Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2018 (MOD NOTE: POST #2805)

mosstin

Further proof we're being well run by FSG. https://twitter.com/AndyK_LivNews/status/969152423846703105?ref_src=twcamp%5Ecopy%7Ctwsrc%5Eandroid%7Ctwgr%5Ecopy%7Ctwcon%5E7090%7Ctwterm%5E3

Trigger

johnpatrick81 wrote: »

He can still play a strong side and get them to play conservatively with their energy!

If I was a Liverpool fan I wouldn’t want him to play Firmino or Salah anyways, as if either of those pick up an injury. Mane is a tough one, as while he scored recently he is still in poor form for him, and it could be a good game to throw him into to see if he can play himself into form.

Boom_Bap

astradave wrote: »

If I was a Liverpool fan I wouldn’t want him to play Firmino or Salah anyways, as if either of those pick up an injury. Mane is a tough one, as while he scored recently he is still in poor form for him, and it could be a good game to throw him into to see if he can play himself into form.

I don't get this, he has been brilliant lately, he just hadn't been putting the ball in the net and going for blemmers instead of squaring the ball.
Everything else he has been doing on and off the ball has been brilliant.

Trigger

Boom_Bap wrote: »

I don't get this, he has been brilliant lately, he just hadn't been putting the ball in the net and going for blemmers instead of squaring the ball.
Everything else he has been doing on and off the ball has been brilliant.

I suppose I don’t watch him as closely as I should then. Would you like to see any of the front 3 start on Tuesday? I’m sure ye have players that could slot in there and not lose 5-0 anyways. In fairness I’m personally hopeling ye start all three

5starpool

I wouldn't agree that Mane has been brilliant recently. His touch and decision making still isn't at it's best. He has improved from weeks ago, the goals are probably helping, but he hasn't been at his best still though.

Harry Palmr

Porto game

---

Karius
Gomez--Matip-Klavan--MorenoRobertson

---

Can

---

Lallana--Wiji
--Mane--Solnake-Ings

Mig, Clyne (?), Lovren, Milner, Ox-Cham, Salah or Woodburn (if the mini-pops CL schedule doesn't clash)

Newcastle/Utd games

---

Karius
TAA---Matip---VVD--Roberston

---

Hendo

---

Can----Ox_Cham
-Salah---Firmino--Mane

Mig, Clyne, Lovren, Milner, Wiji, Solanke, Ings

Boom_Bap

astradave wrote: »

I suppose I don’t watch him as closely as I should then. Would you like to see any of the front 3 start on Tuesday? I’m sure ye have players that could slot in there and not lose 5-0 anyways. In fairness I’m personally hopeling ye start all three

We should start our strongest fittest team every match, that's just my opinion though.

5starpool wrote: »

I wouldn't agree that Mane has been brilliant recently. His touch and decision making still isn't at it's best. He has improved from weeks ago, the goals are probably helping, but he hasn't been at his best still though.

Our attack doesn't work as effectively without him. Without his running off the ball, dragging the opposition away, or even carrying the ball at pace out of our half. He wouldn't be in them positions to take a shot if he was off form.

And in fairness, he's always had a dodgy first touch where he ends up stretching for the ball.

Potential Underachiever

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Porto game

---

Karius
Gomez--Matip-Klavan--MorenoRobertson

---

Can

---

Lallana--Wiji
--Mane--Solnake-Ings

Mig, Clyne (?), Lovren, Milner, Ox-Cham, Salah or Woodburn (if the mini-pops CL schedule doesn't clash)

Newcastle/Utd games

---

Karius
TAA---Matip---VVD--Roberston

---

Hendo

---

Can----Ox_Cham
-Salah---Firmino--Mane

Mig, Clyne, Lovren, Milner, Wiji, Solanke, Ings

You must really dislike Lovren. Give the lad a run out against Porto imo.

TitianGerm

astradave wrote: »

If I was a Liverpool fan I wouldn’t want him to play Firmino or Salah anyways, as if either of those pick up an injury. Mane is a tough one, as while he scored recently he is still in poor form for him, and it could be a good game to throw him into to see if he can play himself into form.

Mané in first season with us: 29 games, 13 goals, 8 assists.

So far this season Mane has: 29 games, 13 goals, 7 assists.

I think he's just not doing as well as the other two but is still doing quite well.

Harry Palmr

Mane has had his tally boosted by crappy CL opposition (that's not to say they don't all count of course).

MD1990

mosstin wrote: »

Further proof we're being well run by FSG. https://twitter.com/AndyK_LivNews/status/969152423846703105?ref_src=twcamp%5Ecopy%7Ctwsrc%5Eandroid%7Ctwgr%5Ecopy%7Ctwcon%5E7090%7Ctwterm%5E3

FSG deserve credit for the redevelopment of Anfield.

