Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2020/2021

We wanted to sign Lewis, Norwich wanted 20 million, we bid 10 and the deal couldn't be agreed at an acceptable price so we decided to pay 12 million on another player instead. Its not 4D chess its just seeking value as Norwich can't half their price on the first player they will sell this summer. Liverpool looked at Tsimikas having some european football experience and pulled the trigger.

We're probably going to have to look outside the PL to get value this summer. Ben White who we're "monitoring" had a £22m bid from Leeds rejected yesterday despite being nearly 23 and having never played a minute in the Premier League. The market may have changed elsewhere but it hasn't in England.

An awesome long read interview with Pep.

And what about Alisson, the man charged with providing the last line of protection?

“What can I say? He’s a cat!” Lijnders smiles. “When you look back to all the decisive moments we had, you will always find one, two or three moments from Alisson, and you will not find a more professional, more humble person than him.

“We walked out at Arsenal, and me and Jurgen were standing in front of the team before they left the dressing room. We said the things we needed to say, and then I heard him say to all the team ‘Guys, no arrogance here, we have to be humble. When we have to run, we run. When we have to be together, we are together.’

“I hear it in my right ear and I look at Jurgen. It went in, you know? He’s talking about us being humble, and therein lies the secret to the future, to be honest.

“He doesn’t speak a lot, but when he speaks, he speaks the right things. I like him a lot, and not only because of what he brought us, but as a person as well.”

https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/alisson-speech-klopp-text-van-dijk-standards-inside-story/1gz8qujpm2flt1vt9ajgsjy90y

Linked with ndika today. French under 21 international centre back

So our first greek since our prince 10 years ago



Considering the absolute ****e that was bought in that time, he wasn't half bad if I can remember. Plenty of good performances

Brighton absolutely don't want to sell him. Not even sure £30m will do it which is insane for a 22 year old who never kicked a ball in the premier league/top flight.

I never thought Downing was good enough for us until we sank to his level

Wuff Wuff wrote: »

gave it his all in fairness to him, was excellent in Suarez's first game against Stoke iirc, mad team out that day, Aurelio in defennsife mid spraying the ball everywhere

players like him and Poulsen, while not good enough at least they tried and put in a shift, compared to Adam, Joe Cole, Jovanovic and Downing who really just werent arsed

Bit harsh labelling Downing with those other names, while ultimately not good enough I wouldn't have him down as a Non-Trier.

ERG89 wrote: »

We're probably going to have to look outside the PL to get value this summer. Ben White who we're "monitoring" had a £22m bid from Leeds rejected yesterday despite being nearly 23 and having never played a minute in the Premier League. The market may have changed elsewhere but it hasn't in England.

Hasn’t played in the Premierleague yet but was brilliant for Leeds last year. Was the lynchpin in their defense, and they really don’t want to lose him. He’s been one of the main topics of conversation in the Leeds thread here even over the past few months... how to possibly replace him if you can’t keep him.

Makes sense that Brighton wouldn’t sell cheap... he’s a young English asset that has already been proven to be the best CB in the 2nd tier... if he brings anything like that form into the Prem, he’ll be a 50m pound player by the time things return to normal. Brighton have a decent chance of making a tonne more even just by loaning him back to Leeds for a season. Wouldn’t be too surprised to see him stay though, since Duffy left.

The PL isn’t great for value at the best of times anyway, especially when it comes to prospects like White that have lots of teams after them. The only value comes in those rare under-appreciated talents, but they’re the exception rather than the rule.

Downing never looked comfortable in a Liverpool shirt to me, and I don't think he was that confident in his game.

It is interesting to look back at signings from that era. The vast majority of them were players that at best were of the level of the squad, and at worst brought the quality down.

Take someone like Mignolet who had done well for the likes of Sunderland, but never improved beyond that level, and then contrast to the massive upgrade that Allison was, who clearly brought the overall quality of the squad to a new level.

Obviously Allison was expensive, but a comparison along broadly the same transfer values would be Salah and Benteke, one of which has been an amazingly productive signing and the other one who, well, wasn't.

The potential for a player to improve and their capacity to improve both themselves and the team around them is a huge factor in whether a signing will work or not.

Look at Bruno Fernandes at Utd, who has been an excellent signing for them, and who has made a huge difference to their performances.

FSG are cautious. They won't spend money on a Downing/Adam/Poulsen type player who don't have a high "ceiling" to develop into, or won't make a big difference in the quality of the squad.

I think some of the owners in the PL would rather take a risk on a lower quality signing rather than just do nothing, and that's why we see the likes of West Ham, Everton etc who make a lot of signings but don't ever seem to make massive improvements in the quality of their squad.

The post Rafa and pre Klopp Liverpool era was a great example of a club not being able to identify the right signings, and instead going for the wrong ones.

It's not necessarily a money thing either - look at Leicester with Vardy and Mahrez, both dirt cheap but who turned out to be invaluable.

FSG have spent money in assembling the squad and look like they are relativly happy to keep it ticking over for the moment. I had a quick look back at Utd after the treble, and asside from changing goalkeepers, they didn't make any dramatic changes to the squad for a few years after that, and they won the next few leagues, so maybe that is how FSG are looking at things.

I do think the fall off om quality between the first XI and the squad is a concern. With a better keeper than Adrian, Liverpool would still be in the CL.

I'd like to see FSG spend some money on some young talent that might develop into first XI material, or at the very least will have re-sale value. Chelsea have always been quite clever in signing up quality players (think Courtois, Ivanovic KdeB, Salah, Lukaku) and then either getting them into the first XI or making money selling them on (too early in the case of KdeB, Salah, Lukaku).

Coming back to the CL, this year we were missing a key player for the second leg, it was the same against Barca with Bobby and Salah out but we got through that.

If we look at the squad quality in the context of what sort of a team we want to be putting out in those type of knockout games, I think we can do better than having the likes of Adrian, Shaqiri etc come in.

Downing was moved to left back he was so bad at left wing.
A player suppose to be in his prime when he joined but he was awful

He was an embarrassment for Comolli really

Just reading that Brighton released a new Nike kit this summer and the adult priced one is £52 compared to £70 for a Liverpool one.

Also that the Nike Liverpool jersey is on course to break sales records which isn't surprising with the prices.


Nike Vapor jersey at £100 isn't actually that much more than the N/B Elite jersey which was sold for £95 and those N/B blackouts were stupid money even if they were really nice.

TitianGerm wrote: »

The Spurs home kit is €90 and their elite one is €130. I'd imagine all the Nike Kits for the big teams are a similar price.

I guess that’s the going rate these days for jerseys.

This Greek lad is getting announced either tonight or early tomorrow morning according to tw@tter...