Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

Great news

https://x.com/lfc/status/1777694201758859668?s=46

I wonder what the rules on this are as it's illegal to sell above face value in Ireland? Is there jurisdiction on this?

Aye, he's very brave if he wants to take it on.

That's why I'm enjoying this title challenge and end of season with Klopp. Disappointed on Sunday but feck it, enjoy it and don't give out too much. God knows when we'll be back joint top, in April again.

I feel the same.

I just can't stand Arteta. He's ex-Man City back room, ex-Everton.

His antics on the side lines. His smile in his press conferences is like a cat who enjoys licking itself.

He was going nowhere with Arsenal until City sold him Jesus and Zivchenko and he started using Zivchenko the way City used him. 2 players with experience of winning the league and cups.

His team are the same as City, constantly complaining to the ref.

Saka is untouchable.

I can stomach City winning the league as we all know how they do it.

Ruben is the correct choice. He's got it all, good English, good personality, a people person, players will love him,and he's a winner, obsessed with winning.

Jack Pitt-BrookeFeb 15, 2022

Two years on, all those questions have vanished.

And Amorim already looks like the best Portuguese manager of his generation.

Speak
to those who know Amorim about how he has managed to turn Portuguese
football on its head and they all point to one thing: his personality.
He has always been charismatic, a natural leader, and someone who
team-mates and colleagues wanted to follow.

That was the driving
force behind his playing career, when he was a solid, dependable central
midfielder who could also fill in at right-back. He was in the Benfica
academy as a boy but, having been released, started his professional
career at another Lisbon club, Belenenses, where he spent four years in
the first team. In 2008, Amorim returned to Benfica — the club of his
heart — who were managed at the time by Quique Sanchez Flores.

The next season, when Jorge Jesus replaced the future Watford manager, Benfica won the title. Amorim was part of a remarkable team
(David Luiz, Fabio Coentrao, Javi Garcia, Ramires, Pablo Aimar, Angel di
Maria, Javier Saviola formed quite the core), although he was never
inhibited by training with these more famous and talented players. His
leadership and performances earned him a place in the Portugal squad at
the 2010 World Cup.

Amorim won two more Portuguese titles with Benfica, started for them in the 2014 Europa League final (a loss to Sevilla on penalties), and played at the 2014 World
Cup too. But a bad knee injury ended his playing career in his homeland,
and after a brief loan in Qatar, he retired aged just 32.

Ruben Amorim in Europa League action for Benfica away to Everton in 2009 (Photo: Getty Images)

But
even if he was a good player rather than a great one, Amorim left an
impression on team-mates. They say that he was the “joker of the
dressing room”, always talking, always entertaining them, and getting
his ideas across.

It felt inevitable that a player like that would
go into coaching and Amorim shone on the High Performance Football
Coaching course at the Faculty of Human Kinetics at the University of
Lisbon.

His first job came soon
after, at third-tier Casa Pia for the start of the 2018-19 season.
Amorim hit the ground running there, impressing with the intensity of
his training sessions. But with Casa Pia at the top of their league,
Amorim’s work did not go unnoticed, nor did the fact that he was
coaching without the required licences to do so. Casa Pia were fined and
threatened with a points deduction, Ruben quit, but the team he left
behind still won promotion at the end of the season.

The next step
after Casa Pia was to take charge of a B team, and there was plenty of
interest. Most prominently of all were Benfica, the club Amorim
supported and where he enjoyed the best part of his playing career. Many
people expected Amorim to take on the job of Benfica B coach from the
start of the 2019-20 season. Just six months before Bruno Lage, now
coach of Wolves, had been promoted from Benfica B to the first team there. The pathway was clear.

But
after meetings with the club, Amorim decided to say no. Benfica have
always been a political club, with then-president Luis Filipe Vieira
looming over everything there. This job was not as powerful as the one
Amorim wanted. He did not want to have to pick anyone else’s players. He
wanted to coach the team in his own way, with personal responsibility
for their results.

So, in September 2019, Amorim took over Braga’s
B team instead. He won seven of his first eight games there. And in
December 2019, when Braga sacked first-team coach Ricardo Sa Pinto, with
the team stuck in eighth, they turned straight to Amorim, for his first
job in top-flight management.

“Here at Braga, Ruben Amorim’s
impact was tremendous,” says Paulo Meneses, their head of recruitment.
“First on the B team and then on the first team. His personality, the
way he works, made us think that we could be in the presence of a top
coach.”

