Liverpool Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2014 *mod warning linked in OP 26/07*

brevity wrote: »

Adam was a scapegoat for that seasons transfer activity. Much like Joe Allen was. Both players put in good performances but not regularly enough.

They also missed out on having Lucas around them as he was either injured or Gerrard was preferred over him.

Jesus, almost forgot about Joe Allen.

rarnes1 wrote: »

Didn't Adam play in a three man midfield at Blackpool?

I remember watching him in horror in a 2 man midfield for Liverpool on a few occasions.

Especially when that other man was Jay Spearing.

I think the problem with a few of those signings was they were signed without any real idea how to fit them into how the team needed to play. Carroll isn't a bad footballer but signing him stank of desperation to get a replacement for Torres to get us into top four (I think we had similar bids of £35m in to Bayern, anything to get a target man to eke out a few points). Adam was a decent footballer but tbh we were never going to play a game that suited him (slow) and he lacked the determination to make it work.

Hopefully that lesson has been learned. The fact we've raided Southampton who play a similar pressing style gives me some hope but we'll see.

Remy is gonna be a great signing for us, the transfer of the summer for £8.5m

Now ye can all bookmark this post for when he turns into the second coming of Sean Dundee/Eric Meijer :P

Cartman78 wrote: »

Was very very underwhelmed with the Downing and Adam signings, didn't really know a lot about Henderson at the time tbh and had hoped that if Carroll really knuckled down and applied himself he could be a useful asset upfront.

This year? Know zero about Can and Markovic tbh but they sound promising by all accounts; Lallana could be very good for us I think - has a much higher ceiling than Downing or Adams ever had imho.

Slightly bemused by the Lambert love in - seems a bit premature being that he hasn't kicked a ball in anger for us yet....when he cracks in a couple of injury time winners in front of the Kop he'll have earned his cult hero status

Think he is a very good squad buy. He looks a very clever player when the ball is played in to his feet, and he appeared to be very good at dropping deep to collect the ball with his back to goal. His link up play, with Lallana in particular, reminded me a hell of a lot of how Teddy Sheringham used to do it or, for even older heads, of how Kerry Dixon was able to bring midfoelders into the attacking third with hold up play and lay offs.

Think what impressed me the most about Lambert was his range of passing. Now he is no Alonso on that front, but he seems very comfortable on the ball and is well able to pick a pass be it short or long range.

Can see him working very well in allowing quick players like Markovic, Sterling, Lallana etc to run onto a pass as they break from deeper positions.

When we signed players in 2011/12 we signed players with good stats.

Some proper sh1te players have good stats. Thats the problem with using stats in general.

Whatever about Downing and Adam, i remember lads in here telling me off for saying Jovanovic and Voronin were sh1te even before they joined, give them a chance i was told. They were a whole new level, well below what Adam and Downing were. People forget how bad we had it prior to them lads. In fairness, things had got that low near the end of G&H that signing a player that would improve us was cause for celebration. Fact is Downing and Adam did improve us from where we were.

Anyone remember Kenny walking through the door having to play Jovanovic and Poulsen away at Blackpool in a shop window situation?. Thats how bad it got, never forget it, as much as we'd like to. :pac:

hefferboi wrote: »

What's the fantasy football code does anyone know??

And can anyone post those 2 sterling videos that nuri posted a few days ago? On the phone!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=91322653&postcount=7516

Can someone edit the code into the OP? or not?!!

Kess73 wrote: »

Think he is a very good squad buy. He looks a very clever player when the ball is played in to his feet, and he appeared to be very good at dropping deep to collect the ball with his back to goal. His link up play, with Lallana in particular, reminded me a hell of a lot of how Teddy Sheringham used to do it or, for even older heads, of how Kerry Dixon was able to bring midfoelders into the attacking third with hold up play and lay offs.

Think what impressed me the most about Lambert was his range of passing. Now he is no Alonso on that front, but he seems very comfortable on the ball and is well able to pick a pass be it short or long range.

Can see him working very well in allowing quick players like Markovic, Sterling, Lallana etc to run onto a pass as they break from deeper positions.

Added to this he takes a mean penalty and has belted in some cracking free kicks. We can't really go wrong with the Lambert signing.

