Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2020/2021

RugbyLover123

Girly Gal wrote: »

Don't need to spend 30/40 million on a CB right now, could bring in a solid defender on loan for the remainder of the season I'm sure there are plenty of CBs around Europe who are available who are better options than Williams, Philips and Henderson, for example players similar to Rudiger who was out of favour at Chelsea for most of the season, there are plenty more across Europe who would be better than what we currently have. We don't need to sign the next long term CB now, we just neet a solid CB who can get us through the remainder of the season.
We can sign a permanent CB in the summer when they're available.

You’re making it out that finding a very good CB, that suits our style of play and is available for 6 months is a simple thing? I’m sure if there was one available so handily the club would’ve picked them up by now!

I know you only gave Rudiger as an example, but Chelsea are not going to loan him to a direct rival. Someone else mentioned Sokratis at Arsenal, he has zero pace. Militao at Madrid apparently has a a clause that you’ve to buy after the loan so probably doesn’t suit us.

Good CBs are a dime a dozen these days, let alone ones available for 6 months. If that was the case do you not think United, Chelsea, Spurs would have picked up one in this window too?

The club probably think that hopefully the injury crisis is behind us now and once Matip is back next week we will have himself, Fab, Hendo & Thiago now and there is no point going out and getting Steven Caulker who 1. Won’t dramatically improve us and 2. Probably still won’t play in the big games if everyone is fit.

KevRossi

RugbyLover123 wrote: »

Would you be happy with the club spending 20/30m+ on a CB that they aren’t particularly sold on? I can only assume our first choice was one of the lads at Leipzig and that’s a no go as we play them in the CL. They could even be first and second choice. The club probably don’t want to fork out 20/30+ million on a CB that will be surplus to requirements in a few months and probably won’t make too much of a difference if he’s their 3/4th choice.

Upamecano or any other RB Leipzig players are not coming here until summer; they have the BL and CL to deal with.

IMHO it's worth spending €40m on a good CB now with the intention to sell them in 18 months (once we get stabilised) for €20-25m. Take a hit of €10-15m which gives us a very good shot at the PL/CL or forget both.

Firminio needs to buck up or be sold off. I love the guy to bits, but he's done very little the past 12 months.

We need to look at getting a full time replacement for Matip, he's given us great service, but he's unsustainable due to injury. There's a few players like him whose career has been racked by injury and bad luck, (Bryan Robson, van Basten), Matip is sadly one of them.

Keita needs to be sorted out, are the injuries bad luck or is he another Sturridge who stops playing at every niggle? He's incredibly influential when he plays, we rarely lose when he does play, but I'd be looking at replacing him in 18 months if his condition does not improve.

On that basis, and the fact that Milner has a limited playing career, I think someone like Draxler is a good option.

We need to remember Jota was purchased as a relief player, not as an alternative to Salah/Mane/Firminio, so even though he's had a an excellent start, we need to be careful about resting all our hopes on him.

Taki is an odd one. We got him very cheap. He played well against us in a couple of CL matches, but it wasn't as if several European clubs were clamouring for his signature. He runs a lot, but doesn't look dangerous.

Maybe he deserves a 3 match starting run, guaranteed 60-75 mins in each match. We have Burnley (H) and Utd away in the Cup, a good chance to see if he clicks with Thiago. Move one of Hendo and Fab into their usual positions and see what happens. Drop Mane and Salah for a match each. But the top three need a kick in the hole, something is badly wrong. Ole will play a full team in the FA Cup for a lot of reasons. We either play the U-23's and say bugger it, or we try a slight alternative to the first 11.

Girly Gal

RugbyLover123 wrote: »

You’re making it out that finding a very good CB, that suits our style of play and is available for 6 months is a simple thing? I’m sure if there was one available so handily the club would’ve picked them up by now!

I know you only gave Rudiger as an example, but Chelsea are not going to loan him to a direct rival. Someone else mentioned Sokratis at Arsenal, he has zero pace. Militao at Madrid apparently has a a clause that you’ve to buy after the loan so probably doesn’t suit us.

Good CBs are a dime a dozen these days, let alone ones available for 6 months. If that was the case do you not think United, Chelsea, Spurs would have picked up one in this window too?

