Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2016/2017

Vicxas

This is our worst January I can remember.

Gbear

Gbear wrote: »

CL money won't make that much of a difference.

Particularly when we're only buying as much as Klopp deems we need, rather than just spending all our budget.


And as for CL being a pull-factor, maybe, but I don't think teams trust us yet, and Klopp has been adamant that the players we sign don't do so on that basis.
It'll have some impact, even if nobody comes out and says it, but given how volatile things are in the league, the PL is a bad place to come if you want guaranteed CL every year.

True. Probably should have emphasised the pull factor of CL football rather than its actual financial reward, doubly so if Klopp isn't going to spend all of the budget thats available. I see it getting tougher in years to come unfortunately. Spurs & Chelsea will be moving into 60,000 seater grounds, plus they are in London, another factor when it comes to players deciding where they want to go.

razorblunt

Gbear wrote: »

I haven't seen anyone turning on Klopp, bar some dickheads on twitter.

He's here on a 7 year contract. He's supposed to make us win but Rome can't be built in a day.
.

Clowns on twitter, those "fan" videos and that clown Helen on Soccer AM, she asked some Liverpool supporting guest today about "Klopp Out" and he laughed it off, saying that's not the case.

martyos121

Vicxas wrote: »

This is our worst January I can remember.

January 2009 was poor also, no wins in the PL, drew an FA Cup match Edith Everton (lost the replay in February) and we weren't even in the League Cup at that point.

If we finish in the same position as that season, I'll be delighted though!

J Mysterio

Raisins wrote: »

It's only the league and FA cup. You get no credit for winning them so I don't know why everyone loses their minds when we're knocked out of them. I'm glad most of these abject performances came in the cups. We're still in a great position in the league.

Thats pretty stupid. Winning cups matters a great deal, its the whole point really.

Gerrards favourite goals - probably his best goals - are his goals against Olympiakos and West Ham. Olympiakos kept the Champions League dream alive. His goal against West Ham was a wonder moment and part of why its so special to him and to us is that it kept us in the game in the FA Cup final, which of course we went on to win. It mattered. The FA cup matters.

Players want to win trophies and yes it does raise the profile of the club, makes players happy and indicates success.

I hope to god we can qualify for the Champions League this season so we can attract a better class of player. A new FA Cup in the trophy room would have helped too.

Can't wait for Mane back.

BorneTobyWilde

Only few days left in transfer market Klopp needs to add something to the squad. A new face can help a lot.

BorneTobyWilde

J Mysterio wrote: »

Ridiculous. Whether you like him or not, he gives it socks. I thought he was Liverpools best player today (best of a bad lot).

That last ditch flying kung fuu tackle was funny for the second.

mosstin

martyos121 wrote: »

January 2009 was poor also, no wins in the PL, drew an FA Cup match Edith Everton (lost the replay in February) and we weren't even in the League Cup at that point.

If we finish in the same position as that season, I'll be delighted though!

Is your bird's name Edith?

Osmosis Jones

The biggest travesty of this month is how much Klopp has been effected by Mane leaving. It shouldn't cause this much of an upset, one player going away for a month, especially when the team was priding itself on not being reliant on one player but rather getting goals from everywhere. The way he dealt with Mane's departure has been so bizarre, we had a winning formula and he changed the entire thing because one player went away. Why not just bring in another winger to replace Mane? Whether that be a new signing or even just someone from the academy like Ojo or Woodburn. Sure they're clearly not as good as Mane but I'd much rather have a lesser player on one side and allow the rest of the team to keep functioning as they were, than to change the entire system and hamstring all of our top players by playing them out of position.

Kerrigooney

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Only few days left in transfer market Trump needs to add something to the squad. A new face can help a lot.

Posting on a couple of different topics Toby?

kevohmsford

I am not too bothered about the cups. We were bound to have a dip in form. Squad is just too small to compete on all fronts. League is what matters.

Osmosis Jones

We need to start regaining some ground in the league. We're 2 points off being in 5th place with some very tough fixtures to come. We can't drop any points against the weaker teams we have to face, if we can beat them and get draws against the top teams we'll be in a good position coming into the last 9 games.

