Amid the euphoria of last night's 4-0 annihilation of Everton in the Merseyside derby, Liverpool legend John Aldridge has urged fans not to get too carried away, and reminded the club that despite that win, the Reds still need to bring in reinforcements before the transfer window ends. LFC are currently linked with Dnipro attacker Yevhen Konoplyanka, and Aldo believed there are two more players out there who would be top signings for the club.
Earlier today, Aldo tweeted:
"Great result happy days. Still need to buy though before Friday.
"This is our big opportunity to get 4th spot. Luke shaw would be a great signing but we'd get blown out of the water by the big spenders.
"I [also] like Diame personally with our purse strings".
Diame seems a popular choice amongst Liverpool fans, and he's certainly a player that LFC can afford. The combative midfielder has been regularly linked with a move to Anfield, and most recently, the Essex Guardian reported:
"Liverpool may make a move for West Ham United midfielder Mohamed Diame. The 26-year-old is believed to have a £3.5 million escape clause in his contract but has hinted he would like to agree a new deal".
Diame definitely has a £3.5m (€5m) buyout clause in his contract, as confirmed by his Agent, Willie McKay, in December 2012, when he told the Daily Mail:
"Diame was a free transfer and believed he could command a better salary than he was offered so to compensate for that the clause was put in so he could leave in six months time for £3.5m"
Aldo has also revealed his admiration for Diame in the past. In a column last year for Liverpool Echo , he enthused:
"I would urge Liverpool to keep tabs on Mohamed Diame. He is a brute of a midfielder. A tremendous player and so strong and powerful in that central role, and he is exactly what the Reds need in there. Diame is certainly one for future reference".
Shaw, on the other hand, is a different proposition entirely. Man United reportedly put in a £22m bid last week for the Southampton left-back, but Chelsea are also interested in the highly-regarded 18-year old (a boyhood Blues fan), and the Saints reportedly want £25m.
Of the two, Diame would arguably add more to the LFC's squad strength right now, though he recently suffered a knee injury, and according to Sam Allardyce, he'll be out 'for a little while'. That would seem to rule out any potential January deal; unless, of course, Liverpool go ahead and sign an injured player (it's happened before!)
I wouldn't mind seeing Liverpool sign Diame, but Shaw. Forget it. I don't care who it is, or the how great the talent, in my view, no 18-year old defender is worth £25m, and only a mug with more money that sense would pay that much for Shaw.
Author: Jaimie K
Earlier today, Aldo tweeted:
"Great result happy days. Still need to buy though before Friday.
"This is our big opportunity to get 4th spot. Luke shaw would be a great signing but we'd get blown out of the water by the big spenders.
"I [also] like Diame personally with our purse strings".
Diame seems a popular choice amongst Liverpool fans, and he's certainly a player that LFC can afford. The combative midfielder has been regularly linked with a move to Anfield, and most recently, the Essex Guardian reported:
"Liverpool may make a move for West Ham United midfielder Mohamed Diame. The 26-year-old is believed to have a £3.5 million escape clause in his contract but has hinted he would like to agree a new deal".
Diame definitely has a £3.5m (€5m) buyout clause in his contract, as confirmed by his Agent, Willie McKay, in December 2012, when he told the Daily Mail:
"Diame was a free transfer and believed he could command a better salary than he was offered so to compensate for that the clause was put in so he could leave in six months time for £3.5m"
Aldo has also revealed his admiration for Diame in the past. In a column last year for Liverpool Echo , he enthused:
"I would urge Liverpool to keep tabs on Mohamed Diame. He is a brute of a midfielder. A tremendous player and so strong and powerful in that central role, and he is exactly what the Reds need in there. Diame is certainly one for future reference".
Shaw, on the other hand, is a different proposition entirely. Man United reportedly put in a £22m bid last week for the Southampton left-back, but Chelsea are also interested in the highly-regarded 18-year old (a boyhood Blues fan), and the Saints reportedly want £25m.