Cartman78 wrote: »

Slightly bemused by the Lambert love in - seems a bit premature being that he hasn't kicked a ball in anger for us yet....when he cracks in a couple of injury time winners in front of the Kop he'll have earned his cult hero status

There has been excitement about him, but I haven't seen anyone alluding to him being already a cult hero.

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Downing had been considered a very good player at Premiership level for a few seasons before we came in for him. The issue was that at Boro and Villa he wasn't expected to produce week in and week out, and hadn't been tested in scenarios where he's up against teams parking the bus on a regular basis.
Adam was the main man at Blackpool and was universally recognised as having had a brilliant season before we acquired him. I think Adam is a very talented player actually, great left peg. The issue was that fleeting moments of excellence stood out for a struggling team with low expectations. He didn't have the drive or desire required at a club like Liverpool where the pressure is on week in, week out.
Carroll had 18 months of consistently strong performances under his belt before he transferred for us between their promotion campaign and first half of the 10 / 11 season. I think the fee hung like a noose around his neck to be honest. He remains a good player, just not aligned with the football we wish to play.
Henderson was young and English and overhyped on that basis. He has come good, but it hasn't been easy.
[...]
That's not to say they are doomed to failure. Many players do make the step up successfully. But the notion that 'we are signing a totally different calibre of player this time round' is nonsense. It's the same idea. Let us hope we get a different result.

The similarities are only superficial.

I was happy with the Henderson signing and have always been.

Downing and Lallana - Downing was an orthodox winger who could run, work hard, whip the ball in and every now and again score.
Lallana is a far more techically capable footballer, has scored more goals last season than I think Downing ever has in a season and is just a much better footballer.
Downing and Adam were like a pair of donkeys in midfield if they weren't delivering some end-product whereas Allen and Lallana will at least be able to slot in midfield and gel with the team, tactically and technically.

Carroll and Lambert - Lambert looks far more techincally capable, but that's besides the point. He's being brought in as cheap squad filler at low risk whereas we had a right to expect starting 11 world class ability for 35m quid.

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

That's a lie. He had some good games for us and added something to the mix. His dead ball delivery was of a very high quality, and he is the type of player to make plays. A couple of items I remember are a superb whipped delivery from the left touchline against City at home in the League Cup semi; and there were a few occasions where he had a go at players and would beat one or two creating an opening from nothing. The issue was consistency - he struggled to maintain a level of performance over a full 90 minutes, never mind a stretch of games.

I utterly disagree. Having done some good things on the pitch doesn't mean Adam played well. His job isn't to have one good moment and be a bag of dicks for the rest of the game.
He has to be able to work hard, make good use of the ball and keep our midfield in shape.
The little flashes of quality every 3 or 4 games weren't enough to counter his terrible all round play and atrocious decision-making. He cost us scoring as many goals with his total lack of intelligence on the field as many times as he scored.

After Cole, which is the maddest thing this club has ever done, Adam was the worst of that batch of signings. At no point was he ever of the standard required under any circumstances. Not even good enough for our reserves.

Charlie Adam was ok. He wasn't a disaster. I even have a few fond memories of him bobbling through the midfield with the ball going in his favour some of the time.

He loved a bit of Gareth Bale's legs, didn't he.

Soft Falling Rain wrote: »

Had a few on me yesterday and was wound up, so I'd just like to apologise to Slick over this.

honestly man, no need to apologise at all.

we're all grown ups in here, and all get wound up from time to time. if we can't handle a few strongly worded posts at us, we shouldn't be on the Internet tbh.

i wouldn't want a culture to start whereby we're apologising for stuff on the Internet. it'd start getting a bit weird! :P

thanks for the gesture all the same. it takes a stand-up person to do so.

also, nevermind anything else that's going on in our lives, we all just want to see the club kick on. it's going to get a bit full-on at times because we all have different visions of how we want to see Liverpool push on.

Slan leat Iago!

Lambert is a significant improvement on him

beakerjoe wrote: »

Looks like a trainee newscaster in that pic

As long as he doesn't ruin the corners on that sheet of paper he'll do a good job..




..runs...