Despite signing three new central defenders over the summer, Liverpool (and Arsenal) are reportedly planning a renewed bid to sign Schalke star Kyriakos Papadopolous during the January transfer window.
According to the Daily Express:
"Arsenal to rival Liverpool for the signing of Schalke's Kyriakos Papadopoulos in January.
"Arsenal appear to be the new frontrunners, ahead even of Liverpool, with reports suggesting that the Gunners may be willing to meet Schalke's £11m asking price"
With Mamadou Sakho, Tago Ilori and Kolo Toure now on the books, along with Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel, this seems extremely tenuous, unless, of course, Brendan Rodgers is planning to offload either Agger or Skrtel during the January transfer window.
Liverpool were heavily linked with Papadopolous over the summer, and when asked in August about Liverpool's interest last month, Schalke sporting director Horst Heldt told reporters:
"There are a lot of clubs to take into account. Specifically, there is nothing that has arrived, as far as I know. We're going to speak to each other when it takes concrete form".
In a recent column for the Liverpool Echo, Molby insisted that Papadopolous - who has a £19m buyout clause in his contract - 'fits the profile' of the type of player Liverpool 'want to build a team around', and shrugged off worries about the young defender's injury history. he enthused:
"When I’ve seen him [Papadopolous] in Champions League matches, I’ve been impressed. He’s a talented young player with real potential. He is as strong as a bull, dominant in the air and very good in one-on-one situations. He hasn’t played since before Christmas due to a knee problem but I’m sure that he has made a complete recovery".
Soon after, former Monaco CEO Tor-Kristian Karlsen described Kyriakos as 'one of the best center-backs in Europe', and claimed that several Premier League clubs - including LFC - were chasing the youngster. He tweeted:
"Liverpool interest is concrete. Has been on the shortlist/highly rated by many European top clubs (including Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd). Nice transfer coup for Liverpool if they manage to land Papadopoulos.
At the end of May, talkSPORT and ESPN football analyst Rafael Honigstein confirmed Karlsen's contention, and claimed that Papadopoulos was 'close' to an LFC move:
"Liverpool are pretty close to landing Kyriakos Papadopoulos. There’s no fear he will be affected long-term [by the injury]. Schalke have three very good centre-backs, having picked up Felipe Santana from Dortmund for €1m. That makes it easier for Papadopoulos to go."
Papadopolous hasn't played a competitive game since November 2011, and despite allegedly recovering from his injury, he is yet to make an appearance this season for Schalke, which is (arguably) a concern.
Do Liverpool still need Papadopolous? If there is money available in January, it should (IMO) go on attacking players, specifically goalscoring wingers/midfielders.
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
According to the Daily Express:
"Arsenal to rival Liverpool for the signing of Schalke's Kyriakos Papadopoulos in January.
"Arsenal appear to be the new frontrunners, ahead even of Liverpool, with reports suggesting that the Gunners may be willing to meet Schalke's £11m asking price"
With Mamadou Sakho, Tago Ilori and Kolo Toure now on the books, along with Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel, this seems extremely tenuous, unless, of course, Brendan Rodgers is planning to offload either Agger or Skrtel during the January transfer window.
Liverpool were heavily linked with Papadopolous over the summer, and when asked in August about Liverpool's interest last month, Schalke sporting director Horst Heldt told reporters:
"There are a lot of clubs to take into account. Specifically, there is nothing that has arrived, as far as I know. We're going to speak to each other when it takes concrete form".
In a recent column for the Liverpool Echo, Molby insisted that Papadopolous - who has a £19m buyout clause in his contract - 'fits the profile' of the type of player Liverpool 'want to build a team around', and shrugged off worries about the young defender's injury history. he enthused:
"When I’ve seen him [Papadopolous] in Champions League matches, I’ve been impressed. He’s a talented young player with real potential. He is as strong as a bull, dominant in the air and very good in one-on-one situations. He hasn’t played since before Christmas due to a knee problem but I’m sure that he has made a complete recovery".
