Winter Window || Jan 2014

Red Alert wrote:

Art Morte wrote:

Red Alert wrote:

I personally don't think we need a left winger, but Kacaniklic from Fulham (one of the former ex Liverpool academy players that was sacked from Hodgson for PFK) contract expires in the summer. Definitely seems talented, and looks good. Wonder if we'll put in a bid in for him.

We have no left-wingers, of course we need one!
And Coutinho is the CAM you want, said by Rodgers himself that he sees his best position be in the center. So get in a left winger and then a CM to compete with Lucas Gerrard Allen and we're sorted

We need someone better than Coutinho to play in the CAM role.
We play with inverted wingers. Which means Coutinho is our "left winger". Sterling can also play there. Coutinho and Sterling are good enough. Hence, my aspirations in wanting a CAM.

Better than Coutinho? But the lad is 21 and is one of our better players, has avereged more than 0.5 points (goals + assists) per game. We will improve more as a team if we get competition for Lucas Gerrard Allen rather than for Coutinho, who in my book is currently better than any of those three

Art Morte wrote:

Red Alert wrote:

Art Morte wrote:

We have no left-wingers, of course we need one!
And Coutinho is the CAM you want, said by Rodgers himself that he sees his best position be in the center. So get in a left winger and then a CM to compete with Lucas Gerrard Allen and we're sorted

We need someone better than Coutinho to play in the CAM role.
We play with inverted wingers. Which means Coutinho is our "left winger". Sterling can also play there. Coutinho and Sterling are good enough. Hence, my aspirations in wanting a CAM.

Better than Coutinho? But the lad is 21 and is one of our better players, has avereged more than 0.5 points (goals + assists) per game. We will improve more as a team if we get competition for Lucas Gerrard Allen rather than for Coutinho, who in my book is currently better than any of those three

Exactly, he's 21. He's far from the finish product. He's still very raw right now and his best position is suited to the left hand side where he can cut in and has space to move into to play his natural role in playmaking. Playing in the centre nullify's his influence. And I love the lad, but he can't shoot. We need a goal-scoring midfielder - a Lampard type. That's what we lack; goals from midfield.

The midfield duo is not the problem. I've been saying it all year, it's been a tactical problem. A 2 man midfield hardly ever works in the PL. It won't work for us, not when we've set up playing with a 3 man midfield for almost 10 years now. The problem in midfield lies in front of the midfield duo. Coutinho is good, but we need better. Our midfield has been "okay" when we've reverted back to the midfield three, it's just Henderson lacks the ability to play as an attacking midfielder. He did very well against Spurs, but he's not a consistent goal threat, and that's what we need. Henderson is more of a CM than he is of an AM, so he can add competition to your other 3.

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In my opinion and in Rodgers' opinion, Philip's best position is in the center. His passing vision as fantastic and that's where he can use it the best. Especially if we play with both Suarez and Sturridge.

Can't shoot? It was only the crossbar that kept his fine effort from going in in the Tottenham game, for example. For my money we've got a sufficient and increasing goal threat from midfield in Coutinho and Henderson as they both still develop.

Okay, different opinions, but I'd certainly buy a left-winger and a CM before anything else. Maybe January will provide some answers to this debate.

Why aren't Liverpool after Cabaye ffs... He's EXACTLY what they club needs

sportsczy wrote:Why aren't Liverpool after Cabaye ffs... He's EXACTLY what they club needs

He is also exactly what Newcastle need

Art Morte wrote:In my opinion and in Rodgers' opinion, Philip's best position is in the center. His passing vision as fantastic and that's where he can use it the best. Especially if we play with both Suarez and Sturridge.

Can't shoot? It was only the crossbar that kept his fine effort from going in in the Tottenham game, for example. For my money we've got a sufficient and increasing goal threat from midfield in Coutinho and Henderson as they both still develop.

Okay, different opinions, but I'd certainly buy a left-winger and a CM before anything else. Maybe January will provide some answers to this debate.

Different opinions it is, then. CAM for me. And then maybe a full back so Cissokho can leave this club for good.

