World’s best manager to claim CL victory; Sarri will be lost without Hazard

Liverpool fans praise Jurgen Klopp’s ability to notice where the team needs to be improved, Manchester United supporters scrutinise spending under the Glazers, and one Chelsea reader claims Maurizio Sarri will struggle if Eden Hazard leaves – all in Your Says of the Day.

Join in the debate here…

 

Klopp perceptive to what Liverpool fans want

I don’t want to cast any doubt on Klopp’s abilities but I have to say many voices in TT forums had put their fingers over what was needed at Liverpool at least from 2015 onward. Many had suggested that we needed fast/skillful wingers, cue the arrival of Mane and Salah. Many had pinpointed to a lack of height in midfield, Fabinho has addressed that. Quite a few said that Karius was a liability and a complete revamp of our defence was needed, the sale of Coutinho enabled Klopp to do just that.

We are lucky that the manager is just perceptive enough to be on the same wavelength of fans who have followed Liverpool for decades and had a rough idea of the rebuilding process needed to help us back to the top.

The fact that he is lucky also is a boon, given how Moreno’s injury got Robertson in the starting eleven for example. He is not without his foibles also, the Gomez inclusion and Origi’s omission in the Barca-Liverpool first tie looks like only a minor blunder after the heroics at Anfield.

All in all the above just makes him more human like the rest of us and I wouldn’t swap him for anyone.

 

Liverpool clear favourites for CL final

There’s absolutely no reason why we should not win this game. The book keepers make us odds on favourite, more than 3x more likely to win. We’re favourites for the first time in a CL final. We lost last year because of a totally incompetent goalie who made basic errors for 2 goals and should not have played (Migs would have saved both) and the assault on and loss of Salah, and non sending off of Ramos. We have the best manager in world club football, much better players in defence and attack, Kane will not be match fit, etc. Its not a 50/50 game and we should win unless something goes seriously wrong (eg injuries, wonder goals, sending off, etc). I expect a win in normal time.

timetogobr

 

Glazer spending scrutinised

I think its a mixture of poor signings and under investment.

In the period between the Glazers arriving and Fergie retiring these are the gross spends of the Big 6:

City £595.42m
Chelsea £486.50m
Liverpool £394.08m
Spurs £339.20m
Utd £299.70m
Arsenal £227.58m

These are the figures in the post-Fergie era:

City £863.20m
Chelsea £841.06m
Utd £662.23m
Liverpool £632.30m
Arsenal £428.24m
Spurs £366.45m

City and Chelsea have invested more than us and I think Liverpool and Spurs have invested better than us.

Since Fergie retired City have spent £200m more than us. Doesn’t seem a lot when spread over 6 years but ultimately their current squad could be said to be £200m better than ours.

Manthistle

 

Or you could say that most of their signing have worked whereas ours havent,example- B.Silva has turned out a much better prospect than Martial despite being much cheaper,and even a player like Mousa Sissoko is playing much better than a £89m player in Pogba! Mane,Salah,Firminho,Eriksen,Son,B.Silva,Sane,Sissoko-all have improved beyond belief,whereas our players seem to have regressed…

redblood

 

That’s a separate debate – whether they have been coached better or if their general attitude is better or a mixture of both. When Martial and Sterling joined their respective clubs you could argue that both were equally exciting prospects. The difference is that Sterling has been coached brilliantly and has a good attitude. If Martial was at City and we had Sterling I bet Martial would be the one in the running for player of the year and Sterling would be another on a long list of under achievers at Utd.

Fact is City have spent £200m more than us since Fergie retired and arguably spent better too. There is a plan and structure in place with City signings whereas we just seem to be signing names that generate shirt sales regardless of what the squad needs.

Manthistle

I’m not the biggest fan of discussing whether the Glazers have invested or not because ultimately it mostly comes down to people’s understanding of what spending is.

From my side, all I know is that the team has needed major rejuvenation for many years now yet we are still miles behind. I think the Glazers could definitely have invested more but at the same time I think that, with the funds they did put in, we should be much closer but funds were spent very very badly overall by all managers, mostly due to Woodward and upper management not having a long-term strategy in place for what kind of players we should sign and whether the players we did sign were the right choices (how on earth anyone thought Fred was worth 50m should have their head examined).

The Glazers, who have the final say and therefore need to take responsibility, will now need to invest very heavily if they wish to reap the rewards of CL football in 2 years time. They also need to pull Woodward away from transfers because it is very clear that he has no idea what he’s doing. How we haven’t yet recruited a best-of-the-best Director of Football is still mind-boggling to me.

