I’ve been reading reports lately that the new owners are unwilling to provide funds to improve the squad in the January transfer window. I for one, have never been in favour of the January transfer window – actually, transfer windows are frustrating and should be abolished altogether. A business institution which football clubs can be described as being these days, should decide when and how to recruit without external influence. I’d like to read into the exact motives behind this idea but certainly, such a scheme has had a fair share of, and probably justified, criticism.
NESV are renowned to revitalize a club patiently, wisely without resorting to panic decisions. A football team is setup during pre-season. One can augment the team’s potential as the season progresses (or during a transfer window) but there’s no guarantee new players will fit in a timely manner to shoulder the burden during the rest of the season.
In Liverpool’s case, there is potential in the current team to envisage a decent league table placing come the end of the season. A decent placing meaning a top four finish. Some may be questioning what this potential boils down to. I use the word potential since we’ve seen flashes of what some players are capable of lately. But flashes indicate that there’s a good chance of such players developing into envied stars. Liverpool have also retained quite a few super players which had a determining impact two seasons ago – Reina, Carragher, Skrytel, Agger, Gerrard, Torres and Kuyt. Lucas, Maxi, Krygiakos, Meireles, Cole all have what it takes to achieve a step improvement necessary to take the Reds to better shores. If one adds Johnson, Jovanovic, Ngog, Kelly, Pacheco and Shelvey, then I wonder whether we really need to add new faces during mid-season.
I always believed that great managers have that knack of turning average players into super stars. Being average doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no chance of ever making the grade. Fair to say, some players have quality from day one, but availability of such talent is scarce and typically at a high cost. The message from NESV is clear: get the best out of the current players, do a recap of football and financial matters at the end of the season, get rid of liability and purchase two or three top class players. NESV won’t be splashing out multi-million pound cheques. In a certain sense, this cautious approach is how many successful businesses started out. Rome wasn’t built in a day and Liverpool don’t really require a complete overhaul of the team.
Managing this situation requires ability to identify weak areas. Whether Roy embodies such a characteristic is up for question at the moment. What is for certain is that the players have shown that they can, collectively, compete at top level. Roy’s job is even more harder now that new owners have been installed. The manager has to ensure a good league finish (or Liverpool risk losing a few of the top names above) – and hence squeezing out the best of the current squad – and identify who hasn’t got a long-term future at the club. This is testing time for both manager and players. The key point here is for all players involved to maximize their effort. Having just one player under performing is not acceptable and will lead to added pressures.
i agree tbh. i feel that in january its hard to sign big players, and it then takes time for them to settle in and before you knowit its the end of the season. thus, smaller name players tend to be signed, squad players if you like, which still cost around 5 milllion, which have absolutley no impact on the squad and are a waste of time. wait till summer and only sign big players in my opinion because i think our younger players are good enough to fill in where necessary.
They need to get rid of some deadwood and bring in some young talented players who wont cost the earth.
But that does not mean they are not going to need to inject funds.
I doubt this rumour very much about the owners imposing a ban on January purchases. I think it is just journalists mischief making….
The reports are a rehash of what the new owners said they wanted to do when they first came in and not new.
That said only a blind man would think we dont need new players as we have 1 talented striker whose always injured, and 1 striker who has potential. Not signing 2 strikers in the summer was a mistake look at spurs they have 4 strikers, arsenal have 3-4,if you want to challenge the clubs doing well we need new strikers and at least 1 winger to add some width.
We hav everything we need, if we go out n get a great striker like forlan ,then how about fernando torres? in fact joe cole, gerrard, milan have the ability to play as a shadow striker, what we need is get aquilani back during the summer
Please do a piece on the brilliant Bosman players about to become available for free, top top players are about to leave clubs for free. NESV have said nothing new at all, the media are just poking us with sticks. Who thinks NESV will not spend money????, exactly!. It makes sense to clear deadwood before splashing the cash, what’s wrong with that!!!!
We’ve 4 great CB, 2 fair LB, 2 fine RB, load of midfielders plus bright star backup (Jonjo), Dirk on the right and Cole on the left.
I think we only need one powerful striker to pair Nando. If there’s some budget left, go for Left winger.
Utter rubbish view.
harry potter could not turn some of these player into anything decent.
Babble – lost patience with him
Polson – useless, Juve are still laughhing themselves silly.
Maxi – total dissapointement and shadow of the player he was.
Jovanovic – the free be, another useleless veronin.
Now look who has gone from 2 years ago.
Keane – how we could do with him and give him a proper chance
Riera – far better then anything we have on left and that includes J.Cole
Yossi – under used and under rated.
