Liverpool Banter Archive March 20 2015

20 Mar 2015 21:27:00
Really can't wait for Sunday. I hope Jordan Ibe is fit enough to be involved. I've had a few digs at Balotelli in the past but I think he would relish the chance to "prove" himself in a Liverpool shirt against Utd.
Whatever team we go for, the importance of 3pts can't be over-stated. win this one and we go fourth with the momentum to put doubt into the others. If we lose I can't see us getting a Champions League place without a miracle. It's a crucial game with a "winner takes all" vibe (despite the amount of points left to play for).
Top four and the FA Cup would be a good recovery from a season which promised little a few months ago.
First step, beat Man Utd Sunday.

20 Mar 2015 19:19:28
The only thing that worries me at the moment is that Rodgers doesn't seem to have much of a plan when it comes to his squad, which is worrying because it's his squad.
He bought Borinic Balotelli and Lambert and doesn't seem to trust any of them,
I was under the impression that Manqillos natural position was RWB but I can't say I remember seeing him since the formation change,
And you've got Markovic, Sterling, Coutinho, Lallana, Gerrard and Ibe who's best position is probably in the two behind the striker.
We've got a million centre backs who don't seem to have any future given the players in front,
I understand the omission of a few, Johnson, Enrique etc, but it's almost like picking names out of a hat,

22 Mar 2015 06:16:33
Rodgers squad management is very poor. I think things will become clearer this summer when a number of what you might call "high profile" players leave. Our handling of centre backs has been embarrassing though - despite having an abundance of them we have chosen our personnel so poorly that we have resorted to playing a central midfielder as part of a back three. Fair play Emre Can has been great - but it doesn't say much about the other centre backs nor does it paint a particularly bright picture for the younger defenders trying to break into the team.

A DOF this summer is an absolute must in my opinion. Rodgers doesn't want one but, in my opinion, he shouldn't be given the choice. He has shown that he is incapable of managing a squad properly - let him focus on the football, let a DOF tackle the problems off of it.

20 Mar 2015 14:34:07
Eds this Walcott interest from us a load of tripe right and only come about because of the situation with Sterlings contract.

{Ed002's Note - I don't know. If Sterling were to leave perhaps Liverpool would look toward Walcott? I would be a little surprised if that played out to be frank.}

20 Mar 2015 21:16:05
Walcott is seems to be becoming a money-grabber. Dude ain`t played in about 2 yrs YET is asking for wages he didn`t earn. I`d stay away from him if I was LFC because even if RS leaves, Walcott is not who we need, IMO. And besides, Sterling is better and provides better upside due to his age provided he stays.

21 Mar 2015 10:28:32
There's far better less injury prone players out there than Walcott. IF sterling were to leave we should look abroad for a someone like Fermino rather than waste money on someone to sit in the treatment room.

21 Mar 2015 22:46:36
Or we can give Ibe/Ojo/Marko/Texeira a chance and spend the money on 2 top class players to come straight in the first team like a striker and a better wide man that TW. I do hope we keep RS tho because he is worth more here than sellig him, IMO.

20 Mar 2015 14:58:50
I see Balotelli is sick again, what's that about? Is he faking to avoid the embarrassment of not being picked or even considered for a start?

20 Mar 2015 15:42:31
More likely he's been told to "shut up" and go sit on the naughty step.

20 Mar 2015 22:50:14
Apparently it's because he scweemed and scweemed and scweemed.(one for the older brethren there. )

20 Mar 2015 13:29:55
I would like to ask if the UEFA rankings actually benefit clubs or is it just a case of bragging rights to say your ranked so high etc. Excuse my naivety

20 Mar 2015 14:08:54
Seeding in UEFA competitions anyway

20 Mar 2015 14:11:06
The coefficients for clubs performances over the last 5 years decide how many European places each league gets.

20 Mar 2015 12:44:48
Do we still work with Dr Peters at the club?

{Ed002's Note - As far as I know he is still available to the club.}

20 Mar 2015 13:49:05
Flanagan said he had been working with Peters through his injury troubles as recently as last week, I don't know how often the players see him though?

