tajjuk

Did the first half of the season not happen then?

Either of these I think would be very good business and exactly what we need. Cahill not so much IMO, his legs are gone, in and around the squad maybe as a good influence in the squad, but actually playing regularly I can't see him adding very much.

One game seriously, one game in a fixture where we never do well in, on the opening day where we never do well, and it's actually no even one game, its a half, because we were good in the first half. Honestly my toddler has more mental fortitude and is less fickle than some people on here.

I wondered this, whether the back 3 needs to come back. We would need to sign another centre-back anyway but might give us a bit more protection at the back. Plus our wide players are an inconsistent mess, and with KWP, Peraud and Tino I think we have some more dynamic fullbacks who could offer a lot as wingbacks, whereas Bertrand just couldn't really do it. Play a midfield 3 of JWP, Romeu and Armstrong, with Armstrong bursting forward, keeping the front two who already look like they could cause a decent threat.

I know we are shite at defending but based on this opening weekend so is a lot of the PL by the looks of it. 33 goals I think in the 9 games so far. I am sure people were talking about us needing some experienced defender like Dawson for West Ham, well he's been crap for them today, at fault for the first goal and just lets the second one roll past him, all over the place against Saint-Maximin as well.

Yeh but that is complete nonsense as I explained. As stated if someone gets upset or annoyed by something like this then they deserve all the ridicule coming their way, these campaigns SHOULD annoy people like that. I don't really care if such people feel 'divided' they should do, such people should be ostracised from society so they realise their opinions and attitudes are not wanted. All you are doing is playing the victim card for people who are not victims. All of which just excuses their deplorable attitudes and opinions and is exactly what won't do anything to reduce levels of bigotry and discrimination. People's wrong attitudes won't improve if people keep making excuses for them.

Eh? This is just nonsense. This isn't political and if this upsets someone then they are an idiot. If someone is upset by something like this then then they are someone who causes hate and discrimination in the first place. In stuff like this there is literally the right side and the wrong side, there is no argument, no discussions etc. that is just people trying to defend people being awful. This is isn't fiscal responsibility or how high taxes should be, it is literally 'hey let's not be a c*nt to people who are different just because they are different'. That is it, no normal human being would take any issue or offence at this, if they do, then they are the problem and such people should be shamed and deserve any ridicule they get. Ironically about a multi coloured shirt this is a very clear black and white issue.

Depends if the player accepts that in the contract, I'd imagine many of these greedy agents advise against it because it means their player might get sold on earlier or is able to go for a free earlier, earning them more money.

Svensson and Lundekvam, a classic example of a pairing being a lot better together than the sum of their parts.

Salisu at least has potential to be good and I don't think has been that bad, he was the leading young defender in Spain in the season before we signed him and performed excellently against Madrid and Barca IIRC, he also seems to have pace to recover and get back. I think he'll be good this year and Bednerak and Dier is a much of a muchness imo. He is just not very good, always thought he was awful in centre-mid far too slow on the ball, but at the same time he is simply not good enough defensively to be a centre-back. Jack of all trades master of none. I don't see how a guy who Spurs are actively trying to sell, who had one of their poorest seasons for like a decade last year, and made loads of defensive mistakes, many of which were HIS, to the point they have gone out and spent £50 million on a new centre-back as a priority to basically replace him, is a 'huge upgrade'.

Because he's not very good? I mean Spurs were crap last season and he was a mainstay at the back for them and IIRC made some high profile errors. They lost to Leeds in one game 3-0 I think and Dier was basically at fault for all the goals. He's ponderous in possession, isn't particularly quick, is slow to react and seems to lose concentration a lot. For the price Spurs would want and the wages he is on we can do much much better.

Probably just further down the shortlist. I mean don't the club claim we have people as potential targets, especially to replace people who might be leaving (so obvious that Vestergaard might be one of those) potentially 1-2 years before we might actually need to sign them. I mean until about 9 months ago no one had ever heard of Nat Phillips, so I'd reckon some other players have been watched for longer. Caleta-Car fits that bill more, we've probably been watching him since he was at Salzburg.

No idea if any of this is true but reports say West Ham bid for Caleta-Car at about £14 million but Marseille want around £17 million. Also supposedly was about to join Liverpool in January but Marseille couldn't find a replacement so pulled the deal. If we have just sold a centre-back for £14 million you'd think £17 million was in our price range. Plus aren't finances in France an issue with the collapse of their TV deal. Also we should see if we can gazump West Ham and go for Milenkovic

Everything I have seen about him and read about is very positive. Even his like interviews and his good bye to his old club he seems a good character. Pacey, works hard, good movement, shoots of either foot, can score long shots, takes a good pen.

