Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

Blanco100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117823884#Comment_117823884

Have a read again. Think another poster above managed to decipher the gist of it.

Agent Coulson

I'd take Werner off Chelsea for £40m.

bennyineire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117824009#Comment_117824009

That would be a mugging, he's terrible. He wouldn't be able to finish his dinner, He still hasn't figured out how off-side works either. Not to mention his crazy wages. Have you actually thought this through?

jones

For me it's all about ambition. If Liverpool are happy to try make top 4 almost every year but never win the league then keep going as they are with the shrewdy business model. Kind of like arsenal under late wenger (even this isn't a given as other teams are strengthening).

If we have any designs of winning the league again we need to make decent signings. I actually think some on here are delusional in relation to how good our team is. I think our first 11 is good but we've a few key players who I now feel are past their best this "blip" mane and a lesser degree firmino are on is coming up on a year long. That's not a blip IMO. The signs have been there for a while.

We do look a lot more stable at the back with VD and matip back but I'm not convinced with the midfield or forward line. I think some folk just think this season will be a rerun of 19/20 season now VD etc are back. I fear things have moved on

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117823986#Comment_117823986

If we play at the level of 2 years ago, we will absolutely be gunning for the title.

I really don't think we will, as that level was incredibly, ridiculously high, but if we were to, it would take City vastly improving over last year, and Chelsea being nigh on perfect to compete with that level.

I mean, it was the 2nd highest points total in history, earned by a season of incredibly dominant, resilient football...

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117824227#Comment_117824227

We where first at the start of January then went on that streak of losing home games when everyone was injured,

Then won 8 of our last 10 games & drawing 2 to have the best points in the last 10 games ,

We just have to make sure we don;t have that slump again ,

BorneTobyWilde

This season we will lose games, drop points to our rivals................ but we can only be compared to others, and I'm certain that they will do they exact same.

Chelsea wanted to win, they feel like they dropped two points. City wanted to beat Spurs, but lost, and felt they lost 3 points.

Get used to it is my advice, this could be the most competitive season ever.

Ottoman_1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117824227#Comment_117824227

I think it would take the most extremely optimistic Liverpool fan to think the same squad can match levels previously reached 2/3 years ago. That was this team at its peak and now with age and some key personal coming back from serious injury or players just not performing the same level for varying reason it can't be done. I still think its good enough to finish top 4 and compete with UTD for 3rd but we will be 10/11 points behind Chelsea and City by the end of this season. I'm not been critical of players or management but just trying to be realistic of where we are at....

FSG seem to be going down the road of trying to just solidify a top 4 spot each year. I think a lot of it maybe down to fact that they realise they simply cant compete with City/Chelsea/UTD in the market year in year out. There was an article somewhere on them last summer where it was suggested that they kinda underestimated the investment required to compete year in year out with the EPL money-boys and there's maybe some truth in that. I'm not going to get worked up over it or stress about it as there is noting us on here can say or do about it but just get behind the team and Klopp every week.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117824311#Comment_117824311

totally, was just addressing the chap's point that playing as well as 2 years ago wouldn't be enough to win (or even come second) now. I don't see us reaching that level, but that level would win the league just about every year.

I don't agree with the comment about FSG now just trying to solidify a top 4 spot though. That implies they 'tried' before, and were 'settling' now. I don't think anything has changed in their approach - the club reinvests every penny made back into the club. If the money is spent well, we challenge. if it isn't, we won't. Think it's just that simple really, because we don't have Utds revenue, or City/Chelsea's inconceivable wealth. But I don't think there's been a step back in ambition or anything.

Ottoman_1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117824339#Comment_117824339

Apologies, I was actually using your posts to respond to the previous poster myself.

Its an interesting one with FSG, I'm definitely not in the FSG out camp like so many here. Whatever their ambitions, it's now going to be a lot harder to operate the way they have been doing if its true that Michael Edwards is moving on next summer.

JPup

I think Timo Werner would do great under Klopp. He’s on massive wages though and Chelsea would only sell to us for huge money so it’s a non runner.

Girly Gal

Klopp is the main reason we have a chance of winning the league, he is Al's the main reason the financial gap between ourselves and City, Chelsea and United is not showing on the pitch, but, we are the underdogs in this race, City and Chelsea should finish above us, but, they are not guaranteed to. Just as Ole is holding United back, Klopp is pushing us into challenging for the major honours, once he goes we'll revert back where finishing top 4 will be an achievement. We are financially handicapped compared to our direct rivals, not only that we're actually being outspent by half the league, by teams that are also rans, in the long run we can't expect to stay competitive if we continue to spend at the same levels we have over the last few seasons, we'll be fine whist Klopp is still with us, but once he goes that financial gap will be reflected in our results.

