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I do indeed fancy myself as a bit of a midfield connoisseur, although my knowledge on the matter pales in comparison to your fascinating insights regarding Mamadou Sakho in this very thread.

That midfield would be infinitely better than the one we have now.

Yes, but the point is that we didn't need to spend 12,5 mill on a "solid" fullback who gives you next to nothing going forwards. This is a bad example, but if you only want a fullback who can defend, you can just put a central defender there. If you look at the best fullbacks in the league these past few years, they were all bought on the cheap, you think of Zabaleta coming for 6 mill from Espanyol, Ivanovic for 5mill, Coleman for less than a mill, The best right back in the league, Bellerin was signed as a youth player. My point is if you want to spend more than 10 mill on a full back, he better be Dani Alves going forwards because you can find good fullbacks for very cheap if you know what you are doing.

It was 12,5mill. And yes considering you can find good fullbacks on the cheap, spending that amount of money on someone who didn't provide an assist last season for Southampton was weird to me. When he plays with Milner or Ibe in front of him, the overall lack of technique and composure in those duos makes me cringe.

Iv'e noticed Clyne doesn't seem to get much criticism on here because he is a decent defender who does "a job", but frankly he has some pretty glaring weaknesses. He is really poor technically. I have noticed that so few good attacks ever develop from the right side because he has difficulty controlling and carrying the ball. I know that most on here are fans of his but I think he was an unnecessary signing. He was signed for 12 mill and yet isn't really better than the man Southampton replaced him with, (Cedric), who cost 4mill. In my opinion, he's really got to improve going forwards because, besides his decent defensive work, he really impedes the team when he has possession of the ball.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Golden State are front-runners to sign Kevin Durant this summer. The rest of the league can pack it in if that happens.

The problem with that article isn't that it's critical. It's that it's unbelievably snarky. "Less Grinning More Winning" I mean come on. He also completely dismisses the fact that he's already managed us to a cup final, something his predecessor couldn't do in 3 years. Tony Evans regularly write's context-less, flagrant bullshit to make himself seem like he's the only one who truly understands the "problems" at hand, and this article is no different. It's basically a shitty hot take. "There's no consistency in the play", well maybe if half the team wasn't out injured there could be some consistency. "It is no excuse to say that this isn't Klopp's squad", why isn't that an excuse, these players failed the previous manager as well?

Charles Barkley Michael Jordan Rob Gronkowski Johnny Manziel

Icardi's a bit of a wild card. Amazing poacher and his positioning is world class but his behaviour is erratic and he doesn't contribute much in terms of the build up. He'd be the type to either score 15-20 a season or to do nothing and feud constantly with the manager. In other news, footballespana ‏@footballespana_ Late reports say #AtleticoMadrid have sold Jackson Martinez to Guangzhou Evergrande for €42m http://www.football-espana.net/56538...kson-guangzhou …

I think we should remember that we have had the second worst injury record in the league and we have played the most fixtures of any team in Europe this season. That's without mentioning the average and unbalanced squad Klopp has to try do something with and the fact that we didn't invest in January. The squad is tired, bare and shit I've been a little disapointed with our defensive play and some of his decisions but there are so many impediments he has to deal with that I can't expect him to really do anything yet.

I agree to the extent that playing a little more direct would simplify things for the players going forward, but then the problem is that we wouldn't be playing to Lallana, Coutinho and Firmino's strengths. That's 60+mill of players right there. What I mean is that the team is so unbalanced that whether we go more direct or try to play fluid football doesn't matter. If we play slow build-up around the box you have big cunt Benteke being an impediment or if you play a false nine, all the defense has to do is sit deep and it's the easiest game of their careers. On the flip side, if we try to play direct, that takes all our #10's out of the game and we have no wingers to cross the ball. Even if we tried to sit deep and hit teams on the counter we'd be shit most of the time because we have no pace. The only hope we have this season is if Sturridge miraculously puts a run of games together. He'd give us the attributes we are missing up front. Origi and Ings are the same to a lesser extent. They have decent enough technique to link up with players and the pace to stretch teams. If those 3 are out we will almost always struggle.

