The Liverpool FC Thread XI

weyyyyyyyyyyy

its that guy that does what everyone else is doing to fit in

how original

Well haven't i been proved right eh?

And what qualifications do you have to chat **** about football? Do you have your coaching badges? Am I missing something here? Are you Martin Keown's son?

what?

I just see blood everywhere

I'm pretty sure he's the guy that posted pictures of his shaved legs.

Admittedly I'm genuinely perplexed as to why he's so angry at the moment

You were getting personal and insulting others when there is no need to.

i don't know how old he is, so from now on, i'm just gonna treat him by how old he acts.

Hilarious because you come across as if you're 15.

I'm having a naughty little temper tantrum today

Either Tom's really angry with you guys or he's baited the **** out of you lot

I don't know whether I'm in the Arsenal or Liverpool thread

Anyways I don't want to derail the thread really so back on topic.

People are saying that Gerrards cost you the title, but you can't forget the **** form you guys had at the start of the season. You have been very impressive in 2014 but I guess you could say it was a little too late to pick up? All this means though is that if you carry on with the same amount of steam you guys will no doubt be contending for 1st again next year. Problem is, good chance that you guys lose some momentum and that's very easy too with CL being in the way.


What positions are you looking to cover for in the summer?

Either Tom's really angry with you guys or he's baited the **** out of you lot

I don't know whether I'm in the Arsenal or Liverpool thread

Anyways I don't want to derail the thread really so back on topic.

People are saying that Gerrards cost you the title, but you can't forget the **** form you guys had at the start of the season. You have been very impressive in 2014 but I guess you could say it was a little too late to pick up? All this means though is that if you carry on with the same amount of steam you guys will no doubt be contending for 1st again next year. Problem is, good chance that you guys lose some momentum and that's very easy too with CL being in the way.


What positions are you looking to cover for in the summer?

Either Tom's really angry with you guys or he's baited the **** out of you lot

Either Tom's really angry with you guys or he's baited the **** out of you lot

I don't know whether I'm in the Arsenal or Liverpool thread

Anyways I don't want to derail the thread really so back on topic.

People are saying that Gerrards cost you the title, but you can't forget the **** form you guys had at the start of the season. You have been very impressive in 2014 but I guess you could say it was a little too late to pick up? All this means though is that if you carry on with the same amount of steam you guys will no doubt be contending for 1st again next year. Problem is, good chance that you guys lose some momentum and that's very easy too with CL being in the way.


What positions are you looking to cover for in the summer?

yay, an actually decent arsenal fan is posting!
tom is just being a child; trying to take on our entire TSR fan base apparently...

gerrard by no means has cost us the title.
we had a good start and we've had an amazing end, but our middle was a little rubbish :/

do you mean 1st team improvement or general squad additions?

Don't think you can really say we had a bad start to the season...? We've been in the top 4 pretty much all season, which was always our target. Our form in 2014 has been unreal, but we still had a good first half of the season. Iirc, everyone else was expecting us to drop off like Arsenal have.

Those people who say that are idiots. We would've had an 11 match winning streak without Gerrard! Similarly we've had other mistakes which has cost us points whether it be a defensive one or an awful attacking miss.

We had a harder first half of fixtures so we were always going to be better in 2014 imo although we've been a lot better. The players just need to keep their heads up and believe they can do the same again. The only concern I have is if Suarez can replicate his form but he'll still score 15-25+ goals next season and create loads too. Otherwise I think we'll tighten up in defence and other players have improved massively this season.

I'd happily add the following:
- 1st choice LB
- Energetic CM to back up Henderson (can be young and a physical prescence)
- Attacking midfield player who can score/has a long range shot in him
- Speedy winger who can beat his man (left footed version of Sterling essentially).

GK: Mignolet, B.Jones
LB: [New signing], Enrique
RB: Johnson, Flanagan
CB: Sakho, Srktel, Agger, K.Toure, Wisdom
DM: Gerrard, Lucas
CM: Allen, Henderson, [new signing]
Attacking positions: Coutinho, [new signing (AM)], Sterling, [new signing (winger)], Suso, Alberto, Texeira
ST: Suarez, Sturridge, Aspas, Borini

Obviously a lot of our players can play in a number of positions e.g. Coutinho can play AM, CM or LM. Likewise Sterling can play RM, LM or AM.

The new signings would just give us more options in how we play but also allow some rotation.

I believe full backs are our main priority. Jose Enrique is injury prone so I think we need a 1st team LB. 50% of fans believe Johnson is able to carry on as our 1st choice RB, 50% believe he should be offloaded and Flanno to be used as our 2nd choice RB so i guess we probably need another RB. Those two positions are key. I personally think we need a young 2nd choice goalkeeper as well because the difference in class between Mignolet and Brad Jones is horrendous. Brad Jones is also around 32 so he's meant to be peaking. So that's 3 players, 2 first teamers.
Borini is coming back so that is 3 strikers, however if we play 2 up front as we do a lot, we may need a fourth due to the Sturridge and Borini being quite prone to injury. Not a necessity though. We definitely need another winger seeing as our only ones are Sterling and Assaidi. Assaidi will be sold and hopefully Konoplyanka brought in. So that is 3 first team players, 4 overall. Some say we need a new CAM but we have Suso and Coutinho so I don't see the need. Selling Lucas and bringing in a new DM/CM is more necessary, so therefore there's the 5th player.

tl;dr: 5 new players imo, 3 for the first team (new LB, new RB, new winger) and 2 as squad players (DM/CM and GK).