Of the two, Diame would arguably add more to the LFC's squad strength right now, though he recently suffered a knee injury, and according to Sam Allardyce, he'll be out 'for a little while'. That would seem to rule out any potential January deal; unless, of course, Liverpool go ahead and sign an injured player (it's happened before!)
I wouldn't mind seeing Liverpool sign Diame, but Shaw. Forget it. I don't care who it is, or the how great the talent, in my view, no 18-year old defender is worth £25m, and only a mug with more money that sense would pay that much for Shaw.
Author: Jaimie K
Shaw will go to Chelsea, his boyhood, as he stated its his desire, Diame is chit, not good enough for LFC, or any top club, IMO.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't think Diame is good enough. He's a good athlete and is very strong but as a footballer I think he's average. If we are looking for a defensive midfielder M'villa is available or if he's too expensive what about Alex Song?
ReplyDeleteI don't mind losing out on Shaw, we've lost out on bigger talents than that before. If we spend that amount on a midfielder who can play straight into the first team and challenge for a place in the starting 11, I'd be content.
ReplyDeleteI think we need more cover in midfield than the LB position at the moment.
Great set of midweek results overall with all the London clubs dropping points, were as good as 4 points ahead of Spurs with our massively superior goal difference, nice to see Chelsea slip up tonight too :)
ReplyDeleteSpurs thrashed again and Chelsea drew at home.
ReplyDeletePerfecto!
Pogba is a really good player but probably way too expensive for us unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jaimie that the fee is way too high.
ReplyDeleteKonoplyanka's playing style is suited to the premiership game. Similar to Saha speed wise and control wise but a stronger player.
ReplyDeleteRegarding that awful goalkeeper of ours- remember first season of De gea or Scesny? We got ourselves a great goalkeeper, people!
ReplyDeleteI left out really good player part, cause it is so obvious. He will be in top ten of the world soon.
ReplyDeleteDarn he would fit in perfectly..
Forgot to mention the guy at PSG, Matuidi I think. Apparently he's available now they've got Cabaye. He's a quality player and wouldn't be very expensive because he hasn't long left on his contract.
ReplyDeletefor me I would not move for diami
ReplyDeletehe is brilliant player .. i would go for another type of mid
not box to box .. he attack too much and would leave a gab behind him and SG would struggle in that gab
also there is something
its strange that he have 3,5 m clause and no one go for him
shaw have great future ahead him but he isn't the gem that we could lose a lot if we didn't sign him
ReplyDeleteguarin looks available mate, i think he is perfect solution for us
ReplyDeleteThe Ukrainian Robben, signing this guy would be a nice boost to the front line. May still leak goal but dammit we'll be entertaining!
ReplyDeleteI personally can't see us making a move for Diame, Rodgers is having enough trouble keeping Gerrard in the first team and we still have Lucas and Allen to come back. Unless Diame agreed to be a squad player which I cant see happening it's probably not going to happen.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about Shaw though. Ridiculous amount of money for a player that has barely proved himself in the game yet.
guarin please , after inter n juve incident this guy look want to move, perfect solution for us
ReplyDeleteWhat a shite article!
ReplyDeleteSpurs trying to hijack bid for Koponplyanka. Does it ever end?
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, he didn't say he had blind faith, he said he was 100% behind them . That's not the same thing. I'm 100% behind my daughters. That doesn't mean I don't see their faults or criticise them when they do something wrong....
ReplyDeleteThe other flaw in you saying that is that your own tagline used to say '100% behind Rodgers and FSG'
Good pick-up if we can get him. I'll believe he's here when I see it in the BBC pages. Somebody may be able to explain why Salah was too much at 12M but Kono+ is a good deal at 16M...academic point anyway if we get him. We can use the extra help. A DM would help too.
ReplyDeleteIt's gonna be Thursday tomorrow. Get Diame. Even if he isn't the great, he's a warm body in DM which we need right now. SG played great against Everton, but he's 33 and if he gets hurt, then what do we do with Lucas, Allen and SG all playing cheerleader from the bench?
ReplyDeleteHow do you know this?
ReplyDeleteWe need Diame to be ready against WBA in case SG goes down or flags at the 60 minute mark. That's how close we are to having no DMs at all.
