mrfahaji

Did you miss out the word 'only'? Or do you wish we had sold Tadic?

Yoshida. Contract expires in 2018, where is the new one? The club and fans can't moan about players not showing loyalty if we're not prepared to do the same for a player who a) has been here a long time, b) doesn't kick up a fuss, c) is popular with the other players and d) stepped up excellently last season. Not to mention that he'd probably be worth £10m if we did sell him (if his contract wasn't expiring).

Yeah exactly, and the problem is that if it's goals you want, unfortunately "goals" are the easiest thing to alert clubs around the world. Anyone can find out who the top goalscorers, and highest scoring midfielders are in any given league with a few minutes on google. That's why I think we would be served trying to find that box to box CM/mobile DM to sit alongside Romeu, give us a stronger base to build from and give more freedom to the AM. Might even be able to get away with playing Boufal or Tadic there (which doesn't work atm), but failing that could give Davis/JWP the freedom to make more impact in the final third. Must say though, given it was Convict Colony's original post you replied to, when a player like Ziyech is kicking about, it does make you wonder why we weren't prepared to take a chance on him. I'm not actually convinced signing another forward is the best route to go down, but I see Swansea have been linked with Jonathan Viera at Palmas. I think he created the third most chances in La Liga last season (behind Neymar & Pedro Leon), and also worked with Pellegrino briefly at Valencia. 7 goals and 7 assists last season. Also another midget though...

Sad state of affairs that players basically join whoever the agent wants them to, and behave just how the agent dictates nowadays. I doubt Virgil really does "have his heart set on a move to Liverpool", he's probably just being instructed that his behaviour is the best tactic to get the move to happen. If we don't sell him, his agent will say "never mind, it didn't work. Buck up and get playing again, keep yourself in the shop window and we'll go again in January". Equally if Chelsea come in for him, he'll be "desperate" to go there.

Spot on. Alderweireld was quality too, didn't think we'd find someone better than him, but VVD is next level. I had reservations about Mane's application, because he couldn't always be bothered for us (yet even on an off day, was a threat when he got the ball) but it turns out that for Liverpool he can be bothered every week...

And you could have got two of them as part of a bundle Don't forget Liverpool semi final. Burnley must have been fairly decent, even if it was a little frustrating - didn't we have the most shots on goal for 10 years or something? How about Palace or Everton?

Does it include goalkeeper? Also, doesn't say how many or which players it includes. If you were to split players up into categories (may differ slightly depending on attacking & defending), I'd say our first XI (including players on fringes, feasibly starters) looks like: Colossus: van Dijk Strong: Yoshida Capable: Austin, Romeu, Stephens, Long. Ok: Bertrand, Davis, Hojbjerg, Gabbiadini. Weak: Soares, Boufal, Tadic, Redmond, JWP, Clasie. Perhaps defensively, Soares and Bertrand would be slightly better. Happy to be challenged on these ratings but don't think they're far off. I expect if you categorised most other teams they would either have a cluster of 'capable' players or more at the top end, bearing in mind that of top 6, only 4 are likely to be on the pitch together. How many other teams would have 7/11 (likely that 7 out of the 10 in the bottom two categories) players not particularly good in the air? I know this is an arbitrary and subjective 'rating' but reckon it highlights a potential issue. Should we even be bothering with long corners when VVD isn't playing?

True, as I alluded to, I'm hopeful that the reason we didn't go for Iheanacho is that we have more pressing issues elsewhere. Agree on GK but you need to get over that one, it ain't happening! I'd take a CM/mobile DM over AM if I had to choose one, but agree we could also do with a more attacking player in there.

Let's not forget our 'curtain raiser' at St Mary's where Espanyol were 4-0 up at half time, and then felt a bit guilty and went back to training mode in the second half. Admittedly, that WAS a bad omen, as Gray was clueless and we started the season appalling...

I think most would argue that we could do with an AM as well. The difference being that a quality AM is going to be very hard to find, and expensive. Whereas a CM/DM is more feasible. Plus having another CM may give AM (JWP, Davis) a bit more licence to get forward. In an ideal world we would sign a CM, AM, CB & ST. But if we were to only sign 1, that is the order of priority I would give. I would also include GK in there, but have given up hope on that one. Thought it was a bit much for people to be calling out Ings' "injury history", but just seen quite how many knee injuries - on both knees - he's had!

