So if we play better this season and just get a measly extra 9 points, you think Liverpool will finish 9 points better off than last season? Or we'll both just repeat last year? I'm not even sure how a Liverpool-supporter could see that coming, except for very, very, very wishful thinking. Or did I misunderstand you?
Liverpool 2014/15 | WARNING: Contains strong amounts of Scouse nonsense
- Thread starter Wumminator
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Does. not. compute.
I think Skrtel will stay and Ilori will go out on loan and it'll be a choice between Coates and Toure.
Correct, I just double checked. Computer says No!
Well, "massive reds" has probably been made up by the fact that he got asked about the Barca-rumours in which he answered "It's fun to be linked, but my focus remains at Strømsgodset. I'm a Liverpool-fan though". My cousin is in his class, and he's by no means a "massive red".
Some noggies on twitter reckon he is. I'll take your word for it though.
He's as much fan as Solskjær was before he left Norway. Hopefully it doesnt matter which club he supports when he decides which club he'll go to next, as I adore the fecker. Barca got three scouts at Marienlyst today just for him, so I guess he'll have a fair amount of clubs to choose from
I don't think Agger to Barcelona will happen to be honest. It's unlikely anyway, one or two of the Catalan newspapers say they're interested if their other targets are unattainable but others say they aren't interested at all.
I really want him to stay as first choice but that won't happen. Worst case scenario we do the same as we did with Reina last season, let him go on loan late in the window after no suitable bids come in.
Rumours are floating around he doesn't want to go to England because of the shitty youth development there (in terms of buying shitloads of young foreign players and never actually using them).He's as much fan as Solskjær was before he left Norway. Hopefully it doesnt matter which club he supports when he decides which club he'll go to next, as I adore the fecker. Barca got three scouts at Marienlyst today just for him, so I guess he'll have a fair amount of clubs to choose from
Also there seems to be a work permit problem when he leaves on winter, so PL is probably out.
It's confirmed both by him and Stuttgarts board though that he visited them twice already, being tempted by their youth facilities and strong reliance on own players in the starting 11.
Would be an intelligent move I would say, I don't think any of the top PL clubs can do the right things for his development.
That is simply not true. And for my knowledge, he's never expressed nor said anything about the youth development in England, only that he and his father has been focusing on him finishing school. He's already planning on spending the next year or so in Drammen, still going to school alongside playing for Strømsgodset, however that can change quickly.
For the bolded part, by the way:
Yeah, was wrong about the work permit thing, it's a german problem until he is 16.
http://www.welt.de/sport/fussball/b...30-andere-Klubs-jagen-einen-15-Jaehrigen.html
But there's also the part about english youth development.
And if you're being honest, it's true. Chelsea are loaning them out, ok. But when was the last time you've seen an academy player of one of the top 4 going through to become part of the starting eleven and becoming a vital part of it?
He's so young, he can go to some midtable club with excellent youth development. If he wan'ts to play in PL some day, fine. In 6 years he will still only be 21. He's to young to go to any top 4 club right now, would just be silly.
Winning the league is the goal, challenging top four is the absolute minimum for a club Uniteds size and I feel we will be well in the mix. Unless Liverpool get in a quality replacement for the loss of Suarez wouldn't be surprised to see them miss out.
It'll be Sakho / Lovren / Skrtel / Toure (because BR has said so) and I hope Ilori on loan because he's going to be superb (the fastest CB around by a mile - in fact I think he is the fastest sprinter in the club bar none) and probably Coates will be sold (though BR has been saying nice things I think that's to big him up), Kelly will be sold and Agger for sure (Napoli or Barca).
People keep saying until we get in a quality replacement for Suarez but they are missing the point ...by...a....mile. He won't be replaced, the system will change. Basically BR changed his preferred system (4-3-3) to accommodate Suarez, now he's gone we'll revert. So don't have tunnel vision, widen it and see what is happening with the team as a whole.
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Sterling. Next .....
A lot of the scousers on twitter seem to think they should make a move for Falcao...
I really hope that was a thinly veiled reference to my username.
Yeah...I said Top 4, not Liverpool.
What an odd point.
Mmm, well it's true that city and chelsea don't do that much. That just leaves us and Arsenal. We've got Flannagan and Sterling. Arsenal, imagine the last one was wilshere.
Sterling was bought from QPR or some other London club I think. So not Liverpool's product.
Edit: Just checked and it was QPR. Could be worth up to £5m depending on appearances.
List the Top 4 from the season just finished.
Irrelevant. Most of the top youth players come from somewhere else .... he debuted for Liverpool in our Youth team against Hibs.
He's been caught with his pants down and is looking for exit left.
I count him as QPR's youth product. He spent 7 years with them. You bought him from them for a large fee (up to £5m)
Flannagan is yours though.
Sterling's legit, I would say.
But still, I counted the "Money Top-4", not the one from last season.
