Football - To Russia with Löw

[Mark Antony]

 

[Iskaral Pust]

46 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Liverpool will be in pot 3. You will go into pot 2 if both Benfica and Basel fail to get through the qualifying rounds. 

Thanks.  Not quite as bad then.  We’re probably still the third seed to avoid (as we were last year)

[ljkeane]

There's a lot of reporters on twitter saying Fabinho's a done deal already. That escalated fast.

ETA: The Irish keeper in the France - Ireland game just dramatically palmed one into his own net, presumably some sort of gesture of solidarity with Karius. Nice of him.

ETA2: And Liverpool have officially confirmed the signing of Fabinho, with a picture of him signing and everything. That definitely escalated fast.

[Mark Antony]

Loveeee it

[Consigliere]

Fabinho is a great signing for Liverpool. He's certainly an upgrade over Hendo as a holding midfielder. Add in Keita and possibly Fekir and Liverpool have a seriously good midfield with excellent depth as well. That's a midfield good enough to rival City's. 

That's why I'm always baffled when I see some United fans complaining about us making signings, saying that it will take away game time from x, y, or z player. 

Look at the Liverpool's midfield options: Fabinho, Keita, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Ox, Lallana, Milner and possibly Fekir.

Then looks at City's: Fernandinho, KdB, D. Silva, B. Silva, Gundogan and possibly Jorginho

Then look at United's with Carrick retired and Fellaini most likely leaving on a free: Matic, Pogba, Herrera, McTominay and possibly Fred. Should we complete the deal for Fred, we still need one more signing in midfield.

 

2 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Thanks.  Not quite as bad then.  We’re probably still the third seed to avoid (as we were last year)

Pot 3 could be strong. If both Benfica and Basel get through qualifying that would mean that Liverpool and Roma would drop into pot 3. 

[polishgenius]

19 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

That's why I'm always baffled when I see some United fans complaining about us making signings, saying that it will take away game time from x, y, or z player.

I don't have a problem with us making signings, I'm just not convinced another DM is what we need. If we want more creativity in midfield- and we should - then sign a creative box-to-box mid, not someone who from everything I can tell plays essentially the same role as Herrera but passes better. I want a player who could viably play with any of the options we've already got and I don't think a Matic-Herrera-Fred midfield sounds like dreamland. It's gonna be either Herrera, or Fred (so: mostly Fred), and that's my problem.

I'd be fine with Milinkovic-Savic or someone of that style. Or heck, someone Modric-esque.

I mean, I don't know an awful lot about Fred and I do know he can pass - realistically he seems the sort of player I'm quite likely to be a big fan of- so maybe he is that dude but it all just seems like we're making our midfield even more defensively focused.

[Consigliere]

17 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

I don't have a problem with us making signings, I'm just not convinced another DM is what we need. If we want more creativity in midfield- and we should - then sign a creative box-to-box mid, not someone who from everything I can tell plays essentially the same role as Herrera but passes better. I want a player who could viably play with any of the options we've already got and I don't think a Matic-Herrera-Fred midfield sounds like dreamland. It's gonna be either Herrera, or Fred (so: mostly Fred), and that's my problem.

I'd be fine with Milinkovic-Savic or someone of that style. Or heck, someone Modric-esque.

I mean, I don't know an awful lot about Fred and I do know he can pass - realistically he seems the sort of player I'm quite likely to be a big fan of- so maybe he is that dude but it all just seems like we're making our midfield even more defensively focused.

Fred is a box to boxer and not really a pure DM. From the little I've seen of Fred, he's a good dribbler and passer, is able to drive forward from midfield and is very capable of playing through a press. Out 1st choice midfield would be Fred-Matic-Pogba with Herrera being backup for both Matic and Fred. 

I agree that even if we complete the deal for Fred we still need another signing in the midfield, preferably someone more on the creative side. Milinkovic-Savic would be a great signing but it looks like Lazio want something ridiculous. Juve's sporting director said they are no longer interested in SMS due to the cost. So I'm not sure whether we would spend something in excess of 100 million since our fullback situation needs sorting out and apparently we are looking to sign Alderweireld as well.

 

ETA. I've seen comments from Shaktar supporters saying to think of Fred as a more creative Kante but not as good as Kante defensively

[polishgenius]

12 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

 

ETA. I've seen comments from Shaktar supporters saying to think of Fred as a more creative Kante but not as good as Kante defensively 

That's... kind of encouraging, I guess? But if the first reach is for Kante, not entirely.

As for SMS, I do doubt we're gonna get him specifically, we'll probably end up picking out someone who looks good at the WC. But we do need that option, whoever we end up with.

[Consigliere]

2 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

That's... kind of encouraging, I guess? But if the first reach is for Kante, not entirely.
 

I think whoever we sign in midfield needs to be able to put in a solid defensive shift because that is what Mourinho's system demands. So if it turns out that Fred really is a more creative Kante then he'd be pretty much perfect for the system, being better defensively than Pogba and more creative than Herrera.

