Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2018 Mod warning post 9350 and 9421

5starpool

5starpool wrote: »

I posted this in November.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=105331649&postcount=3855

Glad I'm looking like I'll be right.

Cue a 6 nil loss v WBA :pac:

5starpool

This is a weird season. Things are so positive I feel like we should be 10 points clear at the top. Even if we finish 4th (which will be the minimum now) and lose to Roma it'll have been a very positive season in so many regards, and with Keita coming in there is the promise of more.

The main thing that needs to be addressed in the summer is the squad depth. Despite our current CB problems, we probably have enough. With Can (probably) and Mignolet (almost certainly) on the way out at least, I think we need as priorities:

Another midfielder - preferably one who can play deep
Another top forward player who is versatile
Possibly a goalie, but Ward might be seen as adequate backup

I really don't think Klopp will seek to upgrade Karius, and while it is a risk, I'd actually be happy enough to see him as no. 1 again next season given his form in the last couple of months.

5starpool

Talisman wrote: »

Just seen that both Harry Kane and Ederson have been nominated for PFA Young Player of the Year despite the fact that they were both 24 when the season began and therefore too old to be nominated for the award.

Somebody must be really desperate for Kane to pick up an award this year.

I assume they are using July 1st as the cut off for this rather than the first game of the season.

Talisman

RoboKlopp wrote: »

Really? That sounds ridiculous.

Aside from that 24 is a bit old for PFA Young Player of the Year imo.

It has always been the case that in order to be eligible a player has to be 23 or younger when the season begins. Obviously not this year ...

Ederson (24)
Harry Kane (24)
Raheem Sterling (23)
Leroy Sane (22)
Marcus Rashford (20)
Ryan Sessegnon (17)

charolais0153

Talisman wrote: »

It has always been the case that in order to be eligible a player has to be 23 or younger when the season begins. Obviously not this year ...

Ederson (24)
Harry Kane (24)
Raheem Sterling (23)
Leroy Sane (22)
Marcus Rashford (20)
Ryan Sessegnon (17)

Rashford hasnt done enough and kane and ederson are too old. Taa should be there really

Agent Coulson

Ryan Sessegnon has been the best young player playing in England.

Osmosis Jones

100+ Premier League goals, 5 seasons in the league, still considered a youth player

TitianGerm

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Ryan Sessegnon has been the best young player playing in England.

I'd say Sane will get it.

GiftofGab

So prob a bit early for this but who do we buy for replacements next season??
Another CB and sell Matip?? Hopefully Gomez will be given a run in next season at CB too.
A keeper?? Should Karius be given another season?? He's hasn't been tested too much since VVD came in.
Another CM to replace Can? Keita also coming in. Oz and Hendo will def still have a place in the team...they'll be rotated. Wijnaldum didn't have a great season. Coutinho was also sold with no replacement.
Striker in case the front 3 get injuried or need a rest?? Solanke is not up to it. Sturridge should be sold immediately. Ings never given a chance.

Pyjamarama

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Ryan Sessegnon has been the best young player playing in England.

Ah its Sterling. He's been phenomenal. I wish he was still here. He'd be some player to come off our bench!!

LiamoSail

Talisman wrote: »

It has always been the case that in order to be eligible a player has to be 23 or younger when the season begins. Obviously not this year ...

Ederson (24)
Harry Kane (24)
Raheem Sterling (23)
Leroy Sane (22)
Marcus Rashford (20)
Ryan Sessegnon (17)

Harry Kane will still be trying to claim it in his 30's

jayo26

TitianGerm wrote: »

I'd say Sane will get it.

100 percent deserves it.

bennyineire

3 more from Mane and that'll be plus 20 from 3 players

TitianGerm

jayo26 wrote: »

100 percent deserves it.

Sessegnon has a good shout as well, especially seeing as he's only 17.

Widdensushi

TitianGerm wrote: »

Sessegnon has a good shout as well, especially seeing as he's only 17.

That might go against him, the age is too old anyway

jayo26

TitianGerm wrote: »

Sessegnon has a good shout as well, especially seeing as he's only 17.

Yeah for sure but sane has been instrumental in the league win on that basis he fully deserves it.

Sessegnon has been a sensation but he has no big pressure on himself yet so he is playing with the young kid freedom if ya get what I mean bit he is a serious talent.

MD1990

Don't need too many new signings next summer.

Would like something like

- Zaha Winger/Forward
- Koulibaly/Manolas Centre Back
- N'Didi DM
- Experienced GK backup

I hope we keep buying top class African players.

Hopefully Harry Wilson can step up as a good back up option next season as well.

