The Liverpool FC Thread XIII

Can was class last night. He, Coutinho and Sterling were head and shoulders above anybody else on the pitch. His future is clearly as a central midfielder - the way he picked out the pass for Sterling's equaliser was just sublime. Great, astute ball with little backlift and little effort.

Allen is laughably bad. He fails to contribute anything defensively or going forward. He's simply there to get the ball and shift it sideways, it seems. He has no future with Liverpool, but could make a great acquisition for a lower-half PL club.

Gerrard was poor, too. We looked a different side after Henderson entered the fray - Gerrard was put out wide and had little impact, but he wasn't trying Hollywood passes in the middle and it helped our intensity and progression to the final third.

That said, Gerrard's ball to send Sterling away in the first-half was a reminder of the quality he possesses in picking out a pass and starting something out of nothing.

The good thing about Balotelli's contract is that it's over 50% performance related. That was something Ayre and Rodgers were firm on when negotiating with AC. I also would be happy to keep Lambert, he does a job, when I met him he was very committed to Liverpool and I'm a sucker for a fairytale ending.

I also would be happy to break our transfer record on a new striker. Assured quality is something we need whilst cultivating this group of young players that we have in the creative side of things. £20-£25m on a talent like Suarez and Torres were when we brought them in is probably ideal. Not sure what kind of talent is out there though aside from Lacazette, Firmino maybe?
I've just been looking at our database and in terms of shots on target across Europe's Top 5 Leagues + the Eredivisie (good source of talent.. Eriksen, Suarez hailing from there), aside from the usual suspects, the list is topped by Charlie Austin lmfao!

Paolo Dybala of Palermo is a good option too...47 shots on target in Serie A so far.

Yeah I get that about Utd having to leak it because of the NYSE. It will definitely be higher and I get your point about them having no need to outbid yourself but if you recall it saying that they're folding warrior football, this could potentially mean that they would have to renegotiate the whole deal again as the contract with Warrior would be void? In that scenario the potential for further compensation becomes a lot larger! Do you know how much the kit deal is for at the minute? I can't remember the figures.

I was happy to write abuse about Mignolet when he did badly so I think I have to give credit when he's doing well. He was composed and confident last night which meant the defence were more confident too. Came for the right balls and stopped a few good shots too. Sakho again did well imo.

That's very smart negotiating if that is the case with Balotelli's contract.

We're not going to be able to buy one of the best strikers who would command say 40-60mil in their peak but we should be looking for top players who aren't being given a fair chance at big clubs (someone like Lavezzi struggling at PSG) or looking for a potential star (like we did with Suarez/Torres). Bayern have a pretty full squad so maybe we can look there?

Lacazette is the only one I've watched closely and thought "here's a kid who could replace Sturridge or play next to him" but then I haven't had time to look for others. I think he could go for like 30-35mil euros.

Lyon are 23rd on the Deloitte Money League with revenues of 130mil euros - similar to Villa and Southampton. I don't think they can turn down that kind of money and after that it just depends who else is willing to bid for him.

I think Warrior are continuing to manufacturer the ice hockey kits but obviously Balance want to enter the lucrative football shirt market. I presume we've consented to early termination of the Warrior deal and then agreed to enter into similar terms with Balance? It's in our interest to keep them sweet too. Warrior was reported to be £25mil a year so the Balance deal could be £25.01mil and upwards

Mignolet looks a different player. I was joking with my flatmates last night while watching it, and I said that somebody needs to give him a drug test - because he seems to be a different person from two months ago!

It's interesting, too, because at the start of the season I'd have taken a few of Everton's players for our starting XI tbh. Howard would have come in for Mignolet, and I'd have taken Baines/Coleman in the full-back positions, and probably John Stones as a centre-back with Sakho.

Now, though, Everton have slumped and our back three is crucial to anything we do. We're getting into the habit of winning and we're progressing really well. Can, Sakho and Skrtel seem so solid - and Sakho is reaching the heights that many in France assumed he would. What a run of form he is in.

