06 Jan 2026 00:12:50
Apparently arguements between Hughes and Slot on recruitment in the summer. Slot wanted Fofana or Barcola to replace and Rio sent on Loan. Hughes wanted Rio and Nyoni to get more game time. The issues seem to be similar to United where the coach doesn't get the players he wants or the calibre.
Slot after winning the league should of had more of an input on what type he wants. As I said before Isak was not needed and the money should of been spent on two £60m wingers.
06 Jan 2026 00:31:56
A CF was much needed seeing that we lost three on the summer. Diaz and Nunez were sold and Jota sadly passed on. Diaz may have been a winger on paper but he played most of his minutes in CF after dropping. Maybe Isak himself wasn't needed but we needed at least two CFs in the summer.
06 Jan 2026 01:58:02
Deluded- Isak will eventually be some player for the reds.
06 Jan 2026 02:01:23
Glasner short odds for United . The shallow pool is getting drier by the day although it looks like interim initially followed by him joining in the summer.
06 Jan 2026 03:58:14
All of a sudden there are disagreements between Slot and Hughes.
Where were these stories before Amorim and Utds Wilcox had disagreements?
Something smells fishy.
06 Jan 2026 00:55:39
If a "head coach" who has won the league in his first season at the club doesn't have the deciding input on player recruitment then it is a recipe for failure.
06 Jan 2026 01:06:04
Of course in hindsight we'd have been better with ekitike and not bothering with isak and getting a much cheaper back up striker. But hindsight is 20/ 20 vision. Do you expect me to believe that you weren't creaming yourself when we got him, because I know I was and 99.99% of others were as well if people would be honest.
06 Jan 2026 06:28:12
It doesn't matter who manages United - they have had the same problem since the Glazers took over and whoever is eventually installed will still face the same issues.
Anyway, before Tuesday gets started and the usual tearing of the team, manager and club gets underway I thought I'd wish all contributors a belated Happy and Healthy New Year. I love football and I love Liverpool FC. I love the game and enjoy watching football as a source of entertainment. At the moment, the going is hard, we aren't playing well at all and we still aren't playing as a team. So given that watching the team is hard enough work at the moment, I'm going to take a few weeks off from the unremitting repetitive criticism of everything related to the club, known as the banter page.
06 Jan 2026 06:33:47
I was 100% not in favour of Isak to start with and when Eat Tea Cake was signed, it was 200%.
We needed a poacher profile type of striker and not like Isak.
In fact I had doubts on Eat Tea Cake, but he has pleasenatly surprised with this quick footwork for such a tall guy.
Never expected he will be top drawer but but I still worry about his attitude. Something tells me he is very ambitious and if he keeps banging in for us, if RM sniff around, he will take first flight.
06 Jan 2026 06:53:33
I didn't want Isak after getting the low down from my Newcastle friend. We should have got two wingers and put Salah in the middle as his pace has gone a bit like Ronaldo.
06 Jan 2026 07:27:32
Salah cannot play in the middle, why do so many posters insist that he can? Mo loves getting the ball to his feet and then running at his defender to get in the box, or receiving in the half space to create, he is not a player to attack space in behind in the box to score or make a run at the near post. He also can't play as a 10 the way Wirtz does, popping up around the pitch to link up the play everywhere. He plays the right wing position like a right sided 10, but the important thing is that he stays on the right where he is most effective.
The biggest problem with Mo is that he absolutely has to be the axis of a team's offense if he is to contribute to the team, he isn't the kind of player to endlessly be making decoy runs for others or popping up around the pitch affecting the game in other ways, he is an absolutely ball dominant player and then the team's performance hinges on whether he shows up or not.
And Sami, Isak is a poacher type striker, I'm not sure why you think he doesn't fit that profile? The bonus is that he can do a lot of other things well, he can shift out wide, he can link up play with his back to goal, he gives us presence in the box. As a poacher though he is absolutely world class, his instinct in the box to anticipate where the ball is going to drop is one of the best I've seen. People have this impression that he loves to dribble past three defenders and stick on in the corner and yes, he can do that on occasion, but most of his goals for Newcastle are easy goals, and the reason he has scored so many is because he has top top class striker instincts in anticipating the play.
The problem is that for Newcastle he was also the focus of their offense, he was constantly getting on the ball to link up with Gordon and Murphy, and they were always looking to feed him in the box, even if he didn't score in a game he was constantly involved. For us he is completely uninvolved, and this is absolutely a tactical problem since for his previous team the first thought was getting him the ball early, the way we did for Mo last year. Ekitike is a much more all action player dropping into midfield and close to Wirtz and the full back to get on the ball, so naturally he looks to participate a lot more in our attacking play.
06 Jan 2026 08:16:28
I never wanted Isak, friends thought I was mad but 125m for an injury prone striker who's minutes needed managing and didn't really fit our system was absolute madness to me. We could have split the Isak money up between a decent Diaz replacement and a backup for Hugo, and we would have been in a much better position for it today. Nothing to do with hindsight, it was my genuine opinion at the time.
Hugo Spritz - Chelsea fans thought the same about Torres.
Ron Keague - That sort of thing was decided in contracts long before the league was won. Edwards only came back on the promise he had final say on transfers due to the same issues with Klopp. It's exactly why Arne's official role is head coach and not manager. Less power.
06 Jan 2026 09:25:42
Alvarez was my dream signing - was never going to happen - but once we got Hugo i never wanted Isak, he is injury prone, had no preseason, and we had just lost the only player that would provide him with assists from deep on the counter - and now we don't play to isaks strengths
i wanted to sign a winger who wouldn't mind being more of a provider than a star man, so whether you like him or not, Rodrygo would have been a fine Diaz replacement and has buckets of experience - he would never set the world alight but also much less of a gamble than Barcola.
06 Jan 2026 09:37:47
Very strange indeed, JLC.
06 Jan 2026 09:48:56
Patrick - Your answered the question that you were asking.
The problem is that for Newcastle he was also the focus of their offense, he was constantly getting on the ball to link up with Gordon and Murphy, and they were always looking to feed him in the box, even if he didn't score in a game he was constantly involved.
Isak was the focus man to get the best and was being fed from both sides and the team was running (carrying) for him at 26.
1. It was very clear that we can't carry both Isak and Mo in the same team.
2. Mo has achieved more than what Isak has at Newcastle and he needed less defense duties at 32/ 33 (not tracking back) and not at 26.
3. Injury record - no questions asked
After getting Etikite it was a no brainer to have dropped him and we should have looked for alternative.
Even before that, at the sums being quoted, with a known injury record which required managing, don't you think we should have been careful?
06 Jan 2026 10:12:53
Chewy, Torres was finished as an elite striker when he left us, he had never had a major injury or setback before and it ruined him mentally and physically, without that burst from a standing start he lost his greatest quality.
He was still a very, very good player, he was crucial to them winning the champs league and he still scored important goals, but he wasn't the electrifying force of nature whose every stride chewed up the pitch and bowled every defender in his path over anymore.
Unless you think isak is also finished as a top striker? I have every confidence that with a proper preseason we will see the best of isak again, that is if we incorporate him into the team properly.
06 Jan 2026 10:37:11
Isak is a great signing but with Slots training methods he is just not ever getting match fit.
As for Salah though the middle that definitely wouldn't work Salah has earned him self a place on the right side of attack in Liverpool's all time 11 but he misses far too many chances to play down the middle and he doesn't have the skill set to play there.