Been a huge success.

mosstin

He's our most harshly judged player is Mané. He tries things which don't always come off but he's there demanding the ball all the time. Some folk pointed to the fact that he didn't pass vs Everton as the start of some sort of 'decline'. His workrate is also underrated.

Potential Underachiever

TitianGerm wrote: »

Mané in first season with us: 29 games, 13 goals, 8 assists.

So far this season Mane has: 29 games, 13 goals, 7 assists.

I think he's just not doing as well as the other two but is still doing quite well.

If we looked beyond bare stats I think it's quite clear that Mane was better last season. He was always taking his man on last season and looked dangerous every time he got the ball, he was unplayable at times and looked full of confidence. This season not so much, the ball is bouncing off him a lot he looks indecisive, just nowhere near as fluid as last year. As mentioned he has padded out his stats but I think it's obvious he's having a dip in form regardless of stats.

johnpatrick81

astradave wrote: »

If I was a Liverpool fan I wouldn’t want him to play Firmino or Salah anyways, as if either of those pick up an injury. Mane is a tough one, as while he scored recently he is still in poor form for him, and it could be a good game to throw him into to see if he can play himself into form.

I agree. Our front 3 are vital, we don’t need to score Tuesday, so rest them all IMO and start a strong remainder of the team.

Mane is still definitely not100%, confidence seems a tad off, touch not quite there. But he’s getting closer and still far from droppable. He was sensational last season. This year he’s “just” been very good.

Grayditch

Mane's form has been fine, just his sharpness wasn't as good as it has been. Similar to Lukaku. He was doing many a thing right in the games he played.

beya2009

Such is the crazy transfer market now that we're reportedly going to offer a much improved contract for recent signing Salah so the lure of clubs like real madrid will be more difficult. I do think on current form Salah is top 5 best players in the world for me. What would be my top 5? Very subjective but in this order:

Messi
Neymar
Kane
Ronaldo
Salah

No KDB but it's about goals for me and a lot of my top 5 have a lot of assists too.

Harry Palmr

yay! The money shot

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/announcements/292412-lfc-announces-financial-results

Overall revenue increased by £62m to £364m
Reported profit after tax £39m
Further net cash investment of £91m on players and infrastructure (£95m invested in FY2016)
Six new player signings
Work starts on new £50m training ground in the summer
12 new commercial partnerships

and that's without any European football, so income could be up to 100m more if win win it

Harry Palmr

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Mane has had his tally boosted by crappy CL opposition (that's not to say they don't all count of course).

So too anyone else who scored against the crappy CL opposition surely?
I agree though, PL only stats are more indicative of performance this season IMO of course.

mosstin

Augeo wrote: »

So too anyone else who scored against the crappy CL opposition surely?
I agree though, PL only stats are more indicative of performance this season IMO of course.

Porto were decent opposition until we mullered them, though. We're guilty of underrating ourselves, at times, at the moment also. 3 goals away from home in a last 16 CL match is not to be sniffed at.

mosstin

mosstin wrote: »

Porto were decent opposition until we mullered them, though. We're guilty of underrating ourselves, at times, at the moment also. 3 goals away from home in a last 16 CL match is not to be sniffed at.

Surely Harry wasn't on about the Porto game though? I know I wasn't

54and56

Harry Palmr wrote: »

yay! The money shot

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/announcements/292412-lfc-announces-financial-results

Overall revenue increased by £62m to £364m
Reported profit after tax £39m
Further net cash investment of £91m on players and infrastructure (£95m invested in FY2016)
Six new player signings
Work starts on new £50m training ground in the summer
12 new commercial partnerships

and that's without any European football, so income could be up to 100m more if win win it

Give all the money to Ricero to spend!!

Harry Palmr

Porto? They are rubbish! All teams mullered by Liverpool are apparently. Seriously though I watched a few games/halves and I couldn't see anything much in them compared to previous Porto sides.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Harry Palmr wrote: »

yay! The money shot

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/announcements/292412-lfc-announces-financial-results

Overall revenue increased by £62m to £364m
Reported profit after tax £39m
Further net cash investment of £91m on players and infrastructure (£95m invested in FY2016)
Six new player signings
Work starts on new £50m training ground in the summer
12 new commercial partnerships

and that's without any European football, so income could be up to 100m more if win win it

... or the Coutinho money...

Harry Palmr

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

... or the Coutinho money...

but that's already been spent on Keita and VVD!

BorneTobyWilde

Getting to Champions league final is possible, we can score our way to final over 2 leg games. Winning final over 90 mins a problem.

Mr.H

Would ye ever!! Porto are rubbish. I said it before the Porto game and very few agreed, that Porto are a really good Europa league standard side but in now way a Champions League Elite. Everyone kept over rating them and they where shocking.