The club probably think that hopefully the injury crisis is behind us now and once Matip is back next week we will have himself, Fab, Hendo & Thiago now and there is no point going out and getting Steven Caulker who 1. Won’t dramatically improve us and 2. Probably still won’t play in the big games if everyone is fit.

I know Chelsea wouldn't give us Rudiger, just used him as an example, but, they have had plenty of time to look for one, but, only seem to be interested in permanent deals. There are definitely a few CBs better than what we have available out there throughout Europe, loan deals happen all the time, but, we don't seem to do them
Williams and Philips wouldn't get a game for any other team in the league and neither would Henderson at CB, so why are we persisting with this. Your point about Steven Caulker is irrelevant, he was an absolute crazy loan signing at the time and one of the craziest signings ever made and was always doomed to fail.
Chelsea, United and Spurs can afford to wait until summer as they have plenty of cover at CB atm, we don't.

BorneTobyWilde

League looking like it could be won in the 60's points range. Sad.
If we repeat what we already have it gives us 68 pts . We need a win on match week 19, half way point.

Charlie19

I'd like the midfield players to have a bit more freedom and drive forward allowing them to shoot a bit more.

Seen example of it today with Thiago having a go and making the keeper pull off a save. It was probably our best chance.

Seems like we'll have to mix it about bit because our front 3 look so disjointed at the moment, too many times over the last couple of weeks they just can't make the right decision in the final third.

Girly Gal

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

League looking like it could be won in the 60's points range. Sad.
If we repeat what we already have it gives us 68 pts . We need a win on match week 19, half way point.

It'll be around 80 points minimum, United could have 40 points and City could have 41 by mid way point, it'll take at least 70 points to guarantee CL, so no way will league be won with anything less.

BorneTobyWilde

Charlie19 wrote: »

I'd like the midfield players to have a bit more freedom and drive forward allowing them to shoot a bit more.

Seems like we'll have to mix it about bit because our front 3 look so disjointed at the moment, too many times over the last couple of weeks they just can't make the right decision in the final third.

Seen example of it today with Thiago having a go and making the keeper pull off a save. It was probably our best chance.

Firmino had a couple of very easy (to him) finishes that for whatever reason messed up badly.

Charlie19

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Firmino had a couple of very easy (to him) finishes that for whatever reason messed up badly.

Best chance as in making the keeper work.

Salah was very predictable, he'd recive the ball back to goal and just run into a couple of defenders when he turns.

Harry Palmr

Klopp needs to have a look at himself, this is not a passing situation and if he isn't going to buy a solution at CB he has to coach one and so far he's failing to do anything more than oversee a crap version of his tactical approach for the last 2 years.

~Rebel~

RugbyLover123 wrote: »

You’re making it out that finding a very good CB, that suits our style of play and is available for 6 months is a simple thing? I’m sure if there was one available so handily the club would’ve picked them up by now!

I know you only gave Rudiger as an example, but Chelsea are not going to loan him to a direct rival. Someone else mentioned Sokratis at Arsenal, he has zero pace. Militao at Madrid apparently has a a clause that you’ve to buy after the loan so probably doesn’t suit us.

Good CBs are a dime a dozen these days, let alone ones available for 6 months. If that was the case do you not think United, Chelsea, Spurs would have picked up one in this window too?

The club probably think that hopefully the injury crisis is behind us now and once Matip is back next week we will have himself, Fab, Hendo & Thiago now and there is no point going out and getting Steven Caulker who 1. Won’t dramatically improve us and 2. Probably still won’t play in the big games if everyone is fit.

Again, they don't need to be perfect fits - they just need to be better than what we have. All these options are better than Rhys and Nat, who themselves are still getting games despite both being unsuitable for a whole myriad of reasons.

Seems to be nothing solid saying Militao has a requirement to buy - i guess we'll know when he does move somewhere. As for Sokrtis, he's not fast, but he's not that slow... no slower than Matip i'd say, and id have him quicker than Rhys or Nat, while also being much more experienced and a much better reader of the game. I think there's just no argument to say he doesn't improve our options.

