Summer Transfer Window 2014

[the dude abides]

I see the Independent today has us apparently trying to hijack Arsenal's bid for Remy.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/arsenal-transfer-news-liverpool-set-to-hijack-move-for-arsenal-target-loic-remy-9600524.html

[the dude abides]

Seems we are keen to bring in both Remy and Bony.

Or maybe we are using one as a backup. 

[Tes]

Seems we are keen to bring in both Remy and Bony.

Or maybe we are using one as a backup.

Cash in on Borini, and fee wise, Borini would cover Remy's buyout clause. We'd have a good array of ages and experience levels, Sturridge at 24, Bony 25, Remy 28 and Lambert 32. Three of the four have pace, at least of reasonable levels and Lambert's is in his head.

[Tes]

I think Sanchez will end up more disappointed than some of our fanbase if these comments are anything go by:

"“The team not only plays really good football, but the squad is really good and we can win silverware.

“We have a great squad and we are a big club. We can achieve big things.

“Playing regularly wasn’t the only reason why I came here - I came here to win the league title, the Champions League and every title at stake.   




“I am here to win titles and to achieve as much as possible.".

He obviously hasn't followed Arsenal's history over the last 8-9 years.

Also, you can see how Arsenal held the advantage over us. Wenger having the opportunity to talk to him at the World Cup. Talking with Fabregas about Arsenal and Wenger. Our manager didn't get the chance to tap him up at the World Cup, and whilst Masch could have sold the club to him, he couldn't have told him a bean about the manager he'd be playing under. Has he seen Ozil's form since he arrived in London?
I'd also imagine the Chilean and Spanish speaking population and culture is slightly larger and more widespread in London than it is on Merseyside.

http://www.london24.com/sport/football/clubs/arsenal/sanchez_eyes_ozil_partnership_and_reveals_why_he_chose_arsenal_over_liverpool_1_3680738

[Edward224]

We met with Bony on Thursday. He apparently has a £19m release clause which we are happy to match.

We are also interested in Griezmann.

[Tes]

We met with Bony on Thursday. He apparently has a £19m release clause which we are happy to match.

We are also interested in Griezmann.

Yet Huw Jenkins is doing his nut claiming no contact from us or permission given to us:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-not-permission-talk-wilfried-3842803

This also seems odd if his release clause is £19M:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2689236/Tottenham-ready-battle-Liverpool-Wilfried-Bony-prepare-18million-bid-Swansea-striker.html

I hope we don't p!ss Swansea off especially if we are looking at Ben Davies too, though it does seem odd that Rodgers would be involved or know of any 'tapping up' being carried out against his old club. Maybe Jenkins is just preparing the ground with the fans for a sale and wanting to look like the injured party when the players leave. Still, that would be a sh!tty way to treat your own fans and rather disingenuous, if not slanderous, towards us.

Griezmann's release clause is very high, and whilst his stats say he's quality, I've yet to be impressed anytime I've seen him, as immaterial as that is. Also PSG are supposed to be sniffing round and it would be tough to compete both financially and in terms of them being the biggest club in his homeland. 

We seem to be linked with all sorts of forward and attacking players, yet in terms of defensive recruitments our left back list seems to consist of only two names and one of those can't get in his team ahead of a young right back playing out of position, and must hold the record for the amount of loan moves in a single career, and our centre half list seems to have just Lovren's name on it. Our only true defensive midfielder looks like being allowed to leave, so we'll have to hope that Emre Can really can be the answer, as there seems to be no defensive midfielder target list, or any attempt to add Henderson type energy to the squad, and we all saw his importance to us when he was suspended.

There's more ways to crack a Luis Suarez shaped nut than by simply trying to replicate the goals tally. It wasn't that we didn't score enough last season, so even if Suarez had stayed the attacking side of our game didn't need fixing.

I just wish we were seeing as many, if not more, solutions to our real problems as we are the facet of our game, even without Suarez, that is so much closer to what actually is required. Maybe it's just that the impression is actually different to the reality.

[Tes]

... and our centre half list seems to have just Lovren's name on it.

And we won't be adding Steven Caulkner's name to it either:

Crystal Palace clinch transfer of Steven Caulker with club-record £8m bid for Cardiff captain

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/crystal-palace-clinch-transfer-steven-3845429

It's interesting that we got linked to him, along with probably a lazy 'ex-player' type link to Spurs, yet the Mancs who need to replace Vidic and Ferdinand, Chelsea the same with Sideshow Bob (he even runs like he's wearing Bob's huge shoes  ) and Arsenal, especially if Vermaelen leaves, which seems to be looking likely, haven't been, as far as I'm aware. Does that mean anything, or not?