The results won't consistently improve until we get rid of the redundant or plain shite players and replace them with pieces that actually fit into a coherent team. Simple as that. You look at today, Why the fuck do both Milner and Henderson have to be on the pitch at the same time? They could not be more similar. Why is there not one technically decent player in our whole midfield? Why do we play with 4 central midfielders? Why do we have to rely on a thick 21 year to control games for us? Why can't we ever spring a decent counter? Why is a 32 million pound striker on the bench? These are all questions which can be answered with the fact that the squad is poorly built, There are no other options, the players are either all similar or don't complement eachother and it's therefore very difficult to play good football.

Yes but Rainieri's squad is well built and balanced. He has quick wingers, a goal scorer, a good goalkeeper and an industrious and composed midfield. We have none of those things. It's not rocket science, it's not even that Rodgers built an average squad, it's that the composition of the squad doesn't make an ounce of sense. Zero technically gifted central midfielders, about five #10's and only one winger. There's no pace, We paid 32mill for a striker who strives on service we can not provide, we try to build from the back but the keeper shits himself on the ball. That's all before mentioning our abortion of a defence. No one, and I repeat, no one could get anywhere near top 4 with this squad. It is so obvious that we are going nowhere with this collection of players. You don't even have to watch the games, one look at the composition of the squad should tell you that it's an unmanageable clusterfuck

Confirmed #LFC team to face @LCFC: Mignolet, Clyne, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno, Can, Henderson, Lucas, Lallana, Milner, Firmino. Good to have our best defensive partnership back.

http://cdn.empireofthekop.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen-Shot-2016-02-02-at-09.59.43-1.jpg Can't wait till Chelsea sign him.

He might be exaggerating but it's been said before that Klopp doesn't do much tactical work.

Interesting. I think it's been mentioned in the past that Klopp isn't the one who comes up with the tactics. Buvac is the one who does while Klopp oversee's everything and is the emotional leader. It's a good system imo. Ferguson used to do the same at United. Meulensteen and Phelan used to do all the coaching and tactics and Ferguson just spoke to the players.

Unfortunately, the fees quoted for those players are rediculous. Rodriguez and Xhaka are both valued at 30+million pounds, we know Teixeira will be at leat 35mill, and Ter Stegen is minimum 20. Too rich for our blood im afraid. I think we'll make a marquee 30+ mill signing then try to find cheap gems, which klopp is good at.

When you look at the fact that the club had previously bought the likes of Suarez, Coutinho, Sturridge, Mascherano, Agger, Arbeloa, Robbie Fowler, Skrtel and Maxi Rodriguez all in January, our reticence in the past 3 January windows has been bizarre to say the least.

Don't forget Marko aka The squirrel of the Danube, aka the Serbian Pogba, aka the Serbian Yaya, aka the Serbian Gerrard, Grujic

Considering his wages and length of contract, we'd easily get 25mill for him. He's still a "Premier League proven" scorer, is only 25 and there will be a big influx of money in the league because of the tv deal next year. The trick will be to find a buyer but when/if we do the fee will still be pretty good

I'm of the opinion that we should have bought a forward but journos have been intimating for a while that none of our targets would be available in January so im not surprised we didn't. We also have a pretty bloated squad and I don't think the club would have wanted to buy someone without also getting rid of a few, and the injuries would have made that impossible. I also think that Klopp would have played a big part in the club not wanting to pay for Teixeira, as he had previously said we wouldn't be goaded into paying ridiculous prices, so blaming the owners for lack of ambition is off the mark this time, Imo.

Normally, Paul Merson is clueless and talks complete shite but this is spot on and funny as well. http://www.blueheartbluesoul.com/video-paul-merson-goes-on-beautifully-entertaining-rant-about-john-stones-and-roberto-martinez.html

1 hour ago James Pearce and Paul Joyce released articles saying we would be looking to sign him in the summer. Beaten to a signing by Norwich. Splendid.