January 2018 Transfer Thread

[Russ Atmosphere]

Agreed, we need a better goalie - but I was under the impression from other stats that Mig had been one of the absolute worst keepers in the league for the last 3 years. This chart (bar a six month terrible patch) actually makes him look OK!

I don't know that it does. All the worst goalkeepers in the league, who play at least, would show roughly similar.

 

Here's De Gea's...

 

[Numero Veinticinco]

This Alisson bloke - has anybody actually watched him much?

Nah, had barely heard of him until the other week. People are raving about him. I’m an Oblak fan, but this Alisson is hot property. I want a new keeper, badly.

 

Alisson seems to have cat-like reflexes. Not sure if he is commanding or whatever. What worries me is that he has played only 20 games for Roma. That’s way too early for mega money. He has as many caps for Brazil as he does games for Roma.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

His real name is Allison Ramses Becker. We could call him Boom Boom. 

[The Woolster]

I recall having an argument with the Woolster as we were bringing him in. As always, Wooly was pushing his stats at Sunderland.

 

My argument then, and I think it's still valid, is that it's easy to see weighted stats at a club which spends most of the game playing defensive football, and in which a lot of the incoming shots will be speculative if the other side are having trouble breaking the defence down. But at Liverpool we play a high defensive line to press up the pitch, so that leaves space for counter-attacking, and we had relied heavily on Reina to sweep behind the back four and remain alert for the odd chance coming through (not looking to ignite the arguments about him going). I wasn't convinced they were qualities Mignolet possessed, and in the time he's been here I think he's shown he doesn't possess them. He gets a nose bleed if he approaches the edge of his area.

 

Ha, can't say I remember, but good call.

 

The analytics world has moved on since then (and thus my understanding of how to look at them!), and one thing I would say now is that the stats suggest that Sunderland were possibly also an outlier team as I mention in my last post, which I did not realise at that time, but in the other direction to us. And by outlier, I don't just mean a defensive team, but an extreme kind of defensive team, such as Burnley are now (I do wonder if the stats may overrate Oblak for similar reasons), and so the more basic stats available at the time were not picking this up.

 

From a sweeper keeper point of view, I agree with you, I can't remember if I had a view on what Mignolet was like at that time, but I do think that is different discussion to his ability to stop shots.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Mignolet isn't a shit keeper.

 

He does some things well. There's been games where he's singlehandedly won us points. He makes some good saves. At one stage, it looked like he'd improved his dominance of the penalty area and coming for crosses etc.

 

But, we need to look at his ability in the context of where we want to be as a club. The minimum goal now has to be cementing our status as a top 4 club. Consistently getting Champions League football. Then, on to title challenges.

 

Mignolet is not the keeper to help deliver that. Despite my claim that he's not shite, he definitely is too inconsistent. He's made too many mistakes over too long a period at too mature an age for him to be the type of keeper we need.

 

Look at our top 4 rivals. Lloris. De Gea. Cortouis. All top keepers and first choice for their countries. Ederson. A bit ropey against us at the weekend, but looks to be a potentially very good keeper. Pushing to be national number 1. Still relatively young. Cech is currently worst of the bunch. Age has caught up with him a bit, but he's still a good keeper.

 

Mignolet is comfortably below that bracket of keeper, for me. There will always be that capability to make clangers when you think he's turned a corner. That's always been the case. It won't change.

 

Klopp has been wise in the transfer market. The front 3 are gold. We're now improving midfield (Coutinho leaving aside) and defence. It'd be borderline neglect to do this but ignore the goalkeeping situation.

[The Golden Eel]

Nah, had barely heard of him until the other week. People are raving about him. I’m an Oblak fan, but this Alisson is hot property. I want a new keeper, badly.

 

Alisson seems to have cat-like reflexes. Not sure if he is commanding or whatever. What worries me is that he has played only 20 games for Roma. That’s way too early for mega money. He has as many caps for Brazil as he does games for Roma.