We have had tougher games against Championship sides

Gbear

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Porto? They are rubbish! All teams mullered by Liverpool are apparently. Seriously though I watched a few games/halves and I couldn't see anything much in them compared to previous Porto sides.

There's a difference between saying they are rubbish and they were rubbish.

The running stats came up later in the game (80 odd minutes) and it looks like we covered far less ground than normal (sub 100km at that point), indicating we had a bit of a stroll, and that was born out by what we were seeing on the pitch.
You might recall in maybe the biggest early indicator for Kloppball we outran Spurs and did over 120km or something to that effect.

That's a massive difference in intensity.

Goals change games, so them losing a bit of belief is normal, and we still needed flashes of quality to kill them off, but even at 2-0 we were seldom threatened and we faced less of a threat than we did from West Ham.

It was one of the easiest wins we've had this season.

I'd always be an advocate of having enough quality to carry you through bumpy patches in form, and we've been able to coast quite an encouraging amount of the time this season, and further to that, when we've needed to turn up, bar Spurs away, we pretty much have. City away was a bit of an anomaly.

However, I want to see games that I did see under Benitez and Rodgers but haven't seen a huge number of under Klopp, where we're comprehensively outplaying teams in every part of the pitch.
Like that Real Madrid game, where they weren't terrible but we totally kicked them around the place, or Arsenal at home 4-0 by half time, where it wasn't just about breaking away when they made mistakes and we were camped outside their box and strangling them. Even before we padded the score we were peppering their goal and you knew something was up.

If we can mug our way to the top of the league, then that's fine, I suppose, but I think we'll need to be able to show total dominance as well. Even if we don't need it, dammnit I want it!:o

I like seeing us win, I like seeing us press, I like seeing us work hard, but at times I have trouble coupling what we're doing with the ball and the quite impressive scorelines and I find less satisfaction from goals than I feel I should.

54and56

Mr.H wrote: »

Would ye ever!! Porto are rubbish. I said it before the Porto game and very few agreed, that Porto are a really good Europa league standard side but in now way a Champions League Elite. Everyone kept over rating them and they where shocking.

We have had tougher games against Championship sides

So this is all makeyuppey then?

Vicxas

Wonder if the Arsenal/City match will go ahead. I need a chuckle

NukaCola

No side getting into the last 16 of the CL can be classed as rubbish can they?

Porto were poor on the night but iirc matched us well up til our first goal....we went through the gears and they fell apart...thats what happens when teams are a bit naive against us.....sure we blew City away in similar fashion until they got a grip back on the game....

Agent Coulson

Porto were also missing the three core/best players in that team.

Harry Palmr

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

So this is all makeyuppey then?

Those lists are worthless, ranking stats can be picked and chosen. Look at the world rankings, we all know the federation you are in makes a huge difference, as does who you play in friendlies and so on. The only thing that matters is how they play against comparable opposition to in this case Liverpool. Does anyone think City would have had a harder time? Or Spurs?

Mr.H

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

So this is all makeyuppey then?

Yes

BorneTobyWilde

We can make crap teams look great, and great teams look crap, we are Liverpool .

Mr.H

NukaCola wrote: »

No side getting into the last 16 of the CL can be classed as rubbish can they?

Porto were poor on the night but iirc matched us well up til our first goal....we went through the gears and they fell apart...thats what happens when teams are a bit naive against us.....sure we blew City away in similar fashion until they got a grip back on the game....

Porto barely threatened us at all that night. They had no attack and all their hype has been excused as being poor on the night.

The truth is they are a poor side. Nothing like the sides they had in the past. Some of their players would struggle to get into the West Brom team.

As for poor sides in the last 16??? Besiktas, Basel, Shakhtar and Porto are all very very poor sides that every team would have deemed an easy tie

MD1990

Mr.H wrote: »

Porto barely threatened us at all that night. They had no attack and all their hype has been excused as being poor on the night.

The truth is they are a poor side. Nothing like the sides they had in the past. Some of their players would struggle to get into the West Brom team.

As for poor sides in the last 16??? Besiktas, Basel, Shakhtar and Porto are all very very poor sides that every team would have deemed an easy tie

Different game if Soares took his chance in the 1st half at 0-0.

Harry Palmr

MD1990 wrote: »

Different game if Soares took his chance in the 1st half at 0-0.

They had a decent opening 10 or so, esp left side against TAA but they didn't score. Goals win games, that they folded like a deck of cards playing at home told it's own tale.

(not sure why some are determined to talk up Porto as opposition)

NukaCola

Mr.H wrote: »

Porto barely threatened us at all that night. They had no attack and all their hype has been excused as being poor on the night.

The truth is they are a poor side. Nothing like the sides they had in the past. Some of their players would struggle to get into the West Brom team.

