Official Liverpool FC Thread II

[danfantastk32]

Well I think we're getting lost in the weeds trying to make different leagues work for comparison purposes. It's really not the point. I brought up the NFL to show the CHURN (that word again!)

The EPL is becoming more and more like these other leagues. You can bet the top 5 teams and get 4 out of 5 right almost every year in the EPL now. I'd say Man United revived themselves better than I thought they would (good on them) and that Arsenal gave City a better run for their $$ than most expected.

Otherwise??? The title race played out almost exactly as expected. It's boring. It's the same old story. Yeah week to week you might get some interesting results. But they become fairly uninteresting when they do almost nothing to affect the big picture.

And yes...the Dolphins have been pretty crap for a long time. So have the Jets. So have the Lions. But they are the exception in the NFL...not the rule. The Giants pop up every now and then...grabbed 2 superbowls. The Chiefs are in the middle of their run. Dallas comes up and down. The Vikings are good again. SF was terrible 5-6 years ago. Now they are a powerhouse. Prob will be for a couple more years, and then it's back down.

Will they win a title? Who knows....but they have a legit shot. They were an bungled interception away from beating the Rams, and being in the SB. So yeah....a fan can say they were right there. Seattle fans can say that about the last 10 years. Chargers. Patriots, Vikings, Chiefs, Dallas, Eagles, GB, Vikings, Falcons, Giants, Cardinals, Colts, Broncos, Ravens...I feel like I could prob list a couple others...Bengals, Titans, Oh! The Buccaneers! Duh....almost forgot them. The Saints! I mean come on.

City, Chelsea, Liverpool, United. <-----Arse gave them a scare this year, and thats been the first time in like 20 years. Leicester had their miracle. Really for all the times Liverpool have been right there....they only have 1 to show in 35 years So Where's the competion? The city of Manchester has won like 18-19 of the last 25 titles. How F ing boring is that?!?! With Abromovic buying Chelsea, and gobbling up the lions share of the rest.

Nah man....at the end of the day, the EPL is just slightly better than the other leagues. And its getting closer and closer to them. I'm sure once every 30 or 40 years, some crazy team in Spain wins it. Doesn't change the fact that that league is completely and utterly dominated year in by 2 teams. With Athletico and maybe 1 other making it interesting every now and then. Super lame.

[danfantastk32]

To put it another way: Liverpool are wrapping up what has been by far their worst season I can remember. 19-9-9! Nine losses and nine draws. I remember wanting Klopp fired 5 years ago because we had double digit draws. We only had 1 or 2 loses. This has been a nightmare season. Complete bullox.

And yet, with 1 game to play....we're still technically not out of the CL yet. Back to back losses by United, and a win by us..and we'd be in (yes I know we arent gonna make it). Isn't that so telling? This league is so uncompetitive, that it doesn't even matter if we have a complete shyster of a season. We're still in the hunt! We're always between 2 and 6 almost every year I can remember. A billionaire bought Newcastle....so there's a new "Haves" on the block. Otherwise we'd have still qualified. It's ridiculous. We should be 12th or something with the way we played.

[SgtPepper]

Thanks for giving Madrid Firmino. It was the lowest depth position in the squad for 5 years straight, and wouldn't have been possible without Klopp's diligent work over 2 years of exploding your frontline. I wonder if Kante will join next.

[Baseline81]

Thanks for giving Madrid Firmino. It was the lowest depth position in the squad for 5 years straight, and wouldn't have been possible without Klopp's diligent work over 2 years of exploding your frontline. I wonder if Kante will join next.

If he Bobby does end up there, so be it.

You have to understand, unlike Real Madrid, Liverpool doesn't have the ability to pay huge wages. What the club did for Salah was an outlier. I'm not saying Firmino would be on anything close to Salah's wages, however, he would have been a high earner for a substitute. And, unfortunately, injuries became more and more frequent with him.

Will always love him, though.

[SgtPepper]

You've gotta understand, if Madrid was truly rich they wouldn't structure their contracts like a serie a team renewing 33+ yo dudes & buying post-peak 30+ yo people on free transfers.

It's true Madrid has a bigger wage budget but Bobby was forced out by the Salah contract promotion and buys like jota,Diaz,Nunez, gakpo over 2+ years. It's not an unfortunate consequence of form - the club started planning his & Mane's replacement while they were starters. The foreigner quota management hints that's the case too.

[MetalFingaz]

You've gotta understand, if Madrid was truly rich they wouldn't structure their contracts like a serie a team renewing 33+ yo dudes & buying post-peak 30+ yo people on free transfers.

It's true Madrid has a bigger wage budget but Bobby was forced out by the Salah contract promotion and buys like jota,Diaz,Nunez, gakpo over 2+ years. It's not an unfortunate consequence of form - the club started planning his & Mane's replacement while they were starters. The foreigner quota management hints that's the case too.

I don't understand your logic. Liverpool should be more like Madrid and not bring in youth to replace aging forwards? Besides, the geriatrics that Madrid extend include the reigning Ballon d'Or winner, Modric and Kroos. All while spending on Tchouameni, Camavinga, Endrick, etc.

[twyzted]

Madrid is filthy rich club, they are finishing redevelopment at bernabeu.
Getting Bobby is a smart buy, free transfer, not to old.
They also have one of the best young midfield in the world.
Valverde, tchuameni, camavinga then are most likly signing bellingham. Then they have modric who at 37 destroyed us in cl and kroos.