I know it might not be an easy thing to find someone, but there's a lot of players out there, and we have a lot of scouts. There's also a Euro's in a few months and a lot of guys that want to make their squads who aren't getting minutes. I mentioned Ranocchia at Inter, but you also have Umtiti at Barca, guys like Rekik and Gomez at Seville. All fit and experienced, all much better than Rhys or Nat, and all harbouring hopes of making their respective European squads, but not getting their game at their clubs.

It just seems like trying something that doesn't work out (like Caulker a few seasons back) is better than not trying something. And again for the option we know is available - I'd rather an immensely experienced Sokratis than nothing.

Girly Gal

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Again, they don't need to be perfect fits - they just need to be better than what we have. All these options are better than Rhys and Nat, who themselves are still getting games despite both being unsuitable for a whole myriad of reasons.

Seems to be nothing solid saying Militao has a requirement to buy - i guess we'll know when he does move somewhere. As for Sokrtis, he's not fast, but he's not that slow... no slower than Matip i'd say, and id have him quicker than Rhys or Nat, while also being much more experienced and a much better reader of the game. I think there's just no argument to say he doesn't improve our options.

I know it might not be an easy thing to find someone, but there's a lot of players out there, and we have a lot of scouts. There's also a Euro's in a few months and a lot of guys that want to make their squads who aren't getting minutes. I mentioned Ranocchia at Inter, but you also have Umtiti at Barca, guys like Rekik and Gomez at Seville. All fit and experienced, all much better than Rhys or Nat, and all harbouring hopes of making their respective European squads, but not getting their game at their clubs.

It just seems like trying something that doesn't work out (like Caulker a few seasons back) is better than not trying something. And again for the option we know is available - I'd rather an immensely experienced Sokratis than nothing.

Agree with this, for some reason there seems to be this idea that we have to sign the next VVD now, we don't we just need a stopgap solution for the remainder of the season, we can sign whoever we want in the summer, although if we miss out on CL football (which on current form is a possibility) we won't look as good a proposition for any potential new signing.

fyfe79

Girly Gal wrote: »

Agree with this, for some reason there seems to be this idea that we have to sign the next VVD now, we don't we just need a stopgap solution for the remainder of the season, we can sign whoever we want in the summer, although if we miss out on CL football (which on current form is a possibility) we won't look as good a proposition for any potential new signing.

It's getting desperate. If we are signing one of the Leipzig lads in the summer, we need a stop-gap in the next couple of weeks. Sokratis at Arsenal would do the job till then.

Blanco100

They used to say about Klopp in Germany, his biggest nightmare was unhappy players ruining his buzz.

He hated having to make hard decisions leaving out players. Always liked when the team picked itself with the few reliable to spring from the bench. When everyone is fit he really only uses the same 13-14 players. You can telegraph his sub's.

He doesn't want to sign a top class CB because he would have a dilemma when everyone is fit. If he's not signing one now he won't sign one when Matip, Gomez and VVD are fit.

Blanco100

Girly Gal wrote: »

Agree with this, for some reason there seems to be this idea that we have to sign the next VVD now, we don't we just need a stopgap solution for the remainder of the season, we can sign whoever we want in the summer, although if we miss out on CL football (which on current form is a possibility) we won't look as good a proposition for any potential new signing.

Dont believe this bull from the journos for a second. The transfer window after this one is always hyped up as being the big one.

We are told our targets are not available now (clear hint it may be one of the Leipzig lads Upmecano or Konate). Watch us sign some CB with wonderful interception stats in Holland or Belgium for 15million on dirt cheap wages and we will all wonder how the f*ck this lad was so unattainable in January.

But Melissa Reddy and James Pearce will tell us the club have been incredibly smart in beating City and United to his signature.

Not before all the money has been recouped selling fringe players first though. We are a sell to buy club first and foremost lads like it or not. We suffered this summer because Covid put the skids on us selling our Deadwood to Bournemouth or Palace for stupid money

Bowlardo

Jota has to start for firmino when he is fit that will solve a lot of problems having a lively centre forward that can finish.
Sign:loan a CB and matip might be fit would free up hendo and Fabinho to go back in the midfield.
Be no harm shaq starting for salah to give him a kick up the arse as he’s general play is woeful the last while too.
Does klopp have a plan B?
We seem to be good from learning from our mistakes but at this stage as world champions we shouldn’t have to
Gross negligence on the clubs part letting Lovren and hoover go and not replacing them with a. Quality CB

Demosthenese

Now we've fallen to 4th I can't see us picking up a run good enough to challenge City for the title. They are picking up steam. Winning games with clean sheets and looking more dangerous. I can see them pulling away from the pack in the next 5 to 6 games.

