Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

Wednesday woes...

If we don't sign a decent midfielder this window, then I don't have much hope for this season.

We won't beat Madrid and we won't get 4th. And I think that putting pressure on the players to try and do this is without bringing in sufficient reinforcements is part of the reason some of the players are stagnating.

The cost of not making CL is surely the cost of a decent midfielder but I think the club have left it too late.

Just hoping we have another Gakpo moment of signing someone who wasn't even on our radar, and soon.

Wouldn't buy any argument that they're only playing him to avoid penalties to be honest. He's a key man in the middle of their midfield, on set-piece duties, and they'd definitely have been under no obligation to play him every single week as they have done. Also, they had absolutely no problem with dropping Leighton Clarkson last season - also loaned from us - when he wasn't making the grade. They only gave him 7 appearances. Even besides that, we've seen plenty of loanees fail to get anywhere near the amount of game time Morton has - it's probably more common that they don't play that much actually, so I just don't buy that being a loanee from us is what has made him a mainstay.

Blackburn are a proper team, in a proper league, chasing an incredibly lucrative promotion - there is no way they're doing anything other than picking their best team.

No Quad for City

Re Podcasts - The Anfield Wrap does my head in at times. Some of those guys speak some serious bullshït. Try Walk On. It's the Athletic's Liverpool podcast.

Nunez is a doubt for the Brighton game according to Paul Joyce.

That was all twitter talk. Joyce, Bascombe etc didn't have articles on it iirc. They do this time.

Is Firminio back?

The games he did play we saw a little uptick in performances.

Diogoal is such an underrated player. Works his socks off and manages to always be in the right place at the right time!

I didn't see the second half... how bad was the tackle? It's only a 3 match ban for violent conduct, while it's just a 1 match ban for a professional foul, so just depends on how reckless it was viewed to be.

We need goals, take away the 9 in one game, and we're down to 25 goals, goals win games, this time last year we had 48 goals, in 17 league games, we can all talk about the defense, but we're shocking in front of goal this season, we went away to United early in season, had 73% of the ball, 17 shots, missed sitters, and people praised an amazing United performance, had we took our chances it would have been 2 - 5

Gakpo needs to hit the ground running, Nunez and Salah need to wake up, Elliot, Thiago, Henederson, need to chip in, VVD needs to step up, as does Matip and Konate when they play. We need goals, you literally can't win games without goals.

Yep, I'd be surprised if it's not three matches. Contact wasn't too bad but it was high and his studs were showing

ah gotcha, yeah knee height is prob a 3 match ban alright! Good for us anyway... though with our luck, we'll be the game that kickstarts Potter's Chelsea career!

I wouldn’t be concerned that Blackburn fans don’t think he’s anything special, a loan spell in the Championship often indicates absolutely nothing about the potential of a player. The likes of Dom Solanke and Tom Cairney always look brilliant at that level, yet Harry Kane failed to impress in that league on two different loan spells.

Morton might never be good enough to play regularly for Liverpool, or he could be a star in the making. It’s too early to tell for sure but him playing every week like he’s doing now gives him the best possible chance of success. The quality of his performances isn’t even that important right now, he’s just gaining valuable experience in a very physical league.

I may be wrong, but I don't think I am....i remember Jota being poor for months before the injury. He wasn't awful, but he was nowhere near the standard he was when he first arrived.

Having said that, I'd like him back asap.

0 expectation = 0 disappointement

Most interesting thing about tomorrow is to see where out managements teams heads are at,

Do they just do what we always do or will we try something different ?

Goals are going to be next to impossible to come by with Nunez, Firmino, Jota,Diaz & VVD missing ,

Salah is literally the only one left who you can imagine getting on the score sheet, OX or Trent maybe ?

Really not looking forward to tomorrow to be honest, had a feeling no new players will be signing in this window...

Club had Jones up for an interview with the website this morning, clearly he will be starting if so...

Saw on Twitter earlier :

5 mins - Goal - Trossard

I can almost envision the (non existent) goal so far...

He's a very different player and personality to Curtis Jones. Jones has the ego to feel like he belongs in the first team squad, Morton is quiet and lacked the self belief to have that persona. The staff were concerned that he was too slight to withstand the physical rigors of playing for Liverpool, he demonstrated last season that he has the ability to play at that level but he needs to develop physically. The loan to Blackburn has put him in the thick of it in terms of experiencing the physicality of a league playing in midfield and the experience will do wonders for his self confidence. I don't expect him to return from the loan as a player that is in awe of his peers and happy to just be involved on the fringes of the Liverpool squad next season.

He has always been a tidy player, he keeps things simple, can read the game and has an eye for a pass. At under age level he was never the stand out player, but he was always consistent in his performances. There were a number of fans who didn't recognise what Wijnaldum brought to our midfield and the same is true of Morton. He's not going to take the ball on and drive forward in an exciting counter attack as Curtis Jones can do, but equally he's not going to let an opponent go past him and assume that his team mates have it covered when possession is lost.

Jones needs a player to win the ball back for him and then give it to him going forward, he looks decent in a midfield three when the other players are doing the work to make up for his short comings. Things go badly when Liverpool face a team which requires all three midfielders to put a shift in because Jones doesn't have that in him, he'll do the work for 20-30 minutes but then will revert to his own game. His performances in the early season games against Brentford and Man City last season were examples of that, after he contributed a goal or assist his work was done and he became a passenger. In a game against Chelsea the previous season, both Ziyech and Mount out competed him and Jones got hooked after about an hour. He needs to get his head right if he wants to be a regular player, there's no doubt that he is talented but that is no substitute for being willing to do the work required to merit a place in the team.

Personally I believe that Morton will deliver for Liverpool once he develops. Our midfield doesn't require three world beaters but it needs players that are willing to work every time they step on the pitch and that is a natural part of Morton's game.

He's only scored twice since the last Liverpool-Brighton game on October 1st, so he is due one.

One thing I will note is that Brighton do cough up a lot of chances, and have conceded every game for the last 7. It's a real shame that there is so many injuries up front.

It's inevitable that this midfield picks up more injuries soon too, knowing our luck Thiago will get a knock on Feb 1st that puts him out for "an estimated 3 weeks" that ends up being 4 months.

Trossard's been ousted from first team training at the moment...

So it'll be his uncapped replacement who we turn into a star for 90 minutes before he's never heard of again.