Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

I think the pressure will be on FSG to spend a significant amount of money next Summer. We only have 2 seasons of Klopp left after that and everything should be done to give him the tools he needs to win more trophies. Even leaving that aside, Liverpool have one of the oldest teams in the Premier League so the age profile has to come down before much longer. Defensively we're not so bad and they invested in Konate last Summer. But younger legs are needed in midfield and up front. Hendo and Thiago are 31 and 30 respectively so someone like Bellingham makes a lot of sense and could be there for the next decade. And a younger version of Mane or someone similar would also be needed. That would be bare minimum stuff but would still require a significant outlay from FSG. Arsenal spent 150M odd last Summer having had no CL football in ages so FSG have little excuse if they don't spend in 2022. No point keeping the money for Klopp's successor when that is still years away. Let Klopp and Edwards (before he leaves) do a mini rebuild to freshen up the side.

I wasnt wrong. I was judging what I saw with my own two eyes versus what I had seen from Mane the past 5 years and it is obvious he has regressed the past year or so. A mini upward trajectory in chances converted doesnt change that. I daresay if you went back and compared his own successful dribbles and chances converted (stuff life that) from 2-5 years ago versus the past 2 years you would see a massive drop off.

See. Even now I'm being told i was wrong about Mane. Some people just can't see what's right in front of them I guess.

I suspect we'll have a refreshed front three next season and I'm not sure Sadio or Bobby will be part of it. The club would appear to sensibly waiting to see if they can get Mo tied to a new deal, if they do, one or both of the other two may well depart this summer. If Mo doesn't sign it changes things hence the club hedging their bets right now.

I think that's part of what is wrong with Mane now. I remember back in 2019 he pretty much beat his man down the line 99% of the time. It was phenomenal how easy he made it look just gliding by the full back by just poking the ball past him. It was Henry-esq at times...now he either no longer has the ability or confidence to try taking the man on full time so what you get is the first 20 minutes of him attempting to do so but he ends up running into dead ends or actually making a poor touch and pushing the ball out over the end line. He then referts back to just holding up play and checking back inside which often slows things down endlessly. Also when he does this he often delays the killer pass by taking a extra touch which gets him into trouble. He just seems very indecisive these days....he will still get goals because chances will fall his way due to the nature in which we play and attack. But his alround play is actually leading to very few chances or opportunities for team mates, a lot of the time our good attacking play just dies at his fee these days.

If we were bringing in yet another midfielder ahead of Elliott, I think he'd have gone on loan again, and if not, one of the others would have been sold for a loss. We have an absolute tonne of midfielders, there really wasn't room to add yet another, without making space (we started the season with 8 senior CM's, even without including Morton - that's a lot!). I daresay the powers that be looked, saw that there was a kid coming through that Klopp was confident could take Gini's place, and saw that we couldn't offload anyone else for any money at all after already losing Gini on a free, and it was a clear enough decision. It was just unlucky that the guy brought up as his replacement got injured. Such is life.

I will have a go, numbers from Transfermarkt -

Since 18-19 we have spent 133m euro - players coming in include Minamino, Jota, Thiago, Tsimikas and Konate

We sold players for 88.7m Euro so net spend of 44.3m euro for 3 seasons. Now before someone gets upset, the previous season we spent 182m and received around 41.3m euro so don't get too excited by FSG not spending money.

City in this time spent 459.3m euro - Cancelo, Rodri, Dias, Ake Torres, and Grealish among others

They sold players for 241m euro so their net spend during this time is 218m euro.

So yes they have spent so much more on a squad that was already very good. Just as an aside in 17/18 City spent 317.5m euro and received 91.3m euro. So that year alone their net spend was 226.2m euro. That is more than we spent in 3 seasons. They are making fun of spending and make a joke of the league. Yes, this is some sour grapes, but Etihad Airways is a billion dollar a year losing airline (some years, they are working towards making money by treating their employees like, well employees in the UAE). They should not be anywhere near sponsorships to the level they are. But then this is the Premier League, where they go "legally binding" assurances that PLF is not the Saudi state and will not control the club. They don't care if it brings in the money.

This is what we're up against, not that we needed any proof.

Currently 10/1 if you’re so sure

We should have went all in before he signed a contract last season ,

What I wouldn't give to go back and give Gini whatever contract length he wanted.

Nah not at the wages he was looking for ,but we should have replaced him with a younger player ,

Shame about Bissouma's off the pitch issues held have been great ,

I don't think Nabby is going anywhere. Klopp clearly likes him and plays him most of the time when he is fit.

When he does play he's usually very good but does have the odd game where the game passes him by for some reason.

Edit: I don't think Ox will be sold either. I'd imagine they'll look to renew him on a similar contract to what he's currently on.

City are now the lowest price any team has been at the half way stage to take out the title. A win for them against Arsenal and a draw between Chelsea and Liverpool and most bookies will be paying out.

But the gap is only 9, and we have a game in hand. Beating Chelsea is a step we need to take, then it's game on. 6 point gap, and we play City, plus all those tougher away games they have. We're getting stronger, not weaker like what happened last season. I'll be hoping Arsenal beat City in next game, and then City face Chelsea, and that's another game I see City dropping points in. Things could be very different in only 3 games time.

I'm very much a glass half full man so there's no chance I believe this seasons title is gone but it's massively different set of circumstances between this season and last. They have a fully fit squad and a purring like a kitten when last season we were doing enough to get by but it was all hanging by a thread that eventually gave way in spectacular fashion.

All we can do is try win all our games and that includes away and Chelsea and City. Without winning those two there's no hope.

City are on a ten game winning run and the best thing about that is that these runs always end so you'd assume they're closer to that next defeat than they are away from it. Their longest unbeaten run is 18 I think, longest winning run is 14. We need it to end soon, if not Arsenal then hopefully Chelsea.

There was a point on the RedmenTv pod where they said that City's opponents are effectively writing off the games against them at the moment, and just giving up the three points. That's probably overstating it a bit but that won't be the case closer to the end of the season when teams can't afford to surrender points.

Just reading back on the 18/19 season, we had a 7 point lead that year in Jan which got reeled in by City, so I'm not giving up all hope just yet.

I'd love Saka

To add, it doesn't really matter what City do if we don't improve. Our longest unbeaten run this season is 10 league games, 6 wins 4 draws. Our longest unbroken winning run is 6. At some point we need to go unbeaten a lot longer than that and most if not all of them need to be wins.