Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2016/2017

LuckyLloyd

I mean we get drawn into massive micro level arguments on a per player basis regarding our transfer strategy under FSG but is there really any Macro level positive argument to he had anymore? We overspend on mid level players constantly; we have very high turnover on £15m+ signings and the squad always seems unbalanced.

SuperTortoise

Any team news yet?

citytillidie

Here is me thinking before a ball is kicked after our 1st two games we would be on 3 points

machiavellianme

Sheeeeit wrote: »

Jesus Christ!

sword1 wrote: »

Keep hearing about him on the thread but have to admit i haven't seen him play ,whats his best position

He has a bit of a cult following alright. Seems to be pretty good at executing the "hand of god". However, he is not great at crosses, his season only ever seems to start at Christmas and he goes missing after Easter...

Washington Irving

#LFC team to face @burtonalbionfc: Mignolet, Clyne, Lovren, Matip, Milner, Henderson, Can, Lallana, Firmino, Mane, Origi #BAFCvLFC

#LFC substitutes: Manninger, Klavan, Moreno, Stewart, Wijnaldum, Ings, Sturridge #BAFCvLFC

martyos121

Someone gonna do the match thread?

Knex*

Stronger team than I expected. Might be trying to rectify for last weekend. Mane straight back into the team is definitely unexpected.

Pyjamarama

Delighted with that team. Now go out there and give them a hiding. Its been too long since we've done that.

Gbear

JESUS that's a strong team.

I did want to see the others get a run out but we need to sort out our first 11 and how they play together as a matter of urgency.

With Can, Mane and Origi in there I have absolutely no qualms about it. If we could guarantee this team would play every week I'd be a paid up member of the Liverpool title winning delusion squad.

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Hard to disagree to be honest...If you look at our peak midfield during Rafa's days, Can is the only one that might get into the squad, never mind the team.

[...]

Any of those guys I would be happy to have as backup, but Can is the only one I look at and think "there's an LFC starter". With so many question marks, i'd much rather we had 2 solid definite starters who you know can get shit done.

I don't really think this makes a ton of sense when we had the same inconsistencies under Rafa.
Granated, we werent' conceding as many, but 0-0's are nearly as bad as losses when you've aspirations towards the upper end of the table.

Pyjamarama wrote: »

There's loads of hysteria. People are saying if we don't buy x we won't finish top 4.

There've been loads of people saying that for weeks though.
The Burnley just pissed people off enough to say it some more.

Reganio 2

Is it on the telly box?

Glico Man

Reganio 2 wrote: »

Is it on the telly box?

Sky Sports 1, KO at 19.45.

~Rebel~

Gbear wrote: »

I don't really think this makes a ton of sense when we had the same inconsistencies under Rafa.
Granated, we werent' conceding as many, but 0-0's are nearly as bad as losses when you've aspirations towards the upper end of the table.

How so? I was talking about our centre midfield, and how Can is the only one of our midfielders that would stand a chance at getting into Rafa's centre midfield squad. What doesn't make sense about that? We had a much better centre mid under Rafa than we do now, that is pretty much inarguable. Alonso, Mascherano, Gerrard, Sissoko (pre-eye problem).

Rafa's team had issues elsewhere, mostly in the support attacking positions. The spine through the middle was as strong as i've ever seen, but we had no quality either side of the striker. Which is why we didn't score as many goals as we could have. But that centre midfield had all the strength, solidity, and creativity that you could ever want. On the other hand, any 2 of Lallana, Coutinho, Firmino or Mane could perhaps get into Rafa's starting 11 either side of Gerrard in Attacking mid, but as I said, I was talking about centre midfield, because there's where we're looking unbalanced right now.

Pyjamarama

~Rebel~ wrote: »

How so? I was talking about our centre midfield, and how Can is the only one of our midfielders that would stand a chance at getting into Rafa's centre midfield squad. What doesn't make sense about that? We had a much better centre mid under Rafa than we do now, that is pretty much inarguable. Alonso, Mascherano, Gerrard, Sissoko (pre-eye problem).

Rafa's team had issues elsewhere, mostly in the support attacking positions. The spine through the middle was as strong as i've ever seen, but we had no quality either side of the striker. Which is why we didn't score as many goals as we could have. But that centre midfield had all the strength, solidity, and creativity that you could ever want. On the other hand, any 2 of Lallana, Coutinho, Firmino or Mane could perhaps get into Rafa's starting 11 either side of Gerrard in Attacking mid, but as I said, I was talking about centre midfield, because there's where we're looking unbalanced right now.

The thing is outside of Pogba would any other cm in the league get into that Liverpool team? It was legit the best midfield in the whole world.

Agent Coulson

What team needs more than a LB or CM and even a new Captain is a dirty nasty bastard with a bite in a tackle.

Actually that would be the ideal new CM Captain.

~Rebel~

Pyjamarama wrote: »

The thing is outside of Pogba would any other cm in the league get into that Liverpool team? It was legit the best midfield in the whole world.

I'm pointing out how far we've fallen in midfield in 7 years. Particularly when you look at balance. Rafa knew that you build a team through its spine, but that's where we look most unstable right now. We have no idea what our first choice CB pairing is, and no idea what our first choice midfield pairing should be.