Augeo

Augeo wrote: »

3 pts against Chelsea brings us 3pts closer to finishing top4.

IMO wolves game matters little

Said it this morning & stand by it.
Cup is littered with upsets every season, some seasons we are beaten by teams from lower leagues.

Someone else made a great point about players not coming to the PL if they are looking to play CL every year.

Top4 or better is if course the aim now but it's not end of the world if we miss out. We've been in title race almost half the season & I've no doubt our form will pick up.

J Mysterio

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

That last ditch flying kung fuu tackle was funny for the second.

That was one poor moment he had but at he least he tried to stop the player, I think he was trying to take him out. He chased back to make the challenge at least. After that point there were still three Liverpool players further forward who could have intervened - you cant blame the goal on Moreno alone.

Gbear

Augeo wrote: »

Said it this morning & stand by it.
Cup is littered with upsets every season, some seasons we are beaten by teams from lower leagues.

Someone else made a great point about players not coming to the PL if they are looking to play CL every year.

Top4 or better is if course the aim now but it's not end of the world if we miss out. We've been in title race almost half the season & I've no doubt our form will pick up.

Then why do it by half-measures?

We could've thrown in a coherent 4-3-3 mostly consisting of our youth side with players playing with players they're comfortable with, in a position they're suited to.

Maybe chuck a Firmino in if he won't be playing against Chelsea because he's a fool and is going to court for a drunk driving offence, but what point is there in Wijnaldum playing?

We've taken the cups too seriously to give us an advantage in the league by giving players time off, but we've still been ****e.

martyos121

mosstin wrote: »

Is your bird's name Edith?

Weirdest autocorrect ever lol. I don't think I've ever even typed it before. :pac:

sword1

We have been poor for a spell now. I posted 3 weeks ago that I hoped Chelsea beat spurs to give us a better chance of top 4 but I was told that was madness as we had a better chance of winning the league if spurs beat Chelsea. Not too many saying we will win the league now

BorneTobyWilde

J Mysterio wrote: »

That was one poor moment he had but at he least he tried to stop the player, I think he was trying to take him out. He chased back to make the challenge at least. After that point there were still three Liverpool players further forward who could have intervened - you cant blame the goal on Moreno alone.

A long long long way from goal he can't manage to run down a player who is running with ball at his feet, instead he makes a flying two footed tackle and misses. Typical of the player, he could of just ran him down and took his chances that way, at least it gives him a chance. Player was free to do anything he wanted once Kung Fuu Panda made his move and failed

Harry Palmr

Still Spurs are loosing 0-2 so it's not just us

SlickRic

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I think I articulated part of it after our defeat to Swansea.

The team is suffering from a bit of an identity crisis.

Are we a possession team?
Are we a counter attacking team?
Are we a physical team?

The only thing I know we are currently, is a team that runs a lot.

As we all know, Klopp's teams are generally masters of the counter press. We saw some of it early in the season obviously. For it to work, you need quick, incisive passing, as well as the ability to press and nick possession at the right time. It worked early in the season. Teams now give us the ball to try and negate that. So we've decided to be a team that keeps the ball.

The problem is, when you have the ball for long periods, you need someone capable of something special to break teams who will just sit in. You also need some pace to stretch the game. Coutinho is the former. Mané is the latter.

We're missing the latter, and the former is just returning.

If you can't be incisive, you need a special striker. A Costa. A Suarez. An Ibra. We don't have that. So if the ball is put into the box, we've nobody to make something out of very little.

So we're caught between two stones in attack, and we also can't defend, so the attack always has pressure on it to perform.

It's all a mess.

We also need players. Badly. The backup to the starters isn't good enough.

tanko

sword1 wrote: »

We have been poor for a spell now. I posted 3 weeks ago that I hoped Chelsea beat spurs to give us a better chance of top 4 but I was told that was madness as we had a better chance of winning the league if spurs beat Chelsea. Not too many saying we will win the league now

At the start of the season if someone told be that Liverpool would finish 3rd/4th I'd have ripped their arm off for that, I still would now.
Anything better is a bonus imo.

sReq | uTeK

Have to agree with Six, I think the squad depth and ground covered over the course of the season is starting to take affect.

