Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

~Rebel~

.red. wrote: »

On a free contract he's worth 200k a week. Dunno where the 400k came from.

Thiago is the same age, cost 30m and is reportedly on 200k a week.

Barca have put themselves in a very tough position in terms of negotiations though... where Liverpool can offer someone (who came with a transfer fee) 200k - making them one of the top earners - it's hard to argue for more, but Barca are in a much trickier spot.

Gini's on a free, and when he looks around the midfield and points out De Jong on 400k a week, and even a hugely inferior Pjanic on 300k a week it becomes very difficult for Barca to successfully argue ~200k.

Gbear

Knex* wrote: »

What are the big priority signings going into the summer, does everyone think?

Assuming we sign Konate, that's CB sorted.

Then, I'd probably be looking at RB cover for Trent.

Anything after that I think is transfer dependant. For example, if we sell Keita I think we'll need another body in midfield.

Do we need another attacker considering the woes of Mane and Firmino for much of the season? Or does Jota being fit for a full year reduces the need? Again, if the likes of Origi and Shaqiri leave I think we'll need to sign another.

Even at our best this side doesn't score enough goals. The target should be 100 or thereabouts if we want to continue to match City. We've shown an incredible capacity to hold on to leads when we're at full strength, and to score late goals to win, but being better able to bury teams will remove an element of chance that we could do without having to contend with in what will probably be a tight title race for 95+ points.

We only scored 11 goals from midfield in all competitions. That's not good enough.

As it is, we're down a body in midfield. We should be getting another one in regardless. We should be looking at 3 from 4 of Thiago, Henderson, Fabinho + a new no 8, with Jones and Milner giving depth.

Beyond that we need...

Another keeper - I'd be happy to see Kelleher as no. 2 and another academy player as no. 3 - if Alisson gets injured we're probably ****ed regardless so I don't see the need to bring in another Adrián type player.

Cover for Trent - I wouldn't be opposed to seeing Neco Williams moved on.

Some kind of attacking player - I think Elliot could well get games in the first half of the season at least, but I wouldn't be opposed to see him get a loan in the PL.

I don't see us signing a starting attacking player of any kind. I don't see us moving the starters on, or signing their replacement this summer. There's only really space for a young developing talent (whether that's from the academy or signed with a view to eventually replacing one of the front 3), or an ould fella as cover, as Utd have managed successfully with Cavani, IMO. I wouldn't turn my nose up at one, but I can't really see the logic.

Jota, Mane, Bobby and Salah isn't enough bodies. I would imagine we'll keep at least 1 of Keita, Oxlade Chamberlain and Shaqiri, so we'd need another. If Klopp fancies Minamino or Elliot for that role, fine, but otherwise someone else needs to be brought in.

Our squad is actually still very good. It has a few issues around some players being unreliable, but we've still a top class, dependable 10 or 11 players. We just need maybe 12/13 who can be relied on to first of all actually play, and then perform in 60%+ of our games. Then, along with a few decent squad options like Phillips, Milner and Jones, you can afford to have a couple of players like Matip, or Oxlade Chamberlain as bonus players.

Agent Coulson

Aspas the top scoring and assisting Spanish footballer the the top 5 leagues left out of the Spanish squad for the Euros is creating a bit of a backlash with fans.

marklazarcovic

TitianGerm wrote: »

Williams won't make it at Liverpool, he's just not good enough. If we could get £10m for him he should be sold.

Philips is a much better player and I'd like to see him stay but realistically he's now worth the most he'll ever be. If an offer of £20m came in he would most likely be sold. He'd be a perfect replacement for Mee at Burnley.

I'd rather we kept Kabak as well. There's very little risk involved with the €18m fee and even if we kept him for two to three years to see will he develop we would get that back easily.

Edit: add Konate or Botman as the main CB signing and we should be ok at CB for the next few years.

CB squad of VVD, Gomez, Matip, Konate/Botman & Kabak.

he just 18 for christs sake.. hasn't even finished growing.. this years experience might have taken him 3 or 4 years to accumulate if no injuries.. invaluable. ill not dismiss the lad until hes 21 0r 22 ,id keep him rather than sign kabak for instance.

Fitz*

Not to go all ITK or anything but I've been told that Alisson signed a new contract today. Improved terms.

Great news, if true of course!

robwen

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Konate done by the looks of it.

https://twitter.com/Watch_LFC/status/1396867297172672513?s=19

~Rebel~

Fitz* wrote: »

Not to go all ITK or anything but I've been told that Alisson signed a new contract today. Improved terms.

Great news, if true of course!

Would be good news alright... he was already signed up for another 3 years anyway, but it's a position it's no harm locking down. Would expect him to be playing at his best for another 6 years at least.

