Liverpool Thread - Premier League Champions* 2019/20 (Part 2)

I think this is what you were looking for leighbo.

Pretty much. 

If Rodgers truly believes that his players are OUTSTANDING and show GREAT CHARACTER then it must be his tactics that are shot.

I'm really 50/50 on the Rodgers In/Rodgers Out argument now.

I'm loathe for them to start from scratch again but equally, I'm sick of his mouth writing cheques his football can't cash.

From Macca of Macca Rumours fame.

"personally I think he will never recover from his injuries"

ehhhh what? 

Very few players never recover from injuries, and his don't seem the type of injuries that end a career.

Awesome fan rant from a Liverpool forum after a defeat to Hull a couple of seasons ago, but still seems mostly relevant today (no I didn't dig it up, it was posted on another forum I visit):

I think he's implying that he will never be the striker he was last year. Injuries will be in the back of his mind and will always be waiting for that next ping of the hamstring. Happens in a lot of sports - potential greats whose injuries trample all over their career.

Look at Hargreaves, Woodgate & Ledley King.

Yep so you're validating my point - Hargreaves, Woodgate, King, plus Diaby - that's 4 examples, which is kind of what I meant by 'very few'. 

Of the above examples, 3 had chronic knee issues and the other had multiple injuries all stemming from an ankle-breaking tackle early in his career. 

Sturridge has had none of these things. He'll be back, don't panic ;)

So you don't buy into the theory that persistent or regular injuries have a long lasting affect on the mind of the individual, not just their physical abilities?

I think "never recover" is just the wrong choice of words. Players who suffer persistent injuries struggle to get back to their previous form consistently and stay injury free. RVP was a massive exception to this, I really hope Sturridge is too.

As for all the happenings at the club at the mo, all I can say is thank fudge for the Phoenix!

Mate all I said was that very few players have their careers ruined by injury, and that I don't think Sturridge will be one of them.

No doubt injury preys on a player's mind, but if that worry is enough to end their career then they're not mentally cut out for football at this level.

Put a tenner on QPR to win as a sort of anti jinx but you might also win some dosh at $8.50.

I saw Maccas rumours.....it seems to be such a mess when we have a manager who doesn't have the final say on transfers. I mean why would someone else buy a striker (with big money) and then the manager say no. The manager makes the decisions on the day Will be interesting to see if the DOF rumours are true and if Rodgers can work within the new set up.

What do you guys think about Milner?

Not much as it happens. But ask Jr about him; he's absolutely steaming that it looks like a done deal. Stream coming from the ears kind of angry.

Of all the signings we made at the start of the year , he was only mildly optimistic about Lallana. The rest- meh.

It's a bit hard to say who he's more pissed off about at the mo'- Sterling or Milner. Good for a little wind up though. 

Milner is underrated. He would improve your current squad.

There is still hope.

Yeah fudge a win against Hull last weekend and we'd be a point behind utd. What an odd season this has been.

What a sharke game that was about the same quality of that I have just witnessed at Westpac. I am now starting to wonder if the EPL is believing it's own legendary status comments. It is not as good as it believes. QPR have been crap all season - Thanks Harry. But Liverpool were equally guilty of being crap too.

Much to my shock, I agree with Buffon here. Milner would be a good addition to the team, someone who knows how to be a part of a winning team, who has bags of experience and stays out of the limelight. 143 games for City and 53 games for England under his belt. He defends from the front (something that we thrived on last season and have given up this season) and with an excellent record of assists.

Sturridge now recovering from hip surgery and out for the season.

I would take Milner.....at least he works hard! Crikey, has it come to that. I just hope we get some money for Ballotelli and can find new clubs for a number of our players like Aspas, Luis Alberto....I'm sure there are plenty more floating around 

Part of the clear out will free some funds up as we will lose some big bucks off the weekly salary which is great. I do wonder if FSG are taking it slow, we're becoming financially secure again after some dodgy years with Hicks and Co. and seem to be doing an Arsenal circa 2005 - getting financially solvent, struggling to hold on to top, top players but it's long term gain over short term pain.

