Ideal Team

Probably in the physio's room.

Tony Jantschke is needed at Gladbach! Fortunately his contract runs till 2018, so Gladbach won't have to sell cheaply *if* they would sell. He's a very useful defender who can play CB, LB, RB and DM, thus he is one of the player types that Lucien Favre cherishes greatly.

I'd rather get Patrick Herrmann from BMG. And if we're looking at Bundelisga, would love me some Bernd Leno.

rwo power wrote:Tony Jantschke is needed at Gladbach! Fortunately his contract runs till 2018, so Gladbach won't have to sell cheaply *if* they would sell. He's a very useful defender who can play CB, LB, RB and DM, thus he is one of the player types that Brendon Rodgers cherishes greatly.

Whatever price we might end up paying, I'm sure that would be several millions less than what we might have to pay for a similar quality player from else where.

*Awaits RedO's team*

We all know he wants a RB, but what else does he want to improve upon. And does he want a change of manager?

Gonna stick my neck out there and say I'd rather we go with a RB from academy if it means we can buy a 30M attacker instead of a 15M one.

FullBacks over the course of the season don't win you points. If we had Bertrand/Azplicueta instead of Moreno this season, we'd be 2-3 points better off maximum...but if we had any sort of attacking better than the shitty triangle, we'd be at least around 10 points better off.

With our limited budget, get the priorities right.

Red Alert wrote:*Awaits RedO's team*

We all know he wants a RB, but what else does he want to improve upon. And does he want a change of manager?

Striker and No. His said it before, i think hahaha

iftikhar wrote:

rwo power wrote:Tony Jantschke is needed at Gladbach! Fortunately his contract runs till 2018, so Gladbach won't have to sell cheaply *if* they would sell. He's a very useful defender who can play CB, LB, RB and DM, thus he is one of the player types that Brendon Rodgers cherishes greatly.

Whatever price we might end up paying, I'm sure that would be several millions less than what we might have to pay for a similar quality player from else where.

You conveniently ignore the *if*

And LOL XD

RedOranje wrote:Probably in the physio's room.

This. I'm not ready to comment on Sturridge he is undergoing hip surgery which is scary as hell, and he was in very poor form most of this season even when 'healthy'.

Don't call me James wrote:I'd rather get Patrick Herrmann from BMG. And if we're looking at Bundelisga, would love me some Bernd Leno.

You're just saying that because I brought him up last year, and earlier this year. But really we probably don't need Herrmann unless we're selling another winger.

Natalie Portman wrote:Gonna stick my neck out there and say I'd rather we go with a RB from academy if it means we can buy a 30M attacker instead of a 15M one.

FullBacks over the course of the season don't win you points. If we had Bertrand/Azplicueta instead of Moreno this season, we'd be 2-3 points better off maximum...but if we had any sort of attacking better than the shitty triangle, we'd be at least around 10 points better off.

With our limited budget, get the priorities right.

Do you have any decent RB's?

If not, look at how Marcelo cost Madrid the other night and you may want to re consider.

If you play a youth player, other teams will target them and if they get exposed, you'll lose more than 2-3 points.

For example, every team targets our RB because everyone knows that Azpilicueta is a superior defender to Ivanovic, and while it doesn't cost us points, if we replaced Azpilicueta with Jay Dasilva (who is one of our youth players), everyone would target him and he'd, in all likelyhood, get horribly exposed.

Ideally?  
Give Sturridge bionic legs, sign Müller, sign Lahm.


Bench:
Jones or whoever
Lovren
Flanagan
Allen/Lucas
Lallana
Markovic
Origi


Realistically?
Sign Auba or Lacazette as a forward who offers something very similar to Sturridge, sign a RB as we'll be without otherwise, address any exits that might happen.



Bench:
Jones or whoever
Flanagan
Lovren
Lucas
Allen
Lallana/Markovic
Origi

*I have no clue what RBs are decent and might be available.  I do know that we desperately need to sign a player to address the position however.


Then reassess at the end of the season and make changes as needed.  You know, specifically what I stated in the transfer thread post that no-one seems to have read.

Kick wrote:

Natalie Portman wrote:Gonna stick my neck out there and say I'd rather we go with a RB from academy if it means we can buy a 30M attacker instead of a 15M one.

FullBacks over the course of the season don't win you points. If we had Bertrand/Azplicueta instead of Moreno this season, we'd be 2-3 points better off maximum...but if we had any sort of attacking better than the shitty triangle, we'd be at least around 10 points better off.

With our limited budget, get the priorities right.

Do you have any decent RB's?

If not, look at how Marcelo cost Madrid the other night and you may want to re consider.

If you play a youth player, other teams will target them and if they get exposed, you'll lose more than 2-3 points.

For example, every team targets our RB because everyone knows that Azpilicueta is a superior defender to Ivanovic, and while it doesn't cost us points, if we replaced Azpilicueta with Jay Dasilva (who is one of our youth players), everyone would target him and he'd, in all likelyhood, get horribly exposed.

It's not about that my Kiwi friend.

As a whole, Strikers are worth more to a team than fullbacks. If you have unlimited budget, then yea, you can bolster both to perfection and have two back up Fullbacks for 60m euros combined like Real Madrid.

But when your budget is limited, and you have to prioritize, then it's a no brainer that over the course of a season a super-striker wins you more points than a super-fullback.

A Lewandowski wins you more points than a Phillip Lahm.
A Suarez wins your more points than a Azplicueta.

Natalie Portman wrote:A Lewandowski wins you more points than a Phillip Lahm.
A Suarez wins your more points than a Azplicueta.

