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Football: pool in to the Final Spur of the season


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To move back to the lighter side of things.

Transfer stories.

Hazard moving to Dortmund is confirmed, they are haggling over the fee. Thorgan Hazard obviously. The question is just when. Gladbach demand 40m €, Dortmund are not willing to pay that much, but would rather wait a year to sign him on a free transfer, as Thorgan has said he will definately go Dortmund, either this year or next.

Salihamidzic has confirmed that Bayern are still in the market for another winger, be it Pepe, CHO or Sane. Although their priority target Pepe is rumoredly United bound. They will probably also be looking at some fullback optiosn, as their veteran back up Rafinha is leaving the club, too. Oh, right, there's also still the rumour of Bayern wanting to sign Schalke's Nübel to groom him as a successor for Neuer.

At Bremen Kruse is possibly leaving at the end of the season on a free. Destination unknown. He wants to play European football, and Bremen failed to qualify. At least that's what both club and player have been communicating since before the start of the season. He will stay if Bremen qualifies, otherwise he might very well leave.

Lerverkusen's Brandt is rumoredly Dortmund bound.

Gbamin also wants to take the next step and leave Mainz. Leverkusen or Dortmund would be fine for him, or some EPL team. Rumored fee around 30m€. Rumoredly both United and Liverpool were interested in him last year.

Also Napoli rumoredly turned down a 100m€ offer for Coulibaly.

 

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Comedy equaliser at Elland Road for Derby. 

I think every Leeds game I’ve watched this season has been entertaining for one reason or another. Hopefully they get promoted to the Premier League, it’d be fun to see what Bielsa could do, but they’re doing their best to shoot themselves in the foot.

ETA: And 30 seconds into the second half Derby are level in the tie.

Good assist from Wilson.

ETA: So after a comfortable 1 goal win away from home and going in front at home Leeds end up losing 2-4 at home with a comedy goal, unnecessary penalty and a red card each. Standard really.

From a neutral point of view it’s a shame to see Leeds go out. They really are the better team and Derby’s 3 best players are on loan from Chelsea and Liverpool, I’m not sure Derby would be any good if they do get promoted.

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Bielsa will be delighted - he’s got that end of season collapse down to its purest form.

So John Terry vs Frank Lampard (& Ashley Cole) for a place in the Premier League (and the Chelsea job). I hope Villa win it. This Derby side is pretty useless, Leeds offered this win on a plate to them, but Villa will have a fighting chance with Grealish.

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4 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Pretty boring with nothing to watch till the UCL final, meantime i'm stuck watching highlights/compilations on youtube :P

Anyway, found this today: Fabinho being a stud! :)

 

What a treasure we have.Better than Mascherano I would say.

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10 minutes ago, redriver said:

What a treasure we have.Better than Mascherano I would say.

 Certainly better with the ball at his feet but man Masch was a monster. Flying around the pitch making tackles. Hated it so much when he left. 

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The Mirror and Metro are among the very worst sources for transfer news. While both Pepe and Werner would be very good signings for Liverpool, the problem they face is that their first choice front 3 are so good and work so well together that players like Werner and Pepe would think twice before joining. Would Pepe accept warming the bench behind Salah or Werner behind Firmino when they would be starters just about anywhere else? Not impossible but seems unlikely. IIRC, Paul Joyce wrote in The Times that Klopp intends on promoting Rhian Brewster to the first team next season as backup for Firmino. 

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I think Pool's priority will be a leftback. With Moreno and Milner gone at the end of season (assuming no extension), we will need cover at that position. They can switch things around at RB with Gomez who can play defensively and allow a more attacking RM (Hendo, Shaq, Ox etc). But LB is pretty sparse. Who would be a good LB at pool? I haven't seen many rumours about potential LB so not sure who are the leading candidates.

Forwards can be covered with Ox and Shaq. And maybe Origi and Brewster. Although I would still prefer another proper forward who can fit anywhere across the front line and won't be a big drop in quality (*sideeyes Griezmann*).

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Pepe won't make too much sense imho, and like I said, last thing I heard is United are frontrunners there. Whether they actually need a winger is a good question.

Werner is a somewhat more consistent rumour with regards to Liverpool, but he is also heavily linked to Bayern. I believe the latter being the safest bet. But he would make somewhat more sense than Pepe for Liverpool. However the most likeliest outcome I have heard with regards to Liverpool is, that they are happy with their squad as is. So there'll not be a major transfer action this summer. Assumigng none of the star players want out. The only thing they want is a back up for the fullbacks. LB in particular. This looks credible particular if Clyne leaves (likely).

