Jürgen Klopp

[G]

For me the best approach to avoid wasting money is to focus spending on a few players / positions that will make a difference.

The easiest way to waste money is to replace 10 squad players with 10 more squad players, we will get poor transfer fees for the players we are selling and will pay over the odds for someone who is barely if any improvement on what we have, while waiting 1-2 years for them to settle / come good and repeating the process in 3-4 years time after us all moan how **** they are. Spend big on a player who is going to be the main stay of your team for the next 7-10 years that is much better value for money.

It sounds simple but we have avoided that approach for longer than I care to remember. I'm on record here a few times saying you don't improve a squad by buying squad players, you improve it by buying lads better than those in your best 11, those that get pushed out of the team become the squad players and the strength in depth improves as you do it.

[Fosterbloke]

How has Ranieri managed with a team that was bottom this time last year?

[Chazza]

How has Ranieri managed with a team that was bottom this time last year?

Pearson had turned the form around to a certain extent Ranieri has just built on that platform.

[G]

I've never seen anything with such precise you have to have him if you want him scenarios but then again I don't read websites and newspapers other than this one.

Bascombe reported many times that Rodgers was the driving force behind the 3 L's from Southampton and Barrett has said Lovren was bought as Sakho's replacement. It was reported Rodgers wanted Bertrand but we bought Moreno so you can assume thats one the committee made the call on. We all know he wanted Williams but we signed Sakho so again, not much of a leap to suggest that was more commitee than it was him and it has been reported as such. Not sure where I read about the Benteke/Firmino thing but Firmino came out of nowhere and Rodgers said little about it either before he signed or afterwards(similar to Sakho in that regard). It was widely reported that Benteke was one Rodgers wanted.

When Rodgers arrived they all spoke of having a one club mentality and everybody moving in the same direction but it didn't take long for that to go by the wayside. We have to hope they are all on the same page and remain so this time. Have to hope its the right page too.

[G]

We all used to go mad when Spurs were linked with every player we wanted. Doesn't happen anymore and they finish above us with monotonous regularity abeit still outside the money places. Makes you wonder who's targeting the right players now.

[Exiled_red]

Thing is, every position we have could be improved on because we don't have a top class player within the squad. That is honestly my take on it, we have a couple who threaten to be but Sturridge can't stay fit and Coutinho has far too many dips in form and doesn't contribute on his off days.

The problem Klopp has is where to start.

Look at the team fairly simplistically:

At the back you need someone who can read the game and organise the defence.

In midfield you need two things:
- Someone who can win the ball back and control the midfield
- Someone who can create chances

Up front you need a striker who can put the ball in the net

Those 4 outfield positions are the ones that make the difference, if you have those you can fill the rest of the side up with decent players who can follow instructions and will work for the team. For me we need the CB, the controlling midfielder and the striker. That is where you start, we have Coutinho who can do the creative role, and the majority of the players in the squad are capable of doing the other 'peripheral' roles. IMO get those positions sorted and we should be capable of at least challenging for the top 4

[Exiled_red]

It sounds simple but we have avoided that approach for longer than I care to remember. I'm on record here a few times saying you don't improve a squad by buying squad players, you improve it by buying lads better than those in your best 11, those that get pushed out of the team become the squad players and the strength in depth improves as you do it.

Absolutely. That is the way it should work. There have been times in the past when we have needed quantity as well as quality, but at the moment that isn't the case. We need the quality players who will make the difference. Despite the large number of injuries we have at the moment we are still capable of putting a decent side out without resorting to players who should be nowhere near the side, as much as people dislike various players none of our current squad are terrible footballers.

[Assassin]

Look at the team fairly simplistically:

At the back you need someone who can read the game and organise the defence.

In midfield you need two things:
- Someone who can win the ball back and control the midfield
- Someone who can create chances

Up front you need a striker who can put the ball in the net

Those 4 outfield positions are the ones that make the difference, if you have those you can fill the rest of the side up with decent players who can follow instructions and will work for the team. For me we need the CB, the controlling midfielder and the striker. That is where you start, we have Coutinho who can do the creative role, and the majority of the players in the squad are capable of doing the other 'peripheral' roles. IMO get those positions sorted and we should be capable of at least challenging for the top 4

If you add. Not injury prone to the list, I think you have nailed it!

[Exiled_red]

If you add. Not injury prone to the list, I think you have nailed it!

[el matador]

Klopp's rebuild has to start from the back. A goalkeeper, a replacement for skrtel, a replacement for Allen, a new winger and a replacement for Daniel Sturridge if he isn't over his injury problems.

Some of these players we may have already signed in grujic for allen, Markovic as the quick winger and Joe Gomes as skrtels replacement. Its the others we need to spend some money on.

[Exiled_red]

Klopp's rebuild has to start from the back. A goalkeeper, a replacement for skrtel, a replacement for Allen, a new winger and a replacement for Daniel Sturridge if he isn't over his injury problems.

Some of these players we may have already signed in grujic for allen, Markovic as the quick winger and Joe Gomes as skrtels replacement. Its the others we need to spend some money on.

They don't just have to be replacements for Sktrel and Allen they have to be top class players who can come in organise and control the defence/midfield. A striker who gets goals also has to be a priority. Those 3 we have to deal with first then a keeper who can dominate his area and has decent ability to distribute the ball quickly and effectively, anything beyond that is a bonus. I would hope we can get one of those in January and the remaining 3 in the summer. Which means in all likelihood FSG will have to seriously dip into their pockets.

[Phoenix07]

A goalkeeper, centre back, central midfielder, and a striker. Basically, go right through the spine of the team and make sure they're sorted. Grujic seems to tick one box already.

[G]

He's just a kid. He doesn't tick any box apart from the "yet another young prospect" box. We need top quality and we should be keeping every penny we have for those sorts of signings. Does the 5m spent on him mean we can only offer 12m for Stegen? If so don't spend it on him. Same methodology needs to be applied elsewhere. Not sure that's how klopp works though, he never signed the finished article at Dortmund.

[Exiled_red]

He's just a kid. He doesn't tick any box apart from the "yet another young prospect" box. We need top quality and we should be keeping every spare penny we have for those sorts of signings.

We need players who will come in and make an immediate impact, with all due respect to any of the kids we bring in they will in all likelihood take a while to adapt and will be inconsistent for a couple of years, we can't afford to be relying on them if we want to achieve anything in those couple of years.

[Phoenix07]

He's just a kid. He doesn't tick any box apart from the "yet another young prospect" box. We need top quality and we should be keeping every penny we have for those sorts of signings. Does the 5m spent on him mean we can only offer 12m for Stegen? If so don't spend it on him. Same methodology needs to be applied elsewhere. Not sure that's how klopp works though, he never signed the finished article at Dortmund.

I'd still expect another central midfielder in the summer. Graeme Kelly seems to think our interest in Ruben Neves from Porto is strong, but again, he's young. However, he is Porto's captain.

Klopp has more resources here compared to Dortmund, but given the number of top teams, he may be better for us in terms of acquiring better standard of players for our money. However, I don't think we're going to be splashing out on world class talent, but players on the threshold.

We've tried to do it for a few years, but doing so miserably, with a manager and transfer committee on completely different wavelengths, and the results are there to be seen.

The profile of the player is so important. If the player is mentally strong, he could step up and take the reins of the team, and drive it forward. Since Rafa's departure, we've struggled to sign players with a strong mentality.

I'm not against signing hot prospects if they've got the mental capacity to cope. Our ability to assess whether they do (for all players signed) has been lacking.

If we can supplement that a few really experienced players or heads in the squad, then I'm fine with it.