That's being economical with time. If a manager lasts 1 season it's necessarily true that you'll have had 3 managers in 2 years, if you pick your points in time correctly. We'd all like to have a fantastic manager who never leaves, but I'd rather the manager changed regularly and we continued to finish in the top half than keep the same man who secures us 15th every season. Also, "not replacing Jay Rod". We have replaced him with Gallagher. And even if Gallagher isn't up to it, it doesn't really matter because Rodriguez was terrible. "Lack of goals at home" - we haven't even kicked off the season yet, give them a chance! I'll add some negatives to the list - Our central midfield is awful, our overall team is short and lightweight, we are currently relying on 1 average and 1 inexperienced/unproven player at centre back. We ended last season badly, partly due to players, partly due to manager (arguably). The club appear to think it was purely down to the manager and are about to have a rude awakening.

Obviously voted for Le Tiss, but think there is a case for Yeboah and Atkinson. The thing is, Le Tissier probably has another 5 goals which could be in that list, and another 10-15 which would play a part in a montage of best PL goals. Not sure anyone has, or will score two goals in the same game that match the quality of the two vs Newcastle. The fact that they were both brilliant yet so different from each other too.

If Walker played for Saints most would be raving about how we had the best right back in the division. Don't think he's worth £50m mind, but then I don't think Neymar is worth £200m or Rodriguez is worth £15m...

Surely "another manager" is a positive if you didn't like the previous one?

Maybe we should get Tim Flowers back on the coaching staff to help with that? Craig Gardner CDAJFU in that department?

Flicked back to read through some of the comments, and given the final score I could understand the meltdown. Then I realised the comments were for when it was still only 0-2!

Yes true, although the gist of my original post remains!

How many did we score in that time? It may not be the responsibility of the defenders to get goals, but if the mentality of the entire team is to keep it tight and be difficult to beat, it should be expected to keep clean sheets.

When a buyback is pretty high and considerably higher than the initial price, it shouldn't be a deterrent to the signing. Hopefully that's not the reason we weren't interested.

I actually don't think Tadic blatantly dives in the way that would warrant earning a 2 match ban, a la Ashley Young. What he tends to do is go down too easily and make a meal of the softest contact, and contact which is never likely to result in a free kick. His classic move is with the ball running away from him, getting a brush from the thigh of the defender and doing an elongated 'reach' to the floor, as if someone has stapled his feet to the floor. I have seen Boufal dive with no contact whatsoever though, so will have to plump for him.

It may not have dragged on longer because it didn't start so early. Morgan played in the first game of the season against Liverpool, but virtually up until that point 'wasn't in the right frame of mind'. Wanyama actually refused to play (pretended to be injured) in our Europa League game in Midtylland, and that was 27 August, even though I don't really recall him kicking up much of a fuss until then. Basically, they've all done it. The timing is more about when the club first has to knock back interest from them, and in this case Liverpool played their hand early. And illegally.

Didn't think Hoedt looked particularly quick across the ground, nor strong in the air from the clips I saw earlier. Funnily enough, his strengths seemed to be in getting last ditch tackles in and ball control, two of Stephens' strengths. I am only going on that video so more than happy to be corrected or hear more from someone who has seen more of him though.

In short, yes. Next summer he will still have... 4? years on his contract left, so still no obligation to sell unless we receive good money. No different to this year. Except we would have had those 10-12 games from him, and more importantly we wouldn't have been cowed by player, agent, club and media pressure. And will have made Liverpool relatively weaker by not selling to them.

It's very bizarre that the journalist addresses the fact that they paid around £35m for Mane and then continues to talk about Inter preparing a £35m bid as if it's a serious consideration for both them and Liverpool.

Some people go to an awful lot of effort in a bid to get attention don't they? I mean, posting an 'ITK' rumour is one thing, but mocking up a fake tweet and registering on a forum is a bit extreme. And a bit pathetic.