3 Stacks

What I meant was it's annoying how average teams like Swansea or Stoke or Newcastle can spend relatively big without having won anything or even having to sell players. All they have to do is survive in the league and they get big funds.

Don't know how other's view this but I personally don't like how all these smaller Premier League clubs now have the financial ability to consistently go for £15m players. It's annoying how just entering or surviving in the league provides clubs with the ability to spend big thanks to the tv deal.

Yaya has been an absolute disgrace. When he's not arsed, which is almost always now he's one of the worst midfielders in the league. Makes City so easy to play against at times. Especially with a donkey like Delph in the middle as well.

Liverpool injury crisis down to Klopp’s pressing game, says Allardyce http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jan/06/liverpool-injuries-jurgen-klopp-pressing-game-sam-allardyce Looks like Klopp has already been sussed out as a fraud and a menace to hamstrings everywhere. So glad we have thinkers like humongous Sam to investigate and theorize on these matters.

I don't know why calling Stoke a small club has a Liverpool fan seething. So again, I'll ask you: are you a Stoke fan?

Plenty of small clubs play good football, but Stoke still don't. Even with Bojan and Shaqiri they are still a cunt of a team with a bunch of talentless cloggers. They created squat against a makeshift backline and only looked threatening when they started launching it. You sound like a Stoke fan.

Already a good and commanding midfielder at the age of 21. If he keeps improving, he'll be one of the best in the league soon enough. Sidenote: buying Can for 8mill or whatever we bought him for was superb business and its the type of business we should keep doing no matter how many people complain about us "only buying kids".

Allen is our most technically gifted midfielder. His problems are he's injury prone and he lacks confidence in his abilities, which is a real shame because he is a much better player than he's regularly shown here. Every so often, you get top performances from him like we saw today.

Stoke were hilarious by the way. They tried to play passing football at the beginning, than realized that because they're shit that it would get them nowhere. Then Hughes throws on his big cunt strikers and starts hoofing it every single time. Lesson of the day: leave the fluid football to the big clubs and know your damn place.

Kolo looked like Baresi out there, he was brilliant. Thought Allen was great as well and Firmino did his best. Overall, a really gritty and satisfying performance.

Pretty gutsy performance so far considering all the injuries. Allen has been terrific, and the football is much more cohesive with Benteke on the bench. That said, second half will be very difficult and you know Hughes will want to bring on Walters or Crouch to take advantage of our centre halves.

Rafa is a good manager but he's not suited for massive clubs imo because his style is more tactical and less about making great players feel good about themselves. In his introductory press conference at Madrid he talked about the need for the team to defend better. Like who the fuck honestly cares at Real Madrid that they could be defending better? Real Madrid spend all the money they do to dominate matches, play great football and to get a shit load of top players in order to create the illusion that they are the biggest club in the world. All they really need is someone to put the cones out and to tell Ronaldo he's the greatest. That or someone who has a strictly attacking philosophy. Rafa was simply wrong for the job and to be honest he's not the right man for a lot of the other top clubs as well.

In the future, players like Lallana shouldn't even be on our radar. When you have to pay 25 million for someone who's only had one good season prior, as a club you need to realize that English or Premier League players in general offer too little value. Lallana's failures here are pretty easy to spot. At Southampton he was given a free role and the creative license to do what he wanted. Here he needs to share the ball with Coutinho and Firmino and he doesn't complement them in the slightest. All 3 players are in the same space on the pitch and want to do the same thing. Lallana would have been a good signing and would produce more if we gave him the freedom he had at Southampton but then you also have to ask yourself if he really is good enough to carry that responsibility or if 25 million can get you someone who's had more than just one good season. I feel like big clubs make this mistake all the time now. They buy these expensive and talented attacking players that they don't really need. Juan Cuadrado is a good example of this. The guy has the exact same qualities as Willian, so what was the point in Chelsea spending 30 million on him? By the same token, we already have Phil Coutinho, why do you need Adam Lallana? They do the exact same thing! Wouldn't it be better to spend much less money on more of a backup player at the #10 position and focus your funds on positions where you have holes or for players who have traits that you lack? I always felt Schneiderlin would have been a much more sensible signing. We'd just had a season where our midfield had been getting overrun on a regular basis and Lucas is so hot and cold that you never know what you'll get from him. Why then do you spend 25 mill on a player who plays the same position as one of the best players you already have at the club, but you ignore one of your obvious weak points? Anyways, all that to say, Lallana was a moronic signing.

If you were CEO of the most profitable company in the word, would you quit your job to go take over a less successful company just to prove to others you could do it? Pep proved himself at Barca B, was hired by the first team and proceeded to win every trophy under the sun whilst playing some of the best football ever seen. Now every single top club in the world are begging for him to come work for them, but I suppose he should just settle for a mid-table club somewhere, right?

TransferLive: Liverpool are interested in signing Schalke centre-back Joel Matip in the January transfer window, according to Sky sources.