Our attack is potentially great, but without that structure behind them, we're always going to look in danger. I would really like if we had a single centre midfielder that we could rely on to sniff out danger and stop opposition attacks. But the closest we have are two guys in Lucas and Stewart that a) are far off the standard we want, and b) don't play anyway.

sword1

machiavellianme wrote: »

He has a bit of a cult following alright. Seems to be pretty good at executing the "hand of god". However, he is not great at crosses, his season only ever seems to start at Christmas and he goes missing after Easter...

Definitely Captain material

J Mysterio

Nigel Clough 'a bit wary of Liverpool after their defeat by Burnley, particularly by the manner of the defeat'.

DrumSteve

Agent Coulson wrote: »

What team needs more than a LB or CM and even a new Captain is a dirty nasty bastard with a bite in a tackle.

Actually that would be the ideal new CM Captain.

Get Gary Medel.

Osmosis Jones

Great to have Can back.

Also Matip looks like an actual giant.

~Rebel~

DrumSteve wrote: »

Get Gary Medel.

Would be very happy with him to be honest.

jesus_thats_gre

~Rebel~ wrote: »

The most frustrating part is that we're actually really close! A good quality left back, and a nailed on starter in CM to partner Can, and we'd be there I think.

We are certainly close to being expected to compete for the top 4. But I think it will take quite the bit of investment to expect to genuinely compete for 1st.

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Christ what i'd give for a quick cheeky move for Mascherano.

I would absolutely love this myself.

~Rebel~

Jeyyyysus Lovren! Of all the people to be shooting from there, he's the last one i want doing it.

DrumSteve

We missed mane

machiavellianme

Lovren having a poor game at both ends.

~Rebel~

DrumSteve wrote: »

We missed mane

To be honest Origi adds a whole extra dimension as well. I do really like Sturridge, but Origi makes us a better team.

Charlie19

machiavellianme wrote: »

Lovren having a poor game at both ends.

Ah come on, there's only been 9 minutes played.

citytillidie

J Mysterio wrote: »

Nigel Clough 'a bit wary of Liverpool after their defeat by Burnley, particularly by the manner of the defeat'.

Well it could be a good game for Liverpool with another team playing same as Burnley

Osmosis Jones

Mane is the complete antithesis to Lallana and I love it

DrumSteve

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Would be very happy with him to be honest.

I'd say we'd need to get used to playing with ten men, but sure we have Alberto already.

murpho999

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I mean we get drawn into massive micro level arguments on a per player basis regarding our transfer strategy under FSG but is there really any Macro level positive argument to he had anyone? We overspend on mid level players constantly; we have very high turnover on £15m+ signings and the squad always seemed unbalanced.

I mentioned this before a while back and got shot down.

FSG got constant praise for saving the club, when the truth is that they got a great asset and trademark at a knockdown price and is now worth a lot more and will bring them a lot of profit.
Look at the money now that's being mentioned, £800m for a part share. That's a great return on a £300m investment.

Whilst they have been a safe pair of hands, they have not brought a winning methodology to the club. Transfer committees, sell to buy, loan deals, transfer targets falling through because of low ball bids have cost the club dearly and as a result we have won just one trophy in the last 6 years.

How people deem this a successful ownership is beyond me.

Best thing they have done is getting Klopp but how long will he hang around if he can't bring success.

citytillidie

all caught on their heels there

machiavellianme

Divock (i think)

murpho999

Mane looks sheer class.

NukaCola

Nice from Mané

~Rebel~

Good stuff, good quick dynamic build up.

Can already see Mane and Origi combining very well pretty often. Both always moving for each other, giving options.

Glico Man

That drop of the shoulder and burst of speed from Mane... Missed that big time at Burnley.

Osmosis Jones

Great from Mane, just glides past the defenders

razorblunt

Burton look completely disinterested here.

Have to say whenever I watch Championship games I always find the commentators easy to listen to.

J Mysterio

Mane is ****ing unreal.

He was a buy I was unsure about and all of a sudden he's almost our best player?

~Rebel~

murpho999 wrote: »

Whilst they have been a safe pair of hands, they have not brought a winning methodology to the club. Transfer committees, sell to buy, loan deals, transfer targets falling through because of low ball bids have cost the club dearly and as a result we have won just one trophy in the last 6 years.

To be fair, they've run the club exactly how a club should be run, self sustaining and responsible. Just because much of the top tier of world football is funded by insanity doesn't make it the right way to run a business.

As for success, in those 6 years we may only have won 1 trophy, but we've had our best league season in 2 decades, and been in 4 finals and secured one of the worlds top managers. Given the strength of the competition, that's not bad tbh.

machiavellianme

Smashing

Francie Barrett

All over.

livinginkorea

Nice one!

DrumSteve

What a header

~Rebel~

Great goal, good quick awareness by all three of Mane, Clyne, and (as ever) Firmino.

Osmosis Jones

Great initiative from Mane again there, immediately looking forward when he gets the ball. A rare great cross from Clyne too.

machiavellianme

Hopefully a few more will get a goal and come into a bit of form

ricero

This well could be the starting 11 for spurs away unless phil comes in for someone

ricero

This well could be the starting 11 for spurs away unless phil comes in for someone

~Rebel~

i think Clyne looks much better when he has a partner ahead of himself that he clicks with...many of his best performances actually came with Ibe sharing the wing imo. Mane adds everything Ibe did and much more, and the bit of freedom he causes with his threat of pace opens up a lot of space for Clyne. Ibe and Mane are both good for looking to keep it wide, encouraging the overlap too, where many of the other faux-wingers we've used have already moved the ball inside before Clyne can get involved.