Cheers

Sympathy for the Devils

 

Man Utd got their rebuild wrong after Fergie

The last title won under SAF was hardly a season full of vintage football. The league was won as much by everyone else being poor as we were good. The team was on it’s absolute last legs in respect of the senior players.
This is where we were continually fed the horse sh*t that there was no value in the market and had refused to spend £35m on Hazard at the start of that season. Imagine the difference he’d have made over the last decade!

hookeddevil

 

Some good stuff mixed with the usual exception.

Hookeddevil – I would agree that it wasn’t vintage Utd, but a lot of Fergie’s teams weren’t all that swashbuckling (certainly not for the full season) anyway imo. Also, that’s not my point. Mine was that the team that wins the PL is a winning team.

The one Moyes inherited was far from perfect and needed maintaining. We got that wrong. We spent all summer chasing Fabregas and Bale. Signed neither. Ended up with Fellaini. But we had money. It wasn’t a lack of funds which cost us it was a shambolic approach to transfers.

As for Hazard, my memory is sketchy so apologies if I get this wrong, but i’m sure we had agreed a fee for him but he went to Chelsea for whatever reason (most likely a higher salary). I’m sure his club said a fee has been agreed with three teams and it’s up to him to decide where he went. After Hazard we went for Lucas Moura, but again, he decided to go elsewhere.

Money was there, we just couldn’t spend it!

Alfie07

We refused to raise our bids on both players due to a lack of value. We’d gone to something like £30/£32m and refused to go to £35m. Hence all the no value bull under SAF.
We’d had our cake with the Ronaldo fee and were surprised when everyone else demanded more for their stars. We should have spent the money.
The lack of investment had started when we tried to replace Ronnie on the cheap with Valencia and Owen!

hookeddevil

 

And that’s interesting too. If we really wouldn’t pay for Hazard – which is different to how I remember it – there was a sea change in attitude a year or two later when we offered a world record fee for Bale.

Is that a change in attitude by the owners, person making the deals or manager? We have a new CEO and manager then, so maybe there were other reasons why we wouldn’t go the whole hog for Hazard?

Alfie07

 

Hudson-Odoi and Loftus-Cheek injuries give other players a chance

It’s unfortunate that we lose 2 brightest young players for long time. CHO and RLC suffered the same achilles injury. However we can also see that it’s an opportunity for other players to step up. Notably Christian Pulisic who will arrive for the next season. And also Willian and Pedro who has never been able to cement the starting spot.

For RLC’s position, I really hope Barkley will step up and deliver. He has a lot of potential, somehow is not consistent and somehow Kovacic is already ahead of him for a spot in the starting 11 with much less talent. We will have also Mason Mount next season in that position.

aindro

 

Chelsea worried about Arsenal strike force

Very apprehensive about this game. Emery has proven pedigree at this level. He is a tactical master as evidenced in the knockout stages all those years with Sevilla. In the opposite corner is a manager with zero tactical adaptability, Emery can plan in comfort knowing we will play exactly as he prepares for, we will prepare as usual, in the belief that this system will overcome all, as always.

On paper I believe we are stronger except for the striking department. I believe with jose or rafa in charge we would be odds on favourites to take the trophy but as it stands its 50:50 at best for us imo.

I would like to think we will be defensively prepared for them and that eden can make the difference and win the game, but my feeling is that they will be the ones defensively prepared and it will be lacazette and aubameyang that make the difference. If Arsenal play 442 diamond we could be in real trouble. Whenever one can get behind between cb and fb then luiz or christensen are going to be dragged wide with only jorginho available to to help cover the other striker and the number 10(likely Ozil). If we play as usual they could rip us apart with cutback after cutback into the box and I do feel win or lose Arsenal will get the better of the chances.

Love to win it though and we have the players to win, fingers crossed, a super cup against liverpool or spurs would something to look forward to next season.

Luckydestiny

 

Sarri lost without Hazard

RDP, disagreeing with your interpretations of facts is not the same as ignoring or being hostile to the facts mate.

You claim a Europa league final appearance is an achievement – That is your subjective opinion, one can also argue that given our squad the only excuse possible for not reaching the semi’s at least is bad luck, we should be in the final, not because we are Chelsea, but because of the squad we have.

Similarly you think the fact we finished 3rd is also a notable achievement, but again one could easily argue that with Chelsea having the 3rd best squad in the league we should be finishing 3rd, the fact that we had to rely on Arsenal, Utd and spurs having extremely poor patches throughout the season to achieve this actually counts against Sarri imo.
There is a very simple reason Sarri managed to just about make Par in terms of these targets this year despite the many tactical and game management flaws he has, his name is Eden Hazard. Without Eden I believe we will need a much more intelligent and pragmatic coach in charge who can adapt when needed to get the best out of the team.

Luckydestiny