We might have to stick with it and look for a bit of glory in the Fa Cup and CL maybe.

Unless the club pull a CB out of nowhere were just a patched up version of ourselves. Even having Fabinho in the back instead of midfield is not great longterm. But it'll be like that for the season.

Further forward we're just gone off the boil. Klopp needs to rotate the 3 with Shaq/Minamino and hopefully Jota soon to get them firing again. It's more than just Bobby every game we're praising fullbacks for keeping Mane and Salah quiet! Previous years they were roasting the backs.

Going to be frustrating for a while watching this. Too used to winning the last few years 😂

conor_mc

Said it a couple of weeks ago, but wouldn’t mind seeing Curtis Jones in place of Bobby for a couple of games. Has the ability to drop deep and link play, but also capable of intricate passing in tight spaces up front. The lad has a bit of confidence about him to take on a shot too. I think he’s the most like-for-like swap we have for Bobby, more so than Minamino anyway.

Can’t wait to see Jota back, but I see him as more of a replacement for Salah/Mané as centre-forwards, rather than a replacement for Bobby.

awec

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

League looking like it could be won in the 60's points range. Sad.
If we repeat what we already have it gives us 68 pts . We need a win on match week 19, half way point.

This is delusional IMO.

City likely to be on an 8 game winning run by the time they come to Anfield.

Chesty08

awec wrote: »

This is delusional IMO.

City likely to be on an 8 game winning run by the time they come to Anfield.

Completely agree! 60 points is mad delusional. We are not even at the half way stage & the leaders have 37 points. So 10 wins in their next 20 matches gives them 30 points / 67 points.

80+ will be required.

yourdeadwright

There is nothing this season to suggest we can win the league we are miles off,
With the run of games I reckon by march we will be further away than we are now ,

I honestly think it'll be a struggle for top four and its understandable the whole middle of the pitch form the last 2 season's has disappeared for numerous reason's , VVD,Gomez, MAtip gone, Our midfield of Fabhino & Henderson gone ,

awec

Chesty08 wrote: »

Completely agree! 60 points is mad delusional. We are not even at the half way stage & the leaders have 37 points. So 10 wins in their next 20 matches gives them 30 points / 67 points.

80+ will be required.

Yea, we need 50 points from 20 games. That's essentially 17/20 wins.

We are miles off, it's not happening. This season has been a mess, no wins in 4 and no goals in 3 is horrific form for any team that considers itself contenders.

yourdeadwright

I loved him as a player but Bobby as our number 9 must end this summer,
He is no longer any where near good enough for us ,

He can not strike a ball and more often than not breaks down the attack with poor touches and poor passing , He was sensational but he is getting progressively worse for 2 years ,

gimli2112

Injuries, covid and VAR not working properly this year has affected us greatly. Just be thankful this wasn't last year. To be fair we won a lot of tight games in 2019-2020, hard to keep doing that.

yourdeadwright

One signing even a loan singing could transform us,
We badly need a CB ,
Even this week we will struggle with games against Burnley , United and Spurs , to field 3 decent 11's

Girly Gal

Girly Gal wrote: »

Agree with this, for some reason there seems to be this idea that we have to sign the next VVD now, we don't we just need a stopgap solution for the remainder of the season, we can sign whoever we want in the summer, although if we miss out on CL football (which on current form is a possibility) we won't look as good a proposition for any potential new signing.

Indeed, hopefully the club agrees. It's looking like they don't though and to be fair you'd imagine they know best.

............

yourdeadwright wrote: »

There is nothing this season to suggest we can win the league we are miles off,
With the run of games I reckon by march we will be further away than we are now.......

We might get fired up for the fight, hopefully.

awec

We have 4 games before we play City at home.