Soon after, former Monaco CEO Tor-Kristian Karlsen described Kyriakos as 'one of the best center-backs in Europe', and claimed that several Premier League clubs - including LFC - were chasing the youngster. He tweeted:
"Liverpool interest is concrete. Has been on the shortlist/highly rated by many European top clubs (including Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd). Nice transfer coup for Liverpool if they manage to land Papadopoulos.
At the end of May, talkSPORT and ESPN football analyst Rafael Honigstein confirmed Karlsen's contention, and claimed that Papadopoulos was 'close' to an LFC move:
"Liverpool are pretty close to landing Kyriakos Papadopoulos. There’s no fear he will be affected long-term [by the injury]. Schalke have three very good centre-backs, having picked up Felipe Santana from Dortmund for €1m. That makes it easier for Papadopoulos to go."
Papadopolous hasn't played a competitive game since November 2011, and despite allegedly recovering from his injury, he is yet to make an appearance this season for Schalke, which is (arguably) a concern.
Do Liverpool still need Papadopolous? If there is money available in January, it should (IMO) go on attacking players, specifically goalscoring wingers/midfielders.
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
We need more attacking quality, but the necessity for another ball-winner is becoming increasingly evident with every second half collapse (in play, not in results).
ReplyDeleteWe're consistently being over-run in midfield and another attacker wouldn't be the answer to that problem.
Agree, but I just can't see Rodgers dropping Gerrard or Lucas. Plus, he probably sees Joe Allen as a solution there.
ReplyDeleteIf Skrtel gets sold and Wisdom goes on loan then yes. Agger is injured again albeit not football related injury but still.
ReplyDeleteWe need more creativity.
should have been erikson we made a big mistake for not going for him, or if we did for not pushing hard enough to get him for now it seems like its coutinho or nothing to create our spark with eriksin we would've had another option
ReplyDeleteLucas has to play as he is our only legit DM, and I can only hope that Rodgers doesn't still hold onto the belief that Allen is a legit stand-in for him.
ReplyDeleteGerrard is the problem imo though - regardless of what any statistics may say - particularly if he has to continue to play every minute of every game,
BR needs to keep an eye on how things pan out with Chelsea and Mata and maybe put a real bid in for him in January and you never know we could get lucky but i think we are getting over run in midfield Mata in the middle with Lucas and maybe SG out on the right, or even use SG a bit less, rest him every now and then. Oh and will they please help Aspas bulk up a wee bit it's not like he's going to loose his blistering pace. Fix the midfield in January and we should be ok.
ReplyDeleteI think and thought Papa was the guy we should have gone for before Ilori and Sakho. People are talking about which CB can play at the opposite side to his strong foor. Actually i believe Skrtle can do it proper. Unless Rodgers sells either Agger or Sakho I can't see it happening. It's just not sensible for any of our CB's squad.
ReplyDeleteSTILL, i think Papa can be amazing for Liverpool FC, and so i can understand this coming up.
Basically i would have got him instead of Sakho, but at this point, if the intention is to be truth, then Agger would be the one to go, or Skretel. Tough choice for anybody.
But here it comes again, Papadopoulos can easily be Liverpool's top CB.
No... Probably Skretel and Coates to go. . . [all in case we beat arsenal to sign him. no chance really.] - poor Ilori won't see game time.
ReplyDeleteFilling column inches i think. Just dragging up summer stories, its not even october ffs.
ReplyDeleteAMAZING ACHIEVEMENT- Steven Gerrard played almost 60 minutes in his 400th game as captain of Liverpool. Does he need to collapse on the field for anyone to realise he is not 25 anymore..
ReplyDeleteYes, you quoted the words you were responding to, but they weren't my words.
ReplyDeleteI didn't 'decide to chime in with unrelated nonsense' - everything I said was directly related to elements of your post, but not to the general thesis that no Liverpool players would get into the Spurs team. if you ACTUALLY tried reading my post you would see that.
