Summer of 2014: Part 2

You are probably the only person that thinks Lovren is not an upgrade to our defence, especially over last season.

Lovren at 25 was just one of the very best defenders in the EPL last season.

What's laughable is your crusade against this signing and then spouting on like you didn't watch Liverpool at all this season, let alone Southampton. 'Stats get manipulated to no end' -- you can't manipulate the number of mistakes a player makes, the number of interceptions they had, the number of aerial duels won, etc. Nobody is manipulating any stats they're just posting them to be seen.

There are a few players I would have preferred over Lovren who were probably realistically within reach, but he is not a bad signing.

Red Alert wrote:Funny how it's "simple" to say Lovren is better than Skrtel though.

Stats get manipulated to no end.

Skrtel made mistakes, yes. But that was more because we don't know how to set up defensively (since Clarke has left anyway) and were just focusing on outscoring the opponent last season... our CBs were pretty much left to dead with the mistakes / poor positioning / poor cover from the players around them. Your defence isn't just around 2 CBs ffs. Like I said, Skrtel needed to be improved upon, spending 20m on a player that's not going to improve the starting XI because he's not "better" in any way, shape or form over Martin comes down to stupidity and makes it look like Skrtel is the bad guy when in fact he's become the scapegoat

I am not saying, Lovern is definitely better than Skrtel. Because all I have is, few EPL games i have seen, WC games, few stats and some opinions from sky pundit. And I have defended skrtel (or our defense) too with very similar reasons. But there is no way in hell, i would say Skrtel is definitely better than Lovren.

These are not necessarily links, but it's an interesting picture. I would love to have one of Volland or Reus, but I think that Dortmund will pick up Volland to replace Reus next summer IMO.

Yeah Volland reminds me of Reus in his earlier seasons at BMG. Would be a good acquisition.

yh Volland is very good player...but I am not sure whether he is ready for us. If you see some his goals in the last season, that he can surprise you with his intilligence, pace and trickery. And much of that credit goes to mah main man Firmino. They had some brilliant link up plays in the last season.

Firmino is very similar to in terms of opening defenses+he can score some good goals. Just imagine one Coutinho having OFF day and replacing with another one. I would have signed both the players tbh; because anayways we are not spending 50-60m on one player.

I am sure, it is just a matter of time before both the players will be bought by some big team.

Preseason so far has highlighted (once again) just how desperately in need of better fullbacks we are. In my opinion our top priority for the rest of this window and the funds still available needs to be securing at least one new starting fullback.

While Enrique (thankfully) appears to still have his speed and strength following that long injury lay-off he's still lacking in game intelligence and Johnson looks to be returning at one of his low ebbs in form. While our younger players look like they COULD be quite good none are the answer at this point in time. Opponents are recognising and exploiting our weakness in the wide areas and that will only grow if the issues aren't addressed before the season starts.

Agreed completely Red

El Cujo wrote:You are probably the only person that thinks Lovren is not an upgrade to our defence, especially over last season.

Lovren at 25 was just one of the very best defenders in the EPL last season.

What's laughable is your crusade against this signing and then spouting on like you didn't watch Liverpool at all this season, let alone Southampton. 'Stats get manipulated to no end' -- you can't manipulate the number of mistakes a player makes, the number of interceptions they had, the number of aerial duels won, etc. Nobody is manipulating any stats they're just posting them to be seen.

There are a few players I would have preferred over Lovren who were probably realistically within reach, but he is not a bad signing.

How many games did you watch him play? Or are you rating him off of whoscored? lol

Lovren IS NOT an upgrade over Skrtel. If we go in with the same defence, we will concede roughly the same amount of goals as last season. The question will be if we're able to score as much as we did, which I highly doubt we'll be able to do so.

He'll most likely have a strong start like Kolo, become a "club icon" and get found out. lol

1. Lovren may or may not be an upgrade over Skrtel, but since he is a Liverpool player now we are going to find that out.

2. I would like to see Agger & Skrtel to be the cover & competition for Lovren & Shako.

3. I like to see Coates going on loan if not sold out-right and Kolo & Kelly sold.

4. I want to keep Borini rather than buying another CF, at least till January.

5. What's latest on getting a LB!

Marco Reus’ agent has talked up a transfer away from
Borussia Dortmund amid growing links with Liverpool (metro)

Liverpool target Marco Reus 'rejects new contract at
Borussia Dortmund' as rumours intensify (mirror)

Marco Reus transfer latest: Manchester United,
Liverpool and Bayern Munich line-up to sign Germany
international (The independent)

Manchester United and Liverpool on alert as Marco
Reus REJECTS new Dortmund contract.. (express)

Just having fun nothing serious   

you can have as much as as you want...but he is going nowhere in this summer unless someone offers crazy amount like James Rodriguez, Suarez

looks like lot of rumours have gone down...just waiting to see how we resolve FB and striker situation.

