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Football: pool in to the Final Spur of the season


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2 hours ago, Soylent Brown said:

Origi isn't anywhere near good enough and Brewster's yet to really play for us. I keep hearing good things about him but I'll try not to get my hopes up until he's played against top level opposition a few times.

Origi has his limitations but I think he's shown this year he's fine as the third choice striker. He's big and fast enough to discomfort defenders and he's shown himself to be capable of chipping in with useful goals on a very limited amount of playing time. That's not a bad skill to have.

The issue is whether Brewster is good enough to be the second choice striker. I've got no real idea but they do seem to rate him very highly. We'll have to see how it goes. :dunno:

2 hours ago, Soylent Brown said:

I don't think Wilson's good enough for us. He's done well in the Championship this year, but that's closer to his level than the top end of the Premiership.

Yeah, it's possible that's true but he's succeeded at every level up to now. The likes of Maddison and Brooks have kicked on well from the Championship and it's arguably a better league than, say, the Eredivisie or maybe even the Primiera Liga.

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I do hope Liverpool buy another high quality forward rather than rely only on Brewster and Origi.  I am glad the club is making room for talented youth to reach the senior squad but Brewster is not only young and inexperienced, he also just lost a full year and a half of development -- that's a very large % of his relevant playing career at this stage.  It's asking a lot to depend on him as our first back-up.  We were relatively lucky this season with injuries to our forwards, but that luck won't last.

I'm less convinced by Origi overall.  Despite the meme/banter about erecting his statue after this goals this season, he has been pretty limited as a player and was dreadful on loan in the Bundesliga.  

Wilson has done well on loan.  I'm not sure if he can realistically achieve much more than that from a loan, so it's time to either sell or include in the squad.  Same goes for Grujic and Kent.

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Joyce wrote another article in The Times today but since it's behind a paywall, I'll just summarise the key points: 

Liverpool believe their team is effectively complete but acknowledge a need to strengthen at LB. Lloyd Kelly from Bristol City is being considered. 

Decisions are to be made on the various players on loan, including Wilson.

VVD should be next in line for a contract extension and there is no set transfer budget.

 

ETA. oh yeah, some concerning news for our resident Arsenal fans. David Ornstein mentioned on BBC radio 5 that if Arsenal fail to qualify for the CL, their transfer budget is expected to be around £40m.

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If Liverpool are really going to try to do the same thing again with that squad with no additions whatsoever they're gonna get into trouble. I was gonna say they at least need to add some depth but even that's not true everywhere- at a club in 'pool's position a player like Wijnaldum should be the depth. Henderson really too as popular as I know he was with the fans at one point (not sure he still is). Are they counting on Keita to become the player he seemed to be when they bought him? Coz if not they realistically need at least one more top quality midfielder, and even if he does they could probably do with a no10 of some sort.

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3rd and two cup finals definitely constitutes as a good season, yes, but we were only two points better off in the league than we were last season when we finished fifth. We won one game out of our last five league matches.

I'm not against Sarri remaining as Chelsea manager, but he doesn't inspire me as our manager, at all. It took him until March to regularly play CHO and RLC despite Chelsea fans calling for him to do so for months (RLC did have a few minor injuries). With the transfer ban this summer, we may have to rely on younger players coming back from loan, and I'm not sure Sarri is the guy to manage us in a period with a transfer ban, as he, for the most part of the season, decided to play experienced and out of form players ahead of young and in form players.

As Sarri has one way of playing, he needs to build the squad around his style, which means buying players that suit his football. There are quite a few players in our squad that don't look like they suit his style of play. Without being able to sign players, he is going to have to work with what he has got, which will basically be the squad we have now, with a few players possibly returning from loan, and with Hazard, by far our best player, gone.

It doesn't seem like the best situation for us to have a manager like Sarri as our coach. I think we need a manager who knows our youth system well and is able to build the style of football based on what players they have available to them.

 

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If Chelsea don't see Sarri as someone who could be at the club for the next three seasons then now is the perfect time to make the change. Allegri is both a more flexible manager and a proven winner. No compensation will be required either.

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I don’t see how you can sack him. He was always a long term project they knew that going in. Sacking him now after a successful season with a roster not of his making after a limited pre season would be well very Chelsea so yea it will probably happen. 

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All things considered, Sarri had a good season but we all know that managers are very expendable at Chelsea and the managerial revolving door has actually worked for them. Also the latest reports say that Chelsea are considering not appealing to CAS to delay their ban - apparently they would still be allowed to complete the signings of Higuain and Kovacic. In that case Sarri would still have a roster not of his making next season and a more flexible manager who isn't dead set on a specific style might make better use of the existing squad. 

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And as somewhat expected Kruse has announced that he will not sign a new contract with Bremen. Apparently it's still unknown where he will go. I am really curious where he will end up. I think the most likely outcomes are him signing his last bigger payday at a bigger German club likesay Gladbach, who will need a replacement for Hazard, or which I think is equally credible, he will go to the MLS to be closer to his son.

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I think Liverpool apart from the cover at full back need someone that can create and provide goals from behind the front three. Ox back is a good start and hopefully Keita turns into the player he looked to be.

What are people's opinion of the song the city players were 'caught' singing?

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VAR is pretty busy today on the final match day of the Bundesliga.

Bayern is on course, they lead 1-0 against Frankfurt, totally dominating performance should've added a couple more. VAR ruled a possible 2-0 correctly offside. Atm Frankfurt are on course of crashing out of European football altogether. They are bringing on Haller for the second half. He was really sorely missed due to injuries. Ok, 1-1 now, Haller.

Freiburg is on course of ending their season with a win. Really pathetic performance by Nürnberg, who claimed they did not want to go down as bottom last team. Streich will be happy, since he was not too fond of his team's recent performances. Yes, they are saved

Dortmund had the VAR moment thus far. Dortmund's lead. It looks like the ball might have been out of play before Reus set up Sancho for the goal. The ref took a good look at the screen. Since he can only overturn his decission, if he is 100% certain, the goal stood.

Which also has consequences for the race for the 4th place. With Gladbach and Frankfurt losing, Leverkusen can snatch the final CL spot from them, and they are on course. Might be an important argument, if they want to convince Brandt, Havertz and Tah to stay. 2-1 up against Berlin.

Bremen also have the lead. 1-0 penalty after VAR review.

Wolfsburg also lead, which puts them into European football for next season. Not the worst way for Labbadia to leave the club. But it was a truely abysmal performance by Augsburg, they are really already at the beach.

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At least United won't have to enter second round qualifying now. I predict Wolves' league form will suffer next season with them having to contend with midweek European games. Their preseason will be cut short as well since 2nd round qualifying starts in July. 

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