rgk_lfc

I am not saying Parker's points are wrong. But there is a difference between a multiple leagues and European cups winning manager stating "I know what it takes and currently the owners are not backing me" and Scott Parker stating that.

Jones and Elliott are good enough to have a career in the PL. I am confident of that. Elliot looks like yet another technically solid, comfortable on the ball, clever young player which England seems to be producing a lot these days. Whether they are good enough to start for a team with ambitions of competing for a top 4, I am not sure about that. Definitely worth their place on the bench.

In the interest of balance and to defend TAA a little, depending on where the shot was taken from, that might be by design. Most top teams instruct their defenders to back off and allow opposition strikers to take the shot at goal if the shot is being taken from the outside and right or left of the box. This is because the chances of scoring a goal are very less. Also when the goalkeeper has a clear view of the shot and the goal, he should be able to catch it easily. If the defender tries to block it, then there is a chance of deflected shot going into the goal which is difficult for the goalkeeper to handle, or the ball deflecting to another player in a better position to take the shot. So it could be that. But the Sancho goal was different. Once Howe gets comfortable with Pope, you might notice it in your game also. Tell defenders to back off and bet on Pope to catch the ball. In a home game, if the shot goes out, the ball boys are also instructed to immediately throw the ball in so that you can start the attack immediately with the opposition still in attacking formation.

Check out the goal Mitro scored against us on the opening day. A big discussion among LFC fans now is whether TAA can't defend or does not want to defend? Based on the goals we are conceding and his role in that, it seems to be the latter than the former. He was never the greatest defender, but it has never been this bad before. I also don't think moving him to midfield is the answer. His vision and deep-lying crosses are incredible but he is doing that from deep inside his half with no pressure on him from the opposition and Salah distracting opposition left backs and left wingers ahead of him. The midfield is going to be more crowded. The opposition is going to be on his face; lot more opportunities to nullify him. His inability or lack of desire to track runners might hurt us more.

He grew up in a tribal fishing area. His first exposure to any sort of professional football was when he was 17 or 18 years old and that too for a youth team of a Colombian second division side. He is 25 years old but he has played far less football compared to players his age. His footballing age is 22 or 23 years old, if that makes sense. Also, when I said developing I meant still adapting to Klopp style of football. Klopp wants his attackers in the box whereas Diaz does his best outside the box - skills, tricks, and all. Mane was not the most elegant player but he was in your face attacker, constantly harassing the right back and right central defender. Diaz hasn't developed that aspect of his game, yet.

But his vision doesn't excuse this. Unless you are a prime Messi or Ronaldo, you don't get away with this. Fairly confident, De Bruyne would have done a better job of defending in that position. That should cost him his position in the world cup squad. Lot of issues that you all have covered for the most part. Diaz is an excellent player, but he is still developing and is not offering the physicality and threat of Mane upfront. Henderson and Milner shouldn't be starting games. Elliott and Carvalho are excellent youngsters, but they shouldn't be held responsible for holding our midfield together. Salah seems to be modeling his career based on becoming less talented Cristiano Ronaldo variant. As in not offering a lot other than scoring goals. We are definitely at the end of the cycle as @HTT II pointed out and kept it a bit too late to refresh. Once Thiago, Jota, Nunez is back we should be fine. By fine, I mean competing for the top 4. VVD has not been great, but I think once we replace Keita, and Ox and get more reliable midfielders both he and TAA should look OK. To me, the problem is the midfield. Two to three years ago, we had a younger Henderson, Milner, Gini, and Fabinho running around, pressing and hunting down every loose ball and offering a lot of protection to the defenders. We don't have that anymore which is exposing VVD and TAA. We definitely underestimated the scale of overhauling the squad in the short term, but I still trust our transfer committee to find solutions by next summer. I feel if we fix our midfield, a lot of the problems will be solved. As for Klopp looking clueless in post-match, his default mode when we lose or draw is to complain about the opposition being too defensive. Hated it when he or any other manager did that. He can't use that now as in three games; the opposition has gegenpressed us into submission.

