Liverpool FC News/Gossip/Rumours Summer '15

5starpool

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Is it still too early for the match thread?

Friday at midday, not a minute earlier young man.

K-9

Mr.H wrote: »

Actually its based on more than the opposite.

Apart from a "hamstring injury" that was used as an excuse why he was kept out of a team and sold

Its a joke how much people are blinded by this nonsense.

Apart from last season and that 1 chelsea "injury" name one time where he was injured for a prolonged period of time????

If he is so injury prone I am sure you can come up with a few examples but 1 will do

He seemed to miss roughly 8 or 10 games a season before this long term one which is clouding judgement.

Didn't have a bad record at Chelsea.

As was mentioned, the club has bought strikers to be prudent and not gamble on his fitness.

Jesus Wept

Cartman78 wrote: »

Know next to nothing about him but have read a few articles and I have extrapolated from those that he is basically a Brazilian Luis Suarez with less goals and biting

We can work on it.

garra

Liverpool are 11/4 to finish top 4. Long gone are the days when I used to back Pool for the title every year, but am tempted to back them for top 4.
Anyone see value in those odds?

Jesus Wept

wait till we lose to stoke and you'll get 6/1

Harry Palmr

Never back your own team, if you win its no big deal as its the team that makes you happy. One the other hand if the team falls short you are sad twice!

rob316

garra wrote: »

Liverpool are 11/4 to finish top 4. Long gone are the days when I used to back Pool for the title every year, but am tempted to back them for top 4.
Anyone see value in those odds?

All the more reason to greater odds more money, just threw the wedding fund on the title. Our Year.

martyos121

rob316 wrote: »

All the more reason to greater odds more money, just threw the wedding fund on the title. Our Year.

Throw the woman on it too, this is definitely our year....

We have Ings.

Francie Barrett

Adama Traore to Stoke?!

Well that escalated quickly.

rob316

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Adama Traore to Stoke?!

Well that escalated quickly.

The Spanish Jordan Ibe.

54and56

Just reading Pirlo's biography and he has some strong views on Balotelli.

Page 133 - "In terms of footballing ability, Mario's class is unquestionable."

Page 134 referring to the possibility of Mario joining Pirlo at Juventus - "Balotelli would have been loved and nurtured by a dressing room where hard work is the order of the day. Where the spirit of sacrifice is an absolute must, not a request where you can shake your head and say 'No'."

Pirlo is/was world class with a long career at the top level and played with some of the very best players of his generation. How can the Balotelli he knows be reconciled with the player we signed last year and now seem desperate to get rid of at any cost?

Turtyturd

Would he have been good enough for a place in our team yesterday but not today?

Potential Underachiever

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Just reading Pirlo's biography and he has some strong views on Balotelli.

Page 133 - "In terms of footballing ability, Mario's class is unquestionable."

Page 134 referring to the possibility of Mario joining Pirlo at Juventus - "Balotelli would have been loved and nurtured by a dressing room where hard work is the order of the day. Where the spirit of sacrifice is an absolute must, not a request where you can shake your head and say 'No'."

Pirlo is/was world class with a long career at the top level and played with some of the very best players of his generation. How can the Balotelli he knows be reconciled with the player we signed last year and now seem desperate to get rid of at any cost?

Noooo! Please not this topic again! Great players don't make good judges of players, see Stevie G comparing Joe Cole to Messi as an example.

garra

garra wrote: »

Liverpool are 11/4 to finish top 4. Long gone are the days when I used to back Pool for the title every year, but am tempted to back them for top 4.
Anyone see value in those odds?

Chelsea, man city, arsenal, man utd, Liverpool.

Take any two except Liverpool for 1st and 2nd and that leaves 3 teams going for 2 places, 11/4 isn't too bad a price for the outsider of the three imo.

Jesus Wept

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Just reading Pirlo's biography and he has some strong views on Balotelli.

Page 133 - "In terms of footballing ability, Mario's class is unquestionable."

Page 134 referring to the possibility of Mario joining Pirlo at Juventus - "Balotelli would have been loved and nurtured by a dressing room where hard work is the order of the day. Where the spirit of sacrifice is an absolute must, not a request where you can shake your head and say 'No'."

Pirlo is/was world class with a long career at the top level and played with some of the very best players of his generation. How can the Balotelli he knows be reconciled with the player we signed last year and now seem desperate to get rid of at any cost?

