verlaine1979

Neither Davis nor JWP playing with the courage in possession required by their positions.

Based on last season, Davis got 2 goals and 7 assists in about 2500 minutes, while Gaston got 1 goals and 3 assists in about 600 minutes. Ramirez is never going to do the water carrying of Davis, but if we have Wanyama and Schneiderlin behind him, why would he need to?

Based on last season, Davis got 2 goals and 7 assists in about 2500 minutes, while Gaston got 1 goals and 3 assists in about 600 minutes. Ramirez is never going to do the water carrying of Davis, but if we have Wanyama and Schneiderlin behind him, why would he need to?

We lost quite a few close games last season by being less clinical with our chances than the opposition. To be honest, I doubt swapping in anyone would've changed the result.

We lost quite a few close games last season by being less clinical with our chances than the opposition. To be honest, I doubt swapping in anyone would've changed the result.

The question mark over Davis's place is that since we're now missing goals from Lambert, Lallana & JRod, the midfield will probably have to pick up a bit more of the goal scoring slack unless Tadic, Pelle & Long all settle immediately. Unfortunately, apart from popping up to knock in a couple of late efforts against already beaten opponents, Davis just doesn't look like he'll score many. He's a good player, very energetic and he plays a very disciplined tactical game, but with Wanyama & Schneiderlin at DM there's room to accommodate someone with a bit more of a goal threat.

The question mark over Davis's place is that since we're now missing goals from Lambert, Lallana & JRod, the midfield will probably have to pick up a bit more of the goal scoring slack unless Tadic, Pelle & Long all settle immediately. Unfortunately, apart from popping up to knock in a couple of late efforts against already beaten opponents, Davis just doesn't look like he'll score many. He's a good player, very energetic and he plays a very disciplined tactical game, but with Wanyama & Schneiderlin at DM there's room to accommodate someone with a bit more of a goal threat.

12m? So that's what 'penetralia of the club' means.

How is this Krueger's fault? The board have obviously done what most fans were asking for, and told our best player he isn't leaving, before announcing that decision to the media. It isn't a coincidence that Schneiderling timed his Tweet to come just after RK's interviews, with all the media attention they generated - he's trying to get maximum exposure to voice his opposition to the decision.

Chambers doesn't have anything like Bale's pace, nor does he have his ability to strike a ball. He's good, don't get me wrong, but he's going to turn into a very solid player who does several things well, without being exceptional at any of them. He's never going to be a £50m player.

I thought the histrionics when Lallana left were a bit weird, but some on the Liverpool forum are blubbering like their marriages have just collapsed, talking about how he'll never feel the same adoration etc etc. Bit much.

Usual caveats about tournament performances aside, Muhamed Besic of Bosnia looked like an ideal replacement for Schneiderlin. Swansea apparently very close to signing him for £4M.

Good players want to play with other players they believe to be their equals. Unfortunately, we had a team that was largely assembled on the cheap, in which four or five players suddenly found themselves valued at £20m+. I think in order to keep them happy we'd have to have been looking to acquire new players in that kind of price range, which certainly isn't feasible now, and probably wasn't likely to have been feasible if ML hadn't died.

Not exactly. With both Shaw and Lallana there's an element of inflation because of their passports & the PR that comes with being called up to the WC squad - you'd pay at most 2/3 of those fees if you were importing foreign players of equivalent quality, probably more like half. Standing still in terms of individual quality shouldn't be that hard if our scouting network is all it's cracked up to be, though that doesn't necessarily mean we'll be able to match last season's quality as a unit.

Between Basel, Bayern & Ajax, they've both pretty much spent their entire careers so far in the Champions League. Neither was ever going to come here. Not even a shred of a chance.

The choice of the word 'mercenaries' wasn't mine, and isn't how I'd choose to describe our players. However, I do think that to imagine that the team had some unusual degree of togetherness over the past few years is probably naive. Of course the players will have taken pride in the achievement of moving up through the leagues and having a good post-survival premier league season, however, I imagine they'll feel just as engaged by contesting the league title, or performing well in Europe at the clubs they move on to. They are basically employees, and like most employees, I suspect the oaths of fealty they make to their employer are pretty hollow.

I think the fact that so many of them seem to be agitating for a move away, suggests that the team that spent 5 years bonding was basically full of mercenaries anyway, right?

Besic having another very tidy game in midfield for Bosnia. Would be a like-for-like replacement for Schneiderlin if he leaves.

Shaw doesn't strike the ball well enough to ever be worth that much. He's pretty much the inverse of Bale actually, insofar as Bale had a world class left foot from the start, but lacked the physical side. Shaw on the other hand is fairly average in terms of delivery and shooting, but incredibly strong and quick. Unfortunately, Bale's technique is rarer than Shaw's physicality, and more likely to be the result of natural talent rather than hard work or training. Shaw will be this generation's Ashley Cole, so £34m seems pretty good money.

It's nonsense even if you just compare the way they both run. Pirlo is older, but nimble - he's constantly moving to find pockets of space in which to receive the ball. Gerrard lumbers about, occasionally working up the momentum to have a burst forward, but mostly picking up the ball just off the back four and then whacking in into the attacking third so he doesn't have to run. I suspect the media decided he was playing the 'Pirlo role' merely by virtue of the fact that Gerrard is old and a decent (if over-confident) long-range passer of the ball.

Yup, didn't see too much of the ball, but a couple of very powerful runs, and the pass he clipped in to Fellaini towards the end showed great awareness and technique.

I think Monaco paid just under £40m for JR, making him a fairly unlikely recruit...

We might before the summer is through. He looked very good indeed.

Suarez stayed because it was only Arsenal coming in for him. If a bigger club had tried to trigger that clause, the outcome probably would've been different. As it was, why get the lawyers involved just to finish fourth again? Liverpool keeping Suarez wasn't so much a show of strength from the Liverpool board, as a show of weakness in the market's interest in Suarez with all the controversy he'd attracted at that time.

This happens to any club who find a decent crop of players when they aren't at the top of the Deloitte money list. The great Ajax team of the early 90s was torn apart, the great Leverkusen team of the early 2000s was torn apart, and I think it's a foregone conclusion that the current Atletico team is going to be torn apart, as Dortmund have been over the past two summers. So, if these league winning/CL final contending clubs have been unable to resist when the big beasts come to take their best players/coaches, what on earth gives anyone the idea that we'll be able to resist?