Liverpool FC Thread 2011-2012

Sgoater1 wrote:
Now before i get slated i know we have spent more over the last few years than Liverpool and our squad cost more to assemble but its interesting now that Liverpool have a starting eleven of a similar price to ours.

Hart £1m
Richards Free
Toure £14m
Kompany £5m
Clichy £7m
De Jong £18m
Yaya £24m
Barry £12m
Johnson £7m
Silva £24m
Tevez £25m

£137m

Reina £6m (i couldnt remember but thought it was around this figure)
Johnson £17m
Agger £6m
Skrtel £6.5m
Carragher Free
Downing £20m
Adam £9m
Gerrard Free
Henderson £16m
Suarez £23m
Carroll £35m

£138.5m

Careful selection of the cheap players there Goat. Kolarov or Clichy, hmm, let's save 10m there. Toure or Lescott, hmm, let's save 10m there. Johnson or Balotelli, hmm, let's save 17m there

---

On topic of Downing. £20m is what we should expect, given current prices. It's being reported we're close to signing N'Zogbia for £9m, which would be good start. Seriously need to start doing some fucking signings now. Bent must be pissed off. When he signed all his quotes were about being excited to play with Young and Downing

debaser wrote:

On topic of Downing. £20m is what we should expect, given current prices. It's being reported we're close to signing N'Zogbia for £9m, which would be good start. Seriously need to start doing some fucking signings now. Bent must be pissed off. When he signed all his quotes were about being excited to play with Young and Downing

You've done very well from a business sense, no doubt about it; £7 million profit for a player 4 years older now and who isn't in the top category of players. Downing also handed a transfer request in today apparently to push this through so Villa could have been forced into settling for cheaper but obviously you haven't; having said that I'd be surprised if the fee really is the full £20 million at this stage.

N'Zogbia should be worth around £15 because he was as good as Downing last season and just as important to Wigan, though I'm not sure on his contract situation.

He'd certainly be a good addition.

Who do you see as being more successful Young at United or Downing with us?

Downing? Wait. So this means you aren't buying Mata.

Jaimito el Crack wrote:Downing? Wait. So this means you aren't buying Mata.

Who knows. As Madrid often show, signing one player doesn't mean you can't go and buy another in the same position - look at the Kaka and Canales transfers as an example

Luis wrote:

Jaimito el Crack wrote:Downing? Wait. So this means you aren't buying Mata.

Who knows. As Madrid often show, signing one player doesn't mean you can't go and buy another in the same position - look at the Kaka and Canales transfers as an example

And Ozil and VDV....but our transfer policy is f*cked up. Wouldn't think smart fellas like Comolli and Kenny would be up to that nonsense.

Luis wrote:

debaser wrote:

On topic of Downing. £20m is what we should expect, given current prices. It's being reported we're close to signing N'Zogbia for £9m, which would be good start. Seriously need to start doing some fucking signings now. Bent must be pissed off. When he signed all his quotes were about being excited to play with Young and Downing

You've done very well from a business sense, no doubt about it; £7 million profit for a player 4 years older now and who isn't in the top category of players. Downing also handed a transfer request in today apparently to push this through so Villa could have been forced into settling for cheaper but obviously you haven't; having said that I'd be surprised if the fee really is the full £20 million at this stage.

N'Zogbia should be worth around £15 because he was as good as Downing last season and just as important to Wigan, though I'm not sure on his contract situation.

He'd certainly be a good addition.

Who do you see as being more successful Young at United or Downing with us?

Downing's gotten 4 years older in 2 years. Poor chap

Young or Downing, it's hard to say. I think they both fit well in theory. Downing is better at getting crosses in - which is what Liver are lacking in current wide options - and probably got the better technique of the two. Young has the higher workrate & a bit more pace & should fit Utd's classic counter-attacking style. If forced to hedge I'd say Young just because I thought he'd go to Man Utd before he was ever really linked, as he just seems like a Ferguson player. Downing I could see having a slightly hard time if he doesn't make impact fairly quickly - he took a season to settle at Villa (but he was out injured for first six months!)

Bear in mind, I'm not very good at predicting these things. I thought Milner would be great for Man City..

Jaimito el Crack wrote:

Luis wrote:

Jaimito el Crack wrote:Downing? Wait. So this means you aren't buying Mata.

Who knows. As Madrid often show, signing one player doesn't mean you can't go and buy another in the same position - look at the Kaka and Canales transfers as an example

And Ozil and VDV....but our transfer policy is f*cked up. Wouldn't think smart fellas like Comolli and Kenny would be up to that nonsense.

No one will be complaining if we do sign Mata as well, I can assure you!