ReplyDeleteI personally dont think spurs are after Konoplyanka just someone trying to drive up the price.
ReplyDeleteThere are only 48 hours left. The player buyers can only work so fast.
ReplyDeleteMaybe but we are liverpool not stoke! We could sell assaidi, borini, even allen and that would raise much of his cost.
ReplyDeleteI refer to Logan's comments over the last year, not to just today. He has repeatedly displayed blind faith (IMO), but that's fine, he's entitled to.
ReplyDeleteAnd there's no flaw in me saying '100% behind BR" - you really do try your best to subvert the meaning of my views. The difference is that I am also critical of BR and FSG, despite being behind them. I don't just take a pro-position irrespective of the facts simply because I'm trying to project an image of 100% support.
We got burnt on a player we thought we had in the bag, a player we felt would perhaps guarantee us that 4th spot
ReplyDeleteEverybody has been looking at Kono for a while now, since the games versus England. He looked good
There is a certainly a small risk of overpaying, but that's because Chelsea gazumped us, not much we can do now
It seems to be a bit optimistic that we will get this deal done by Friday. If Spurs really are trying to gazump us again, let them have him
Way to disrespect an entire language :)
ReplyDeleteChelsea have no problem throwing money at players and not playing them. Money doesn't matter to them. It's essentially financial doping
ReplyDeleteRemember they sold Duff to Newcastle for half of what we offered...... Ridiculous
Salah, within his rights as a professional, chose more money one assumes, and a better choice of flights home, over first team football with us
Diame's crap, pandle.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Leave Shaw to Chelsea
ReplyDeleteDiame would be a bargain though
I'm convinced that Ian Ayre has disseminated these Spurs rumours, just so we can appear to have finally triumphed over them.
ReplyDeleteHonestly this is the wrong way round. Diame, short term solution, total bobbins as a footballer who is totally the wrong kind of player for us since he is about as handy on the ball as Cissokho. But some people would have us drop £4m / £5m on him, including wages for a year, which is probably how long he'd last before he started to stink the place out with his performances, and we'd still need to buy another midfielder, *and* we'd have wasted game time on Diame that could have been used for the development of a more talented individual.
ReplyDeleteWhereas Shaw, who if we bought (which I don't think we should, but that's not my point) would solve our left back problem conceivably for the next 10 or 15 years, meaning that we wouldn't have to spend any more money on that position for quite some time -- this is the player we don't think's worth it because it costs too much up front?
Come on! This is the definition of short-termism. People like Aldo say this sort of nonsense because they're paid to come out with something amusing to sell advertising space in the newspapers they "write" for. But what are your excuses, everyone?
Goin back to Euro 2012 a friend of mine told me "when u watch the footy tonight, look out for a player called Yarmolenko" so I did and I thought yea he's pretty decent but who's that player on the other wing for Ukraine he was AWESOME, it happened to be Konoplyanka, the next day when I seen my mate I didn't stop goin on about him(konoplyanka). I can't remember what game it was but he just ran at the defence all game, so positive, quick feet and some great skill, now all of a sudden it looks like he could be on his way to Liverpool, I hope so.
ReplyDeleteOK...is he better or worse than nobody?
ReplyDeleteIf they aren't going for him, what is the point of driving up the price? Besides Spurs have MFs in spades. What they don't have is a striker...no disrespect to Adebayor meant, but he isn't the answer for Spurs.
ReplyDeleteWorse! Honestly, having players around who aren't good enough is really bad for a squad.
ReplyDeleteSoooo...who plays DM if SG goes down and Allen is still nursing his hammie?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't seem to be a DM...why him?
ReplyDeleteI'm up for it if that's what you're asking!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see us get in Granit Xhaka, with whom we were linked tenuously in December, and I'd pay up to £15m for the pleasure. Of my own money, you understand.
I think you're missing the point Jamie. The example I would use is that of an auction. You and I both view a property that will go to auction. I do my sums and value the property at £X for how I intend to use it. You do your sums and value it at £Y.