 

That's exactly why I'm asking. It doesn't strike me as the profile of a £40 million + goalkeeper. Saying that, Ederson's would have been similar and he's been pretty good, Sunday aside, when I've seen him. Plus the lad Alisson is keeping him out of the Brazil side.

[Bjornebye]

Mignolet isn't a shit keeper.

 

He does some things well. There's been games where he's singlehandedly won us points. He makes some good saves. At one stage, it looked like he'd improved his dominance of the penalty area and coming for crosses etc.

 

But, we need to look at his ability in the context of where we want to be as a club. The minimum goal now has to be cementing our status as a top 4 club. Consistently getting Champions League football. Then, on to title challenges.

 

Mignolet is not the keeper to help deliver that. Despite my claim that he's not shite, he definitely is too inconsistent. He's made too many mistakes over too long a period at too mature an age for him to be the type of keeper we need.

 

Look at our top 4 rivals. Lloris. De Gea. Cortouis. All top keepers and first choice for their countries. Ederson. A bit ropey against us at the weekend, but looks to be a potentially very good keeper. Pushing to be national number 1. Still relatively young. Cech is currently worst of the bunch. Age has caught up with him a bit, but he's still a good keeper.

 

Mignolet is comfortably below that bracket of keeper, for me. There will always be that capability to make clangers when you think he's turned a corner. That's always been the case. It won't change.

 

Klopp has been wise in the transfer market. The front 3 are gold. We're now improving midfield (Coutinho leaving aside) and defence. It'd be borderline neglect to do this but ignore the goalkeeping situation.

 

    

[Pureblood]

We're really not signing anyone.  You can put your speculation on hold for a few months, transfer children.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

Allison's missus is cute, I'm in.

 

[Wezza]

Allison's missus is cute, I'm in.

 

 

I like the fact she uses a stethoscope as a fashion accessory.

[Jenson]

All I see lately is this saves per goal/shot shite constantly. Mignolet isn’t good enough because he makes big mistakes every so often. De Gea is the best keeper in the world. That’s all you have to say but if you put him in goal for us he would still concede a shitload of the same goals Mignolet does. He would stop goals like that Arsenal clanger and the Karius one against City. In reality those clangers aren’t every game, they aren’t even every month for Mignolet. If you put De Gea in goal on the weekend he saves that first shot but he doesn’t save any of the others because he can’t make Lovren jump higher for example.

 

Negative sides like United don’t concede easy chances because they don’t play open football. That then means the sides they play against end up having speculative shots which are easier to save. We don’t just play open football we absolutely fucking dominate teams and it means we hardly concede any chances. The chances we do concede tend to be individual errors which lead to the keeper being completely exposed.

 

Mignolet isn’t good enough because we can do better but the laughable exaggerations of how bad he is dont help anybody. He’s a top tier keeper who is very strong mentally to actually deal with copious amount of abuse he gets for having the temerity to be picked by successive managers. Most games he does his job fine and has done for years now but that stick will definitely impact him. It would impact anyone. His occasional clangers just haven’t gone away and it’s the reason why he will now be replaced. The majority of the people giving him shit are going to be shocked when the next guy comes in and the same thing is happening. The manager will try to stick with them because that’s what you have to do to have a top keeper.

 

To play in goal for Liverpool or in any position actually has always been a difficult thing because the fans do nothing for your confidence. If you don’t hit the ground like Salah, expect a torrent of shite and groans. It means only the strong survive and it’s why when they do survive they’re normally perfectly happy to fuck off to better things. Not just that though they are mentally ready to be able to perform anywhere. It doesn’t have to be that way and too many players are destroyed at various clubs when they could turn out to be top players. I have no doubt in my mind if the whole fan base backed Mignolet then he wouldn’t make those occasional clangers. In reality there were a lot ready to jump on his back at the first mistake. It seems to be a running thing now. Robertson and Chamberlain were this seasons 2. Even Salah had his own fucking weirdo on here slaughtering him for the first few months.

 

I'm sorry but this bit in particular is laughable.

[Hades]

Mignolet and Karius are comfortably in the bottom 10 of Premier League keepers.

