Liverpool FC Forum

[Owzat]

He's had the money Sabre, in the summer he bought Lucas £5m + Babel £11m + Benayoun £5m = circa  £21m, and while they are all decent buys(maybe great buys one day) its open to argument whether he should have blown his wad on one top quality player rather than 3 players who arn't of that calibre (yet).

Same the season before, he went for Pennant £7m, Bellamy £6m and Kuyt £10m = circa £23m, in hindsight maybe he would have been better buying just the one player (either a top winger or a top striker)

This diversification of funds has arguably given us a very strong squad but without the necessary extra quality required if we are to win the League.

In other words, you usually get what you pay for, "pay peanuts and you get monkeys"   

I basically agree with what you say BUT................

Does the purchase of a lot of £7m-£10m players give the squad strength or depth? Quality is more important than quantity, you can only play eleven players at a time and a number of the reasonable priced players aren't cutting it while the more expensive players do eg Alonso, Agger (for a CB it was quite a lot), Torres

A 'best XI' (possible one of several in my opinion)

Reina £6m
Finnan £3.2m
Carragher n/a
Agger £5.8m
Arbeloa £2.6m
Benayoun £5m
Alonso £10.5m
Gerrard n/a
Kewell £5m
Torres £26.5m
Voronin free

Cost : £64.6m
Average : £5.8m

Compare that with the average cost of the subs which would almost make up an XI

Hyypia £3m
Riise £4.6m
Pennant £6.7m
Sissoko £5.5m
Lucas £8m
Babel £11.5m
Crouch £7m
Kuyt £10m

Cost : £56.3m
Average : £7m

With one or two exceptions that 'subs bench' is pretty ordinary, certainly I'd prefer to sell off some at cost or profit and buy just two or three better players and I bet I'm not alone. OK Gerrard, Carra and Voronin would up the value and average if sold. But it still makes worrying reading that Sissoko, Kuyt, Crouch, Pennant and Riise cost £33.8m at nearly £7m average - I'd rather have two or three at £11m each and a smaller but stronger squad with kids making up the numbers

[account deleted by request]

It's not a matter of being bold, it's a matter of the board hands him $$$$$$$$$

Being bold won't bring you Kaka 

Given the money he has been given so far, he has found a great keeper, probably the best option if you can't pay for a Casillas or a Buffon. He has found aswell a stable replacement for Hyypia and a great CB.

He has brought as well Alonso and Mascherano. Crouch may be a "squad player", but for what is worth, he is an english international.

And of course when he's been given the money he's brought Torres. With the necessary money even my 2 years niece is bold. 

He's had the money Sabre, in the summer he bought Lucas £5m + Babel £11m + Benayoun £5m = circa  £21m, and while they are all decent buys(maybe great buys one day) its open to argument whether he should have blown his wad on one top quality player rather than 3 players who arn't of that calibre (yet).

Same the season before, he went for Pennant £7m, Bellamy £6m and Kuyt £10m = circa £23m, in hindsight maybe he would have been better buying just the one player (either a top winger or a top striker)

This diversification of funds has arguably given us a very strong squad but without the necessary extra quality required if we are to win the League.

In other words, you usually get what you pay for, "pay peanuts and you get monkeys"   

I'm with you in mildly questioning the wisdom of some of this summer's signings.  Babel and Lucas, for instance, might turn into brilliant players down the line but if we had looked elsewhere and gotten one player the calibre of Torres to play out wide, I would have been happier.

Last season's signings are a different matter for me, though.  First, we need to acknowledge that the budget was still pretty tight and there were many gaps to fill.  A season of Gerrard and Cisse on the right showed that we needed an RM--if only to back Stevie up if Rafa decided to continue with him out there (which he did at first).  In addition, Morientes hadn't settled and Cisse wasn't good enough by just about everyone's estimation at the time (although that might be an interesting discussion to revisit in light of his scoring record compared to what we've had since  ).  So, we needed to sign two strikers.  Given how expensive top creative players are, I don't think Rafa could have done much better with the money available.  Add to that the fact that a player like Kuyt looked very promising on paper/youtube ( ) and Bellamy had bags of Premiership experience and was in good form and I don't think they were bargain barrel buys at the time.  As for top strikers, one look at how Shevchenko's got on at Chelsea tells me that there's no guarantees there either.  So, while I'm disappointed last season's signings didn't have the impact we hoped, I do think they made sense at the time.

Hmmm I am not so sure Bob , even without keeping Morientes (worth a discussion on its own) we would still have had Crouch , Fowler, Pongole and Garcia, while I don't think many were overwhelmed with Kuyt's performances at the WC, and many including me had doubts about Bellamy.

Easy in hindsight I know, but we may have been better struggling with what we had for a season if it meant we got a top class player in(either striker or winger), rather than more squad fillers.

Thats basically what I am saying Owzt, but I find it interesting that we have spent so much on players who are nothing more than squad players. Which leads me back to my point (in another thread)about using a rotation system (22+ players) costs much more than a normal squad (16 players and backup of reserves)

[Toffeehater]

I feel we are good enough to win the title and i don't think we need to splurge on a second creative striker .. instead of playing riise on the left flank stick a natural winger back there , kewell and if he does well at the end of the season , reward him with a new contract . That leaves the central midfield , stick alonso and masch in the middle and juz rotation one of them with lucas n momo , stick gerrard on the right and thats where we will get the best out of him .. Torres is our main man upfront and at the rate with kuyt below par performances i feel babel should be given the chance to play with torres upfront . With both their pace and babel's trickery i think we can beat any defence , is just a matter of playing the players in the right positions .. Our defence is solid carra and agger at the heart , riise should be stuck back at the left and finnian at the right ocassionally being replaced by arbeloa or aurelio for riise .. We have a big squad with strength in dept and yossi can play on the right at times with resting gerrard against lesser capable teams ... if we are able or rafa is able to do this , yes then we have a very good chnace of winning the league and if it does not work then , it could be two things , the players are not performing or we need a change of mangement then , if we do fall a few points off the leaders then perhaps all we need is a season or two with maybe a quality striker like saint said , someone like torres who can chnage a game for us against fulham, chelsea ....

