Thiago Alcantara

[Code]

43 minutes ago, ManéMan said:

I think Thiago would've injured himself trying to keep up to the pace of the game during the first half.

Thiago would dictate the pace of the game, not be affected by it. 

[Barrington Womble]

I heard he's on full rest. Another injury like last year where they're not really sure why he has such an issue. 2-4 weeks rest and then hope for the best. 

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

He is a great player but to accommodate him we need two new midfielders who don’t get injured much if ever.

[El Rojo]

33 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

I heard he's on full rest. Another injury like last year where they're not really sure why he has such an issue. 2-4 weeks rest and then hope for the best. 

Bayern Munich: ‘How am I doing, boss?’

 

Michael Edwards: ‘You’re doing a great job, son… a great job!’ 

[ManéMan]

1 hour ago, Barrington Womble said:

I heard he's on full rest. Another injury like last year where they're not really sure why he has such an issue. 2-4 weeks rest and then hope for the best. 

Sounds a lot like Sturridge Syndrome.

[Section_31]

Being put on "full rest". The stuff dreams are made of.

[Lee909]

Not sure why people are that surprised. He only one played 30 league games in a season in far less physically demanding leagues. For Bayern after the initial first two injury hit seasons he averaged around 40 games a year, which for a team that plays 60 games a season it's pretty shite, your being rested/managed through a third of the season. Great player, but it's not going to work here

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

Brilliant player, but major concerns now over his lack of ability to stay fit. 
 

With the current situation in midfield this is a real blow.

 

I am not aware to which extent this is something we should’ve foreseen in this case, but in general it should be a basic rule to stay away from players with dubious fitness records.

[Barrington Womble]

1 minute ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

Brilliant player, but major concerns now over his lack of ability to stay fit. 
 

With the current situation in midfield this is a real blow.

 

I am not aware to which extent this is something we should’ve foreseen in this case, but in general it should be a basic rule to stay away from players with dubious fitness records.

He's averaged about 20 league games per season for his entire career. I think it was pretty predictable and I don't think we cared as we figured we have loads of players. Except too many of them are the same and bring nearly no quality. 

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

8 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

He's averaged about 20 league games per season for his entire career. I think it was pretty predictable and I don't think we cared as we figured we have loads of players. Except too many of them are the same and bring nearly no quality. 

If that’s correct, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t, then I’d say we should’ve stayed away. No player with that kind of history should be brought in, no matter how good they are.
 

[Barrington Womble]

3 minutes ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

If that’s correct, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t, then I’d say we should’ve stayed away. No player with that kind of history should be brought in, no matter how good they are.
 

I looked at it the other day. He managed 21 per season I think across his time at Munich and a fraction under 20 across his whole career. 

 

My guess is we just thought with the numbers we have in midfield, coupled with his profile and low transfer fee, we thought that was a gamble worth taking. I can't believe we thought we'd get him on the pitch more than Barca and Munich managed - we just accepted his lack of availability. 

[Code]

7 minutes ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

If that’s correct, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t, then I’d say we should’ve stayed away. No player with that kind of history should be brought in, no matter how good they are.
 

This is his history in the league and CL.

 

 

[TheHowieLama]

9 minutes ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

If that’s correct, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t, then I’d say we should’ve stayed away. No player with that kind of history should be brought in, no matter how good they are.
 

223 league games in 12 seasons says hello.

 

[John102]

If you look at it in isolation, I still think a player of his ability for 20m is a good deal. If we could manage his games more I'd have no problem at all. I don't have a massive issue with him playing around 20 league games. My issue is obviously that those who have to share that load are currently Chamberlain, Morton, Milner, Keita all of who are not up to it.

[LFC 6 Times]

In terms of a replacement for Wij, this was mad given his fitness record.

[Daisy]

1 minute ago, LFC 6 Times said:

In terms of a replacement for Wij, this was mad given his fitness record.

Utter fucking stupidity 

[Boss]

He was a good signing for £20m. The problem was that we let Gini leave when we should've renewed. Gini in the midfield this season would've covered a multitude of sins. Our worst midfield lineup probably would've been Henderson, Gini and Milner - which was fantastic for us for years. Then you add Fabinho and Thiago back in when they're available. Elliot could come in and out as well. The lack of Gini exposes everything. That Chelsea game was crying out for him to stabilise our midfield.

 

I remember watching us in the Champions League once - I can't remember who it was against. Naby played the first half, and we were all over the place in midfield. Gini comes on for the second, and the midfield settled immediately and started dominating the game. Such a criminally underrated player. 

[Code]

Last three league seasons.

 

Liverpool: 24 out of 38 games

Bayern: 24 out of 34 games

Bayern: 30 out of 34 games

 

Its not that bad really. 

[3 Stacks]

14 minutes ago, Boss said:

He was a good signing for £20m. The problem was that we let Gini leave when we should've renewed. Gini in the midfield this season would've covered a multitude of sins. Our worst midfield lineup probably would've been Henderson, Gini and Milner - which was fantastic for us for years. Then you add Fabinho and Thiago back in when they're available. Elliot could come in and out as well. The lack of Gini exposes everything. That Chelsea game was crying out for him to stabilise our midfield.

