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Thiago Alcantara


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5 hours ago, Alex_K said:

A lot of misunderstanding of the kind of player he is. Highest pass success rate in the Bundesliga. If anything he solves the one flaw we have, which is an inability to slow games down and control the pace at the elite level. We have our own way of playing of course, but a player like him adds a different dimension. Would still be very surprised if it went through given his age/profile but he's a completely different type of player to anyone in the squad at the moment. Nothing like Wijnaldum

I don't think that's true at all. We used to have one way to play, but for 2 seasons our ability to control the pace of games has been second to none. In fact I would say tactically we've evolved year on year since klopp has arrived, that was our big leap forward after kiev.

5 hours ago, Captain Turdseye said:


Had a little look on a Newcastle forum last week and they’re telling themselves they’re in for Coutinho. It’s great fun. Doesn’t bode well for Shaqiri moving there though. 

Hahaha. I can't see coutinho going there unless they're making him the best paid player in the league.

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Guest Alex_K
13 minutes ago, The Gaul said:

I don't think that's true at all. We used to have one way to play, but for 2 seasons our ability to control the pace of games has been second to none. In fact I would say tactically we've evolved year on year since klopp has arrived, that was our big leap forward after kiev.

Hence I mentioned the elite level, not casual level. City put 4 past us the other night; there are mitigating circumstances probably to that particular result, but it again highlights the lack of artistry in midfield when a side like that (of which there are admittedly few) gets on top of us. Majority of the time it gets by unneeded, but in the 50/50 games at the very highest level (European as much as domestic) we lack that kind of player in the midfield. I'm not sure how that is debatable; its been evident away in Europe for example in many games over recent seasons. Who do we have that fits that role?

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8 minutes ago, Alex_K said:

Hence I mentioned the elite level, not casual level. City put 4 past us the other night; there are mitigating circumstances probably to that particular result, but it again highlights the lack of artistry in midfield when a side like that (of which there are admittedly few) gets on top of us. Majority of the time it gets by unneeded, but in the 50/50 games at the very highest level (European as much as domestic) we lack that kind of player in the midfield. I'm not sure how that is debatable; its been evident away in Europe for example in many games over recent seasons. Who do we have that fits that role?

I'm not even counting Thursday as a match. Our players looked as pissed as me, it devalues any discussion even bringing it up. We've been to 2 CL finals running. We were knocked out this year because we weren't brave enough in the 1st leg and settled for the 1-0 - but that was the pace we chose.  But we really twatted them at anfield and would have gone through with Alisson in goal. The only thing our midfield lacks is about maybe 8 more goals over the season between them and that's being really picky - it's got zero to do with ability to change the pace of the game, because we're wonderful at it. Our away form in Europe is exactly because we've been to two CL finals running. We're there to be beaten and the team we're playing it is probably their biggest game of the season, or one of their biggest games. We're more than happy to accept our fans can help raise our game at anfield then seem reluctant to accept others can do this. Our poor results on the road in Europe have mostly been in difficult volatile stadia with teams playing at 200%. We've also struggled at old Trafford and goodison and they're absolutely shit. You just can't win every game and sometimes there's another team - we're a team that is defined by our intensity and on occasion the other team is able to match us or even have the edge. 

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It seems like a case of somebody putting 2+2 together and making 5.

 

Thiago wants to leave, Klopp has spoken about this player in the past, I can't see that there's any more to it than that.

 

He earns over 200k a week at Bayern, so would he really take a pay cut to come here? We've spent months tracking Werner, but weren't prepared to pay 54 million and put him on big wages, so why would we pay 30 million and big wages for Thiago? I understand that he is/was an elite level player and could be seen as our best midfielder, but he has lot his place at Bayern to Kimmich and Goretzka.

 

Its not the sort of signing we make anymore, I really don't see it happening. 

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The more I hear on the wages and Werner trying to convince everyone that he chose Chelsea the more it screams we had a deal structured Chelsea offered double the wages(seems he's on over 250k week) offered the agent a massive wedge and they asked for more and got told to fuck off

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3 hours ago, Tony Moanero said:

Genuinely never heard of the cunt.

I've heard of him but never seen him, but I have to admit I would be gutted if we don't sign him now. 

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6 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

He might not have a choice. Bayern have already given his squad number to Sane. 

Well he has all the choice he wants. He has a contract with Barca and if they don't want him to play, he can fuck off down the beach. There's loads of clubs all over Europe who'd benefit from coutinho who are miles and miles better than the Geordies. I can't see anyway he can't get a CL team or at least a decent club in the EL, there's no need to go to shit clubs like Newcastle and he'd be absolutely right to tell Barcelona to fuck off should they try to send him there. 