I think Liverpool fans are just glad to be talking football again and having a lot of options all over the pitch. Massive contrast to this time last year where we were worrying about law courts and possible none-existence as well as going into the season relying on Torres.

debaser wrote:

Sgoater1 wrote:
Now before i get slated i know we have spent more over the last few years than Liverpool and our squad cost more to assemble but its interesting now that Liverpool have a starting eleven of a similar price to ours.

Hart £1m
Richards Free
Toure £14m
Kompany £5m
Clichy £7m
De Jong £18m
Yaya £24m
Barry £12m
Johnson £7m
Silva £24m
Tevez £25m

£137m

Reina £6m (i couldnt remember but thought it was around this figure)
Johnson £17m
Agger £6m
Skrtel £6.5m
Carragher Free
Downing £20m
Adam £9m
Gerrard Free
Henderson £16m
Suarez £23m
Carroll £35m

£138.5m

Careful selection of the cheap players there Goat. Kolarov or Clichy, hmm, let's save 10m there. Toure or Lescott, hmm, let's save 10m there. Johnson or Balotelli, hmm, let's save 17m there

---

On topic of Downing. £20m is what we should expect, given current prices. It's being reported we're close to signing N'Zogbia for £9m, which would be good start. Seriously need to start doing some fucking signings now. Bent must be pissed off. When he signed all his quotes were about being excited to play with Young and Downing

Not really i could have picked Zaba for £5m or Balotelli upfront for £20m if i wanted to and saved money, id expect Clichy to start so i put him in. Same with Liverpool could have thrown Aquilani in for them instead of Gerrard and increased their's by £20m or Kyrgiakos in for Carragher but i tried to do the first choice elevens. As i said we've spent more on the squad but i was just comparing rough starting elevens and its fairly close.

Sgoater1 wrote:

debaser wrote:

Careful selection of the cheap players there Goat. Kolarov or Clichy, hmm, let's save 10m there. Toure or Lescott, hmm, let's save 10m there. Johnson or Balotelli, hmm, let's save 17m there

Not really i could have picked Zaba for £5m or Balotelli upfront for £20m if i wanted to and saved money, id expect Clichy to start so i put him in. Same with Liverpool could have thrown Aquilani in for them instead of Gerrard and increased their's by £20m or Kyrgiakos in for Carragher but i tried to do the first choice elevens. As i said we've spent more on the squad but i was just comparing rough starting elevens and its fairly close.

Well, it's kinda pointless comparing first XIs when in doing so you hide away the £100m+ quintet of Balotelli, Dzeko, Lescott, Kolarov, Milner who'll each most likely play around 2/3rds of your games anyway, with rotation.

Is this true? 20m for Downing?

ok then i dont know what mancity is dreaming, 20 million for boateng

get serious

this guy is english (overpriced)

Sgoater1 wrote:

Not really i could have picked Zaba for £5m or Balotelli upfront for £20m if i wanted to and saved money, id expect Clichy to start so i put him in. Same with Liverpool could have thrown Aquilani in for them instead of Gerrard and increased their's by £20m or Kyrgiakos in for Carragher but i tried to do the first choice elevens. As i said we've spent more on the squad but i was just comparing rough starting elevens and its fairly close.

You didn't include Kuyt or Lucas Goat, two of the first names on our team sheet over the past two seasons.

fcb wrote:Is this true? 20m for Downing?

The last quote from the Valencia president was that Mata is not for sale for any price. We'll just have to wait and see if he is available and for how much if someone does make a bid.

Anyway after getting burned by a few of the spanish / foreign players who wanted to leave and upset the long term plans of the club at least with Downing there is the chance of stability if he turns out to be successful.

This move will certainly help to play to Carroll's strengths which is thankful because I was getting a bit worried about exactly how he was going to fit into the side next season. 4-3-3 with Downing and Suarez either side of Kuyt or Carroll is a good setup and we have more than enough good midfielders to win dominate that area next season, unlike last season. Just the defence to add to now.

debaser wrote:Downing's gotten 4 years older in 2 years. Poor chap

Got a Sunderland ticket today, made up! Arsenal is on tv then I'm away for the Bolton game but will watch it in a bar no doubt.

Can't wait to get underway now.

I'm still waiting for the left-back we've needed since 2008. We could have taken Riise back for £2m.

I'm also wondering "what if..." Rafa had enjoyed the same financial freedom Dalglish appears to have now. How might he have spent the £100m

Jordan Glenderson wrote:I'm still waiting for the left-back we've needed since 2008. We could have taken Riise back for £2m.

I'm also wondering "what if..." Rafa had enjoyed the same financial freedom Dalglish appears to have now. How might he have spent the £100m

Have a feeling we'll sign Enrique still.

