Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2020/2021

gimli2112

I genuinely thought last year was the greatest PL achievement ever for a number of reasons. If we win this year it would just be ludicrous. I'd stop watching football, what would be the point?

giveitholly

Wonder is that a cryptic clue in the last sentence of Pearce's tweet

https://twitter.com/JamesPearceLFC/status/1355076332108075011?s=19

tinpib

The White Wolf wrote: »

Grand as long as you've accepted this season has a high chance of still being a write off.

Yep, could easily be. I'm a realist, many fans naturally are not. Football is an escapism so financial prudence and realism often don't belong there. They want to sign the best players yesterday and win every competition every year.

FSG look long term, as good owners of any business should. We can see this in waiting to get Virgil, investing in stadium expansion, the new training facilities etc.

Covid has changed everything, they will run the business as best they can which probably means not spending much money.

But many people wish they had a Tony Fernandes of QPR writing cheques like a maniac on sub standard players.

Fitz*

With the noise coming from Klopp last night, and a week or so of local journalists being vocal in harking for a CB, I think there must be a body coming in.

Now, the only thing is there is a difference between a body coming in (a Mustafi, Caulker type free transfer or loan) and an actual proper player who can come in and really help.

I understand it is difficult to just a top young long terms CB like a Konate, Botman, Shuurs etc as the selling club might not want to sell mid season or agree to the delayed payment structure but it really would be fantastic if Edwards was able to pull it off.

happyoutscan

No way are we gonna win the league this year, not gonna happen. City won't buckle imo.

Think we will definitely get Champions League though along with Leicester and one of Spurs/Chelsea/Everton.

Considering everything that has happened that will be fine for me.

AndyBoBandy

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

If Liverpool don't sign any new CB's, and still win the league this season (which is not beyond the realms of possibility) ...............

I admire your optimism.
We've 37 points after 20 games........ to finish on 81 points we'd need to win 13 and draw 5 of the 18 games to play.

Or win 14, draw 2 and lose 2.

Not quite the level we were at least season but much better than what we've mustered so far this season.

81 points would be far from guaranteed to win even this year's league, City are currently on a ppg that would yield 82 points over the season but they might well go back to being woeful for a period, fingers crossed.

ratracer

happyoutscan wrote: »

No way are we gonna win the league this year, not gonna happen. City won't buckle imo.

Think we will definitely get Champions League though along with Leicester and one of Spurs/Chelsea/Everton.

Considering everything that has happened that will be fine for me.

Do you think City are going to go unbeaten for the rest of the season? I know it’s in their hands at the moment, but I can’t see them not dropping points. The league is too tight at both the top and bottom.

We just need to drop 7 less points than them!!

.G.

The good thing is, it's so tight at the top that there's far more games that have a lot riding on them then they normally would. There's a lot more of rivals playing rival's. Which should lead to more points being dropped.

For example City's game in hand is against Everton. Any other season I'm saying that's a gift wrapped three points for City. Not this season though. It'll be a tough game.

As I said a few times during the dark spell amid all the doom and gloom, I'm optimistic, it's still very early doors and there's a lot of points to play for. Just get a CB in and go on a run and we'll be right up there.

We were superb last night and it should have been more of a hiding. Players looked much sharper, decision making was much improved and the goal touch has returned for all three of the amigos.

Tough game at the weekend though and they've had two extra days rest which won't help us but if we go there and win it'll really set us up for Brighton and City afterwards.

messinkiapina

1 CB isn't enough anymore, we need 2. We won't get them I know, but if I see Henderson and Fab as a CB pairing again this season I'm going to snap. It's an absolute joke of a situation for a transfer window to pass by and have that still happening.

Vicxas

messinkiapina wrote: »

1 CB isn't enough anymore, we need 2. We won't get them I know, but if I see Henderson and Fab as a CB pairing again this season I'm going to snap. It's an absolute joke of a situation for a transfer window to pass by and have that still happening.

I reckon we'll get one, but not the ones we wanted. Klopp will pick out some young lad from Germany/ Austria

theoneeyedman

Vicxas wrote: »

I reckon we'll get one, but not the ones we wanted. Klopp will pick out some young lad from Germany/ Austria

Also, Klopp (and I'm not questioning his methods) has a habit of signing lads (Fabinho, Robbo) and keeping them out of the team for a long time before they make an impact. Any new signing may not play until after Easter!

DVDM93

DVDM93 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/FenerbahceSK_NL/status/1354894746125217792?s=20

He (Kuyt) is on SSN atm on The Football Show for anyone interested.

Harry Palmr

Any cb will be thrown in.

