The Liverpool Club Thread. **No Spoilers**

Soldato
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Where does everyone stand on summer signings then? I listen to the Anfield wrap regularly and follow them on twitter and they keep going on about signing a 20 plus a season goal scorer. This is all well and good but we are the highest scorers in the league so why change what we have?

Gk ship Mignolet out. Karius to be first choice and give him a run. Ward as back up isnt a bad shout. Klopp clearly sees something in Karius and yes he had a shaky few months but then who hasnt.

LB a priority position with Moreno being sold. For me this frees up Milner to either play a more defensive midfield role or he becomes a squad player.

Rb i think we are ok with Clyne and Trent.

Cb...Lovren,Matip, Klavan,Gomez and well honestly Sakho. I believe it can be sorted and hes proving how good he is at Palace. Why go out and spend big money when we have it there ready to go? Move on and get him back in.

Midfield. Grujic looked good for the under 23s today and hopefully will get some first team action between now and the end of the season so i expect him to feature next season. Dahoud would be a nice addition but he is similar to what we have and well...i dont think hes as good as some people make out. Keita would be my shout and id go all in for him.

Forwards. I dont think major surgery is needed here just help with injuries and the extra euro games. Id be looking at Brandt and Llorente personally and id tempt Dortmund with a loan offer for Gotze to see if we can do anything there.
 
Soldato
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Need a center back and left back as priority imo, we only need a striker if Sturridge moves on. A defensive midfielder is a must too unless that becomes Grujic position but I'm sure he was signed as an attacker. Klopp mentioned 2 to 6 players possibly in recent interview. I reckon it all depends on if we get champions league to who we get. Karius needs a run issue for me is migs isn't really going to make him up his skill level is it? We needed an all ready strong number one to help him take over
 
Caporegime
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Sturridge has moved on hasn't he?

I mean he hasn't played for weeks. He may as well not be at the club, whether we need a 20 plus a season goal scorer is anyones idea really, I mean it depends if we can get one that fits Klopp's style of play and how they fit into the team we have, I mean I would love the fact we have an out and out scorer in the team, someone who is exciting, but I've no idea who would fit in. Major surgery needs to happen on our goalkeeper and our defence. It still hurts to se our best CB playing for Palace, yes I know he made a mess of it, but it still hurts.
 
Soldato
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In that regard I suppose he has but let's say he leaves our only option as a striker is origi? That's not good enough I'm not counting ings has no idea when he will return. Only origi and ings as strikers if in champions league plus cups it's not enough especially when neither have exactly set off there career with us yet. Ings has been extremely unlucky with injury so I can understand why he hasn't.
 
Soldato
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Where does everyone stand on summer signings then? I listen to the Anfield wrap regularly and follow them on twitter and they keep going on about signing a 20 plus a season goal scorer. This is all well and good but we are the highest scorers in the league so why change what we have?

Gk ship Mignolet out. Karius to be first choice and give him a run. Ward as back up isnt a bad shout. Klopp clearly sees something in Karius and yes he had a shaky few months but then who hasnt.


Just had a look at the table on the bbc sport website and liverpool have currently let in 35 goals, that's 15 more than spurs and chelsea.

defensivly i think they need to sort things out, good as i think he's been, you can't do a decent job in the prem with milner as your left back.

i still rate him above the centre halves tho, they have decentish games but not the consistancy needed.

the 20+ goals a season striker is something that seems to always get mentioned when listing things a team needs to win the prem, chelsea have it with costa, spurs have kane, city have ageuro, arsenal have sanchez, united have zlatan (can't spell ibra...), liverpool could have sturridge but a combination of his injuries and klopp preferring anyone in his position has stumped that idea.

the rest of the team then need to kick into action with the goals when the strikers have an off day, which i think liverpool are mananing at the moment without that main striker.

for me it also goes towards confidence with a top striker, if its a tight game the teams mentioned above will have the confidence that their main scorer will get that all important goal, currently i don't think livperool have that option like when suarez/torres were there.
 
Associate
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I think the defensive issues are primarily down to the fact that we just don't have enough players with the required physical attributes to play the chosen system, which is hopefully something Klopp will address further in the summer window.

I read somewhere that the squad is the shortest and lightest in the league and it shows - we struggle badly with set pieces (both defending and attacking) and get bullied by teams who play a more physical game.
 
Don
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Our defensive issues are a mixture of 3 things. We're a short team so will always struggle with long balls and set plays - Matip and Lovren are probably the only 2 players in our entire squad that are good in the air. We set up with a midfielder at LB, an attack minded box to box midfielder as our holding midfielder and out and out attacking midfielders in our box to box midfield roles. And finally, we're just the most naive team in the league - 2-0 against Arsenal and they score with a counter attack, same story vs Bournemouth, 3-1 up with 15 minutes to go and teams are breaking on us. We have to become more pragmatic in games and when we're a couple of goals up, particularly against the better teams, we don't keep bombing forward leaving ourself exposed. I can't remember the exact game but there was a game earlier in the season where we were a goal up and with a few minutes to go Lucas was brought on to sure things up - we had an attack in stoppage time and Lucas was the furthest player forward!

We need to sign another centre back or 2 and they've got to be strong in the air. We need a LB - Milner done well at the start of the season but the last few months when we've not been playing well and he's had to be a defender, he's been found wanting. Henderson's done well in the holding role and proved me wrong (I never thought he'd be able to play that sort of role) but we need another defensively minded player to cover him and or play alongside him at times. Oh and a keeper.
 
