24 Aug 2021 16:13:17
Ed002.you have stated more than once that in the case of LFC given their financial model and the state of finances because of C.V. Klopp needs to utilise what he's got much better. I agree but the argument holds more if your competitors are doing the same which is not the case with City, Chelsea and United. Do you still think LFC will pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat and surprise us with a quality signing in what's left of this window or is this just wishful thinking while the main rivals go on strengthening their squads?

{Ed002's Note - There is nothing stopping Liverpool doing the same as the other clubs. Liverpool will look to add a player still.}

1.) 24 Aug 2021
24 Aug 2021 16:41:44
This point is so frustrating.

Chelsea are rectifying mistakes? Why?
City haven’t effectively succession planned (Silva and Aguero) and are having to make massive signings because quite frankly it isn’t a strength of Pep or the club, realistically City’s best players (Silva, Aguero, Kompany, Fernandinho, KDB, Toure and Sterling) are all the players Pep inherited. He’s spent a billion pounds and still has a gap in midfield, one decent forward and clothes horses instead of a decent left back. Why?
United are finally making considered signings with what appears to be some thought as opposed to the previous scatter gun approach? Why?

They are all trying to catch Liverpool. We don’t need to make massive signings or perform root and branch surgery because we already did. We did it over the course of six years…indeed our big expenditure is on keeping the worlds best players. We’ve got the worlds best goalies, full backs, centre half and midfielder.

Massive transfer outlay (Mendy for Kepa - Lukaku for a 3rd time to replace the goals Werner didn’t provide) isn’t a sign of strength. In these cases it is mistakes being corrected. We didn’t make those mistakes.

City never effectively replaced D. Silva or Aguero and are now paying way over the odds for Grealish (a downgrade on Silva) and on Kane a brilliant but injury prone 28 year old.

It sells papers and is titillating, but it’s awful business practice. They are not however leaving us behind. They are trying to catch the 18 point gap to a full strength Liverpool. In the meantime we have replace Lovren with Ibou, Sturridge with Jota, Tsimikas with Milly at LB and Thiago for Gini. We have also added to the squad the dominated Europe and the PL Taki, Jones, Elliott, the Williams brothers and Phillips.

2.) 24 Aug 2021
24 Aug 2021 16:51:59
Very good points YoY, I agree completely 👏.

3.) 24 Aug 2021
24 Aug 2021 17:10:54
There is a lazy paradigm in clickbait football punditry that the more money you spend the stronger title challengers you are. Some people actually thought that United would be stronger challengers than Liverpool just because they've spent more money (which they do every year) . It's not about how much money you spend, it's about what you have in your squad.

Why0why, I wouldn't exactly say that City are chasing Liverpool as they're the league champions and already have a strong squad, but I agree with the essence of what you're saying.

I think people place way too much commodity in having a deeeep squad. It's good to have if you want to guarantee a league cup while you fight for the bigger trophies, but it's otherwise such an overrated requirement. City can have all the midfielders they like but at the end of the day they can only give so many of them consistent PL minutes.

Some people don't even understand what having a strong squad means, including Gary Neville. Some United fan said to me 'well yeah it is stronger, for example you have Alisson but then only Kelleher, but we have De Gea and the solid Henderson! And I said "yeah, but you're telling me you'd rather go into a campaign with De Gea/ beta Henderson than Alisson/ Kelleher"?
*Silence*. What people like him and Neville don't understand is that the first 11 is the most important part of the squad, it doesn't just pertain to back up options.

4.) 24 Aug 2021
24 Aug 2021 17:49:01
I agree that we shouldn't spend just because everyone else is spending and strengthening. However, we need to do some risk assessments. On our day, we can beat just about anyone but when we find it hard to break down stubborn teams, we need to have impactful players from the bench that can turn the game around. Honestly, we were fortunate to finish 3rd after all the injuries we had last season. We need to be better prepared this time around. Having better players is one way to close the gap or gain an advantage. If everyone else is improving and you're standing still, then you're taking a gamble. Hopefully our gamble pays off this time.

5.) 24 Aug 2021
24 Aug 2021 17:57:26
Hi Zedd I agree with what you are saying but not in its entirety, 1st 11s are very important but they can only take so far with the amount of injuries that teams suffer during a season. Let's take a look at som examples looking at teams that had strong starting 11s and benches not to the same level. Liverpool 20/ 21 with 1 quality bench CB injuries to all 3 disrupted their season. 19/ 20 Man City having stones and Laporte with the bench not having similar quality that gave Liverpool an added edge from a team coming from 100 point + 98 point season to win the PL. Tottenham under Poxgettink could only pull so far under Pochettino because they ony had starting 11, Leicester the season the whole league too tier teams chocked and they powered there way to the title they only had a starting 11 and were very fortunate that none of their key players was injured.
Starting 11s are important but they can only take you so far and if your soley relying on 11 players you are really riding your luck and only takes 1 good injury to derail a season.

