Liverpool Football Club Thread

[Gabe]

Another game, another shuffling of systems, another attempt at Balotelli alone up front, another disappointing result. We seem to be doing our best at the moment to ensure we don't have any European football next season. Wonder if we'll help QPR out at the weekend too?

[hmm]

Utter dogshit again. No-one really seemed to give a fuck for most of it, apart from a 5-10 minute spell at the end. In our current form I'll be surprised if we score again this season.

Credit to Hull though, taking their fate in their own hands. And Huddlestone was about two feet away from goal of the season with that effort late in the second half.

[Adrock]

The last time there was no European football.......

[Gabe]

The last time there was no European football.......

...we had a great forward.

Not sure Lambert is going to step up next season...

[Oh Danny Boy]

Sterling has been awful for ages now, he's not worth 50p a week at this moment.

Seems like half the team believed the season was over with 6 games left, unforgivable when there was still a sniff of fourth place.

[Adrock]

...we had a great forward.

Not sure Lambert is going to step up next season...

He probably will, but for Aston Villa.

Clearly the players are on holiday already. Let's hope Balotelli gets permanently lost on his Summer holiday.

With all these innovations I wonder when Rodgers is going to stumble across actually playing Can in the proper position.

[Oh Danny Boy]

I'm sure we'll see Can in his proper position next season, he's getting a taste of playing first team football in a position that we really have no one else to fill in, with Johnson being shot, Lovren forgetting what football is, the long term injury to Flanno and Sakho getting injured there really not much cover in defence, kinda wish we hanged onto Kelly and Agger now.

[Stig]

And that's exactly why Rodgers shouldn't be coming out saying we can still get 4th. Now we look even more foolish.

[Azrael]

Pathetic and shambolic.

Just end the season now.

[DeNeo]

Rodgers can make all the excuses he wants about lack of goals in the squad, but Balotelli and Lambert scored 32 goals between them last season. They're not bad players - there's a reason we bought them. Same with Lovren et al.

There has been zero motivation these past few games, and in fact the majority of the season (apart from that one good run). At this point, I'd rather change the manager than go through yet another overhaul of players.

[Kelthink]

Can't believe I completely forgot about the game last night!

Glad I did now. Fuck

[gospvg]

Annoys me that we did not buy a striker in the January transfer window. Yes it would have cost us but we could have won matches like yesterday if we had a quality goal scorer.

[JamesTW]

I bet Sterling now feels like a right tit doing that interview

[gospvg]

I bet Sterling now feels like a right tit doing that interview

Prat, if he does not sign the 100K contract we are offering then he can bugger off & sit on the Man City/Arsenal sub bench.

[V3zna]

If this continues I can see, and I wouldn't blame, FSG taking a good look at other managerial options. Klopp and most likely Ancelotti will be available. I'm not saying either would accept the job but both could be approached to test the waters. FSG have form for making big calls like this in regard to the Red Sox.

Liverpool have returned to habits of old. Persisting with players and tactics that do not work. These next few games feel like they'll be make or break for Brendan Rodgers.

[JohnnyNolan]

Can FSG really complain? I think it's pretty well documented the club can't or won't compete financially with the likes of Chelsea/Man City/Man Utd, so any manager of the club is already fighting a battle to take the club to a higher level. Looking at the list of signing targets that have been missed over the last few seasons I think it's clear than many purchases are not first or even second choice options at times. That's not really something that's going to help challenging for the title.

Even if the manager is replaced without a better squad of players you're realistically looking at 4th as a good season, taking it that the three clubs mentioned will all no doubt look to build on what they already have. Add to that Arsenal are in a better position financially to secure their top club status, which would see 5th as realistic unless there is a major improvement in signings.

[gospvg]

I don't think we need to get rid of BR but we do need a better squad of players.

Some of the players signed have been dreadful & part of that blame has to to lay at BR's door.

It was obvious to all in the January transfer window that we needed to sign a striker to challenge for a top four finish, why didn't we?

[JamesTW]

Prat, if he does not sign the 100K contract we are offering then he can bugger off & sit on the Man City/Arsenal sub bench.

i doubt if they'd want him for those wages plus the transfer fee, but he probably thinks or has been told the phone won't stop ringing for him

[DeNeo]

5th probably is 'par' from a signings and wages point of view, but it's the lack of desire and tactical ineptitude on show in the last few games that gets me. Fine, we probably won't beat the top 4, but we should at least be showing something against 3 clubs at the bottom of the league.

And it's not like this is the first occurrence. Rodgers persisted with Gerrard at DM even when it wasn't working and has proven completely inflexible when it comes to his play style - trying to fit players to formation rather than the other way round.

If he's not the one choosing players, then he needs to at least get the best out of the ones we've got, which he's clearly not done all season.

[gospvg]

Gerrard should not be playing, once he decided he was going why continue to play him? He has been a truly great player for the club but still only a player the club should come first.

We should be giving his position to someone like Can or any of our other new signings so they can gain more experience and improve as a player.