H Burnley
A Spurs
A West Ham
H Brighton

12 points needed if we want to maintain any hope of being in the mix in a few months.

yourdeadwright

I reckon Nat Phillips will stat CB on Thursday with ehndo in midfield ,

I wonder will we take the Fa cup serious seen as the leuage looks to be slipping away,

Be nice to see Matip , Keita , Tsimikas , Milner, Jones Taki all start the fa cup game not sure who else

awec

awec wrote: »

Yea, we need 50 points from 20 games. That's essentially 17/20 wins.

We are miles off, it's not happening. This season has been a mess, no wins in 4 and no goals in 3 is horrific form for any team that considers itself contenders.

If 81 points won the PL this year we'd need to get 47 points from the next 20 games. 2.3ppg........... 14 wins, 5 draws and a loss.
That's going from winning 50% of our PL games so far to winning 70% of them. Hard to see it happening unfortunately and realistically my 81 points is quite likely best case scenario.

awec

yourdeadwright wrote: »

I reckon Nat Phillips will stat CB on Thursday with ehndo in midfield ,

I wonder will we take the Fa cup serious seen as the leuage looks to be slipping away,

Be nice to see Matip , Keita , Tsimikas , Milner, Jones Taki all start the fa cup game not sure who else

Think we'll field a very rotated side in the FA Cup with some senior players on the bench to be used for emergency only.

Agent Coulson

Pearce reporting Jota is due to return to training in early February so I guess it will be a few weeks after that till he is up to match fitness.

happyoutscan

I know it's a bit pathetic of me, but I'm really ****ing pissed off with Bobby's performance yesterday. It was absolutely awful.

I'm a Browns fan as well, so I'm pissed off with the world today in general.

cj maxx

I really don't want to see Matip or Keita near the FA cup game. Robbo and TAA look burnt out.
Rest the whole 1st team.

yourdeadwright

cj maxx wrote: »

I really don't want to see Matip or Keita near the FA cup game. Robbo and TAA look burnt out.
Rest the whole 1st team.

I thought Robbo was class yesterday had absolute no problems defensively and was probably our best attacking outlet,

The sky crew gave Shaw loads of credit (he played well) but Robbo on an off day was still far more comfortably defending and attacking
He is just world class ,

rob316

Robbo has been the only consistent attacking outlet in the side.

giveitholly

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Pearce reporting Jota is due to return to training in early February so I guess it will be a few weeks after that till he is up to match fitness.

March it is so for Jota

Agent Coulson

giveitholly wrote: »

March it is so for Jota

I'd say they will be pushing for him to be back for the Champions League however even if he is I wouldn't expect his match fitness to be up and running till March.

happyoutscan

giveitholly wrote: »

March it is so for Jota

It will be great to have him back.

Robert2014

It's hard to see us winning anything if we don't sign at least one center half in the next 2 weeks. As we've said we don't need to sign the next VVD, we only need to get in a better center half than Williams or Phillips. Otherwise we are going to be playing Fabinho and Henderson in almost every game between now and the end of the season and will be in an even worse position if one of them gets injured.

There must be some center half out of favour that can do a job for us for 6 months. It feels like we're throwing away a chance to compete this season.

mightyreds

awec wrote: »

We have 4 games before we play City at home.

H Burnley
A Spurs
A West Ham
H Brighton

12 points needed if we want to maintain any hope of being in the mix in a few months.

After recent performances it's hard to see it, I think 2 wins and 2 draws there

PhuckHugh

mightyreds wrote: »

After recent performances it's hard to see it, I think 2 wins and 2 draws there

Without being dramatic or ott, I think as far as the league goes the season is done. City look revitalised and will only get stronger. It's like a reverse of last year. Not only is there a systems failure currently but all the top lads are seriously out of form. Salah is a shadow of himself... There's every chance VVD is back for the tail end of season and Jota back fit also .. if they can beat Red Bull there's a good chance of targeting the CL if others can refind form.

cj maxx

yourdeadwright wrote: »

I thought Robbo was class yesterday had absolute no problems defensively and was probably our best attacking outlet,

The sky crew gave Shaw loads of credit (he played well) but Robbo on an off day was still far more comfortably defending and attacking
He is just world class ,

And I want to keep him that way , so throw Tsimikas in for the cup game. Trent needs to find his mojo, so a week off would be no harm.
And I'd give Allison the day off as well.