As far as new contracts go, Salah's the main one I'm keeping my eye on. Will feel a lot better when he's locked down. The one totally irreplaceable player that's getting closer to an expiring contract.

Elsewhere, with Hendo about to turn 31 in a few weeks, I wouldn't mind a move for Kessie at Milan to bring more of that all-action number 8 energy to midfield. Not to mention a few goals. A real leader of a player, and still only 24.

Fitz*

~Rebel~ wrote: »

As far as new contracts go, Salah's the main one I'm keeping my eye on. Will feel a lot better when he's locked down. The one totally irreplaceable player that's getting closer to an expiring contract.

Absolutely.

In my opinion, he wants to stay. Some jiggery pokery with the agent etc but I reckon that's for more money and to hurry things along. The celebrations after big goals recently etc from Salah tell me enough about him wanting to stay.

The players in general want to stay now. Gini did.

1o059k7ewrqj3n

Any ideas about what will happen to Grujic, Taki and Wilson who've been out on loan?

Assuming Karius will be sold.

Agent Coulson

Tie down the spine of the team to new contracts Ali, VVD, Fab & Salah this summer.

You would hope Hendo will stay at the club now till he retires eventually taking over the Milner role.

~Rebel~

Steyr 556 wrote: »

Any ideas about what will happen to Grujic, Taki and Wilson who've been out on loan?

Assuming Karius will be sold.

At a guess, I'd say Taki back, and the other two lads sold.

It may come down to what they show in pre-season though. Think Wilson will be sold regardless, maybe to Rangers, but the other two might be changable. With Shaq and Origi's futures up in the air, I think Taki just needs to not be actively bad to stay. And with Gini gone, Grujic could maybe earn a squad position if he can show something.

Agent Coulson

Steyr 556 wrote: »

Any ideas about what will happen to Grujic, Taki and Wilson who've been out on loan?

Assuming Karius will be sold.

Union Berlin have decided not to buy Karius or Awoniyi and both will return to Liverpool was on there club website today.

A few Championship clubs want Awoniyi now that he has gotten a UK work permit.

One or two German clubs are looking at Karius next season, Let him go for a token fee I say.

Porto want Grujic on loan again next season, I think it's time to sell him now and not loan him out again.

There was reports Gerrard wants Wilson, Cardiff also want to keep him.

Hasenhuttl said he would like to keep Minamino.

van den Berg is wanted on loan next season by about a dozen or so Championship clubs by all accounts after his impressive loan at PNE.

Ojo will probably be sold.

TitianGerm

Not sure if it was posted here or not but looks like Thiago was called up to the Spanish Euros squad.

Agent Coulson

Lyon didn't get Champions League football so I'd like to see them put in a bid for Aouar now.

TitianGerm

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Lyon didn't get Champions League football so I'd like to see them put in a bid for Aouar now.

Wonder how much De Scigilo would cost? Could be decent competition for TAA.

ballyargus

a candela or irwin type player who is comfortable at LB or RB would be ideal. We need to be able to give TAA and Robbo breaks

~Rebel~

ballyargus wrote: »

a candela or irwin type player who is comfortable at LB or RB would be ideal. We need to be able to give TAA and Robbo breaks

We did already buy Tsimikas though... i'd say he'll be given a bit more time to be an option at LB.

If he eventually works out, that could almost fix the issue, as I'd be confident enough about Robbo at RB if needs be to give Trent a break.

Otherwise, with Konate likely coming in, I wonder if Gomez would become more of a swing player between CB and RB.

Agent Coulson

Shaq, Wilson, N Williams, Robbo, Thiago, Jota are the players named in Euro squads so far.

Hendo and TAA (maybe) for the England squad.


Gini will captain Holland, Kabak will be with Turkey.


I'm guessing Ali, Fab & Bobby will all make the Brazil Squad for the Copa.


Salah and Minamino to the Olympics as well I think.

Agent Coulson

Reports Munich have been in touch with Gini's agent.


https://twitter.com/LFC/status/1396882693514743811?s=20

Agent Coulson

https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1396879707895910400?s=20

~Rebel~

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Reports Munich have been in touch with Gini's agent.


https://twitter.com/LFC/status/1396882693514743811?s=20

Hope we see a bit more from Balagizi tonight, disappeared a lot during last weeks game. Clearly has a lot of talent, not to mention physicality, but needs to just do more stuff.

Looking forward to seeing Musialowski again though, and to a slightly lesser extent, Quansah at the back.

Any fans allowed at this actually?

<edit> looks to be a decent few fans allowed in, nice for the kids.

