Liverpool FC Forum

Hopefully we get Fabinhos replacement in over the next few days as he needs preseason time with the squad.  Seem to be dragging our feet a little here.

Penguins » Tue Jul 18, 2023 10:18 am wrote:Arsenal have a very young exciting team on the up. They are ahead of Liverpool no question as they are younger and hungrier.
It will be tough getting top 4 for us...

Rice overpriced but will fit in really well. Havertz imo may click with their system and Timber looks promising.

Arsenal were good last year but as usual they crumbled when the pressure was on, they seem to also go off the rails when Saliba got injured. I thought Xaka had a better season and they seemed to have a good midfield. The players they bought are decent but not WC so it will be interesting to see whether it is a transition year for them or an evolution year.

I always thought Haverts was a good player but sulked a lot last year so is he the mentality monster that will make them winners when things go bad? Rice for me is way overpriced because he’s English (50million tops) but does he have the quality to turn that team into winners? Arsenal seem to be good at turning over the weaker sides, they have always been flat track bullies. They never really seem to be a team that grinds out results, we will see how these players change their culture.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... a-al-hilal

Lol yup give us 300m.

Henderson fee agreed?

Being reported by pretty much everyone now that it's done. The banner on the bottom of SSN is saying he has yet to agree personal terms though.

At this stage I'm hoping Thiago is not far behind tbh. Hasn't been training with the squad and not in the squad for tonight. If he stays we will be lucky to get 10 games out of him.

40 for Fabinho and 12 for hendo should mean we have enough now to pull the trigger on anyone of the targets we are linked with.

I know it’s not good from a stability point of view to get rid of three old heads in Thiago, Fabinho and Henderson, and it will probably affect the way we start the season but long term, depending on who we get, we will be much better off. Once the new players learn how to play together and gel, I think we will have the making of a great midfield and that is something we never really had under Klopp. They all ran and worked hard, but never really wowed and could never really be called world class.

I think we will get a lot more goals from midfield this year, hopefully we can also keep it tight at the back. That will probably be our Achilles heel this year.

I don't know about that Kazza, you still need the older players to ease the new ones into the team, otherwise the new signings might never find their feet despite their quality.

Although this one was necessary I'm not a fan of overhauls at all. We all knew and said we needed new midfielder(s) last season but the club decided not to sign one, which costed us the season. And now instead of gradually bringing in new players and replacing the old ones, we're doing everything at once which will immensely hurt our cohesion and we're at a greater risk of having the new players never finding their feet with us at all. A run of bad results at the start and we might not recover from that.

Like I said though, this overhaul was probably necessary at this point, but I hope the club learned its lesson at least that you constantly need to be bringing in fresh faces and its better to do that from a position of strength rather than wait for things to go bad and then spend the same money anyway but from a far worse position.

You can tell them to do one with Diaz and offer Thiago instead...

If Salah declines this season I can see him leave next summer for the saudis at 32.

damjan193 » Wed Jul 19, 2023 10:15 pm wrote:I don't know about that Kazza, you still need the older players to ease the new ones into the team, otherwise the new signings might never find their feet despite their quality.

Although this one was necessary I'm not a fan of overhauls at all. We all knew and said we needed new midfielder(s) last season but the club decided not to sign one, which costed us the season. And now instead of gradually bringing in new players and replacing the old ones, we're doing everything at once which will immensely hurt our cohesion and we're at a greater risk of having the new players never finding their feet with us at all. A run of bad results at the start and we might not recover from that.

Like I said though, this overhaul was probably necessary at this point, but I hope the club learned its lesson at least that you constantly need to be bringing in fresh faces and its better to do that from a position of strength rather than wait for things to go bad and then spend the same money anyway but from a far worse position.

That is certainly the risk, we hope and pray that those brought it have the quality and confidence make the transition. I would never have done it this way, completely reactive rather than proactive, not what you would imagine from owners that have generally been very sensible.

You can't legislate for these daft Saudis offering millions though. Guaranteed to turn anyone's head with that money on offer. It's strange though that it's mostly LFC targeted and not other clubs to the same extent.

They are targeting older players and we just have more than anyone else. I do understand the lure of massive riches but these players are already wealthy as Feck. Likes of Hendo as well would land a top pundit job when they retire so imo its just greed.

What is our plan though ? Another small squad because so far we have lost 7 players and only brought in 2. They knew weeks ago we could lose Fab and Hendo but are dragging their feet bringing in replacements.  Klopp spoke last season about the importance of pre season and getting the new additions adjusted but yet here we are.

I should imagine the club will be saving a fair few quid in wages with 7 players leaving.

red till i die!! » Thu Jul 20, 2023 2:47 pm wrote:They are targeting older players and we just have more than anyone else. I do understand the lure of massive riches but these players are already wealthy as Feck. Likes of Hendo as well would land a top pundit job when they retire so imo its just greed.

What is our plan though ? Another small squad because so far we have lost 7 players and only brought in 2. They knew weeks ago we could lose Fab and Hendo but are dragging their feet bringing in replacements.  Klopp spoke last season about the importance of pre season and getting the new additions adjusted but yet here we are.

We're not short of players unless Henderson and Fabinho leave without replacements. Bajcetic who was a non-entity this time last year replaced Milner, Gakpo was an early replacement for Firmino, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai replaced Keita and Ox before pre-season began, and Bradley replaced Ramsay. Don't need a replacement for Melo. Not sure we need a replacement for Carvalho but Doak will step up this year. We just need replacements for Fabinho and Henderson as and when they leave. I can't see Klopp sanctioning their moves until we have their replacements with one foot through the door. I'm sure that's what we're working on now.