‘Liverpool need a player who does not normally fit their style’

Oli Fisher

Arsenal fans debate who Arsene Wenger’s successor should be, plus our Man Utd readers debate their squad’s true ability, and should Chelsea go all in to tie down Courtois?

 

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Jose turns down a festive drink

Did make me laugh. They had the story on Radio 1 news yesterday evening, they mentioned about the stroppy one not being able to share a bottle of red with the Bristol manager that he had got in especially, because Utd got out of the stadium so quickly, they then said that after all that they couldn’t fly so had to go by coach and not getting home till 5am, they then added canned laughter on to the story 🙂

Paxman

And in the end Jose got everybody talking about him like he always does to try and deflect the attention away from the result. Plus that first goal was goal was absolutely world class. Neymar, Messi, or Ronaldo score that in Europe and everybody goes mad. Rashford or De Bruyne score that over here and the media wet themselves. But because it was ‘little’ Bristol City it barely got a mention!

Mark_Ozzy

 

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Ancelotti not the right fit for Arsenal

Carlo Ancelotti: Not impressed with PL duo

Not Ancelotti for me, the last person we need is someone similar to Wenger. I don’t doubt his managerial skills,but managers like Ancelotti and Wenger(old one) are only suited to teams who naturally have that winning mentality and that level of expectation. At Arsenal we need a passionate,animated and intense manager like Guardiola or Klopp because the bunch of players we have are as soft as they can get.There are many managers I feel who are better than Wenger but I want an Allegri or Simeone. Allegri would be perfect,he’s usually calm but can explode at anytime.I saw one game of theirs Juve were leading 3-0 and he went berzerk on the touchline because one of his players made a mistake.A perfectionist,a bit like Conte in the PL.

the specialone

 

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Do Liverpool need a striker?

I would love Luis back or Aubameyang but both are highly unlikely due to their age but I do not agree with you guys about the target man.

That’s the exact sort of player we actually need, someone that can give us something different to kill off teams in the dying minutes of the game. A player that does not fit into our style normally.

There was a pretty decent article on TIA the other day, about how few goals we score in the last 10-15 minutes, mostly thats down to our lack of impact subs.

The one player that has stood out as a impact sub is none other than Benteke, his late cameos for us secured a lot of points in his one and only season for us. A lot of posters here think of him as a failure but that is only because of high expectations. If you chanced your expectations of him and viewed him as a squad player on rotation he did pretty good, especially as a target man that did not fit into our style of play and just like with Firmino, we should not judge a target man on goals alone. Its how they change up play, how they bully teams into submission, open up play by doing something different from the previous 70-80 minutes of gameplay.

You could also look towards Lukaku, at his goal ratio vs the underdogs in the league, which is phenomenal. The problem is keeping expectations at a realistic level, you don´t expect a target man at Anfield to play every game or score goals every game but nevertheless we need a target man against teams that sit really deep. Someone that can win the ball in the box on physical strength alone when the more technical players have failed to break down the team we are battling against.

For the matter Crouch would do, as he would hardly expect to start every game and would always be ready to make it count when needed.

Notorious Bingo

 

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United’s depth problem

Just a great opportunity for all of those people who’ve been biting their tongue, as we’ve been brushing teams aside, to come out and gleefully resume their “the players are all sh*t apart De Gea” nonsense. And when some of us are saying we’re second and actually having a good season based on x, y and z – it’s just completely ignored.

What City are doing is unprecedented, they’re winning every game they play in. How can any side compete with that? So let’s forget about them for a second and compare ourselves the teams around us. The teams that we fell behind during those years after Fergie. Don’t forget we fell behind Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool. How are we doing against these teams now and, by the way, i’ll be taking the fact we’re higher in the table than them to mean we’re better!

Spurs – were touted as Champions League winners when they beat Real Madrid where they not? Their striker up for Ballon D’or and the best defence in Europe, right? We’re now 10 points ahead of them in the league having scored 8 more goals and conceded 6 less.

Arsenal – aren’t they having their best season for a number of years? A top striker in Lacazette as well as the best creative wingers in the league in Sanchez and Ozil. We’re 8 points ahead of them, scored 8 more goals and conceded 8 less than them.

Liverpool – Amongst the best attacking team in Europe with the league’s most in form player and a brazilian worth £138m. We’re 7 points ahead of them, scored 1 more goal and conceded 8 less.