I wouldn't take any of Everton's players anymore, which shows how far we've come on since the new boys settled in - especially Can and Markovic. I hope his injury isn't serious, too, because he seems so at ease and comfortable in the team side. He's so young, too, but he seems to relish English football. His best performance this season was Sunderland away - and it was freezing cold that day, but he got on with it and grew in stature and performance.

Henderson doesn't need a like-for-like replacement imo, because he's got such an engine and he's the type of lad who CAN get away with playing two games a week. He isn't Sterling and his game doesn't rely on explosiveness - it runs on reliability, getting around the pitch tirelessly etc. He needs to be in the team as much as possible because he's able to adapt to different systems so well.

I'm not a fan of Henderson out wide, but he crosses the ball magnificently as we've seen against Swansea (with the ball to Sterling when he hit the post) and Aston Villa (his assist for Borini). He is best in the middle, but if Can and Lucas were to play there in a holding capacity, it would allow Henderson the freedom to roam and sew the ties between defence and attack. Too often this season during our barren spell, there was nobody to marry our defensive and offensive units in a cohesive manner.

Henderson marries the two perfectly with his stamina, resilience and determination.

It's pretty much my job to watch football so I have been able to do quite a bit of scouting. Dybala is good, Lacazette is just so consistent but obviously injured atm and out for the clash with PSG. I wrote a piece a few weeks ago analysing whether or not Higuain could fit in to our attack with Sturridge as it looks like he'll be leaving if Napoli don't make the champions league. Surprisingly, the stats showed they would, the only problem was that Higuain has always played as a lone striker, at Napoli, even Madrid and for Argentina at the World Cup. So he would have to learn a new formation, which isn't impossible by any means but might hinder progress. Lavezzi, on the other hand, went to PSG for the money and hasn't done much since. He hasn't been playing well at all this season and people forget that he's pushing 30! We need young talent! Wouldn't be surprised if the New Balance deal was £25.01m given Ayre's negotiating skills hahaha!

The statistics do show that Dybala is the type of player we want if his key strengths are take on, chance creation and shooting.
Yea looks like Lavezzi is too old for us now.

Ayre's doing a pretty good job lately. Can't really begrudge him for much (annoyingly).

Vietto

Agree about Everton. Don't understand how they've crumbled so badly since last season.

I'd agree that Henderson looks like one of those few players who can play 60 games a season but what happens if he gets injured? I don't know how well our system works when he's not in there. Nah I don't like Henderson on the wings but Rodgers obviously thinks he can do a job. We could always play Henderson in front of Can/Lucas and behind the striker?

I think having Henderson alongside Lucas and Can, but with more license to roam and probe is sensible. I'd keep Coutinho and Sterling behind a lone striker, ideally Sturridge.

All that stuff from Rodgers about not wanting to rush Sterling in to a big contract to keep him grounded is going to pot though as he's been a bit of a standout player for us, watch them cave in and give him £90-100k a week...

He deserves £100-120k.

Pay him for his performances, not his age.

I expect we'll see the 3-4-2-1 until it's found out, or we bolster in the summer and need to adapt to accommodate new signings. I'd have laughed last year if you'd told me we'd be playing with three centre-backs.

I don't know why this is so unbelievable, we played 3-4-1-2 for a few months last year too.

Rodgers has always been flexible with his formations.

He also played 5atb the season before(e.g. the 1-1 draw vs Chelsea at Stamford Bridge). He always plays 3atb this time of the season, think that he'll change to 4atb later on in the season, as Liverpool find out their fate and try Gerrardless formations.

Well, no, this time last year he was playing 4atb.

Don't think we will be doing many without Gerrard, unfortunately. Maybe some EL games but really I think we're going to see a selfish and poor ending to possibly the best career in our history.

You are right, for some reason thought we were still in late november. Season has gone by quickly.

He deserves £100-120k.

Pay him for his performances, not his age.

Agreed. Happy to break the 100k mark if ****ing Rooney is getting the GDP of a nation per week.

February

Nearly 12 months since the best 20 minutes anyone's ever played in the PL