The BigFooty Liverpool Army

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jod23

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They are squad players. Milner won't be playing 45 games with Henderson fully fit and either Dahoud or Zielinski coming in. Same goes for Allen. Lucas already was playing the squad role when Klopp rested players for EL ties & also filling in at CB.
How are they squad players, I just said they all played 30-40 games last season. A fit Henderson would have lowered those numbers. But Hendo and Can are the only guys in front of those blokes. One injury and suddenly Joe Allen is starting next to Can. Or Henderson is next to Milner in central midfield.

That's not gonna cut it if we want to win the league.
 

Zidane98

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How are they squad players, I just said they all played 30-40 games last season. A fit Henderson would have lowered those numbers. But Hendo and Can are the only guys in front of those blokes. One injury and suddenly Joe Allen is starting next to Can. Or Henderson is next to Milner in central midfield.

That's not gonna cut it if we want to win the league.
I'm assuming we bring in either Zielinski or Dahoud. Zielinski / Can / Henderson is a pretty decent midfield with Grujic / Allen as cover. Milner to play on the wing. They are squad players mate.
 

jod23

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I'm assuming we bring in either Zielinski or Dahoud. Zielinski / Can / Henderson is a pretty decent midfield with Grujic / Allen as cover. Milner to play on the wing. They are squad players mate.
Well they werent squad players in the season just gone.

Zielinski is 22 and Grujic is 20. If you think those two are gonna come in with no experience in England or experience in playing for a big club with the pressure that comes with playing for Liverpool and each are gonna play 30-40 games I think you'd be mistaken.

But that's what would have to happen to make Allen, Milner, Lucas etc squad players.
 

Zidane98

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Well they werent squad players in the season just gone.

Zielinski is 22 and Grujic is 20. If you think those two are gonna come in with no experience in England or experience in playing for a big club with the pressure that comes with playing for Liverpool and each are gonna play 30-40 games I think you'd be mistaken.

But that's what would have to happen to make Allen, Milner, Lucas etc squad players.
No it wouldn't. Can & Henderson are first choice in the middle. And the only reason Allen, Lucas & Milner got plenty of game time last season was because of an injury crisis. Allen, Milner & Lucas are completely fine as squad players which they clearly are.
 

Cooldude

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In the CM department we're basically hoping one of the lesser young kids like Grujic and Zielinski would step up and be our Alli, which is unlikely

One of Henderson or Can get injured we wouldn't have Joe Allen as the reliable backup anymore once we sell him

We need someone proven
 

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Brexit has just made European players a bit more expensive. And China may find Balotelli a lot cheaper all of a sudden...

Lallana has been the best of England's forwards so far. But mostly, y'know, for applying pressure. It looks like Klopp is a fan so people should get used to it.

Interesting points on TAW about the lack of forwards on display at Euros. Us sitting on Studge, Tekkers, Ings and Origi (and Balotelli) plus Firmino and possible Mane who can play there too. And Klopp only seems to play with one of them at a time. We should look for good money for even Balo.
 

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Allen is gone and Lucas has been a squad player for years, we just haven't found the players to truly displace him, injuries and shit keep bringing him back to help us. Milner came in and gave us so much we were lacking, why does he get all the stick! Nobody is just going to come in and relegate Milner to "squad player" they will have to displace him first as he helps shape our best XI
 

Zidane98

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Milner is very useful when we need a defensive winger. Also has a very good cross on him (but can't take corners). He's already played a key role in 2 league titles for City who didn't think he was too "vanilla" for them.
 

ADL9798

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Coming around to the idea of signing Mane.

I think once you get past the eye watering reported fee (which people tend to forget about pretty quickly as long as the player performs) and the whole "not another Southampton player" thing (if he played for Hoffenheim or Valencia we would probably be a little more excited about this signing, and to be fair I personally think Clyne, Lovren and Lallana have turned out pretty well for us), unlike some of our other recent big money signings he's a player that quite clearly suits the style of football Klopp wants us playing to a tee so while he might not have been my first choice I can definitely see the merit in signing him.

