The Liverpool FC Thread XII

The 'why did we let Reina go?!?!?' issue just illustrates the main misunderstanding the many football fans have about their clubs wage structure. People talk about net transfer spend in terms of transfer fees but no one even thinks about wages, which is what is really important in the day-to-day running of the club.

Reina was definitely on the decline in his last season, you can hardly blame the club for letting him go especially given the fact he'd have been one of your high earners. Not replacing Mignolet, or at least getting another keeper to provide competition, was a big mistake though. You can't take him out of the team for a bit (which worked for Hart & De Gea) because Brad Jones isn't Premier League standard. Was the plan to bring Valdes in or something?

Sure we sold Reina as we wanted to reduce the wage bill but you still need to be competitive on the pitch.



When we first bought Mignolet, Rodgers spoke about having two competing number 1s. I'm not sure why we don't have someone better than B.Jones tbh.. If we bring in Valdes now, we're probably in the same position where he's a high earner?

You're shedding most of your high earners next summer though. Johnson's probably off and Gerrard will surely have a substantial wage cut.

Cheers man. Always great to hear from you.

Yeah, it's a difficult one. Do you think you over achieved last season? I mean for me, it's just not good enough to say well that was a one off now we'll go back to being 7th, if I was a Liverpool fan, massive club, I'd have wanted to spend 120M wisely and challenge for the title this year, I mean you were incredible last season, you tore us apart at Old Trafford.

Is it Rodgers? Would you sack? Is he just a mid table manager who got lucky to have Suarez last year?

You're shedding most of your high earners next summer though. Johnson's probably off and Gerrard will surely have a substantial wage cut.

We've gone back two years in the space of three months.

Bull****, Raheem is clearly better in the middle. He is lethal there. The problem is he had no one to lay off to and Gerrard playing as a striker alongside Skrtel towards the end.

If we could play Lambert/Balotelli (deep lying) and Sturridge together, and started with Coutinho/Sterling/Lallana behind, I think we'd have seen a different outcome. The problem is we have no one to bang in goals, and we have a keeper who refuses to distribute more than 20 yards and catches a ball like a wet trout. Midfield is fairly solid. Allen did look a bit sheepish closing down earlier on but got better. Hendo had a few moments of last season's brilliance but not quite as persistent. Gerrard as we know has lost his legs and needs to stop trying to shoot from distance like days of old, but still quality when you need him. Few people can score free kicks like that in those sorts of situations.

But he kind of is. We have not seen Sturridge and Balotelli play together properly: Balotelli is not an out-and-out striker and is better playing off someone else, in a deeper position. 4-3-1-2 could well work. Coutinho played well when he came on last night. There is no reason why those attacking three (Cout/Sterling/Lallana) can't switch positions in play, but Sterling's pace makes him more effective through the middle. Effectively makes it 4-3-3 in attacking play with Sterling playing as a faux-striker and and Coutinho/Lallana and one of Gerrard/Henderson in attacking midfield. It does work well, but needs the right players and a bit of luck injury wise.

We need to start Markovic against United, he gives us pace and dynamism, and Lallana too.
Get rid of Allen, he's useless and put Gerrard as a striker, Coutinho as a sub, he's a special player but he's too inconsistent, 2 bad games 1 great game...

__________Gerrard_________
Markovic__________Sterling
_______Lallana___Henderson
____________Lucas___________
___Moreno__Kolo__Skrtel___Johnson
____________Mignolet

Surely it would be better with sterling as a false nine and lallana and markovic on the wings with Gerrard in midfield

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Gerrard is our best finisher and Lallana disappear in the wings, Sterling has no end product, he and lazar should be the ones who add pace, intensity and pressure to our game

We need to start Markovic against United, he gives us pace and dynamism, and Lallana too.
Get rid of Allen, he's useless and put Gerrard as a striker, Coutinho as a sub, he's a special player but he's too inconsistent, 2 bad games 1 great game...

__________Gerrard_________
Markovic__________Sterling
_______Lallana___Henderson
____________Lucas___________
___Moreno__Kolo__Skrtel___Johnson
____________Mignolet

Hopefully we have sakho back this weekend, we sure need him instead of lovren trying to defend against di maria....