Obviously we can't judge anything until the end of the season but his first couple of signings were spot on: Suarez was an absolute bargain, Carroll could prove to be a brilliant signing - he certainly has the potential.

We've replaced Poulsen with Adam, Jovanovic with Downing and brought in Henderson to make sure we have someone who can play on the right other than Kuyt.

When Rafa spent big money he often got it right. Aquilani has yet to prove he's worth the money we paid but apparently he's staying for the season and may well prove to be a good buy. Rafa obviously attracted players like Alonso, Torres and Reina as well so IMO Mata would have thought more seriously about us is we had him still as manager. But then under Rafa we always had Champions league football to offer for foreign players. Dalglish doesn't have that; players like Aguero, Mata, Cissokho want to be playing Champions League football, regardless of how big a club we are. If we fail to make the CL again, Reina and Suarez will think about leaving.

I think we're very well prepared to have a successful season in terms of trying to finish 4th and battle for the domestic cups; we've got a good squad depth, a good spirit in the camp and a manager who will command respect and keep players on their toes.

Wayne Bridge for LB. You know it's gonna happen

Apparently nearly over 30,000 fans turned up in Malaysia today to watch us train, whereas only 10,000 turned up to see Arsenal train.

Chins

Do you know how many Malaysian turned up to see Man United?

Second game of pre-season coming up tomorrow vs Malaysia XI, think it's around half 10 a.m kick off and on ESPN/the Liverpool channel.

Will probably be more or less the same side that played the other day and then change around at half time.

We then travel back to England to play Hull in a week's time where I imagine we'll start to see our team taking shape for the new season. Obviously there still wont be Suarez or Lucas - two key players for the new campaign but defensively I think Kenny will be eager to try and establish some solidity and wavelength. It's still pretty much up in the air as to what our defence will be for the new season; Carragher is likely to be first choice at centre back but there's always the problem of Agger's fitness and whether Skrtel is good enough still. Johnson could play right or left back depending on us signing someone like Enrique or Cissokho.

Or Bridge.

We iz clucking loco. FT: 6-3. Aqua and Insua were superb.

Aquilani was indeed superb.

First half, Adam bossed the game with a range of passing we've desperately been needing. Joe Cole was techincally very adept again. Carroll was pretty poor, looks way off the pace still, hopefully the more he plays the better prepared he'll become by the time we play Sunderland.

Second half Aquilani ran the show, his ability to pick out a pass is top draw and he's techincally brilliant but I still worry about his physicality and he needs to improve his first touch in order to excel in the Premier League.

Insua was impressive, showing his pace and putting in some good crosses. Maxi seems to have taken his confidence from the end of last season into the beginning of this one, he took his goals very well.

Defensively we didn't have much to do in the first half but the second half we went to sleep yet again which may be slight cause for concern, although I don't expect Soto or Wilson to play the proper games unless they're a last resort.

Overall we've had 2 good work outs in China and Malaysia, we've scored 10 goals which is a plus and Kenny's been able to try out nearly every player we took with us. The overall play and fitness levels still needs much improvement at this stage but the fact that we're able to make so many changes and the team still looks to play a certain way is promising, particularly considering we're still without several key players: Reina, Johnson, Gerrard, Suarez, Lucas and Henderson and Downing are yet to play for us.

Next up, Hull in a week's time.

I would expect Aquilani and Cole to star in pre-season against inferior opposition, the question marks over them are nothing to do with their football ability, more their ability to replicate these performances against fully fit Premiership opposition.

I liked the chairman(or whatever he is) comments about Ngog, basically saying "give him the ball in the box and it'll be a goal, too much talk of him being sold".

How did Insua do on loan last season ? could you not keep him for left back? i still theink you will just get Enrique.

Terrible. Barely got a game. Don't think he'll be the solution.

Sgoater1 wrote:

How did Insua do on loan last season ? could you not keep him for left back? i still theink you will just get Enrique.

Don't really know, don't follow Turkish football. Quick look at Wiki says he played 16 times for them.

People may forget he's only 22 and I think the modern day left back has to be able to not only defend but have the pace to get up the pitch and help with the offensive play as well; Insua certainly has the offensive part to his game but does require a lot of coaching and discipline to mold him into an astute left back in the Premier League.

I think he'll stay for the season, whether he'll be first choice left back or not I'm not sure. A French paper seems to think we're close to agreeing a deal for Cissokho at Lyon, if that happens then Insua will be no more than back up but there's something about him for me that's worth keeping and seeing if Steve Clark can improve his game.

Any talk in Liverpool about is taking Brad Jones back on loan?