class CM & Striker & a LWB to rotate with Moreno who is playing very well.

I'd take Milner as he would be a good backup and could push for a starting place.
Kadheria would also be a definite yes. Him and Lucas fighting it out for the DM spot.

Charlie19

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

All the talk in both threads seems to be liverpool and Utd fighting it out for 4th. Arsenal may end up being the ones that miss out.

I cant see it myself. The one thing that Wenger is very experienced in doing, is getting a top four finish.

Dickerty

MD1990 wrote: »

Khedira has not played well since his knee injury last season. Would prefer a quicker CM to suit our pressing game like Nainngolan.

He's young enough to get a good pre-season (no tournaments) and be ready for next season. It's hard to get fully fit when they won't start him, since they keep playing Modric, Kroos and Isco and Rodriquez ahead of him...

K-9

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Still two points off Utd with them having a significantly better GD. Rein yourselves in lads. Lots of work left to be done. We have no margin for error as of yet.

Put it this way, there would be lots of posts on here yesterday and this morning that could be thrown back in your face if Utd picked us off on the 22nd. Head down, keep working hard and leave the celebrating until there's something to celebrate - at least that's what I'm hoping the attitude amongst the players is. You should all know better!

CL is in our own hands with United to come to Anfield, and they've a horrid run of matches around that time as well, they've less room for error than us IMO.

I'm confident, with good reason.

Underpaid Mike

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Unfortunately we were so hapless in the first portion of the season that we are still only trading at 1.78ppg overall. We need to keep winning to get over the line at the end in 4th place. Our form since mid December has been excellent yet:

- we're still behind in the table;
- still outsiders to finish top four with the vast majority of books;
- eliminated from European competition twice this season;

If we fall off from here - even a little - we'll end up 6th / 7th and trophy less facing into a summer of recrimination and doubt.

So let's not start dancing for joy yet. We need to keep winning. Not easy.

Id say if we got third you would still find a way to spin it negatively.
Chin up LL, we are flying, jump aboard and enjoy the ride.

Just like to say again huge credit to Rodgers for turning this season around.
Not in any way disappointed about losing to Besiktas if it means this run in the league continues.

J Mysterio

Schär is a good player.

Bandana boy

Underpaid Mike wrote: »

Id say if we got third you would still find a way to spin it negatively.
Chin up LL, we are flying, jump aboard and enjoy the ride.

Just like to say again huge credit to Rodgers for turning this season around.
Not in any way disappointed about losing to Besiktas if it means this run in the league continues.

In fairness to Llyold I do not think he has ever spun a postive negatively , I would fully expect him to be very happy if we managed to get third this season.
What he is doing is not getting carried away yet . I am trying my best not to get carried away yet ,but I must admit I am dreaming of a stuffing of utd and planes flying overhead at OT the following week

Magico Gonzalez

One of the key factors will be keeping Henderson and Coutinho fit and playing, hopefully Allen can maintain his form until the end of the season too. Injuries to either of the first 2 would really hurt us, like losing Henderson did last year.

Big call to come from Rodgers, do you drop Allen after that performance against city and bring back Gerrard? Henderson has to stay right where he is.

klose

Magico Gonzalez wrote: »

One of the key factors will be keeping Henderson and Coutinho fit and playing, hopefully Allen can maintain his form until the end of the season too. Injuries to either of the first 2 would really hurt us, like losing Henderson did last year.

Big call to come from Rodgers, do you drop Allen after that performance against city and bring back Gerrard? Henderson has to stay right where he is.

Gerrard has no buisness being anywhere near the first team as of now. Bench player at best for the remainder of the season IMO, no time for being sentimental with him leaving.

Dickerty

klose wrote: »

Gerrard has no buisness being anywhere near the first team as of now. Bench player at best for the remainder of the season IMO, no time for being sentimental with him leaving.

There will be games where he could be useful, and we can't forget that Allen has had as many poor games recently as good...

Kunkka

Well Allen has really proven me wrong of late. Super game yesterday does all the stuff you don't notice. Hopefully that goal for Hendo will start giving him confidence to develop that part of his game.

We have a better run in then United so lets hope we can keep this form!

Dickerty

Kunkka wrote: »

Well Allen has really proven me wrong of late. Super game yesterday does all the stuff you don't notice. Hopefully that goal for Hendo will start giving him confidence to develop that part of his game.

In theory, they are a good partnership. Hard working, good passers, tactically sound. But there have been a LOT of games where they have been ineffective as a pairing...

marklazarcovic

anyone else think hendos goal was the better of the two? both crackers but hendos gets my vote

Jesus Wept

djPSB wrote: »

On the signings.

Question marks remain over who is making the signings, is it BR or is it the STransfer Committee.

Regardless of who is in charge of that aspect, how does our transfer business compare to that of Chelsea, City, Spurs, United and Arsenal.

Bearing in mind that we are not in a position to compete with most of these teams when it comes to fees or wages, I don't think we've done too badly in the market at all compared to rivals.

The only crazy signing was Balotelli imo. Even though Lovren hasn't set the place alight just yet, the signing still made a lot of sense at the time and I still have faith that he'll come good.

Spunked some fairly significant fees paying over the odds for a few none too amazing lads.

What did everyone have for lunch?

LuckyLloyd

Underpaid Mike wrote: »

Id say if we got third you would still find a way to spin it negatively.
Chin up LL, we are flying, jump aboard and enjoy the ride.

Just like to say again huge credit to Rodgers for turning this season around.
Not in any way disappointed about losing to Besiktas if it means this run in the league continues.

Yeah I was super negative during the run in last year and during the Benitez years. Definitely sounds like me. :rolleyes:

I'm not being negative, I'm urging you all a bit of caution because there's lots of work to be done and plenty who would only be too happy to serve your joyful posts back up to you cold with extra salt at season's end if we don't get over the line. That's all.

