The BigFooty Liverpool Army

[Zidane98]

I can't see anything from my old account, it literally says I have no permission to see anything whatever I click, the alerts PMs whatever. It'd just show "you do not have permission to see this page" on the forum main page, lol

But judging from what I've heard it's better off I don't see the actual thing

Yes, the PM's that everyone received were not exactly pleasant.....

 

[Coooldude]

I heard Tom Cruise starred in those photos, about time he's being true to himself

 

[Jatz]

link to GB meltdown.

You won't find it, it was all deleted.

Unluckily for mods, we still see deleted posts ffs

I have no idea which thread it was in and I'm really glad about that. We definitely don't need that to come up again!

 

[OzBomber]

How'd you get tickets?

Sold my soul and went through Thomas Cook. Once in a life time opportunity, will probably never get another chance to go over and see such a big game so I bit the bullet and got it.

Basically I just won't look at my bank account for the next month. The Arsenal game is 4 days earlier at Anfield so I'm going to try and get face value tickets to that as well.

 

[Zidane98]

Sold my soul and went through Thomas Cook. Once in a life time opportunity, will probably never get another chance to go over and see such a big game so I bit the bullet and got it.

Basically I just won't look at my bank account for the next month. The Arsenal game is 4 days earlier at Anfield so I'm going to try and get face value tickets to that as well.

I'll be at the Arsenal game on Jan 12!!

 

[moomba]

Coooldude you will also be glad to know that the disappearance of a forum regular (who has since reappeared) was not your fault for "telling him to shut up" despite what the mods claimed

If I disappeared every time Cooldude told me to shut up my postcount would be around 12 or 13.

There has been one post by a Liverpool poster in the 13 or 14 years I've been on BF that has made me think about leaving. I called him a campaigner, and when I didn't get banned as expected I cancelled my account. It was about 5 years ago. Post on the same board as him now, and have no issues at all (he may still post here I suspect).

You probably should get over why I took a break, not sure what the mods have claimed but it had nothing to do with anything posted by a Liverpool poster.

 

[moomba]

I didn't get a pm from GB either. Not sure whether to be pleased or disappointed.

 

[OzBomber]

I'll be at the Arsenal game on Jan 12!!

Did you go through TC as well, or do you know someone?

We should catch up for a drink over there before the game!

 

[BlueBen]

And we spent £20m on Markovic, £150k/week on Milner etc..

The best and most successful sides have multiple quality options in each position. If we want to be one of the best sides we can't be satisfied with relying on a couple of £5-10m signings to consistently perform to a high standard if our nominal starters aren't fit, we need quality and obviously that sort of quality is going to cost more.

Fortunately Lallana is of that standard and we can happily rotate he, Coutinho or Sterling through those attacking midfield positions throughout the course of the season without suffering a significant drop off in quality in that part of the field. Personally I've got no issue with Lallana or the price we paid for him (£20-25m is pretty standard going for any half decent footballer in that part of the field these days) and thought he actually had a pretty good season. Unfortunately the output of creative players like him is generally a function of the potency of the striker they're feeding. No doubt the likes of Lallana, Coutinho & Sterling were stunted this season by the lack of a legitimate goalscorer ahead of them.

Looks like we're doing our best to correct that deficiency in terms of adding quality, movement and goals in the final third this window though which is great to see. With that in mind I think I'm going to enjoy watching you eat humble pie re: Lallana next season!

I hope he does mate, if it means that the team performs well.

Again, I've never said that he can't play. And I understand the signing from a playing style standpoint. I've expressed my opinion that he is a Joe Cole/Yossi Benayoun sort of player, a useful squad player but not a stand-out or someone who is good enough to be a central player for a side that has aspirations of challenging for major honours.

But I don't think paying £25m for him represents anything like value in any transfer market under any market conditions. He was grossly overpriced and if we were so intent on signing an attacking midfielder then I think we could have got the same sort of player from other European leagues for half or even less than half of what we paid for Lallana. But we were (and perhaps, still are) obsessed with buying "Premier League proven" players, as if that automatically meant "capable of performing at the top level".