20 Mar 2015 10:45:51
If sterling goes i don't want to see Walcott anywhere near Liverpool.
If the lad can't agree a contract then so be it and hopefully we will have a top dof in place and buy proper top class replacements. And I don't mean like for like. I would like us to sign a top midfielder and another topclass forward e.g(benzema).
Im losing confidence in sterling signing and if he gets another wage increase imagine what sort of money he will be seeking in another year or two time. He has been poor Imo this season and his agents must be telling him he's the best thing since sliced bread. He needs to be smart and think about gametime and improving as a player. I have seen every English player move to city and get lost in the wilderness or regress. If Chelsea were interested in don't see were he would fit in either and arsenal are a step down.

{Ed002's Note - Chelsea's interest has gone as they already have a replacement for Salah pretty much agreed.}

20 Mar 2015 11:03:41
Douglas Costa?

{Ed002's Note - Yes.}

20 Mar 2015 11:25:27
Really? Douglas Costa has never impressed when I've seen him. Fair enough, not complaining - was worried they would go for Coutinho!

{Ed002's Note - They have no interest in Coutinho so no need to worry.}

20 Mar 2015 11:36:34
Edd002 thanks mate.

20 Mar 2015 12:19:05
Sterling still has over 2 years left on his contract. If he's using interest from bigger clubs as a bargaining chip, then maybe he needs a little taster of what life will be like for him in Madrid and become the first name on the bench for a while. That would make him appreciate what he has here. No other big club can offer him the game time that he gets here. More money, yes but I figure Sterling has a bit more ambition than that.

Then again, we don't know the ins and outs of the situation, so it's best to just let the club get on with it and hopefully something will be agreed that suits both parties.

Red Rum

20 Mar 2015 13:21:28
Not that I know the ins and outs of what's going on but it doesn't take a genius to work it out. He's being greedy and stupid if he thinks he will get anywhere near certain teams starting 11. They guy had been woeful anyway recently. Sell up and buy well. IBe in my opinion has shown more recently, and would be more dangerous if played up top.

20 Mar 2015 13:43:50
For everyone who disagrees, I can't wait till a few years down the line and he's shown no progress and still can't beat a man, cross, shoot or hold the ball up.

20 Mar 2015 14:11:14
Mario
He has been poor. He is an excellent player but if we were offered 50 million which is hearsay I would take it. He doesn't score enough goals though young and we could bring in two top players into the first team with his money and one being a 20plus goalscorer. Our team needs more goals next season.

20 Mar 2015 14:17:19
You can't wait for a player to do badly so you can brag on here about how right you were?
When I criticise a player, I would much rather they go on to do well and prove me wrong than to go on and do badly so that I can say "hey, I told you so".

Red Rum

20 Mar 2015 17:40:41
Not so i can brag, so some of yous might realise you ain't got a clue!

{Ed001's Note - says the man with the name 'supermario'! You might want to change it if you don't want to look clueless.}

20 Mar 2015 17:43:30
You can either do things as a footballer or knuckle down and learn. He isn't the type of person to work tirelessly to improve. He clearly thinks he's made it already. Hence the whole situation. 30 million and I'd bite there hands off.

{Ed001's Note - point proven on the clueless bit. Sterling works hard in training to improve his game. You have no idea what you are talking about.}

20 Mar 2015 20:26:32
I'd take 20 million and Walcott for sterling all day long,

20 Mar 2015 19:29:59
Works hard to improve but doesn't improve. Haha this is brilliant!

20 Mar 2015 21:21:30
RS wants to stay and LFC wanna keep him. The contract will happen so chill out Supermario. You sound bent on being right even if it means LFC or one of our current players fail.

20 Mar 2015 23:01:50
Just out of interest, eds, who does hold an interest in Couts?

{Ed002's Note - No one that I know of.}

20 Mar 2015 09:47:09
Read the Interview with Craig Bellamy in one of today's papers.

Yes, he could wind someone up in an empty room, but what a player and what a great red.

Personally, I reckon he's misunderstood, but you can never doubt the lads ability and passion.

A team of eleven players matching his passion, drive, ability and will-to-win would terrorise any team in the World.

All time Premier league great and proud to say he played for us.

20 Mar 2015 10:02:02
Totally agree Davey.
His autobiography is a good read too.

20 Mar 2015 10:13:58
I'm a massive fan of Bellamy, pace, skill and a hard worker.

Always thought we should have kept him.

20 Mar 2015 19:05:02
Bellemy like a few has issues but I met him once and I have to say he was a all round nice guy. Certainly changed my views on him.

Does great charity work too.