 

I remember watching us in the Champions League once - I can't remember who it was against. Naby played the first half, and we were all over the place in midfield. Gini comes on for the second, and the midfield settled immediately and started dominating the game. Such a criminally underrated player. 

Not renewing Gini is perfectly fine. You can't sign every 30 year old to a long term deal and higher wages. We did so with van Dijk, we want to do so with Salah, we may do so with one of Firmino and Mane. That's 3 or 4 30 year olds we might extend. That's not a particularly great strategy.

 

The problem is Keita is a failure and Ox makes no tangible difference to this team. They're taking two squad spots that should have gone to better midfielders by now.

[Boss]

12 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

Not renewing Gini is perfectly fine. You can't sign every 30 year old to a long term deal and higher wages. We did so with van Dijk, we want to do so with Salah, we may do so with one of Firmino and Mane. That's 3 or 4 30 year olds we might extend. That's not a particularly great strategy.

 

The problem is Keita is a failure and Ox makes no tangible difference to this team. They're taking two squad spots that should have gone to better midfielders by now.

 

It'd cost us at least £80m to bring two good young midfielders in, and FSG won't spend that amount of money unless we have £80m coming in from somewhere. So, who are you selling to make that a reality? You're not getting anything in this market for Ox or Naby.

[3 Stacks]

10 minutes ago, Boss said:

 

It'd cost us at least £80m to bring two good young midfielders in, and FSG won't spend that amount of money unless we have £80m coming in from somewhere. So, who are you selling to make that a reality? You're not getting anything in this market for Ox or Naby.

I don't really care how the club has to do it, just do it. Clubs cut the cord with players who aren't performing all the time. If they don't want to take a loss with Keita, that's a mistake. That doesn't mean you have to pay all your 30 year old players and keep getting older. You saw the midfield yesterday? A declining Jordan Henderson who they recently extended and a 35 year old James Milner. You think the solution to that was to pay another 30 year centre mid? Of course not. 

 

The debate you can have is; was Thiago a value add over having Gini. Should we have replaced one with the other. I'll entertain that because Thiago has missed too many games although I think Thiago is a better player. Otherwise, Gini had to go.

[Freddo]

12 minutes ago, Boss said:

 

It'd cost us at least £80m to bring two good young midfielders in, and FSG won't spend that amount of money unless we have £80m coming in from somewhere. So, who are you selling to make that a reality? You're not getting anything in this market for Ox or Naby.

In that case were stuck with them both and they go free in 2023. 

Not ideal is it. They need to get reasonable fees for players and then invest. 

[Boss]

19 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

I don't really care how the club has to do it, just do it. Clubs cut the cord with players who aren't performing all the time. If they don't want to take a loss with Keita, that's a mistake. That doesn't mean you have to pay all your 30 year old players and keep getting older. You saw the midfield yesterday? A declining Jordan Henderson who they recently extended and a 35 year old James Milner. You think the solution to that was to pay another 30 year centre mid? Of course not. 

 

The debate you can have is; was Thiago a value add over having Gini. Should we have replaced one with the other. I'll entertain that because Thiago has missed too many games although I think Thiago is a better player. Otherwise, Gini had to go.

 

If you watched the Chelsea game and didn't think what Gini could've done in that midfield, then I don't know what to say. We were literally crying out for someone to get their foot on the ball, slow the game down, and not give possession away - basically, everything Gini is as a player. We've had so many different combinations in midfield this season, all because nobody can stay fit. Gini was never injured.

 

Okay, you can say the wage demands were too high. Fine. Sign someone like Camavinga then. Don't go into the season without replacing him and make the exact same mistake we copped for last season when we sold Lovren and didn't replace him. 

[John102]

2 minutes ago, Boss said:

Okay, you can say the wage demands were too high. Fine. Sign someone like Camavinga then. Don't go into the season without replacing him and make the exact same mistake we copped for last season when we sold Lovren and didn't replace him. 

When you say mistake, I assume you mean from a fans perspective? I don't think they think they made any mistake. They are after the steady stream of CL money ( the reason for Super League) and they got it. I think they are fairly comfortable they will remain in the CL for foreseeable, without massive outlays. If anything, I think last season could have emboldened their stance, still making top 4 with an unpredicted injury crisis.

 

They have been pretty clear they want us to be sustainable. I imagine it's a hard sell to investors that they want to drop 100 million on players, with wages on tip, to chase a move from 2nd to first, all in the name of a title, which isn't going to bring 100 million extra revenue through the door.

[3 Stacks]

28 minutes ago, Boss said:

 

If you watched the Chelsea game and didn't think what Gini could've done in that midfield, then I don't know what to say. We were literally crying out for someone to get their foot on the ball, slow the game down, and not give possession away - basically, everything Gini is as a player. We've had so many different combinations in midfield this season, all because nobody can stay fit. Gini was never injured.

 

Okay, you can say the wage demands were too high. Fine. Sign someone like Camavinga then. Don't go into the season without replacing him and make the exact same mistake we copped for last season when we sold Lovren and didn't replace him. 

Putting aside that Gini’s been poor this season, if your argument is we should sign someone on a 4 year deal and increased wages because we could have maybe used him in some games this season, that's not a good argument.

 

We essentially swapped Gini for Thiago. If you want to argue that was a mistake, that has more validity, although I would disagree with that. I simply would have also replaced Keita and or Milner and Ox by now.