I wouldve like to keep bobby but its his choice to leave.
Gakpo impressed me, Jota is finding form again, nunez if he can get his finishing to a better level will score alot more.
But we need atleast 2-3 midfielder this summer and 1 if not 2 cbs.
Or 1 cb and a rb then move trent to midfield.
Then nothing less than winning the league.

[SgtPepper]

I don't understand your logic. Liverpool should be more like Madrid and not bring in youth to replace aging forwards? Besides, the geriatrics that Madrid extend include the reigning Ballon d'Or winner, Modric and Kroos. All while spending on Tchouameni, Camavinga, Endrick, etc.

Main point was that Firmino is neither team's first choice, and that Pool bet on his replacements so zealously they forced him out before actually outperforming him. All 3 of the foreigner quota were eaten by similar level strikers.

Madrid has a 2x bigger budget and in the CL but have spent poorly the previous and upcoming window and isn't in a position to make irrefusable offers like PSG or City can. If anything both clubs were a season late and should have tried a striker for midfielder swap last summer. If Pool made the CL I think they would be in the same league of buying power for the starting 11.

[Baseline81]

Despite fans stating the obvious, LFC/Klopp did not target a single midfielder, excluding Tchouaméni, who had made his intentions known. Fast forward a year, there appear to be nothing but midfielder links -- Alexis Mac Allister, Manu Kone, Khephren Thuram and Gabri Veiga.

A little foresight would have gone a long ways...

[The_Brecht]

Khephren Thuram would be a great signing.
I would love him at Arsenal if Rice and/or Caicedo fail to come.

[Baseline81]

Don't get me wrong, I like the Mac Allister signing, but the stats below show how poor the midfield was.

[SgtPepper]

Nah, they're cherry picked. Things like avg distance of pass and xg/90 would put him in their league. He's a better athlete than Thiago,Milner,Ox though.

[Baphomet]

Trent was finally played in midfield for England in a Euro 2024 qualifier earlier today.

Granted, it was against a pretty lowly Malta side, but he looks like a natural there. I've always asserted that Trent's passing range and dribbling ability could work as part of a midfield trio, but he may lack the close control and press resistance to play there full time.

It seems like a natural progression for his game at this point.

[Baseline81]

Trent was finally played in midfield for England in a Euro 2024 qualifier earlier today.

Granted, it was against a pretty lowly Malta side, but he looks like a natural there. I've always asserted that Trent's passing range and dribbling ability could work as part of a midfield trio, but he may lack the close control and press resistance to play there full time.

It seems like a natural progression for his game at this point.

That's been the big question on each fan's mind.

During games, I would prefer to continue having TAA drift from his RB position to form the box midfield. The problem, though, is finding a backup for him is quite difficult. When he is rested, a different formation would have to be used. I'm not sure that's the most ideal situation to be in.

[danfantastk32]

Well, alot of good players leaving this offseason. Really sad to see alot of these guys go. A was (still am) a big fan of Fabinho. I think the guy was a defensive rock in midfield. I feel like I never saw the guy get out-played. Im gonna miss him.

And of course Firmimo was part of this whole thing from the start. What a player. Really one of those "x-factor" guys. He's started to wane these last couple years, so it was prob time...but I'm still super bummed to see him leave.

Always liked Milner. But it was time. Milner was great for us though.

And Hendo....I mean what to say? This guy had the misfortune of replacing my fave player of all time. Always thought he was sh%% compared to him. But looking back, I really can't honestly say that. He was the T-C...kept it simple, and gave 1000% effort. Another one of those defensive midfield rocks. I think he deserves to be put in that pantheon of Liverpool greats, tbh. I can't bring myself to say he was as good, or better than Stevie....but he did hoist the title. He got it done. A great leader.

There are others, but these are the guys that stand out to me, and are the players I will miss. But on a positive goodbye, I just wanna say it was a real pleasure watching and rooting for them. All class guys. All true Liverpool.

Will be missed. YNWA

[danfantastk32]

Looking forward to seeing what these new guys can do. There are some awfully big shoes to fill. I suppose it would be unfair to expect us to be in the hunt. But Klopp has had a good record of signing. Few didn't quite pan out as expected, but VERY few "bums".

We still have a solid squad IMO. Hopefully the injury bug bites elsewhere this season. Let's see what we can do.

[Baseline81]

As soon as Edwards left, the recruitment has been off.

Why has the transfer of Lavia been played out so publicly? It’s not like us at all.

In regards to the club having a third bid rejected, Carragher tweeted:

This is embarrassing. Liverpool for years now have got deals done quickly with no fuss. If you don’t think he’s worth 50M move on, if you really want him, pay it.

[MetalFingaz]

I'm not a rich person, so debating over £5m is the same to me as arguing over $5. If Lavia is worth 45, he's worth 50. If he's not worth 45, then I'm not sure what we're doing. I don't love going into the season with Gakpo, Szob, and Mac as our midfield 3 and not having a true 6 beyond Bajcetic. Not clear either that Lavia is ready to do what Fabinho did for us. Lots of open questions with the season upon us.

[MetalFingaz]

I take it all back. Caicedo!

[Baseline81]

If the latest signing is true, that's quite the midfield rebuild.



Incomings:
Mac Allister £35m
Szoboszlai £60
Caicedo £110m

Total: £205m

Outgoings:
Henderson £12m
Fabinho £40

Total: £52m

Net Spend: £153m