I never said 'you' said 6 +++ Liverpool players would get into the Spurs team, I referenced it. It's called 'joined up writing'. Sorry to confuse you.
Knickers not in twist - don't flatter yourself.
Yes, this is the internet - hence me feeling it was okay to comment on elements within your post (and expecting you to realise that nowhere did I say 'no Liverpool players would get in the Spurs team').
How can I 'accept I made a mistake' when I haven't - the only istake here is you being too limited to see that it is possible for me to comment on elements of your post (and that this is not only allowed,but also inherent within the Internet medium) without actually supporting the main thesis you were arguing against.
if the penny hasn't dropped yet, I would have agreed with you if you had just said it was silly to say no Liverpool players would get into the Spurs team, without resorting to bombastic myopia, or being trite!
Spurs were in third place for a large portion of the season and blew it... they choked. They should have finished top 4 last season. You can paper over the cracks all you want the reality is they should have, but they didn't, they choked... again. The truth hurts.
ReplyDeleteI'll accept your latest convoluted comment as a retraction of your statement that "I quoted your post", or had responded to any request of yours at all.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry mate, everybody has the right to be wrong :-)
Do whatever you want - it hardly increases your reading comprehension, just demonstrates a totally inability to understand why you're totally wrong.
ReplyDeleteWon't be replying again...you are too ignorant (in the traditional meaning of the word).
Ta Ta
No probs - you don't need to admit it in public. Just accept it to yourself. You were wrong. You'll be a better person from this experience though, I've no doubt about it. All the best, mate!
ReplyDeleteI still think you're ignoring the simple notion that you're effectively benching Coutinho. Sure, he can play out wide, but then you're benching Moses. Rodgers has gone on and on about pushing Coutinho into that central role and not using him so much out wide. What you're suggesting is that he either stays out wide or sits on the bench. That's what getting Eriksen would have meant, and I simply figure that Rodgers didn't fancy it. I'd agree with that. Eriksen either isn't good enough in his view or doesn't have the right tools play our kind of game. If he did then wouldn't we have at least tried? He's been available all summer and we never made the move. James Pearce (@ Liverpool Echo) said we were never genuinely interested so my strong guess it that we simply didn't rate him.
ReplyDeleteI saw a couple of posts where people claim that Eriksen is world class. I have one guy on another forum telling me I'm clueless because Eriksen is clearly better than players like Mkhitaryan and Mata. So again, if that's how people view him then fair enough, I won't argue with them, and if he truly is world class beyond even those kinds of players then of course, for that money he's a bargain. I won't argue, but I don't agree, and I would really question why Rodgers and the scouting team also don't agree. If he's so good, why was he only a late transfer move from a club that doesn't even have CL football? Everyone is entitled to their view but I think if you're going to bench a player like Coutinho or play him out of his preferred position then the player you get in his place would want to be very very good. If you think he is then OK, you would think we've missed out. I don't.
Words from James Pearce @ Liverpool Echo. It's hardly gospel truth but all other sources are pretty sketchy too.
ReplyDeleteIf your defenders are so bloody good why have u finished above us 4 out of the last 5 seasons yet every season have had more goals scored against simple we defend better
ReplyDeleteI think legit is a bit too much credit. He's our only DM, let's leave it at that.
ReplyDeleteHe's such a good player. I wouldn't have been able to resist signing him as well. Weird i so Ilori play on left CB spot in un21s. Thought he played the other way. IF that's the case i can see him get good and Sakho dropped after a year, of course only considering what i saw on his debut. Thing is i couldn't predict him shaping up better. Low intensity of him, maybe if he shapes that up well.
ReplyDeletePapadopoulos will be legend.
Not one player?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Agger & Johnson, could probably walk in. Coutinho Sturridge and Suarez too.
Mignolet is comparable at the least to Lloris. At CDM though you're probably better stocked.