We didn't treat him right. A scapegoat from the getgo from Brod.

Oh jaysus not again.

ERG89

The Rodgers wrote: »

We didn't treat him right. A scapegoat from the getgo from Brod.

Probably more a thinly veiled shot at Milan there.....If Balotelli is so good where are the teams looking to buy him?
Nobody wants to trust a guy who hasn't done anything of note the last two years. Had a great 6 months at Milan after the much ballyhooed Euros but nobody wants a go babysitting a liability

Agent Coulson

I wonder what the total net spend on Balotelli will turn out to be before he is thrown under the bus and leaves or goes on to be a club legend under a new manager.

machiavellianme

5starpool wrote: »

Benteke will turn into a wuss who cries at every knock, Firmino will strop at every oppurtunity, and Milner and Clyne will start getting fake tan and say they don't want to tackle in case they get visible bruises.

I think that's all pretty likely given that it's us, and we are perennial physical pushovers.

Why would Clyne need fake tan?

Harry Palmr

machiavellianme wrote: »

Why would Clyne need fake tan?

Cos without it he won't have enough attitude to be properly black! (or Gawd knows)

Harry Palmr

Finally a credible source for Borini exit

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/aug/05/liverpool-in-talks-to-sell-fabio-borini-to-fiorentina?

Oh wait....

Liverpool are in talks with Fiorentina over the transfer of Fabio Borini, according to reports.

:mad:

Agent Coulson

I'm sure his model wife would feel right at home in Tuscany with it's history and being home of the Renaissance.

PhiloCypher

The Rodgers wrote: »

We didn't treat him right. A scapegoat from the getgo from Brod.

Stop being so hard on yourself :P

Turtyturd

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I'm sure his model wife would feel right at home in Tuscany with it's history and being home of the Renaissance.

Tell Enrique it's the setting for part of Assassins Creed II and he'll go with them.

K-9

Potential Underachiever wrote: »

Noooo! Please not this topic again! Great players don't make good judges of players, see Stevie G comparing Joe Cole to Messi as an example.

Exactly, team mate lauding him hardly nullifies the opinions of the managers who've got rid.

Allyall

Some good news..
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/liverpool-fc-striker-daniel-sturridge-9798291


Hopefully not another rumour :rolleyes:

garra

Augeo wrote: »

Chelsea, man city, arsenal, man utd, Liverpool.

Take any two except Liverpool for 1st and 2nd and that leaves 3 teams going for 2 places, 11/4 isn't too bad a price for the outsider of the three imo.

Yeah that's what I was being optimistic about..

Best to wait till end Oct before I splurge my wad, I think we will finish stronger than we start due to fixtures.

Jesus Wept

ERG89 wrote: »

Probably more a thinly veiled shot at Milan there.....If Balotelli is so good where are the teams looking to buy him?
Nobody wants to trust a guy who hasn't done anything of note the last two years. Had a great 6 months at Milan after the much ballyhooed Euros but nobody wants a go babysitting a liability

Remind me what antics he has gotten up to that mean he should be slated left, right and center by the media and the club, aside from a poor goalscoring return from a very small sample (800 minutes - less than 10 games, 8 starts, subbed on 6 times and off 4 times)

Red cards? 0
Training ground bust ups? 0
Fireworks let off at his gaff? 0
Items fired at youths? 0
****e talked about him in the media, including from his own manager - plenty.

4 Goals in 24 appearances - not sure how many minutes but very few full games. It's a poor return, it's a small sample, he was playing on his own a lot of the time while getting slated left, right and center with little support from the manager or club who seem happy to scapegoat him in what was a **** season all round for the club. How did the other strikers do? ****. How many goals did the team score? **** all.

His record overall in the premier league, 20 goals from 70 appearances - is this that far off? Not really, not over the tiny sample size so far. Who is to blame? Should we be surprised? Should Brod? No.

Crouch (love Crouch) didn't score in his first 24 hours of football at LFC, probably more than Mario has played thus far.

It is a very lazy narrative that the media are happy to keep spinning. Eeverything is Mario's fault and the club and manager happy too to fall in line in order to detract from a poor overall season from the club and manager.

Lazare played more, scored similar and cost more, where are the headlines about him. Bunch of sheep.

K-9

Jaysus.