ReplyDeleteWhen the bidding starts I bid in £500 blocks as I'm cautious and do not want to overspend. You sit and watch the bidding go up in small amounts then before the auctioneer bangs his hammer you decide you can still buy the property for £Y so steal in with your bid. I pull out because my valuation of £X has been exceeded and you win the auction.
I then go for another lot but this time I'm prepared to bid £Y (what you bid for the first lot) because my sums say this property can still give me the returns I want even if I have to spend a little more. Is it a panic buy or just that I have a different value than the first one?
Personally, I'm pleased that Liverpool will not be bullied into wasting money on players when they do not think they are worth it. Having said that, I think Ayre was caught napping...again.
If you're better than Diame...which you very well may be...then put on a shirt and collect your check. It might be better if you call your friend Granit and ask him to call Ian Ayre with a number...there are only 48 hours left you know...no time like the present;-)
ReplyDeleteJust writing down what I read, him and salah down each wing with sterling and ibe as competition, sounded good to me
ReplyDeletemy eyes work and I was taught stuff
ReplyDeleteWell if you have competition with money the price can be pushed up also i agree about spurs needs thus dont see them in for Konoplyanka.
ReplyDeleteThe rumour has come from somewhere.
Also if i were spurs right now id be thinking more about selling first.
maybe Salah was a smokescreen if you can believe Ayre's wiki page. If we had have gone for Kopo first Chelsea would have bought him especially with Roman's liking for Russian/Ukraine players.
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on but can really see him opting to go to Chelsea plus their deep pockets it wont hurt them either.
ReplyDeleteVery good player would be great for LFC. The only thing I question is is this the position we need to be strengthening right now. We already have a few good wingers.
ReplyDeleteDiame is injured. I don't think we need any additions to our injury list. Whoever we buy should be able to start against Arsenal or don't bother.
ReplyDeletethank you for mentioning song. I wish we would go after him.
ReplyDeleteI see nothing here to suggest this is a panic buy. The club identified that they want an attacking player this window, probably along with a number of other options. Rodgers has already stated that they can't get all there targets for various reasons, most of them probably because it's hard to get teams to sell quality players in January. However he also stated that they hoped to get one quality player in and this looks like the player. That it happens late in the window is really quite meaningless. Liverpool will approach it with the same methods they approach all transfers, albeit with a heightened sense of urgency. Considering the player has limited time on his current contract that might actually work in our favour, his fee could be less in the summer.
ReplyDeleteIt's clear that Liverpool value this player at a higher price than Salah. He's more experienced, has more caps and plays for an international team that ranks 18 in the world. You may or may not agree with that but it's Liverpool who put the evaluation on the player, not you. Do you have any clear analysis, statistics, anything at all to give concrete evidence to support Salah being worth the same as Konoplyanka? You claim off the cuff that Sakho was overpriced but based on what? I'm more inclined to put my trust in the professionals running the show at Liverpool than your instinctual guess.
So in my mind Liverpool think this player is worth paying for. That makes total sense. If you have one team offering you a player for an inflated amount you would not do the deal. If you're going to spend that kind of money then you get a player you have more confidence in. In that regard Salah was probably going to bought on potential, clearly talented but with little top flight experience. He was a bargain and probably represented a better overall deal but that certainly doesn't mean he's a better player or even on the same level as the Ukraine lad. And that's the job of everyone in the club associated with transfers - to determine how good a player is and how much he is worth on the market.
I completely disagree that this is a farce or even that there is a problem here. This is just normal transfer business in a difficult window. There is no contradiction or double standards, just a consistent method being applied. We may not even sign him if Dnipro insist on holding to an unrealistically high price.
So true. It's one thing to be a direct manager, to know people on a personal and professional level, to see all of their work in front of you and to have all the evidence available to make sensible and informed decisions. We couldn't possibly have that level of information as fans of the club. That doesn't prevent us from having views, everyone is entitled to think whatever they like, but I always stand by the assertion that these views are often uninformed ones. People need to admit when they're speculating and when they simply don't know all the facts, and maybe in the back of their minds most fans do know this. It just doesn't come out in the comments that you often see.