A £25m signing should be a nailed-on first-teamer, particularly when we don't, unlike the other top sides, already have the nailed-on first-teamers in place. £25m should get you a genuine difference-maker. Of course, that's not Lallana's fault and I'm not blaming him. But £25m should get you more than a squad player. I just think it was a poor allocation of resources.

 

[Coooldude]

I hope he does mate, if it means that the team performs well.

Again, I've never said that he can't play. And I understand the signing from a playing style standpoint. I've expressed my opinion that he is a Joe Cole/Yossi Benayoun sort of player, a useful squad player but not a stand-out or someone who is good enough to be a central player for a side that has aspirations of challenging for major honours.

But I don't think paying £25m for him represents anything like value in any transfer market under any market conditions. He was grossly overpriced and if we were so intent on signing an attacking midfielder then I think we could have got the same sort of player from other European leagues for half or even less than half of what we paid for Lallana. But we were (and perhaps, still are) obsessed with buying "Premier League proven" players, as if that automatically meant "capable of performing at the top level".

A £25m signing should be a nailed-on first-teamer, particularly when we don't, unlike the other top sides, already have the nailed-on first-teamers in place. £25m should get you a genuine difference-maker. Of course, that's not Lallana's fault and I'm not blaming him. But £25m should get you more than a squad player. I just think it was a poor allocation of resources.

Pretty much agree with all this but I'd say the money should've gone to a striker more specifically

Unfortunately we don't have the resources to spend 25 mil on a player and for him not to start most games (75-80%), gotta invest wisely

Lallana's a good player, don't get us wrong, but just don't think he is "greeeat". Pretty sure jod and I were wanting Firmino instead of him last summer, but all's well that ends well

 

[Zidane98]

Did you go through TC as well, or do you know someone?

We should catch up for a drink over there before the game!

Got family over there. Yep, definitely up for a drink!!

 

[Indie_]

You won't find it, it was all deleted.

Unluckily for mods, we still see deleted posts ffs

I have no idea which thread it was in and I'm really glad about that. We definitely don't need that to come up again!

Was it worse than the time we found him posing with a Pikachu doll?

 

[Zidane98]

I didn't get a pm from GB either. Not sure whether to be pleased or disappointed.

Be very pleased.

 

[BlueBen]

Pretty much agree with all this but I'd say the money should've gone to a striker more specifically

Unfortunately we don't have the resources to spend 25 mil on a player and for him not to start most games (75-80%), gotta invest wisely

Lallana's a good player, don't get us wrong, but just don't think he is "greeeat". Pretty sure jod and I were wanting Firmino instead of him last summer, but all's well that ends well

Welcome back mate.

That's pretty much it - you put it a lot more succinctly than I did! Haha.

To think that we spent a combined £45m on Lallana and Lovren!

 

[Cooldude]

Welcome back mate.

That's pretty much it - you put it a lot more succinctly than I did! Haha.

To think that we spent a combined £45m on Lallana and Lovren!

Yes I agree with Coooldude, too

Good to be back in old skin

And let's make Ilori third choice and Lovren can fold the kits pre game. Watched the Palace game, not sure how every Palace player looked like Messi/Ronaldo as soon as they were 1v1 with Lovren

Having said all that about buying Soton players, it'd be nice to get Clyne for the price quoted

PS: Thanks mate, hope you've been well

 

[ADL9798]

I hope he does mate, if it means that the team performs well.

Again, I've never said that he can't play. And I understand the signing from a playing style standpoint. I've expressed my opinion that he is a Joe Cole/Yossi Benayoun sort of player, a useful squad player but not a stand-out or someone who is good enough to be a central player for a side that has aspirations of challenging for major honours.

But I don't think paying £25m for him represents anything like value in any transfer market under any market conditions. He was grossly overpriced and if we were so intent on signing an attacking midfielder then I think we could have got the same sort of player from other European leagues for half or even less than half of what we paid for Lallana. But we were (and perhaps, still are) obsessed with buying "Premier League proven" players, as if that automatically meant "capable of performing at the top level".

