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

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.

Whichever one has Stevie is stronger.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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!

KD was the best photo of the bunch.

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

A few nice pics so far this pre-season












Cool as fuck
















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

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.

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.

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

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.

But then this all raises the question of where Henderson fits into the picture.

When you consider that Kuyt might not always be a starter he's a quality back up striker - but I would like us to sign some up and coming lad with a bit of pace and creativity to inject into games.

I agree, he's a great player to have on the bench. The squad has much more depth now, although I would like a descent backup striker, so we don't have to play that knob ngog

He probably wont - but that's why they invented a bench :P He'd be a fantastic player to come on with his mobility and attacking threat if we need something after the hour.

And I think it's more likely Gerrard will sit with Lucas or Adam, dependent on form/injuries/fatigue. But again, there's many different options

So your saying Lucas and Adam will be the two holding midfielders. That makes sense. But how will Raul get ahead of gerrard, Suarez and downing in the attacking roles?

Yeah, I'm not saying he'll be picked over Gerrard.

Different player to Adam, much different. Adam will play more of a Xabi role, sitting in the middle of the park and spraying balls around, while Meireles is extremely dynamic and mobile. He'll be more likely to be a part of the 3 that sit behind Carroll in the formation i posted as opposed to the two CMs, which will be Gerrard/Lucas/Adam/Aqua.

Yes, he may have played that role at international level, but the premier league is a different story. Much more physical. And yes, he's not a defensive mid, he's a centre mid, but there's no way he will get picked over Gerrard and Adam in that role

Meireles' reputation suffered further because of his ankle injury forcing him to be ginger in tackles too.

There's a reason Insua flew out to meet the players in Malaysia, that's all I'm saying. And I think that with Downing arriving he's the kind of LB we wnat, one who can play the overlap and defend solidly. One who reads the play really well.

While Lucas was good, I think that was largely from Meireles holding the team up, he made the whole team look good last season. I'm not convinced that he can maintain his form, or whether it was just a temporary impressive run.

The other problem that we have here is that we have too many attacking midfielders and not enough players who are defensively capable.

Not a chance in high hell that Lucas will be dropped. He'll be one of the first names on the team sheet, and rightly so. If he goes into a bad spell of form we'll bring somebody else in. Gerrard-Meireles-Adam doesn't provide any sort of cover in the midfield and is too risky for most games.

And Insua wont be our starting LB, highly doubt it. Give it a month or so tops and we'll have signed Enrique or Cissokho.



Agreed on the lineup, and that wouldn't surprised me at all for some games. Suarez needs to be given a free role, and with Gerrard in the midfield he can move across to cover when Luis drifts centrally or to the left.

Hyypia was slow too but he was still one of our best defenders in recent history - Carra was great at the back end of last season and he deserves to keep his place, just like Skrtel. If one of them drops out of form then bring in Kelly or Agger or Wilson.


Read Copenhagen were gonna bid for Poulsen - hope so.

Re: Meireles - I'm sick of this notion that he can't tackle. I've watched him many times for Portugal and he played the enforcer type role in the middle perfectly. He ducked out of ONE tackle v Rafael v the mancs and everyone started getting on his back. He's certainly not a DM and no replacement for Lucas, but he can tackle. And I don't think he had much to do with getting the best out of Lucas. The fact that Gerrard was out had an impact because Lucas became the man that we looked to in the middle.

I think Adam will be used defensively as a deep lying playmaker.

Poulsen's agent has asid that his client has no intention of leaving Liverpool and will be seeing out his contract at Liverpool. Read: He's getting paid way too much to want to think about leaving.

I am big fan of Meireles, he's a great attacking player. However, he offers the team nothing in defense. He is very weak and can't tackle. He gets pushed of the ball way too easily. And with Gerrard and Adam getting forward any chance they can, Lucas will need to play in order to balance it out and help the defence.

I think you underestimate the impact that Meireles had in bringing out the best in Lucas tbh.

There's no way Lucas will be dropped, he was our star man last season. He holds the midfield together, without him last season we would have really struggled. He made 125 tackles last season, more than anyone else in the premier league.

Given that Insua is staying, I think he'll be in first team plans, possibly in preference to Johnson now that Downing is arriving (#-o).

I think Lucas will be dropped in preference to a Gerrard-Meireles-Adam midfield. I'm still trying to figure out where Henderson fits into the mix. We still need another defender as well, but we've got depth in boat loads now.