Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 11/12-Jan 2012 onwards

For the love of god, don't go to Chelsea please Rafa. Can someone nip over to Trinity and pass on the message please.:)

Sasquatch76 wrote: »

I really think they're holding out for Mourinho to return. Which would make Rafa's return to LFC all the more interesting...



:pac:

Just like the good old days!

murpho999 wrote: »

Not sure if true, but read on a Manc friends FB today that today is the 8000th day since LFC won the league....made me sad!:mad:

Is it?

Happy anniversary, here's to another 8000! :pac:

Was in at the Rafa talk in Trinity tonight.

Legend.

Morzadec wrote: »

I understand people who support Carroll, but anyone who can't see this isn't looking at the situation objectively imo. Carroll and Suarez won't work imo and I reckon Suarez isn't keen on playing with Carroll. I think we could see Suarez as twice the player he is playing alongside someone who gets his play, and has the pace, passing and movement to link up with him.

Case in point was in the Carling Cup final, I remember in the first half Suarez playing a very neat and clever first time through ball for Carroll. A combination of Carroll not being aware, not having the desire, and not having the pace to get on the ball saw it as a harmless pass. Put the likes of Soldado in Carroll's place here and we're looking at a very likely goal.

Seriously those (few) writing off Suarez need their heads checked. He's clearly top class even if his finishing is hit and miss, and we'll see a hell of a lot more of him alongside another top striker.

On a side note, I disagree about Spearing and think you are being a bit harsh on the lad. He is easily good enough to be a back up midfielder. We need a big squad and I think Spearing is a very decent player, if nowhere near the league of Lucas. I thought he was outstanding against Arsenal and arguably our man of the match. He'd be happy to stay as a back up with relatively low wages and do a very capable job when called upon. I have absolutely ni problems with Jay Spearing as a backup for Lucas, just hopefully he won't have to be called upon as often as this season

EDIT: Sorry missed your point about you being happy with Spearing as a bench warmer. Ignore my point about Spearing

Completely agree. Id venture to say our away game at Chelsea in the league showed this, Bellamy/Maxi either side of Suarez. Just simple game intelligence is enough sometimes, Suarez wasnt great that day but he kept them busy giving others room, this is a large part of his game, its not a goal hanger. Playing alongside Carroll there is no intelligence, he is too slow upstairs and down.

djPSB wrote: »

Again it's down to the formation and system.

Torres in his prime wouldn't score many with our current set up. Suarez and Carroll are both good players but they are not starting enough games together.

Excuses excuses excuses. With Carroll we are either not playing the right system, or he doesn't have the right players around him, or he isn't getting the right service. He's been at the club over a year, has played in plenty of different formations and with lots of different partners, and only looked a decent player a handful of times. If hes the type of player that requires every single part of the team to be tinkered to suit his strengths then hes not a Liverpool player.

daithijjj wrote: »

Its not so much the partnership as the fact i see very little 'brain' in Carrolls play. You cant play 'brainy' football or slick football and utilise Carroll. You have to play, get it wide, whip it in football, otherwise you arent using the player properly. Personally, i will be astonished if Carroll is still in the squad post summer window 2014. Either that or we will be playing non 'brainy' football and playing % football. I got no problem with % football (i dont mean agricultural hoofball) but id hope we settle on something because from what i see right now we are doing a tug of war on football principles with the strikers. Suarez needs game intelligence beside him (Bellamy), Carroll needs midfielders for knockdowns (Nolan) and every opportunity to hit Carrolls head with the ball is taken. We simply dont play that way.

Id argue we need 2 new midfielders who are starting XI players, id hope Adam and Spearing are nowhere near a liverpool teamsheet in 18 months, if they are bench warmers thats ok. I think Henderson will be very good in 2 years, if he stays central and not wide. Whoever comes into the centre of midfield needs to get into the box more, its easy to defend against if you dont.

Carrolls biggest problem is his lack of a first touch. He would be an asset to any team outside of the top six who that would rely on more long balls.

Carroll cant take on players which is fair enough not every forward needs to beat a man, but he lacks the technical ability to play in a side that keep the ball on the deck.

Add to all of this that he is incredibly half arsed at times about getting into the 6 yard box.

5starpool wrote: »

Bound to be shopped? If not, must have lost a bet or something.

Nah it's real.

@JackWilshere: And by the way....Gooners, don't worry I am not a Liverpool fan I am a Pepe Reina fan! #Decent keeper!

Suarezistheman wrote: »

Fill us in on the highlights

Nothing we've not heard before.

Couple of funny stories from his days in Spain, other than that just pointing out a lot of the bollox said about him.

Bit on Istanbul, stats, zonal marking, differences between Spain/England/Italy.

Charming, funny, smart. I'm still in love

daithijjj wrote: »

Its not so much the partnership as the fact i see very little 'brain' in Carrolls play. You cant play 'brainy' football or slick football and utilise Carroll. You have to play, get it wide, whip it in football, otherwise you arent using the player properly. Personally, i will be astonished if Carroll is still in the squad post summer window 2014. Either that or we will be playing non 'brainy' football and playing % football. I got no problem with % football (i dont mean agricultural hoofball) but id hope we settle on something because from what i see right now we are doing a tug of war on football principles with the strikers. Suarez needs game intelligence beside him (Bellamy), Carroll needs midfielders for knockdowns (Nolan) and every opportunity to hit Carrolls head with the ball is taken. We simply dont play that way.