rob316

Yesterday was still an improvement on previous games I felt. I really liked what Shaqiri and Thiago offered, constantly linking up. Maybe drop Firmino for Shaq and get another midfielder in there to press.
The problem I have with Firmino isn't goals, its his poor touch, lazy passes and his declining ability to influence games. This isn't a short drop in form either, he's been out of sorts for well over a season now.

awec

rob316 wrote: »

Yesterday was still an improvement on previous games I felt. I really liked what Shaqiri and Thiago offered, constantly linking up. Maybe drop Firmino for Shaq and get another midfielder in there to press.
The problem I have with Firmino isn't goals, its his poor touch, lazy passes and his declining ability to influence games. This isn't a short drop in form either, he's been out of sorts for well over a season now.

There was a point in the second half that summed Firmino up. A long ball was played up to him in the box when we had numbers to launch a decent attack, and he tried to do a fancy little one-touch flick and lost the ball.

yourdeadwright

So what we thinking for Burnley

id go

Robbo Nat Fab Trent

Hendo Thaigo

Ox Shaq Mane

Salah

Tusky

rob316 wrote: »

Yesterday was still an improvement on previous games I felt. I really liked what Shaqiri and Thiago offered, constantly linking up. Maybe drop Firmino for Shaq and get another midfielder in there to press.
The problem I have with Firmino isn't goals, its his poor touch, lazy passes and his declining ability to influence games. This isn't a short drop in form either, he's been out of sorts for well over a season now.

All elements of his game have been well below his best for a long time. Any time I've raised this over the last year people have told me that I'm missing the point - that he's not just about goals and it's his movement that is key etc. But he is simply not influencing games like he used to. I love the guy, and I know that his style of play has been key to our dominance in recent years. But he's just not been at the races.

dogbert27

Since we lost VVD we have played:

Sheffield United - W 2-1
West Ham - W 2-1
Man City - D 1-1
Leicester - W 3-0
Brighton - D 1-1
Wolves - W 4-0
Fulham - D 1-1
Spurs - W 2-1
Palace - W 7-0
West Brom - D 1-1
Newcastle - D 0-0
Southampton - L 0-1
United - D 0-0

8 goals conceded in 13 games. Every game we drew or lost has been with 1 goal conceded at most. While we can say the balance of the team is off with Fab and Henderson at CB there is a clear problem in attack.

Scoring is more of a problem for us this season than our defence and I would still prefer to start with one of Phillips or Williams instead of putting Henderson there to release Henderson with more forward drive in midfield.

Something is not right with the front 3. I don't know if they've lost some of their desire after 3 years as CL finalists, CL winners and PL winners.

davyboy1975

I see barnes is spouting rubbish again.

John Barnes:

“Thiago, who was running the game and was the best player in the first-half, I don’t think that necessarily helped the front three. Thiago slows the game down. When he slowed it down in tight areas, that is not Mane’s game, that is not Salah’s game


To me the front 3 have stopped making runs inside the fullbacks, maybe because they werent getting the ball hopefully thiago solves that issue of them not getting the ball

Tusky

davyboy1975 wrote: »

I see barnes is spouting rubbish again.

John Barnes:

“Thiago, who was running the game and was the best player in the first-half, I don’t think that necessarily helped the front three. Thiago slows the game down. When he slowed it down in tight areas, that is not Mane’s game, that is not Salah’s game


To me the front 3 have stopped making runs inside the fullbacks, maybe because they werent getting the ball hopefully thiago solves that issue of them not getting the ball

I think Thiago speeds the game up. He passes it quicker than our other centre mids, and almost always forwards. On a number of occasions he successfully beat a man to try make something happen too.

MD1990

i cannot understand questioning our front 3's desire tbh. They are all giving everything but there has been a gradual decline in Salah & Firmino for nearly 3 years now since 17/18. Mane not so much until the last few weeks.

We need a change in the summer. Not much money. So Salah out & another forward in.
It wont be an Mbappe or Haaland. Someone like Neto or Wamangituka at Stuttgart.

rob316

Thiago slows the game down? What nonsense. He passes quicker than anyone and he breaks forward with the ball taking on players.