ljkeane Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 I’ll take that. Not too fussed about the result but if we’d put in a flat performance and gotten battered by City that might have been a problem for the start of the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 We only lost on penalties, and at least we improved in the second half after looking distinctly slower and less sharp than City in the first half. Salah is continuing his pattern of being selfish without actually shooting well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 Solyent virually shouting at chosen Liverpool players.. It's a new season, ladies and gentlemen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 2 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said: Wijnaldum and Origi are second-rate and always will be. You wouldn't want them in your side either, dude. Nah, they would be perfect for a mid table team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 4 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said: Wijnaldum and Origi are second-rate and always will be. You wouldn't want them in your side either, dude. I wouldn't, no. Still fun - and also a bit nostalgic - seeing you rant at them week in week out. I miss it in summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 I know it's just a friendly but Arsenal looking pretty decent in a 4-4-2 so far at Barcelona. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 I’m trying to keep pace with the remaining transfer rumors before the window closes. So supposedly Spurs have not been able to get Lo Celso’s price down to the level they want (even though Real Betis are supposedly desperate for money and just sold Firpo to Barcelona for much less than the initial asking price), so Spurs are going for Bruno Fernandes instead (for just as much or more?). And they expect to get Sessegnon too because Rose wants to leave, although he hasn’t actually left yet. Ndombele in and Trippier out remain the only first team moves so far. Arsenal are supposedly still negotiating for Tierney, but have denied they are looking to loan Coutinho. Ceballos has arrived on loan and Pepe confirmed as a purchase, but Koscielny is still on strike. Welbeck and Lichtsteiner were released and Ramsey left. Saliba was bought but loaned back for the season ahead. Net spend of almost 100 million so far, even before any Tierney deal. United have agreed terms with Mandzukic, presumably because they expect Lukaku to depart, even though Dybala appears to have resisted the swap move from Juve and Inter don’t have the cash. Pogba and Lukaku are both openly agitating for a move. Herrera left on a free and Valencia was released. Dan James, AWB and Maguire are all confirmed purchases for a combined ~150 million pounds so far (another 15m for Mandzukic if it goes ahead). Dybala, Fernandes and Neres, among others, are rumored targets in the next few days. DeGea signed a new contract. Final level of net spend will depend on whether Lukaku and/or Pogba go, and how much is spent on their replacements. Liverpool are making no purchases, with Sturbridge and Moreno released. City bought Rodri, with Kompany retired. Chelsea bought Pulisic and Kovacic, with Hazard sold. Am I missing any big ones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 Hopefully Naby starts over Gini on Friday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mme Erzulie Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 I'm left feeling optimistic after that. After a bit of a slow and rusty first half, we completely dominated City 2nd half, they couldn't hang with us. If they can't hang with us, there won't be an awful lot of teams who can. Klopp made the boys stand and watch as the trophy was handed to City, sure to fire them up for Friday. I feel bad for Norwich, even if we don't have Suarez anymore. Firmino looked very sharp, loads of tasty touches, dribbles, tackles and passes. Hope he goes on to have a great season. Same for Salah. Probably should have passed once or twice, but hit the woodwork twice and gave Zinchenko and the other City defenders a real workout. Trent was struggling with Sterling in particular, and we looked much better defensively once Gomez took his place when Matip came on. Matip picked up where he left off last season, intercepting and matching Jesus (I think) both for pace and brawn and scoring the equaliser. Origi and Fabinho were the other Pool players who had a sub-par game. Origi clearly struggles with our system and has much more impact coming off the bench. Hopefully Fab was just a bit rusty. Wasn't Robbo's finest game either. Think all of Klopp's subs performed really well, and glad he didn't wait too long to make them. Thought we were the better team overall, and with slightly better finishing and/or a bit more luck would have seen us win the match. I'd also expect Alison to save the goal (only because he's so good (and he very nearly did)). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 Stone reporting that United have ended talks with Dybala due to his wage demands as well as the feeling that he wasn't fully committed. Very happy to hear this news. Dybala was a disaster waiting to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said: <snip> Actually the break down of talks with Dybala means that Lukaku's transfer can't go ahead either as this was going to be a straight swap with both players valued at around €83m. Not sure if this will impact the Mandzukic deal. Inter are unlikely to come up with the money unless they can offload Icardi first and time is running out. I also don't expect Pogba to leave with less than a week remaining in the window for EPL clubs - he hasn't actually caused any trouble either and has been nothing but professional + Real Madrid to date have not made any formal approach for him. The Neres rumours looks to be made up tabloid bullshit as no reliable reporter has said anything about it. So are the Fernandes/United rumours. Stone and Peach both said that United "like" the player but he isn't a target and the club