Riesen_Meal

https://twitter.com/WhenImElmo2/status/1432400118452473856?s=20

Elmo is some lad 😂

giveitholly

Kabak signs for Norwich

https://twitter.com/NorwichCityFC/status/1432395188828360712?s=19

TitianGerm

FSG OUT... Wouldn't pay out for Kabak and now Norwich have signed him. Stingy owners.... Or something along those lines.

brevity

I have an feeling FSG want to sell up.

Widdensushi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825122#Comment_117825122

Not at all, if they did they wouldn't have sold 10% or whatever they sold lately, it would turn alot of buyers off bidding.

Damien360

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825122#Comment_117825122

I honestly thought they had enough in and around the FFP debacle with City, when they got a free pass. They had plenty to say about the laughable process. It meant a well run business was always going to struggle to be sustainable and competitive when you have oligarchs/nations spending without a care in the world. But, they are still here and the value of PL clubs appears to be ever increasing. So I can’t see them bailing out yet when they always said it was a long term project.

BorneTobyWilde

Real are like '' 180 m bid'' ok we're now pulling out, but we'll pick him up in a matter of weeks for ZERO.

PSG are like '' please come back, we'll now take your 180m offer, please please come back, please!! ''

BorneTobyWilde

It's all mind games at a very high level.

Damien360

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825194#Comment_117825194

I don’t think they are stuck for cash. Mbappe still turns up for training, still scores (2 this weekend) and seems happy to keep playing. Real fantasy bid was just that, a fantasy bid.

Fitz*

Still no update on Bobby's scan on his hamstring.

Already bracing myself for some bad news around the injury, announced after the transfer deadline and no additional signings made.

mormank

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117823929#Comment_117823929

I keep hearing this season after season "other teams have improved" so much so that you would think by now the prem is full of teams that are far and away the best teams ever seen on the planet. I mean, have they improved? Does signing Jack Grealish for example actually make city a better team than last season or the season before when they had fenandinho, for example, in his pomp and Aguero starting games up front.

Sure other teams have signed players but we won't know if they have improved until the end of the season really. Too often I find people equate "signing players" with "improving". Heck the year we absolutely destroyed the prem and won it by 20 points or whatever it was who did we sign that improved us? It is possible to improve without signing players just like it's possible to sign players and decline.

mormank

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117823947#Comment_117823947

Well for most of last season I would have preferred a Callum Hudson Odoi playing at 80-90% of his capabilities over Mane at about 40% of his capabilities which is what we have gotten from him for well over a year now. The alternative player doesn't necessarily need to be a better player than Mane or Firmino at 100% to improve us as we havent seen either at 100% for a very long time. Then the idea would be that we improve that new player over the years to be able to then call the spot his own on merit. Point being I dont think we need a world beater to rotate with Mane or Firmino, even a player ala Hudson Odoi's potential would do, let's say someone of his ilk but not English because I totally agree regarding the English tax

Widdensushi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825285#Comment_117825285

This time last year it was werner we were afraid of, reading above alot changed in 12 months

Talisman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117822604#Comment_117822604

Thiago wasn't the issue. Robertson had a shot from outside the box but provided no movement on the left for 85~86 minutes. Mane was a different player when he had Tzimikas providing assistance to attack on the left for the final minutes of the game. For whatever reason Klopp chose to start Robertson, probably because he offered more defensive solidity but when Chelsea were down to 10 men they weren't being stretched until the final moments because that is when Liverpool had a left back to get behind them.

As an example, Chelsea were let off the hook in around the 64th minute when there was an opportunity for a quick counter attack. The Chelsea players hadn't reset after their own counter attack had been foiled. TAA played a cross field pass to Robertson who was in acres of space, we've seen that play before and know what to expect but the pass was wayward. Robertson retrieved the ball played it inside to Henderson and then went back to spectator mode. He was missing the usual dynamic dimension to his game.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825285#Comment_117825285

You don’t think MC winning 3 of the last 4 premier leagues, or Chelsea winning the Champions League was due to improving their squads (Thiago Silva/Havertz/Mendy/Chillwell played a huge part in that)? Is Lukaku an improvement on Werner? You don’t think adding Varane/Sancho/Ronaldo improves MU? Will Grealish improve MC? I think he will, particularly if they don’t sign a CF, he will set up and score goals.

