Liverpool FC Forum

[maguskwt]

Mane is only away 3 weeks so I'm not sure it's worth bringing in a stopgap who will just end up on the bench when he returns. Divock could easily do a job out there and probably deserves a run in the side anyway.
If we have got dough to spend throw it in the direction of that Dahoud lad from BMG, even if he costs £40m that would be cheap in the long run given our midfield would be sorted for the next decade.

Do you think Dahoud is better than Dele Alli mate? He appears to be diminutive like Coutinho whereas Alli is 6'2". Not that I'm implying height determines a player's quality, but diminutive players are usually associated with playmakers/ creative players and not box to box midfield generals like Gerrard.

[maguskwt]

Mane is only away 3 weeks so I'm not sure it's worth bringing in a stopgap who will just end up on the bench when he returns. Divock could easily do a job out there and probably deserves a run in the side anyway.
If we have got dough to spend throw it in the direction of that Dahoud lad from BMG, even if he costs £40m that would be cheap in the long run given our midfield would be sorted for the next decade.

Do you think Dahoud is better than Dele Alli mate? He appears to be diminutive like Coutinho whereas Alli is 6'2". Not that I'm implying height determines a player's quality, but diminutive players are usually associated with playmakers/ creative players and not box to box midfield generals like Gerrard.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

Comparing Alli and Dahoud is a bit like comparing apples and oranges mate, Dahoud is a proper CM who sits, presses, grafts and controls the game where as Alli is more of an auxiliary forward. Besides I'm talking about signing Dahoud in January or at the latest next summer, we'd have absolutely no chance of prising Alli away from Spurs anytime soon (he's already turned us down don't forget) and even if we could Levy would demand such a fee for him he'd be out of our reach anyway. Spurs are notoriously difficult to deal with and they see him as the jewel in their crown, they are not going to let him go on the cheap.

[maguskwt]

That's strange... always considered Dele more of a CM type player similar to Gerrard. Not as powerful and physical but in terms of being an all-rounder. Haven't really watched him extensively myself though. You are correct though, we have alot higher chance of signing Dahoud than prising Dele Alli away from Spurs. And i have to say the owners screwed up big time on Dele Alli. They reportedly wanted to pay no more than 4k a week. That's why we lost out. They have to recognise quality as quality. We'd be having a natural successor to Gerrard, if the owners just sanctioned a competitive salary...

[7_Kewell]

Shouldn't we sign some cover for Mane and Matip in January? Both are off to the Africa Cup of Nations and will be gone for up to 3 weeks. With Sakho gone and us reliant on Mane's pace, I'd be a bit worried with Lucas and Klavan and Sturridge as our only back-up.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

Shouldn't we sign some cover for Mane and Matip in January? Both are off to the Africa Cup of Nations and will be gone for up to 3 weeks. With Sakho gone and us reliant on Mane's pace, I'd be a bit worried with Lucas and Klavan and Sturridge as our only back-up.

Jurgen discussed this in the Echo the other day. Matip is German, he was born and raised in Germany and sort of plays for Cameroon on an intermittent basis (World Cups). Jurgen said he hasn't spoken to Matip specifically about the ACN but doesn't expect him to go as he didnt when he was at Schalke.
By the sounds of it Joels international career has been a bit complicated because Germany wanted him too.
Sadio on the other hand was born and raised in Senegal and has much closer ties to his national team so he deffo will be going.

[7_Kewell]

Shouldn't we sign some cover for Mane and Matip in January? Both are off to the Africa Cup of Nations and will be gone for up to 3 weeks. With Sakho gone and us reliant on Mane's pace, I'd be a bit worried with Lucas and Klavan and Sturridge as our only back-up.

Jurgen discussed this in the Echo the other day. Matip is German, he was born and raised in Germany and sort of plays for Cameroon on an intermittent basis (World Cups). Jurgen said he hasn't spoken to Matip specifically about the ACN but doesn't expect him to go as he didnt when he was at Schalke.
By the sounds of it Joels international career has been a bit complicated because Germany wanted him too.
Sadio on the other hand was born and raised in Senegal and has much closer ties to his national team so he deffo will be going.

That's a relief. However, a player with pace to rival Mane should be a priority (along with a proper left back) as we rely on him a heck of a lot and an injury would hurt us badly. What's more, assuming we finish top 4, we'll need more depth for that part of the team anyway, as there's noway Mane will play 60+ games in a season.

