19 Oct 2014

Great News? £15m 'warrior' desperate for LFC move can leave for £5m. Sign £32m star instead?

Another day, another defensive shambles. Liverpool's error-prone defenders almost cost the club vital points against QPR today, and despite spending almost £60m on defenders over the last year, the Reds are still shipping goals at an alarming rate. It's a serious problem, and it seems increasingly likely that Reds boss Brendan Rodgers will have to bring in yet another central defender in a bid to steady the ship. West Ham defender Winston Reid continues to be linked with a January move to Anfield, and it appears that he may be available for a knockdown fee.

Last week, the Daily Express claimed that:

* Reid is 'confident' of joining Liverpool.

* He allegedly has his 'heart set' on a move to Anfield.
* Reid has rejected offers from Arsenal and Man United because he wants to join LFC.
* West Ham are willing to sell for £15m.

According to the Daily Mail today, West Ham are desperate for Reid to sign a new contract, but:

"The club fear Reid will reject any new deal and line up a move at the end of the season when he becomes a free agent. If that is the case the Hammers could try to offload him in January for £5m"

Liverpool were linked with Reid earlier this year, with The Mirror reporting at the time:

"West Ham centre back Winston Reid is...a summer transfer target [for Liverpool]. Arsenal are monitoring the 25-year-old's situation, but Liverpool are set to be the first to firm up their interest with a bid'"

Some info about Reid:

* Current contract expires in 2015
* Captain of the New Zealand national team.
* Won West Ham's 'Player of the Year' award in 2013.
* 100 appearances for West Ham since 2010.
* Averages 28 appearances per season.
* 6 goals 3 assists.

Ex-Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp rates Reid, and at the end of last season, he named the defender as one of his players of the season. He told the Daily Mail:

"Winston Reid...has been excellent alongside James Collins. Reid is a warrior defender who can look ungainly but rarely makes mistakes"

In my view, Reid is not the answer in any way, shape, or form; he is a solid Premier League defender, but he doesn't have the European experience required to dominate at Anfield.

If Rodgers is to spend big-bucks on another central defender, it should (IMO) go on a proven, world-class player, with international/European experience.

As always, my first choice is Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels, who is reportedly available for £32m.

Hummels is a proven, world class defender, and you get what you pay for. Granted, £32m is a huge amount of money to spend on a central defender, but to offset the fee, Liverpool could sell Sakho and Ilori, and (hopefully) make back £15-£20m.

Of course, there are no guarantees that Hummels is capable of transforming the club's defence. Many fans (myself included) hoped that Lovren would be the answer to LFC's defensive woes. That may well turn out to be the case later down the line, but right now, the reality is that Liverpool are conceding goals at a greater rate than last season.

As noted above, though, you (often) get what you pay for, and I suspect that Hummels will make more of a positive impact on LFC's defence than Reid.



Author:


62 comments:

  1. Thanks to our defence, for the Madrid game I will be assuming my customary position behind the sofa, teeth chattering, knees knocking, bowels rumbling, strong scotch to my right and defibrillator to my left.

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  2. You could put Superman in our defence right now and I'm not sure it would work.

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  3. Support your local team. Justice for the innocent 39.

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  4. Please not reid he is shite :-(

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  5. I think its absolutely frustrating that our defenders actual struggle to deal with aimless, desperate crosses coming into our box. They don't take the initiative, they instead drop deep when the ball comes in, watch the opponents jump up and get a head to it, and continue to watch as they let the ball be knocked from head to head amongst the opposition until they're able to sneak one into the goal. They're all ball watching.

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  6. all our defenders are good with their country, yet when they come back they just keep making mistakes, doesnt look like buying another defender will change that.
    The problem seems to lie down with Rodgers, he just cant set up a defense correctly (it has always been his weakness), maybe hire a competent defensive coach.

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  7. Liverpool need to start defending as a team, that starts from the strikers down, unfortunately Balotelli is not the hard working forward the team needs. The midfield looks too lightweight and Mignolet is so poor at commanding his area is it any wonder the defence is all over the place. I doubt bringing in new defenders will make any difference, both Skrtel and Lovren are experienced centre backs who just need time to gel. Bringing in a top class commanding goalkeeper may make all the difference though.

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  8. As for Balotelli, I think people are making his game sound worse than it actually was. ESPNFC gave him 2/10. Really? I know he missed an open goal, but if it weren't for two own goals, he was going to be on the end of those passes and put them in the net. Sure, wasn't a good performance, but it wasn't terrible either.

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  9. I think that we are a little bit confused about our defensive problems and the solutions we have about them. I don't believe that our defenders are so bad. Yes we paid over the odds for Lovren and Sakho and yes, Kolo Toure is an ex-footballer. But when we were really good defensive, we had midfielders like Xabi Alonso, Xavier Mascherano and Lucas Leiva (before 2012 and his bad run of injuries), with defensive abilities, protectors of our back four. Rodgers need to take care of his midfield area problems first. Football is not only scoring, is avoid goals as well... This team cannot defend. Not only defenders, the whole team cannot defend as a unit... And this is about the manager first and then the players. If Rodgers don't know to defend is unacceptable. But then he can hire a defensive coach. Anyway he has to find a solution within and stop spending money for new defenders. Enough...

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  10. I don't get it. How many defenders do we need to buy? May be we should consider training our existing defenders to defend properly. Any money available would be better spent on a proper defensive coach. All Rodger's squads are notorious for conceding far too many goals.

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  11. To be honest it was terrible mate...

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  12. Come on, we've been leaking goals from set pieces for years, way before Brendan came in. It was terrible under Hodgson, Kenny and now Rodgers and I've said it before skirtel is the biggest problem just taking him out of the team improves it a little. I admit it doesn't look right still but it's a fact they don't concede as many when he isn't the team.

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  13. thats because there scared of making a mistake so its easier to let someone else do it ..the end result is no one does anything and the opposing team scores...thats why im not knocking balo for his wild shots at least hes shooting ....rogers for me gives his players no confidence one week there the best thing since sliced bread and the next hes criticizing them in the papers absoulutly no consistancy

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  14. Maybe could get Hummels but after fighting off other teams would cost 40m and BR could buy 10 Ricky Lamberts for that- don't think we can make CL next season so back to 'young talent' bla bla bla

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  15. Enemyofeverydisbeliever9:42 pm, October 19, 2014

    Last season we let 50 goals in, so will it be 100 this season? Most definitely. I dont really know what to say, any word I say it wont match the reality, this is beyond mindset. I almost deciced not to watch the game in midweek. I bet a real madrid defender will get a hat trick that night, never mind ronaldo! Hope it wont be more than three... Id take 0-3 now! Such a pity we play in CL, all suarez fault, he brought us there, now how to play, got no idea BR lad.

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  16. its a team thing not an individual one and hummels would be under immense pressure from the git go partly because of the fee and partly because rogers would introduce him as the second coming of Christ

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  17. I’ve come to the conclusion now that there is something seriously wrong with our system of coaching defenders….. It just can’t be about the players as we couldn’t correct things last season and having spent 60 million on new defenders there is NO improvement . The buck stops with Rodgers he has chosen the players and spent the money . This farce of a defence , especially at set pieces , has gone on far too long and If he is incapable of sorting it he will have to get a competent coach in who can ! Compare us with Southampton …… key players gone , new players in at a much lower spend , new manager and so far conceded fewest goals in the prem. No excuses BR knew what was ahead of us this season and that there would be no Luis to
    get us out of jail . Balo lacks the passion to ever be a LFC player …. Anything less than a 200% improvement on Wed.
    will result in a massacre ! YNWA

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  18. Wish he'd given us 1 more season- remember Palace game with him in tears- he's thinking 'I've given my all and this bloody defence blows it AGAIN'

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  19. I agree 100%. Who knows, he could drag us up to his standard but he's so unlikely to come it seems pointless even talking about it.

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  20. Rodgers gives his players no confidence... No disrespect but that must be the funniest thing I've heard all week. You must have missed the development of Sturridge, Sterling, Henderson, Coutinho and even Suarez these last couple of years then.

    He's criticized his players only a handful of times in over two seasons, please...

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  21. And how do players with no confidence miss the title by only 2 points?

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  22. This is largely the problem with Lovren. A decent defender no doubt, but Rodger's has placed too much expectation on him. Not only is he dealing with the £20M price tag, but also the expectation that he is the missing link within our defence, the one wwho's been and lead them. Needless to say, Lovren is not coping at all well with that expectation. Furthermore, Rodger's has not facilitated Lovren by acquiring a capable goal keeper and defensive midfielder.

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  23. Two questions:
    1. Is hummels available?
    2. Does he even want a move away?

    All else is useless, newspaper BS?........

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  24. It was a bad performance. For me its wasn't even about the missed chances it was when he got into forward positions with time on the ball, he lacked game intelligence. Balotelli comes alive when he plays instinctively (see spurs and the last 20 mins of the West Brom game) so it clear to see that he needs to play with a partner in the forthcoming games.

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  25. I thought it was worse than terrible mate

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  26. Horrible game. Good things:
    Coutinho showed up after long absence
    Sterling was the engine for us
    Henderson played pretty well

    Bad things:
    Enrique kicked numerous balls straight in the air, cleared poorly and completed one pass that I can remember
    Balotelli made one good pass and spent the rest of the time whining about not getting picture perfect passes. Work rate still shit although perhaps 5% better today...
    Scarily, johnson wasn't half bad today. Enough said there in comparison.
    Emre Can looked lost out there except for one nearly perfect pass that nearly connected with Henderson.

    Might have to defect to Southampton. They seem to be better run than us....at least defensively and in player acquisition....

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  27. He's really not. A very good player. Not world class, but an excellent prem player. Very consistent and athletic. A defender who enjoys defending.

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  28. our defence is a shambles. Just an absolute shambles. We can't deal with even the most basic ball into the box. People talk about our tactics being to blame but dealing with crosses, set pieces and high balls into the box is surely defending 101. Our centre halves look terrified and are totally shot of confidence and I really think a new defensive coach should be a priority. There has to be something done to shake things up.
    As for Balotelli... People say he needs a partner and that's probably true, but that doesn't excuse getting pretty much every decision wrong. He plays like a school boy who thinks he's better than everyone else and as soon as he gets the ball it's the Balotelli show and he's gonna do it all on his own but up to now what he's producing is nothing short of comic. He must be driving the players like Sterling and Hendo mad, who have sprinted 50 yards to get into a good position only to see him do something ridiculous and achieve nothing more than look foolish. I'll be astonished if he starts against Madrid after today's showing

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  29. The Premier League is action packed, but the quality of matches overall is average standard.Defending in the PL has turned into a joke.
    It's basketball type football played at 300mph.Turnover in possession reminds me of playground football.It's too high.
    TalkSPORT kept saying Liverpool are up to 5th in the table.I had to check.I couldn't believe it.This season we've played well against Spurs and that's it.The rest of our matches have been very average or complete garbage.
    Only goal difference puts us outside the top four.What does that say about the standard of Premier League football?

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  30. Attempted 30 shots without scoring - says it all .........

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  31. This season that is not today !

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  32. The defenders are not the problem our keeper is. Even though he had a better game by his standards today. Imagine having Peter Schmeichel order that defence into place. He would repair it in no time. Individually our defece should be good enough

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  33. I think Rodgers is quite good at developing attacking/forward thinking players but that's not our real problem under him. It seems we can buy all the defenders in the world but if they are badly coached in a system that takes away the best part of their game it will always be a case of us conceding goals.


    Sakho the recent scapegoat hasn't played but we still concede goals regardless of whoever steps in for him and funny enough he looks like composure personified when he plays for France. Lovren the defensive colossus at Saints looks a shadow of himself with us. This can't be merely coincidences of players suddenly becoming poor but an indication that the coaching is not right.


    Under the tutelage of defensive coach Steve Clarke we conceded nearly 16 goals less than last season so there is the possibility that's the area that needs addressing with different staff than those presently performing these duties. Spending £50m on Lovren, Moreno and Sakho hasn't fixed these issues. we need a different plan.

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  34. Rodgers was a centre back, but he must have been a f***ing awful centre back if all of his teams are so defensively inept. For God's sake dude, get yourself a defensive coach. You have no idea how to teach your teams to defend.

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  35. teribble defender.. lost a patient for this line up player. skertel and loveren are out pair. the problems are who wil rush the ball at 10 meters?

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  36. I think it's the coaching to blame. Jose can get his teams to defend properly, BR can't.

    Defending well is an art form

    Also Mario is an awful player, does the author still believe that past critics had agenda against him or was there substance to their critique.

    Aguero would have scored at least 4 given the same openings. Mario is a myth, Barton was right

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  37. Vargas is excellent ! He reminds me of Suarez , non stop running and stylish , same as Aguero. We should try to sign him from Napoli come January. Rafa can do us a favour by making a deal with us. Wtf he is at QPR now? He is a top striker for Chile and so fast and skillful yet we buy rubbish for 120m

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  38. JK, Hummels' injury record is abysmal.

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  39. I see that Moses learnt a thing or two from Suarez... Shame it wasn't footballing ability.

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  40. It doesnt matter who we buy in defence as we obviously dont do any defensive drills in training.. Sunday was shocking.

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  41. I really don't feel the players we have at the back are the issue. The problem is the way we defend as a team, whats being coached in training. I feel BR sets up his back four on an attacking basis that the fundamentals needed to keep clean sheets are never practiced. Bringing in another defender will not change this, it would just be more more splashed on a defense that, as you said, cost 60mill.
    The one thing we can say about some of the new recruited defenders is that they are technically good, Lovren is quick and reads the game well, but collectively we are a bag of sh*te at the back. We all know some of the most gifted/technically astute players cannot always excute what they are always trained to do.
    We have to bring in someone who can work with BR to teach our back four HOW to do it.

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  42. By having Suarez in their team

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  43. Unfortunately signing any player of international standing is unlikely for a club with the current status and standing of say, a Liverpool or Everton.

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  44. Shame we didn't try to convince Sami Hypia to come back and work with our defence

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  45. Lovren was a proven premier league defender. Buying more players won't solve anything, surely that's obvious by now.

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  46. We dont need another cb because cb was never the problem in the first place. We need and needed a DM who breaks up attacks much higher up the pitch and who will allow our DM to focus on the players closest to our goal at set pieces. Not frigging Allen with his legs spread wider than a can can girl or Emre "hey someone took the ball off me, I think I'll let him just run off with it" Can. Wtf was that. No urgency what so ever to get the ball back. Another 10 million out the window. Rossiter would have busted a gut to get into his box had that happened to him. That's three out of four windows during which Rodgers has peshed away our entire budget. He has to go.

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  47. What rubbish have we bought for 120M?

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  48. Think he is referring to the 39 Juve fans sadly crushed when wall collapsed at Heysel.

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  49. We conceded a lot less under Clarke but we hardly attacked either- we were set up to not concede with lots of men behind the ball and only scored 47 goals- only 16 more than Suarez on his own.
    Steve Clarke is not the answer

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  50. 200% is a bit much, but I think we can do a deal here.

    How about a 120% improvement?

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  51. thats was last year this year is another cartoon

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  52. suarez or sturridges ability has nothing to do with rogers ...tino has been hit and miss and at one point he tried to loan out sterling and ship out hendo .so im not sure what you mean, forget about last year on watching the team this year we are garbage

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  53. I think the Madrid game is his last chance to show us he knows what he's doing if that fails and we don't make top 4 then he has to go- even if Madrid beat us I can't see us beating Basel or Ludogrets

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  54. Sami Hypiae is the answer guys. The sooner we hire him the sooner we will be able to sort ot Our defensive issues.

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  55. I understand he is referring to that, but in the context of this article, what does it have to do with it?

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  56. So, what you are saying is the 120M or so we spent during the summer, none of these players play for their national side? None of them played at the world cup? The current status of Liverpool is that last season, we were runner's up and took the champions to the last game of the season.

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  57. To be fair, against QPR, Sakho or Moreno didn't play. They can't be blamed for our defence. You mention Lovren the defensive colossus at Saints, but you forget to mention the Lovren at Lyon, who couldn't even get in the side.

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  58. And yet if it wasn't for Mignolet, we would have lost the game against QPR.

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  59. Can equally be said that Mignolet cost us both last season and this. For a club of Liverpool's stature, the prerequisite when replacing a player is that the new acquisition should be better than, or at least on par with, his predecessor. Comparing Mignolet and Reina, sadly, this definitely isn't the case.

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  60. Bring back Steve Clarke.

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