Dickerty

There is only one CB we should have been considering, and it's Perr Schuurs. A star in the making, big and young, would be a great partner for Virgil.
And he only signed a contract extension 2 weeks ago. We should have done that deal in December.

DVDM93

Dickerty wrote: »

There is only one CB we should have been considering, and it's Perr Schuurs. A star in the making, big and young, would be a great partner for Virgil.
And he only signed a contract extension 2 weeks ago. We should have done that deal in December.

DVDM93 wrote: »

If Ajax don't make it through then we're signing Perr Schuurs, you heard it here first.

Agreed.

Dickerty

DVDM93 wrote: »

Agreed.

I thought he was brilliant in the CL, he's very composed and uses his build well. Will only get better. A lot like De Ligt really.

yourdeadwright

Still trying to get my head around Matip
In the build up to the goal he was fine popping passes around with Hendo that was right at the end of the half,, He even ran off the pitch ,
Did he do it in the tunnel ?

Matip is really unfortunate, first 3 seasons he played 30 odd games a season. Last year he wasn't called on too much, it's just a sh1tter he's injured when VVD and Gomez is too. It's looking like he can't be relied upon going forward though unless as others have mentioned as a 4th choice CB.
He was brilliant last night for the first half.

DrumSteve

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Still trying to get my head around Matip
In the build up to the goal he was fine popping passes around with Hendo that was right at the end of the half,, He even ran off the pitch ,
Did he do it in the tunnel ?

Reckon Kloppo had a word and he will be grand once we sign the CB.

Tusky

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Still trying to get my head around Matip
In the build up to the goal he was fine popping passes around with Hendo that was right at the end of the half,, He even ran off the pitch ,
Did he do it in the tunnel ?

That's always the way with him though. I don't remember him ever injuring himself in a tackle or anything. He just plays a game and then is missing for a month. I love the guy and think he is a top-level centreback, but it's time for him to move on. If he can't be relied upon to step in when our two first choice centrebacks are injured for a whole season, then he can never be relied upon.

Plasandrunt

what a difference a week makes, floating around work wearing my LFC face mask with a spring in my step

KevRossi

tinpib wrote: »

Yep, could easily be. I'm a realist, many fans naturally are not. Football is an escapism so financial prudence and realism often don't belong there. They want to sign the best players yesterday and win every competition every year.

FSG look long term, as good owners of any business should. We can see this in waiting to get Virgil, investing in stadium expansion, the new training facilities etc.

Covid has changed everything, they will run the business as best they can which probably means not spending much money.

But many people wish they had a Tony Fernandes of QPR writing cheques like a maniac on sub standard players.

I think most of us agree that we need a stop gap CB right now as we are seriously buggered in that position for the next 4 months. We're not asking for Liverpool to spend €80 million, just get an experienced CB on a free to shore up the back four and allow Hendo and Fab to do their thing, and to give them the odd break.

Do this, and buy their target CB in summer, be it Upamecano or whomever. I think it's fair enough that the fans ask for that. Klopp has admitted that we are struggling there. And we're starting to pay as Fab in injured due to little or no rest and he won't get a proper rest either.

facehugger99

ratracer wrote: »

Do you think City are going to go unbeaten for the rest of the season? I know it’s in their hands at the moment, but I can’t see them not dropping points. The league is too tight at both the top and bottom.

We just need to drop 7 less points than them!!

We need to beat them to have any chance to win the league - so really we need to drop 4 points less in the other fixtures.

yourdeadwright

I love Matip,
I think he is great player but surely a guy like him should be thinking about retirement ,

He literally can't stay fit for two games ,I'm not sure how a professional football can be so brittle makes no sense to me,

Its actually surprising if he makes it through one game without an injury that just mental

Like surely he must have some kind of odd muscle condition or something , its not like he's a flying winger or a midfielder getting through loads of work he is a CB bar goalkeeper its the least strenuous position on the pitch ,its bizarre

Fitz*

There is a small bit of hope for Matip not being totally crocked. Fabinho out of the West Ham game

https://twitter.com/JamesPearceLFC/status/1355129109131702274

KevRossi

Looks like there's something stirring.

Aaron Long is mentioned. (Yes, I had to Google him too.)

https://twitter.com/JamesPearceLFC/status/1355129333598334977

Fitz*

KevRossi wrote: »

Looks like there's something stirring.

Aaron Long is mentioned. (Yes, I had to Google him too.)

https://twitter.com/JamesPearceLFC/status/1355129333598334977

Maybe the club have been knocked back in their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th choice etc as clubs are not willing to sell or loan their players mid season?

MLS don't start til April so for that reason alone, it might be easier to convince his club to loan him.