This is more true than people are willing to admit. A lot of people complain about the fixation on 'goals and assists' but the reality is that you can have the best defensive or possession based team in the world and it won't do you any good if you can't score. It's not only the hardest thing to do in the game, but it's the most important. That's not to say that having a strong midfield or defence isn't important, it absolutely is, but if I'm building a team I would always build it around strikers/attackers first.

Getting goalscorers this summer is the absolute #1 priority.

subs:
Jones
Flanagan
Enrique
Ilori
Lovren
Toure
Can
Allen
Lallana
Markovic
Sterling
Ibe
Origi
Balotelli/Aspas (either one of them to stay as a 3rd choice striker, preferably Aspas - less wages)


Though this probably won't happen, it's still my ideal team.

Honestly i really want to sort our defense and go back to a back 4 FFS.

I would love to see

------------Mig
New Rb Sahko Skrtel Moreno
------------Can
------Henderson Cou
Sterling-------------Ibe(Marko/lallana)
---------New Striker


Sturridge if fit or another Top striker at the top, Can as a DM, stop playing the Guy in defense lets build him as a proper DM so he can become a beast quicker, convert Cou to a creative CM who can help control the middle, use our existing wide forwards as real attacking players instead of *bleep* wing backs.

Honestly i really think were 2-3 signings away from actually getting a solid top 4 spot next year and a potential tittle challenge. If only Rodgers could sort the defense out thought.

mr-r34 wrote:
Honestly i really think were 2-3 signings away from actually getting a solid top 4 spot next year and a potential tittle challenge. If only Rodgers could sort the defense out thought.

Not with Rodgers in charge we won't.

Abuse me all you want. But that's the reality of it all.

lol

With Rodgers in charge we could never be a top 4 team or challenge for the title, for sure.

mr-r34 wrote:
Honestly i really think were 2-3 signings away from actually getting a solid top 4 spot next year and a potential tittle challenge. If only Rodgers could sort the defense out thought.

this season we were just a striker away from finishin in top 4

HEIL MEIN REDS wrote:

mr-r34 wrote:
Honestly i really think were 2-3 signings away from actually getting a solid top 4 spot next year and a potential tittle challenge. If only Rodgers could sort the defense out thought.

this season we were just a striker away from finishin in top 4

and some tactical blunders...

iftikhar wrote:

HEIL MEIN REDS wrote:

mr-r34 wrote:
Honestly i really think were 2-3 signings away from actually getting a solid top 4 spot next year and a potential tittle challenge. If only Rodgers could sort the defense out thought.

this season we were just a striker away from finishin in top 4

and some tactical blunders...

Not even, just give us a proper striker and we would of made top 4.

iftikhar wrote:

HEIL MEIN REDS wrote:

mr-r34 wrote:
Honestly i really think were 2-3 signings away from actually getting a solid top 4 spot next year and a potential tittle challenge. If only Rodgers could sort the defense out thought.

this season we were just a striker away from finishin in top 4

and some tactical blunders...

no !
avoiding of tactical blunders+a 20 goals striker == title challenge

Disagree. Our run of form (which coincided with sorting out some tactical blunders) showed that we could have been a genuine T4 contender.

But frankly, I don't give a damn. I have had enough of this what could/should have been. I look forward to a summer of sanity and a meaningful 2015-16.

I think we have the highest scope for improvement next season among teams near us, because of the striker issues.

You look at
Chelsea- Costa/Hazard
City- Aguero/Silva
Man U- Rooney/RVP/Fellaini/Mata
Arsenal- Sanchez/Giroud

all in double digits in the league or near..but we have no one.

Getting the striker in the summer who can hit the ground running is the most important thing for us for sure.

For once, I really hope we get lucky with offloading our deadwood. Remember when we were on verge of getting 21M for Assaidi + Borini combined ? Anyways, any transfer discussion is MUTE imo until we know who's in charge of the club come start of preseason.

Natalie Portman wrote:I think we have the highest scope for improvement next season among teams near us, because of the striker issues.

You look at
Chelsea- Costa/Hazard
City- Aguero/Silva
Man U- Rooney/RVP/Fellaini/Mata
Arsenal- Sanchez/Giroud

all in double digits in the league or near..but we have no one.

Getting the striker in the summer who can hit the ground running is the most important thing for us for sure.

This exactly. I know it's popular the blame the manager, but it's not like we weren't creating chances to score almost all year long (only really near the end of the season did things look really tough to penetrate, and it's not hard to know why). I can remember countless times during this season if we had a decent finisher or a quality striker where we would have had goals coming in bunches from strong build up play.

In terms of rosters I don't really see much room for improvement with Arsenal and Chelsea. City could go through a pretty big overhaul, but I think that'll set them back more than take a step forward, and United can still improve but of all the clubs fighting for the CL next season we stand to make the biggest leap from even just one signing (which should actually be a good thing in terms of Rodgers and how he sets up this team).

Anyway, I have no idea who we're going to get as a legitimate striker, but a RB and Kovacic plus a goalscorer would be massive.

I also think this whole situation with Sturridge is a bit of a blessing in disguise. We needed an elite striker regardless of his health, and if he can come back to full health having Sturridge + whoever else would be great (though again, I'm not the biggest Sturridge fan anyway).

We barely create any clear cut goal scoring chances. It's been like that the whole season with the exception of moving to 3 at the back where we regained some form and played well. Otherwise, full shit all season, can't really blame any one player when the whole team can't create to save our lives.

http://www.squawka.com/football-team-rankings#chances-created#team-stats#english-barclays-premier-league|season-2014/2015#0#90#any#any#season#1#all-matches#total#desc#avg

I've watched Sterling, Coutinho, Henderson, Lallana and Sturridge flub more chances inside the box than I can count this season.