Megadrive Man

I wonder if we'll give Van den Berg a chance here next season? He will count as a home grown player too. If not then it feels like we should be able to sell him for a decent amount of money.

Liverpool centre-back establishing himself in 'top five defenders in Europe' while on loan - Liverpool Echo On-loan Liverpool defender Sepp van den Berg is charting among some of the best central defenders in the top five leagues in Europe, according to a report. Figures collated by Comparisonator show that the 22-year-old is only bettered by William Saliba (Arsenal), Nico Schotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund), Kim Min-Jae (Bayern Munich) and Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk, this season. The comparison website for player performance used its AI index to find the best centre-backs via their averages. Van den Berg has made just four appearances for the Reds as he has spent his formative years away from Anfield. The Dutchman has enjoyed loan spells in the English Championship with Preston North End, as well as two stints in Germany with Schalke 04 and now with FSV Mainz. The 22-year-old has been one of the standout performers, shining for Mainz during a difficult season for one of Jurgen Klopp's former clubs. He has won 59.1% of his tackles this season in 27 appearances,, scoring twice. Mainz boss Bo Henriksen has already hailed the defender this season and has set out his stall that Van den Berg will improve. He said: “He is a leader and the boss in the middle. He’s getting better and better." Van den Berg's time in the Bundesliga has been a learning curve after suffering a long-term injury which restricted him to just nine games for Schalke. His time with Mainz has been another challenging experience but one that has seemingly catapulted him among some of the leading centre-backs in Europe's top five leagues, in his position. Upon his return to Merseyside in the summer, he will have two years remaining on his contract at Anfield. With Joel Matip's long-term knee injury and recurring problems for Ibrahima Konate, there has been chances to deputise alongside Van Dijk in the Liverpool back four, which has seen Jarell Quansah come to the fore.

Carlo Ancelotti extended his contract until 2026, so it could be that Real plan to wait for Alonso until then. From Alonso's point of view, he may not want to leave immediately so early in his managerial career. He may want to have a crack at the Champions League with Bayer next season.

Nobody is disputing that he's a good player but it's ok to say that he had a bad game from time to time.

Would be textbook Everton for them to request a stadium like the Spurs ground but end up building the old version rather than the new one.

Leicester are facing a points deduction next season which is good news for Everton assuming Leicester go up and assuming that Everton haven't gone under by then.

Guarantee there's at least one post on GOT blaming him for this!

Why is it a concern? It's really not that big a change in the scheme of things. All it means is that those bookmakers will have a liability on somebody else, so they want people to bet on Alonso with them to help balance the book. Yes they charge 5% on profit. It's just easier to track the odds on those sites though so you can see if something is coming in or drifting out. Generally these sorts of markets are always a bit chaotic anyway as you get people regularly putting 2 and 2 together and making 5.

Uk to leave the EU was 6/1 on the night of the vote!

It's a swing of 53 points, but he's still the clear favourite. It's better to track these sort of things on the exchanges. He's 2.4 favourite on them currently.

It's probably because they've taken a big bet on somebody else so they want more people to bet on Alonso with them to balance the book. 1.57 to 2.1 is not a huge shift in the odds anyway.

40 letters of no confidence gone in against him, only 13 more to trigger a confidence vote. Sunak is 'fighting' back by warning his MP's that he will call an election if they try and remove him!

It was right eventually!

I wasn't 100% sure about him but he's been brilliant this season. In terms of what he does, he scores goals, he creates goals, he works his arse off and never stops running,his pressing is fine too. He's still only 20 years old by the way! You say Klopp never shits on his own signings but he's been very quick to make it clear to Harvey's friend from his Fulham days Fabio Carvalho that he doesn't feature here. For a player with his build, he needs to become a Bernardo Silva type. Obviously he's not at that level yet, but I think he can get there. I don't know what you've been watching this season if you can't see what he offers.

I think he'll end up at City. The new midfielders they've signed don't look up to the top level.

I do, well spotted, I've edited it now.

Kimich is 29 and has spent almost his entire career playing for a Bayern side that walks the league virtually every year. I think it's too late in the day for him to move to the Premier League. I doubt we're interested, he'd want a massive wage too. It's even harder than normal trying to predict signings this summer due to the manager change. When you look at the squad, I don't think we really need much. I can see us signing Adarabioyo on a free from Fulham and then maybe one other player. A lot depends on what Salah wants to do though.

No that was rejected.

Next Year? Manchester United? They are more likely to be playing FC United the way they're going!

Some online chatter that there's going to be a big announcement this week.

Alan Brazil and Dean Saunders on Talkshite claiming that the Liverpool players want Pep Lijnders to take over next season.

Agree. It's mid March and this was our third meaningful defeat of the season.

Klopp said Diaz, Nunez and Gakpo all picked up knocks today.

United look the most likely to win this.

Perfect timing