I wish I could say it was a hipster thing but Mario doesn't really come under that.

He just isn't all that!

corwill

The Rodgers wrote: »

Lazare played more, scored similar and cost more, where are the headlines about him.

Not sure how comparing a number 9, played as a number 9, with a number 10, largely played at right wing-back, makes much sense.

As for the rest of your post, you make some points I can't really disagree, but I'm not sure Mario can get a pass on the quality of his performances. Constantly just blootering shots towards goal like it's the last 5 seconds of the penalty feature on Soccer AM wasn't the least of it.

But yeah, manager and club have a lot to answer over signing him in the first place.

not yet

My Liverpool.

Sorry just got giddy thinking of What the season could bring...

Grayditch

He's a 1 in 3 everywhere but Liverpool in fairness. That's fine. Whether it's us or him, it's time for it to be over and I don't really care who's to blame as long as we get this sorted. Hope he finds his perfect club.

Charlie19

So eh.. Balotelli.

He might come good, if we play two up front.

Grayditch

Saaaaaaying that, there's a small part of me that would like to see him play a few with Benteke and the new midfield for a few, just out of curiosity. But that's a small part.

Edit to reference the above: yeah maybe...

PhiloCypher

rarnes1 wrote: »

Oh jaysus not again.

Its at times like this I wish we had our own forum so we could just have a "Cryarse about Balo thread" lock it with all hands and launch it into the sun.

The season can't start soon enough.

mormank

DE

Grayditch

Ha. I realise I just did a Tobias.

whatawaster

Has it occurred to anyone that maybe Balotelli doesn't work hard in training, doesn't do what he is told on the pitch, doesn't have a great attitude? That maybe his reputation is deserved?

You don't have to be setting off fireworks in inappropriate places to have the wrong attitude.

It's just assumed that he is being unfairly thrown under a bus by the manager.

Lazar Markovic, who played much of his season at Right Wing Back, and had, by most accounts, a poor season, scored more goals per minute than Balotelli, who played up front in every appearance. That fact alone, means Balotelli can have no complaints about not being in our plans anymore.

MightyMandarin

I'd be willing to give him a shot, as I know that somewhere in that head of his is a very good player.

He doesn't deserve another chance, but I think that while Borini has never looked at all like he belongs at a top club, he's had far more chances than Mario because Rodgers has all but told us that Balotelli is not his purchase.

I must say the one game where he looked decent was Spurs away, where he played up front with Sturridge. Since then I don't think he ever played in a front 2, so I don't think it's entirely fair to brand him as '****e' when he probably just isn't suited to being a lone striker.

How he'll fit in with the other 4 strikers is a mystery, (maybe Origi or Ings could feature more as wide players?) but I think that if he could ever recapture some of the player we saw at Euro2012 then he'd be, at least, our 3rd choice striker.

ERG89

The Rodgers wrote: »

Remind me what antics he has gotten up to that mean he should be slated left, right and center by the media and the club, aside from a poor goalscoring return from a very small sample (800 minutes - less than 10 games, 8 starts, subbed on 6 times and off 4 times)

Red cards? 0
Training ground bust ups? 0
Fireworks let off at his gaff? 0
Items fired at youths? 0
****e talked about him in the media, including from his own manager - plenty.

4 Goals in 24 appearances - not sure how many minutes but very few full games. It's a poor return, it's a small sample, he was playing on his own a lot of the time while getting slated left, right and center with little support from the manager or club who seem happy to scapegoat him in what was a **** season all round for the club. How did the other strikers do? ****. How many goals did the team score? **** all.

His record overall in the premier league, 20 goals from 70 appearances - is this that far off? Not really, not over the tiny sample size so far. Who is to blame? Should we be surprised? Should Brod? No.

Crouch (love Crouch) didn't score in his first 24 hours of football at LFC, probably more than Mario has played thus far.

It is a very lazy narrative that the media are happy to keep spinning. Eeverything is Mario's fault and the club and manager happy too to fall in line in order to detract from a poor overall season from the club and manager.

Lazare played more, scored similar and cost more, where are the headlines about him. Bunch of sheep.

Speaking of sheep.
Has he fluke or something that he is always "sick"??

If he's so good where are the bids for him???

