The Barclays Premier League thread 2015/2016

[Noah]

Mourinho to Liverpool?

[Baddar]

Well at least Liverpool are still quite shit.

Just seen Bogdan's mistake. Lol.

[Hobo]

Ake looks like he kicked the ball out of Bogdan's hand for the first.

Skrtel continues being awful against smaller clubs. Liverpool have been poor. but it's individual errors that are really causing problems.

Henderson has been doing well. Coutinho/Firmino out of the game due to Watford pushing Liverpool wide. Origi coming on should help.

Liverpool really need to get a goalkeeper worth his salt.

 

[Gazz]

Since Klopp likes to be a bit experimental, has he considered playing a 4-2-3-2 without a keeper?

[Hobo]

Loads of Liverpool players didn't turn up today.

[9 to 5]

11 did turn up. And they got trashed by a much better team. Happy days.

[peteypirahna]

It's almost as if the exact same team that Rodgers had got over it's new manager honeymoon period.

[Kyle]

All three promoted teams won this weekend, and exposed some serious flaws in "big" clubs in the process. Happier days.  

[Lineker]

A Lineker trifecta  

[MJB]

Watching Sakho in that second half was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

I'm sure he was drunk.

[peteypirahna]

11 minutes ago, (Troy) Saint Nicholas said:

All three promoted teams won this weekend, and exposed some serious flaws in "big" clubs in the process. Happier days.  

The biggest flaw that seems to be ever present in Chelsea, Liverpool and Man United is that they've spent so much on wages for their first team that it becomes nearly impossible to budget for a solid, bench player to fill a gap in their squads when they'll cost £7m at the bare minimum and attract wages of around £50k p/w minimum, which under a regular, four year contract would cost the club £17-25m. For ONE player.

So they spend more on their academies and produce technically great players that don't have the experience to change a game when it matters, while other clubs are buying 'dead weight' from these top clubs who flourish under different systems.

The bigger clubs have got themselves trapped in a scenario where they're very 'rich' but not cash rich, and because they've neglected problems like this for years they've basically got the old Milan problem of needing to keep players well past their best because there's nobody younger, and good enough to replace them. Then when the best players start to significantly decline (Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, Lampard, Terry, Gerrard, Carragher) they don't know what to do because it wasn't a problem they had to deal with until it was too late.

[Gazz]

You make a good point but I have a counterpoint.

Baba Rahman.

£14m (potentially £22m). £76k per week.

2 league appearences so far.

The big clubs have a budget for backup players and it's still bigger than most teams budget for first team players.

I also don't see how 'they spend more on their academies' is a problem. If you're producing technically gifted players who lack experience, then there is a very simple solution to that, you play them.

The problem lies in that English football as developed a culture of 'now', no one is interested in two, three, four years down the line. I posted a video of Gary Neville in the transfer thread, everyone is obsessed with January and who they're going to sign, no one is interested in better utilising what they already have.

Take Pogba for example, he played three league games for Man Utd in his final season behind such luminaries as Anderson, Darren Fletcher and Park Ji-Sung. If he'd played more games but Man Utd were slightly less successful (they'd have still finished 2nd, they finished 19pts clear of 3rd), the fans would have been moaning at the manager and barracking the player. Instead, he leaves and immediately becomes an integral part of Juventus, plays loads of games over the next few years and becomes one of the best midfielders in the world.

For the sake of ten more appearences, he could still be a Man Utd player and they might pass the ball forwards now and again with him in midfield...

[MDK]

Or they could sign Kevin Lisbie

[Hobo]

I'll avoid using metaphors so as not to confuse Niner.

There issues with the Liverpool squad that go beyond stuff they do during matches. If things start to go wrong some players just can't seem to figure out what to do. . It's a hangover from Rodgers later days mixed with a lack of a potent attacking threat. Not to mention the sub standard goalkeepers and Martin Skrtel who has a tendency to switch off when he's not playing against the top teams. I don't really blame Sahko too much for his performance he's just back from an injury and it's a position that Liverpool are quite short on players at the moment It's telling that in the last two games Klopp has preferred to bring Origi on and drop Can back into defense rather than bring on Kolo Toure.

Then there is fitness. Klopp is on record as being unhappy with the level of fitness in the squad.

I feel bad for Jurgen really. At a new club in a new league with no pre-season and being stuck with what you've got and your best striker is always injured.

Also this league is really weird this season.

 

[9 to 5]

No idea how to embed twitter posts since I don't use it, but...

 

Quote

Liverpool have amassed 12 points since Jurgen Klopp took over, Man United 13 in the same period, and Leicester City have managed 23.

 

[Gazz]

See, you're all about the results and not the process.

[9 to 5]

Actually, I just like to see Liverpool fail. >_>

[Lineker]

The Guardian are reporting that LVG may have only two games to save his job.

[stokeriño]

Don't worry guys, one of those games is against us. You shouldn't be fooled by our "yes we beat Sunderland, one of maybe two teams who have always been definitely worse than us this season" performance on Saturday.

[Lineker]

Diego Simeone has suggested that he will not leave Atlético Madrid in the summer, as speculation grows over who will become the next permanent manager at Chelsea.