The first challenge for any new manager in any job is to
convince his players that his ideas are right. This is how the manager
generates “buy-in” and how, over time, their own ideas become those of
the players too. This skill is maybe the most important in management.

Amorim has it in bucketloads.

Also
important to him is the ability to give clear and simple instructions
that make sense to his players. Some coaches might overcomplicate the
game but Amorim would rather give simple instructions that are fully
understood than complex instructions that are half-grasped.

“Ruben
is a coach that brings everyone together,” says Meneses. “From the
players, administration, staff, everyone ‘buys into’ your idea. This is
key to creating a winning mindset. He has a very strong personality but,
at the same time, it does not fracture the group. With his strong
leadership, he manages to unite and aggregate. He is very smart in human
relationships and communication. These are Ruben’s strengths as a
coach.”

Another source who knows Amorim well says the same: “His
superpower is not the 3-4-3, it is communication. With the media, the
fans and the players.”

Even now, his players at Sporting watch his press conferences intently to see what he has to say.

Ultimately,
Amorim lasted even less time as Braga first-team coach than he did in
charge of Braga B. He was appointed on December 23, 2019, and left for
Sporting on March 4. But even in those 10 weeks, he showed why he was
the most exciting young coach in Portugal.

Amorim coached Braga
for only nine league games. He won eight of them and drew the other.
Under him, Braga beat Porto 2-1 away, Sporting 1-0 at home and Benfica
1-0 away. On top of that, in the Taca de Liga, Braga beat Sporting 2-1
in the semi-finals and Porto 1-0 in the final. Five games against “Big
Three” opposition, five wins, all within a four-week period. And Braga’s
first trophy in four years to show for it.

Yes, the sample size
is small, and yes, many new managers get a bounce when they begin. But
this must still be one of the most remarkable short-team improvements
any recent managerial appointment has produced.

So
when Sporting sacked Silas, six months into his tenure, they had a
decision to make. They could go for another one of the same old names.
Or they could take an expensive gamble on the upwardly-mobile Amorim
before Benfica or Porto did the same thing. All they had to do was pay
the €10 million release clause (£8.4 million in today’s money).

(Photo: Getty Images)

Eyebrows
were raised across Portugal when Sporting spent the money, wondering
how a club with all their problems could justify such a move.

The answer was emphatic, but not instant.

Amorim’s
first game as Sporting coach was a 2-0 home win against Desportivo das
Aves, their last game before the enforced COVID-19 stoppage. This was
their last game for three months, and some people used that time to ask
why the club had spent all this money on a Benfica fan who had only been
a top-flight manager for two months.

When football returned in
June 2020, Sporting went on a seven-game unbeaten run, pushing up to
third, but defeats at Porto and Benfica in their last three games saw
them finish fourth. But that spell did give Amorim the chance to try out
some of the young players — Nuno Mendes, Joelson Fernandes, Matheus
Nunes, Eduardo Quaresma, Tiago Tomas — to see how they would cope.
Amorim has always been happy to bet on young players, as long as they
believe in his ideas and work hard in training, and that has turned out
to be the backbone of his success. And even if some of the players
needed convincing about his methods and GPS tracking, Amorim won them
round.

The summer that followed also gave Sporting the chance to
add more quality: right wing-back Pedro Porro in on loan from Manchester
City, former Real Madrid and Real Betis back-up keeper Antonio Adan and
former Wolves youngster Pedro Goncalves. One-time West Ham United
midfielder Joao Mario joined on loan from Inter Milan a few months into
the season.

Even with these new additions, the squad was still not
on the level of Porto and Benfica. But it was enough for Amorim to work
with. He knew how to bind them all behind his ideas: a rigorously
well-organised 3-4-3, which presses high and barely concedes any chances
at the back.

The same leadership
and charisma that inspired such commitment from the Braga players worked
just as well even in the more challenging dressing room of a bigger
club.

“His playing style is clearly pragmatic,” says Meneses. “He
is a studious coach, with a great capacity for work and a lot of
intuition. In addition, he is a born leader, with great communication
skills, both internally and externally. He is contagious with his will
to win and with the conviction that only with hard work from everyone is
this possible. Group work is really a crucial point of Ruben Amorim’s
philosophy.”

Two things stand out about Sporting last season. The first is their defence. Marshalled by the 31-year-old Liverpool and Sunderland old boy Sebastian Coates, they conceded only 20 goals
all season. It was, according to TheAnalyst.com, the best defence in
Europe, permitting an average of 0.73 expected goals against (xGA) per
game.

