Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 15/16

SuperTortoise

SuperTortoise wrote: »

So that's top 4 gone for sure (for the 5th time this season!)

That's whats driving me nuts this year. Any run of results at all would have landed us into 4th. The door's definitely shut this time (I think..!).

Juan8

Bowlardo wrote: »

on the plus side it is clear as day now that skrtel is and always was the problem and needs to **** right off in the summer.

We already have uefa football next season so I think the youngsters should be getting a run out in the remain league games.

Best team out from the uefa cup...if we sneak past dortmund it is ours to lose in my opinion

Enrique (free), toure(free), moreno(12), skrtel(5), wisdom(2), Benteke(25), ballotelli(8), Allen(6), need to be gone on the door in the summer.
That is a lot of wages and some decent transfer funds -
Lallanna gets one more season as does lucas until his replacement is
Markovic,Gomez will be returning Matip, Grujic are probably going straight in to the team

Goal Keeper, left back , Centre Midfielder and a superstar striker and we should be looking good for next year

Sorry but Villarreal, Sevilla and maybe Bilbao would knock you out tbh

Pyjamarama

Bowlardo wrote: »

on the plus side it is clear as day now that skrtel is and always was the problem and needs to **** right off in the summer.

We already have uefa football next season so I think the youngsters should be getting a run out in the remain league games.

Best team out from the uefa cup...if we sneak past dortmund it is ours to lose in my opinion

Enrique (free), toure(free), moreno(12), skrtel(5), wisdom(2), Benteke(25), ballotelli(8), Allen(6), need to be gone on the door in the summer.
That is a lot of wages and some decent transfer funds -
Lallanna gets one more season as does lucas until his replacement is
Markovic,Gomez will be returning Matip, Grujic are probably going straight in to the team

Goal Keeper, left back , Centre Midfielder and a superstar striker and we should be looking good for next year

Selling Joe Allen would be madness unless he wants to go. Great option for the squad to have.

We need to upgrade our wings, prob get another striker and another option at full back. And possibly most importantly we need to get a starting level midfielder and a new keeper. We need someone we can trust alongside Can who can be a superstar imo.

I don't think we need a new starting fb as I think that Moreno and Clyne are fine, at least as good option wise as anything any of our rivals have. We don't need to beat a Barca/Real/Bayern level team to do well in this league. Its not a good one and there aren't many good teams at all. I'd be happy going into next season with our cb options being Sakho/Lovren/Matip/Gomez/Kolo. Honestly don't think there's a better bunch out there atm. The difference when we don't have to play the Serb is insane...

We need some pace on the wings for sure and i imagine that Klopp will get one. Markovich might help with that but can't be relied upon yet.

We NEED a top class CM tho. Someone who can dictate the game. Basically an Alonso... but they're hard to come by. Thats the priority tho. We've plenty of guys who can do the dirty work but we need the class. It would make such a massive difference to us. When things start going bad we don't have a cool head there to control the pace and slow it down. Too many of the players are more comfortable going full throttle all the time. He's not an Alonso but Xhaka would be a perfect player for us if we can get him.

SlickRic

I understand the idea that Klopp has to take some blame for putting Skrtel on, but there is no way anyone could've foreseen the carnage he would lay before him.

I'm still in shock at what I witnessed in that 2nd half.

Chaos.

Utter chaos. Perpetrated by one Slovakian nutcase.

Pyjamarama

SlickRic wrote: »

I understand the idea that Klopp has to take some blame for putting Skrtel on, but there is no way anyone could've foreseen the carnage he would lay before him.

I'm still in shock at what I witnessed in that 2nd half.

Chaos.

Utter chaos. Perpetrated by one Slovakian nutcase.

100%. Its not like we've always been that bad with him there. He's always been the main culprit for the defensive uncertainty tho. You could literally see the Sakho looking back at him constantly and wondering why the hell he was 5 yards deeper. Especially as it appeared to be Sakho and not Skrtel who had Mane to deal with. Was Skrtel worried Pele would run past him..?

In fairness to Skrtel when he goes to a team that plays with a super deep line and two cdms in front of him he'll look like a star.

mav79

Pyjamarama wrote: »

We NEED a top class CM tho. Someone who can dictate the game. Basically an Alonso... but they're hard to come by. Thats the priority tho. We've plenty of guys who can do the dirty work but we need the class. It would make such a massive difference to us. When things start going bad we don't have a cool head there to control the pace and slow it down. Too many of the players are more comfortable going full throttle all the time. He's not an Alonso but Xhaka would be a perfect player for us if we can get him.

