Liverpool Thread 2012/13

[VamPook]

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry has hailed retiring Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher as one of the best five defenders the English game has seen.

The Frenchman spent seven years with the Gunners and came up against the dyed-in-the-wool Liverpudlian in the Premier League on countless occasions.

Henry told Liverpool's official website: "When Carragher retires, it will be a sad day for any Liverpool fan and for anyone who likes the game.

"The memory that I have of him is someone who was loyal and committed. You will always remember him as a Liverpool player because that's the only team he played for.

"I have had incredible battles against him. I lost some and I won some but they were always fair and always hard. He's a competitor.

"For me, he will go down as one of the top five. If you talk about how long he has played for Liverpool and what he won there and what type of player he was, he will go down in history as one of the greatest in the history of the league."

Ultimate troll shirley

[Dan_rm]

imo he's exactly what we want. trained as a dm and broke through valencia's first team as one before being moved to the back line. can work with the ball at his feet without being a wreck. good positioning. good movement. good distribution.

He's a bombscare.

[Crazy_T]

imo he's exactly what we want. trained as a dm and broke through valencia's first team as one before being moved to the back line. can work with the ball at his feet without being a wreck. good positioning. good movement. good distribution.

that doesn't sound like the raul albiol I know

[Cubiscus]

imo he's exactly what we want. trained as a dm and broke through valencia's first team as one before being moved to the back line. can work with the ball at his feet without being a wreck. good positioning. good movement. good distribution.

Having watched him quite a few times this season that doesn't sound quite like him. A promising player who's level has dropped since his Valencia days.

I don't see him as a Coutinho where his club were crazy not to use him more. Personally I'd give Coates another season.

[jim82]

We'll be wearing next seasons home kit on Sunday

[CaptainPlanet]

Carraghers fairwell won't be as sad as Sami's.

[Select_screen_name:]

Why've you decided that.

[Kenco]

I'm predicting Carra to get a goal in a 7-0 drubbing.

[SRL88]

I can definitely see him being put upfront for the last 10 minutes.

[Daaaaave]

Having watched him quite a few times this season that doesn't sound quite like him. A promising player who's level has dropped since his Valencia days.

I don't see him as a Coutinho where his club were crazy not to use him more. Personally I'd give Coates another season.

tbf I am going more off of his valencia days than rm since I've been unable to watch as regularly as I'd like

[CaptainPlanet]

He best be on pen duty.

[knapp...]

he's already said he won't be taking it if we get one.

[stevie_G_32201]

he's already said he won't be taking it if we get one.

and i fully expect him to refuse too, carra is a true professional and he wouldn't put what he wants in front of whats good for the team.

[Select_screen_name:]

Bollocks to that. If it's 3-0 and we get a pen, I'd force him.

[Daaaaave]

thinnest link possible but I just read a quote (from yesterday I think) from kuyt saying if he was strootman or de vrij he'd ride his bike to get to play for liverpool. not sure why he named those two in particular but yes please.

[foofighter23]

wouldnt be averse to either, strootman has been touted round here for god knows how long and johnson isnt getting any younger. for all the praise kelly gets he's not good enough for rb.

[themadsheep2001]

tbf I am going more off of his valencia days than rm since I've been unable to watch as regularly as I'd like

Albiol? He's not a patch on his Valencia days, back then he was a defender I would have loved to have seen arrive at Man United. Distinctly average nowadays, and if anything would be a liability in Liverpool's style of play.

As for Strootman, keep your mitts off! Fingers crossed he's headed down our way.

[stevie_G_32201]

Bollocks to that. If it's 3-0 and we get a pen, I'd force him.

I would love to see him score as well, but i just don't think he will take any penalty if we get it. I was at anfield the last time carragher scored, that moment will never be forgotten.

[CaptainPlanet]

Saw this from Fergie on SkySports:

"I was with the chief executive of Liverpool at our reserve game the other night and he told me that Brendan Rodgers, who has not been in the job a year, is the 30th longest-serving manager in the country. That's incredible."

That's ridiculous.

[knapp...]

watched albiol last night in the spanish cup final. not what we want tbh, doesn't seem to be the leader/organiser type we're after above all else. was at fault for their goal too, jumped in and was skinned easily.

