19 Jan 2026 23:51:31
For all the reds what do think about giving the two year contracts to two 30 plus players . I know they have been excellent for the club but i am afraid age is showing in their games?
Under Shanks, Bob and Joe they would of been moved on and players in the reserves who had been bought a year or two before would be ready to step in to replace them .
I think this was a system the was the right way it gave the new players time to find a home and school for their kids no pressure on them. They would be coached the Liverpool way and it would make them hungry.
You look at today you buy players then their thrown in the mix and a lot of the players are not from this country and struggle to find their feet.
We are trying to find players for certain positions after the horse has bolted we have known we needed to replace people but we have a sat on our hands and other teams have stepped in before us and got the player .
We are spending millions on young kids keep them at the club for ten or so years then decide they are not good enough then sell them on like horse meat i just do not see how this helps the young lads they play against their own age group they don't come up against old pros who they can learn from on the pitch players that can guide them learn them . In days gone by we had full internationals in the reserves mixed with youth which would you think the youth would learn from players the same age or internationals.
YNWA.
20 Jan 2026 00:18:17
The pitchforks would've been out for FSG, Hughes, Edwards and Slot if Virgil and Salah hadn't been renewed. They were two of the best players in the league last year.
It is also virtually unheard of in this day and age that players who are good enough to replace players of Salah and Virgil's calibre will contentedly sit in the reserves for a year or two. And to be honest, I doubt it'd do a player that good much good to be playing reserve team footie. It is not 1984 anymore. Maybe we could've done what Arsenal did with Saliba and brought in a replacement for Salah 2 years ago and then loaned him out for development. But Saliba nearly left Arsenal over them doing that. So it's a risky business and honestly we haven't had much luck with players we've loaned out.
I do agree that there seems to be a problem where seriously talked about kids just seem to disappear (Kaide Gordon anyone? ) after being in the youth setup. I don't think the transfer window system helps in that respect. Clubs need to finish August and January with a squad of 20-23 first teamers who are good enough, because if they get a couple of injuries in one position, they can't bring in anyone. Whereas if it was possible for them to get someone, they might be more willing to risk trying a kid for a couple of games. If he's out of his depth, you can still go to the market at any time if there was no transfer window.
But at the same time, maybe that level of drop out was always there. Kids just weren't hyped up as much in the pre-internet days and didn't change hands for stupid amounts of money. So you didn't notice if the "next Gerrard" failed to kick on and his career evaporated. We very little product from the youth team in the 2000s (Warnock and Kelly are the only two that spring to mind). Most of the youth team with Owen in it didn't make it either.
For fun I went and checked older youth cup finals and unless I missed one, the last one we won before 1998 was 1972. Our team in that game was Thommo and a bunch of lads who made two league appearances for us between them.
20 Jan 2026 00:37:59
I think both were the correct decisions to make in the moment. VVD has diminished no doubt but he's still a very good CB and the best we have easily. Konate has fallen of a cliff though which hasn't helped.
Salah was INO the best player in the world last season. His drop off, which I think is partially down to tactical use of him and being affected by Jota's passing, has affected him badly.
Hindsight is wonderful, but we still need both of them. Hopefully Xabi can get a tune from them in their potentially final years.
I am also disappointed by the use of the youth this season though. No excuse to not give Ramsey a try at RB instead of playing Szob there. No excuse to not give more minutes to Nyoni considering how poor Macca has been at time this year, and no excuse to not be rotating Rio in for Gakpo. Slots use of the youth has been poor but I suppose he sees them more than I do. I imagine it's more tactical set up than talent being the issue.
20 Jan 2026 01:45:05
Great comment, Westwood. Spot on, mate.
20 Jan 2026 02:40:55
Salah had the best season of his career last year and Virgil has never seemed off the pace. Moving them on dint make any sense at the time. I don't agree with the idea of shipping players out just because they're a certain age, it has to be based on performance Im willing to bet good money you weren't calling for either of them to be sold at the end of last season so making the point now, after the fact, is irrelevant. Hindsight is pretty useless in football.
The modern day academy system seems more concerned with helping balance the books than anything else, we see flashes of youngsters who seem to get a few games just to help raise their profile/ price before shipping them out. Would love to sea a team actually develop and come through the ranks, somewhat reminiscent of the class of 92, blasphemy I know, but I believe the strength of a scouse core could unleash a world of fury on the league. Unfortunately, I think the days of such possibilities are long gone.
20 Jan 2026 03:56:53
There was no mistake in renewing the contracts of both Vvd and Salah. The mistake was leaving it until the final 12 months of their contract to do so and to not do anything afterwards.
I've said previously that I think Hughes and Edwards lack foresight and planning and I think proves it. While it wasn't their fault that the contracts were renewed prior to last season, it is their fault that there has been no action has been taken since for their replacements.
Getting them on their new contracts was just to buy time but they needed to plan for the succession of these two players and the squad in general. And here are three windows after they signed the contract and we are still in the same position as before. Salah is still the only RW in the squad and we only bought Leoni in for CB since who is far from ready to take over from Vvd. Guehi and Semenyo would have gone a lone way to solve this issue but they have chosen to sit back this window instead of doing anything.
20 Jan 2026 07:00:07
Anyone who says VVD and Salah shouldn't have signed new deals are either lying to themselves or clueless.
20 Jan 2026 07:20:05
Imo 100% correct to renew both them, protects there value to an extent and even tho vvd isn't playing as well as last season what would we do without him at the minute? I shudder to think.
As regards young players the only 1 that I see that could really establish himself as 1st regular is rio and he should be playing more r at least give a better shot at it. In fairness Ramsey had a v good game the 1 game he did play as well and I'd like to see him give another chance.
Nyoni looks too similar to what we have in midfield, not the presence, defensive nous and aggression that we badly lack in there. None of young lads that we have bar rio strike me as been able to step up to lfc 1st team, danns I had high hopes for but I doubt injuries have set him back.