With his line breaking speed, strength and quick feet he brings a different skill set which our front 4 is currently lacking, and importantly he's also a proven goalscorer. Looking at his last 4 seasons:

2012/13 (RB Salzburg): 19 goals 10 assists
2013/14 (RB Salzburg): 23 goals 18 assists
2014/15 (RB Salzburg/Southampton): 13 goals 9 assists
2015/16 (Southampton): 15 goals 9 assists

The one knock I would have on him would be that his goals tend to come in bursts, i.e. he'll score 8 goals in 8 games and then 3 in the next 15-20. It's a concern when you're spending that sort of money so you'd hope that Klopp could help him in that regard and perhaps bring a bit more consistency to his game.

Could we get better value searching for 'rough diamonds' elsewhere in Europe? Possibly, and to be fair we've taken exactly that approach with Karius, Matip, Grujic and Zielinski expected to come in for around £20m combined, and with an attempted bid for a very similar player in terms of style and quality to Mane in Ousmane Dembele (who unfortunately opted to join Dortmund instead). The latter is important as to me it shows that Klopp obviously feels that this type of player is essential to the team he wants to build, and that this isn't a panic buy or a signing on a whim but rather a strategic move to bring in a player with a specific skill set to improve the team. He's mentioned in interviews in the past that he sees a need in the squad for wingers with speed and skill so I'm sure he and the rest of the committee will have been thinking about this for some time.

Will Mane be a good signing for us? Who knows, he hasn't even put pen to paper yet let alone kicked a ball in a Liverpool shirt. In his favour I think Klopp knows what he's doing when it comes to picking out and developing talents, and I think Mane is the right type of player which is a good start given the amount of money we've wasted on players who quite clearly weren't suited to our style of play in the past. The critical thing will be whether or not Klopp can extract greater consistency from him and extrapolate those 7-8 week form spikes into a season of quality performances because he ticks a lot of other boxes.
 
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Andonis1997

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Warming up to Mane now. Pace is the main thing we need, despite paying overs for him. If Klopp has seen something he likes, we might as well trust him (if it is his transfer..)
Did Balotelli and Benteke have pace? No.
 

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This one does make more sense than the Lallana Lovren and Benteke transfers. Hope he does well, we'll see how he goes, he better not drop off his output though, he is a 1 in 3 man. But I think he's capable of 15 league goals and that's what Jurg will demand from him

If we keep Sturridge fit and Mane on the right then we now have a situation where a front 4 of Firmino Sturridge Coutinho and Mane all have goals in them. Now it's a matter of stop conceding them

Soton on the verge of getting Nathan Redmond for 10 mil, so this is pretty much gonna happen
 

Korn

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Starting to like Mane too.
didn't like the idea at first, but the more videos I see of him the more I like about him. We really need his pace. Klopp would love it.
 

Leiviathan

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Consistency is his issue, as has been mentioned. At Salzburg and Southampton he has been close to, if not, the main man(e) at the club. That won't be the case at Liverpool. Poor form will see him on the bench. That could bring his best back sooner... it might not.

...that is if he ends up in a red shirt... if he does I hope it is for considerably less than 30 million squid.
 

RossFC

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Apparently Karius may not be going to the Olympics.

If we sign Mane it looks to me like Henderson and Morenos spots are the 2 weak points of the side we need to upgrade on this window.
 

craigos

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I don't see the Brexit having an issue with sports, tbh. Whoever makes up the new government will realise that if they start to f*ck with the national past time they wont last long. They'll make a clause allowing work permits for people involved in sport at the elite level, they already have the homegrown player rule so nothing should change.

I just don't want Mane, I want to be excited about signing a 30 million pound (approx $2.50 AUD) player and this excites me zero. We are probably the biggest income for Southampton, and they must be laughing every time we knock on their door.
 
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