26 Jun 2021 10:04:42
What's all this Man City fear. We had injuries and our drop last season was more or less out of our hands. Don't let haters convince you otherwise.

So Man City pretty much got a free pass to the title.

And we've seen it before. Throwing cash around doesn't mean anything. If Kane is that good he should of pulled that Tottenham team to the odd trophy over the years.

We keep going on about world class, a proper world class striker would have used the players around him and led them to victory. The squad has been good enough during his time there.

Or led his country to victory because we keep hearing about how England are world class in pretty much every position on the pitch, he's had these world class players around him at national and international level for most of his career.

Put a 27 year old Suarez, Torres, drogba, aguero in the teams Kanes had at Spurs, these world class strikers would have bought home some silverware.

Grealish I like a lot, but Will grealish who holds the ball too long interupt the other players like de bruyne, I believe so.
He suits a Liverpool type team, quick on the counter who like a player who runs with the ball.

England teams have been full of premier league and champions league winners in most positions, over the last 5-10 yrs, and supposed 'world class' players yet we never see anything world class from them.

World class is used way too sparingly especially when it comes to the England team. After one game I was hearing we had an English Pirlo in our team.

God forbid we miraculously make the final and win it. I'm sure from that day on every player will be said to be the best ever in their respective positions.

The reality is we always claim to have a team of the best gladiators, that's just hype.

So far we've seen De Bruyne show flashes of brilliance and changing the game. And flashes of team brilliance form Italy and maybe the Dutch.

The standard has been pretty low. The big teams haven't turned up yet. The so called favourites. Mbappe has disappointed, sancho who's apparently another world class player can't get on the pitch.
seriously these big flashes of cash don't worry me at all.

I am far more impressed by the names I'm hearing linked with Liverpool. Exactly the types of players Jurgen has a habit of turning into little monsters.

Fill the few holes we have to plug in the team. We already have Konate, all the players back to full fitness.
it will take a huge massive effort for any team to finish above us next season.

And if we plug the gaps in the squad with some of the players being linked. Then we will be strong runners for the champions league too.

YNWA I've never been more confident.

26 Jun 2021 10:41:44
Didn't agree with every point you made in isolation, but the general point of your post i fully agree with. We do not need to be scared of Man City.

You saw how good our team is in the last 10 games when they finally had a bit of stability in midfield and at the back. You throw Konate into the mix and get Virgil and Hendo back fit, we'll be flying. Also really excited to see Elliott get game time next year. He's going to be some player!

If we sign a midfielder to replace Keita/ Gini and a forward to replace Origi/ Minamino then i think we're good to go and challenge on multiple fronts.

26 Jun 2021 10:43:53
Crazy post, mbappe has looked sharp all tournament, and will inevitably deliver when he needs to, Sancho not getting on the pitch is more to do with the clown who won’t put him on there then anything he’s done. Kane going to city is different to England completely, he’ll be under Guardiolas tactics with players who know how to implement them, and will score bucketloads. I agree that we had a drop and will be better, but just because we don’t have the money they do, there’s no need to completely ignore how good kane is because we can’t afford him.

26 Jun 2021 10:59:32
Agreed Magic, people have short memories, dumped City out of the CL over 2 games with ease, beat them to the premier league not so long ago. If anything they need to worry that our regulars will be back next season and with a point to prove.

26 Jun 2021 11:03:51
Agree MK.

26 Jun 2021 11:07:42
You so realise people are not worried because city will sign kane and grealish but because they know pep will make them even better and they increase the depth of their already immense squad.
Its hard to argue with that and city will be favorites if they pull of the double deal
We need to sell a lot of players and need atleast 3-5 squad and first team signings. I don't see it happening so we will be short somewhere.

26 Jun 2021 11:22:45
City squad is already great. So they replace Aguero with Kane and say Sterling with Grealish? Does it make much of a difference?

26 Jun 2021 11:37:16
For me a lot will depend on our remaining signings. At the moment we are a quality midfielder short. One or 2 more quality signers and it won’t matter what City do.