If we had to spend the entire budget on a top quality midfielder i'd be completely ok with it. As you said we have lacked control in midfield for years, a player that can take a set piece would be pretty handy to have in the team as well.

Bowlardo

Pyjamarama wrote: »

Selling Joe Allen would be madness unless he wants to go.
I don't think we need a new starting fb as I think that Moreno and Clyne are fine,
. I'd be happy going into next season with our cb options being Sakho/Lovren/Matip/Gomez/Kolo.
We need some pace on the wings for sure and i imagine that Klopp will get one. Markovich might help with that but can't be relied upon yet.
We NEED a top class CM tho. .

• Allen henderson Milner - one of them has to go! I think Allen
• We are very comfortable in CB position once we off load skrtel
• I think Markovic will begin to deliver next year. he won't be a starter but he will be playing all uefa games and cup games. Kloop second in command is serbian and I get the feeling the know something we don't about markovic
• Totally agree about a composed CM. Maybe Grujic will be that guy

Buford T. Justice XIX

mosstin wrote: »

As bad as we were at the back in the 2nd half, the fact is that we should have been out of sight. Sturridge's decision making is becoming very frustrating - if he squares to Allen, it's 3-0 and game over (assuming Skrtel wouldn't be coming on, that is).
Benteke's latest in a long catalogue of misses show that he just doesn't possess enough composure - he's more of an instinctive finisher. I'm not as gutted as most seem to be - never saw Top 4 season as possible regardless. That said, 2-0 up, eh.......

+1

Since he's come back, his speed of replaying the ball has been awful.

You could literally go out of the room, make a cup of tea, grab a plate of biscuits and return to the TV and he would STILL be floostering around with the ball trying to go past a player in midfield.

He really really need to release the ball quickly to a player in a good position and not try to win the game single handed every time he gets the ball:mad:

Pyjamarama

Bowlardo wrote: »

• Allen henderson Milner - one of them has to go! I think Allen
• We are very comfortable in CB position once we off load skrtel
• I think Markovic will begin to deliver next year. he won't be a starter but he will be playing all uefa games and cup games. Kloop second in command is serbian and I get the feeling the know something we don't about markovic
• Totally agree about a composed CM. Maybe Grujic will be that guy

Personally I want Hendo gone. Its not that he's awful but i'm a)not sold that he'll recover from his injury at all and b) he should not be captain. Will he stay if he's stripped of the captaincy? He didn't in my football manager game thats for sure!! :P

I also don't view Milner as a cm. He's been pretty pants when he's played there. Very valuable squad player tho.

Big ask for Grujic to do that. I honestly haven't seen much of him but he looks less like Alonso and more like a guy whos athleticism is one of his biggest strengths. We have loads of those already..

klose

Was over in Liverpool for the weekend, some spot for a weekend away. Went to see anfield and took the tour etc, was happy as a pig in **** with everything as I've wanted to go there since I was a young lad. Then found out my friend sorted me out for a ticket to the Derby so that will be my first and I ever go to. Weekend couldn't have went any better until I saw how badly we bottled the game on the journey home, sake. Go away skrtel please thanks.

Nerdlingr

Disappointed Henderson wasn't brought on to kill the game off when we were still two goals to the good! We could see that Southampton were taking the game to us and we needed to stem that flow. Mane and long were killing us with their runs from deep. Felt klopp should have sacrificed sturridge sooner to swamp the midfield. We need to realise that we don't have to kill teams off by continually attacking teams and leaving ourselves open, we badly needed someone out there today to take the sting out of the game and slow things down. Maybe a Lucas to give away a few fouls, disrupt their rhythm etc. Even Mignolet was quickly throwing balls out to restart attacks when it was 1-2. All it needed was a steady head to manage the game better. Skrtel and benteke are probably done after that game.

J Mysterio

I do think there was a lesson learned by Klopp in the game there (though obviously the players are responsible also). I think he considered the game won and thought:

Give Marty(os) a run coming back from injury.
Give Benteke a run to maintain some of his value
Etc.

SuperTortoise

Pyjamarama wrote: »

You could literally see the Sakho looking back at him constantly and wondering why the hell he was 5 yards deeper.

There was one point where i think we were still 2-1 up where Sakho and the full backs were knocking it out from just inside our half and there he was...skittles himself, playing as deep as Migs was!

Real head scratcher that one, fair enough if they were pressing then he'd be usefull back there but...

Harry Palmr

Is it wrong to hope that of the two Manchester clubs Utd prevail if Liverpool cannot finish 4th?

