Next to Meireles, on the bench :P. He wasn't signed for this season. He's only 20! Much like the signing of Jones for Man U. Gerrard will be slowing down soon, Meireles is getting on too. Getting in early so we have youth ready to step through when we need it.

IT could stall his development if he's not getting regular game time though. I mean, you spend 16m+ on a player and don't play him

He'll play. He'll play 90% of games. They wont all be starts, but he'll be playing, of that I have no doubt.

I still think we've got too many midfielders. We're wasting a hefty wage on Poulsen (thanks, Woy) and we've still got Shelvey, Cole, Spearing and Aquilani as well as the core quality players like Henderson, Adam, Gerrard, Lucas and Meireles. Then of course there's Sterling coming through the youth as well as Suso and Adorján.

A few nice pics so far this pre-season












Cool as fuck
















Can you tell I have a crush on Raul? :P

KD was the best photo of the bunch.

Whose idea was the all-white kit with black trimming? Looks awful.

I agree, there's too many high earning players who are useless. Don't forget about Jovanovic, who is on 120 thousand pounds a week!

We have also just signed Alexander Doni from AS Roma. Strange move. Kenny obviously doesn't believe that Jones is a good enough backup. Wouldn't be surprised if we see Brad leave within the next couple of months.

Newspaper bullshit. He came from Belgium where he was probably earning what, 30k? 40k? Even if he demanded we double that, Theres no way we'd be paying him 120k.

But I agree he needs to go.

I think we've got two seperate very strong XIs

-------------------Reina------------------
Kelly-----Carra-----Agger-----Aurelio
------------Lucas------Adam-----------
Henderson--------Aquilani---------Downing
-------------------Kuyt-----------------
v
--------------------Carroll-------------------
Cole--------------Gerrard------------Suarez
------------Shelvey------Meireles------------
Insua------Skrtel-----Krygiakos-----Johnson
--------------------Doni-------------------

Which team would win? :P

I was just about to say, we haven't had one of imno's line-up's for a while :P

Wait, are you trying to say Doni's going to be your first choice? Or that Carrol and Gerrard and Suarez are 2nd XI?

I was just mixing and matching. I tried to make them pretty even lineups and then wanted to see which lineup you guys thought was stronger :P

Whichever one has Stevie is stronger.

According to transfermarkt he was on about 70k/week. He's almost certainly on his way back to Belgium though so that's not such a big deal compared to the expensive bench-warmers Poulsen and Cole. Especially when Poulsen has no plans to leave and Cole is blaming his poor form on having a son. When you earn 100,000 a week you hire a fucking babysitter, get a good night's sleep and play your fucking heart out you flog.

And again, I'm miffed at the obscene transfer fee we paid for fucking Downing. We're being held to ransom and overspending. We still have to bring in another defender and ideally a striker and we've already spent some 50m.

Yes, we seem to be buying overpriced players at the moment, so far we've spent around 110 million pounds this year. But it seems that the owners don't care. Don't forget though, we received 60 million for Torres and Babel In january

It's not just that though, don't forget we need to meet the FFP rules if we qualify for Europe.

And nobody likes to see the club throwing away money, paying double what players are worth when they could be investing that in expediting the stadium expansion.

We have nothing to worry about with the FFP. Trust the owners and Kenny. They aren't going to put us in a tricky position. The 50million net we've spent would have been spent on debts if the swine were still here ](*,)

Downings fee wasn't that inflated. They spent 12 on him, he's in his prime, he had two years left on his deal, why wouldn't they expect to get a significant profit? Man U spent 25mil on Young who had 1 year left on his contract, is the same age and statistically was hardly better than Downing last year.

I'm pretty sure the young deal was only for 17m.

I think Villa paid over the odds for Downing back in 09 and I think we paid over the odds for him now. 20m being the average price for a player at this level is a joke. He might play decent football but his technical skills are lacking and when you could sign on Mata, whose technique and flair outstrip downing significantly, for around the same fee, I'm disappointed.

We don't want another narrow player though. We want width. Clearly. And you could get someone with flair and technique, like Mata, but it's not going to get the best out of Carroll and he is the focal point of our team up front.

And Downing is still good when it comes to pass completetion (77%) and obviously crossing, so I don't know what you think his technical skills are lacking. He'll do exactly what we expect - hug the line, beat his man, and create chances. Which suits me just fine.

His first touch is often average, his dribbling leaves something to be desired and he doesn't read the through ball often enough, which is a problem when you've got guys like Kuyt, Suarez and Gerrard arriving in the area.

Oh no, sydcro is here... 'Downing is overrated' in 3...2...1.... :P

Edited by imnofreak: 16/7/2011 05:51:16 PM

:lol: overpriced, not overrated. Put it this way, if my club bought him for 20m I'd be fucking fuming, but when you factor in that he's English and you've got Andy Carroll it starts to make some kind of sense.

In a couple of years we could have at least 5, if not 6 players in the england set-up, which is good. But I still think what we paid for Downing is ridiculous.

Liverpool's starting XI against the Malaysian XI tonight: Jones, Flanagan, Robinson, Carragher, Agger, Coady, Adam, Meireles, Spearing, Cole, Carroll. Subs from: Gulacsi, Hansen, Maxi, Pacheco, Kyrgiakos, Kuyt, Wilson, Ngog, Poulsen, Shelvey, Kelly, Wisdom, Aquilani, Insua

Currently 1-1.

Found a good stream on veetle so I watched the whole game.

The pen was soft for our first goal but Adam took it well. Their first was a cracking free kick, poor setting up of the wall from Jones though.

In the first half I thought Adam looked great in a deeper role. Agger was decent but nobody else impressed really. Carroll still looked a bit off the pace, but the pitch was horrendous for everybody.Robinson also looked great down the left.

Second half we looked much better. Aquilani was absolutely amazing. I know it's only Malaysia but his awareness and passing range is absolutely superb. He picked up 3 assists and was involved in the build up of every single goal. Just superb. (Watch Maxi's first goal - just superb build up play and passing from Aqua.

Another surprise was Insua. He has really bulked up and looks much stronger and quicker. He was also very impressive. Ngog took his goals well.

Another good hit out and hopefully everyone is building some good fitness. Fantastic crowd too, great to see so many LFC fans in Asia.

EDIT: It finished 6-3, sorry I didn't make that clear :lol:

Edited by imnofreak: 16/7/2011 09:49:09 PM

Aquilani showed just how well he can play. No idea why he 'flopped', I think he could be the surprise this season.

Kyrgiakos showed just how hopeless he is against sides who play the ball along the deck.

Carroll is lacking polish, but he's got a few games to get up to scratch yet.

Attendance was really good and enough to say I think we'll be back next year.

More reports of us signing Cissokho. Would be very pleased if that went through, and that would be it for first XI changes in transfers.

Bring on next season!

I still think we'll move for a young striker, there's still a few cracks in the side.