I just hope he doesn't turn out to be a rough diamond that Pulis polishes (instead of the turds he was used to at Stoke), and even more so that we're not linked with a £20M+ move for him this time next year because he's turned into a monster of a centre half under Pulis' tutelage.

[Tes]

Quite a good article for the Metro. Does Jim write for them too?

http://metro.co.uk/2014/07/11/why-wilfried-bony-or-anyone-else-can-never-be-a-replacement-for-luis-suarez-at-liverpool-4795020/

[Tes]

And we won't be adding Steven Caulkner's name to it either:

Crystal Palace clinch transfer of Steven Caulker with club-record £8m bid for Cardiff captain

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/crystal-palace-clinch-transfer-steven-3845429

It's interesting that we got linked to him, along with probably a lazy 'ex-player' type link to Spurs, yet the Mancs who need to replace Vidic and Ferdinand, Chelsea the same with Sideshow Bob (he even runs like he's wearing Bob's huge shoes  ) and Arsenal, especially if Vermaelen leaves, which seems to be looking likely, haven't been, as far as I'm aware. Does that mean anything, or not?

I just hope he doesn't turn out to be a rough diamond that Pulis polishes (instead of the turds he was used to at Stoke), and even more so that we're not linked with a £20M+ move for him this time next year because he's turned into a monster of a centre half under Pulis' tutelage.

Quite a strange decision especially coming so soon after this which was published on Wednesday:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/caulker-still-wants-liverpool-transfer-3835513

The Mirror has it's finger on the pulse as usual, I guess.

[Tes]

Whilst it seems a huge hole to fill, the loss of Suarez can be potentially filled, and Remy and Bony are two solid choices.

I looked up Suarez's goals/assists record for both his first half season and full season. Likewise, Remy (who had a half season with QPR, then a full one with Newcastle), and Bony who only has a full season and no half season to compare. All the comparisons are for their first partial and full seasons to see how they potentially could help fill the void.

Premier League games only.

Suarez:
Season 10/11 - half season - 13 games, 4 goals, 5 assists

Remy (QPR):
Season 12/13 - half season - 14 games, 6 goals, 0 assists

Not a bad comparison especially when you consider Remy was playing in a team that struggled all season and was relegated at the end of it.


Suarez:
Season 11/12 - first full season - 31 games, 11 goals, 6 assists

Remy (Newcastle):
Season 13/14 - first full season - 26 games, 14 goals, 3 assists

Bony (Swansea):
Season 13/14 - first full season - 34 games, 17 goals, 5 assists

Again the figures for both Remy and Bony stack up quite favourably.

Even I will admit    that Suarez has improved under Rodgers, even taking into account the team being built around him.

We probably wouldn't play with the same verve and panache with either Remy or Boney but the goals should still come.

Another thing to digest and the reason I BANG ON about defence is that 80 goals +/- 6, is the figure that is usually needed to win the title. We scored 100+ but still didn't win it. So if we lose 10-12 goals because of Suarez's departure, historically we should still score enough to achieve top 3 again.

However defensively, Premier League area, goals conceded by the champions are:

31, 38, 39, 35, 44, 33, 37, 45, 31, 36, 34, 26, 15, 22, 27, 22, 24, 32, 37, 29, 43, 37

So taking out Chelsea's 15 as that would skew things too much, the average amount of goals conceded by the winners is: 33.42
The average using 30+ is: 36.8

So it's not about worrying about losing 10-15 goals with Suarez's departure, it's more about working out how we cut the amount of goals conceded by 25% - that gives us 37.5, so the aim broadly is not to concede more than an average of a goal a game, but of course if we score zero even hitting that target netts us 0 points for that game, but you get the general point.

Having a great attack is not enough to scare teams into not attacking us. Teams showed last season that they will have a go despite the risk of conceding against our attack. If they get one, it could prove to be a turning point not a consolation, so we have to alter both the reality and the impression/perception that we are 'easy to get at' and 'score against'.   

[Tes]

Wisdom is apparently going out on loan for the whole of the season to WBA:

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Liverpool-defender-Andre-Wisdom-set-season-long/story-21457645-detail/story.html

Excellent news that it's a PL team having been out on loan at Derby County last season. It's much better preparation and experience for him in the PL at this stage of  his career.

