Liverpool Football Club Thread

[JamesTW]

In my opinion its better if Man City win looking at both teams fixtures

[hmm]

Amusing that just as Palace away was the fatal blow to our title challenge last season and handed it to City, now the same fixture has probably put the nail in the coffin of City's.

Less amusing how far we are away from it being exactly the reverse situation to last season of course.

[Gabe]

Thing is we had a lot of "We've the best form in the league" and "Rodgers has turned it around in spectacular fashion".

That form seemed false to me and the test for me was been Man Utd. How would we fare? We came undone.

We had been scraping through the cup games and having a good game, bad game, and being what I felt was lucky.

Now it's come home to roost.

We didn't spend well, and now we are unravelling. Sure some god awful refeering and the ridiculous FA haven't helped in the past few weeks and yet it is in reality of our own making.

All we have now is the FA cup. Otherwise it's been a failure of a season.

In fairness, throughout that winning run it was pointed out during games where we got a bit lucky or won without playing well - nobody suggested that we were playing at the top of our game all the time (we did hit some heights in patches though, such as the Chelsea cup games despite the result). But yes, the United game was always going to be a test - two teams who were getting results without playing consistently well. And we were outplayed from the start. As for the Arsenal game, a bad day at the office along with some dodgy decisions from Mignolet and boom! we're well beaten.

Our spending hasn't proven to be very successful so far, no. Markovic has been largely disappointing but did have a good little spell which showed promise for the future, Lovren has just been poor, Manquillo and Moreno are suspect defensively (but are young and will learn you hope), Lambert I forget even existed and Balotelli simply frustrating.

Can has been the one standout success, but I keep hoping he moves into midfield sooner rather than later and Lallana - whilst dipping of late - has been decent this season.

Still, as I mentioned up-thread, City going into a bit of a free fall could be a better bet at opening the door for us to somehow steal 4th. It sure is the hope that kills you though!

[Oh Danny Boy]

I thought we did alright in the summer, got some quality young players in that will hopefully build the backbone in the squad for years to come. The failure was recruiting in positions which we needed experience and quality in; centre back and up front.

We've got more than enough youth with potential currently in the squad and coming through the academy. What the squad needs now is some ready made quality and experience, whether we'll spend what is needed to bring those players in is another thing.

[Gabe]

I have no problem buying players for the future, but your last sentence is where I feel the club went wrong last summer. We should have been buying that ready made quality and experience then, to build on the work done last season, not thinking that it'll be addressed this summer.

Now admittedly the experience we did buy hasn't worked either in the main (Lovren and Balotelli are duds so far) but then I'm not sure anybody was clamouring for any of those in the first place. I wonder what other targets the club had and how much they were pursued. Could better players be bought for the now, rather than the future?

Of course, it's always easier to manage from an armchair

[SMD]

Ready and experienced like Falcao innit.

[Gabe]

Well he's scored more goals and cheaper than Balotelli, so sure, why not?

Joking aside, that's why I pondered who the targets were in the summer, given that we needed a striker (amongst other positions.) There were likely a number of players we didn't know about.

[SMD]

The more you spend the more likely it comes off but it doesn't guarantee anything and if they're at their prime and it doesn't work out, you have little room to move.

[dogsout]

I know this isn't important at all but in what way was Falcao cheaper than Balotelli?

[JohnnyNolan]

Well looking at last summer option A was Sanchez and option B was erm...panic! If Liverpool had landed Sanchez I'd say top four would have been nailed on. The Balotelli move was a gamble and one that didn't pay off.

As for Lovren I still think that's his useless twin brother and Southampton have him locked up in a shed somewhere!

[gospvg]

Looking at our Transfers In

Rickie Lambert – Forward – Southampton – £4m - Why did we even sign him?

Emre Can – Midfielder – Bayer Leverkusen – £10m - Has been decent overall, good purchase.

Adam Lallana – Midfielder – Southampton – £25m - I expected more much more, I'm talking creativity on the Coutinho level. He has failed to deliver so far.

Lazar Markovic – Forward – Benfica – £20m - Not worth £20m, hopefully will improve.

Dejan Lovren – Defender – Southampton – £20m - Oh dear, let's find the reciept & get a refund.