26 Jun 2021 14:08:30
I also have no idea where this assumption that City are miles ahead has come from. Not to sound petulant but the title they won this season has been pretty much a freebie. Obviously all they can do is go out and beat what was in front of them but the fact is the biggest reason they looked so dominant in the second half of the season was because they had the capacity to rotate in a congested season, whereas others did not. They were playing in empty stadiums against lesser teams who were dead on their feet, free to basically do whatever they wanted with the ball. There was no way any of the other teams with fewer players and more injuries could cope with it, City fielding teams that had many times more energy, sharpness and generally just less dejected. It’ll be a level playing field next season and they won’t look so dominant in the way that they have this season. The signings of Grealish and Kane look good on paper but we’ll have to see whether it works out for either; even with them in the side i don’t think this is as good a team as the City side from 2017-2019.

Taking all that into account, i’m not sure where this idea that our starting XI is inferior to City’s has come from. I’d take the whole starting Liverpool midfield, defense and goalkeeper over City’s if we’re doing a combined XI, apart from Dias as the other centre back alongside van Dijk. De Bruyne has largely played at false nine this season so you’d have him over Firmino, Salah is a given and then left wing is up for debate. Maybe you could argue Foden over Jota? I’m not so sure, he only played half the games and had a pretty easy ride with the aforementioned advantages City have had over their opponents, the space and time he had on the ball was a joke. Jota was scoring goals out of absolutely nothing for an injury ravaged Liverpool team. Either way you’re probably talking 3 players maximum from the City team that get into Liverpools starting lineup. The quality of the respective starting XI’s was not what decided the title race this year, it was the size of the squads and the other mitigating factors such as injuries and lack of fans.

You have to assume that with the playing field being levelled and everything returning to normal, Liverpool will be right up there competing again. City will strengthen as they know they have to; their current starting XI simply isn’t as good as it used to be and they know they got away with one this year, particularly playing an entire season without a striker. Liverpool also know they have to strengthen, reducing the age profile of the squad as well as further competition and improvements up front and in midfield. Failure to make good on these clear needs in the transfer market and also further recurring injuries sustained to key players are the only things that i see holding Liverpool back this year.

26 Jun 2021 14:31:48
Maneminamo you’re literally living in the past and things move on, City certainly haven’t been sitting still and neither have the competition.

We’ve seen how badly we’re effected when we have injuries and have to rely on the squad. If Salah is out for any extended period we’re likely to struggle for goals, if Henderson and Fabinho are not available to play for any extended period the options we have in reserve are poor at best as was demonstrated when both of Fabinho and Henderson weren’t playing in midfield. If we go into a game with any combination of Milner, Keita, Jones. Thiago or Ox we’ll lose, that was shown last season.

We still need to bring in another forward who can actually score (as we don’t get goals from midfield), at least one centre midfielder who can play at 6 or 8 and we need to move on Keita, Shaq, Origi, Wilson, Grujic, Karius, and any other players surplus to requirements.

26 Jun 2021 14:47:02
AW that is too red tinted. Our players didn’t perform last season but there are no excuses left for this season. Forget KDB played half a season as a false 9 he is the best AM in the league. There midfield at the moment is ahead of ours IG got 15 goals from midfield he gets into our 11 easily over Thiago and Hendo atm. Foden gets in over Jota as well. Mane has to pull his finger out.

26 Jun 2021 15:04:48
Put simply, if we keep our first team fit there's every chance we could win the league regardless of who City buy. If we get injuries to pivotal players, we don't have the same depth of squad as City so they are likely to win it.
If VVD and Konate stay fit, we will have the stingiest defence in the league, no doubt.

26 Jun 2021 15:38:35
Of course City are Miles ahead of us and have been for years now. If anyone thinks that we are of their level in terms of squad depth, quality and spending power then you have your head way up un the skies to the point of nearing the sun. That is the mistake people make, IMO. They think cos we have closed the gap with City then we are at their level in terms of squad depth and quality and spending power. That is patently false.

We were never supposed to be rivals with these guys at any point on paper. Which makes it an absolutely insane achievement in battering them in order to win the things we have won on pretty much in comparison, a shoe string budget. They are about to drop another 250m on two players whilst they almost spent 300m on Messi to come and compete with us. You really think we can compete with that?