[Radish]

Can FSG really complain? I think it's pretty well documented the club can't or won't compete financially with the likes of Chelsea/Man City/Man Utd, so any manager of the club is already fighting a battle to take the club to a higher level. Looking at the list of signing targets that have been missed over the last few seasons I think it's clear than many purchases are not first or even second choice options at times. That's not really something that's going to help challenging for the title.

Even if the manager is replaced without a better squad of players you're realistically looking at 4th as a good season, taking it that the three clubs mentioned will all no doubt look to build on what they already have. Add to that Arsenal are in a better position financially to secure their top club status, which would see 5th as realistic unless there is a major improvement in signings.

I see that said a lot, especially by Brendan Rodgers himself (in the last week he seems to keep repeating they he doesn't think they have the players). Despite that claim he has spent £216m in three years on players so it's not like he's doing this on a tight budget. I think in the same period City have spent £233m, United £275m and Chelsea £315m. Arsenal have spent £189m. Only Chelsea seem to have spent considerably more, Arsenal less. That doesn't take wages into consideration but even so I don't think being unable to compete financially is a valid excuse.

Just for interest, if you look at the two clubs next to you Tottenham have spent £193m and Southampton £138m.

[gospvg]

We've spent loads but we've purchased some crap players & some that still need developing. These players have made our squad look weak compared to the top four.

[JohnnyNolan]

Liverpool have spent money, but not on the sort of player that City, Utd or Chelsea target. Until last summer people here were moaning about Spurs stealing all our signing targets! The club seems to go heavily with squad or youth type players recently, rather than players you would think would walk into the first team. Although Lovern is probably a classic argument that players bought to go straight into the first eleven can end up being awful.

I think there's a decent argument that the signing policy for the club for the last couple of decades has been abysmal compared to rival teams when you look at the players signed for the money spent, obviously with the odd exception.

[dogsout]

Another manager, another 5 year plan, can anyone really be bothered?

If this continues I can see, and I wouldn't blame, FSG taking a good look at other managerial options. Klopp and most likely Ancelotti will be available. I'm not saying either would accept the job but both could be approached to test the waters. FSG have form for making big calls like this in regard to the Red Sox.

Liverpool have returned to habits of old. Persisting with players and tactics that do not work. These next few games feel like they'll be make or break for Brendan Rodgers.

The above seems like you've moved from the 'for Rodgers' side onto the fence. Is that the case?

[dogsout]

I see that said a lot, especially by Brendan Rodgers himself (in the last week he seems to keep repeating they he doesn't think they have the players). Despite that claim he has spent £216m in three years on players so it's not like he's doing this on a tight budget. I think in the same period City have spent £233m, United £275m and Chelsea £315m. Arsenal have spent £189m. Only Chelsea seem to have spent considerably more, Arsenal less. That doesn't take wages into consideration but even so I don't think being unable to compete financially is a valid excuse.

Just for interest, if you look at the two clubs next to you Tottenham have spent £193m and Southampton £138m.

The numbers that matter are net transfer spend + wages. There's no point in only looking at gross transfer spend and ignoring the rest.

[V3zna]

The above seems like you've moved from the 'for Rodgers' side onto the fence. Is that the case?

I'm beginning to fear for him.

[Gabe]

The last month or so, he's certainly struggled to get performances from most of the team, especially since Man U completely demolished the formation that had working quite well up to that point.

It seems to have thrown him into going a bit 'Football Manager' - by which I mean he's just shuffling players around in all kinds of positions Hoping to find something that clicks, rather than working to improve what we had.

I still believe he will be there next season, though.

[V3zna]

The last month or so, he's certainly struggled to get performances from most of the team, especially since Man U completely demolished the formation that had working quite well up to that point.

It seems to have thrown him into going a bit 'Football Manager' - by which I mean he's just shuffling players around in all kinds of positions Hoping to find something that clicks, rather than working to improve what we had.

I still believe he will be there next season, though.

Yeah, it's still likely. Much progress is an absolute requirement though.

Depay is off to Utd apparently. Well, Jamie Jackson in The Guardian says so anyway.

[Oh Danny Boy]

Depay was always going to go there; working with an old manager, more money and now champion's league football, it would have taken some convincing to change his mind.

This summer will be crucial for Rodgers, we need to get the right players in, two new experienced strikers, a centre back, a right back and a good 2nd choice keeper. no more youngsters, we have enough potential bought in and plenty coming through the youth ranks, what the team needs is solid proven talent in those positions. We fucked up last summer when it came to bringing in attackers, one not good enough, another unsuited to the team and one who is on loan when we needed someone to replace some of what Suarez offered. I'm not panicking, the difference between this season and last is the goals of Suarez and Sturridge which would have guaranteed us top 4 again. Maybe with hindsight it would have been better to have kept hold of Suarez for one more season and sent scouts far and wide to find an adequate replacement.

Hopefully someone can take Johnson, Lovren, Balo, and Lambert off our hands, we should have West Ham on speed dial.

[JamesTW]

Johnsons going anyway, probably sign a big 10m a year contract at Bournemouth on the recommendation of Harry Redknapp

Balotelli will be on loan for about 2 years, then join Udinese for 3m

Lambert to Villa? or was it the other manager who wanted him

I have a feeling Lovren will go cheap to some mid table team and then suddenly look decent again...