New Boys

[frank the tank]

Emre Can....10m - ****in steal. Unreal player, unreal potential.
Moreno......12m - great signing
Markovic.......20m - great potential. If it doesnt work out long term then we would get a high percentage of our cash back as he is likely to be a sucess in Italy or Spain. I think he will end up being an important player for us to be honest.
Balotelli. For 16m i still think it was a risk worth taking. In hindsight, we could have probably played a bit more hardball and got a loan for 3m for the season with an option to buy for a further 13m if we wanted. In reality Milan were looking to get rid and we were the only players in town. The ball was in our court.
Lovren. For 20m and at his age, he was a big statement. I just think if he was that good then other clubs would have been in for him. Even Southampton fans werent that bothered that he left and were laughing at the fee. Man United needed a few defenders and never even looked at the guy. Arsenal needed to replace Vermalan and didnt even look at the guy. For me he might be an okay squad player in time but he was never worth £20m.
Lallana for £25m. He is a good player but i personally think we paid about 12m more than he was worth. Plus i think he will only ever be a squad player. A brilliant squad player - especially when you consider that we had the likes of Joe Cole and Victor Moses in recent years.....
Lambert for £4.5m. Overpriced considering his age but in reality the overall deal including his wages isnt going to break us. I think it was Iago Aspas's corner in the closing stages against Chelsea last April that prompted us to buy Lambert. Brendan was probably looking at it and thinking, if only we had someone to aim to now. Plus Rickie is just happy to be at LFC and happy to play that role, won't expect to be a starter and wont rock the boat. Might be useful next season, might not even be here next season. Not really going to impact our sucess one way or another....

In short, you take out the 45m we spent on Lovren and Lallana and put it towards one top player and we would have been better off. But we needed to add to the squad and that is what we have done. Effectively. When you consider that we were missing Ibe, Sterling, Gerrard, Flanagan and Lucas today from the match day squad - then to still have a bench that contained Balotelli, Lambert, Borini, Johnson and Lovren is good going.

I just hope that there are only 3 or 4 good signings this summer and we can keep the momentum that we are currently on and next season could be a great sucess....

[Shaggy]

Markovic will make it. I'm putting my neck on the block - oooooh I've got an opinion about football and I'm stating it with conviction on the internet! - and guaranteeing he will blossom into a proper quality player.

I love his close control when dribbling at pace - he's so direct. And he can spot a pass and play a pass. Just needs to show greater composure in front of goal but at 20 he's a baby. Gonna be fun watching him develop in this team.

[baitman]

Lovren played one pass today that staggered me

I actually LOL'd

There aren't many in this squad I'd be looking to sell. Borini, Lambert, Jones and Johnson maybe.

enrique too.

[Shaggy]

Yep. Forgot him.

[peekay]

The biggest failure of this summer was not replacing the goals and influence of Suarez. Not an easy task. But we failed miserably in terms of our striker purchase.

Right now things look positive. But we are still only a Sturridge injury away from the mood changing.

Overall the squad looks really good. However, as much improvement Balotelli has shown, we need a Sturridge alternative.

[The_weatherman]

The biggest failure of this summer was not replacing the goals and influence of Suarez. Not an easy task. But we failed miserably in terms of our striker purchase.

Right now things look positive. But we are still only a Sturridge injury away from the mood changing.

Overall the squad looks really good. However, as much improvement Balotelli has shown, we need a Sturridge alternative.

That's how I feel as well. But right now the window looks a success, specially so if Mario is finding some form. Hopefully Origi will turn out as well as the other young buys.

[BG1973]

The biggest failure of this summer was not replacing the goals and influence of Suarez. Not an easy task. But we failed miserably in terms of our striker purchase.

Right now things look positive. But we are still only a Sturridge injury away from the mood changing.

Overall the squad looks really good. However, as much improvement Balotelli has shown, we need a Sturridge alternative.

Failure my arse.

There were two options:

a) (Try to) Replace Suarez and leave rest of squad under resourced.

b) accept Suarez irreplaceable, and that it would be criminal to blow our budget on one player (who may or may not work out) when we desperately need reinforcements with addition of CL football. Instead invest in top young talent who will deliver in the long run.

Option b was the smart move, and the tough one. With that many additions it was always going to take time to find our mojo. And it meant BR putting himself under pressure. I guess he hoped he'd earned a bit of grace should things get sticky..

[BG1973]

iPhones!!

