1. Dalglish is quite happy to brand a performance as 'unacceptable'. No more blame dodging as we had to suffer under Hodgson. I feel like the issues that are there are being addressed and not brushed under the carpet. 2. The club is stable. I think many people forget just how close to the edge we were. To go from that to title winners like some people seem to hope for is mad. We know we have funds to spend so the only way is up, and rumours suggest the stadium issue will be sorted sooner rather than later. 3. We have a better squad. People can whinge and moan about fees but the fact is in Downing we have a natural winger, we have players on the bench who can change games, and Jose Enrique has solved a position we have struggled with since the end of Riise's time. 4. We are playing good football and creating chances. I didn't expect us to win anything this and maybe even next season, so the type of football we are playing is important to me. At some point these chances will go in. 5. We have more points than last season and still have a few players to come good. Imagine our team in a couple of years time when we have signed a genuine goalscorer to go with Suarez, but also have a settled Andy Carroll who will provide us with a completely different option. Ideally in a few years time we will be playing Barcelona in the Champions League final. We're chasing a goal and we need to change things, do we bring on an average ten-a-penny striker or do we throw on Carroll to give us a different attacking option? Also some may have noticed that Carroll has been more effective away from home (West Brom and Everton being tough away games he has helped us win) which means as he gets better he will become more valuable in those tough European away games and what will hopefully be a long season.
Agree with the first 4 points but I'm not convinced by Carroll. I do believe he will be a useful asset to us but not right now. He needs to be training hard and adjusting to the Liverpool style rather than build the team around him and his strengths because it just stifles our attacks. It's not coincidence that we play our best football without him in the team. Overall - we need a real goal scorer with good movement and intelligence. I'm sure Andy will improve but we bought him for the next 5 years, not 5 matches. Let's not force him into the team and relieve some of that pressure.
Enough money was spent in January and over the summer to propel us into the top 4 (since arsenal and spurs spent nothing). With that in mind, expectations sort of increase as a reault and at the moment we are not playing to the standard a top 4 team should do and Spurs are ahead (summer spends including a cheap scott parker and freebee loan adebayor). I know footie isn't like football manager but I can't help but feel we've spent poorly with the amount of cash that we've been given by FSG. If we don't make CL then it'll be the same old story, players wanting to leave, manager close to the sack, owners wondering if they should continue putting money in a black hole.
Could have been 40 million richer as well! Although it looks like Harry made the right move and if Modric can help you get back into the CL, then that will ultimately pay itself and all that! Hope you don't but at the moment you look the best out of us 3 (arsenal, Liverpool, you). I think we are in a much better state than last year, but we could be higher, it is not like we have played all the top teams in a row away, we have dropped points to the lesser teams that is what gets me. Good post though SN.
Chelsea spent over £300m in 3 seasons to win the league and they still haven't managed to win the CL despite spending another £150m since then. This includes money that they recieved for selling players too! If we look at it that way our net spend under FSG is only about 30m. We are basically now rebuilding the team from scatch and it will take alot more than 30m to be challaging for the top 4 and other trophies considering the strength of the PL these days. What I have seen so far has been good the team look creative and solid at the back which is a good start. The only buy i have been slightly disapointed with is Downing who hasn't quite fitted into the team yet, but i'm still hopefull. Carrol to me was always going to be a long term option, we definately overpaid for his current form but I'm possitive he will come good overtime. We are lacking in goal scoring options since Torres left and Gerrard hasn't been scoring regularly for a good few seasons. We need to look at this ASAP to have any chance of silverware top 4 this season I'm thinking we need a top striker and good right winger with a good shot on him. If we do this and spend another 50m then I think we will be challanging for the PL title next year and for considerable less money than was spent by either chelsea or city
We spend over 100 million on new players. I know we got rid of a load of players but lets not kid ourselves, not one was first team material so it's not like it has any issue on how we are performing. The only way were weakend is by torres leaving (replaced with Carrol for 35 million (!!)) and to a certain extent Gerrard - in the latter we shipped Aquilani out for nothing (Comoli citing that we had Gerrard for that position) and Meireles left because lets face it, we weren't willing to increase his contract as per his gentleman's agreement. End result is we're not much stronger than last year and yet we've spent loads - In fact, we're pretty much slap bang where we finished last season! RE chelsea, winning the CL is slightly harder than coming top 4 in a domestic league, although I do find it funny how they still haven't won one yet It wasn't an inuslt. It was actually a compliment that you've spent tactically and hit the areas u needed to target, ie a keeper, goalscorer and midfielder.
http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premiership-transfers/liverpool-transfers.html check this site out it has all the tranfers of the PL clubs it shows that the previous 2 year liverpool also made a profit from transfers. Also look at how our net spending compares to some of the other teams, I think spurs will start to struggle as we did last season as players want to start to leave and there's no money to improve the squad or replace the players leaving. Looking at spurs in this list shows that actually very few of there signings have worked but have managed to bring though some very good young players that they bought for cheap. Liverpool also started doin this a few years ago which i expect will start bearing fruit soon.
while we build for the future we also ought to be strong for today. some good players may not be patient to wait for long term. if i were KK i will be asking for loads of cash now to buy a proven striker in january. if we don't finish above where we were last season then somebody is going to do a lot of explaining come summer.
Some good points here; but Carroll scoring V Barca in a CL final... this is deluded. I would love carroll to succeed but he is more like to be playing in Colchester than Champions League in the future.
He's already spent the Torres cash on two strikers. The whole world knows that KK made a mistake selling Torres and buying Carroll. A great manager like SAF would have got torres scoring again (as he did with Rooney) and saved Torres Chelsea Carroll etc a lot of pain... and cash. Imagine Suarez Torres together: awesome
There was never an issue with Torres not scoring for us, it's the chavs he is an issue with! He wanted to leave so why stop him, SAF only stopped Rooney going by giving him a huge pay increase - great managerial skills there...
i think the op is fair.... in the end if we leave impatience out of it and just try to think about the next 3 years i cannot see anywhere wehere we've messed up badly nor bought ANYONE including carroll who doesn't fit the strategy. If we are realistic, patient and analytical i don't see why anyone should be at all suprised our team is still coming together and that some inconsistency is occuring. We'd all like to be top but come off it! we'd all like to think aguero is the type of player we are in for but get real.... I for one am confident mr henry, mr comolli and mr dalglish won't be panicking over anything and will keep working away.
You should have kept him: he has failed under the pressure of a London club. But he would fix your goal drought. Would you resign him for £30m say?
In regards to this season...we have plenty of time to pick up results and there is plenty of time for the teams above us to drop points. Still pissed off about some of our results though, but looking forward to the next 2 games.