D0NNELLY

We don't even have a quality first 11, never mind a squad to attack on three fronts. Sad to be out of the cups, but kloppy has his priorities right playing the kids.

kingshankly

Was at anfield today and in all my 30 years going there I can't remember a side as toothless and a defence as bad
Joe Gomez was shockingly bad Conor Randall looked like a lad plucked from the crowd
Lucas well the less said the better
But for me the biggest disappointment was gini he offered absolute nothing going forward
Emre can did well when he came on
One thing the wolves players busted a gut constantly thru the second half they were getting fluids on board and the amount of energy gels that were getting down them was incredible

6am7f9zxrsjvnb

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Still Spurs are loosing 0-2 so it's not just us

Another side with about 14 good players.

LuckyLloyd

It's been a bad month, bottom line. The entire season pares down now to 16 games. Win 13 of them and potentially be in the mix for the whole shebang. Win 10 or less, potentially miss out on the CL. Interesting times.

Turtyturd

Posting on here while at the match, maybe that video yesterday had a point.

Gbear

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

It's been a bad month, bottom line. The entire season pares down now to 16 games. Win 13 of them and potentially be in the mix for the whole shebang. Win 10 or less, potentially miss out on the CL. Interesting times.

Even if we won all of them I doubt it'd be enough to catch Chelsea.

It's been obvious that we weren't in the running since Bournemouth.
Not because a team couldn't make up the points, but because how good they were and how we were already being exposed and falling behind them even when we were really good.

Turtyturd

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Still Spurs are loosing 0-2 so it's not just us

Marianna Savory Bandstand wrote: »

Another side with about 14 good players.

Great jinxing.

Harry Palmr

Turtyturd wrote: »

Great jinxing.

Wycombe can beat the jinx! It's unlikely Liverpool could right now.

Gbear

SlickRic wrote: »

We also need players. Badly. The backup to the starters isn't good enough.

I think this needs more expansion as a point.

I think it's worth thinking about how weaker our bench is in practice than in theory, but also not going overboard in how much work or investment is needed to fix it.

Our best bench (purely going on quality and trying to cover as many positions) is something like

Karius
Sakho
TAA
Can
Lucas
Origi
Sturridge

Quality-wise, Sturridge and Sakho are good players and they're worth money.
At the start of the season we looked ok on this front but as it's gone on it has become clear that we're lacking in those two spots.
I'd expect a like-for like replacement at no great cost for Sakho, pushing Klavan into the reserves.

There's a weakness at full back in the squad and that needs addressing, but unless everything else is absolutely spot on it's the last position that needs looking at in any squad, IMO.

What's missing from the squad almost entirely is pace and width, especially on the left.

---

Karius
Clyne--Matip-CB-LB

---

Hendo

---

Wij----Coutinho
Mane----Bob----New Winger

Ward
Milner
Lovren
Can
Lallana
Origi
New CF

It'd probably 100m odd to get those 4 new lads (+ maybe a new GK) in but it's not going to be a complete overhaul and there won't be loads of lads to spare outside that.
We'll probably have a good £50m coming in from player sales so, when you take into account European football, we won't be financially any worse off than we were last summer.

We're probably never going to get to a situation where we also have 3 more 30m+ players instead of Origi, Milner and Lovren on 100k a week each, and there will be times in the season where our bench won't look much better than it has this season.
We'll probably also still have a lot of the younger lads still featuring in domestic cups.

And, most crucially, it'll be a real struggle to do drastically better in the league than we already are, unless those two attacking players are absolute belters.

Agent Coulson

I blame Harry for everything.

Harry Palmr

The full back positions are criminally understrength and the idea that Klopp will not buy a new one in the summer seems madness. Is he expecting Joe Gomez to fill the role when Milner isn't playing? Or is Sam Hart a first team player in waiting? Doubtful!

OwaynOTT

Woodburn looks like he might be a genuinely class act. Confident, can pass, can cross, decent at dead ball delivery, good control, takes on players but just needs to work on his diving.

shamrock55

Gbear wrote: »

To quote you: bull****.

They've brought Klopp in and given him all the support he wants.