Well Forster is a blindingly obvious failure of the risks of giving someone a new 5 year contract and bigger wages. From what I can see the club seem to be only giving 4 year contracts to new signings if there is some doubt about them, i.e from a new league or abroad. 5 year contracts are going to proven players like JWP or the younger players whose wages are likely a lot lower. End of the day you can only sign players that want to sign, so if Diallo or Salisu prove themselves this year then they might get new contracts and they might agree to stay, if not we'll have the same issue down the line. Ings, Hojberg and Vestergaard were all offered new contracts and didn't sign them, yeh having an extra year at that point in hindsight would have been great, but giving 5 year contracts to them at the time, especially someone like Ings with his injury record is a risk.

Schneiderlin genuinely wanted to leave, in fact demanded to leave and I think was close to basically going on strike. JWP has shown no desire to leave and I don't think he'd do a lot to push for a move even if he did. I think he'll only go if we receive the right bid for him and his family from a much bigger club than Villa or if we get relegated. I could also easily see him staying here for his whole career.

He would also weirdly often go out of position to close down a ball he was never going to get leaving either space in behind or for him to get easily turned. I think his passing 'quarterback' ability somewhat hid his defensive lapses. Plus fully agree, he should have won WAY more headers and scored WAY more goals considering the quality of delivery JWP puts in. Someone like Joh Terry who was nowhere near the size of Vestergaard I reckon would have got into double figures for us last season, because of proper ability to attack the ball in the air.

People seem overly harsh on Nat Phillips IMO, seems well rated by Liverpool fans, was well rated by pundits and well rated by stats sites. Klopp also seems to like him and wants to keep him. By pretty much any estimation the guy had a good season, and the few times I saw him I thought he looked good. Fair enough questions about his pace and I doubt he has the long pass ability of Vestergaard, but he doesn't look like an obvious downgrade to me and at 24, has potential to improve and as others have said he's English so knows the league and should have no issue with settling. Also got to give the guy credit for handling the pressure IMO, dragged from their U23s and 2nd division in Germany to basically be their mainstay centre back to ensure a giant club like Liverpool doesn't miss out on the Champions league, many other a player probably would have folded. But as others have said I am not seeing the links aside some random ones on twitter, we were linked back in June with other PL clubs and as far as I can see that article has been re-hashed, and Liverpool fans have jumped to conclusions with us selling Vestergaard.

Well someone should tell Levy to kindly fuck off.

He's hardly Chiellini, also iirc Vestergaard was a centre-mid for the early part of his career and I think he only switched to playing centre-back at like 22-23, so it's not like he has years and years of experience as a reliable defender. I also don't get this general obsession with age, ability is what counts and just because a player is 30 or 32 doesn't suddenly mean he is any wiser or more knowledgeable all of a sudden, I mean someone like Balotelli got worse with experience and became even more unpredictable. Ward-Prowse has been a professional and hard working example to others for years now and he's only 26.

The latter IMO, one trying to paper over selling their best player the other preparing for selling their best player.

Also centre-back pairings are just that, pairings, so it may be Salisu and Bednerak suit each other better.

Club are damned if they do and damned if they don't. I'd presume like Ings, Vestergaard has basically said he won't sign a new contract, so we had two players with a year left on their deals, who want to leave and can go for a free in a year, plus there being doubts about how committed they would be in that last year. So we have sold them and are like to end up with about £43 million for the pair, more than we actually paid for them, despite the year left on their deal and with one player injury prone and 29, and the other 28 and well has had one good half season in 3 years and the jury being very much out on him still. It's not like we have lost prime Messi or something for a knock down price. AND I am willing to bet if the club had signed Ings and Vestergaard on 5-6 year deals people would have been moaning at the time why are we giving such long deals to an injury prone player and an unproven centre-back. Honestly with £15 million I think we can go out and improve on Vestergaard anyway.

We moved pretty quickly with replacements for Ings once that went through, let's hope the same happens here and the club already have deals lined up. Shouldn't we in theory have about £10-12 million left from the Ings deal as well, so add £14 million, £24-25 million?

Forster for me just because well he used to be very good, whereas McCarthy has been thoroughly meh for years, he's had the odd game like a good Championship player might but can never keep those levels up and he makes more errors imo and as alluded above Forster at least talks and organises the defence well, plus well he's just a big lump. So it's not a great situation but I feel with Forster there is a hope that a run of games and things go his way maybe he can rediscover his form of old and we'd at least then probably have a decent PL keeper. But really we need a new one. I think the club knows this but also know that both of them are on too much money and no one will take them so we have to basically get them off the books before we can add a new keeper.