A £25m signing should be a nailed-on first-teamer, particularly when we don't, unlike the other top sides, already have the nailed-on first-teamers in place. £25m should get you a genuine difference-maker. Of course, that's not Lallana's fault and I'm not blaming him. But £25m should get you more than a squad player. I just think it was a poor allocation of resources.

But this is the crux of it I think. The fact that we didn't sign a star striker is constantly used as a stick to beat Lallana with, and I think it's unfair to set the goalposts like that for him. He's a very, very good footballer, and no he's not going to score 20 goals a season, but then that's not what he was signed for (that was supposedly Balotelli's job!).

Had we signed a striker that had actually done their job (just for something different!), then I guarantee that no-one would have had any complaints whatsoever about the Lallana signing because as I said, while he didn't light up the league as he did in 2013/14, he didn't actually have a bad season all things considered. His only flaw is that we were all expecting a Luis Suarez replacement to be signed last summer, and he isn't Luis Suarez. The fact that we didn't sign Alexis Sanchez doesn't make Lallana a bad signing, and quite clearly given we submitted a £30m+ offer for Sanchez after signing Lallana, from a financial perspective at least we were perfectly capable of signing both in the same window so resource allocation doesn't really come into it either.

And yes he's behind £50m Sterling and £40m(?) Coutinho in the pecking order for attacking midfield spots, but I'd say that if you look at any side that has aspirations of challenging for major honours in any league, they would all have players of Lallana's calibre (and probably Lallana's price) ready to come off the bench and have an impact or rotate into the first team in the event of long term injuries at a moment's notice. A £25m signing is only a nailed on first teamer if you don't already have attackers who are more valuable and of greater quality in that position (as we do). If Chelsea signed a £25m striker, would he be guaranteed to start ahead of Costa? Even saying that, Lallana still made 40+ appearances too which was a pretty decent return given he was injured for the first 2 months of the season (which is why I don't think it makes sense to categorize players as 'starters' and 'subs', because that classification obviously changes throughout the season as form fluctuates).

I just don't get it, I'm really not seeing what the issue is with Lallana. For me the issue is that we signed Balotelli for £16m and £100k+/week instead of a top quality forward who fits the way we play and actually puts the ball in the back of the net, that's the mistake we should be directing our anger at.

 

[ADL9798]

Was it worse than the time we found him posing with a Pikachu doll?

Jesus. I don't want to know.

 

[Dagger5]

I know our CB's are much maligned but could it be that the goalkeeper behind them is just as useless at helping organising them? I don't trust Mignolet one bit, he just doesn't inspire any confidence. If we could concede less then we wouldn't need to rely on scoring at least 2 goals every match.

 

[kane249]

where art thou padman? Can't find him on the system. Must be permabanned. Probably had a meltdown during one of our many frustrating matches last season.

Yeah I think he got permabanned again. With the amount of cards he picked up he probably exceeded his total points quota and qualified for a perma.

 

[Cooldude]

I just don't get it, I'm really not seeing what the issue is with Lallana. For me the issue is that we signed Balotelli for £16m and £100k+/week instead of a top quality forward who fits the way we play and actually puts the ball in the back of the net, that's the mistake we should be directing our anger at.

I think the problem with Lallana is, he's good on the ball, but he often takes too many touches to do something. He is not slow but he is not quick either. He misses some glaringly simple chances then takes a good goal. He floats aimless airy crosses too many times then suddenly plays a good throughball. He basically is jack of all trades master of none

I think he's more in line with a Dirk Kuyt, except Derek had more goals in him and Lallana has a better touch. Decent and very likeable player who is never gonna do anything groundbreaking. and Dirk cost wha 8 mil?