[Trippendicular]

Emre Can....10m - ****in steal. Unreal player, unreal potential.
Moreno......12m - great signing
Markovic.......20m - great potential. If it doesnt work out long term then we would get a high percentage of our cash back as he is likely to be a sucess in Italy or Spain. I think he will end up being an important player for us to be honest.
Balotelli. For 16m i still think it was a risk worth taking. In hindsight, we could have probably played a bit more hardball and got a loan for 3m for the season with an option to buy for a further 13m if we wanted. In reality Milan were looking to get rid and we were the only players in town. The ball was in our court.
Lovren. For 20m and at his age, he was a big statement. I just think if he was that good then other clubs would have been in for him. Even Southampton fans werent that bothered that he left and were laughing at the fee. Man United needed a few defenders and never even looked at the guy. Arsenal needed to replace Vermalan and didnt even look at the guy. For me he might be an okay squad player in time but he was never worth £20m.
Lallana for £25m. He is a good player but i personally think we paid about 12m more than he was worth. Plus i think he will only ever be a squad player. A brilliant squad player - especially when you consider that we had the likes of Joe Cole and Victor Moses in recent years.....
Lambert for £4.5m. Overpriced considering his age but in reality the overall deal including his wages isnt going to break us. I think it was Iago Aspas's corner in the closing stages against Chelsea last April that prompted us to buy Lambert. Brendan was probably looking at it and thinking, if only we had someone to aim to now. Plus Rickie is just happy to be at LFC and happy to play that role, won't expect to be a starter and wont rock the boat. Might be useful next season, might not even be here next season. Not really going to impact our sucess one way or another....

In short, you take out the 45m we spent on Lovren and Lallana and put it towards one top player and we would have been better off. But we needed to add to the squad and that is what we have done. Effectively. When you consider that we were missing Ibe, Sterling, Gerrard, Flanagan and Lucas today from the match day squad - then to still have a bench that contained Balotelli, Lambert, Borini, Johnson and Lovren is good going.

I just hope that there are only 3 or 4 good signings this summer and we can keep the momentum that we are currently on and next season could be a great sucess....

Agree with most of that apart from Lallana. How long have we bemoaned the strength in depth of the other big teams? No longer will we be faced with only Aspas or Moses or whoever as options off the bench. Look at City and Chelsea - their squad players all cost well into the 20 millions and it makes such a difference.

[The_weatherman]

Failure my arse.

There were two options:

a) (Try to) Replace Suarez and leave rest of squad under resourced.

b) accept Suarez irreplaceable, and that it would be criminal to blow our budget on one player (who may or may not work out) when we desperately need reinforcements with addition of CL football. Instead invest in top young talent who will deliver in the long run.

Option b was the smart move, and the tough one. With that many additions it was always going to take time to find our mojo. And it meant BR putting himself under pressure. I guess he hoped he'd earned a bit of grace should things get sticky..

I didn't take it as he meant the whole window was a failure, but within the window we failed to aqequately address the striking options, I'm really rooting for Mario here, but he nor Lambert were really a good fit for us.

[BG1973]

The word failure shouldn't be used period.

Rodgers made the right choice doing what he did. We can now add to sound foundations.

We will reap the rewards in next 18 months.

[Kenneth]

Failure my arse.

There were two options:

a) (Try to) Replace Suarez and leave rest of squad under resourced.

b) accept Suarez irreplaceable, and that it would be criminal to blow our budget on one player (who may or may not work out) when we desperately need reinforcements with addition of CL football. Instead invest in top young talent who will deliver in the long run.

Option b was the smart move, and the tough one. With that many additions it was always going to take time to find our mojo. And it meant BR putting himself under pressure. I guess he hoped he'd earned a bit of grace should things get sticky..

Were they really the only 2 options, or is it just a convenient way of framing the situation, and did we even do option b?

[The_weatherman]

The word failure shouldn't be used period.

Rodgers made the right choice doing what he did. We can now add to sound foundations.

We will reap the rewards in next 18 months.

I think we failed, period, in addressing our striking options. We did make several other quality signings however.

Were they really the only 2 options, or is it just a convenient way of framing the situation, and did we even do option b?

I doubt Ayre, Rodgers and co. sat down and chose option b)

[BG1973]

I think we failed, period, in addressing our striking options. We did make several other quality signings however.



I doubt Ayre, Rodgers and co. sat down and chose option b)

In hindsight I'm giving BR credit for such a decision where maybe not due.

They did target Expensive strikers but once they didn't materialise I feel they then made the choice to strengthen the squad instead.

I don't feel it was possible to do both and personally i prefer this strategy.

[Kenneth]

I don't, it ****ed our season up completely, our only good striker got injured and we were dog ****. We spent £45m on attacking midfielders, one young and one not so young, and one of them would have been enough, we haven't even played the expensive one very much for some unknown reason. If the club couldn't find a good striker who would fit into our side better than a jogging waster like Mario for £30-35m (Mario's £16m + the cost of a Markovic or Lallana) then they failed and failed badly. If they hadn't I think we'd be comfortably in the top four at the moment. **** teams with quality strikers do better than quality sides without.