[maguskwt]

I'm not sure... I feel we should look at the long term. We have enough "Attacking Midfielders" or "Wide Forwards". Firmino could play wide (Klopp also said this) with Sturridge leading the line.

What we lack, in all honesty, is a good CM. From all accounts, Dahoud could fulfill this requirement. I don't think the current team, as it is, is not a finished product...

[redshade]

How many games will Mane misd and more importantly who will they be against?

Mane is one of our main threat in our heavy metal attack but i am confident we can do a job without him. We may have to re-arrange a little.



          Hendo
    Lallana  Wijnaldum (Can)

Firmino              Coutinho
         Studge/Origi

Or we can play Origi out wide and keep Firmino uptop.

Firmino is a grafter and can more or less play in every attacking position.

[redshade]

African Nations cup

14th Jan Begin
28th Jan Knockouts
5th Feb  Final

Potentially Mane could miss

Man Utd (A) 15th Jan
Swansea (H) 21st
(League cup 2nd leg 24/25th?)
(4th Round Fa cup 28th?)
Chelsea (H) 31st
Hull    (A) 4th Feb

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

I'm not sure... I feel we should look at the long term. We have enough "Attacking Midfielders" or "Wide Forwards". Firmino could play wide (Klopp also said this) with Sturridge leading the line.

What we lack, in all honesty, is a good CM. From all accounts, Dahoud could fulfill this requirement. I don't think the current team, as it is, is not a finished product...

Yep, imo Origi deserves a little run in the side so I'd play him out wide when Mane goes to the ACN. When I say 'out wide' it's our fullbacks that give us our width really anyway so he'd be getting a run out as more of a wide forward than as an out and out winger.
As for Dahoud the lad is going to be a star, he's sort of a hybrid between Jordan Henderson and Aaron Ramsey in the sense that he grafts his @rse off and runs Herculean distances but he is also very comfortable on the ball and is not averse to pulling off the odd Cruyff turn or two.

Here's a little clip of him, remember he's only 20 - (you are probably better off enlarging the screen)

[maguskwt]

hmmm... I wonder now though whether do we need another CM. I totally forgot about Marko Grujic... he is very promising and right now I don't know why Can is getting games ahead of him... he wasn't even on the bench against Watford...

[Santa]

Mane is only away 3 weeks so I'm not sure it's worth bringing in a stopgap who will just end up on the bench when he returns. Divock could easily do a job out there and probably deserves a run in the side anyway.
If we have got dough to spend throw it in the direction of that Dahoud lad from BMG, even if he costs £40m that would be cheap in the long run given our midfield would be sorted for the next decade.

Do you think Dahoud is better than Dele Alli mate? He appears to be diminutive like Coutinho whereas Alli is 6'2". Not that I'm implying height determines a player's quality, but diminutive players are usually associated with playmakers/ creative players and not box to box midfield generals like Gerrard.

Why are we talking about Alli? Do you think Spurs will sell him to us? He wanted to come and we had him last year but we decided not to take up that option, now he's not gonna put on the red shirt which is a shame.

Can't say I have watch much of Dahoud, but he comes very highly regarded

[damjan193]

Personally, I don't think we need another midfielder, at least not this season. Quality wise so far we've been solid in midfield, and quantity wise we have more than enough, with Henderson, Can, Wijnaldum and Lallana as our main players, and the young lads Grujic, Stewart, Brannagan and Chirivella could provide good cover if some of the others is unavailable. We also have Milner and Lucas. A new midfielder would only get in the way of the development of the youngsters who I think have a lot of potential.

On the other hand, another attacking player might not be a bad idea. I know we've been saying "how many attacking players do we need?", but really I think we don't have enough cover in that department. We have Coutinho, Firmino and Mane (Lallana is more of a midfielder these days) as our main players, Sturridge, Origi and Ings as cover (all three of them are CFs), and the youngsters Ejaria and Ojo (who isn't involved as much lately for some reason). We don't have another pacy winger like Mane for example, and I think we could use one.

But ultimately, I think we'll do just fine even if we don't sign anyone in this window.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

The belief seems to be in Germany though mate that Dahoud is going to be a star and we should always be looking to sign players like that irrespective of where we are in the table, same with this lad from Dortmund, Pulisic, strictly speaking we probably don't need either of them atm but strictly speaking we probably didn't need the likes of Alan Hansen and Ian Rush when we signed them as young players either.
Im saying all this but apparently loads of clubs are in for Dahoud including reportedly the likes of City and Tottenham, it wouldn't surprise me if our hopes of signing Dahoud went the same way as our hopes of signing Gundogan.