But a lot of these managers spent time discovering and fine-tuning their systems and then took on high-profile jobs in the premier league. Howe took over Bournemouth in 2008, coached in the PL for the first time in 2015, got fired, did a sabbatical at top clubs in Europe, and finally earned the Newcastle job 10-12 years after he stepped into management. Rafa started coaching Madrid youth teams in the mid to late 80s, spent a lot of time in the second division failing, then got the break with Valencia in the early 2000s. Klopp, spent like seven years with Mainz, the majority in the second division, experienced several missed promotions and a relegation before he joined Dortmund. Conte was the same. As a manager, you want to experience multiple cycles of failures and challenging situations to discover what tactics work and what don't, how to tweak your system and manage your players when things aren't going well. Gerrard and Lampard short-circuited this process due to their reputation and experienced their first challenging situation at Villa and Chelsea, which are directly in the limelight high-profile jobs with cut-throat competition. I agree Scotland might not have been that competitive, but it would have been better for him in the long term if stayed on for a couple more seasons and challenged himself in CL and Europa League. At the very least spent a couple more years in the championship before taking on a job like Villa. I guess the problem is now everyone wants to be Pep. Going from B team coach to winning every trophy in 3 years' time.

Rafa and Purslow don't see eye to eye. Purslow was responsible for firing Rafa and replacing him with Hodgson. Also, Purslow conducted a purge of Rafa's staff and scouts.

Purslow loves SG. I think he will give him as much time as needed. Purslow is a good CEO, maybe even a great CEO, if he sticks to the financial and admin side of things. The problem is he loves the limelight and loves being associated with traditional British football royalty. He was one of the reasons for pushing Rafa out of LFC, replacing him with Hodgson, removing Rafa's scouts and players, and replacing them with his own style of signings - Konchesky, Joe Cole, a contract extension for Carra. So even if things get really bad for Villa, I am sure Purslow will give him time. Whether SG gets Villa out of the hole using that time is another question.

When Gerrard took over Villa, I wanted only wanted one of the two extremes to happen. Gerrard is a super coach who takes Villa to European glory. Leaves no doubt in anyone's mind that he is a top-level manager. Or Gerrard stumbles so bad that Villa sacks him within a year. Even if he stumbles onto say 12th position with a squad like Villa, his mates in the media will paint it as the next great managerial achievement and start the PR campaign for him to take the LFC job post Klopp. Just like you all experienced with Bruce.

Shearer, Henry, Aguero, Kane, Salah, Rooney, Vardy, Drogba, Van Nistelrooy, Cole. To me, he is right in the middle of the top 10 with Torres, Fowler, and Wright just missing out. He is just a bit below the genuine elite - Shearer, Henry, Aguero, Kane. He normally stays out of everyone's top 10 list because at his peak, he lacked the global profile of Shearer or Henry, the charismatic goals, larger-than-life celebration, etc. But in terms of effectiveness and contribution, he stands up to everyone. Particularly in their later years, Shearer and Henry needed a system or other people's legs to carry them. But Vardy was one of the strikers who did not expect others to put in the graft for him, he did it. Rooney, I think was the other striker like that. So those players will always have lower goal returns but that should not make their contribution any less valuable.

Early days, but he looks like a cracking manager. Neutralized and frustrated us brilliantly at Anfield. Now playing a different approach against Villa. In general, attempts to play attacking and forward-thinking football without compromising too much on defense.

Not sure if there is a father, son who have made their mark on the PL like the Schmeichel's. Also makes me feel old. Grew up getting annoyed at the dad for his performances at United. Now the son is also leaving.

In general, yes. They do have a quality youth team. But these signings are not cheap. 20 for Carney, 15 for that goalkeeper, 3-4 million for each of those other players. We are talking close to 50 million for players who are not even going to be near the first team next year.