Soldato
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And finally, we're just the most naive team in the league - 2-0 against Arsenal and they score with a counter attack, same story vs Bournemouth, 3-1 up with 15 minutes to go and teams are breaking on us. We have to become more pragmatic in games and when we're a couple of goals up, particularly against the better teams, we don't keep bombing forward leaving ourself exposed.

for me i want klopp to be learning this season and address those issues, he can't expect the team to play his rush game all the time, the prem league is a different type of season with no winter break, i've seen him talking about how different it actually is so hopefully he's starting to understand it.

theres talk his replacement at dortmund has adpated klopp's style so its no quick pressing football all the time, and i think that's what he needs to work towards.

as for the set pieces it worries me more that they seem to switch off and/or don't undertand there job to often.
 
Don
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This is the thing, I don't think Klopp wants his players to play at 100mph every minute either. I can recall countless times, particularly last season where he's been stood on the touchline going mental at the likes of Can and Moreno for bombing forward late on in games. We've shown at times that we're capable of being disciplined and shutting games out (away to Chelsea, home to City and at 2-1 vs Arsenal this season) but sometimes when games are going well we get carried away and I think it's the players more than Klopp. As above, there's been times when Lucas has been brought on late on to sure things up and he's ended up trying to join in counter attacks - I'm certain that wasn't planned by Klopp.
 
Soldato
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This is the thing, I don't think Klopp wants his players to play at 100mph every minute either. I can recall countless times, particularly last season where he's been stood on the touchline going mental at the likes of Can and Moreno for bombing forward late on in games. We've shown at times that we're capable of being disciplined and shutting games out (away to Chelsea, home to City and at 2-1 vs Arsenal this season) but sometimes when games are going well we get carried away and I think it's the players more than Klopp. As above, there's been times when Lucas has been brought on late on to sure things up and he's ended up trying to join in counter attacks - I'm certain that wasn't planned by Klopp.

If it isn't planned by klopp then i think he's not getting his idea through clearly to the players, which is always possibly with players.

As you mentioned they can do it, but its against the big teams, when its the small teams not sure if its ego and think the wins theirs or they don't concentrate enough ?

with the leicester game, as an example, you know they have to be careful with vardy up front and no real pace at the back, but they seemed determined to push up, so either klopp decided it wasn't a threat or the players didn't listen.
 
Associate
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just reading this thread. what do you guys think to this line up for next season. starting 11

Laccazette​

Firmino Coutinho Mane​

Henderson Wijnaldum​

Mendy Matip Van dijk/Maguire Clyne​

Karius
Subs Ward,Lovern,Lallana,Millner,Orgi,Ings,Flanagan.
 
Don
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I think it's not going to happen in a million years. Before we even get on to the transfer, I can't see Klopp moving away from his 4-3-3 system. I'd also forget about Ings and Flanno - Ings' career is pretty much over after 2 years out and that's proven to be the case with Flanno, after so long out injured he can't even get in the Burnley team now.
 
Associate
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I think it's not going to happen in a million years. Before we even get on to the transfer, I can't see Klopp moving away from his 4-3-3 system. I'd also forget about Ings and Flanno - Ings' career is pretty much over after 2 years out and that's proven to be the case with Flanno, after so long out injured he can't even get in the Burnley team now.

Its a shame for Flanno as before his injury he was flying. hopefully he can come back. It remaindes me of Rob Jones he was a fantastic RB but never recoverd from his injury. Well i dont think G. Nev would have won all the caps he did.
 
Don
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I'm not sure he was ever flying. He looked like he could become a reliable backup but he was never technically good enough to be a longterm solution, even more so under Klopp. He could have made a decent career for himself though but the injuries really look to have taken their toll - he dropped behind Randall last season and with the emergence of Alexander Arnold, I've got as much chance of playing for Liverpool as he has playing for us again.
 
Associate
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I wouldn't be surprised to see a Hendo / Can / Gini midfield against more physical teams. Not as vulnerable to long ball counters, set pieces and general bullying - unfortunately injuries stopped it being an option this season. We might also stand a chance of scoring from one of the many corners we fail to do anything with against a parked bus.
 
Don
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The importance of Can's extra height against certain sides is emphasised by the fact that we've got a small squad. Matip and Lovren are the only two players in our squad that you would class as being decent in the air and for one reason or another we've been without one of them for the majority of the season. We need to be looking for another dominant CB (a LB that's over 6 foot wouldn't go a miss either) so that we're not picking our midfield based on how tall they are.

That said, there's definetly a case for picking Can over one of Lallana or Wijnaldum against certain teams. Away to WBA for instance I'd definitely be looking at Can in midfield regardless of whether we have both Lovren and Matip in the side, probably in place of Wijnaldum though. You then have the games like yesterday's or away games against the other top sides where you might want to be a bit more defensive in midfield, in which case you'd go with Can over Lallana.
 
Soldato
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Ha ha papers a quoting "Liverpool defender Alberto Moreno, 24, is fighting to save his Anfield career during a week-long warm weather training break in Tenerife, with manager Jurgen Klopp eyeing up other left-backs including Schalke's Sead Kolasinac, 23" complete mistake as it should read:-

Liverpool headless chicken Alberto Moreno, 24, is fighting to save his Anfield career during a week-long warm weather training break in Tenerife, with manager Jurgen Klopp eyeing up other left-backs including Schalke's Sead Kolasinac, 23.
 
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