Liverpool FC Forum

[aCe']

Why did they sack Ericksonn in the first place? thought he was doing a very good job with them and seemed to be moving in the right direction...  was before the arabs took over im sure ....
Anyways... for now with the squad they have i think if they overperform they'll be able to break into the top4...
If they manage to sign Lescott and Terry however i think a top4 finish would probably be theirs to miss out on.. in terms of quality players they'd then have much more than Arsenal do...

looking at the possible starting 11s..

               Arsenal                                                                        ManCity

                 Almunia                                                                       Given

Sagna     Toure    Gallas      Clichy                           Richards     Terry?     Lescott?     Bridge

Walcott    Cesc     Song      Nasri                                            DeJong      Barry 
                                                                           
            Arshavin    RVP                                           Tevez             Ireland            Robinho

                                                                                               Adebayor


they certainly seem to have a better starting 11 than Arsenals... the depth to their squad is even more impressive... but anyways... UEFA cup spot this season in my books if they dont sign atleast one top CB... but i wouldnt be surprised if they broke into the top4  because things at Arsenal and Chelsea (Ancelotti?!) dont look too promising this season...

As other mentioned if they had a top manager he would have a) probably tempted even better players to join (b) sorted out their squad better than Hughes is doing and would probably have led them to a comfortable CL spot this season with all the spending...

[Kharhaz]

I don't think Chelsea are the best example of a side spending big, big money in a short space of time before going t!ts up, because in fact the exact opposite happened. They're now firmly established title contenders.

That was my point in a roundabout way. Chelsea have spent a lot of money to become contenders, Mourinho took them that extra yard. Man City will become contenders because of the talent they are spending money on, but will eventually end up behind Liverpool, Arsenal and Man Utd as the experience isnt their. And that is the difference. As A Liverpool supporter, its worrying to start with but you have to realise, money helps so far, but it cannot buy you the support, Chelsea have tried that with the plastic flags. Its not a guarantee.

[bigmick]

Looking at Ace's graphic, if they get Terry and Lescott then they have a good team, there's no point in kidding ourselves otherwise. Obviously it takes time for good players to gel together no matter how talented they are (unless Mourinho is managing them of course), but even allowing for that, if they get the centra halves then they've got a good team.

[Reg]

It is inevitable that @25-30% of the purchases wont work out so this year is a settling year, finding a pattern, identifying who will become key players then like Rafa, looking to win the league within 4-5 years. if that isnt the game plan then they´re kidding themselves.

[aCe']

Looking at Ace's graphic, if they get Terry and Lescott then they have a good team, there's no point in kidding ourselves otherwise. Obviously it takes time for good players to gel together no matter how talented they are (unless Mourinho is managing them of course), but even allowing for that, if they get the centra halves then they've got a good team.

funny thing is.. they can put out a 2nd side with the players they have in that squad and you'd stick expect their backup players to get a UEFA cup slot..

                     Taylor

Zabaleta     Onuoha     Dunne     Garrido

SWPhillips     Elano     Kompany    Petrov

              SantaCruz     Bellamy

You'd still have players like Benjani, BenHaim, Kasper Schmeicel, Caicedo, C.Evans, Weiss, Etuho, Ben Mee...etc who are probably good enough to be backup for most premierleague sides but wouldnt even make a 26man squad at ManCity... its a shame really and they'll need to sort this out sometime soon...

[bigmick]

They like Chelsea were will be an interesting club to keep an eye on. There'll definately be one or two bargains available before too long. Sean Wright Phillips for instnace wouldn't be a bad shout by any means,.

[Reg]

The biggest difference being the two managers Mick....

[bigmick]

The biggest difference being the two managers Mick....

But Reg, Mourinho simply bought the title, anybody could do it surely    All that record points total in his first season, adding 17 points onto Ranieri's best ever effort at the first time of asking, doesn't mean anything mate. Anybody could do it, we both know that  as long as you've got money to spend, you can't possibly fail. Obviously.

But anyway I suspect you might be right, Hughes might not be quite as "lucky" as Mourinho was, and might find trying to get into the top four to be the pinnacle of his ambition. I wonder if they got the other bloke though, he couldn't get lucky twice over surely     

[aCe']

now you're just abusing your rights of using the sarcasm smiley Mick....

Thing with Mourinho is that he came in and changed things pretty drastically, immediately... His first season he brought in 2 players from PSV (Kezman and Robben), 2 players from Porto (Ferreira and Carvalho), a player from Rennes (Cech), & a player from Marseille (Drogba).. he also brought in Tiago and Morais from Benfica and Penafiel... total transfer spending - 80mill.... now i know thats alot of money to spend but looking at the players they got for that money id say it was money very well spent overall...
Same year, they sold/released/loaned out some very high profile players at the time.. Forssel, Veron, Petit, Melchiot, Bogarde, Hasslebaink, Desailly, Gronkjaer, Crespo, Zenden, Mutu....

Point is, he knew what the plan was before he took over... his tranfer dealings were well thought out and he didnt really target high reputation players, except he went after players who fit the system he wanted to play...

If he ever takes over at City, i'd expect him to get rid of half the high profile players they have there now... get a solid squad put together and go after the title from day1...

Hughes seems more concerned with buying high profile players to please the chairman atm... which is likely to win him fck all unless he starts getting quality all over the park instead of just bringing in top strikers...

[GYBS]

Wasnt there a thread elsewhere for the maureen love in instead  polluting the  LIVERPOOL GENERAL DISCUSSION board with the maureen worship

[bigmick]

I think it's legitimate given the thread to consider what somebody else might do if they came in as manager mate. No "love in" involved anyway, I'm simply echoing what many observers on here have said many times. It takes no skill to win the Premiership if you have shedloads of money. It's obvious

Anyway I take your point, lets talk about Liverpool. I'm not jealous of their wealth, although I would be happier if we could spend a wee bit more.

[GYBS]

The maureen debate has been done to death beyond belief - you have your glorious i think he is wonderful opinion in a whole thread dedicated to him elsewhere - we know how you feel about him mick so is there any need to constantly bring him up

Peopl will always maintain take away the money and maureen would never of won the prem with chelsea in fact might never even of managed them in the first place and you will always maintain its because he is the greatest manager around at the moment and didnt win because of the money - that will never change mick so no point going over and over and over it all again and to bring it up all the time .

[bigmick]

I thought you wanted to talk about Liverpool Why keep going back onto the subject if you don't want to talk about it? FWIW I don't agree with your summary of the subject either, but out of respect to the topic I'll let it go. If you'd care to meet me in the relevent thread in five minutes time we can discuss whether or not the manager in question will match his achievement in England by winning the Italian title two years running on his first two attempts, we will talk about it there. If you are otherwise engaged, no problem I understand.

Anyway back to the topic in hand for the second time trying to steer it there, I do think that as Man City spend ever more money there will will be little bargains to be had of players who fall by the wayside. They've always had a good youth system for instance, and surely some of those kids must be realising they are never going to get a chance. Time to sniff out a couple of bargains pretty soon I reckon.

[ElNino9]

M.Johnson must have fallen even further down the pecking order, he would only cost about £8m and before his injury was seen as the 'new Gerrard.' Rafa should make a cheeky bid.

[Festy]

M.Johnson must have fallen even further down the pecking order, he would only cost about £8m and before his injury was seen as the 'new Gerrard.' Rafa should make a cheeky bid.

I agree. Johnson was seen as a major prospect before his injury. He'll do himself a huge favor if he somehow manages to get out of Manchester city though.