Alonso – no need to say anything , he was the brains and craft
Masch – not my favourite but could be world class defensively.
Hypia – A leader and underused in last two seasons, rated best defender in germany last year.
JAR – how we misss him, compared to the shite that followed, Donkey Dossena and now a guy that is just not top 4 material.
Now stop talking rubbish, the players that are gone are replaced with utter crap and spearing is not worth a shit either. Add to that Torris sees this and so does SG, no alonso to provide those passes that gave FT and SG the advantage. We have a nothing in the center of midfield, a poor left back, kyte is injured so nothing on the right of any value, no cover for Torres and no # 10 live van der vart. JC is older and shown signs of all the games played.
What we need to do in January :
Keep Reina, Carragher, Skrytel, Agger, Kyygiakos, Kelly and i suppose our Fulham full back that cost a ton of money for avg player.
Move Johnson to the left with Kyte as backup
Get rid of Babble, Polson, Maxi, Jovanovic
Keep Levi as squad player. Give J.Cole a kick up the back side.
Play Meireles in center with SG, tell SG to watch old games and Souness and later Whelan and Alonso on how to contrl a game.
Bring in
R.Keane for about 5 M, RSC for about same. Also get K.Doyle for about 10M. Now that is 3 forwards to play with or replace Torres when injured. Not a big outlay, no gamble, all proven PL players.
Then we need to buy two young wingers of quality, A.Young and some of the many ones mentioned, Mata etc. Not fucking bently or lennon or any crap like that.
We should also bring back aqua man if he keeps performing the way he does and give him a kick up the back side too and tell him how to track back and put the boot in.
That would be step 1 on the road to recovery. Step 2 in the summer, go back for Alonso I say.
So In January
pr
JC/Kelly Kyygiakos Agger Aurellio
Johnson/Young Meireles SG Mata/JC
RK/RCS
FT/RCS/KD
Pace and craft on the wings, solid in the middle and plenty of goals up front. Good cover some subs in all positions and player that come in that are not going to bring the team way down. Also players that can change a game. An affordable plan with the players being available and realistic targets for kegging us to compete. Then scout young players and sign one top player per year.
Have to disagree with a few points Brendan mentions. True to say, Babbel and Poulsen are examples of the liability we need to remove at the end of the season. It’s still early days to judge Jovanovic and the few times he’s played he’s looked decent. Both Alonso and Mascherano wanted out so we need to get over them once and for all. Hyypia was a fantastic player but I guess all good things come to an end don’t they? Riera, like Babbel only offered flashes of quality. You mention Spearing and again I have disagree with your negative view. The lad has Liverpool at heart and if we need such players for the future when the likes of Gerrard and Carra are no longer around.
Brendan – well said lad! But unfortunately we got bought by a consortium, not an Arab!
If we did what you were suggesting, and lets be honest its what most of us want, we would be ‘doing a City or a Chelski’ an trading our souls to become rent boys!
Its about time we started developing what we have, JC is a world beater his head is just up his arse. Maxi is class he is an Argentinian international, add into the mixer Jonjo looks like a class act in the making things could start getting interesting. Meireles is adapting well in my opinion, in the derby he wasn’t physical enough, against Blackburn he was like a mad man released which shows a quick learning curve.
Our left back is my biggest worry, I just pray Fabio comes back a better player because we r getting butt fucked down the left!
None of this overhaul bollox tho we have got a good squad, they just need to realise their potential!
I’d just like to point out if my memory serves me correctly we got Skrtel and Mascherano in the January transfer window. There are players out there if you know how to look for a bargain.
I think some of you are being too hard on Maxi and Jovanovic. Give them more time. The rest of them I mostly agree.
We need a left wing, as JC is NOT a good fit there. He needs to play in the middle of the pitch, with Meireles, who is coming on, fortunately. Still can’t believe we let Aqua walk to Juve. He was really starting to show a bit of quality towards the end of last year. We still need a LB, and Fab is better than what we currently have, if he gets back to health.
We also need to get a clue in the forward 3rd of the pitch, because we have shit for service to the box, very little creativity, poor touches at the edge of the box to create a shot, and from what I’ve seen, very few actual, quality scoring chances. Taking a crack from 22+ is NOT a realistic chance to score, in my opinion. Our recent attempts inside the 18 leave a LOT to be desired.
Soto is quality in the box, and we could use another tall man in the middle, to get a head to the ball, but without somebody with some touch to deliver it, it’s an exercise in futility.