/off for a lie down!

Liam McPoyle

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Is it wrong to hope that of the two Manchester clubs Utd prevail if Liverpool cannot finish 4th?

/off for a lie down!

I'm all for upgrading Mig, but to be fair with a functioning CB partnership in front of him he's credible enough.

Once it starts falling apart he sh1ts the course.

I really, really hope Klopp sees Škrtel as not worth bothering with, out the door in the Summer. To be fair the club bought Sakho, Lovren and Gomez recently and also took in Caulker. It must be the plan to get rid of Škrtel.

I'd sooner see Caulker here next season than Škrtel.

At 31 Škrtel is just reaching his natural end at the club, no shame in it, please go Marty, someone take him...

Kerrigooney

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Is it wrong to hope that of the two Manchester clubs Utd prevail if Liverpool cannot finish 4th?

/off for a lie down!

You want Utd rather than City to finish in the top 4? Am I understanding you correctly? Why do you want that? Is it because it'll save Van Gaal?

RugbyLover123

Augeo wrote: »

I'm all for upgrading Mig, but to be fair with a functioning CB partnership in front of him he's credible enough.

Once it starts falling apart he sh1ts the course.

I really, really hope Klopp sees Škrtel as not worth bothering with, out the door in the Summer. To be fair the club bought Sakho, Lovren and Gomez recently and also took in Caulker. It must be the plan to get rid of Škrtel.

I'd sooner see Caulker here next season than Škrtel.

At 31 Škrtel is just reaching his natural end at the club, no shame in it, please go Marty, someone take him...

Credible enough? Is that really good enough? I mean as a poster said a few posts back we don't need world class players everywhere because we don't play Barca etc every week, but GK is probably the most realistic position we can get a world class player in.
Mig is prone to a howler that costs us points every few games, a good pairing in front of him or not. A top class GK is a necessity in today's game and they are relatively cheap in what you get out of them. GK is the first position we should be looking to strengthen In summer.

StringerBell

Kerrigooney wrote: »

You want Utd rather than City to finish in the top 4? Am I understanding you correctly? Why do you want that? Is it because it'll save Van Gaal?

City finish top 4, it won't.
United finish top 4, it won't.

So that can't be it, incredible hatred for West Ham is where my money is, and I can understand that.

Augeo

Augeo wrote: »

I'm all for upgrading Mig, but to be fair with a functioning CB partnership in front of him he's credible enough.

Once it starts falling apart he sh1ts the course.

I really, really hope Klopp sees Škrtel as not worth bothering with, out the door in the Summer. To be fair the club bought Sakho, Lovren and Gomez recently and also took in Caulker. It must be the plan to get rid of Škrtel.

I'd sooner see Caulker here next season than Škrtel.

At 31 Škrtel is just reaching his natural end at the club, no shame in it, please go Marty, someone take him...

RugbyLover123 wrote: »

Credible enough? Is that really good enough? I mean as a poster said a few posts back we don't need world class players everywhere because we don't play Barca etc every week, but GK is probably the most realistic position we can get a world class player in.
Mig is prone to a howler that costs us points every few games, a good pairing in front of him or not. A top class GK is a necessity in today's game and they are relatively cheap in what you get out of them. GK is the first position we should be looking to strengthen In summer.

Do you understand what I'm all for upgrading Mig means?

BorneTobyWilde

Old age mutant Martin Skrtel
Footballer with a half brain
Skrtel power

Harry Palmr

Kerrigooney wrote: »

You want Utd rather than City to finish in the top 4? Am I understanding you correctly? Why do you want that? Is it because it'll save Van Gaal?

Well it might do that (though doubt it Mourinho lurks) but I really hate City - I hate their lotto win money, I hate that they spent so much of it so badly, I hate the stadium being 12,000 seats short of full on a European night, I hate their lack of fight right now. I hate the fact so many of their supporters think there is a media conspiracy against them and that they don't even like the Champions League much. They just offend me on so many levels.

Kerrigooney

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Well it might do that (though doubt it Mourinho lurks) but I really hate City - I hate their lotto win money, I hate that they spent so much of it so badly, I hate the stadium being 12,000 seats short of full on a European night, I hate their lack of fight right now. I hate the fact so many of their supporters think there is a media conspiracy against them and that they don't even like the Champions League much. They just offend me on so many levels.

They boo the Champions League Anthem and that's hilarious. Then they got fined for it which was even more hilarious. I wonder if they win it this year(unlikely),will they hand it back in protest?

