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Liverpool Football Club Thread

glb

By glb
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DeNeo

DeNeo

Posted
Posted

:lol:

Have to laugh or you'll cry

Yup...

I don't agree with it, but that's what all the signs are pointing towards.

Which makes the Lallana buy even weirder. His best position is behind the striker, i.e. Coutinho's best position. He *can* play central midfield or out wide, but why buy him if you're planning to play him there the majority of the time? Why not just buy a specialist for those areas? Unless we're going to play a very narrow 4-3-3, it was a pointless transfer.

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dogsout

dogsout

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We release everything to the press - the recent transfer deals, the coaching overhaul and the Rodgers decision were all leaked way before anything official was heard (although we're yet to hear anything official about the latter two). Which makes me think the Benteke links are very real.

It would make sense - he becomes the starter and one of Sturridge, Ings or Origi plays with him. So we switch back to two up top, like I mentioned a few pages back, which would get the most out of Coutinho (rather than him cutting in from out wide). There was no real point buying Ings when we've already got Origi (and 3 other strikers to sell) if we're only going to play with 1 striker - playing with 2 means we need more cover.

We're filling gaps in the squad with free and low-cost transfers, rather than spending big money on say a proper challenger to Mignolet. The budget is being saved for Benteke.

The bit I've highlighted is where I begin to disagree with your post. I'll come to Phil in a moment, but I think the Ings deal makes sense because he looks a good stylistic fit, whereas the other three strikers you mentioned that are already on the books do not. If we are going to play with 1 striker then 3 would be needed. We can't go into a season with Sturridge and Origi as the only options, and there's little point in keeping any of the others based on what we saw last season. Getting back to Coutinho, I'm not sure I agree with the assumption that playing him as a #10 really suits him. I think he's been pretty poor whenever he's played there, really. For me, his best games have been when the team's been in form and he's started on the left, or as a #8 in a three man midfield. There's also the problem of where Lallana plays if Coutinho is behind the strikers. Although maybe you are right about Benteke and I've just answered my own question:

--------Benteke--Sturridge

--------------Lallana

Coutinho--Henderson--Milner

I don't know about that but it would fit in with Rodgers seeming to want versatile midfielders and placing little value on defensive midfielders.

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dogsout

dogsout

Posted
Posted

I don't know why either of us is bothering to predict his plans as if he's only going to play one formation most of the time. The likelihood is he'll swap it about another 45 times before we either win some trophies or he is sacked.

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DeNeo

DeNeo

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Very true. It really does seem like he's had his transfers and the committee have had theirs. There hasn't been a set plan put in place of how we want to play and the players we need to achieve that.

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Istanbul

Istanbul

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Posted

I think any team that gets beat 6-1 by Stoke has deep problems...

The 11 players that started against Stoke, no matter how bad a season some of them had, or how you rate them overall...should not be getting mauled like that.

Which to me, points to problems elsewhere. Something that new players isn't really going to fix in the long run. Perhaps why there's changes afoot behind the scenes, though perhaps not enough. If we get off to a bad start next season, Rodgers will be out by Christmas. Guaranteed. Which kind of makes all this money were supposedly going to spend from the Sterling sale even more worrisome. Might be a a better move to hold on to him until January and then sell to a Champions League club, giving the new boss a large kitty to get him going.

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hmm

hmm

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Both ends of last season reflected very badly on Rodgers and his ability to motivate the team. The results were poor but it was the sustained halfhearted performances that called his competence into question for me. Most games had the standard pattern of shipping a goal or two fairly early, an hour or so of football with little application or urgency, then maybe 5 minutes of quality-free panic at the end when it became obvious we were about to surrender yet another 3 points. Obviously losing the players responsible for the majority of our goals was always going to hurt but that doesn't excuse the level of effort that was generally on display. I'm not sure how much credit he even deserves for the middle of the season because we weren't actually playing that well for a lot of it; we had more fixtures against lesser teams and a bit more went our way in games.

I wasn't specifically hoping that he'd be removed at this point, not least because I'm not sure who he'd be replaced with, but I'm rather less optimistic than I was after his first season in charge. If we're flailing around down at 10th again this Christmas then I can't see him lasting.

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Gabe

Gabe

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I've pointed this out many, many times before and am going to again - Rodgers has had 2 of our worst starts in the last 50+ years during his tenure. Irrelevant of what players we had, that points to problems in the coaching/motivating, and in only 1 season have we finished strongly.

I agree with you, hmm (and often said so during our run post-Christmas), that we weren't playing particularly well even when we started to put some results on the board.

I think any of these things in isolation (poor starts/poor finishes/inconsistency in performances and results) could be taken as just being the way the game goes sometimes, but all in combination do not point to a stable club. The various players can only be responsible to a degree, because these trends have been a problem with whatever team has been put out.

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ryodi

ryodi

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Micah Richards looks likely to sign for Villa on a free transfer. Looking at the money wasted on Lovren and the aging Skrtel and Toure I don't understand why we wouldn't go in for him as defensive reenforcement. It might not have worked out for him in Italy but he's never been terrible playing in the Premier League.

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Istanbul

Istanbul

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Looks like Coates to Sunderland, replaced by Joe Gomez...a young CB from Charlton. Fee being talked about £4-6m at this stage.

Linked with Lucas Digne too, the PSG left back.

And another bid for Clyne apparently too.

Interesting the number of players speaking out about Marsh and Pascoe too, doesn't seem like a popular decision.

Possible fixtures to start the season;

Stoke (A) Bournemouth (H) Arsenal (A) West Ham (H) Manchester United (A).

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glb

glb

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21 points from 21, no drama.

Actually really glad we've got Stoke away first. Gives the team opportunity to lay that ghost to rest very quickly and show if they've made progress over the summer.

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hmm

hmm

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Wondering what odds are being offered on us opening the season with 7 straight away losses...

It's a very weird sequence: in theory our 7 hardest away fixtures interspersed with almost the 7 easiest at home.

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ryodi

ryodi

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Man City have upped their bid to £40m for Stirling which is expected to be rejected. Liverrpool are holding out for £50m which I'd say is an outrageous amount of money for him if we weren't the ones selling him.

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Istanbul

Istanbul

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Wondering what odds are being offered on us opening the season with 7 straight away losses...

It's a very weird sequence: in theory our 7 hardest away fixtures interspersed with almost the 7 easiest at home.

First game will be crucial. Win that, get rid of the 6-1 demon, and we might kick on and at least get something out of the games. But lose that first game...and it will just be a domino effect of doom and gloom. Meaning not only will we lose those 7 away games, but we'll drop points in the usually winnable home games too.

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Adrock

Adrock

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Interesting the number of players speaking out about Marsh and Pascoe too, doesn't seem like a popular decision.

Gerrard and Allen have spoken out from what I've seen, anyone else? I'm hoping before the end of the summer both can be ex Liverpool players.
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