That said, I’m with the OP and MK. If you are scared then get off the helicopter cos we are going to war with what we have in it and with some luck with injuries and absences, we have a good chance of pulling it off again cos regardless of their spending, this City team is nowhere near as good as the one we went against those three years and absolutely bodied them in the end, IMO. We go, give our best and let the chips fall where they may. We’ve done it before and we definitely CAN do it again.

26 Jun 2021 15:43:34
I would agree Gini. We will run them close certainly if our big players keep fit. Our first 15ish players are nothing to be sneezed at, but if it becomes a squad issue, no comparison, City win hands down.

26 Jun 2021 16:01:54
I our big players stay fit TIR then we won't run them close we will be ahead iMO.

OLIred there has never been anyone who has ever suggested that we can match Cities squad or their spending that would be crazy in the extreme.

26 Jun 2021 16:53:50
VVVV, am I? Or am I stating football didn't begin in 20/ 21? We have had a horrendous amount of injuries, ans serious ones, in a freak season. We will add and retain our mainstays for next season, go and play fifa and have a day off lad.

26 Jun 2021 16:55:17
You claim City have not sat still and improved, yet still not won the CL which we have in our according to yourself, pitiful state.

26 Jun 2021 17:55:47
As per usual on these pages, the truth sits somewhere in the middle.

We have one side who are deluded saying Man City Addis the likes of Kane shouldn’t be cause for concern. Let’s state a fact, Man City will ALWAYS be favourites for the title, and rightly so with a squad a deep as that.

On the other side, we have fans who say we should throw on the towel and make out like our team are light years away based on a below par season where our squad was ravaged by injuries.

Our team is more than capable of challenging city for the title but we heavily rely on our first 11 being bang in form with few injuries.

26 Jun 2021 18:36:52
It’s not about having my Liverpool tinted glasses on. It Liverpool we’re going to spend £200 mill plus on two players it wouldn’t be Kane and grealish who’d have me jumping up and down. Or even sancho for that matter.

I’m not saying they won’t go on to shine at a new team. But none of them are guaranteed successes. They aren’t the type of player you’d say is the missing link for a top team.
And if Kane was that missing link, that extra special player to take a group of top players up another level and win trophies. then I ask why he hasn’t been able to be that man at Spurs. The player to score the winners in the top of the table clashes. To beat your direct rivals. To score the winners in that cup final pulling the team forward.

He’s had ample opportunity to be that man.
I choose to look at transfers from a realistic perspective, not a hype perspective.

26 Jun 2021 19:20:27
I wouldn't disagree with that Shaq.

26 Jun 2021 21:09:36
Shaq, I fully agree with your comment. People of this era just want instant gratification and success as if football is some video game and at the first sight of hardship, they panic and jump ship claiming that the world will end if LFC don’t do “insert crazy thing that they KNOW cannot be done” here. The fact as u have stated is that City will always be favs for the title for obv reasons cos NO team can match what they are willing to spend and the sooner people stop seeing all things LFC by saying “Oh, look at what City are doing”, the better.

26 Jun 2021 21:31:14
If City sign Kane and Grealish they will surely be losing Sterling and Jesus. They're in their mid twenties and will not sit on the bench behind two players who cost so much the manager will be under pressure to play them every game. Grealish, Kane and Mahrez is a very good front 3 no doubt. But so was Sterling, Aguero and Sane. Didn't stop us battering them in the Champions League and several times in the league.

City's midfield is also significantly weaker than it has been the last 5 years. Rodri and Gundogan are pale imitations of Fernandinho and David Silva. Even Dias i find to be grossly over rated purely because he's done better than Stones or Otamendi. He's a committed defender but that's as much his biggest weakness as it is his biggest strength. He over commits to blocks and tackles sometimes taking himself out the game.

City have some great players. Cancelo, De Bruyne and Mahrez are unbelievable in particular, and they probably get in any team in the world. A few young ones like Foden and Torres look decent too. However i am not scared of them in the slightest because I know that with everyone fit, we are stronger than them over 90 minutes even if they sign Kane and Grealish. It is the squad depth that us the issue as they are almost never impacted by injuries or fatigue. That becomes less of anadvantage in a normal length season, but make no mistake that it is still an advantage. Their 2nd team can go out and win 5-0 against bottom half teams. Our 2nd team can't even beat some Championship teams.