ReplyDeleteI think this is also where Ayre's recent comments might make more sense: it's not that we can't spend 11 million or 13 million pounds i.e. we are not financially restricted to some fixed budget and that's not the reason why we didn't do the deal. We have money to spend and if that turned out to be 15 million pounds or 20 million or more it's all the same method. It's more that we don't agree that the player (Salah) is worth that. Transfer decisions are not being made because we can't afford the money, it's that we don't value the player that high. Of course everyone can agree or disagree with that, but there is no question here that Konoplyanka is worth more than Salah, every assessment of him that I've read seems to agree with that. So to suggest that Liverpool suddenly seem willing to overpay is not necessarily true. They are willing to pay more for a better player. Seems pretty simple to me.
ReplyDeleteB Rodgers needs three players in before next three days: After another magnicifent display from Coutinho(21) in the hole as AM: We need two DM brought in to let the likes of Coutinho(21), Gerrard(33), Henderson(23) to solely work on their pressing without ball. But when they have ball just to attack create and score from the hole(AM)
ReplyDelete1: DM: M'Vila(23) Of Rubin Kazan for 8-12M
2:DM: F Reges(26) Of Porto for 6-8M
3: RW/LW/RWF/LWF: Y Konoplyanka(24) Of Dnipro for 4-17M
These three players would cost the same amount Man United Spent on one player( Mata), we would be bringing in three class quality players for the price of one.
What's up with Inler? Quality player, lots of chatter. Some clout with Napoli with the Reina Loan (who buy the way is set to leave, they got a new keeper on a permanent deal). Could be a good shout.
ReplyDeleteI DONT CARE EVEN IF IT IS OVERPRICED...THE LAD LOOKS TALENTED...THERE IS RISK FOR EVERY PLAYER WHO IS SIGNED FOR PREMIERE LEAGUE...LOOK AT SOLDADO AND LAMELA AS EXAMPLES WHO WERE GREAT IN THERE LEAGUE BUT FLOPPED IN PREMERE LEAGUE...ON THE OTHER HAND NO BODY KNOWS ABOUT DEJAN LOVREN AND WILFRIEND BONY WHO ARE DOING GREAT JOB IN PREMIERE LEAGUE....WE NEED TO BUY THIS PLAYER ASAP
ReplyDeleteIt's strengthening the midfield indirectly through the wings. Rodgers likes a high pressing game, so if the wingers can do a job pressing turnovers higher up the pitch, all the better. The attacking half of the pitch would become very mobile and tricky to defend against. Defences will also be stretched.
ReplyDeleteAlso bear in mind the defending half of Liverpool in this instance, just needs to defend. We are short of quality attacking fullbacks. So the wingers can take this slack. The midfield heart can rotate around the like of Gerrard, Lucas, Hendo and Allen. Coutinho now dropping into a deeper role can pick the lock through the center.
Kono is also a flexible player - either flank or behind strikers.
You don't need to know. It's just assumed
ReplyDeleteNo. Spurs can royally f*** off.
ReplyDeleteReally good post. I think however a factor which can offset the trust that Liverpool know what they're doing re: player valuations is the fee paid for Carroll. That indeed was absurd. So in some respect I don't blame JK for using his instinct, as that transfer will subconsciously linger around for a while. But yeah, I don't entirely agree with JK's article either!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jaimie! At least someone else can see it, I've tried to point it out.
ReplyDeleteI've already defined such thinking as 'The Logan Method'.
Tim Sherwood has confirmed about the Spurs interest in Kono and said that there are people working to sign him up as there are only 2 days left. Levy vs Ayre?
ReplyDeleteDiame is a beast. He is just playing in a chit team
ReplyDeletePSG's owner has said Matuidi is not for sale and to suggest that he will only cost 6-8 million is bordering on ridiculous.
ReplyDeletePogba pastore Mvilla great signing will never happen but that would be massive serious move buy owners.
ReplyDeleteTheo Walcott is Liverpool fan he signed with Arsenal why cant luke shaw Chelsea fan sign for Liverpool.