Kerrigooney

StringerBell wrote: »

City finish top 4, it won't.
United finish top 4, it won't.

So that can't be it, incredible hatred for West Ham is where my money is, and I can understand that.

Do you really hate West Ham? They're inoffensive enough surely?

I like Bilic...he's a scruffy bastard and he gives a scruffy bastard like myself hope

monkey9

Skrtel's some man. The last game he played, we lost three nil to Watford. Next game, he comes on when we're two up and we end up losing three two.

I'm actually impressed.

Agent Coulson

But Skrtel is the best defender at the club isn't he?

Vicxas

Agent Coulson wrote: »

But Skrtel is the best defender at the club isn't he?

U14 level maybe

noodler

Agent Coulson wrote: »

But Skrtel is the best defender at the club isn't he?

It isn't static thing

Hangballlouie

Howya lads

Nerdlingr

Lovren was the worst defender at the club a few weeks back. Sakho before that. It's skrtels turn this week.

livinginkorea

Don't know what to make of it all, recon there will be a bit of a clear out this summer.

Agent Coulson

livinginkorea wrote: »

Don't know what to make of it all, recon there will be a bit of a clear out this summer.

I think you are right.

Gbear

Pyjamarama wrote: »

We NEED a top class CM tho. Someone who can dictate the game. Basically an Alonso... but they're hard to come by. Thats the priority tho. We've plenty of guys who can do the dirty work but we need the class. It would make such a massive difference to us. When things start going bad we don't have a cool head there to control the pace and slow it down. Too many of the players are more comfortable going full throttle all the time. He's not an Alonso but Xhaka would be a perfect player for us if we can get him.

You talked about not needing to be Real/Bayern/Barca level as justification for not getting a replacement for Moreno.
I agree. However, I think it applies to midfield just as well.

It's strange to raise this on a day like today, or indeed, any time this season.
Our midfield options had absolutely nothing to do with losing this or most of our other failures this season.
Even Skrtel was only a contributory factor today.
If you fail to punish teams and kill off ties you're going to get caught out one way or the other.

Forget Skrtel. Say that dive from Long was given as a penalty and Lovren was booked for that and his tackle and got sent off.
2 goals, one of which was from an unreliable source in the first place, quite probably wouldn't have been enough.

Currently, we still only have 1 reliable goalscorer in Firmino. You're going to win **** all while that's the case. That is the limiting factor here.

West Ham in the FA cup, Utd home and away in the league, today and many others, both this year and last - we didn't drop points because we didn't have enough metronomic passers or tacklers.
You bring Hendo off the bench for Sturridge at half time and lock Skrtel in the jacks and we'll probably see things out.
We lost because through two managers now we've been geared to attack, create chances, put teams off balance, hit them on the break or turn them over with a high press, and we generally do everything we need to on that front in the first two thirds of the pitch but we totally fail in the final third.

Our midfield mightn't do it well enough to go toe to toe with the big boys but we're a long way from needing to worry about that.

A controlling midfielder would serve to tip the scales in our favour in games with a high degree of variability, but a much surer way to do that is to take the chances we're already creating and remove the variability entirely.

That was the recipe under Rodgers. It worked. Up to a point. That point is where we need the control, but before then it'll be largely wasted.

Osmosis Jones

We've been terrible at defending for years, Skrtel has been the one constant in that. He's been out for 3 months and our defence has improved massively. It's all very clear.

StringerBell

Kerrigooney wrote: »

Do you really hate West Ham? They're inoffensive enough surely?

I like Bilic...he's a scruffy bastard and he gives a scruffy bastard like myself hope

I like Bilic alright, but yeah, the hatred for West Ham is strong

BorneTobyWilde

The Allen miss
The Allen goal
The Benteke chances

Bowlardo

Did klopp give benteke a bollicking

SlickRic

Just watched those Southampton goals again.

For every single one, Skrtel is utterly out of position, either because he loses track of the ball in the air, or loses a tackle, or is just chasing the ball.

Sakho will be disappointed with losing his 1 on 1 for the first and third, but honestly, Skrtel leaves the whole defence high and dry on all 3 goals. It's utterly embarrassing. Shameful performance.

happyoutscan

Just seen Herr Klopps diatribe with Bent eke on the pitch, didn't see it earlier because of work. Undecided.

Turtyturd

Flanagan's contribution to their first goal seems to be getting completely overlooked.

Francie Barrett

Watching the highlights on MOTD. Painful to relive the game, but how the fcuk did we lose that?