Nah, mate. He has been incredibly respectful to us fans during his tenure at LFC and post LFC. The portrait of him in his living room which is often used as a stick to beat him with - it was given to him by a disabled fan and he promised he will have that close with him. Very respectful and polite whenever fans reach out to him for such purpose. I would reserve the word pricks to folks like Bruce, Pardew and their ilk. Rodgers is not a bad person in general. Does have a bit of a high opinion of himself and his methods:). He has his flaws but I wouldn't go as far as describing him as a prick.

Not quite sure what is happening but they are aggressively pursuing youth transfers. Eddie Beach and Tyler Dibling from Southampton, Omari Hutchinson from Arsenal, Zak Sturge from Brighton, Slonina from MLS. Some of these are decent money transfers. Carney for 20 million, Slonina for 12-15 million.

It got really childish also the final year he was with us. Started addressing Michael Edwards as Eddie or something like that, a name which Edwards hated being called. The bizarre part is Rodgers is an excellent coach. His weakness is identifying players and scouting. If he had focused on coaching the players and tactics, and let Edwards do his job, he probably would have been in the job longer. Anyways, this has nothing to do with Maddison. Sorry for the thread hijack.

Interesting to learn that. He hated Michael Edwards at LFC. Used his media mates to ramp up the pressure against LFC transfer committee. Tried to get them replaced but FSG stood firm on that aspect. It got really weird his penultimate season when he started playing Edwards signings out of their position to make them look bad - Firmino at right wing, Emre Can at right back. I really rate Rodgers football acumen. But it is interesting to see that the same issues are continuing.

I don't have a lot of info about the way you do transfers, but from afar, I am seeing a lot of similarity to the way we rebuilt in the Edwards Klopp era. I will not be surprised if the playbook is the same for the most part given that Howe and Edwards are very close friends. The big part of the principle was choosing the right profile players - who can develop and be good enough to contribute in the first 11 or squad in the later stages of the CL at the right price and the right wages. Bruno, Botman, Trippier, Pope - all fall within that category. I believe that young French striker whom you targeted but signed for PSG fall within that profile. As fans it can be frustrating as we want progress now. LFC did walk away from several deals when the purchasing clubs asking price was higher than what Edwards valued the player or when the players agent hiked up the wages. At the same time, if LFC transfer committee identified a player and the player is willing to come, they are willing to wait. Van Dijk, Konate, Keita were players whom the club chased over multiple transfer windows to get it done. With my limited to zero information about Newcastle transfers, extrapolating from how Edwards built the LFC squad, my best guess is that your transfer committee is trying their level best to sign several "Bruno, Botman" profile players at the right price and wage. By the way, it is also difficult to sign players with that profile just before the world cup as developing players who have guaranteed playing time at their current clubs generally don't want to take the risk of moving just before the world cup.

They have submitted a bid for the ox also.

I read somewhere, not 100% sure of the reliability of the source, that Delap was considered Sancho level talent. Not a bad strategy by Southampton, by the way. Targeting City and Chelsea youngsters.

Isn't this kid supposed to be super talented?

Exactly. I know he is getting old but he is one of the most important players in the PL over the last 5 to 8 years. When he is on song, his team - Leicester, Chelsea or France- win the big ones. The two major managerial failures for Chelsea - Lampard and Sarri - I would say the primary reason is their inability to use Kante. Magnificent footballer.

Vieira deserves a lot of credit for their style of play and approach last season. They were impressive. But I think the signings are more due to the structure the owners have put in. They had tried to move away from a traditional way of running things after Sam Allardyce but then De Boer ended up being a disaster. My understanding is that they appointed Hodgson as a manager but were changing the structure in the background focusing on talented youngsters in the championship and other clubs. Again not trying to put down Vieira's impact which was huge. But I highly doubt as the manager of NYCFC and Nice he was tracking players like Olise and Geuhi in the championship.

Palace have been making good moves in the last few years. Not sure if it is all about Viera. I think their owners are building a good setup like Leicester, Brighton, Liverpool, and Newcastle.