Liverpool FC Forum

[Scottbot]

I think we need someone with more pace, strength and who is a more powerful runner than Morten Gamst Pederson.

But can you think of anyone? There seems to be a dearth of talented leff wingers out there right now.

[Scottbot]

I'm not convinced about Gareth Barry either, I'd cringe if we signed him.

Not saying he would be a started every week but he is VERY versatile, has been Villa's best player for several seasons, is a definite upgrade on Aurelio and is an option on the left side of midfield when Rafa wants to play a more compact team.

[Moosey]

Drogba
Cech
kaka
Ronaldo

Then id use the rest of the money to buy bionic limbs for fowler, bleach his hair and let him loose!

[mike72]

Assuming we have £40m to start off with, and you take £8m for Leiva and about £12m for Mascherano out of that, we are left with £20m plus any money that can be raised from offloading players. 

I would sell :

Cisse £5m
Gonzalez £3.5m
Sissoko £5m
Bellamy £7m

Which means a total of about £40m in total to spend, which I would spend on :

Alves £12m
Milito £8m
Eto'o or Villa £20m

Which gives us a squad next season of :

Reina
Carson

Alves       Carragher     Agger         Riise
Finnan     Milito            Hyypia       Aurelio

Pennant  Gerrard         Alonso        Leto
Garcia     Leiva           Mascherano Kewell

Crouch
Voronin

Eto'o or Villa
Kuyt

[RichardLFC1]

Owen - We need a finisher and thats what he is.

Vincente - Quality left winger for valencia he would be great for us.

Barry - Ive always been an admirer of his work. Hes premiership oroven and can play left back left mid and central mid

Terry - The best cb in the world along with carragher at the mo. He is solid at the back and the reason why chelsea are doing so well

Joaquin - Quality right winger. Weve been after him before but didnt have the sufficient funds. Now we do lets go for him.


With these signing my 11. new players in capitals.


                              Reina

Finnan             Carragher     TERRY          BARRY


JOAQUIN          Gerrard        Mascharano    VINCENTE


                     OWEN        Kuyt

[Marcus]

like roman would let Terry go?

What Liverpool needs is one or two major signings. With Voronin already on his way, you won't need a striker, since Kuyt+Voronin + Crouch on the bench is a formidable striker force. The midfield requires someone who would take the weight off Gerrard, someone with better pace, someone who would bring some explosive play into your attack.

And one good defender to pair with Carra would make Liverpool an EPL favourite.

[Rafael Benítez]

With an open cheque book any player in the world could be signed. But realistically what do you think our strongest team next season could be including some of the players circulating around on transfer rumour lists.

                                   Reina
Finnan-------Carragher-------------Agger---------Risse

Alves--------Mascherano-----------Gerrard--------Leto

                        Eto------------Villa

Bench:
--------
Carson

Arbeloa
Aurelio
Roque
Insua

Garcia
Pennant
Leiva
Sissoko
Kewell


Crouch
Kuyt
Voronin

As you can see we are very short on central defenders. Roque is still very young but has good potential. Any suggestions on this team or any suggestions for cover at centre back.

[Scottbot]

Kuyt+Voronin + Crouch on the bench is a formidable striker force.

Frightening mate, I can hear the knees of defenders all around the country knocking together in fear and trepidation at the thought of those three lining up against them.

[Cool Hand Luke]

Key areas to think about in terms of the starting 11:

Left Back

Riise is without doubt the weakest link in defence. He gets caught out time and time again and is poor on the ball. Aurelio actually looks like he could be a very good left back, good reader of the game, comfortable on the ball, good passer and excellent crosser. But since he has been here it has been one injury after another and this has been a reoccurring theme throughout his career. It’s not out of the questions that Liverpool could buy a left back for the first team but it wouldn’t be a problem if we went with Riise and Aurelio.

Wide Areas

One of our biggest problems. On the right we have Pennant who has improved but is ultimately not good enough to be a first team regular in a team that has title winning ambitions. Garcia in another that can play on the right but I see him more a makeshift in that position.

On the left we have Harry Kewell as the best option, a guy who has been constantly injured and has seriously physically declined since he has been here. I would be seriously worried if we went into the Premiership season relying on Harry Kewell. We have signed Argentinean Sebastian Leto who is a left sided midfielder but I have never seen him play so unable to comment.

So far those are our options for next year and there’s nothing there that make me feel it will be a major improvement on this year unless Leto turns out to be an excellent signing who makes a huge impact in his first year, or Kewell manages to turn things round big time. So at the very least we need to sign a right sided midfielder who can make a big impact.

Strikers

Kuyt has proved to be a good signing at £9 Million and has made a difference to our team. But he is not top top quality. You still feel we need someone who is genuinely physically dynamic who is of the highest quality and can smash home plenty of goals. It is likely to be our biggest outlay of the summer

[LFC2007]

I think we need someone with more pace, strength and who is a more powerful runner than Morten Gamst Pederson.

But can you think of anyone? There seems to be a dearth of talented leff wingers out there right now.

Silva, Vicente, Downing, Malouda, Anderson, Lopez, Quaresma, van der vaart?

[LFC2007]

I'm not convinced about Gareth Barry either, I'd cringe if we signed him.

Not saying he would be a started every week but he is VERY versatile, has been Villa's best player for several seasons, is a definite upgrade on Aurelio and is an option on the left side of midfield when Rafa wants to play a more compact team.

Decent, but not the top quality we are looking for on the left IMO. I couldn't see him leaving Villa this season any way, I'm sure he'll want to see what O'neiil conjures up this summer.

[Scottbot]

quote]
Silva, Vicente, Downing, Malouda, Anderson, Lopez, Quaresma, van der vaart?

Queresma and Silva are both players that interest me. Not particularly excited about the rest of the list. Downing?

[LFC2007]

There may not appear to be as many quality left mids on the market, but who are we to judge, there will be scouts out there reporting on numerous targets. The ones we mention are the ones who get mentioned in the papers, the ones who appear to get people 'excited', in reality there are probably a few out there who we don't know and who are just as capable.

[Scottbot]

What do you mean 'who are we to judge'? That's what being a football fan on a football forum is all about isn't it? Same way you have judged that Downing would be a more suitable target for the left side than Gamst Pedersen. I agree there maybe a few hidden gems out there but i'm hoping Rafa is able to go out and sign a couple of big players this summer. Instead of asking 'who is this guy and what is he about?', I'd rather see a player who immediately excites me because I have judged him to be a very good player.

[LFC2007]

Did I say Downing was better than Pedersen???

You said there was a dearth of left mids, I gave you a list some quality left mids, that is not to say I think they're all better than Pedersen!

Please quote me before you make stupid assumptions.


Who are we to judge, meaning we do not have the insight into player reports, scout reports and the wealth of knowledge of Rafa and his backroom staff. You're telling me your judgement is better than Rafa's on the whole?

I expect speculation and mr know it alls on football forums, but sometimes there is too much of it and it lacks perspective.

Of course you can form an opinion on players, likewise, any of us can.

I'm just saying, the players who are cited in tabloid newspapers and the ones who everyone raves about are not always the ones who are most effective, nor are they the ones who Rafa wil necessarily go for. There may be a dearth of left mids in your own mind, but I'm certain Rafa has been monitoring some who we don't know about.