KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum West Brom - CONFIRMED TEAM & MATCH THREAD

Snakeye and Rafa - you're both right to a degree. We have a very expensive forward line, certainly much better than our opposition on the day, and that should be worth something more than a goal by Skrtel from a set piece. But I would have thought by now that people would realize that scoring goals is not just about having expensive players in a few positions. It's about having a team that works as a unit, and right now we have a lot of faulty parts in this unit.

In all honesty we need to replace 50% of this squad (while hanging onto the "good" 50%), and that isn't going to happen overnight. It will take 2-3 seasons before we have a squad (and the emphasis here is on the word "squad") that is both finally cleared of the deadwood and can mount a sustained challenge for the title. Right now we barely have a squad that can mount a sustained challenge for 6th.

If you think Man U will win the title this season because they have Rooney, Berbatov and Hernandez they are wrong - they will win the title because their 3rd and 4th choice players in most positions are good enough for the EPL and are willing enough to give 100% every time they get one of their few chances to play (unlike someone like Johnson who wants out as soon as he has real competition for his place). We can't even say the same about some of our current first choice players, and to add to that some of our best players (Agger, Aurelio, Gerrard) are injury prone.

Many of the players we love to hate will still be here next season, because it makes no sense to sell your fourth pick when you don't have a 3rd pick player. Look how much the loans of Aquilani and Insua have hurt us this season, not because they are world beaters and would have brought us the title if we'd kept them, but because they are better than having no one.

If we can sell Konchesky, Poulsen, Maxi, Cole, and Jova we will have done well, simply because we get rid of several players who weigh down our wage bill while providing nothing in return. If we recall our other loaned players and get an EPL proven player at LB, CB, DM/CM, LW as well we will have done extremely well, simply because we'll actually have a full squad of people who can be played in their first choice position. I'm not saying we don't need Coentrao, because after 2 seasons we will want that kind of quality in every position, but right now we need guys we can depend on.

It will then be up to Kenny to bring the best out of them so we can push for 4th.

Exactly! I said a couple of summers ago that we should have got shot of Gerrard and Torres when people were willing to throw silly money at us, same with Mascherano because we could have brought in 2,3 even 4 good players for that money. 2 or 3 players up to the job is not enough, especially when they are watching from the stands injured.
My fear in selling them at that time would have been that we would not see the money to invest with.

i agree with you to some extent snakeeye...

we cannot ofload all the dead wood..but we can surly ofload players like cole , jovanovic, maxi and poulsen with konchesky in summer as they are he kind of players that can be sold to diffrent clubs around the globe...

and wether you believe it or not i think this summer there will be major overhaul..atlist 4-5 signings will be done in which 2-3 will be high profile....

how can i be more positive is because 1st kenny in our manager 2nd -we have spend good amount in winter where there was less time....given an extra week after carrols signing we could have possible land players tat are being linked with us...
so i m looking very positively towards summer....


the only major problem for us reds is when we will buy..

i think we should make signings early rather then late so that in pre seasons the team can bed in...

You would probably be happy with Suarez, Carrol, Gerrard, Meireles, Johnson, Reina, Agger, as starting 11s, not saying that none of them have problems, and I know some dont like them at all, but they are the ones that look tidy on a team sheet if you saw them, maybe adding Kuyt to the list. Out of them, Suarez, Reina, and Gerrard (less and less so) are the ones that other top teams would look at and think ahhh I'd want that in my first 11.

Now I don't think you need a squad full of world beaters to win something, not even the PL title, but we have 2 maybe 3 players that would cement a first team place nearly anywhere. We need to be hitting 6 or 7 of these types at least in order to be competing. That suggests we are roughly 5 genuinely top class players short, even a bargain buy like suarez sets us back 20 mill, so if we were insanely lucky it would take 100 mill to get all the top class talent we need. On top of that we need more players of the type to make the first list which cost 10+ mill nowadays. So who thinks Liverpool are close to PL title? You've gone wrong mate, cause we are seasons off that trophy. And at least 100 mill short of competing for top 4.

Maybe have exaggerated the 100 mill, but with very good buys, more of the 25 mill sort of bracket, getting suarez level quality I think it will still take 70-80 mill.

its going to take 3 seasons and 80 million for us to be have a title winning team, it cant be done in 1 transfer window

4! feckin 4! its takes a squad of players to win the league not 11 players and we need 5 for the first 11, LB, CB, LW, RW, CM not to mention the players we need for the squad on the whole

spot on , anyone who think a couple of players is going turn liverpool into title challengers are deluded , 7 or 8 players just to compete for 4th and it will still take 2 to 3 years for that to be complete if the right players are bought .

totally agree with ya iHouse and Faz....we are exactly where we deserve to be in the league and it will take more than just few expensive signings to change that. the squad is weak....

Its better being pessimistic than optomistic rafa, I understand the change in fortunes but as you saw the last game, one result and it undoes the whole process once again. Also you mentioned the difference between our title challenge 2 seasons ago now is Alonso, Torres and Masch not here anymore, I disagree with that completely. We lost an entire creative midfield that was there when we finished second. Benayoun, Riera, Alonso, Masch and also not to mention Insua, and Hyppia. All those players were on fire that season and contributed immensley during that season. Not to mention the deadly partnership of Torres and Gerrard which I don't wanna talk about., but in terms of quality lost its a lot, lot more than you think. Several key players have left while we have replaced them with poulsen, spearing, jovannovic etc.