Iused2likebusts

bennyineire wrote: »

3 more from Mane and that'll be plus 20 from 3 players

A lot of the experts said we needed an out an out striker though. I'm confused.

BorneTobyWilde

Could play Salah through middle against Roma, throw a spanner in the works to confuse them. Put Mane on his preferred side, and Firmino on left.
Finish them in 30 minutes. Need 5 at home.

Agent Coulson

If Chelsea lose or draw to Burnley a win against WBA will be enough to claim a top 4 place next weekend.


Chelsea would have to win all there games and overturn a 19 goal difference to pass us if we loss all ours.

Harry Palmr

GiftofGab wrote: »

So prob a bit early for this but who do we buy for replacements next season??
Another CB and sell Matip?? Hopefully Gomez will be given a run in next season at CB too.
A keeper?? Should Karius be given another season?? He's hasn't been tested too much since VVD came in.
Another CM to replace Can? Keita also coming in. Oz and Hendo will def still have a place in the team...they'll be rotated. Wijnaldum didn't have a great season. Coutinho was also sold with no replacement.
Striker in case the front 3 get injuried or need a rest?? Solanke is not up to it. Sturridge should be sold immediately. Ings never given a chance.

Keep Karius make him the No 1 if he continues as is - Sell Mignolet - Make Danny Ward the No 2 and actually use him, bring in Grabara as No 3
Keep All the defenders except Moreno, buy a young left back.
Keep All the central midfielders, Can to Juve (or wherever) buy Jorginho
Keep all the attacking mids (with Lallana to prove fitness pre-season) Keita in.
Keep the Fun Boy Three, sell Sturridge, loan Solanke, sell Ings. Buy one quality attacking player, bring in Wilson, Woodburn and Brewster as cup/bench players. Sell other various loan players.

Widdensushi

Not sure whether sterling meant it as a dig or not but in his interview after today's game he said that it's his first premier league title and he doesn't care at which venue they win it. Probably nothing in it but if there was it would be a sign that he is hurting over the champions league loss. I presume there's similar hurt from Coutinho and he will be saying similar about a Barcelona league win.

PhiloCypher

SlickRic wrote: »

Loving Karius.

https://twitter.com/LorisKarius/status/985241369810817025?s=19

He could hook a throw out into his own net after that tweet and I would'nt care .

Only the one mind you.

corwill

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Keep Karius make him the No 1 if he continues as is - Sell Mignolet - Make Danny Ward the No 2 and actually use him, bring in Grabara as No 3
Keep All the defenders except Moreno, buy a young left back.
Keep All the central midfielders, Can to Juve (or wherever) buy Jorginho
Keep all the attacking mids (with Lallana to prove fitness pre-season) Keita in.
Keep the Fun Boy Three, sell Sturridge, loan Solanke, sell Ings. Buy one quality attacking player, bring in Wilson, Woodburn and Brewster as cup/bench players. Sell other various loan players.

Ricero, put the voodoo doll down!

5starpool

Widdensushi wrote: »

Not sure whether sterling meant it as a dig or not but in his interview after today's game he said that it's his first premier league title and he doesn't care at which venue they win it. Probably nothing in it but if there was it would be a sign that he is hurting over the champions league loss. I presume there's similar hurt from Coutinho and he will be saying similar about a Barcelona league win.

I didn't see the interview, but nothing you have said there implies anything like what you have suggested.

Every type of goal. Unreal.

38 years a supporter and I’ve never seen anything like this.

Salah is the wizard hero.

gafferino

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Every type of goal. Unreal.

38 years a supporter and I’ve never seen anything like this.

Salah is the wizard hero.

Suarez

Muahahaha

While I agree Karius has improved I also get the feeling that posters impressions of how much he has improved have been skewed- this is because our defence has shored up so well since VVD came in that teams we play are getting far less shots on target than was the case before VVD.

Before VVD arrived it felt like almost any shot on target against us would beat Mingolet/Karuis. Since VVD came into the team our defence seems a lot tighter at preventing shots on goal. The Man City first leg is probably the best example of this- City did not have a single shot on target all game and credit for that goes to the line of 4, not to Karius.

Granted he has made some fine saves in the last few months. But I think overall he still can be a liability, especially on crosses and his positioning for them, he still comes for the ball but can fall short or not get a strong hand on it which then leads to giving up chances.

gafferino

gafferino wrote: »

Suarez

True. Best player to ever play for us. No doubt.