[Iskaral Pust]

Welcome to Fabinho.  Transfer sagas just aren’t what they used to be.  I’m glad our first priority was the #6 position.  

He’s not in the WC squad for Brazil so he’ll have a full pre-season, albeit with only a skeleton crew of team mates. 

Our transfer business in recent years has been working very smoothly.  Other than Southampton digging their heels in on VVD (as we did with Coutinho in the same situation), our acquisitions have gone smoother and have been better targeted.

This kind of efficiency won’t help the Sean Dundees and Andriy Voronins of the world realize their dreams of playing at Anfield.  (I hope)

[The Winged Shadow]

Still pretty depressed about the CL final loss . It's going to suck for a couple of more days yet.

Taking away the goal keeping errors, I thought the midfield was where the game was lost. The difference in quality in the midfield really showed. The first half was pretty even, Liverpool pressed and recovered the ball well, but in the second half the pressing seemed to get worse and worse. Modric and Kroos just dominated the play in the middle. So calm on the ball, all the flicks and cute passes coming off. They broke the press quite easily on the second half with the little chipped passes in midfield/wing play as well.

The loss feels very...familiar. Hopefully Pool can take another step forward next season. Overall, this was a damn good season. From mid table to Top 4 to Top 4+CL final. You can definitely see (and feel) progress, and this was overall a pretty damn good season.

Still feel like shit though

 

 

 

[ljkeane]

You know on reflection I'm not that fussed about losing on Saturday. Obviously I'd rather have won but at the start of the season I'd have taken getting out of the group and a respectable defeat in the knock outs so getting to the final is a massive over performance. The manner of the defeat with Ramos being a twat and Karius' errors is annoying but I'm not gutted about it the way I was losing to Chelsea in 13/14.

In terms of improving for next season it was noticeable once Salah went off and we couldn't pin Madrid back they really dominated in midfield. Kroos and Modric are obviously really good so it's hardly a damning indictment of our current midfield, who've done well this year, but it's nice to see we're acting decisively to improve on that front with signing Keita and Fabinho. Michael Edwards seems to be getting things done as sporting director.

[Jordan La Cabra]

Fabinho is an excellent signing for Liverpool. Last year, I was wanting Chelsea to sign him instead of Bakayoko. Not many footballers can mix versatility with top class quality in the various positions they can play in; Fabinho is one of those that can.

I'm quite impressed with how Liverpool have gone about their transfer business since last summer. Getting a big signing like this over the line this early should set the tone.

 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Have not seen Fabinho play.Going to check some youtube clips.

[Spockydog]

Shaking my head at the bollocks being written today about Raheem Sterling. Having said that, while it's entirely his business what ink he puts on his own body, you'd think someone would have took him to one side and suggested that getting a tattoo of an assault rifle on his leg wasn't exactly a good look for a young, black role model. His explanation for it is extremely odd.

Right, off down the tattoo parlour to get an adenocarcinoma inked on my neck.

[Dolorous Gabe]

10 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Shaking my head at the bollocks being written today about Raheem Sterling. Having said that, while it's entirely his business what ink he puts on his own body, you'd think someone would have took him to one side and suggested that getting a tattoo of an assault rifle on his leg wasn't exactly a good look for a young, black role model. His explanation for it is extremely odd.

Right, off down the tattoo parlour to get an adenocarcinoma inked on my neck.

Agree with all of that. I can see what he was trying to get at in his explanation but if he thinks he is being clever he's proving himself as foolish as it is claimed. But as you suggest, his personal folly is his own business.

[baxus]

This woman DEMANDS that he has the tattoo laser removed or covered up? What exactly gives her the right to demand anything from Sterling or FA?

That would be the most stupid thing I heard all day (and longer) if it weren't for Lineker saying that questioning Sterling's tattoo is unpatriotic or Pierce Morgan getting his panties in a twist and seeing Sterling's tattoo as deliberate provocation.

[ljkeane]

13 minutes ago, baxus said:

This woman DEMANDS that he has the tattoo laser removed or covered up? What exactly gives her the right to demand anything from Sterling or FA?

It's not a particularly reasonable position but her son was murdered, she's probably entitled to not react well to something she could see as promoting or glamorizing guns. The bigger issue is the Sun, being scummy as usual, seeing an admittedly shit tattoo and deciding to exploit the understandable emotions of a grieving mother to drum up controversy.

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

So Sterling got a shitty tat and some people go bonkers over it.

Personally I think the woman demanding Sterling to remove/cover his tat wins the cake as far as stupid goes. Lineker and Morgan are not close to the amount of nonsense that demand is.

Yes, she is entitled not to react well, but to demand Sterling to do something to his body to pacify her is, I actually lack a proper word for it.

[Consigliere]

I'm seeing lots of reports saying that United are going to activate the release clause (€20m) for Porto's RB Diego Dalot. Portuguese newspaper O Jogo (who are very reliable especially when it comes to Porto) are reporting this as well. Know absolutely nothing about the player but the fact that he's 19 gives me pause. We all know Mourinho has little patience with youth.