[Select_screen_name:]

Just found out football is tomorrow. I am sad now.

[stevie_G_32201]

Just found out football is tomorrow. I am sad now.

That will be nothing come the end of the game tomorrow, Carras era ends for good.

[retrodude09]

Who said Albiol was class and composed on the ball and a good defender? Looked anything but in the Copa Del Rey Final last night.

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I'll be upset if Suarez goes because he's a world class player, but every week that goes by, the partnership between Coutinho and Sturridge looks better and better.

[themadsheep2001]

Who said Albiol was class and composed on the ball and a good defender? Looked anything but in the Copa Del Rey Final last night.

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I'll be upset if Suarez goes because he's a world class player, but every week that goes by, the partnership between Coutinho and Sturridge looks better and better.

He hasn't been since Valencia.

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Losing Suarez for £40m could actually leave Liverpool in a better shape overall in truth, providing its spent well.

[stevie_G_32201]

He hasn't been since Valencia.

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Losing Suarez for £40m could actually leave Liverpool in a better shape overall in truth, providing its spent well.

We would only have to bring in another striker who could do as good a job as he does, sturridge has been excellent yes but there is no guarantee he will keep this up for an entire season. Who would you bring in to replace suarezs goal and assist tally this season for less than £40m that would leave the team in a better shape?

[themadsheep2001]

We would only have to bring in another striker who could do as good a job as he does, sturridge has been excellent yes but there is no guarantee he will keep this up for an entire season. Who would you bring in to replace suarezs goal and assist tally this season for less than £40m that would leave the team in a better shape/

No guarantee that Suarez would do it again tbf. This is the first season he's done it in England. Can only go by how they have done and and try to draw conclusions as how capable they are of keeping it up.

I wouldnt outright replace his goal/assist tally, I would shift it around the squad and increase overall quality, namely by targeting the Sociedad duo of Griezmann and Illarramendi, and one of Negredo, Soldado (or any number of combinations of the 4). That's just looking at Spain. Ligue 1 you could target Aubameyang, hit 19 this season, 16 last season and is only 23.

For example:

Lucas Illarramendi

Downing Coutinho Griezmann

Sturridge

Suarez has 26 goals iirc, Sturridge has 10 in 13, even with a dip he's capable of 20 goals a season

[stevie_G_32201]

To get back to where we want to be we need to be adding quality, not replacing it.

[SRL88]

I think we'll have an interesting summer. I'm looking forward to it .

[themadsheep2001]

To get back to where we want to be we need to be adding quality, not replacing it.

I dare say a trio of Illarramendi, Griezmann and Aubameyang > Luis Suarez.

That would be adding overall quality.

[themadsheep2001]

I think we'll have an interesting summer. I'm looking forward to it .

Think it's huge one for all the leading clubs, going to be a lot of fun and quite nervy

[foofighter23]

would be madness to just give up on a world class player with no guarantee of a replacement. i admit its a conundrum to fit suarez, sturridge and coutinho into a front 3 to effectively get the best out of all 3, but its a nice problem to have.

we have the resources to keep him and still strengthen. first player to replace in the starting 11 after the defence is downing. i like him, but he's got nothing v the better teams. can do a job as a squad player i suppose.

[CaptainPlanet]

Apart from Lucas, not sure how many leaders or potential leaders we have to replace Gerrard and Carragher.

[Select_screen_name:]

Selling Suarez is borderline idiotic.

[Siven]

If we can get a good price for him (35mill+), i would sell him.

His antics are a detrement to the team, while he is a good player and potentially world class.....he constantly lets the team down and for the money i think we could improve the team more than if we kept him.

[stevie_G_32201]

Apart from Lucas, not sure how many leaders or potential leaders we have to replace Gerrard and Carragher.

Forgetting agger?

If we can get a good price for him (35mill+), i would sell him.

His antics are a detrement to the team, while he is a good player and potentially world class.....he constantly lets the team down and for the money i think we could improve the team more than if we kept him.

I wouldn't listen to any offers below £50m and even then i would be hesitant. suarez is like gerrard very hard to replace and when the time comes it will not be easy.