On Coates

"Every player has an opportunity," said the Northern Irishman. "Seba was out for a lot of last season. He's done well in pre-season, he has been very composed on the ball and he passes it well. He has done well."

Could very well mean he's got some sort of future for us. But could also just be empty words managers say to the media.

If Sakho-Lovren works really well, I wouldn't mind seeing

Sakho
Lovren
Ilori
Coates

as the first team CBs for 2015-16. Kolo's contract is out and we're most likely selling one of Agger/Skrtel this summer and one next summer.

bah gawd why dont we have FB in such abundance
Btw, I hope someone takes Coates on loan, if he remains at the club. I just dont see him getting ahead of other experienced players.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-closing-double-swoop-7546066?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Pearce reporting on Moreno & Manquillo deal!!!

Barrett also reported a while back!!

    

Very exciting if both go through.

what next then guys...get a striker and we are set to go

HEIL MEIN REDS wrote:what next then guys...get a striker and we are set to go

The Telegraph wrote:Both signings would ensure Rodgers’s main focus over the last few weeks of the transfer window is a new striker

Heil you sure you ain't working for them!   

But yes please!

yeah I wanted to but they rejected me because of my bad English   

Don't call me James wrote:On Coates

"Every player has an opportunity," said the Northern Irishman. "Seba was out for a lot of last season. He's done well in pre-season, he has been very composed on the ball and he passes it well. He has done well."

Could very well mean he's got some sort of future for us. But could also just be empty words managers say to the media.

If Sakho-Lovren works really well, I wouldn't mind seeing

Sakho
Lovren
Ilori
Coates

I think Coates is good and may be improving but that last step up is needed from our defenders and I think he aint got that. His positioning yday left me more to be desired from him. Specially for the second goal of Jovetic, Jovetic seemed so confortable to receive the ball and just poke the ball. I still have some hopes from him that he can bring more value to us if he goes out on loan.

Glad to see we are reportedly finally addressing our fullback issues and doing so without the faffing about that screwed previous attempts. Hopefully we can get these deals done without any of the eleventh hour snafus we've unfortunately become accustomed to. I suspect that the "breakthrough" in negotiations have come from our end, with the realisation that Moreno is no longer just our first choice, but our ONLY choice of the original list of potential LB signings for the summer. Honestly, with £55-75, available there's really no reason NOT to offer that extra £4m or so needed to land our first choice in a position we desperately need to improve.

The only thing I know about Manquillo is what the statistics can tell us, which is admittedly a myopic and limited view of him as a player. However, while his age and number of appearances suggest he's probably not much of an improvement over our current young RB options, his statistics do seem to suggest he's a more attacking option... more like Johnson than our other youngsters. Perhaps that's why we're interested in him.

Given that we're signing Manquillo on loan initially, that means that even if we do spend £20m on Moreno we'll have £35-55m left over to spend on another player if an enticing deal appears, PLUS any sales. Another attacking option would be nice to get, particularly if Borini leaves, but I'd consider this a fairly successful window even if Borini stays and another forward/attacking player doesn't arrive.

Heck, if Borini (14m), Agger (12m), and any of Reina/Kelly/Coates do get sold that's actually a quite sizable warchest we'll have available for a surprise signing of some kind should we deem it necessary/workable.

**Eagerly awaits RedAlert to post Manquillo and Moreno are no improvement on Glen (Best Right Back in the League) Johnson and Enrique, while finishing his sentence with "ffs" **

Manquillo was a must, idk i like Enrique.

One could say you are psyched with Manquillo's arrival Hank

Yes i am

Signing this Manquillo guy (on loan) is pretty harsh on Flanagan, imo. I don't see why we would sign a full-back who'd be below him in the pecking order and signing Manquillo, who has done even less than Flanagan in his career, just feels a little unfair on Flanagan, imo, who did OK last season.

I dunno, maybe Flanno will be ahead of Manquillo in the pecking order still, we'll see.

As for Moreno, I second what Hank said, I like Enrique, but if Moreno and Jose both get to feature in that left-back position, then it's all good. But I don't want Enrique being left with only League Cup minutes, he's better than that.