I just believe because Rodgers signed Borini assadi Allen alberto aspas Cissokho moses who are flops on loan the owners are not going to give him $$$$$$$$
We have enough "kids with promise" already. If we spend £25m on anyone it should be for a proven international.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the club isn't immune to making mistakes. We've got a better set up these days where I think the process is a bit more deliberate. You do have to wonder what Comolli was doing when he sanctioned all that spending, it was obscene. Fans have every right to be sceptical until the players we buy consistently make a first team impact. I'll just always lean towards taking the decisions of the club because I do think they know what they are doing. That's not entirely an arbitrary decision for me, simply saying that the club must always be right, it's more that I don't agree that the business we've done has been quite so catastrophic since Rodgers came in. Underwhelming? Yes.
ReplyDeleteSpurs will get him! Not us! As usual they will drag their feet and then attempt to come up withe some very 'complex" reasons (excuses) why we couldn't sign him! Its actually very sad!
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was a case of Salah is worth a max of 12 which I believe was our final bid, but any more than that and it's worth paying 15 for Konoplyanka as he's the more complete player?
ReplyDeleteLiverpool need to address the transfer policy and the transfer team in the summer. I think Ayre is a weak link, maybe a move for the ex-Southampton Director would be good?
ReplyDeletehe looks pretty handy from the vdeo you posted, he's fast has good feet and has a goal in him
ReplyDeleteThat was before they signed Cabaye(27). And Matuidi's(26) contract is up in the summer. So he could be brought for 6-9M
ReplyDeleteHe and a bunch of his mates from the U21's went off to some party after training, or something like that.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly it was a mistake on his behalf, but hardly something that would cause me any concerns moving forwards.
I don't understand why everybody remains so sold on Diame - he hasn't played as a defensive midfielder for a good while now, and looks worse every time I see him. Especially in our pass and move system, we need somebody more technically and tactically adept than Diame appears to be.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't particualarly agree with massive fees for any players bar the absolute proven elite, but the final statement imo should read that no fullback is worth £25m, regardless of their age.
BS
ReplyDeleteAs someone said, Diame is crap.
ReplyDeleteGreat players will shine even in a poor team, & he doesn't.
On the other hand, if we get the lad from the Ukraine, I think he'll take the prem by storm as he IS world class.
While we're at it. Luke Shaw ovr £2o mill !!
Anyone paying that for a 18 YEAR OLD AVERAGE FULL BACK WOULD BE BONKERS.
You'd want one of the best, if not THE best, in the world for that money for a defender.
Flano, Kelly, Johnson etc already there
The way i see it, Liverpool have Lucas and Gerrard for that role. The manager as 2 mids in Hendo and Allen who press and run all day to play the high energy game that allows the creative department to do there thing. When Suso comes back we will have 2 play makers in the squad(the numer 10 role) with Alberto being groomed in the background. I seriously don't see a defensive midfielder in the managers plans. The one thing the manager is missing is goals from midfield and that is 1 area he seems to be working on.
ReplyDeleteAllen gets a lot of stick yet when he came in for Gerrard the team continued tick over smoothly and looked more solid as a unit.
I could be completely wrong but this is how i see it.
I've wanted Diame for two seasons now. He's is the most underrated player in the premierleague bar tomas rosicky even at his age.
ReplyDeleteLets take the 1st two names on your list and break it down a bit.
ReplyDeleteGerrard gets injured and misses the Spurs game so Allen comes in and we score 5 goals. Lucas gets injured in the Villa game after he came on and changed the game and the team keeps ticking on nicely in his absence. The team against Everton attacked as 1 and defended as 1. All the players in the team put in a defensive shift either by pressing or tracking back.
Now if we replace any of our midfield with the 1st two names on your list, who would you replace and why?
The deepest midfielder at the minute is Gerrard......... Would it be him with his range of passes and captains armband?
Would it be Hendo who runs all day box to box and is constantly closing down?
Or would it be the skill and creativity of Coutinho who gets replaced?