And Coutinho is wasteful in front of goal. That's just from the eye test. Looking at the stats, and it's even worse. He's had 30 shots this season and has only registered 1 goal...

Henderson isn't a goal threat either. He did well against Spurs, but he's not a consistent goal threat. He has great movement, but he's "final ball" is horrid.

What? That's utterly untrue. We identified our targets (Aspas, Papadopoulus, Toure, Mkhitaryan) early and moved for them quickly... two were sorted and two ended up not working out, but they weren't missed out on because we didn't know what/who we wanted. Other issues arose despite our quick movement and targeting.

Aspas and Toure were depth signings. But yes, we did snapped these two pretty early and without fuss. However, it's Henrikh saga that bothers me. We spent a lot of time behind him and when we failed Costa, Willian and 'what's that Ukrainian guy' surfaced and evaporated in quick succession.

It's strictly my observation, but I don't think we never had any plan B (let alone C) for Henrikh and we only moved to other targets as we failed to sign him. If you remember, the rumors or updates regarding Costa, Willian and 'is it Yarmolenko' only surfaced after Dortmund snapped-up Henrikh.

That's true.

We didn't have a plan B for Mkhitaryan, so we had to result in Coutinho playing that role and bringing a winger in Moses into the squad. With Coutinho injured, Moses played as the number.

Let's just hope we fix the problem up in the winter, just like how we did it with Sturridge and Coutinho last year. We seem to get some good buys in January with Agger, Suarez, there's one more, Skrtel was it? on top of Sturridge + Coutinho...

sportsczy wrote:Why aren't Liverpool after Cabaye ffs...  He's EXACTLY what they club needs

Buying a Newcastle player in January.Henry will be having nightmares  

Also Cabaye is not our midfield needs atm.We need an goal scoring Attacking Midfielder / Defensive Midfielder more urgently than Cabaye type CM.

Welcome back BG.

Red Alert wrote:That's true.

We didn't have a plan B for Mkhitaryan, so we had to result in Coutinho playing that role and bringing a winger in Moses into the squad. With Coutinho injured, Moses played as the number.

Let's just hope we fix the problem up in the winter, just like how we did it with Sturridge and Coutinho last year. We seem to get some good buys in January with Agger, Suarez, there's one more, Skrtel was it? on top of Sturridge + Coutinho...

Considering Mkhitaryan was an AM , Coutinho would have played in the LW anyway i think.Moses was a replacement for Downing imo.

Red Alert wrote:Welcome back BG.

Thanks mate  .

BeautifulGame wrote:

Red Alert wrote:That's true.

We didn't have a plan B for Mkhitaryan, so we had to result in Coutinho playing that role and bringing a winger in Moses into the squad. With Coutinho injured, Moses played as the number.

Let's just hope we fix the problem up in the winter, just like how we did it with Sturridge and Coutinho last year. We seem to get some good buys in January with Agger, Suarez, there's one more, Skrtel was it? on top of Sturridge + Coutinho...

Considering Mkhitaryan was an AM , Coutinho would have played in the LW anyway i think.Moses was a replacement for Downing imo.

Iniatially, yes. That's what we wanted. And sort of what I meant.

I'm saying after we missed out on Mkhitaryan, the transfer committee didn't have a "plan B" in case the Mkhitaryan deal failed so we had to result in playing Coutinho in that CAM role instead of him playing the inside forward / out on the left which the club probably wanted in the first place because we couldn't bring a number 10 in the summer.

I think Sterling's Downing's replacement to be honest. Moses was brought in for depth because we missed out on Willian (and I told majority of this forum that we'd all that we'd be dodging a bullet with him but the 30m marquee signing all seemed to make people think he was good because of he was Brazilian and is skillful with the ball).

BeautifulGame wrote:

Red Alert wrote:Welcome back BG.

Thanks mate  .

Don't leave us again.   

I refuse to repeat the same conversation for the fifth or sixth time. Stop rewriting history to fit your criticism and start actually basing your issues or praises off of what happened. It's asinine and tiresome in the extreme.