So we need a Bellamy clone who is 5/6 years younger, fits into pass and move or Carroll knock ons seamlessly. The scouts on here I'm sure can provide Kenny with names.

Carroll isn't a 6 yard goal smoocher, neither is Suarez. Carrolls instinct is to lurk around the edge of the box and hit it first time, like the Downing assist, his Exeter goal and he does it very well if the team understands that. That combined with a Bellamy clone and Suarez can work.

On the Carroll/Suarez thing, I think people are concentrating far too much on players that don't suit Carroll or Suarez. We don't have any players that suit both except Bellamy, and we all know he's restricted on match time. Intelligent player that can perfectly fit in with Suarez and Maxi, play the lovely 1-2's and also has the intelligence to adapt, 9 times out of 10 the only player willing to gamble on a Carroll flick and that takes intelligence, something that gets forgotten when people think of Carroll or Agricultural football.

Gerrard could well fulfill this role but:

1. Doubt we'll see it,
2. Injury doubts.

The more and more I think about it we need a new Bellamy signing and somebody to partner Lucas/Spearing. Adam isn't consistent enough, though alongside Lucas, not a bad option. Everybody moans about Aqua/Meireles and rightly so, neither would have solved that particular huge gaping hole. Gerrard nor Henderson neither.


So spend big on a partner for Lucas, personally I'd go for somebody 26/27, give Henderson a year or 2 to develop, Spearing as back up to Lucas, Adam to the new signing. We've been unlucky that Lucas and Gerrard have had injury worries but these are things top 4 clubs should have back up plans for.

Right Wing is the other obvious concern, we have nobody. Spend money there first, left wing with Downing and Bellamy is after that, concentrate on the wing with no Natural right wingers.

djPSB wrote: »

I am not saying he is the problem.

Just think it's unfair that Carroll has to shoulder most of the criticism,

Well we are in dire need of a goalscorer and our number 9 doesn't score many goals so of course he's going to come under criticism. But in fairness, Adam, Henderson, Downing, Carragher and even Gerrard have been criticised quite heavily in recent weeks too.

especially when he has been better than Suarez in the last few weeks.

Don't agree with that.

Maxi hasn't gotten a lot of game time lately. He seemed to link up pretty well with Suarez on occasion.

I'm skeptical as to whether the figures thrown around for various people's wages are accurate. It has also been said that we are paying a large chunk of J.cole's wages amongst others.

Gbear wrote: »

Linkydoodle

The players we've bought in have all been put on fairly low wages.
I think the highest we've gone is about 80k p/w
Bellamy might be on a bit more.
If you even are pessimistic and take the average as 80k/pw thats about 29m per year.

Alot of overpaid filler, young lads who didn't make it, rubbish and players over the hill were removed - 19 players in total:
Poulsen, Cole, Aquilani, Meireleis, Jovanovic were all apparently on 90k p/w
Kyrgiakos, Ngog, Koncheskey, El Zhar, Insua, Degen and then lots of players probably paid in the 10-20k p/w bracket. (take a ball park average of 50k p/w).


29m - (23m + 33m) = -27m using armchair maths. There was also a few minor transfer fees for a few players - about 7m or so between them.

Between winter 10/11 and last summer, that's about 70m odd in transfers out and 100m in with a net reduction of the wage bill by 30m odd.

Meireles was supposedly on 20-30k, ridiculously low money anyway.

Kyriakos and Konchesky would have been on 40-60k no bother, Degen similarly easily. Going on recollections of good blog posts from last Summer, can't think of it before you ask!

Had to pay off a couple of players to get rid.
The club had serious issues with deadwood, not far of £1 Million a week!

It was so bad, put it this way, we still pay most of Coles and Aqua's wages!

I think there is still room to manouevre, shame we are chatting about this in early March.

The-Rigger wrote: »

Perhaps I was seated near Mr Alan, I have a suspect in mind... Did you ask a question Mr Alan?

Nope

djPSB - with all due respect, I think you're a madman. You're like a doctor treating a man who is riddled with aids and focusing on a pimple on the end of his nose. Of course Spearing and Maxi are not top four first 11 standard...but noone said they are. Spearing is filling in for Lucas and Maxi doesn't start. And as a sidenote, you can knock Maxi all you like but at least he knows where the goal is.

But to focus on those players as the main problems in the squad is lunacy. BY FAR our biggest problem is goalscoring...so blame Spearing, a defensive midfielder, and the squad player who rarely plays, but actually has a decent scoring record when he does?

Also, you talk about Spearing not being able to play in a 2 man midfield. Have you seen either of Adam or Henderson try to play in a two man midfield? I would argue that Spearing is actually more suited to it than either of them.

Of course we should aim to have better backup players than Maxi and Spearing, but lets focus on getting quality into the first 11 before we try sort out the squad players eh?