In July 2018 we signed Allison, Fabinho, Keita and Shaqiri, we won the champions league that year.Again, the team this year is not the team that one the league by 20 points a year later.

And to be fair, the MC teams of the last 4-5 years must be considered some of the best in Premiership history, the signing of last year’s player of the year in defence, allowing Fernandinho to go back to midfield made a huge difference., I don’t know if they could be considered the best on the planet as the obvious absence of a CL trophy kinda makes that debatable.

~Rebel~

Hudson-Odoi is one of those lads that I must always catch on bad days or something. Every time I see him - for all his pace - he looks pretty poor, especially on decision making. Always seems oblivious to what’s going on around him. More Ibe than Sterling…

Muahahaha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825122#Comment_117825122

Hard to know what they are thinking but it wouldnt surprise me if they are. I dont think Liverpool is a long term project for John Henry in the way that owing the Boston Red Sox has been. He is 71 now so is likely thinking of an exit from Liverpool sometime in the next few years. Think they bought the club for around £300m and its now valued around £1.5bn so thats a tidy profit he can walk away from. It wouldnt surprise me if his attempt to form the Super League was one last hurrah to boost the value of the club before going to sell up. Since the Super League has failed and all thats happened with Covid he may not feel like hanging on for much longer if he is not going see the same explosive growth in the clubs value that he has had up until now.

Who knows whats going on in the background but Edwards announcing his departure when Klopp has said he wants to rebuild the squad over the next few seasons is not a good signal. Edwards was central to that project but isnt gong to be around for most of it now. Maybe he himself sees that FSG arent going to be hanging around forever so decided to bail when a good offer came in from Madrid. Or maybe after 6 years of lots of penny pinching in the transfer market he just wants to go to a club with a blank cheque book and not have to worry about constantly being expected to pull rabbits out of a hat. Either way its not good news for the club, losing him when there is a rebuild project underway is a massive loss.

giveitholly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825274#Comment_117825274

Saw a rumour on Twitter( I know I know) that he is out for two months,hopefully it's a load of bull

Utopia Parkway

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825274#Comment_117825274

Lots of rumours flying about that Bobby might be out for longer than expected. Hopefully rubbish but I must admit I'm a tad concerned. If only because the depth behind him is pretty shallow.

mormank

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825308#Comment_117825308

Exactly. Perfect example. To use Lukaku himself as an example we were all told when signed for Utd he would help them challenge for league titles. He didn't.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825403#Comment_117825403

Well as Wuddensushi said this time last year it Werner and Havertz and Thiago Silva that were gonna shoot Chelsea to the title. They finished 4th, behind us having our worst season in years and having lost 6 in a row at Anfield. The year before that it was someone else and so on.

Whether or not I think Utd signing Varane/Ronnie/Sancho improves them or not is kind of irrelevant to my point. Take Grealish at city for example. Sure, city signing Grealish makes them better than they were last week before they signed him but does it make them better than this time last season when the league was just beginning? Not necessarily is my answer. They sign Grealish but they lose Bernardo Silva perhaps and Aguero left and Fernandinho is a year older. Players may suffer loss of form like Mane did. The list of factors is virtually endless so no I don't think that city signing Grealish automatically guarantees they have improved their squad from the one that set out to win the title last season.

As for Utd. Well it would appear they have just had their best transfer window in my living memory so yeah it's kinda difficult to argue my point with them but basically what I'm saying is you need to compare the current squad a team has to the squad they began last season with, not their squad the day before they signed the player/s in question, to judge if their squad has improved or not. And of course there will always be intangible factors like morale and player's individual relationships etc that we are not really privy to that will affect how a squad actually performs.