6.) 24 Aug 2021
24 Aug 2021 18:46:07
Cognitive dissonance must be a real issue for some people.

DAPred - one our day we beat everyone. Whether they put 10 men on the line or dig a moat. The reason we didn’t have many days last year is at every point we’re rocked by the highest amount of injuries any Premier League side has ever had. That is a fact. Prior to the cavalcade of injuries we were sitting at the top of the league.

LiverChiefRSA this board amazes me, I can’t count the amount of times I’ve read that player x wouldn’t come to us because he wouldn’t get in the first XI…. and then the same people say “well we need more players” the inconsistency is maddening. As to our first XI go and have a look at how many times we’ve used only XI players in a season. I can save you some time, we haven’t. We have a squad. We have a happy balanced squad. We have great goalie cover. We have great full back cover. Great centre back cover (exceptional actually) . Great 6 and 8 cover and we now have excellent cover across the front three?

I don’t know which Liverpool side some people have been watching but in my universe when our players weren’t constantly either injured or returning from injury (or C.V.) we won everything. It’s weird how in other peoples universes Liverpool have any weak squad that can’t break down teams.

7.) 24 Aug 2021
24 Aug 2021 18:53:14
Rainbow Jeremey: the reason I believe City are playing catch up is their points totals are trending down.

100
99
81
86

They aren’t getting better, barring a massively catastrophic injury run we are trending up.

If we wouldn’t have lost Virgil and Fabinho last season we’d have won the league. We lost Trent, Virg, Gomez, Matip, Fabinho, Thiago, Henderson, Jota and Alisson for large chunks of the year. And we had people struggling to get over C.V..

8.) 24 Aug 2021
24 Aug 2021 18:58:05
Liverpool spent massive money on Van Dijk and Alisson and went on to win the league and champions league. Not sure why people are trying to force the point that you don't need to spend. Spending massive amounts of money works, whether that sits well with people or not.

9.) 24 Aug 2021
24 Aug 2021 19:59:49
Only if it is spent wisely. We bought Becker for a world record at the time Chelsea bought a keeper (I won't even try to spell his name) for a world record but can't get on the pitch and had to spend a further largish sum for Mende. We bought VVD for a world record, the mancs decided to spend a world record on Maguire who would probably 4th or 5th choice for LFC.

10.) 24 Aug 2021
24 Aug 2021 21:52:47
Only thing stopping is doing the same Ed002 is the fact that we are skint mate.

{Ed002's Note - You don't understand - Chelsea spending is financed by sales.}

11.) 25 Aug 2021
25 Aug 2021 04:17:37
SG84eva, Liverpool spent large sums on Alisson and VVD because they fixed glaring holes in the squad. Spending a lot of money works if you need to spend it and if you spend it properly. Liverpool don't need to break the bank at the moment to win the league because they already have plenty of blue chip players.

{Ed0666's Note - ‘spending a lot of money works if you need to spend it’ I wish you could have a word with my wife mate!!!

12.) 25 Aug 2021
25 Aug 2021 10:19:41
WhyOwhy, whereas we have plenty of cover at number 8, we don’t have great cover at number 6 (the midfield anchor), as we only have Henderson and Fabinho who can effectively cover that position (Milner is terrible there and Thiago is not a defensive midfielder at all) .

13.) 25 Aug 2021
25 Aug 2021 11:51:59
Thiago played six for the last three years at Bayern. There is a misrepresentation of what he does. He’s more of a six (in a double pivot) than he is an 8.

Think Pirlo not Fabinho.

There is a point however when we have to realistically stop thinking “what if all the players we have all get injured”. With a squad there is a law of diminishing returns. Too many players breeds unhappiness in the squad. Any observer can see we have a brilliantly motivated and happy team.

14.) 27 Aug 2021
25 Aug 2021 11:52:06
Why0Why, that whole “we can’t break teams down” is a pathetic trope and has no basis in reality. Why? Do you know how many buses you have to damage to amass a massive 265 points (HIGHEST in the PL for the past 4 seasons level with City) and win all the trophies we have won? Again, a trope.

Also, all teams struggle with lowblocks and Utd actually are worse at it than we are BUT you will never hear that in the media. City struggled with it over the years and just did vs Spurs this season BUT who wants to talk about that? Utd DREW 10 games last season YET we are the only team that struggle with lowblocks? Absolute tosh.

Another notion that we are standing still if we don’t sign anyone has also been debunked by… Liverpool under Klopp. The year after we won the CL and got 97 points, did we make any big signings? If the answer is NO and we still annihilated the league with virtually getting 100 points, how was that standing still? Again, another trope.

Furthermore, I fully agree with you regarding your comparison btw our spending and those if our rivals. City have to spend on Dias cos they got Laporte and Stones wrong to some extent. Same with Chelsea regarding Kepa and Mendy or Lukaku and Werner. These are costly mistakes being corrected. We can’t afford to make such dire mistakes so we have to box smart. Your posts are brilliant so pls, keep posting. Peace!