Still doesn't exactly fill me with confidence though.

Girly Gal

The club really do need to review the medical treatment, strength & conditioning or training methods, so many of our players (Matip, Keita, Shaqiri, Ox, former players like Lovren and Sturridge)miss so much time with recurring muscle injuries, very slow to return and often injured again straight away. Other clubs don't seem to this many players with recurring injury problems.

jebidiah

Klopp also said that he "knows" that a player in the 80 million pound caliber is not available "NOW". So I think its clear they are looking at players, quite obviously cannot get their preferred target as it is mid season, but could be brining in another top class defender when available.

Hopefully they don't continue to gamble with this season in the mean time.

tinpib

KevRossi wrote: »

I think most of us agree that we need a stop gap CB right now as we are seriously buggered in that position for the next 4 months. We're not asking for Liverpool to spend €80 million, just get an experienced CB on a free to shore up the back four and allow Hendo and Fab to do their thing, and to give them the odd break.

Do this, and buy their target CB in summer, be it Upamecano or whomever. I think it's fair enough that the fans ask for that. Klopp has admitted that we are struggling there. And we're starting to pay as Fab in injured due to little or no rest and he won't get a proper rest either.

To be clear, I would love us to sign either a stop gap or Virgil's new CB partner in this window. I didn't say that originally, I'm just bracing myself and accept that we may sign no one.

Fitz*

Fitz* wrote: »

.........
Still doesn't exactly fill me with confidence though.

If we are looking to the MLS you'd wonder why not just throw a few quid at a championship mid table club. MLS is woeful standard compared to PL.

tinpib

Girly Gal wrote: »

The club really do need to review the medical treatment, strength & conditioning or training methods, so many of our players (Matip, Keita, Shaqiri, Ox, former players like Lovren and Sturridge)miss so much time with recurring muscle injuries, very slow to return and often injured again straight away. Other clubs don't seem to this many players with recurring injury problems.

I don't think it's anything to do with treatment, conditioning or methods etc. It's not like we signed players made of iron who suddenly started falling apart as soon as they joined, it's more like we are signing too many injury prone players, which definitely needs to be looked at.

In 14/15 for example, Matip had 5 injuries according to transfrmarket

Shaqiri had 10 from 13/14 to when he signed in 2018


Ox was constantly injured at Arsenal too

Keita had a fair few before, but really starting boosting his numbers after signing alright.

edit: Matip was free and Shaq was a cut price bargain, but big fees were paid for Ox and Keita.

NabyLadistheman

Where was Shaq last night actually was he on the bench?

Thanx 4 The Fish

NabyLadistheman wrote: »

Where was Shaq last night actually was he on the bench?

Yep

The Mig

Matip rolled his ankle walking into the tunnel at HT

*the above maybe a made up lie*

RonanG86

KevRossi wrote: »

I think most of us agree that we need a stop gap CB right now as we are seriously buggered in that position for the next 4 months. We're not asking for Liverpool to spend €80 million, just get an experienced CB on a free to shore up the back four and allow Hendo and Fab to do their thing, and to give them the odd break.

Do this, and buy their target CB in summer, be it Upamecano or whomever. I think it's fair enough that the fans ask for that. Klopp has admitted that we are struggling there. And we're starting to pay as Fab in injured due to little or no rest and he won't get a proper rest either.

The problem is any experienced CBs on frees are on frees for a reason. They're either crap, or in most cases have had injury problems themselves. Subotic - struggling with minor injuries on and off the past couple of seasons. Garay - Released from Valencia after doing his knee. Simunovic - Spent a lot of time on Celtic's treatment table his last season there. I think those 3 are all currently not injured, but have zero match practice so probably are 2-3 weeks away from playing if we got them today, and you'd worry about recurrance of injuries too.

Realistically, we either have to somehow and buy our target CB (Upamecano, Botman, or whomever) that we were going to target in the summer, in the next two days, or overpay for an average CB to cover the gap.

Muahahaha

Must say I got a laugh out of the possibility of Jesse Lingard lining out for West Ham against us this weekend. Please make it so.

RugbyLover123

Think it’s pretty obvious at this stage we want one of the lads at Leipzig but they won’t sell mid season plus we have them in the CL.

Knex*

Only trying to sign a CB now because Matip is injured is actually a little infuriating, when everyone and their dog knows that Matip gets injured on a monthly basis.

yourdeadwright

Word on twitter is we are looking at 2,
One 6 month deal ( Mustafi off Arsenal mentioned)
Then Botman on a long term deal

That would still leave room to sign a Marquee CB in the summer Matip can't be relied on and Fbahino won't want to waster another year at CB,

messinkiapina

Knex* wrote: »

Only trying to sign a CB now because Matip is injured is actually a little infuriating, when everyone and their dog knows that Matip gets injured on a monthly basis.