Divock Origi – Forward – Lille – £10m - Hopefully will come to the club next season & improve our attacking options.

Javier Manquillo – Right-back – Atletico Madrid – Loan - Loan ..Phew let's send him back.

Alberto Moreno – Left-back – Sevilla – £12m - Looks a bit like Alonso, shame he is not as good

Mario Balotelli – Forward – AC Milan – £16m - A gamble that did not pay off.

Spent: £117m

So from all the above only Can has been a decent signing so far, £117M is a lot of money to spend on not much return.

We could have spent £94 Million & got Sanchez, Costa, Fabregas instead. Albeit on higher wages.

[dogsout]

Albeit on much higher wages. That's part of the problem. The other part is some of them are very young and need time. I really like the look of Markovic, for example, and feel confident that he's going to end up being a success. These last few games coming up are going to give us a much clearer idea of where we're headed. So much hinges on the manager's intentions regarding the system.

[The Fox]

Coutinho isn't a particularly creative player. Him and Lallana are broadly on par in that respect. Lallana has created 28 chances in 1446 mins; Coutinho has 40 in 2162.

For comparison the guys with the best ratios are Hazard with 86 in 2656; Ozil with 40 in 1237 (28 in 679 since returning from injury and playing at No10); Silva with 75 in 1942; and Fabregas with 79 in 2318.

(Slow afternoon over here).

[Commander Jameson]

It's not as easy as just comparing transfer values. You need to take into account players' willingness to move to the club.

Would any of Sanchez, Costa or Fabregas moved to us vs Arsenal or Chelsea? Doubt it myself.

[Gabe]

I know this isn't important at all but in what way was Falcao cheaper than Balotelli?

Well it was said with tongue firmly in cheek in response to SMD's playful comment, but weren't the figures something like:

Falcao: £6m loan fee, £10m wages

Balotelli: £16m fee, £2.5m+ wages (he must be on at least £50k a week)

(Disclaimer: I could be totally wrong)

[The Fox]

Yeah but Balo has resale value whereas Falcao's value to Utd is diddly squat.

[Gabe]

Of course, and that's why it was a throwaway comment.

[p b]

And, so far, a rather throwaway game.

[Commander Jameson]

Big Phil makes it 1-0!!

[p b]

Getting better now

[ryodi]

Stirling's shooting has been woeful. He's taken from Gerrard in spooning it into the crown in promising positions trying to score a worldy.

[bradigor]

That Eastwood effort at the end

[Commander Jameson]

That was a great turn and shot from their keeper.

Can't believe Williamson didn't get one yellow (or red!) for any of those fouls. Still. Anything that annoys Michael Owen is good for me.

[glb]

New home kit.

[Stig]

Home kits are usually designed pretty safe, I can't wait to see the away and 3rd kit to see if NB can out do Warrior.

[glb]

Yeah, hoping for at least some pink, green and lilac. The more neon the better.

[Stig]

If we win tomorrow that's us only 4 points behind 4th. Could City really fuck it up enough to let us sneak in?

[Oh Danny Boy]

A pretty huge fuck up to be fair, they have a pretty easy run in from now to the end of the season. Only potential banana skins being Spurs and Swansea away and maybe the Southampton home game. I'd still be more confident of Chelsea and Arsenal beating United and leaving them looking behind their shoulders.

Still any situation would be dependable on us winning every game from now till the end. Highly unlikely.

Winning the FA Cup would be the best chance to salvage something from the season, the Villa game will be tough though, Benteke is back on form and our defence always finds an in form Benteke a right handful.

[JamesTW]

If we win tomorrow that's us only 4 points behind 4th. Could City really fuck it up enough to let us sneak in?

No, I was relying on Man Utd to balls it up, City will easily win their next 2 home games and won't lose it from there, I'd still say Man Utd are the most catchable even now

As for us, you can't ask for a better fixture than Newcastle at home at this stage of the season, they look to already be on holiday płus managed by some random guy out of the pub, surely even we can't fuck that one up?

[bear]

If we win tomorrow that's us only 4 points behind 4th. Could City really fuck it up enough to let us sneak in?

Very doubtful. They'd need to drop at least 7 points and Liverpool would need a sensational finish to overhaul them.