It will be interesting to see if he plays right back or centre half.

[barticus]

So we can spend 135 mil now and we're being linked with the likes of Jay Rodriguez, let me guess 25 million. No bids for Khedira, Shaqiri or Benzema aka those with proven experience and quality. Anybody getting scared now?

[barticus]

Seen we're linked with Marco Reus who would be far more like it. Fat chance though.

[the dude abides]

Seen we're linked with Marco Reus who would be far more like it. Fat chance though.

supposedly the Reus link is bogus.

but I was very surprised to see the Rodriguez stuff......and the Mirror is usually spot on, so I take it is genuine.

BUT, it's probably Liverpool playing mind games/chess with some other club over our primary interest (which I presume to be Bony at Swansea).

[the dude abides]

Whilst it seems a huge hole to fill, the loss of Suarez can be potentially filled, and Remy and Bony are two solid choices.

I looked up Suarez's goals/assists record for both his first half season and full season. Likewise, Remy (who had a half season with QPR, then a full one with Newcastle), and Bony who only has a full season and no half season to compare. All the comparisons are for their first partial and full seasons to see how they potentially could help fill the void.

Premier League games only.

Suarez:
Season 10/11 - half season - 13 games, 4 goals, 5 assists

Remy (QPR):
Season 12/13 - half season - 14 games, 6 goals, 0 assists

Not a bad comparison especially when you consider Remy was playing in a team that struggled all season and was relegated at the end of it.


Suarez:
Season 11/12 - first full season - 31 games, 11 goals, 6 assists

Remy (Newcastle):
Season 13/14 - first full season - 26 games, 14 goals, 3 assists

Bony (Swansea):
Season 13/14 - first full season - 34 games, 17 goals, 5 assists

Again the figures for both Remy and Bony stack up quite favourably.

Even I will admit    that Suarez has improved under Rodgers, even taking into account the team being built around him.

We probably wouldn't play with the same verve and panache with either Remy or Boney but the goals should still come.

Another thing to digest and the reason I BANG ON about defence is that 80 goals +/- 6, is the figure that is usually needed to win the title. We scored 100+ but still didn't win it. So if we lose 10-12 goals because of Suarez's departure, historically we should still score enough to achieve top 3 again.

However defensively, Premier League area, goals conceded by the champions are:

31, 38, 39, 35, 44, 33, 37, 45, 31, 36, 34, 26, 15, 22, 27, 22, 24, 32, 37, 29, 43, 37

So taking out Chelsea's 15 as that would skew things too much, the average amount of goals conceded by the winners is: 33.42
The average using 30+ is: 36.8

So it's not about worrying about losing 10-15 goals with Suarez's departure, it's more about working out how we cut the amount of goals conceded by 25% - that gives us 37.5, so the aim broadly is not to concede more than an average of a goal a game, but of course if we score zero even hitting that target netts us 0 points for that game, but you get the general point.

Having a great attack is not enough to scare teams into not attacking us. Teams showed last season that they will have a go despite the risk of conceding against our attack. If they get one, it could prove to be a turning point not a consolation, so we have to alter both the reality and the impression/perception that we are 'easy to get at' and 'score against'.

thanks for putting together all that data.

yes, one thing I have learned, is that nobody (no matter who they are) is irreplaceable.

when Keegan left in 1977, I thought the sky was going to collapse.  But it didn't.  I learned from Kevin's departure.  One moves on, brings in other/s who bring new things to the side, and who pose different dangers to the opposition.

e.g. when Owen left, we went and won the European Cup the next season.

I hadn;t realised until recently just what a great season Bony had at Swansea.  VERY impressive for his first year in English football.

You are spot on, about us needing to have a strong defence.  If we do not concede so many, we do not need to score so many.  As I always harp on about, BALANCE IS KEY.

Your data suggests low to mid 30s, is what we need to be aiming for (goals against).

The problem is that Rodgers is solely focussed on attack.  I imagine by the end of the window, we will have Moreno and Lovren.  Both lads will be speedy - thus suggesting Rodgers has more of an eye on their ability to get across the pitch, and up and down the pitch.

We will, by definition, play differently without Count Dracula.  But for my money, it will be more of the same.  Very pleasing on the eye (especially with even more technically delightful players now in our ranks).  But desperately frustrating, if you hate to see the opposition scoring, and crave balance.