Exactly, and you could take that a step further back and say that starting the season with 3 senior centre backs, 2 of whom were already known to be made of glass, is absolutely shocking.

~Rebel~

Augeo wrote: »

If we are looking to the MLS you'd wonder why not just throw a few quid at a championship mid table club. MLS is woeful standard compared to PL.

Makes a certain amount of sense - the championship is right in the middle of their season, and no none is gonna want to sell for reasonable money. The MLS is on their off-season and the new season is delayed till April, so you have a whole league’s worth of CB’s available for cheap/free loans.

Prob have to pay an extra bit for them missing the first few weeks of the season, but on the other hand it’s great exposure for a centralized league like that, and if the player does alright someone else will snap him up, it’s money coming in.

On the whole the quality is lower than the champ, but there are plenty of gems sprinkled throughout the league.

steve_r

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Word on twitter is we are looking at 2,
One 6 month deal ( Mustafi off Arsenal mentioned)
Then Botman on a long term deal

That would still leave room to sign a Marquee CB in the summer Matip can't be relied on and Fbahino won't want to waster another year at CB,

Anyone but Mustafi, Christ

He’s awful and we need a fast defender with the ability to play a high line. He’s shown he can’t operate an offside trap.

He’s the cb equivalent of Adrian, he just brings chaos to a back line.

I’d rather live with hendo out of position, Nat and Ryhs than bring in that disaster artist

yourdeadwright

steve_r wrote: »

Anyone but Mustafi, Christ

He’s awful and we need a fast defender with the ability to play a high line. He’s shown he can’t operate an offside trap.

He’s the cb equivalent of Adrian, he just brings chaos to a back line.

I’d rather live with hendo out of position, Nat and Ryhs than bring in that disaster artist

Aaron Long also getting banded about .
Captian of the US , there season is over till the summer ,

~Rebel~

~Rebel~ wrote: »

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

On the whole the quality is lower than the champ, but there are plenty of gems sprinkled throughout the league.

Yeah, I'd fear most of the gems would be miss rather than hit in the PL tbh.

~Rebel~

Augeo wrote: »

Yeah, I'd fear most of the gems would be miss rather than hit in the PL tbh.

That’s where decent scouting comes in. If they’re considering Long (a starting international cb) then I dare say it’s for a reason.

And there’s plenty of MLS players wouldn’t look out of place in better PL teams. No, it’s not the level we’d ideally be looking at, but right now I’d happily take someone with the right physical attributes who excels in the MLS over doing nothing.

Just the mentions of activity are promising at least anyway. Hopefully they get something done for someone!

Osmosis Jones

Finally back to winning ways, the goals:





And the unfortunately disallowed one:



Extremely weird game from Mane, I thought he was terrible for pretty much everything.......except for the fact that he was directly involved in all 3 goals and the disallowed one, so I don't know what to make of him He still just doesn't look himself to me, but I think this is good evidence that we don't need the lads firing at 100% to be successful:







Dier both hands wrapped around Firmino, hits it with his forearm into Firmino's hand, the ball then travels more than half the entire length of the pitch for a Liverpool goal and it gets disallowed:



Yet an on-target shot from 10 yards out that gets blocked by an extended hand is just ruled as incidental contact:



This is such a nice little 1-2:



It was nice watching you for 45 minutes Matip, maybe we'll see this again in another 6 weeks:



Nat Phillips started pretty shaky and picked up a yellow only 4 minutes in, but after that he settled down and put in a good shift. Nothing special but he won his challenges and held a good position, this being my favourite of his tackles:

rob316

If VAR can look at the goal, why can't they give Dier a yellow for trying take Bobby shirt off him?

Osmosis Jones

rob316 wrote: »

If VAR can look at the goal, why can't they give Dier a yellow for trying take Bobby shirt off him?

The most ridiculous part is that the game was restarted with a free kick to Spurs, the ref can clearly see both the shirt pulling and the Dier handball but gives a free kick against Firmino for his handball that came afterwards.

rob316

Osmosis Jones wrote: »

The most ridiculous part is that the game was restarted with a free kick to Spurs, the ref can clearly see both the shirt pulling and the Dier handball but gives a free kick against Firmino for his handball that came afterwards.

To be fair Bobby did control the ball with his arm so I can understand the goal been disallowed but it should of been a free for liverpool and a yellow for Dier. He has a firm grasp of his shirt with both hands wrapped around him.