Summer 2013 Transfer Thread

[Mathewbet1]

He's actually good in the air !

[Mathewbet1]

[xerxes]

I am very excited by this.

 

"Hello, hello, Melgarejo, Melgarejo" - a ready made chant too.

[dickie mint]

We're doing more loan deals than Wonga.

[Paulie Dangerously]

We're doing more loan deals than Wonga.

 

I've no problem with loans really. Clubs in our situation can use them to our advantage as long as we don't loan shite

[WhiskeyJar]

I've no problem with loans really. Clubs in our situation can use them to our advantage as long as we don't loan shite

 

Aka Sahin?

[Unrighteous]

Aka Sahin?

 

He wasn't shit, really. He just didnt' fit where the boss wanted to play him.

[dickie mint]

I've no problem with loans really. Clubs in our situation can use them to our advantage as long as we don't loan shite

 

 

It would be nice mate if they showed a bit of intent and spent a few bob on the first team.

I can understand the odd loan, but the likes of Hull and Cardiff are in that sort of situation but not us.

[ZonkoVille77]

I wish we had loaned downing, and carroll, and henderson, and adam etc etc.

Would be able to fuck them off when it didnt work out - like sahin.

 

It's the way forward of you ask me.

[Trucker Paddy]

Sahin had 7 starts, 3 goals and 3 assists, worth remembering that. Maybe he wasn't the problem.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

 

He wasn't shit' date=' really. He just didnt' fit where the boss wanted to play him.[/quote']

 

Klopp was spot on about it. Rodgers got a bit of a scolding. I don't know if he was trying to do what he did with Downing and Enrique, but the same thing would have happened if Alonso or Mascherano were played at number 10. Actually, they probably wouldn't have got 3 goals and 3 assists.

 

We really missed out there. It's the biggest criticism I have of Rodgers so far.

[WhiskeyJar]

He wasn't shit, really. He just didnt' fit where the boss wanted to play him.

 

Well it was a failed loan, since we could not fit a square peg in a round hole.

[stringvest]

Is it not better to barrack the owners now, show we our discontent, stamp our feet, than hope for the best, all the warning signs are there, what we got to lose, ockhams razor and all that??

 

I agree. tell them you won't go to the match any more dennis.

[Spy Bee]

Is this Lorenzo Melgarejo any good like?

[Spy Bee]

Scores a lot of goals for a left back hey!

[Major Tom]

Is this Lorenzo Melgarejo any good like?

 

“Why did they let him go?” is one of the first questions any fan wondering about a new acquisition should ask when a young prospect is released.

 

In the case of 22 year-old Paraguayan Lorenzo Melgarejo, the apparently simple answer of “he didn’t do the business for Benfica last season”, is just one, very small, part of the story.

 

First thing's first. Liverpool target Melgarejo is an exciting, talented, free-scoring left winger .

 

Or rather, he was.

 

His position is purposely written in italics, because if you read any review on Benfica in 2012/13, Melgarejo will be correctly listed as a left-back.

 

However, it was on the wing where he made his name. He was bought by Benfica from Independiente in 2011 and immediately loaned out to modest Portuguese top-flight club, Paços de Ferreira. This is common practice in Portugal, with FC Porto and Benfica especially contracting a bucket-load of South Americans each summer, a significant proportion of whom fit into the “let’s have a punt on him” category. Most disappear without trace.

 

Not Melgarejo. A string of vibrant displays on the left flank (see video) saw him finish top scorer for Paços in 2011/12 (10 goals in 29 league games), almost single-handedly saving the club from relegation. It was enough to persuade Benfica to bring him into the senior squad on an improved and extended contract until 2018, with a €30 million release clause written into it.

 

 

 

However, Melgarejo was never given the chance to build on his brilliant season in his natural position. Benfica coach Jorge Jesus’ all-out attacking philosophy makes his teams a joy to watch, but the tactician comes with a hefty dose of arrogance, some would say delusion, others downright stubbornness.

 

Jesus insisted from the outset that Melgarejo would be Benfica’s first-choice left-back, undoubtedly influenced by the spectacular success in bringing about the exact same conversion in the case of Fábio Coentrão. Coentrão arrived at Benfica a talented winger. He left in exchange for €30 million euros from Real Madrid having established himself as one of the world’s finest in his position.