In the midfield listed above, Gerrard is the only 1 who i'd say could be replaced but then you lose his range of passes,assists,set piece delivery,leadership and goals. Even though the team looked more solid without him he is still the 1st name on my team sheet. As proved against Everton, if we attack and defend as a team then problem solved.
Comolli was doing what Comolli and others like him do best: making a lot of people a lot of money. This has a knock-on benefit of a kind because when agents and players see that going on, a lot of them want a piece of it. Agents like to do business with people who, well, like to do business. But it's no kind of way to run a football club in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAh Granit's turned his phone off. I called and called, and he was like "Nein, wait, who are you?" and I said, "I'm Robo Lasers from Liverpool-Kop, you know, Kanwar's site", and he said "Was ist das?" and then went quiet for a while and hung up.
ReplyDeleteSo I called him back, and he said something about "Leave me alone" or the "police" or something. Good old Granit. He's such a joker. So I called Ian Ayre, and I think he must have had his phone in his pocket or something, because all I could hear was muffled screaming and the sound of children laughing, echoing like he was in a big building, maybe a warehouse, and then there was a sound like a chainsaw starting up and the line went dead.
So I called back Granit and a woman answered and started yelling at me in Swedish or Spanish I think it was. By now the taxi had reached Melwood, so I put the phone on speaker mode and jogged up to the security guard, and asked to see Brendan Rodgers. He just sort of looked at me, and then at the phone, which this weird kind of Somali or Swahili woman's voice was coming out of, I guess it might have been a bit loud, and he said, "Have you got an appointment", and I said, "I'm Robo Lasers, from Liverpool-Kop, I'm here to play defensive midfield against West Brom, but I just need to check a few things with Brendan first". And he was looking at me, and I was looking at him, and then there were Russians, and a helicopter, and someone gave me a bag to hold, I'm not sure exactly. Things got a bit vague.
So now I'm at the airport, or is it the train station. No-one speaks English. It's cold and the sun is going down. Cherno Samba is here, and Christopher Samba, and a samba band. Perhaps I'm in Brazil. But there's a man coming over, carrying a pair of football boots in his left hand, and a chainsaw in his right, he's wearing a motorcycle helmet and his eyes are smiling.
So you buy a player on the off chance that Gerrard gets injured?
ReplyDeleteSo what happens if BOTH our strikers get injured in the next couple of games? Do we buy just in case?
I want a player who will come in and make that instant impact just like the two signings we made in the last winter transfer window.
To answer the question you posed......... Adapt with what we have and plug the middle up with 3 at the back again.
A daily red top newspaper has run a story about Kono with quotes from the player himself.
ReplyDelete"LFC?," he said. I"m so excited about it and soon you will know where I will play."
"It's all very serious. I'm shocked myself. It will all be clear very soon."
A journo from the same newspaper has a source that claims Spurs are no longer in the race...................... A unnamed German side are though.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed with this one..... I really want this player at our club.
Man...send a bottle of that would you! That's great stuff.
ReplyDeleteWe have strikers on the bench...we don't have DMs.
ReplyDeleteImo we can adapt to having no DM but can't afford to lose SAS. DM is not a priority just because someone might get injured. For me we attack and defend as a team, no 1 player will plug the gaps we leave with our attacking intent.
ReplyDeleteIf signing all those defenders in the summer plus a new goalkeeper can't stop the goals going in then do you really think 1 new DM can? And again i'll ask the question................... Who makes way for this new DM? If we are going to spend the little transfer budget we have on this Dm then he better be better than what we have already, make an instant impact on the side and not become a squad player when everyone is fit.
Just my opinion.
Yes I think a good DM can. Most of those goals conceded were because we first conceded the middle of the pitch. We stood back and waited for the match to come to our door...and come it did. I don't have the stats, but my observations are that very few conceded goals came off the counter-attack. Most of them came from allowing teams to enter our half unmolested, pick their spots or gain set piece plays against our woeful defense in the air. A good stopper...and a better ball-pressing attitude like we did against Everton...would put a halt to that.