TitianGerm

https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/985226418014441472?s=19

gimli2112

nice first goal for City today, was like watching long ball Wimbledon
sorry, I've drank a lot but sometimes goals change games, at least Kane didn't score today......so far

Agent Coulson

Gerard’s 16 year old cousin is set to leave City’s Academy after contract dispute and join Liverpool.

City will get £200k compensation.

gimli2112

was the dispute we beat them 1-5 last week?

ERG89

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Gerard’s 16 year old cousin is set to leave City’s Academy after contract dispute and join Liverpool.

City will get £200k compensation.

I'm just imagining how confusing it'll be if his name is Gerard Gerrard

monkey9

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Gerard’s 16 year old cousin is set to leave City’s Academy after contract dispute and join Liverpool.

City will get £200k compensation.

I'd question why he was there in the first place.

Agent Coulson

monkey9 wrote: »

I'd question why he was there in the first place.

Lots of retired players and nearly all of the top Man U players under Alex have their kids in the City academy.

rwbug

Bobby Duncan - highly regarded by us (City). Been at City since he was 10 (we got him from Wigan) and we had high hopes. He seems totally committed to joining Liverpool.

Liverpool had a youth player signing ban - This transfer shows that they have avoided/ignored it by just waiting it out - yet still offering big bucks.

Glico Man

rwbug wrote: »

Bobby Duncan - highly regarded by us (City). Been at City since he was 10 (we got him from Wigan) and we had high hopes. He seems totally committed to joining Liverpool.

Liverpool had a youth player signing ban - This transfer shows that they have avoided/ignored it by just waiting it out - yet still offering big bucks.

The 2nd year of the ban, which comes into effect sometime in April this year, was suspended for 3 years pending any further breaches. So they, presumably, will wait until the end of the 1st year of the ban and then attempt to register the player.

niallo27

Sign up all the young lads, we are going rule the world.

Gbear

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

A lot of the experts said we needed an out an out striker though. I'm confused.

When things weren't clicking there seemed to be a big orthodox striker-shaped hole in our attack, but with Bob Firmino pushing 30, Mane 20 and Salah 45, we've got the volume up there.
Salah has taken all the pressure off the other two, both in a figurative sense, and literally in terms of where defences' attention is focused.

We don't have a pure lethal finisher of the likes of Henry, Van Persie or Van Nistlerooy, but you can't cover all your bases and we're getting enough, one way or the other. We're instead creating large volumes of really good chances that don't need your striker to pull a finish out of their hole, which is arguably better, because you can add a top orthodox striker to that at any time and make it better, but you can't just conjour up a system like ours. It's taken years to get it this good.

The main thing now is more goals from the bench and from midfield, and maybe a few chipped in from defence.

We probably need to be getting up towards 100 goals in the league to be successful with this kind of football, even with the improvements in defence.

We have to assume that City will set a similar pace next year, and we're a minimum of 13pts off a 95pts total that would give us a really good chance of staying competitive no matter what they do.

It'll be hard for a team without City, United, or maybe Chelsea's resources to ever do any better than 90pts because of how much their squad depth helps with consistency, but if we're there or there abouts we might do it one season in 3 and that might be enough for a title.

And while others will also suffer, it'll also be in a post WC year, so only Robertson, Van Dijk, maybe Karius, maybe Trent, Gini, Milner from in and around our first 11 will get a full pre-season.

Particularly in the winter, I think we're going to see the need to rest players more than this year, and we might be without a few key lads for September, depending on how deep everyone goes in the competition.

I think we pretty much need a whole new bench, and that's not for subs, but for players who will be playing nearly as much as the nailed on starters - 2 top class attackers, another midfielder, maybe 2 if Can leaves, and probably another defender of some stripe, although that might depend on how Clyne, Gomez, Moreno and Klavan get on for the rest of the season and whether any leave.

We don't have to do it all at once, and it could be that Klopp can find another gem in the youth ranks, with Brewster, Wilson and Woodburn all reasonable candidates, but that's where we need to be getting, because Can, Moreno, Lallana, Ings, Solanke, Klavan, Milner all have questionmarks over them, wheter due to age, fitness, wanting to leave or quality.

PhiloCypher

Muahahaha wrote: »

While I agree Karius has improved I also get the feeling that posters impressions of how much he has improved have been skewed- this is because our defence has shored up so well since VVD came in that teams we play are getting far less shots on target than was the case before VVD.

Before VVD arrived it felt like almost any shot on target against us would beat Mingolet/Karuis. Since VVD came into the team our defence seems a lot tighter at preventing shots on goal. The Man City first leg is probably the best example of this- City did not have a single shot on target all game and credit for that goes to the line of 4, not to Karius.