has not made any contact with Sporting. Re: Spurs. If they are balking at €70m for Lo Celso then they are going to have the same problem with Fernandes. He has a €100m release clause but reportedly Sporting are willing to listen to offers of around €70-80m. ETA. Joyce reporting that Mignolet will join Club Brugge - medical set for tomorrow. Liverpool will look to sign a replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 2 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said: Arsenal are supposedly still negotiating for Tierney, but have denied they are looking to loan Coutinho. Ceballos has arrived on loan and Pepe confirmed as a purchase, but Koscielny is still on strike. Welbeck and Lichtsteiner were released and Ramsey left. Saliba was bought but loaned back for the season ahead. Net spend of almost 100 million so far, even before any Tierney deal. If I look at the bold and apply the perspective of money spent this year, then it's closer to ~15 million gbp (4.5m for Cebllaos, 4m for Saliba, 15m for Pepe and sold Bielik for ~10m). Most of the payments for Saliba will be next season and we are paying Lille over 5 installments for Pepe. If I think about it this way, Arsenal still has some room to go after a CB / LB, whether it's Tierney + X or some completely unknowns because while Pepe was a need, their defense is still shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 It's not very exciting but I don't hate the idea of Mandzukic. A backup who'll come in and work his nuts off if one of our mains is having an off day. I also have absolutely no problem keeping Lukaku, people have gotten well overreactive about how bad he actually is. Still want another CM but it looks like we're not interested really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 5 minutes ago, Mexal said: If I look at the bold and apply the perspective of money spent this year, then it's closer to ~15 million gbp (4.5m for Cebllaos, 4m for Saliba, 15m for Pepe and sold Bielik for ~10m). Most of the payments for Saliba will be next season and we are paying Lille over 5 installments for Pepe. If I think about it this way, Arsenal still has some room to go after a CB / LB, whether it's Tierney + X or some completely unknowns because while Pepe was a need, their defense is still shit. I know Arsenal have had a big focus this summer on upfront payments versus installments, but I would still calculate net spend using total fees agreed. Installments are a cash flow smoothing mechanism. The financial commitment and the addition of the player to the squad have been made at the outset regardless of installments. Similarly a club can take out a loan to smooth out the cash flow of a large transfer outlay. That would not change our count of how much they spent. Paying the selling club by installments is just like taking a loan from them to buy their player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 7 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said: I know Arsenal have had a big focus this summer on upfront payments versus installments, but I would still calculate net spend using total fees agreed. Installments are a cash flow smoothing mechanism. The financial commitment and the addition of the player to the squad have been made at the outset regardless of installments. Similarly a club can take out a loan to smooth out the cash flow of a large transfer outlay. That would not change our count of how much they spent. Paying the selling club by installments is just like taking a loan from them to buy their player. I get it. In my mind, I was trying to put it into perspective of the reported ~40m budget and how much room they might have left to address other needs. That's important if Arsenal plans on upgrading their defense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 35 minutes ago, polishgenius said: I also have absolutely no problem keeping Lukaku, people have gotten well overreactive about how bad he actually is. Me neither. It's annoying how Roberto Martinez seems to be the only manager who knows how to use Lukaku properly. He's best as a wide forward not a fucking target man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted August 5, 2019 Share Posted August 5, 2019 2 hours ago, Consigliere said: Me neither. It's annoying how Roberto Martinez seems to be the only manager who knows how to use Lukaku properly. He's best as a wide forward not a fucking target man. I agree with that. If you had Lukaku and Martial either side of Rashford, that would be a very fast counter-attacking three. Pogba could sit slightly ahead of the other midfielders to make the through-pass. Then you can defend deep (neither Maguire nor Lindelof are especially fast) with two screening midfielders. It has some problems if the opponent sits deep, but Chelsea and Leicester both won titles with a similar style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordan La Cabra Posted August 5, 2019 Share Posted August 5, 2019 A Firmino-type forward to play in the middle of a front three at Man United would probably work well to bring out the best of Martial, Rashford and Lukaku, who all seem to be better coming from wide positions. This a role that could be assumed by Mandzukic should he sign for Man United. He hasn't exactly been prolific for Juventus, but his work rate and intelligence have helped him play an important role. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted August 5, 2019 Share Posted August 5, 2019 Rashford is perfectly capable of performing that role as well. I'd say that Sanchez is too - he's been crap in terms of quality but you can't fault his workrate. Lots of reports that Real Madrid have bid €30m + Rodriguez for Pogba. If true, that is one insulting fucking bid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted August 5, 2019 Share Posted August 5, 2019 Err, no. Rashford regularly drops deeper to help out defensively when the team is not in possession anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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