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Seems we only need back ups really.The only area I see room for improvement is in the attacking midfield role.Keita hasn't quite stepped up to the mark yet,but was showing signs of doing so.Milner is getting on in years but I think he should be kept for his versatility then we have Henderson and Ox and what about a recall for Grujic.

Been hearing good reports about him but I haven't seen him play.Is he good enough?

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4 minutes ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Who would be a good LB at pool? I haven't seen many rumours about potential LB so not sure who are the leading candidates.

Tierney from Celtic could be a good signing - he's quite versatile as well. He's primarily a LB but can also play RB and CB. The only problem is that he is very loyal to Celtic and is a guaranteed starter there so it'll be difficult to convince him to leave to be a squad player at Liverpool. Tagliafico from Ajax could be another option. 

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5 minutes ago, redriver said:

Seems we only need back ups really.The only area I see room for improvement is in the attacking midfield role.Keita hasn't quite stepped up to the mark yet,but was showing signs of doing so.Milner is getting on in years but I think he should be kept for his versatility then we have Henderson and Ox and what about a recall for Grujic.

Grujic has been pretty good for Hertha. However I think he is 1-2 years away from being good enough for Liverpool. And besides, he is not an attacking midfielder (at least that's not what he played this season). He would be an addition to the 6 (deepest lying midfielder position).

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2 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Grujic has been pretty good for Hertha. However I think he is 1-2 years away from being good enough for Liverpool. And besides, he is not an attacking midfielder (at least that's not what he played this season). He would be an addition to the 6 (deepest lying midfielder position).

Yep,he's not a prolific scorer I see.Problematic trying to attract back ups but I suppose that's where your scouting team earns its keep.

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On unlikely rumours.

Rumoredly there are again some clubs interested in signing Lewandowski. He is still a very good and complete forward. The interesting bit is, which clubs are interested. PSG and United.

United would make zero sense. Lewandowski wanted to depart for Real for the last couple of years. Not because of the bigger pay cheque, but becauase he really wants to have a better shot at winning the CL, which is something United is not really offering. And whether they will get there within 3 years is questionable at best. Add to that, Lewandowski still has a few years left on his current, and would thus not come cheap, if Bayern were really to be convinced to part with him. The arrival of Werner could generate somewhat movement there I guess.

PSG would make from that angle somewhat more sense. But their top priority should still be midfielders, midfielders, midfielders. And a voodoo doctor to make Neymar injury free.

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1 hour ago, Consigliere said:

The Mirror and Metro are among the very worst sources for transfer news. While both Pepe and Werner would be very good signings for Liverpool, the problem they face is that their first choice front 3 are so good and work so well together that players like Werner and Pepe would think twice before joining.

In fairness, unlike many transfer rumours in the Metro, the Werner story does have some foundation, the RB Leipzig CEO mentioned Liverpool as a possible destination for him recently. Mintzlaff is pretty clearly trying to get someone else to bid for Werner to try and drive the price up for Bayern though.

We could do with strengthening the options after our first choice front 3 but it's hard to see us making a big signing. Really high profile players are going to be reluctant to spend half the season on the bench and how much money are we really going to be willing to spend on a squad player? 

I think we'll get a reserve left back with Moreno leaving, I doubt it'll be anyone particularly high profile though, it looks like Brewster is penciled in to replace Sturridge and I could see us trying to offload Mignolet and buying someone who's on lower wages. The only real possibility of a big signing is maybe someone who can play both attacking midfield and in the front 3 like they tried to get in Fekir last year. It's possible they could look at Oxlade-Chamberlain coming back and think that's no longer needed though.

Wilson's a interesting case. He's scored 18 goals for Derby this season playing a combination of midfield and winger. It's hard to see what more he could do out on loan and he does fit the profile of a versatile attacking player. They probably need to either give him a chance at Liverpool next season or sell him if they don't see him making it. I haven't really seen anything of Grujic this year but given he's apparently been good in the Bundeliga you'd think he's in the same boat. 

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Paul Joyce has also mentioned that Liverpool's primary focus is to invest in the existing squad - he mentioned that the club are planning on spending £150m - £200m on improved contracts for Salah, Mane, Firmino, Gomes, Alexander-Arnold and Robertson. There were reports that Liverpool want to offer Origi a new contract as well. I think if a player like Werner is a realistic possibility then Liverpool will definitely jump on it but I don't see them getting involved in a bidding war. It was reported that Steven Bergwijn could be another possible forward target. 

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