[banana]

England has the same problem as Liverpool. There is no midfield. No pressure. No playmaker. Lampard. Barry. Gerrard. Pathetic.

[LFC2007]

England has the same problem as Liverpool. There is no midfield. No pressure. No playmaker. Lampard. Barry. Gerrard. Pathetic.

Ridiculous statement [IMHO]

[banana]

England has the same problem as Liverpool. There is no midfield. No pressure. No playmaker. Lampard. Barry. Gerrard. Pathetic.

Ridiculous statement [IMHO]

Just say whatever you want kid. The fact remains. England midfield is poor. There is no vision and no creativity. Kick and run. Possession is given away easy and most second balls are lost. Barry, Gerrard and Lampard are all slow and wasteful with the ball. In Liverpool Mascherano and Alonso are miles better than Gerrard. In Chelsea Lampard looks like a girl cmpared to Essien and Makelele.

[LFC2007]

England has the same problem as Liverpool. There is no midfield. No pressure. No playmaker. Lampard. Barry. Gerrard. Pathetic.

Ridiculous statement [IMHO]

Just say whatever you want kid. The fact remains. England midfield is poor. There is no vision and no creativity. Kick and run. Possession is given away easy and most second balls are lost. Barry, Gerrard and Lampard are all slow and wasteful with the ball. In Liverpool Mascherano and Alonso are miles better than Gerrard. In Chelsea Lampard looks like a girl cmpared to Essien and Makelele.

It's a completely different system, kid.

I'm not disputing that the England midfield is sh!te, as it has absolutely no balance.

However, to say that Alonso and Mascherano are miles better than Gerrard, is frankly ridiculous. They are very different players, and Gerrard is certainly not a typically wasteful player and definitely not 'slow'.

Gerrard is our only player of his type in our squad, we have no other attacking midfielder. England, with all players fit, play with both Gerrard and Lampard. Players of similar mould, although Gerrard is clearly the better of the two. We don't have the same problem in this respect. Our midfield problems tend to stem from who to play behind Gerrard, or, when injured, who to play in place of Gerrard.

In conclusion, the comparison is ridiculous.

[Ciggy]

The problem is Englands manager is shite who the fuck give him a job hey 

He has never won feck all and never will horrible manc borro tw@t.

[imouthep]

[In Liverpool Mascherano and Alonso are miles better than Gerrard]

How many times has stevie risen up to lead us home to victory? Too many times to mention so to say that there are miles better is a little harsh. Can Mascherano score goals ? can alonso score 10 - 15 a season? I don't think so. They are not bad players because of this its just that you can't rate them on these attributes. If you took mascherano and looked at how many goals he directly caused in a season he would look pretty terrible but as a fan we know that he is not in the side to do this. Masch is the bulldog, Alonso orchistrates and gerrard finishes.

That is what balance is all about in a football team.

[imouthep]

The sad thing about England is that on paper you have such an amazing squad but how you put them together is important and this guy doesnot know how to do it!

GET HIM OUT!!!

[maguskwt]

The problem is Englands manager is shite who the fuck give him a job hey 

He has never won feck all and never will horrible manc borro tw@t.

at first I thought if England didn't qualify, they deserve it...

but now I'm feeling kinda sad for the players... especially those who deserve it... like gerrard... he didn't have the luck to lead his country to qualify when he had the chance to captain it...and like beckham... he was tossed away by mclaren but when mclaren ask him to come back and rescue him he did well... he's a class player no question about that...

[maguskwt]

GET HIM OUT!!!

no need to mate...


he's gonna resign first thing in the morning...

[imouthep]

Who comes in next then? Is there anybody out there willing and able to take the job?

[maguskwt]

Who comes in next then? Is there anybody out there willing and able to take the job?

maybe one of the regulars on here will do it...

[bigmick]

maybe one of the regulars on here will do it...

OK then I'll give it a go. Robert Green would be in goal because he's the second best in the country behind David James but a lot younger. Defence would be Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Terry and Ashley Cole.

In midfield Wright Phillips would play on the right, Gerrard and Lampard in the centre with Gareth Barry on the left. Up top I'd go with Rooney and Owen.

No surprises then on the line-up really, but the major change I would make is that I'd encourage Ferdinand to play as a forward centre-half (bit of a newish position this one, like a frward lying sweeper), sitting in front of Terry and the bloke he is marking. That way we'd solve the conundrum of which one out of Gerrard and Lampard bomb on, I'd ask them both to bomb on. Ferdinand could sit in the whole and stop teams breaking onto us, while also bringing the ball out. The idea would be to avoid opur tendency to play in lines and to allow Gerrard and Lampard the freedom to do what they do best.  If they could replicate the number of goals they score for their clubs, we'd win the World Cup.

I'd ask Wright Phillips and Barry to have half an eye to dropping in when the ball is on the opposite flank to give even more freedom to the central midfeild two, and I'd give Rooney the license of the park. Owen I'd be looking to be himself, playing on the shoulder and looking for balls to be whipped in behind the last defender from either flank.

I'd be very attacking, and look for us to play at an exceptionally high-tempo by International standards. We'd concede a couple, but we'd score a few as well. I reckon we'd be forcing teams into playing an English style end to end game, and I think we'd prosper.

There, all they've got to do is drop me a line and I'll be on the plane back from NZ quicker than you can say clueless, ginger, Manc, tw@t.