His workrate is non existent too & his only attribute is playing with his back to goal & falling over to try get frees. Defenders tend to take advantage of this because the refs are wise to it as he barely makes any runs.
Do you really want to see him play for us next season? I fúcking don't. I want shìt bags like him Borini & Enrique turfed out ASAP tbh.
I'd rather give someone a chance who gives a shìt quite frankly

whatawaster

whatawaster wrote: »

Has it occurred to anyone that maybe Balotelli doesn't work hard in training, doesn't do what he is told on the pitch, doesn't have a great attitude? That maybe his reputation is deserved?

You don't have to be setting off fireworks in inappropriate places to have the wrong attitude.

It's just assumed that he is being unfairly thrown under a bus by the manager.

Lazar Markovic, who played much of his season at Right Wing Back, and had, by most accounts, a poor season, scored more goals per minute than Balotelli, who played up front in every appearance. That fact alone, means Balotelli can have no complaints about not being in our plans anymore.

Ballotelli had more minutes than any striker in the league afaik (for us)

He deserves to be criticised as he was the "star" player of the 3 strikers we had last season. If he was a youngster fair enough but he isn't.

rob316

Opens thread.

Still discussing Balotelli.......closes thread.

Agent Coulson

https://instagram.com/p/6AdTysHNW_/

JohnDaniels

rarnes1 wrote: »

Ballotelli had more minutes than any striker in the league afaik (for us)

He deserves to be criticised as he was the "star" player of the 3 strikers we had last season. If he was a youngster fair enough but he isn't.

Why do you keep pointing out that he had more minutes than Lambert/Borini? Has to be the most useless stat ever.

He has gotten critised. Some just don't see why he deserves so much in a team full of players last season who were rubbish. Constantly trying to adapt to a system which was never going to suit him with a manager who often used him as a scapegoat in the press.

K-9

corwill wrote: »

But yeah, manager and club have a lot to answer over signing him in the first place.

Nail on head.

See the BBC poll on 30 of their commentators including ex league players surprisingly sees City as 4th, and United 3rd.

Not that it matters much, just so used to people seeing Chelsea and City as the top 2. Seems to be mostly based on transfers to date so maybe loads expect City to sign some more.

Dion Dublin the only one who fancies us to finish 4th. Half of them expected us to finish top 4 last season so....................its on.

Potential Underachiever

For the love of god will someone just photo shop Mario underneath a bus and get it over and done with!

klose

All the best mama

https://twitter.com/avfcofficial/status/628967557089914881

NukaCola

Mario started 8/9 games in a row and scored 0, picked up a hamstring injury and when he recovered posted something stupid on social media and got a ban, then got dropped from the squad. Why are people trying to defend him? Did he deserve more game time and if he did, what is that based on?

He has one league goal. One goal in the league cup. One Europa League goal. And one CL goal. He missed sitters that have nothing to do with him playing up front on his own anyway. Sure BR might have gotten more from him if he built a team around him but obviously BR didn't rate him enough. Mario had chances and wasn't deemed good enough to start.

He is talented and will need to be utilised better but he has shown us very little of what he can do. Ya the media are having a go but how has BR thrown him under a bus? He didn't do enough.

I was happy when he signed and I'd be happy if he was a backup. He was never the goalscorer we needed though. Of all the things to blame BR for Mario is down the list.

Potential Underachiever

NukaCola wrote: »

Mario started 8/9 games in a row and scored 0, picked up a hamstring injury and when he recovered posted something stupid on social media and got a ban, then got dropped from the squad. Why are people trying to defend him? Did he deserve more game time and if he did, what is that based on?

He has one league goal. One goal in the league cup. One Europa League goal. And one CL goal. He missed sitters that have nothing to do with him playing up front on his own anyway. Sure BR might have gotten more from him if he built a team around him but obviously BR didn't rate him enough. Mario had chances and wasn't deemed good enough to start.

He is talented and will need to be utilised better but he has shown us very little of what he can do. Ya the media are having a go but how has BR thrown him under a bus? He didn't do enough.

I was happy when he signed and I'd be happy if he was a backup. He was never the goalscorer we needed though. Of all the things to blame BR for Mario is down the list.

THE END

Good post, just tweaked it slightly for you.

LuckyLloyd

garra wrote: »

Liverpool are 11/4 to finish top 4. Long gone are the days when I used to back Pool for the title every year, but am tempted to back them for top 4.
Anyone see value in those odds?

Liverpool are never value imo