They can take flak for how they handled Kenny and Rodgers but they've handed the reins over now.

If Klopp won't spend the money we've presumably got coming out our ears like everyone else, then that's down to him.

Maybe they shouldn't accept his long term plan and demand that he maximises things season to season, but I certainly don't think you can blame them for putting trust in a proven manager like Klopp, particularly when they tried the other way and it most assuredly did not lead to sustained success.

All fsg are interested in is lining their own pockets,klopp suits them down to the ground because he was never a big spender and they know that

Sugarlumps

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Wycombe can beat the jinx! It's unlikely Liverpool could right now.

Turtyturd

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Woodburn looks like he might be a genuinely class act. Confident, can pass, can cross, decent at dead ball delivery, good control, takes on players but just needs to work on his diving.

Trying to make a case for keeping Sturridge?

Gbear

shamrock55 wrote: »

All fsg are interested in is lining their own pockets,klopp suits them down to the ground because he was never a big spender and they know that

That's just ****ing mental.

Should they have got a worse manager in so he'd spend all the money available?

Gbear

Gbear wrote: »

Then why do it by half-measures?

We could've thrown in a coherent 4-3-3 mostly consisting of our youth side with players playing with players they're comfortable with, in a position they're suited to.

Maybe chuck a Firmino in if he won't be playing against Chelsea because he's a fool and is going to court for a drunk driving offence, but what point is there in Wijnaldum playing?

We've taken the cups too seriously to give us an advantage in the league by giving players time off, but we've still been ****e.

It's no doubt a tough balancing act.... didn't go as good as hoped.... that's football IMO

Vicxas

Oh look Chelsea and spurs won today....

OwaynOTT

Turtyturd wrote: »

Trying to make a case for keeping Sturridge?

Yeah, he's my favourite.

Turtyturd

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Yeah, he's my favourite.

Player or diver?

shamrock55

Gbear wrote: »

That's just ****ing mental.

Should they have got a worse manager in so he'd spend all the money available?

Doesn't matter who the manager is TBH,they won't part with the cash anyway

shamrock55

Vicxas wrote: »

Oh look Chelsea and spurs won today....

Why though,shur the big teams don't bother with the cups anymore didn't you know

klose

klose wrote: »

Fa cup at the weekend and I doubt anyone can say we go into the the game with any confidence, then chelsea midweek season could be looking extremely grim come this day week.....

And now the Chelsea game awaits, I wonder how we get out of this massive downturn? I was one who thought we could get by with our squad, maybe adding just one to replace mane but was awfully wrong. 3 seasons we were in the mix at the top of the table and 3 January transfer windows we sat on our hands.

shamrock55

shamrock55 wrote: »

All fsg are interested in is lining their own pockets,klopp suits them down to the ground because he was never a big spender and they know that

Rescuing the club from the wreckage of the H&G era? Dealing with the debt? Financing the new stand (hopefully doing the Anfield Rd end too)? I'm not saying FSG can't be criticised, but a little perspective should be considered before one is to start lobbing nuclear warheads in response to the current problems.

Osmosis Jones

Shamrock what do you actually expect from Liverpool? It's been a particularly bad month, sure, but even when it's a lot better than this you're not happy. We're definitely better than we have been lately, but I'm not sure we've been as good as you expect us to be in decades.

5starpool

When was the last time we lost 4 games in a row at home? Probably a long time since we even lost 3 in a row.

murpho999

Very disappointed in Klopp today. As I said in the match thread, he made a big mistake today with his selection. Selecting players who are out of form and not first choice was a bad idea.

With a team struggling for a win today, it was a great opportunity to put his strongest side out and get a good one, now they go into the game with a massive cloud hanging over them and a serious risk of losing their 4th home game in a row? Has that very happened before?

I don't accept that he had to rest so many because of the game on Tuesday. They should be able to handle it.

Wolves must have thought they had a great chance when they saw the line up.

Another trophyless season ahead. Very disappointing.

Osmosis Jones

5starpool wrote: »

When was the last time we lost 4 games in a row at home? Probably a long time since we even lost 3 in a row.

Some point in 2012 I read on Twitter, 3 losses anyway, no idea about 4.