Also very nice to hear that as well as being the best player on the team, Musialowski is also the youngest!

Quansah's pace at the back up against Louie Barry (who already scored against the LFC first team fringe squad!) will be an interesting battle.

Agent Coulson

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Hope we see a bit more from Balagizi tonight, disappeared a lot during last weeks game. Clearly has a lot of talent, not to mention physicality, but needs to just do more stuff.

Looking forward to seeing Musialowski again though, and to a slightly lesser extent, Quansah at the back.

Any fans allowed at this actually?

<edit> looks to be a decent few fans allowed in, nice for the kids.

4000 home fans since the final is at Villa Park

Agent Coulson

Cracking goal from Villa.

~Rebel~

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Cracking goal from Villa.

Really brilliant opener in fairness, excellent play from start to finish.

Agent Coulson

Penalty to Villa now.

Villa 2 up after 12 minutes.

~Rebel~

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Penalty to Villa now.

Villa 2 up after 12 minutes.

Bad auld start for poor Billy, the first went through his legs I think, and giving away the pen for the second.

Agent Coulson

Liverpool should have pulled one back there.

Utopia Parkway

This Villa side seem physically much bigger than our lads.

~Rebel~

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

This Villa side seem physically much bigger than our lads.

Look to have a much higher level of quality across the board too.

Aside from Musialowski, Balagizi, and perhaps Quansah, we're very average.

fyfe79

Dcully wrote: »

Still cant believe we finished 3rd , unprecedented injuries to so many key players despite opposing fans` narrative.
Imagine losing the best CB in the world then his partner in crime Joe Gomez. That blistering pace that allowed us to push more forward as a unit gone the security provided by these two speed machines literally vanished thus almost breaking the team and how they play as a result.
Matip whom i rate as a better defender than Gomez but just doesnt have that raw pace gets injured soon after thats all three senior CBs out for the season again unprecendented.
Two of our best midfielders Hendo and Fab try to patch up the void in CB but both also succumb to injury while our world class midfielder thiago also picks up a nasty injury and an extended period out of the team, he also gets covid then eventually gets fit enough to start and is put straight into a massively disfunctioning team and within days we have clowns on this footie board trying to claim he was a waste of money despite everything stacked against him [we know now how that ended with Thiago proving he is indeed world class]
Jota banging in the goals also picks up a nasty injury and a lengthy spell on an ever increasing injury list while other players were also picking up injuries including Alisson.
You really couldnt script this stuff if you tried but it gets even more crazy.
Two young lads one barely out of his teens step in both with little to no pace and zero experience at this level thrown into positions vacated by genuine top tier CBs and your thinking this will not end well , but end well it did.

On top of all the injuries to our famed front three as a unit were missing chances constantly , i think at one stage they had 150+ chances created and NO conversions , this is just crazy stuff and just as much a hindrance as losing our 3 senior CBs if not more as it meant a huge pints loss directly.

Yet despite it all we managed to finish 3rd place and secure CL football certain rival fans must be absolutely sick

While Philips and Willams rightfully so receive a huge amount of praise the team as a whole dug so deep heroes the lot of them.
What an achievement by Klopp and the team.

Love this summation of the craziness of this season. There was so much going on that you missed something... our two CB signings in January, brought in to help patch the injury crisis, both finished the season injured, natch.

~Rebel~

Please just keep it down Musialowski! Two great chances blazed over.

Not too much to be said about that half really, Villa well worth their lead, and to be honest we're lucky not to be further behind. We only really look threatening when they get a bit lax passing around the back.

martyos121

Doesn’t seem too fair that the final is being played at Villa Park, with fans let in. It’s essentially an away game for our young lads.

Villa U18s are a very impressive outfit though, it has to be said. There should be multiple future PL players in that side.

~Rebel~

martyos121 wrote: »

Doesn’t seem too fair that the final is being played at Villa Park, with fans let in. It’s essentially an away game for our young lads.

Villa U18s are a very impressive outfit though, it has to be said. There should be multiple future PL players in that side.

Villa doing really well making it stick up front especially, and then supporting play. For us meanwhile, Woltman is really struggling to hang onto it, and things are breaking down almost immediately.

Nearly be tempted to go a bit basic and put Galagizi a bit further up, back to goal, just to use his strength to try to hang into it and hold for the runners from midfield.

martyos121

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Villa doing really well making it stick up front especially, and then supporting play. For us meanwhile, Woltman is really struggling to hang onto it, and things are breaking down almost immediately.

Nearly be tempted to go a bit basic and put Galagizi a bit further up, back to goal, just to use his strength to try to hang into it and hold for the runners from midfield.