[El Rojo]

Mignolet and Karius are comfortably in the bottom 10 of Premier League keepers.

 

I'd bite your hands off for that right now.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

I'm sorry but this bit in particular is laughable.

 

"Every time a supporter says 'I don't believe in our keepers' there is a a little Migsy somewhere that falls down dead."

[TheHowieLama]

When he leaves here he won’t go the way of Reina. 

 

I agree - there will be very little chance of him getting a league winners medal.

[sir roger]

I'm sorry but this bit in particular is laughable.

 

Not sure if he would cut out all errors , but the crowd's attitude to Karius & Mignolet is toxic & needs to be sorted out when the next keeper comes in. Last season Mignolet played fairly well and he could be solid for 5/6 games but the first time he sliced a clearance he would get called all the C's & T's going by the crowd. Karius is now getting the same treatment.

[Jockey]

Not sure if he would cut out all errors , but the crowd's attitude to Karius & Mignolet is toxic & needs to be sorted out when the next keeper comes in. Last season Mignolet played fairly well and he could be solid for 5/6 games but the first time he sliced a clearance he would get called all the C's & T's going by the crowd. Karius is now getting the same treatment.

 

I think there is more than an element of truth in this. But;

 

Most of Migs mistakes this season have been away from Anfield - Watford, Leicester, Tottenham, Arsenal etc. 

[Johnlj]

DaveOCKOPConta's a good lad. We share some of the same contacts. That's not his real name though.

 

That's me out then. Will not tolerate him named Joe Harris or something like that.

[Evil_Ways]

That's exactly why I'm asking. It doesn't strike me as the profile of a £40 million + goalkeeper. Saying that, Ederson's would have been similar and he's been pretty good, Sunday aside, when I've seen him. Plus the lad Alisson is keeping him out of the Brazil side.

That Allison is keeping Ederson out says that he is very good to me. Ederson has been very good for City. And the mistake he made on sunday was 95% Pep's fault. Though for the simple fact ive seen a hell of a lot more of Oblak, who i am yet to see have a bad game or even make a bad decision, i would go for him. Aswell as i dont have any confidence in our goalkeeping scouts what so ever.

[The Guest]

I agree - there will be very little chance of him getting a league winners medal.

Do you get league winners medals for 3 appearances now?

[WhiskeyJar]

Mignolet isn't a shit keeper.

Let me stop you right there.

 

He is bad and I defended him signing and I had hope that he would bounce back from bad performances and be good like a certain United keeper. Sadly that didn't happen.

 

He is not going to improve or learn anything more.

[WhiskeyJar]

Liverpool look to have missed out on a deal to sign Leon Goretzka on a free transfer as, according to Christian Falk of SportBILD, the player has agreed to join Bayern Munich.

 

@cfbayern: Aufgrund vieler Nachfragen: Leon #Goretzka und @FCBayern sind sich über einen Wechsel einig. Vor der Unterschrift muss aber noch der Medizin-Check erfolgen (Goretzka war zuletzt verletzt)

 

@ cfbayern: Due to many inquiries: Leon #Goretzka and @FCBernern agree on a change. Before the signature but still the medical check must be done (Goretzka was last injured)

[Evil_Ways]

Speaking of Mignolet i was quite pissed at the time we went for him rather than Begovic, who i think is a good solid goalkeeper.

[Jenson]

Not sure if he would cut out all errors , but the crowd's attitude to Karius & Mignolet is toxic & needs to be sorted out when the next keeper comes in. Last season Mignolet played fairly well and he could be solid for 5/6 games but the first time he sliced a clearance he would get called all the C's & T's going by the crowd. Karius is now getting the same treatment.

 

Which comes first though? The mistakes or the attitude of the crowd?

[magicrat]

Speaking of Mignolet i was quite pissed at the time we went for him rather than Begovic, who i think is a good solid goalkeeper.

Begovic looks shot these days. That said I was livid when we saved a few quid and went for Mig.

Buy the best keeper you can should be emblazoned on the Board room wall at Anfield.