 

It soon became clear to most onlookers that history would not repeat itself. A series of blunders during preseason cost several goals but Jesus insisted in proving the critics wrong. Not even after the first Liga game of the season, when Melgarejo scored a spectacular own goal and laid on a perfect ‘assist’ for the opposition, in a 2-2 draw against Braga, would Jesus be dissuaded from abandoning his experiment.

 

And so the whole season the position remained Benfica’s weak spot, with opposition teams evidently targeting Melgarejo. He improved, but his lack of aggression and positional difficulties made it clear, especially against stronger adversaries, that he did not have the attributes to perform the role asked of him to any degree of success. By the end of the campaign the penny finally dropped and Jorge Jesus dropped Melgarejo for the Portuguese Cup final.

 

The skill, speed and directness of the Paraguayan’s forward runs in 2012/13, allied to a commendable incisiveness (scoring in successive home games in March) shows he remains an exciting prospect with a big future in the game. But not at left-back.

 

Liverpool target Lorenzo Melgarejo: An in-depth look at the Benfica man wanted by the Kop - Tom Kundert - Mirror Online

[MikeC]

Maybe we're getting him in as a left-sided attacker and not a full back.

[jsims]

Klopp was spot on about it. Rodgers got a bit of a scolding. I don't know if he was trying to do what he did with Downing and Enrique, but the same thing would have happened if Alonso or Mascherano were played at number 10. Actually, they probably wouldn't have got 3 goals and 3 assists.

 

We really missed out there. It's the biggest criticism I have of Rodgers so far.

 

He had no pace and was coming off a 12 month lay off.

 

We couldnt afford to play him at DM remember what happened against Arsenal?! He was shit slow and players were walking past him in the middle.

[Major Tom]

He had no pace and was coming off a 12 month lay off.

 

We couldnt afford to play him at DM remember what happened against Arsenal?! He was shit slow and players were walking past him in the middle.

 

He is a deep lying midfielder rather than what is now defined as a DM. He would work alongside a conventional DM - and pull the strings - rather than harry and snap; a la Alonso with Masch.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

He had no pace and was coming off a 12 month lay off.

 

We couldnt afford to play him at DM remember what happened against Arsenal?! He was shit slow and players were walking past him in the middle.

 

Arsenal was the first competitive game he'd played in a very long time. Hardly anybody came out of that match with any credit, other than the spectacularly shit Joe Allen, the spectacularly shit Sahin unsurprisingly was as fit as a fiddle with no strings.

 

He's now being spectacularly shit for the CL finalists, scoring and creating from deep. Shocking how that happened. It's almost like all those years of being a top player weren't a fluke, and it was the few games playing out of position here that weren't the real indicator of his quality.

[jsims]

I don't watch much German football but i don't remember him being picked to start any of their big games in the CL or in the league.

 

He might have scored and created from deep, but i doubt he is the reason they had a good season.....

 

He was far too slow for the premiership, we couldn't afford to give him games to get him up to speed and i don't think anybody would have payed 10-15 million for him at the end of that loan spell.

 

It didn't work out but i don't think people should blame rodgers for that. The guy was way off the pace when he was here....

[spider-neil]

I'm pretty sure the plan was to play Sahin in front of Lucas but Gerrard reinvented himself as a deeper midfielder and that was that. If you have a choice of Gerrard or Sahin then it's a no brainer so where does leave Sahin? On the bench as as we've seen with Pepe we aren't prepared to have high earners on the bench.

[Gym Beglin]

Sahin's on the bench for Dortmund now as well, so let's not get carried away.

 

The injury at Madrid took something from him.

[TheHitman]

A bit of talk of 7m euros for Skrtel to Napoli and we tried to send Borini in px for Matri.

[tcb]

I don't watch much German football but i don't remember him being picked to start any of their big games in the CL or in the league.

 

He might have scored and created from deep, but i doubt he is the reason they had a good season.....

 

He was far too slow for the premiership, we couldn't afford to give him games to get him up to speed and i don't think anybody would have payed 10-15 million for him at the end of that loan spell.

 

It didn't work out but i don't think people should blame rodgers for that. The guy was way off the pace when he was here....

 

He was player of the season in the Bundesliga in 2010/11