The other is how good Sporting were in the final minutes of
games, scoring in stoppage time in nine of their league games, winning
themselves nine extra points in the process. Amorim had instilled such
remarkable belief into the players that they were always convinced they
could win.

Perhaps the most important win of all came on April 25.
Sporting had drawn three of their last four games and felt Porto
breathing down their necks. They went away to an in-form Braga and,
after 18 minutes, had Goncalo Inacio sent off. But they dug in and then,
with nine minutes left, Matheus Nunes’ goal won them the game.

Three
more victories after that won Sporting the title, to go with their Taca
da Liga trophy from earlier in the season. It was their first
championship since 2001-02, back when they had Mario Jardel, Hugo Viana
and a young Ricardo Quaresma.

After a generation of Porto and Benfica domination, it felt like a transformative moment in Portuguese football.

Of
course, the football food chain being what it is, Sporting could not
keep all of their players last summer. Nuno Mendes was sold to Paris
Saint-Germain, while Joao Mario moved across town to Benfica. But
Sporting’s level this year has not dropped too much. They are battling
Porto foe the title, are in the middle of a successful Champions League
campaign, and have retained the Taca da Liga (Amorim’s third in a row).

Whatever
happens against Manchester City today and at the Etihad on March 9,
there will be questions about what Amorim will do next.

He has been mentioned in connection with the Manchester United and Tottenham jobs in the past, although for now, he wants to stay put and keep winning with Sporting.

When he does leave, his next move will be up the game’s pecking order.“Ruben
is destined to join a top club in the ‘Big Five’ leagues,” says
Meneses. “It will have to be an ambitious project. He is an extremely
ambitious coach. There will be nothing to excite him other than the
ambition to win big trophies.

“Due to the leadership he
demonstrates and the quality with which he works, I have no doubt that
he will be an unavoidable name in European football in the coming
years.”

didn’t see city or arsenal watching Red Sox . So both teams haven’t ties sown up which is good as we want them to have to make effort in second tie and ideally both to qualify although probably harder for arsenal . Any thoughts from those who watched either ?

Villa in Europe Thursday night,the last time they played Thurs night,Spurs hammered them. Also Douglas Luiz is suspended so he will be a big loss

Couldn't call the City Real tie after that.

Real 10/3 to win the second leg, seems like long odds

Remains to be seen. Klopp is leaving the team in a good place. New recruits coming through, midfield sorted for next season. But the front line is overdue an overhaul, which is a pity so soon again. I don't think Diaz or Nunez are clinical enough and have to go.

Nunez 100 shots

11 goals

8 assists

9 times hit woodwork

24 expected goals missed

27 times offside

His stats are as crazy as the man 🤪

plus the amount of times he’s been offside and the player on the ball doesn’t pass it to him knowing he’s offside Might well be the most brain dead player we have ever had yet if always have him in my team as defenders don’t know what to expect from him

I'd rather they both got knocked out, and lost their next 2 league games. 🙏

If you extend that logic, might be better picking a team you expect to get knocked out (Atalanta 😋) and saying you'd accept tickets no matter what?

Sadly there's no way of knowing what UEFA are doing. That said, I presume the chances aren't great whatever you do

Hopefully a EL semi final the Thurs before, then nothing until the last day of the season the following Sunday, quite nice spacing (for a change!)

Probably depends what Villa team turns up, very inconsistent atm.

In the past year everything has gone up 70% plus, Liverpool want to increase ticket prices by 2% , and fan groups have a canary. I think they have a need to look important, as if everything needs to be run by them first.

''I'll pay 165 for a season ticket, no way I'll pay 168'' Sad

I dunno what they'd do if they had to pay 2k for a season ticket for Arsenal, or Spurs

Should be paying more if you ask me.

I dunno why a club like Liverpool, have to have minnow prices, to be down the bottom of the scale for prices, just to keep fan groups feeling important, reality is we could charge 4000 per ticket, and there would still be a long waiting list

Clubs in general should be looking the other direction tbh - instead of endlessly raising ticket prices (which are becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of the revenue pie anyway), they'd be better served actually lowering prices so you can start getting some young people into the grounds again. The higher the prices go, the older the crowd becomes, and we're not too far off whole generations of kids just never developing the habit of going to games.

The Bundesliga has a much healthier view on ticket prices in general, and this recent Fortuna 'free tickets' program is amazing. That's the sort of direction I'd love to see Liverpool move towards.

I find it very difficult to have any type of critical view on the fan group position on this from Dublin.

Very much their community