I have just finished browsing through a few of his youtube videos and I can say that I am absolutely ecstatic that we have signed Marko Grujic, the future of this great football club. For those wondering what type of player he is and what position he plays etc..., I have gathered from my careful viewing that he seems to be a hybrid "#6/regista" with the capabilities to thrive as a "#8." Some have said they see him as a "Pogba" or a "Gerrard" and therefore envision him being more of a "hybrid #8/trequartista", but in my honest opinion, those views are off the mark. The qualities I immediately noticed during my study session; his breathtaking power in the middle of the park and his octopus like limbs he uses to easily cut out any danger indicate to me that he is clearly more of a "Redondo or Frank Rijkaard" like "shuttler" in midfield rather than a "hybrid #10" like Steven and Paul. That's not to say he doesn't have any offensive capabilities. I have seen many of the game's greats and in my humble opinion he possesses the same dribbling technique of a young Willem Van Hanegem and his passing reminds me of a prime Jozsef Bozsik. In addition, in one particular clip, I was absolutely flabbergasted at the pure unadulterated power he was able to manufacture with his powerful right peg. It was, dare I say it, quite "Seedorf-esque". In conclusion, it is with every confidence that I believe that young Marko can and hopefully will grace us with performances worthy of the traditions of Liverpool Football Club.

A 34-35 year old Gerrard was not superior to Toni Kroos. Also, Gerrard had no positional awareness to play in deep midfield to go along with the fact that he couldn't run anymore. Kroos is a bit like Xabi Alonso in that he's slow but he reads the game at high level and therefore doesn't actually need to run that much because he's already in a good position defensively. As I said he doesn't run much and he's not a great tackler, but that's not what makes him great. What makes him great is his passing ability, intelligence and technique, all of which we sorely lack.

He's probably not attainable but Toni Kroos would basically be the perfect signing for us imo. Since Xabi Alonso left there's been such a lack of technique and quality in our midfield and he would help us control games against these smaller teams that we can't ever beat consistently. We'd also mask his deficiencies really well because if there is one thing our midfield already has, it's donkeys who run a lot. He could basically just stand still in the middle and pick out passes all game while Can, Henderson or Milner do all his running. A midfield three of Can - Henderson, would be really well balanced. Kroos

Barry Hunter, Chief Scout of Liverpool Football Club, integral part of the transfer committee of this great club is actually the cousin of my wife's best friend. We enjoy cordial relations and have discussed his interactions with former Manager Brendan Rodgers many a time over tea. It goes without saying I am therefore reliably informed about many issues that unfortunately transpired as it regards to transfer dealings at Liverpool Football Club. I would consequently expect you don't question my knowledge on the matter any further. Please and thank you. Regards, 3 Stacks

And how well did those players do here again? Those players were almost all signed either by Comolli and Dalglish. It's clear the committee don't see any value in signing "prem proven" players seeing as the only one they've bought is Sturridge who did represent great value.

The committee have made some poor signings but I have sympathy for them. I couldn't imagine being the head scout or the head of performance analysis and having to deal with some hard-headed egotist like Rodgers who hasn't won shit constantly telling them to sign a bunch of average and overpriced "prem proven" players. Would pull my fucking hair out.

0-1 Valencia vs. Real Madrid. Brilliant team goal finished off by Benzema. Im always so impressed when watching Benzema. He could be more clinical, but his first touch, technique and vision are brilliant for a #9. You can understand why Madrid have kept him and decided against buying an Aguero or whoever else because he links so well with Ronaldo et al.

As many have already said, the whole "we need a sugar daddy to compete" thing is a lie and an excuse for the club's current incompetence. You just have to look at what Klopp did at Dortmund to disprove this. There are talented players in many different leagues who wouldn't cost an arm and a leg who are good enough and would improve us. There's just no proper justification for the current mess we're in. The thing I can't understand is the profligate spending on average Premier League players and young players we clearly never had a plan on how to use. It's all been so amateurish, it's as if we've been spending money just for the sake of it. Honestly, we should try to model ourselves like Arsenal. Develop and trust young talent, and only spend big money on players who are either proven top class or who play in a position we really need to strengthen. Imo, the way to go for us is to spend less not more because it's clear that people at the club are utterly clueless with money. Thankfully, we have a manager who with his team at Dortmund, found players like; Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, Lewandowski, Gundogan, Kagawa, Reus and Hummels for less than the combined fees we payed for Benteke and Carroll.

Think he's been a little unlucky in his time here. Benteke's missed about 4 chances that Firmino has put on a plate for him, there was that Ibe miss the other day, Can hit the post today from one of his passes. He's hit the post himself 2 or 3 times from long range, all of which would have been spectacular goals. He's also worked pretty hard imo and won a lot of challenges. I think his overall performances obviously need improvement but he's largely been unlucky not to be on about 6-7 assists and 3-4 goals, and that's all with only having one 90 minute appearance under his belt. Not normally a fan of the whole ''he just needs time and he'll get better" excuse but I genuinely believe Firmino will be fine here.