Mario gets a lot of stick and rightly so but even AC Milan got a lot more out of him than we did, somewhere along the line the club has to take some of the blame as well

Basically our transfer business's been bad, which is why I'm curious as to whether the committee still exists and who is doing the business now

 

[BlueBen]

But this is the crux of it I think. The fact that we didn't sign a star striker is constantly used as a stick to beat Lallana with, and I think it's unfair to set the goalposts like that for him. He's a very, very good footballer, and no he's not going to score 20 goals a season, but then that's not what he was signed for (that was supposedly Balotelli's job!).

Had we signed a striker that had actually done their job (just for something different!), then I guarantee that no-one would have had any complaints whatsoever about the Lallana signing because as I said, while he didn't light up the league as he did in 2013/14, he didn't actually have a bad season all things considered. His only flaw is that we were all expecting a Luis Suarez replacement to be signed last summer, and he isn't Luis Suarez. The fact that we didn't sign Alexis Sanchez doesn't make Lallana a bad signing, and quite clearly given we submitted a £30m+ offer for Sanchez after signing Lallana, from a financial perspective at least we were perfectly capable of signing both in the same window so resource allocation doesn't really come into it either.

And yes he's behind £50m Sterling and £40m(?) Coutinho in the pecking order for attacking midfield spots, but I'd say that if you look at any side that has aspirations of challenging for major honours in any league, they would all have players of Lallana's calibre (and probably Lallana's price) ready to come off the bench and have an impact or rotate into the first team in the event of long term injuries at a moment's notice. A £25m signing is only a nailed on first teamer if you don't already have attackers who are more valuable and of greater quality in that position (as we do). If Chelsea signed a £25m striker, would he be guaranteed to start ahead of Costa? Even saying that, Lallana still made 40+ appearances too which was a pretty decent return given he was injured for the first 2 months of the season (which is why I don't think it makes sense to categorize players as 'starters' and 'subs', because that classification obviously changes throughout the season as form fluctuates).

I just don't get it, I'm really not seeing what the issue is with Lallana. For me the issue is that we signed Balotelli for £16m and £100k+/week instead of a top quality forward who fits the way we play and actually puts the ball in the back of the net, that's the mistake we should be directing our anger at.

Fair enough mate, you obviously rate him more highly than I do, which is fine.

And again, the problem isn't with Lallana as such - he didn't demand that we spend £25m on him! The problem in my opinion is that he was not an absolutely necessary signing, and yet one for which we nevertheless forked out £25m (our second most expensive transfer outlay for a player), and that if we were intent on signing a player like him then we could have got far better value for our money elsewhere.

And I don't think anyone would claim that Balotelli has been a good transfer. But at the time it appeared low-risk and value for money, even though it obviously hasn't worked out.

 

[ADL9798]

@LFCTransferNRS: In the past two seasons in the Bundesliga, only Lewandowski with 48 goals/assists & Muller with 46 have contributed more than Firmino (44).

 

[jod23]

Emre Can picking up some rave reviews after another very good game for Germany U21 in a 1-1 draw with the Czech Republic which sends the Germans through to the semi finals of the U21 Euros. At this stage he's on track to be named in the team of the tournament alongside Portugal's Carvalho in midfield.

Careful ADL9798

We've just signed Firmino. This kinda talk on my boy Emre.

Well my dick cant get any harder so...

 

[jod23]

Mine's The Weeknd.

No idea what that is. Is the Weeknd a person or what?

Mine is some kind of awesome 80's video game Liverbird.

 

[jod23]

Amidst news of the signing of Brazilian forward Roberto Firmino, Gianluca Di Marzio reported that Liverpool had also begun talks with Inter Milan over midfielder Mateo Kovacic.


The 21 year old Croatian midfielder looks set to leave Inter Milan this summer with the club demanding a €30m fee for his services.

Respected Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio believes the €30 (£21.3m) fee will not scare off Liverpool at the negotiation table.

Seriously, what did I just say about my dick not being able to get any harder than it already is.

Would be epic if we got him too. Then just a balls deep striker and a RB, hopefully Clyne and we are good to go next season!