Talisman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117823918#Comment_117823918

I'd say there's a better chance of getting the likes of Pulisic. Chelsea are now close to the minimum requirement for homegrown players in their squad - Bettinelli, Christensen, James, Chilwell, Chalobah, Loftus-Cheek, Barkley, Mount, Lukaku. Hudson-Odoi is under 21 so he doesn't have to be registered which is a bonus.

ballyargus

Having a thin squad is very risky, we found that out to our costs before. Looks like we are about to repeat the same mistake

Talisman

Maitland-Niles could pad out the squad as a loan option. For whatever reason Arteta doesn't play him and he did well on loan with West Brom last season. It's no surprise that Benitez is trying to bring him to Everton.

https://twitter.com/subhankarjourno/status/1432333926605987843

mormank

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825820#Comment_117825820

100% agree. I more meant his profile not his nationality. Matheus Perreira who was at West Brom last season for example, tho he is quite a bit older than Hudson Odoi. Not a world beater but you would expect you could rotate him in for the Norwich's of this world and still have enough to win. Use him as a sub in the bigger games, whatever. Gives you the chance to rest other players, has alot of talent and could improve easily at 25. He moved for about £25 mill and is on £4mill a year apparently.

Someone like Hudson Odoi who is young with the potential to become world class (depending on who you talk to) would be ideal as he wouldnt expect to start every game but I still reckon a signing along the lines of Matheus Perreira would improve our squad simply as it is so threadbare, one injury and we are back to all hands on deck as we see with Firmino's injury. Not every signing has to be the next Mo Salah or Sadio Mane, they just need to be better than Mane when Mane is playing like muck, like he has been for a year now, to improve the team over the course of a season.

mormank

Maitland Niles is a perfect example of the type of player I'm referring to in my post above actually. He isn't gonna necessarily make any position his own but could be trusted in alot of games imo allowing us to rest more senior more over worked players. Maitland Niles would be great actually cos he can cover about 5 or 6 different positions. He would be ideal actually cos he could even cover RB, a spot we don't really have adequate cover for, whilst also covering a few other positions.

SlickRic

If we go into the season with Salah, Mane, Jota, with Origi as backup, and Firmino injured until Christmas, we've learned nothing.

It'd be utterly irresponsible.

Elliott cannot be expected to cover CM and the forwards at 18, and only just breaking through.

Widdensushi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117826023#Comment_117826023

Not much different to the last few seasons though, elliot in for shaqiri, is there an update on Firmino?

JPup

I’d love us to get someone like Goncalves at Sporting. A wide forward who can score goals.

If Salah we’re to pick up an injury like Van Dijk that ruled him out for the season we’d be screwed. Wide right especially is the one position we really need more cover for.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825809#Comment_117825809

I think Chelsea 21 are a much better team than Utd 17, what Chelsea missed most last year was a striker ( a competent manager for the first part of the season would also have helped), Werner didn’t adjust to a new team in England, Lukaku has experience.

How are Utd signings irrelevant to your point about hearing “other teams have improved”?

Chelsea went on to win the champions league with those new players, having jettisoned a novice manager and brought in one who actually knew what to do with the players. There could well be similarities in the trajectories of Chelsea and Liverpool 2018, squad improved -> CL won -> title challenge.

Did Aguero play much last year? I think Fernandinho was in-and-out of the team, and I think he is still there to do the same this year, Milner-like.

ben.schlomo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825910#Comment_117825910

I'm not deliberately trying to sh1t on all your ideas but I don't see Maitland Niles being ahead of anyone who was on our bench last week. For me he'd be a completely pointless get.

I'd have taken Bowen, if there was truth in those rumours earlier in the summer. Cantwell from Norwich is another with potential. Two off the top of my head that I'd have no issues with at the right price.

Widdensushi

The reality is that Jones /origi didn't make our bench last weekend, I would have either there ahead of minimino, any signing needs to be a starting 11 signing, we don't need more squad players.

Think Jones was still out due to concussion protocols, but I could be wrong. Saw a newspaper report AV are interested in signing Jones permanently.

Captain_Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117826202#Comment_117826202

Noticed this on Sky’s yellow ticker last night saying AV had pulled out of negotiations. No other detail given tho

SM01

I thought Jones was still affected by the concussion.

Jones is a player I'd be keeping. He did very well last season when thrown in at the deep end.

Fitz*

Henderson has signed his new contract. The timing of the announcement is quite annoying, waiting til deadline day. It surely could have been announced a couple weeks ago or whenever it was agreed. It definitely didn't just get agreed & signed yesterday.

https://twitter.com/LFC/status/1432620961916915714

ben.schlomo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117826344#Comment_117826344

Absolutely, nonsense for people to be talking about him being moved. A young player with bags of potential.

Cartman78

Hearing rumours (albeit from a fella at work) that Firmino is out for 3 months

Francie Barrett

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117826368#Comment_117826368

We have shown a distinct lack of ambition in the transfer window this Summer and with the opposition all investing heavily, I can't help but feel we are going to be found out.