Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

Konate always training today so a small chance he may play.

He certainly is doing a fine job. When you look at the managers he’s had as a player (Toshack, Benitez, Mourinho, Guardiola and Ancelotti) and the fact that he was always the most intelligent player in any squad he’s been a part of, Alonso was pretty much destined to be a top manager and I fully expect that he will be.

As much as I’d love to see him manage Liverpool one day, I think Real Madrid would be keeping a close eye on him.

The fear would be him being very, very good at Real Madrid and just…not being sacked.

If you mean both at the same time, I’d love to see him try it. 😂

Win some trophies at Liverpool and off to Madrid to tell Modric what to do.

Harry Maguire is available

Carragher said that seeing the level of commitment exhibited by Benitez in order to be successful with Liverpool made him realise that he did not want to be a modern day football manager. Benitez would have been a great teacher for anyone in the squad that had ambitions to go into management. His attention to the little details and thinking outside the box in order to give his team an edge would have been very insightful if experienced first hand.

One of my favourite stories featuring Benitez is how he gave Fernando Torres training sessions with a goalkeeping coach at Liverpool. They coached him on the behaviour of the goalkeepers he would face and where to place his shot in anticipated situations. At the time, no other manager in the league was preparing players for games to that extent. The Benitez approach transformed Torres into a better than 1 goal in 2 games machine and after he was gone, Torres returned to being the inconsistent player he was before joining Liverpool.

Iv loads of respect G Nev was a very good player in his own time , As i said id count him as the Prem best ever RB because of what he did over a prolonged period

Now lets take into account its over a decade since Gary retired & 16 year since he player over 20 games in a Prem season & 20 years since he player over 40 games in a whole season , Football has changes so much since then , especially in the full back positions, the pace & power & amount of ground they cover is a whole other world now ,Gary has said that himself multiply times ,

Hence why il think he wouldn't be a starter for a top Prem team now ,I understand your comment about Milner playing RB but that's because Liverpool can't get a decent RB to sit on the bench knowing Trent will start every week, G Nev of course would be a far better option in his prime

I honestly think Whyte are all round better RB than Neville because of how much quicker & more powerful he is as i said times have changed ,,

I actually think the modern full back most like G Nev in the Prem is probably AZP at Chelsea & again he is probably a better version off what Gary was,

I take your opinion on board im just of the opinion that football has become so much quicker & more powerful it s so unfair to compare past & present players , Even harder to compare teams of the past,

I agree with you on Fergie although Pep could surpass him depends how long he stays

Some interesting quotes from Klopp today, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard him even remotely admit that changes need to be made this summer. It’s also the first time I have ever heard him mention that him personally will need to sit down with the owners to discuss how that’s to happen. Any time in the past he has been asked about transfer he has just nonchalantly put it off as that is a discussion to be had between the owners and whoever is in charge (obviously that was Edwards for years). He has always tried to distance himself from transfer talk or potential players coming and going. 

“We’re not that dumb that we’re only influenced by things that happened recently. It was always clear. The way this club is led, not splashing the money or whatever to see if it works out or not, our transfers always have to be on point. We can’t make four transfers before we know who will leave the club. That kind of stuff. I knew it would be tricky – that was one of the main reasons why I signed a new contract. So on top of all this people wouldn’t have to discuss: ‘And he (Klopp) leaves next year. Not because I’m that great. Just imagine this same situation with another coach. Everyone would have said: ‘Bring Klopp back’. It’s good we don’t have that. Last season was not a year for a big change. We played until the last moment. We cannot bring in new players and realise then that nobody wants to leave, it doesn’t work like that. We had final, after final, after final, we had the season until the last minute, then we had a short break, then we had a lot of injuries, then the World Cup. Of all the problems we knew we would have that came on top, and now we are in it. I don’t like to talk about it all the time. But I have to think it all the time. I cannot change it that people aren’t happy. We try to fight through and make the best of this season. The better you behave in a moment like this, the better the times will be after it, and the more useful the bad times are. Imagine that, in all our lives that we wouldn’t have learned from our failures or the things that didn’t go well, we wouldn’t be the same people. So we have to learn from it as well and we will. But now we are in this heated atmosphere where we lose a game, ‘everybody out’, we win a game, ‘give him a new contract!’ I’m too old for that. We have to make our own plans and that’s what we do, but based on the way this club is led. It’s obviously different to other clubs but it worked out so far and we have to see if it will work still or if we have to adapt. But that’s something for us in the offices when we are not on the training pitch and my conversations with the owners.”

Klopp has vowed to make changes for Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace. He will make a late call on defender Ibrahima Konate, who returned to full training this week after recovering from a hamstring injury.

“Ibou is near but he’s only had two sessions after a long injury. We are not sure if all the boys could even play again after Madrid because of some knocks here and there. We have to make changes and we want to make changes anyway. It’s not that you come back after a long injury and it just clicks again. We have this situation now with Bobby (Firmino) and Diogo (Jota), and we can see it with Virgil (van Dijk) as well. Everybody expects Virgil always that he is like a robot pretty much but he played the most games last year, played the World Cup, played every game for his country, came back, from the first second played for us, got injured, comes back, plays, plays, plays. That’s not perfect. It’s already clear that we have to do something in the summer, but for now we just have to go through this and fight back. You can lose against Real Madrid but I don’t think a lot of teams can cause them the problems that we caused them in the first 20-25 minutes. I don’t know who is interested in it because it was only 20 minutes but it is still very important for us that I could see that. That’s why I was not in an overly bad mood afterwards. There was some good stuff that I didn’t see for a long time”. 

It's a small thing in all this, but spare a thought for Nat, recalled from his loan to collect more splinters in spite of 2 injured center backs yet again.

Be fair to the lad and let him off. He wouldn't have done any worse than Joe on Tuesday, we wouldn't have conceded 5 I'd bet.

Yeah, and even with that, Fabinho came in later in the Brighton game and was just dreadful. I'd be taking him out of the equation now tbh, and be looking at Elliott or Ox or something to come on for Henderson. (or Keita, but I'd be starting Keita with Hendo and Bajcetic until Thiago is back)

Why are there all these unprompted "aren't United just amazing? So much better than us!" posts the past few days

I'm not looking forward to it at all. We were caught out by basics against Madrid. I never expected a win but I didn't expect a demolition. Without a dramatic change of team plan, I think this form will continue.

Hendo and Milner starting together rarely bodes well.

No sign of Gomez on the bench even, wonder if he’s injured or if he’s just “injured”?

Bajcetic didn't have a great game against Madrid but I don't see the logic in dropping him.

Not a good midfield at all. All tired out by half time. Hard to see a win here.

It is as if some people have just come out from under a rock when Liverpool have had a bad season also never seen the League cup being so important before than this past week I just can't put my finger on the reason why.

Bajcetic has started the last 5 games in all comps and often looks tired past the hour mark, he probably just needs a break.

Looks like it going to be an early night...

I think we'll hammer them.

The kid is 18.

Hes played a LOT of minutes recently. He wasn't poor against Real as such, but was caught in possession a few times, a mix of fatigue and inexperience. We cannot run him into the ground.

Cody has started well here again.

Sloppy start by Trent

Himself and Matip there, was put in a horrible position by Joel but still should've done better