Granted he has made some fine saves in the last few months. But I think overall he still can be a liability, especially on crosses and his positioning for them, he still comes for the ball but can fall short or not get a strong hand on it which then leads to giving up chances.

Don't think anyone's saying he can't be improved upon, we all know the clean sheets are as much down to VVD sorting our defence as Karius coming into form. What I think people are saying, certainly I am, is that with us being tighter at the back we can probably get away with a sub -elite keeper while we sort out other areas.

Gbear

Muahahaha wrote: »

While I agree Karius has improved I also get the feeling that posters impressions of how much he has improved have been skewed- this is because our defence has shore[...] few months. But I think overall he still can be a liability, especially on crosses and his positioning for them, he still comes for the ball but can fall short or not get a strong hand on it which then leads to giving up chances.

I think defenders can look absolute muck without necessarily being absolute muck.

Possibly more than any other part of the pitch, defence is a unit, and if your system doesn't work, everyone can end up looking like dickheads.

Think back to how ****e City's defence looked at times last season, and now they're by a distance the best defence in the league (scratch that, they're not anymore, but they're joint best). Sure, we made them look like dickheads, and they lost the rag a bit in the Manchester Derby, but we make pretty much everyone who doesn't park their whole team in the box look like dickheads and derbies are a bit mad.

I don't think it's fair to solely judge defenders/keepers on how they look in a failing system.
Subtract a lunatic like Moreno, add a leader like Van Dijk and everyone consistently raising their game isn't surprising.

I'm not saying anyone, bar Van Dijk, can't be improved upon, but there's no guarantee any player brought in would make a marked difference, unless maybe they're in 50m+ bracket, and I think that outlay for Van Dijk was a bit of a once-off, because he was everything we needed.

Royal Legend

ERG89 wrote: »

I'm just imagining how confusing it'll be if his name is Gerard Gerrard

"He's Gerrard Gerrard, his cousin is Stevie G, he's leaving Man City, He's Gerrard Gerrard"

I'll get my coat

Harry Palmr

PhiloCypher wrote: »

Don't think anyone's saying he can't be improved upon, we all know the clean sheets are as much down to VVD sorting our defence as Karius coming into form. What I think people are saying, certainly I am, is that with us being tighter at the back we can probably get away with a sub -elite keeper while we sort out other areas.

This is my view assuming he carries on at no worse than his current level, you can spend a lot of money on a keeper these days but I think it makes more sense to spend the money ahead of the last man standing. If you are in a team that defends from the front then the biggest players are the ones in the middle of the park, Firmino can't stop every attack so the next line needs to be able to do so - Keita will be important in this regard but then you'd want someone to do the same just a bit further back - Henderson is actually quite good at it but his problem is effective use of the ball he has just won back when under pressure. Yesterday he looked great as he had all the time in the world to pick a pass. Most games, esp the big ones require someone who carries the game in their head with the ability to release an early ball effectively past the oppositions first line of defence. Ruben Neves really looks like he could be that man but it's probably a season too soon for him to make a big step up (and that's assuming Klopp rates him). Obviously behind that player you need a good central defender but we have that one sorted and, if Lovren can be kept in line by playing KISS football then I'm not sure there is any need to spend money with Gomez on the rise.

Royal Legend

Royal Legend wrote: »

"He's Gerrard Gerrard, his cousin is Stevie G, he's leaving Man City, He's Gerrard Gerrard"

I'll get my coat

No coats left in the cloakroom .....the lads with the Kane "jokes" must have taken yours in error :pac:

Agent Coulson

Liverpool to play Napoli on August 4th in Dublin according to De Laurentiis.

marklazarcovic

Royal Legend wrote: »

"He's Gerrard Gerrard, his cousin is Stevie G, he's leaving Man City, He's Gerrard Gerrard"

I'll get my coat

Ya can hand over yer key to the gaff too while yer at it ..

LiamoSail

Augeo wrote: »

No coats left in the cloakroom .....the lads with the Kane "jokes" must have taken yours in error :pac:

If anyone has taken anything in error it's Harry Kane.

Anyway, it's not just fans. Salah, VVD, Vardy, Henderson, Milner, Fowler, Shearer etc have all had a go

Harry Palmr

Tis nearly the season for transfer tittle-tattle.

Bruno Fernandes of Sporting CP linked by entirely unreliable media overnight but he looks the right type, deepish but flexible CM with who can score and assist, and is ambi-footed. Tall for a Portuguese.

https://www.whoscored.com/Players/123761/Show/Bruno-Fernandes

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/bruno-fernandes/profil/spieler/240306

citytillidie