K-9

djPSB wrote: »

That's to be expected from a team that didn't have a recognised striker starting.

Yep, we're just ticking over goal wise and the defense is the base for the run.

The thing is, I think we are just seeing this squad of players starting to deliver on the much derided "potential".

We've Sturridge still to hit form, Coutinho in great form and an absolute joy to watch at just 22, Lalana looks like he'd ready to start delivering and we've Gerrard, Lucas, Sakho and Flaninho to come back.

These are the times to enjoy supporting a team, proving the doubters wrong and playing good stuff, with more to come.

Plus more CL football would be great for Rodgers and the squad, a point to prove!

Dickerty

The Rodgers wrote: »

What did everyone have for lunch?

Munchies in IFSC:
- Coronation chicken, swiss and iceberg on walnut bread
- Broccoli and potato soup (was better than it sounds)

Knex*

I'm still more in the "we won't get fourth" camp, than I am in the we will get it, camp. Delighted with how things are going, and the last week alone has been amazing for us.

We'll see how things stand again next week.

Might have time to do the alternative table tonight as well.

Dickerty

Knex. wrote: »

I'm still more in the "we won't get fourth" camp, than I am in the we will get it, camp. Delighted with how things are going, and the last week alone has been amazing for us.

I'm under no illusion that it'll be hard, we are trying to shift either United or Arsenal, while keeping Spurs and Soton behind us...

mada999

OwaynOTT wrote: »

May get the gang to investigate.

shíte performance against Bestikas, brilliant performance against city or are you alluding to the fact that we missed Hendo and Coutinho ?

MD1990

Yeah we are doing great. But we don't want to start celebrating like last year because we all know what heppened.

marklazarcovic

LuckyLloyd wrote:

I'm not being negative, I'm urging you all a bit of caution because there's lots of work to be done and plenty who would only be too happy to serve your joyful posts back up to you cold with extra salt at season's end if we don't get over the line. That's all.

not trying to be smart but we gotta enjoy it...slag the mancs...take the slag back when its our turn...its all part of it...


would be fckin dull otherwise...utd lauded over us for 2 decades ..I for one am loving the direction both our respective clubs are going in the last two years...


never enjoyed work as much

OwaynOTT

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Yeah I was super negative during the run in last year and during the Benitez years. Definitely sounds like me. :rolleyes:

I'm not being negative, I'm urging you all a bit of caution because there's lots of work to be done and plenty who would only be too happy to serve your joyful posts back up to you cold with extra salt at season's end if we don't get over the line. That's all.

Caution is for losers tbh Lloyd.

I'd much rather go mad now with the glee and enjoy it will its lasts and gamble it won't go pear-shaped.
Enjoy it now, enjoy it later and look back on the the enjoyment.
Just enjoy it unreservedly all the time
If it goes pear-shaped, we can always fall back on our 'next year' wishes.

All the crap at the first half of the season is almost irrelevant now.
We are the in-from team.

We're the Energiser Bunny who keeps on drumming, while the others lose their tempo and can't keep our time.
Press the life of our opposition from here on out like a Boa-Constrictor.

The poor first half of the season will make it all more enjoyable, as our rivals thought it was all Suarez (and some of our own fans) and had their knives out and their dismissals.

Hey baby let the good time roll

OwaynOTT

mada999 wrote: »

shíte performance against Bestikas, brilliant performance against city or are you alluding to the fact that we missed Hendo and Coutinho ?

Nothing that cerebral, just trying to set up a reference to Scobby Doo.

8-10

noodler wrote: »

7 goals for 16m would be poor yeah.

1 Carling Cup goal
1 League goal
1 CL goal

Is pretty terrible.

And 1 Europa League goal....he likes to score 1 per competition!

In fairness in each of those 4 games he scored we won by a single goal so it's not like he's scoring meaningless ones, just not enough overall

K-9

Knex. wrote: »

I'm still more in the "we won't get fourth" camp, than I am in the we will get it, camp. Delighted with how things are going, and the last week alone has been amazing for us.

We'll see how things stand again next week.

Might have time to do the alternative table tonight as well.

The alternative table will be interesting all right. Results against the top 7 would be interesting as well, it's what got us closing the gap so quickly over the last few weeks. Yesterday wasn't really a 6 pointer as it's unlikely City will reeled in. I'd fancy us against United and also to get a result at Arsenal.

We were all slow enough to get carried away last season but we've grounds to be, Rodgers seems to have a knack of getting the team to at least CL form in second halves of seasons, so it's hardly blind optimism!

K-9

Mario is near Diouf bad unless he picks up, N'Gog did a better job for us!

rossc007

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Caution is for losers tbh Lloyd.

I'd much rather go mad now with the glee and enjoy it will its lasts and gamble it won't go pear-shaped.
Enjoy it now, enjoy it later and look back on the the enjoyment.
Just enjoy it unreservedly all the time
If it goes pear-shaped, we can always fall back on our 'next year' wishes.

All the crap at the first half of the season is almost irrelevant now.
We are the in-from team.

We're the Energiser Bunny who keeps on drumming, while the others lose their tempo and can't keep our time.
Press the life of our opposition from here on out like a Boa-Constrictor.

The poor first half of the season will make it all more enjoyable, as our rivals thought it was all Suarez (and some of our own fans) and had their knives out and their dismissals.

Hey baby let the good time roll

Are you high?

Gbear

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Caution is for losers tbh Lloyd.

I'd much rather go mad now with the glee and enjoy it will its lasts and gamble it won't go pear-shaped.

I dunno about that.

Last season nearly destroyed me.

I really decided to jump on the band wagon.

Then I had a complete meltdown when we threw the game away against Palace.