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1 hour ago, The Gaul said:

I'm not even counting Thursday as a match. Our players looked as pissed as me, it devalues any discussion even bringing it up. We've been to 2 CL finals running. We were knocked out this year because we weren't brave enough in the 1st leg and settled for the 1-0 - but that was the pace we chose.  But we really twatted them at anfield and would have gone through with Alisson in goal. The only thing our midfield lacks is about maybe 8 more goals over the season between them and that's being really picky - it's got zero to do with ability to change the pace of the game, because we're wonderful at it. Our away form in Europe is exactly because we've been to two CL finals running. We're there to be beaten and the team we're playing it is probably their biggest game of the season, or one of their biggest games. We're more than happy to accept our fans can help raise our game at anfield then seem reluctant to accept others can do this. Our poor results on the road in Europe have mostly been in difficult volatile stadia with teams playing at 200%. We've also struggled at old Trafford and goodison and they're absolutely shit. You just can't win every game and sometimes there's another team - we're a team that is defined by our intensity and on occasion the other team is able to match us or even have the edge. 

You think our players were drunk on Thursday? Do you think Klopp is a mug?

Here are some away results for you in Europe in recent seasons:

0-1 Atletico - loss

2-4 Roma - loss

1-3 Barca - loss

0-1 Napoli - loss

0-2 Napoli - loss

1-2 PSG - loss

0-2 Belgrade - loss

 

We've had some tremendous results too because we're an exceptional team (City; Bayern) but our play has at times been lacklustre & our form away has clearly been patchy. If you think its easier to argue away some of the marginal improvements that can be made to the team with drunkenness/volatile stadiums then that's your prerogative. My view is that we have 6 world class players, a very strong team but do not have anyone in the squad who can perform a Thiago/Silva/Alonso type role, which may undo us in certain games. Its the one player we really lack.

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1 hour ago, lifetime fan said:

Late 20’s with a transfer fee and wanting top wages. 
 

Why would anyone for a second think

it was happening? 

Not saying it's happening but Pearce hasn't debunked it yet. And our transfer strategy is about value. Maybe with 1 year left on his deal and considering his ability, we find the reduced fee reasonable and the wages affordable when we get rid of some players like Lallana, Lovren, etc...

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Brandt is 24 and Goretzka 25, they are both rated as about the same value (Transfermarkt) but approximately €6-7M less than Thiago so would seem to be more fitting to our model?

Unlikely either would be available if we were interested unless we slap the money on the table but as we’re newly crowned CHAMPIONS, they’d come with a premium added no doubt.

 

Curtis Jones has just signed a new deal so likely he’s expecting to play more in the future and that might be a better indicator of whether we’re going to sign a central midfielder or not.

 

It’d also create space for another academy player to be brought through.

 

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I’ve no idea if we’re gonna sign this fella or whether he’s any good, but I was thinking recently that some older signings away from our traditional model under FSG might actually be the right approach for the next couple of windows because of players like Jones, Williams and Elliot.

 

however promising they are, they’re too young and inexperienced yet to be anything other than a drop off from the quality of our first team, but there’s reasonable levels of hope they can contribute and maybe even get to be regulars in time.

 

that means we don’t want to block their progress, but also that we don’t want to rely fully on them.

 

so wouldn’t signing a couple of players who are a little older and could just be seen here for 2 years or so, be the right way to go?

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13 hours ago, Sugar Ape said:

He’s two months older than De Bruyne and everyone would love it if we signed him. He’s also played more games than him the last couple of seasons. 
 

Highly doubt we’ll sign him but if we do just enjoy the fact we’ve got another world class footballer in. Seen people on Twitter moaning about his potential wages being high, why would you even be arsed about that? Rather money went on his wages than sat in a bank account. 

Thanks bit of perspective and facts. I am now all in.

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8 hours ago, Alex_K said:

You think our players were drunk on Thursday? Do you think Klopp is a mug?

Here are some away results for you in Europe in recent seasons:

0-1 Atletico - loss

2-4 Roma - loss

1-3 Barca - loss

0-1 Napoli - loss

0-2 Napoli - loss

1-2 PSG - loss

0-2 Belgrade - loss

 

We've had some tremendous results too because we're an exceptional team (City; Bayern) but our play has at times been lacklustre & our form away has clearly been patchy. If you think its easier to argue away some of the marginal improvements that can be made to the team with drunkenness/volatile stadiums then that's your prerogative. My view is that we have 6 world class players, a very strong team but do not have anyone in the squad who can perform a Thiago/Silva/Alonso type role, which may undo us in certain games. Its the one player we really lack.

Have you looked at those locations have you looked at the context of any of them? We could go through them all 1 by 1, but frankly I can't be arsed. If you think this side has issues controlling the pace of the game, you have some pretty high expectations. I'm old enough to have watched all of our European cup winning teams and that would include quite a number of English champions too. This side is not inferior to any of them. If you bring in someone different to fix those results you're crying about, I promise you, we will lose something else. Klopp has build the most complete team you could possibly imagine and he's done it on a shoestring budget. To put every single one of those results you're complaining about there in some context. Klopp joined Liverpool in October 2015. In march 2020 against athletico Madrid, it was the 1st time we'd been eliminated from European competition outside of a final. 4 and a half years and was pretty much 4 entire seasons of European football. And we were unlucky to be knocked out because we had enough chances to score 5 times at least. Every single one of those places above is incredibly tough to go to and only one eliminated us (and not on that night, we had a 2nd leg to come). Oh and we lost 3-0 to Barcelona. 

 

And of course you forget we can't get our PEDs when we travel away. 

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