ReplyDeleteJust to add to what you have put because i do agree with alot of what you put. There are times when we create our own down fall by giving the ball away in dangerous areas......... All the midfield as been guilty of that. By switching Gerrard to the deepest midfield role your giving the team a quarterback type player. What i mean by that is that it's someone who is very comfortable with the ball at his feet who can see long or short passes and execute the pass with ease. Now defenders as a rule don't feel comfortable with a ball at there feet and that's why the manager feels by putting Gerrard there we can start off attacks quicker by having that type player there just like Alonso did for Rafa. This type of player should stop us keeping the ball in our own half for long periods in dangerous areas.
ReplyDeleteLets move on to the second midfielder who in this case is Henderson and in Rafa's team was Mascherano. Both mids do the donkey work closing players down and trying to win the ball back. One could win the ball more than the other but the other as a better range of passes and will get in the box more and is more flexible with his role in the team.
Let us move to the final part of the midfield Which in this case would be Coutinho for us and Gerrard for Raffa. Now one would get goals,have a fantastic range of passing but could be easily man marked while the other will lose his man drawing another out of position for him to be able to slip a slide rule pass through.
On the whole people who say that Rafa's team on the whole is better than the present one.
I'm having a big problem with that last comment of mine and i'll tell you why. On paper it's hard to argue the facts, anyone would pick rafa's side but the stats didn't show that when Jamie put them up. This current side scores more goals than Rafa's side and doesn't get as many draws.
When key men went missing from Rafa's side the starting 11 wasn't as strong as this current crop and points would be dropped. I remember Skrtel covering at right back because arbeloa was injured and that is all the cover he had. Downing had a field day and won in a Boro side that went down. I remember people used to say we were a two man team because if you took Gerrard or Torres out the side then Liverpool would struggle. And to be fair we did struggle if either got injured. Now that side was very,very good and had loads of good players all over the park but they really did miss Torres or Gerrard when either got injured.
The present team had there star striker out for 6 games yet still functioned and won without him.
We lost Steven Gerrard for a few games and someone came in and the team still ticked over.
The other part of SAS went out injured and again we kept ticking over scoring the goals.
Our only proper DM gets injured and we keep ticking over.
Lets not forget that we are 2 1st choice CB'S missing through injury. Both 1st choice FB'S are out injured as well as our only DM yet we just spanked the bitters.
So after this long winded essay of mine i'll get to my point...... Sorry for that!
This present squad is bigger than 1 player. If 1 gets injured another will come in and do a job for the team. The goals will keep flowing and the wins keep coming. There will be blips here and there but other than Man city we are the most attacking team in the prem. When we play the way we do we leave huge holes and gaps for teams to exploit.
We were 0-2 down to villa yet still could of won the game.
I'll take Kono over a DM and enjoy the ride.
I don't either, and wouldn't expect you to. I was merely pointing out that you linked his statement about supporting FSG 100% with blind faith, which is not valid imo
ReplyDeleteI agree that Kono and Sterling playing together will put fear into the heart of any defence. With SAS up the middle and Philippe just behind it really is a formidable attack. A lot of 5-3 games coming maybe and I for one don't mind that.
ReplyDeleteI can't see it being a regular formation. We would indeed have to revert to a 3-5-3 in order to accommodate all those players and one of the wingers in the 5 man midfield would be Sterling or Konoplyanka. It's extremely attacking, but it puts both of the wingers in the position of having to do lots of tracking back.
ReplyDelete4-3-3 has been what we use most often this year. If Coutinho is the 3rd midfielder with 2 proper central midfielders behind him then there are only 3 spaces up front for Suarez, Sturridge, Konoplyanka and Sterling.
I don't doubt we'll see all those attacking players on the pitch at once, it will happen, but I'm guessing it would only be when we desperately need to score some goals. Still, if Rodgers can make it work and we don't get caught out defensively then I'm all for it. Having all that pace and talent rushing towards the opposition goal is really exciting.
I heard that it has been a bunch of things throughout his career. Not really looked in to it myself though.
ReplyDeleteConfirmed that the deal has fallen through
ReplyDeleteBrilliant watch it is really funny.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwDL7VQ30Z8&feature=youtube_gdata_player …