For us fans it sucks as we have had to put up with the pain since 1990 but I'd rather suffer for 2 -3 more years and then move into an extended period of success than win one title and then be back to square one.

Massive compliments for our Stevie from Mourinho.........

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article...

Aaaaand more bad news regarding Sturridge and his hip, although it sounds like he came through surgery ok...........

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article...

pity. End of Rodgers Road?

For us, probably. Will it happen though? Who knows.

He got lucky last year with 2 players who had unbelievable seasons , one of whom is a long term injury issue now. Not all his fault , the transfer committee should also be hung, drawn and quartered for their efforts in off season. Rodgers rates Balotelli so highly that he wasn't even in the squad this morning , Sinclair on bench this am.Having said that , I do think Rodgers didn't want him in the first place. But the fact is that we're worse off that last year and Rodgers has to be judged on his record.

No noises as yet that Fenway want rid of Rodgers so we may well be stuck with him . But Henry et al would be wise to look very closely at how the transfers were  done last year and ensure the same crap doesn't occur again. I think they'll have a good at Klopp too; how seriously who knows but this season has done us a lot of harm , both short and medium term. Major priority is to find a 20-30 goal a year striker but that ain't going to be cheap. Origi hardly inspires confidence that's he's it and Sterling sure as hell isn't.

Off season will be interesting but options likely to be limited I suspect.

Liverpool will still get 4th place...

Liverpool 4 – Palace 0

United 0 – Arsenal 4

Stoke 0 – Liverpool 5

Hull 2 – United 0

Haha do you think if go three up against palace, we'll push everyone forward for a massive result? Wait........

I'd actually like to see all the young fellas given a run. Get Ojo into the team, Rossiter and Ibe with a few of the fringe signings - Manquillo, Markovic. 

Yeah and all we had to do that was get a result against Chelsea! Too easy! Haha

I get the calls for Rodgers out, I understand the frustration BUT if people cannot see the good that the owners have done, then they must be blind.

Things are a lot rosier now that they were when 'those who shall not be named' were in charge. They are clearing and continue to clear debt, they have moved forward with a stadium upgrade and kept us at Anfield, they have struck up some huge sponsorship deals and took us to 2nd place and back into the CL. Sure, this season has been a disappointment but they were never going to do a 'Red Sox' with us within a similar time frame.

The Red Sox have one competition to worry about, they already had an excellent team that needed just a few additions but FSG knew how to break the curse of the Bambino. I believe FSG will take us to the Premiership title at some point, but what I do know is that I'd rather have owners making the club sustainable than a billionaire oil magnate constantly flirting with FFP and franchising the club.

A loss. 3 - 1. vs Palace. At home. In Stevie's last Anfield hurrah. 

Wow. What a joke!

I'm quickly moving into the BR Out team - how we have played since the United loss is appalling. In addition, I've always supported FSG (see above) since they took over but for none of the owners to be present for the sending off of our greatest servant is a bad look.

You must be sick of the sight of Palace!

1990 at Villa Park. Unpleasant.

I'm pretty sure Henry was present when they sacked Dalglish.

King Kenny - 355 games as a player, 381 as manager (some of those cross over) across 15 seasons.

King Stevie - 706 appearances across 17 seasons.

Subjective. 

Dalglish actually won the league though.

Zola never won a title in 7 years with Chelsea. Does that make Fabregas a better servant to them than Gianfranco?

Carragher played more games and never threatened to leave as well.

Carragher didn't captain to the same extent...and I think you're both missing the point.

I was just pondering your assertion that Gerrard was your greatest ever servant, I wasn't actually addressing your point. 

What was the point? That you're still sitting on the fence re: Rodgers?

That's a tough one. Pros and Cons. I'd probably be on the fence as well.