[Tullem]

Agger would be a good leader in the team if he could go a season without injury.

[Joshyboy1984]

Selling Suarez is borderline idiotic.

For what price though?

I think it becomes an interesting decision at around £40m.

[Daaaaave]

for me the question isn't really about selling suarez. I'd sell him "at the right price" (which we can certainly haggle about). but the bigger question is whether we have faith in the team to use the money wisely. lots of big teams have sold as big or bigger names than suarez and prospered from it, because they accurately targeted the players they needed to make the overall squad better. do we have faith in rodgers and his staff to make those sorts of decisions? because you only get one bite at that apple.

[SRL88]

If we can get a price similar or higher than we got for Torres I would probably sell. You know he has another idiotic moment in him which will only land him onto even more bother.

[stevie_G_32201]

If we can get a price similar or higher than we got for Torres I would probably sell. You know he has another idiotic moment in him which will only land him onto even more bother.

As long as we don't have another andy carroll saga.

[Select_screen_name:]

You'd obviously have to think things at 55+ million, but 35-40? No chance.

[SRL88]

As long as we don't have another andy carroll saga.

I can't see that happening anytime soon in all honesty.

You'd obviously have to think things at 55+ million, but 35-40? No chance.

Definitely wouldn't consider anything less than £50m.

[jep]

for me the question isn't really about selling suarez. I'd sell him "at the right price" (which we can certainly haggle about). but the bigger question is whether we have faith in the team to use the money wisely. lots of big teams have sold as big or bigger names than suarez and prospered from it, because they accurately targeted the players they needed to make the overall squad better. do we have faith in rodgers and his staff to make those sorts of decisions? because you only get one bite at that apple.

I would say it comes down to whether the club feel they can get all of their targets for the summer in without having to sacrifice selling one of their star players to pay for the rebuild of the squad. Its not too different to the problem Rafa faced when deciding to sell Alonso (obviously in this case it went wrong as the board pulled the plug on a huge chunk of his budget without letting him know) but he knew to get all of the targets in he wanted his budget wasn't big enough and something had to give.

Now if the board tell Rodgers he has 20mill plus sales for example, and Rodgers thinks he can get enough in from selling the likes of Carroll, Spearing etc to help pay for our targets then there is no need to sacrifice Luis. If he feels we won't have enough cash then he needs to weigh up the possiblity of selling Luis to pay for his targets plus of course the cost of replacing Luis himself. I would hope he gets enough backing from the owners to be able to get who he wants without sacrificing Luis but without CL money can the owners keep forking out big money for transfer deals?

I don't think we will sell Luis just because we get a good bid in for him. If we are confident we can do all of our business without the need of selling him to raise funds then we will keep him.

[Select_screen_name:]

We definitely only need two central defenders. Possibly a central mid and a wide player. Can we conclude that business with £20m plus sales of Carroll, Skrtel, Coates? Almost probably. We wouldn't need to sell Suarez until something silly comes along.

[SRL88]

We desperately need cover for Lucas or at least a second option. A midfield powerhouse wouldn't come a miss either.

[CaptainPlanet]

Borini and Allen haven't justified their fees yet

Sturridge and Coutinho have already really.

Can see us definitely trying to see Downing, probably for about £8m, Then wouldn't be surprised to see Reina for for about the same, plus money from Carroll, plus general transfer investment.

For a team that is rebuilding, doesn't have CL football and has a good basis for a starting 11, I think an extra £40m odd from Suarez isn't going to make much difference other than going on a direct replacement for him.

[bell]

I think Hendo could be the latter, so we shouldn't block his progress IMO.

[Razzler]

Saw this from Fergie on SkySports:

"I was with the chief executive of Liverpool at our reserve game the other night and he told me that Brendan Rodgers, who has not been in the job a year, is the 30th longest-serving manager in the country. That's incredible."

That's ridiculous.

I heard another stat the other day, since Arsenal have last win a trophy under Wenger all other 91 league clubs have changed manager

[Tony7]

On my way to the game, I decided to renew my season ticket as I enjoy football too much. I think we will win 4-1 today. Is remi the qpr striker playing today ?

[CaptainPlanet]

Rumours

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/liverpool-fc/geruechte/verein_31.html