As for poor sides in the last 16??? Besiktas, Basel, Shakhtar and Porto are all very very poor sides that every team would have deemed an easy tie

Does the H in your name stand for Hyperbole by any chance?

You've obviously seen a lot more of them than I have then.

Porto beat good sides along the way, but I guess they are rubbish and very very poor also and their players would struggle to get into a West Brom team too :rolleyes:

They may not be great but I would in no way say they are a very very poor team or rubbish but thats just me. I dont think anyone thought Porto was an easy tie.

Grayditch

They've 13 goals in 3 games since the loss, there's a chance we set a fire under them. Be grand. make it 10-0 on agg.

Mr.H wrote: »

Some of their players would struggle to get into the West Brom team.

That's a gas thing to post.

MD1990

Porto have won their last 3 games scoring 13 goals. Yes it is only Portugal but it is impressive.

They beat Monaco 3-0 & 5-2. Beat Leipzig 3-1. They are a good side. They would beat West Brom quite easily.

Mr.H

NukaCola wrote: »

Does the H in your name stand for Hyperbole by any chance?

You've obviously seen a lot more of them than I have then.

Porto beat good sides along the way, but I guess they are rubbish and very very poor also and their players would struggle to get into a West Brom team too :rolleyes:

They may not be great but I would in no way say they are a very very poor team or rubbish but thats just me. I dont think anyone thought Porto was an easy tie.

Listen the term rubbish is subjective anyway. I mean rubbish in terms of being a team in the last 16.

They beat a Monaco side who has been dismantled. That was their biggest display this season.

As for 13 goals in 3 games............. ffs Rio Ave and Portiminose featured in those battle of the Goliaths

I said before the Porto game that it would be a missed opportunity if we didnt win by at least a couple of goals. I think I even overestimated Porto

Agent Coulson

L'equipe reporting shock horror that we are interested in a Southampton player.......Lemina

Mr.H

MD1990 wrote: »

Porto have won their last 3 games scoring 13 goals. Yes it is only Portugal but it is impressive.

They beat Monaco 3-0 & 5-2. Beat Leipzig 3-1. They are a good side. They would beat West Brom quite easily.

It really isnt and I am not sure they would beat West Brom easily. A lot of the West Brom side would walk into that Porto team.

Of course its a question of tactics as well but West Brom gave us a much tougher game than Porto did at home

Grayditch

*Googles to see if West brom are still who I think they are*

Mr.H

Grayditch wrote: »

*Googles to see if West brom are still who I think they are*

They are. The same West Brom that knocked us out of the FA cup only a few weeks ago when we played a full strength side at Anfield

NukaCola

Would West Brom get to the knockout stages of the CL though? Would they qualify from their group if it had Leipzig, Monaco and Besiktas in it.

Anyone can be beat anyone on their day, it doesn't really define if they are a good/bad team. Porto are by far a better side than West Brom in every single way from what I have seen and read etc. Maybe people who seen them play more can convince me otherwise. Lets not forget that West Brom have 3 wins all season in the league.

Harry Palmr

Mr.H wrote: »

It really isnt and I am not sure they would beat West Brom easily. A lot of the West Brom side would walk into that Porto team.

Many but not all of them obviously! :pac:

Grayditch

Mr.H wrote: »

They are. The same West Brom that knocked us out of the FA cup only a few weeks ago when we played a full strength side at Anfield

Yeah, how many more of them billy big balls performances have they put in this season?



Porto would be 21st, alright...

Mr.H

NukaCola wrote: »

Would West Brom get to the knockout stages of the CL though? Would they qualify from their group if it had Leipzig, Monaco and Besiktas in it.

Anyone can be beat anyone on their day, it doesn't really define if they are a good/bad team. Porto are by far a better side than West Brom in every single way from what I have seen and read etc. Maybe people who seen them play more can convince me otherwise. Lets not forget that West Brom have 3 wins all season in the league.

Of course your right. I know I am being disparaging and that they are a better side than West Brom from what I have read about them. I also have not watched much of their league games aside from highlights in the lead up to our first leg with them.

My snide remarks about them is purely on what I seen as a team who, while are good on the ball, are very nervy in defence. Even when they have their full strength side. A bit like ourselves to be honest.

Of course West Brom and Porto are very different. Their tactics alone dismiss any real comparison between their players. West Brom did beat us at home though which is at least a warning that certain tactics do hurt us more.

But I do honestly believe that for a last 16 side, Porto are further than they should be. Monaco, while depleted, are a much better side as are Leipzig. But alas neither of them made it out of the group.

I hope we dont underestimate them as I am hopefully heading over for the home game and dont fancy paying all that cash to see Liverpool reserves as I could do that for free with my fan card.

Mr.H

Grayditch wrote: »

Yeah, how many more of them billy big balls performances have they put in this season?



Porto would be 21st, alright...

Yet they did beat us at home