KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Thoughts

Morning folks,

I've been out and about since the end of the season and haven't had any chance to get on this. Far too much stuff to catch up on in the forum, so I'm gonna be selfish and ask you to be repetitive and tell me what your thoughts are on our new signings and what are current squad is shaping up to be.

Seems to me that we duplicated the exact same transfer policy as last season where we have sold a big player (this one I'm happy about) and bought in a large quantity of players. Don't get me wrong I am very happy with the signings we have made - especially with Firminio, but bearing in mind a lot of us were also very happy with the signings we made last season before the season began.

Looking at all of the squads, I struggle to see where we can possibly fit in the top 4 - as all of the other squads are looking stronger than us. Even Tottenham will pose more of a threat to us this year as they have finally got rid of their duds.

Also Benteke - what are your thoughts? Does he fit into the system? Speaking of system - is there a system?

Speak to me guys!

I bet that involved wimmin/wimmins ey?

LFC is for life, wimmins are just for doin' the cookin and crackin' another beer open for you's.
Get yer 'ed sorted ya trollop.

I'm not sure many of us were happy with last seasons signings at the time, so I don'tt think its similar at all. Everyone could see that replacing Suarez witth Balotelli was a massive gamble, that we were paying hugely over the odds for Lallana and very few predicted success for Ricky Lambert. I recall a lot of dissapointmemt with the signings on this forum.

This summer is different in that we have signed proven quality. Four players that will go straight in to the first 11. Milner, experienced and proven ability in a title winning team. Benteke has proven he is one of the best strikers in the league, even when playing for a team fighting relegation. Firminio a Brazil international and proven success in a league just as strong, if not stronger, than the premier league. Nathaniel Clyne, one of the top full backs in the league over the last couple of years. Then we have Ings, Gomez and Origi, who will improve the squad and came with relatively low price tags. For me this has been our best transfer window by a mile and the only one under Rodgers which hasn't left me feeling underwhelmed.

Looking at our first 11 now, I believe it is as good on paper as anyone bar Chelsea. Whether Rodgers can get the best out of them is another matter and the tough start won't help. If we can get through those first 7 away games within 3 or 4 points of top 4, I think we'll do it and possibly better than 4th.

I think Welshredfan is pretty much on the money. My only gripe being that we signed Benteke when we could have looked at Berahino as a cheaper but more suited alternative. I get the feeling we signed Benteke to prove FSG would pay big money for a striker. Personally, I'd have preferred an all out effort to sign Lacazette the previous year (with Firmino). It could have been so different....

Origi doesn't look much good for £10m. He's the only obvious dud signing but he is young and may improve.

I think the signings this year have been better than last season:

Clyne looks to be fitting straight in, milner is a very solid player and have no doubt will hit the ground running.. Benteke is an improvement on anything we had last season and can do a job if he has to on his own upfront (just have a feeling he'll be very good for us) and Ings I think will make a decent third choice striker.

These are the players I expect to come into the starting 11 - given Firminhos price tag I would expect him to start also, but I don't know enough about him and the same could have been said for Markovic last season. The other players we've signed lookto be squad players and I wouldn't to see a whole lot of them. Origi looks like he has the most ground to make up of the strikers we intend to keep / play - but he is a complete unknown so your guess is as good as mine.

I think Emre, Ibe & Markovic will be better players this season having a season under their belts (hopefully played in their favoured positions) Lovren could go either way and the same could probably be said for Rodgers and his tactics...

I do think we look healthier than last season, but the way we collapsed in the last 10 / 15 games last season is quite worrying.. I honestly don't know if Rodgers knows what he's doing..

Agree with pretty much everything here, don't know about having an 11 as strong as City & Arsenal though. They have team unity on their side and will probably only bring in one or two new faces to the starting team - we're kind of adding new faces to the new faces, if you know what I mean.

Well it's undoubted that this windows signings are a step up on the previous few, the question is will it be enough? Our central defence problems seem to be same as before, we haven't signed any cover for then either, we could well be exposed at left back unless Moreno steps up considerably from last season. Is Bog's an upgrade on Mig's? Big Benteke is probably our best signing in this window, and Cline looked good in preseason, and I'm quietly hopeful for Firmino, and maybe Ings. However, In three years we've signed around 30 players and yet haven't addressed some of our major weaknesses! I hope all our new buys and some of our old buys step up and hit the ground running, they might, they might not, who knows? I'd never judge on preseason, so any prediction on how we'll gel and who might or might not step up would be mere speculation, I'm not overly impressed by the signings, but will give them a few games before hazarding an opinion.

the players we got this time are better, Firmino is top class, best signing since Suarez, Milner is an experienced player still in his peak, Clyn is player starting his best years, Gomez and Ings are good squad players who improve the depth.

the transfers are great, if this doesn't work out Rodgers has absolutely no excuse.




what matters is our game, last season we had a horrible start and finish and a great middle. if we were at least average in that start and finish to the season we would have gotten top 4 comfortably.

out of 38 PL games only 10 are against our competitors, the other top 5 teams will always take points off each other, its those 28 games that make ore brake a season, and they broke us last season.




Benteke has a proven PL record over 3 seasons with over a dozen player of the month awards, can score with both feet from different angles and ranges, he also scores plenty from headers because he is a great header of the ball, its just another way to score for him and far away from his only trick.

tactically he is also good for the rest of the team because he will command presence and teams cant afford to ignore him, opening up space for our midfield. it will be hard to contain both him and Firmino, they should complement each other very well.

I say it again, Rodgers will have no excuses

Personally for me, it's too many changes again and not signing the right quality in the right positions if we really want to be pushing on. Deja Vu from last year.

Last year we had people raving about Lovren and Balotelli and I just felt that it's the wrong quality that time too when we have players in the squad that are undervalued and would do a better job. Supplement those with two or three top level additions and we would kick on, rather than 6, 7 lesser additions.



In saying all that, pre season has looked decent. Milner has been one of the top 3 for me, with Gomez and Ibe the other two. Still missing a proper demanding defensive midfield or someone that can dictate a game from deep like Alonso can with Milner/Henderson doing the leg work in front.
Ings looks determined and I like that. Origi has shown flashes of potential but still has a long way to go.
Henderson and Milner striking a decent relationship in the middle. Lallana looks like he's ready to make a proper difference and Ibe fighting tooth and nail to be a starter, at the moment you'd have to say he's winning that battle and would be in my side first game against Stoke.

Benteke, for me, wasn't ideal but he's here now and hopefully his game can adapt to improve us rather than ours adapt to include him.

Finally, we have got an absolute steal in young Joe Gomez who I wouldn't be surprised to see start the season at left back.

The thing is, very few of us knew enough about Markovic, Moreno, Manquillo and Can to really object to the signings at the time. Lovren had a cracking season before signing for Liverpool and as you say KP, the consensus was that Lallana was a good signing even if we had slightly overpaid, I still believe he'll prove to be a great signing. I think anyone with half a brain knew Balotelli was going to flop.

For me personally and I think this applies to a lot of us, I know a lot more about our main signings this season (Firmino, Benteke, Clyne, Ings, Milner) and therefore I'm far more positive going into the season.

I find it annoying when people claim we've made too many changes when the alternative was to stick with players like Balotelli, Borini and Markovic.