Chelsea – The reining premier league champions who added Morata, Bakayoko and a couple of solid defenders to their team. Being lauded as a great team only a few months ago with Conte the best manager around. We’re 3 points ahead of them having scored 7 more goals and conceded 2 less.

I don’t believe you when you say that all of these teams are having difficulties. Some of them are having great seasons. Surely you can see that a) we are improving under Mourinho and b) the over reaction to the Bristol defeat was comical?
In answer to your questions (which by the way you’ve asked me, and i’ve answered, about 10 times this year now);

A) De Gea, Bailly, Pogba, Matic, Martial, Rashford, Lukaku
B) Shaw, Tuanzebe, TFM, Lingard, Pereira, McTominay

Happy Hurling

Let’s look at your stars in a settled successful team:

– DDG & Pogba agreed
– Bailly has not really played enough games or consistent enough to be hailed as star the way Rio, Vidic, Stamm, Pally, Bruce etc were.
– Matic is competent but he’s no Keano is he
– Lukaku, Rashford, Martial – have all been inconsistent playing well in some games going misssing in others. Lukaku has not (yet) established himself as a star striker like a RvN, RvP or Rooney. They may all turn out to be Welbeck, Nani, Depay type players… the jury is out.

As for your B choices …….

– Shaw has hardly impressed has he. He hasn’t even nailed a position. Young a 30+ converted winger gets the nod in front of him.
– Lingard you yourself put in the decent squad player category yet here you elevate him to star player.
– The rest are all young players with barely a handful of first team appearances. They may make it or may go the way of countless other young players you touted for stardom.

So in terms of progress to having a stable quality team other than DDG (who we already had) there is only the addition of Pogba. The rest all have question marks against them.

MacGuffin

 

Chelsea’s commitment quandary

Literally just received an update claiming that Chelsea are going to offer Courtois a bumper package to make him the best paid keeper in the world to ward of any interest from Real and based on the request coming directly from Conte himself

While I appreciate the jury is out on this forum as to whether we should keep Courtois, I do like the continuity this will bring but more importantly, and assuming the story is true, the fact that the board are reacting to a direct request from Conte

This could be pertinent and if we do see some transfers in January then I see this as a clear indication of the board wanting to retain Conte and trying to “make up” for what happened (or did not) in the Summer and showing him they want him to stay

The knock on effect of that is then seeing what they do with Hazard but if he is offered a new contract then I would expect him to stay. He appears to like life in London, playing under Conte so no real reason for him to leave

This could be a very good omen and potentially a turning point in the season…? KTBFFH

CFC1905

Yes Courtois is a good keeper we’d do well to keep him but I don’t see him as our main priority, just can’t understand why the club have gone about it’s business arse backwards. If we commit to keeping Courtois there’s still no guarantees Conte would commit to us past the end of season. Also make no bones about it without Hazard we look very ordinary and sterile…I’d rather we push the boat out to retain Hazard’s services amid all the interest for him from Spain.

mtal61

 

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Liverpool fans happy with draw

A draw be a great result but this game is tailor made for us. Arsenal will attack and leave spaces but we cant start badly like spurs. we cant go behind early. Just defend well and take our chances.

Two really attacking teams.

Sean the Sailor

We’ve only ever won at the emirates twice.
This season Arsenal have a tremendous home record, the third best in the league having only lost once there this season.
While I think we can beat them a draw wouldn’t be entirely a bad result. Hitting them on the counter may be the way to approach this game.

GingerLFC

 

League Cup memories

Some big memories for me in this competition. First time I stood on the North Bank was the semis that year (’87), against the Spuds and even though we lost that first leg, I was hooked. The atmosphere was like nothing I’d experienced before and that was when I started going regularly. Then that final against Luton was my first time at Wembley.

That win over ‘Pool was amazing – they were virtually unbeatable and everyone took the comp seriously, unlike today.

Amazing how the games changed, isn’t it mate? Every club would put out the same 11, every game, unless there were injuries – that was in all three domestic comps, Europe (if you were involved) and there were four extra league games each season – and you could only name/use two subs per game.

Now, it’s going to be a case of whose second-string side is better – Chelski’s or ours. We’ve managed a couple of surprise wins over them recently, so I reckon we have a chance and while I’d obviously prefer that we win, can’t say I’ll be too arsed if we get knocked out. I just find it hard to take a competition too seriously when the clubs themselves don’t.

Al the Gooner