Mateo Kovacic

[BobTheCharmer]

What was Souness if he wasn't a defensive / holding midfielder

McMahon played alongside Molby, McDonald and Whelan who all held or did the defensive role

He didn't just sit and not cross the halfway line which is what this current breed of players do. He had so much more to his game than Lucas, makaele, Mikel et al.

I think we need defensive players but not just plodders.

[Scratch]

Does Paul Joyce work for the club?

Did Paul Joyce know anything Firmino before he signed? Or are we maybe just getting a bit better at not spreading transfer gossip from within the club?

[rudedog]

What was Souness if he wasn't a defensive / holding midfielder

McMahon played alongside Molby, McDonald and Whelan who all held or did the defensive role

Souness was more than what the modern defensive/holding midfielder is though - he scored and assisted loads.

[danperkins]

We are buying him, we aren't buying him, we are buying him, we aren't buying him!!!!!! Jeez

[Buzzo]

I agree totally...I'm a long way from being excited about next season.

For me we need at least one and possibly two good full backs and a top, double hard, strong, quick, centre mid

If we were building a Christmas tree we need to get rid of a few less shiney baubles and think about getting the actual tree and some sort of bucket to stick it in.

[Muddled]

And yet the side that won the league played with a dedicated holding / defensive midfielder

I'm not saying it's going to become instantly obsolete; There will be managers (particularly Mourinho) who will stick to the security of having somebody mop up. However, I do think we'll see teams evolve and managers will see such a specialist role become an expandable one as they focus on attack.

[Roboklopp]

I think we need defensive players but not just plodders.

[Exiled_red]

He didn't just sit and not cross the halfway line which is what this current breed of players do. He had so much more to his game than Lucas, makaele, Mikel et al.

I think we need defensive players but not just plodders.

Souness averaged something like 7 or 8 goals a season for us, so if you want to consider him a DM then the DM role he played is very different to the DM role currently played.

[Bender]

Viktor Fagerström @ViktorFagerLFC 4m4 minutes ago
#LFC are taking concrete steps to acquire Kovacic. Inter don't want to go below €30m. Negotiations continues. (Di Marzio)

[redmike65]

I don't believe it, its not happening, its just this summers non transfer saga. Every year we
have to have one. Its an unofficial deal with the media to keep them amused.

[Lecter]

He didn't just sit and not cross the halfway line which is what this current breed of players do. He had so much more to his game than Lucas, makaele, Mikel et al.

I think we need defensive players but not just plodders.

Players like Souness don't really exist in today's football but in terms of his actual partnership he played in a pairing mostly with McDermott who was definitely the more attacking of the two

Equally McMahon was the more attacking player during most of his time

Also its worth noting that Liverpool probably had one of the shortest games there has ever been played on these games they condensed the play so the distance between our centrehalf and forwards was probably only 40-50 yards. They could do this because we had Hansen (and then Lawrenson also)who was fast and balls over the top didnt trouble him too much so they could press high and turn the play quickly. So our midfield line was always high

Its also worth considering what type of player Souness would be today because if a team countered Liverpool he would break up the play by just fouling and getting a talking to. IMO he would have to sit deeper today to negate that and make sure he was goalside more and obviously he would have to be more careful with bookings

[Shaggy]

Did Paul Joyce know anything Firmino before he signed? Or are we maybe just getting a bit better at not spreading transfer gossip from within the club?

This is exactly how it seems to me. Joyce is just about the best connected around - along with Barrett and Bascombe - but it looks like the club have largely stopped briefing.

Joyce, Barrett et al caught wind of Firmino a couple of days ago but they were well behind the foreign outlets.

Everything re Firmino came from abroad - i.e. the selling club and/or the player. Same with Kovacic - it's all coming from abroad. Local journos insist it's made up, yet foreign outlets - some better than others - carry on with the stories.

Be fantastic if the club have stopped all this blabbing. We've been a leaky bucket for so long and it's about time the club learned its lesson.

[Lecter]

Souness was more than what the modern defensive/holding midfielder is though - he scored and assisted loads.

In 6.5 seasons or 247 games he scored 38 but as I mentioned above he was always the deeper player in the partnership

[Lecter]

Souness averaged something like 7 or 8 goals a season for us, so if you want to consider him a DM then the DM role he played is very different to the DM role currently played.

He scored 38 in 6.5 seasons

[The_weatherman]

This is exactly how it seems to me. Joyce is just about the best connected around - along with Barrett and Bascombe - but it looks like the club have largely stopped briefing.

Joyce, Barrett et al caught wind of Firmino a couple of days ago but they were well behind the foreign outlets.

Everything re Firmino came from abroad - i.e. the selling club and/or the player. Same with Kovacic - it's all coming from abroad. Local journos insist it's made up, yet foreign outlets - some better than others - carry on with the stories.

Be fantastic if the club have stopped all this blabbing. We've been a leaky bucket for so long and it's about time the club learned its lesson.

I agree, but I just can't see how we'll fit in Kovacic.