Re-writing history how? Please elaborate.

I mean, we were in for Mkhitaryan, no? He chose to go Dortmund over us, no? Plan A failed there. That's fine, he had every right to go there, no hard feelings.

Who was our plan B incase we missed out on him? Diego Costa? Could be wrong, but they play in different positions, no? Even then, "Plan B" failed.

Plan C was Willian maybe? We were only interested in him because he just came "available" at the end of the window. I highly doubt much scouting went into that one. But even then, that failed too.

We pretty much acquired Moses on loan as a Plan D. That's fine. Hasn't quite worked out (him looking disinterested, half-arsed, can't play as a number 10, only really it in for himself) but again, it's only a loan move. Not the end of the world. So because I state I'm certain we're going to address the issue in January (in bringing a number 10 / another attacking minded player) I'm re-writing history? Really?

McAgger wrote:Joseph Musker ‏@Musker_LFC 21 Dec

Whether it happens in January or in the summer, it's very, very likely that Will Hughes will become a Liverpool player.

Well not someone we would require very urgently   

Who's Joseph Musker?

I think there was a similar named guy who had reported Andy Carroll to spurs you guys really want to know more about it.

Just for fun, any guess who will be our first signing this winter?
1. Salah? Any other winger/forward?
2. Midfielder? DM? CAM? CM?
3. LB?

Yeah I keep hearing Salah's name being thrown around. I don't know exactly how to feel about that because I've only seen Salah play a couple of times in EL and CL both against Chelsea. Although he was very good, I didn't get the impression that he would walk straight into our starting XI whatsoever. I really hope whoever we sign is a hardcore first teamer that will improve us leaps and bounds right away.

Tired of wasting money on unproven talent for the depth when our starting XI needs the strengthening. And I do think the committee knows this as well, and will act accordingly.

The committee should of known this in the summer, to be fair.

The only signing they made for the first team in the summer was Mignolet, to be fair. Aspas, Toure was for depth - Kolo being for leadership too, Ilori / Alberto were "for the future". The two loanees in Cissokho and Moses were both for depth, too.

Sakho wasn't a primary target, and I'm happy we got him but we got lucky that he just became "available" towards the end of the window. Although to the committees credit, they saw the defence as an issue with the constant interest in Papadapolous.

Papadopoulus - Targeted 1st team CB -> Sakho signed when his fee proved outside their rating.

Mkhitaryan/Costa/Willain - Targeted 1st team attackers who were missed out on due to various reasons (lack of CL primarily)

So a primary and back-up starting CB and 3 options in attack... back-up plans and all.

You're right in which we tried, but I personally don't think we tried enough. We had no "back up" target in case we failed with the primary target. And we had the time to look for a back up in case Mkhitaryan failed with the whole third party thing.

Diego Costa was a back-up for Mkhitaryan.
Diego Costa is a CF, Henrikh is a CAM. Costa can't play in midfield, Mkhitaryan can. They are two completely different type of players.

Willian's a winger. He was a winger for Shaktar, but can play as a CAM. He's not a priority CAM. Another "back up" that's not in the same mold as the primary target in Costa.

The committee needs to set their prorities right. Yes, we're not going to get players if we're not in CL. That doesn't mean you change your whole transfer strategy in case a player doesn't want to join the club.

I know Echo and BBC are most reliable. But the fact is they only report when we have made or on verge of making a bid. Often they break the news when the negotiation is in progress.

Telegraph and Guardian are also quiet reliable but they too either wait too long or focus on too narrow targets. So is there any media where I can read about transfer rumors that are not fairy-tales!!!

iftikhar wrote:I know Echo and BBC are most reliable. But the fact is they only report when we have made or on verge of making a bid. Often they break the news when the negotiation is in progress.

Telegraph and Guardian are also quiet reliable but they too either wait too long or focus on too narrow targets. So is there any media where I can read about transfer rumors that are not fairy-tales!!!

Liverpool Echo comes to mind.

Edit. Oh, right, you mentioned it yourself, too x)

But I think the Echo report some LFC news that many of the other sites don't, at least not as early.