I’d also like to see Poulsen benched indefinitely, for Lucas. At least Lucas has some pace. Also need to start thinking about playing Jonjo and Pacheco more. With time, I think those two can be an excellent addition.
As for new signings, I don’t care when they come. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to get the boys playing up to their potential, before trying to inject more into the club. And we can’t afford anymore ridiculous signings. We need to look outside the EPL, for up and coming talent. I DON’T WANT CARLTON COLE FOR $14M! We could get a Striker and a Wing for that money, and get better value out of it.
It will be interesting to see how Henry and Co. try to implement the “Sabermetrics” method, when buying new players. It works in American Baseball, but I’m not sure how that will translate to English Football.
YNWA!
I’m impressed with Brendan. We should of gotten him as manager instead of poor Woy!
Not if Uncle Woy’s in charge…we cant allow him to waste whatever money we have on more chumps!
The sooner he goes the happier I’ll be…hes ruining the whole playing side of the club from top to bottom…taking everything back to the 70’s…because clearly English Football and English methods are the best ever…
I think we can bring in quality without big fees, wages will be the issue though and that is why some need to leave.
I make my mind up quickly when I see a player and 2 minutes looking at Jovanovic told me all I need to know, does not take 2 years like people were with veronin or desena, 2 mintues is enough, utter crap players. Jov is a poor mans Kyte.
Riera was a proper player, kept width, good on the ball and retantion, good shot, good in the air, tucked in when need be, he probably lacked killer pace but I would prefer him to anything we have on left now.
Johnson cost big money, is defensively suspect at times, so why not use him on the right side of mid field, he is better then anything we have there and has a goal threat. In my view wide players need to contribute 10 to 15 goals per season.
We have not scored enough from our center backs also, Hypia got some great goals and the greek looks similar that way. We need to get Aggar back in the team and encourage him to go on those mazy runs that Lawerson and Hansed did which led to goals, he has the skill and the shooting capability.
As for spearing, nothing personal against the lad and would love to see another local get on the team, but he moves the ball, that is it and i dont think that alone warrents a place in LFC. It si like haveing a Mike Marsh, just not good enough.
We should never have left Warnock go nor JAR in my wiew, he was once one of the best attacking backs and I have seen him a number of times for Roma where he could play until he is 50. Remeber Champions League, who marked Drogba for the long balls into the box, it was JAR. I am sick of 5ft8” full backs like insua, being singelled out by a Kevin Davis, no contast is it.
A player I would have gone for is Kevin Nolan, a scouser and he is far better then Polson and Levi for that matter, he has matured into a very solid player with a fair bit of steel and skill.
I was hoping for 12 months we would have got van der vart, it is no surprise to me how well he is doing, ask any dutch fan and they will tell you he is a class # 10.
Robbie Keane is no Fowler (but then many are not) but I think he was never given a chance to play with Torres, he does the unexpected and has scored goals always, yes he missses a few but he will be available cheap and could do a job for us.
J.Cole cannot play behind Torres as he is facing wrong way and easily dispossesed, he needs to be comming into that area at speed and then he is very dangerous, but facing goal and not with back to it.
The thing alonso did apart from great defensive work and control was 1) seen the pass 2)he could make the pass that streatched FT and SG but gave them the advantage over the defender once they got to the ball since both are fast and strong in contact. the rest was a joy to watch but it was alonso that got the best out of FT / SG.
I think SG has done brilliant in many positions and could play until his 40’s in defence, he may have just lost that youthful drive for getting into the box though so I think it is now time for him to drop into center mid field and sacrifice some of his natural abilities and start controlling games. He has all the abilities but must learn when to make the killer pass and when not to and just do the simple thing, keep displine and shape and provide cover for defense. He has the pace to do a great job there.
While Roy is likelable, I would not trust him to spend lunch money. Time for Roy to go. I would go for Kenny with Steve Clark as coach and a former liverpool player as assistants, some like McAllaster, Whelan, Hypia, etc.
Gus H, is probably the best long term solution for manager, but Kenny is the one to get us back on track and make some shrewed buys, he would also command the dressing room immediately.
I have some concers about the new owners, think they have made some good noises but sport is a gamble and buying a player is a gamble, it is not scientific and there are risks you have to take and hope you get more right then wrong.
I am concerend that they may not have the ambition and risk taking to sign some top players. I agree that wages should be value for money but lets be honest, top players do not come if you are not competative with wages. So they need to increase revenues so that we can have a 20+ man squad of high quality, and if the quality is high through cheap and expensive buys, eventually the wages will be high.