And Arsenal, despite Wenger's merits, haven't really done anything the last years. Januzaj could be the first in years for United, ManC isn't doing anything. Chelsea just buys them early and sells with profit.
Arsenal even lost out on Barca's Spanoudakis because of this. Seemed a done deal, but in the last moment he went to Stuttgart because he did not see the chance of getting into the squad early.
Suppose it is hard to know where to draw the line. Januzaj is a good one. It can be argued that he is Anderlecht's product, not ours. Same with Fabregas being Barca's product and not Arsenal's.
Depends on what you guys class as youth and academy.
In the current United squad Darren Fletcher, Danny Welbeck, Johnny Evans and Tom Cleverley all joined United's youth academy before the age of 11. Only Tom was at another club before United. Adnan came to us from Anderlecht so would not be classed as a United academy product. Wheres someone like Ravel Morrison played for our youth team, but joined late in life, not actually coming through the academy.
United's academy actually produces a lot of PL standard players as can be seen in nearly every PL match where someone was in United's academy. Issue for all the top teams is that PL standard is not sufficient to compete at CL level. Hence the reason for looking elsewhere. I think the other thing about the academies is the recent change to only being able to scout locally has put the PL top teams at a distinct disadvantage to the top European teams.
In the current United squad Darren Fletcher, Danny Welbeck, Johnny Evans and Tom Cleverley all joined United's youth academy before the age of 11. Only Tom was at another club before United. Adnan came to us from Anderlecht so would not be classed as a United academy product. Wheres someone like Ravel Morrison played for our youth team, but joined late in life, not actually coming through the academy.
United's academy actually produces a lot of PL standard players as can be seen in nearly every PL match where someone was in United's academy. Issue for all the top teams is that PL standard is not sufficient to compete at CL level. Hence the reason for looking elsewhere. I think the other thing about the academies is the recent change to only being able to scout locally has put the PL top teams at a distinct disadvantage to the top European teams.
You lose a quality player and fail to replace with similar quality you will suffer for it. United have been limping along with Valencia in Ronaldo's position and seemingly never replaced Paul Scholes, we haven't been anywhere near those United sides since. Fergusons still won titles through his superior man management and knowledge of knowing exactly his to win it, but the quality of football suffered tremendously.
You won't be able to directly replace Suarez that's for sure but if your options are then Lallana Or Lambert you will suffer despite the system. People keep saying you need to get in a quality replacement for Suarez for a good reason.
Arsenal suffered losing their quality players without replacing them and they have been hanging onto top four by a lack of quality below them and now they are needing to plough money into the squad themselves.
You actually scored more goals without Ronaldo in the side than when he was in it.
The 3 seasons after he left you scored a total of 254 league goals. This compares to 231 in his final 3 seasons.
How does that work then ?
Bit of a daft comparison really unless your going to factor in the quality of the defences faced and feel free to ignore Scholes influence too. United were a more direct force with Ronaldo but still had the players to play possession football. Post Ronaldo you saw Scholes switching play at will drifting balls to his wide men and Valencia in his first season was outstanding combining with Rooney but the football was get it to Paul Scholes, get it wide, bang it in the box.
So yea Paul Scholes, that's how that works then, probably one of the greatest examples of why it is quite easily Scholes-Gerrard. Apart from the last 3 months of course.
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You might also factor in that United had a much much better squad then than what Liverpool have as a starting point now, they had the quality all through the squad to soften the blow, Liverpool simply don't.
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The Times are reporting that we'll have around £40m to spend on an attacking player.
You stated that United 'limped' along without one man. That man being Ronaldo. I gave you some stats to disprove that theory. You also came to within a few seconds of winning 3 league titles in 4 years without him, not to mention reach a CL final. Everything else you say is pure conjecture. The fact remains that United (under Ferguson) carried on being successful regardless of Ronaldo leaving. Your change of manager had a far greater impact on your club's fortunes than any one individual player.
I've mentioned this on here before. The departure of Ferguson is more significant than any individual player of any team anywhere, any time. Never has the success of a club been so intertwined with that of a single man. Yes, other people played their role but Ferguson was the heartbeat to all that went right. I'm not suggesting success is impossible without him but it's also far more difficult.
For all this talk of Suarez leaving, it's not anywhere near as important as the retirement of a manager who swept all before him over two decades. For some reason this isn't being discussed that much - certainly not as much as the significance of Suarez leaving. The two aren't comparable in their importance.
I've asked the question a few times on here: How could the same players that romped home to the league title the year before perform so poorly the following season ? It was never answered, because in a way it was a rhetorical question, seeing as we all knew the reason why. Still hasn't stopped their supporters ignoring it though when it comes to Liverpool's future.
Is Brent going to perform as well this year? If he does you guys are probably in decent shape.
Imagine we'll just chuck that around at a few players and see who we can get. Maybe an Ozil-type signing is possible.
Any serious links to players worth spending that on?