Ciano35

https://twitter.com/MrBoywunder/status/711580895443099649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

NukaCola

happyoutscan wrote: »

Just seen Herr Klopps diatribe with Bent eke on the pitch, didn't see it earlier because of work. Undecided.

Think this is it and if it is doesn't seem like much....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjxPe4sQ4zg

StringerBell

Best kept behind closed doors imho.

Not exactly Phil Brown sit em down and point the finger, but not gonna do much for the player either.

All I want to know is what 5starpool thinks of all this craic today

And maybe OwayneOtt, he's starting to grow on me

Not whatawater, he's ruthless

~Rebel~

Gutted.

Skrtel was obviously a disaster, but I don't hold too much blame for Klopp to be honest...Skrtel is coming back from injury, so when better to give him games than we're already 2-0 up? Especially given that he misses the next U21 game after his sending off.

Elsewhere, what the **** is going on with some of this "Sell Henderson" lark that seems to be popping up recently on here? I've seen a lot of short-termism on these threads over the past few years, but that's about the worst of it.

Demosthenese

SlickRic wrote: »

Just watched those Southampton goals again.

For every single one, Skrtel is utterly out of position, either because he loses track of the ball in the air, or loses a tackle, or is just chasing the ball.

Sakho will be disappointed with losing his 1 on 1 for the first and third, but honestly, Skrtel leaves the whole defence high and dry on all 3 goals. It's utterly embarrassing. Shameful performance.

Sahko was left on his arse by the pace of Mane. Can't blame Skrtel for them all.

Harry Palmr

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Gutted.

Skrtel was obviously a disaster, but I don't hold too much blame for Klopp to be honest...Skrtel is coming back from injury, so when better to give him games than we're already 2-0 up? Especially given that he misses the next U21 game after his sending off.

Can't have that - 2-0 at HT is no sort of comfy margin against a team like Southampton. Kolo was the obvious choice, it could never be Skrtel.

Pyjamarama

Demosthenese wrote: »

Sahko was left on his arse by the pace of Mane. Can't blame Skrtel for them all.

I can and will.

Honestly if you look at the positions that Skrtel is for each of the goals he's causing the other 3 defenders to have to take steps back from where they should be. If one person is the one not holding the line then he's the one at fault. If Skrtel is where he should be for the first then they don't get that chance, Flanno loses the ball which was bad but if the line is higher then the odds of Mane not being caught offside are super slim. Or at worst he has to hold his run which is not his strong point. Defending neither high nor deep but in the middle is what kills teams. And our Martin loves to do that.

re: the selling Hendo, I think people are just worried about a)his injuries and b) his suitability to the captaincy. I don't think it suits him. He's not a good organiser and he's not a Stevie style "I'm gonna win you this match on my own" either. If we take the armband off him will he be ok with that? If he is then i'd keep him.

~Rebel~

Pyjamarama wrote: »

I can and will.

Honestly if you look at the positions that Skrtel is for each of the goals he's causing the other 3 defenders to have to take steps back from where they should be. If one person is the one not holding the line then he's the one at fault. If Skrtel is where he should be for the first then they don't get that chance, Flanno loses the ball which was bad but if the line is higher then the odds of Mane not being caught offside are super slim. Or at worst he has to hold his run which is not his strong point. Defending neither high nor deep but in the middle is what kills teams. And our Martin loves to do that.

re: the selling Hendo, I think people are just worried about a)his injuries and b) his suitability to the captaincy. I don't think it suits him. He's not a good organiser and he's not a Stevie style "I'm gonna win you this match on my own" either. If we take the armband off him will he be ok with that? If he is then i'd keep him.

That's really not a reason to sell him imo. I did a bigger post on it the other day, but the captaincy on the pitch matters very different. Put that little piece of cloth on a different arm and you think it makes any difference? if Sakho does something heroic and he's not wearing the armband does it have less of an impact? Is a Coutinho goal somehow better if he's wearing it? Did flanno having it on today account for the positives in the first half? or the negatives in the second? Or did it make no difference whatsoever?

Gerrard was the perfect person to have it while he was there, but I don't think it necessarily made him a better player (if anything you could argue it hampered him, given how much responsibility he heaps on himself - but i think he'd have done that regardless to be honest - it's just his mentality). And had Gerrard never been at LFC, we'd all be talking about how great a captain Carra was over the past decade, and how those inspirational defensive performances like at Istanbul in the second half and extra team was pure captains stuff - but he wasn't captain, and he did it anyway, because thats what leaders do.

Personality off the field is much more important for the actual practical duties of being captain, and I'd actually say Henderson is one of the most suitable in that regard.