Balagizi doesn’t seem to make great use of his size advantage, that’ll absolutely improve with experience but he’s a fair bit weaker on the ball than he should be, but I haven’t seen an awful lot of him to be fair.

You’ve the right idea though, I’d like to see someone up front who can hold the ball up or knock it down for Musialowski who should be playing in a free role behind the striker.

Very hard to see our U18s overturning this deficit anyway, Villa just look a bit too good for them.

BoardsMember

martyos121 wrote: »

Balagizi doesn’t seem to make great use of his size advantage, that’ll absolutely improve with experience but he’s a fair bit weaker on the ball than he should be, but I haven’t seen an awful lot of him to be fair.

You’ve the right idea though, I’d like to see someone up front who can hold the ball up or knock it down for Musialowski who should be playing in a free role behind the striker.

Very hard to see our U18s overturning this deficit anyway, Villa just look a bit too good for them.

Seems a bit lazy too. The midfield are very disconnected from front man/men. Long balls easily won, knocked down to Villa players with time and space. We don't seem to be set up right at all.

Agent Coulson

Just reading there that after the TV rebate money Liverpool got £148m for finishing third from Prize money and TV money.

Agent Coulson

Game on now

~Rebel~

He's made a difference since coming on at half time.

Nice to have a game of it over the last 15 minutes now at least. Was becoming a difficult watch!

plibige

I know its a harsh thing to say now after him putting in such a shift in the last couple of games, but considering his current ability where would people realistically see Rhys Williams going next year?

I can't see him near the first team squad, and he can't go back to the u23's now. Would he be out of place at a league 1 level club? Would a championship loan be beyond him? Is he more suited to a "continental style"?

I personally think on his current ability league 1 is his level, might sound harsh, but he was also on loan at Kidderminster not too long ago

~Rebel~

plibige wrote: »

I know its a harsh thing to say now after him putting in such a shift in the last couple of games, but considering his current ability where would people realistically see Rhys Williams going next year?

I can't see him near the first team squad, and he can't go back to the u23's now. Would he be out of place at a league 1 level club? Would a championship loan be beyond him? Is he more suited to a "continental style"?

I personally think on his current ability league 1 is his level, might so harsh, but he was also on loan at Kidderminster not too long ago

Yeah, back out on loan alright. Either Champ, League 1, or Scotland. At his age, none of those are bad options anyway... it's not like he flourished in the Prem in anything like the way Phillips did - it was really skin of his teeth stuff at times. He's done well under the circumstances to hang in there, but he's a long way of Prem level yet. He's hard working, and has a great attitude, so just getting regular football out of the limelight over the next 2 years could see him develop nicely.

Fitz*

How did Billy Koumetio look? A lot of comments I've seen on him lately is that he is error prone, rash and not ready.

On a similar note, it seems that a few Championship clubs were impressed with Sepp van Der Berg during his loan at Preston and are looking to take him on board next season.

~Rebel~

Fitz* wrote: »

How did Billy Koumetio look? A lot of comments I've seen on him lately is that he is error prone, rash and not ready.

On a similar note, it seems that a few Championship clubs were impressed with Sepp van Der Berg during his loan at Preston and are looking to take him on board next season.

Yeah, Billy's looked like he has the physicality, but not the reading of the game yet. I really like the look of the other young CB though, Quansah - not as imposing, but looks a much better player, and has a lot of pace. Been at the academy since he was 5!

Van Den Berg seems to have impressed alright - but did play mostly on the right rather than CB. Wherever he gets games is a good thing though, many's the great CB started off playing at RB!

Alonso77

I see Xabi Alonso has steered Real Sociedad B into 2nd tier of Spanish LG - things progressing nicely in his management career

robwen

klose

Funny how things in football swing on moments, by all accounts wijnaldum was a back up to piotr zielinski the summer the deal went through.

ben.schlomo

klose wrote: »

Funny how things in football swing on moments, by all accounts wijnaldum was a back up to piotr zielinski the summer the deal went through.

Ya we were always being linked with him back around then. Thankfully we got the better end of it.

TitianGerm

Stole this from Reddit but apparently this is the away jersey.

Electric Nitwit

HAPPY ISTANBUL DAY EVERYONE!

jebidiah

TitianGerm wrote: »

Stole this from Reddit but apparently this is the away jersey.

I think the trim material doesn't play nice with camera flashes/bright lights. I actually thought the new kit looked pretty good when on the players on the pitch. The trim was a lot darker than it appeared and was a deeper more reddish colour. That white kit while plain would be quite nice if the trim appears darker in the flesh.

Electric Nitwit

Electric Nitwit wrote: »

HAPPY ISTANBUL DAY EVERYONE! ............

16 years now :eek: