Comments on Liverpool-Kop: So what did we learn about Liverpool FC this seaso...

Liverpool need to sign Barry sharpish, especially ...

2008-07-22T10:17:00.000+01:00

Liverpool need to sign Barry sharpish, especially since Arsemal are chasing. Barry wants to play for Liverpool and it is obvious they are going to have to cough up £17 million plus Finnan for him. He is their Team Captain afterall.

I don't see why Liverpool must wait until they sell £18 million pounds worth of players until they buy him - have they never heard of an Overdraft? Roll on D.I.C!

I hope to God they don't sign Miliner - even Bentley is iffy. These players are mediocre at best - they should go for Da Silva or Mancini.

If Liverpool really want to compete next season with the massive two (Man U and Chelsea) instead of being in the big 4 (soon to be big 6) they nees to sign a TOP striker, a TOP winger and replace Alonso*. They might also need a Right Back unless Carragher is prepared to play there.

They are not that far away!

In

Barry or Ashvarin
Da Silva or Mancini
Villa or Huntelaar

I would go for Ashvarin (Barry will do), Da Silva and Villa.

That would leave Liverpool out of pocket by about £20million this season - but so what? Thats nothing too build a side
like this and come the next two or three Transfer windows Liverpool are only going to be looking a Right Back and a
Reserve Keeper at most (possibly no-one at all) - and they will still have several squad players they can let go
depending on how the defense settles and the team pans out (Hypia, Yossi**, Arbeloa / Aurelio, Hobbs, Insua - thats about £12 million
worth alone!)

And they have bought some great young players some of whom will grom into the squad (Im all for Home Grown youth academy -
but whilst the sun is shinning as long as FIFA will allow it...Buy all the best youngsters from around the world. You'll
get the money back anyways!)

OUT ALREADY

Crouch - £11
Riise - £4
Carson - £3.25
Guthrie - £2.5
Tallec - £1.1
Kewell

TOTAL £21.76 million (minus a tenth that goes to the player

GRAND TOTAL £19.58 million)

In

Dossena - £6
Cavalieri - £3
Ngog - £1 (some reports saying 1.5)
Degen - £0

Total - £10million

Balance £10 million in the bank so far @.

My DREAM Team 4-4-2 for (most of) the Premiership

Reina

Carragher - Skertel - Agger - Dossena

Da Dilva - Ashvarin (Barry) - Gerrard - Babel

The Man*** Villa (Huntelaar)

SUBS: Cal, Machy, Yossi, Kuyt, Aurelia, Kaka (oh ok, maybe not)

For Defensive games / halfs and some European enter Machy. Swap and change striker or a defender as required.
And have Gerard on the edge of the box rather than taking corners.

OUT (to come?)

Voronin - £3
Pennant - £4.5
Alsonso - £15 - £17
Itjande - £2.5
Levia - £2
Leto - £1.5
Aurelio OR Arbeloa (maybe January) £@5

And several others on loan or released.

TOTAL - £30million approx. They need £6million of this plus Finnan for Barry.

That leaves £@20million taking into account Barry and fees to players.

They need about £40 to sign Villa and Da Silva...

They need to find £20 million...

The above estimates are conservative and factoring on paying maximum price for Villa and Da Silva.

So how to make £20 million...

I like Machy but sometimes wonder if another Defender wouldn't work just as well (and we have the central defenders now. And Hypia and Agger
probably score more than Machy) and Machy is worth ,oh, about £20million. Does Machy sometimes constrict Liverpool's
attacking options?

What a pity Liverpool lost to Chelsea**** (Rafa has clearly caught on that the Defensive Old Gaurd need to go - they are too slow)
we would have had another £20 million to spend. And surely the club's owners are planning some form of Transfer cash - not
just relying on wheeler dealing?

BUY VILLA, DA SILVA AND BARRY / ASHVARIN NOW THEY ARE AVAILABLE. THE MONEY IS THERE IT JUST ISN'T IN THE BANK YET!

*Good but Premiership is too fast - better in Italy.
** Yoissi is good (SUB) - but use him or lose him this season.
*** Nando
**** Convinced Drogba put metal strips in his instep and outstep!

Ross D

I suggest that for a more balanced review of the s...

2008-05-11T05:19:00.000+01:00

I suggest that for a more balanced review of the season supporters read my article below:

http://ulyssesonithaca.blogspot.com/2008/05/season-in-retrospect-it-has-certainly.html

There seems to have been some confusion about my l...

2008-05-08T14:26:00.000+01:00

There seems to have been some confusion about my labelling of only Torres as world class.

Here is what I actually said:

"Liverpool need creative technically proficient flair players. Lack of skill, guile, and pace permeates our squad like a disease. Fernando Torres is the only consistently world class player we have in this regard."

There is no doubt that Carra, Masch, Reina, Alonso, Gerrard are world class players.

I was referring to quick attacking flair players - the only consistent one we have is Torres.

I love Stevie G, but I don't believe he is consistently world class - at least he hasn't been this season.

Ryan Babel has potential.

As for the Ronaldo remark, I was pointing out that you don't have to break the bank. And as for the "changing market" which one commenter mentioned, we signed Cisse for £14m only a year after Ronaldo joined United. Part of buying a class player is judging his POTENTIAL. Sure Ronaldo was just a show-pony when he first arrived, but technically he is faultless and Ferguson saw something in him. How many of Liverpool's "attacking" options can you say the same about?

Again, another commenter weighing up Rafa's buys and sells missed the point I was making: my point was not "look at how much Rafa has cost us". It was: "look at how many players Rafa needs to buy before he gets one that's any good!"

What does it matter if he makes all his money back? I'd rather a £50m "loss" and a squad of great players to show for it.

Slight correction to my post above. When I wrote a...

2008-05-07T08:56:00.000+01:00

Slight correction to my post above. When I wrote about Ronaldo's fee being compared to Kuyt's I meant Mascherano (as the writer had originally suggested). My mistake.

On that note, Mascherano is widely regarded as one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. 17 million is peachy compared to what Man Utd paid for Michael Carrick (18.6 million) 1 year before.

In addition, like I stated earlier, it is fallacious to compare transfers 4 years apart like Ronaldo and Javier, because inflation distorts prices. Thank you.

The argument about Christiano Ronaldo's transfer f...

2008-05-07T08:49:00.000+01:00

The argument about Christiano Ronaldo's transfer fee being compared to Ryan Babel's or Dirk Kuyt's is a ridiculous one. First off, Ronaldo was signed 3 years before Kuyt, and 4 years before Babel. The value of money has changed over this period due to inflation, thus while the nominal monetary value may be similar, the "real" value of these transfers is rather different. Essentially, Ronaldo was more expensive that either Babel or Kuyt. End of story.

In addition, Ronaldo was, if I'm not terribly mistaken, the most expensive teenager at the time. He hadn't even played for Portugal yet! In contrast both Kuyt and Babel were international players when signed by Liverpool. Granted, Ronaldo has developed into a world class player so it was money well spent. Who knows where Babel will be in 4 years' time? Van Basten seems to think he will be the new Henry. Let's wait and watch.

Therefore accusing Benitez of overspending in the transfer market is preposterous. In 4 seasons, Rafa's total net transfer spending (transfers in - transfers out) is 55.2 million pounds. That's an average of less than 14 million a season! One could argue that the 05 CL win, and the 07 run to the final alone, financed these transfers. Rafa is definitely earning his keep, in my opinion.

Ofcourse, some of his transfers have not been successful. But no one, not even Arsene Wenger has a perfect record in the transfer market. But no one can argue that Arbeloa (2.6m), Agger (5.8m), Skrtel (6.5m), Crouch (7m), Sissoko (5.6m) have not been good players at reasonable prices. Sissoko was even sold for a profit of 2.6million pounds.

Rafa's biggest flops have been Josemi (2m), Nunez (free), Morientes (6.3), Pellegrino (free), Zenden (free), Gonzalez (4.5m) Bellamy (6m), Palletta( 2m). The jury is still out on Voronin, who came on a Bosman anyhow.

The amount expended on these flops combined (20.7m) does still not match up to Man Utd's mega flop Veron who cost 28.1 million pounds.

So lay off Rafa lads, he's done a decent job in the transfer market.

Well, yes, I agree about Riise. He has been an acc...

2008-05-06T22:09:00.000+01:00

Well, yes, I agree about Riise. He has been an accident waiting to happen for some time and the own goal is likely to prove his swan song at the club. Probably we'd have won the tie if the score had remained 1-0. At Chelsea, we were always chasing the tie due to Riise's error.

The rest I don't agree about so much and one can see how the negative comments about Gerrard would be so pleasing to Jaimie Kanwar. As far as I know, this is the only Liverpool site which consistently attacks Steven Gerrard. Most top managers fall over themselves to say how much they'd like him in their teams. This season he has scored 21 goals and played really well against Arsenal in the CL. Furthermore, skill obviously doesn't always win over tactics--did you forget the previous 2 semi-finals between Liverpool and Chelsea? As for being negative, I don't agree. In all competitions, Liverpool have scored more goals than any other PL team (117) and they have 6 players in double figures. Moreover, we actually have several world class players: Gerrard, Torres, Mascherano, Alonso, Carragher, Reina. We also have a number of very good players: Babel, Kuyt, Benayoun, Crouch and Skrtel. We cannot say that Rafa Benitez has failed if he doesn't win the PL next season. After all, the top 2 clubs that have the most resources, seem to win nearly all their games. In the "Golden Age" of Shankly and Paisley, the kind of points total that Rafa hauled in a couple of seasons ago (82) would easily have been enough to win the League. Instead, he came third. However, I agree that he needs to at least be seen to make a serious challenge next time out.

Completely agree about Riise. He hasn't been on t...

2008-05-06T20:57:00.000+01:00

Completely agree about Riise. He hasn't been on the ball for ages, which is such a shame as he used to offer lots of positives for the team. Even last season he was doing well, scoring that vital goal against Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Then I remember things like his payslip going missing and ending up in the press, and his champions league medal showing up on ebay. There were rumours about him having a gambling addiction - perhaps that has caused him to lose focus...?

Whatever the reason, it's definitely time for him to go.