1st team and general squad. Yeah, your middle really fell off

Actually you're right, I completely forgot that you guys were top for a bit until we took over. There's no denying that you did drop off during that middle part though up until the Arsenal thrashing, which pretty much propelled you back up to the top.

What I like about Liverpool this season is how you've got arguably the smallest squad depth compared to the other top teams out there now ( even arguably less than Arsenal's) yet you've powered to the front so effortlessly. Obviously no CL comes in and you're injuries haven't been as severe as say City with Aguero, or Arsenal missing 50% of their starting XI :P , but it's nice to see how you've basically slapped teams like Chelsea/City in the face (regardless of that 2-0 loss).

Obviously you guys are all optimistic and confident that Suarez is going to stay, but what if he left to Madrid early in the window. How would you adjust your team (without being dependent on them selling Benzema off to you)

Very strong links to Lallana now.

Quite happy with that. Always been vocal in my appreciation of him. Previously unsure if he was the player we needed, but given the way Coutinho has adapted to playing at CM, I have no doubts that Lallana can do the same - there's much less adaptation required for Lallana to do it, he's already incredible at ball recoveries http://www.whoscored.com/Articles/uv3b8aytyk-n_xx04vvn-a/Show/Player-Focus-Adam-Lallana-The-Right-Man-for-England

I would definitely take him for £20m. Anyone comparing him to Downing/Carroll can piss off lol.

Lallana is a player that has developed more slowly than most, but now he's here, and during his prolonged development, he's learned how to graft and work hard. Captains Soton so he's a leader too, can never have too many. His movement and appreciation of space is unreal - his runs would have Coutinho and Suarez drooling at the possibilities. Dribbling, first touch and technical ability is definitely good enough for our team, it's absolutely outstanding at times, a tiny bit erratic at other times. He's not in the same league technically as Suarez or most continental players but he is amongst the best of the Brits. Defensive work rate and all round contribution is absolutely outstanding - he's perfect for a pressing game.

If Coutinho can be moulded to play as a CM in the diamond, then Lallana definitely can. He'd offer something different though - he'd offer runs in behind the back four and into the space in between the defence and midfield lines. Currently we have Sterling powering his way through those lines, and Coutinho drifting around wherever he wants, Lallana would be a little more direct.

I haven't seen enough 90 minutes of him to say how good his finishing actually is, but whoscored have it as a strength of his. Has scored a few long range goals in recent weeks.

I'd love to see him here. I wouldn't take him if it meant that we didn't sign a proper central midfield player or another winger, but if we do have £20m spare then I would have it on him. Idk if we do have that money though, given LB, RB, CM and LW all need new players. Mooted £60m budget, Lallana 20, Kono 15, LB RB CM for 25m. Fullbacks are usually cheap anyway and maybe the CM is not going to happen if we buy Lallana - maybe Henderson gets pushed back into a deeper role and learns how to play alongside Stevie in a 4-2-3-1. I do think that is the natural progression for Henderson now, he's never going to score enough goals further up the pitch imo. Obviously I don't see him in training every day.

x

There aren't many big money English player moves which have really worked out in recent years? Especially attacking ones?

Rooney, Lampard, Ashley Cole I'd agree with but other than that? Perhaps Henderson and Phil Jones? Walcott and AOC perhaps too but at very young ages

Andy Carroll, Downing, Joe Cole, A.Young, Milner, SWP. Any English player that Man City or Chelsea have bought in recent years?

Zerf, this goalscoring, Gerrard-esque 4-2-3-1 centre/attacking midfield player that you're looking for, does he exist anymore?

Stevie and maybe Lampard are the last of the goalscoring CM/AM breed.

Look around Europe's top leagues and find me a player who's scoring 10 goals from centre/attacking midfield without penalties?

But then look around at the other teams in Europe... Barca, Real, PSG, Juve, Atletico (have Raul Garcia on 9 goals but he's different), Chelsea, Bayern are all catered towards midfield dominance and then getting goals from wide areas/strikers.

The only players that break this mould are Yaya (13 without penos, 4 were FKs) and Ramsey (9 in a 22 game shortened season) - both in great goalscoring form, albeit from number 8 and not number 10, and form that is unlikely to be replicated next year.

Mkhitaryan has 7 goals for Dortmund this year, and he was the high energy/pressing perfect goalscoring AM that we were linked to last year for £25m.

Firmino at Gladbach fits the required statistical profile (as Mkhi did last year) but I'm not going to pretend like I know anything about him.

I don't think this goalscoring AM exists in the modern game . We already have Sterling on 9 goals this season, no doubt going to improve/maintain that rate next year, I don't think we can improve too much on that.



It doesn't really matter - the failures are all failures because of what they are; typical English players. Lallana is completely continental in technique and style. Brendan has said numerous times anyway how he believes that the only difference between British players and continental ones is the standard of coaching holding back their technique etc...