20 Mar 2015 08:42:44
With all the players being made available over the summer, I hope we would be focused on the positions we need - RB, CM and ST.
Personally, I feel Danny Ings has the potential to be another Harry Kane if he joins a big team, so I do see him as proper back-up for Sturridge. Haven't seen a lot of Origi, so won't comment.
Would love either of Milner/Khedira. Both are experienced and would make the midfield more combative in my opinion.
I hope we don't sign any more attacking midfielders, that role is overfilled. Would just be a waste of money.
For RB, anyone good enough would do. I would like Daryl Janmaat though. He was good for Holland at the World Cup.
2 free transfers and dunno how much a RB will cost. plus offloading a number of players should go some way towards balancing the books.

20 Mar 2015 09:26:24
Do we really need a RB?

At present at the club we have Johnson, Manquillo, Flanagan and McLaughlin. Flanagan has been injured but we have 3 right backs, 1 who has never got a chance, 1 very experienced and 1 young but well known.

The past few months Rodgers has not played any of the 3 hardly. Even with Johnson leaving I don't see why we would need to replace him. He's not really being used, he's not really been much good for years so why would we miss him?

Wisdom is to return from his loan too so that's another who can be added to our squad without purchasing.

20 Mar 2015 09:36:25
I would hope we avoid both Milner and Khedira.

Khedira has a shocking injury record and i'm not convinced about his long term illness, as for Milner, he's too old and not good enough frankly.

20 Mar 2015 09:59:19
We need to buy RB now Johnson is leaving manquilo is not good enough and janmaat is not good the answer.
Enrique will leave so we need a left back, we should have a look at Willems from Psv young and highly rated.
We are having troubles on the left playing johnson, markovic there says it all.
Gerrard is irreplaceable there is no player out there for sale that we could get in, and if Lucas leaves we need to get a top class midfielder in.
So we need a midfielder and hope rossiter will be ready.
Up top we need a top striker.
How i see it we need a RB, LB, Midfielder and a striker.
Getting top 4 is essential for us we wil be able to buy the top class players we need.
Add 3/4 top class players to the squad we already have, we be playing for the league next season.
Coutinho, sterling, henderson, ibe, can will only get better.
Top 4 for financial power and attract the right players, add 3/4 top class players and we can face anyone, we be feared.
We can sell Balotelli, Borini, Lucas, enrique, aspas, wisdom, alberto, coates, illori, Lambert, besides Lucas none have a impact with us.
Malta

20 Mar 2015 10:14:30
Meant long term fitness, bloody autocorrect!

20 Mar 2015 10:23:47
@vlr, why do we need to replace players who cannot get a game when they are fit?

What difference does it make if Enrique goes, he has hardly kicked a ball all year. If he goes he goes, we already got Moreno in case you're after forgetting him.

20 Mar 2015 10:31:06
Some positions will be dependend on the departures and sales of some players. And we are not sure now who will make this decision during summer, maybe new DoF? It is very difficult to say now. But my personal priorities are – keep Lucas, buy some GK challenging Mingolet and most money from transfers invest into top quality striker. Sell uwanted players (Balotelli, Aspas, Enrique…) and sell players to to restart their careers (Borini, Alberto, Coates …) Give more chances in first team for players from our academy – Rossiter, Sinclair, Ibe… Many big and successful teams are built on players from their academy and added by top quality players, there are many examples in Ajax or ManU from the past or currently Barca and Bayern. I would love to see this model in Liverpool too. We also need to keep most promising players like Sterling, Coutinho, Henderson… It is only way how to be a big club again and not some farm club for teams like Real, PSG, ManC… YNWA

20 Mar 2015 10:38:53
Of all those players you say we can sell, most of them we have already tried to sell in the past and nobody wants them

20 Mar 2015 11:46:11
@Red since 64: Maybe the price was high.

20 Mar 2015 14:10:57
Sell Balotelli, Lambert, Borini and Aspas. Bring in 1 top striker to compete with Sturridge, Origi and Ibe.

Sell Alberto, Allen, Gerrard (free). Bring in 1 deep laying playmaker to compete with Lucas. In midfield we will also have Can, Henderson, Sterling, Markovic, Lallana, Coutinho and Rossiter.

Sell Enrique, Johnson (free), Manquillo (loan return), Coates and Toure (free). Bring in 1 right wing back, and 1 ball playing right centre back.

Sell Mignolet and Jones. Bring in Cech and either promote a young keeper or bring in a second string keeper.

That's 14 players out and 5/6 players in.

Red Rum