Moneyball never properly worked without spending money. The original concept of Moneyball was finding players who were undervalued and weren't appreciated and signing them on the cheap and having them performing effectively. Say someone like Yohan Cabaye who only cost £4m. But John Henry admitted that that approach wouldn't work on its own, that for it too work properly you need to somtimes spend big money on players and you can't have a team full of bargains and players from the youth team if you want to win the league, as Arsenal have proved. Moneyball isn't used at Liverpool or the Red Sox, parts of it are used at the Red Sox and probably Liverpool too, but Liverpool scout just like anyother club in the PL.
Well you need the cash to rebuild. If we gave you 30m for suarez in jan, would you trust ken with the cash and who would u buy?
Why would we need to sell in order to buy? You imply that we can only spend money if we were to sell our best player. FSG have already shown they have deep pockets, maybe not Man City deep, but they have been willing to spend. The question that you should have asked is: 'If KK is given money to spend in Jan, would you trust him and hope to buy?' Answer: Difficult to give a definate answer, some of the siginings have proved to be good, some of the fees have been too high, Downing is awful and has done nothing, there seems to be a reluctance to look overseas for players which has been a major downfall. Overall the transfer policy has been hit and miss so far, but its still early
Firstly, all these FM type names can be eradicated from everyone's wish list. How often do we buy a top player from one of the top clubs in Europe's big leagues? Never. Biggest name we have bought previously was probably Torres, yet he came from a mid table Spanish side. Saurez was a fairly big money move but we never really knew how good he would turn out to be for us. Benega, Erikson, Gomez, Hazard etc etc will no be coming to us, especially without CL football.
wha whe.. ermm... who do you support? So many times in a game downing is in good posession and there is fk all to aim at, maybe one forward surrounded by three defenders. Just as forwards need service a supplier needs someone to supply the ball to and we have been **** at that lately
Grr some of the people on here really piss me off "awww we could of brought Aguero for £35m" nobody ever thinks about signing on fees, loyalty bonus' and FRIGGING WAGES with their football manager inspired Transfer theories!!! Andy Carroll - £35m Young, English, was top goal scorer in the league when we brought him and offers something that no other striker in the premier league can offer you have about 2 hours before the window shuts which stops any transfers from outside of the UK, your star striker is angling for a move to your rivals and players like Darren Bent have already been sold - What do you do? Do you say hey i'll spend my time pissing about looking for someone to buy or do ou buy the best player availible in that moment? who else couold we have brought and don't be stupid by mentioning anyone from Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Man Utd or Man City as they wont sell players to us in the summer let alone within hours of the january window being closed. we literally had HOURS to find someone for ****s sake! Downing - Villa player of the year and has been constantly good for as long as I can remember Henderson - looking good Adam - not Joe Cole awful and i'msure if you add coles wages up you'll find the price is about the same! people! lets stop panicing and think, its more luck then poor performance that is stopping us from winning games at the moent and this will turn
Agree with you up to a point but he was shocking at the weekend, there were plenty of times when he had people to cross to but most of his crosses were woefully overhit and his general use of the ball was awful. He also made the decision to shoot a couple of times when a cross/pass would have been the better option, now I often see this as a harsh criticism of players but in downings case he did not even strike the ball correctly when shooting and for a pro that is unacceptable.
Time will tell.To be fair Suarez and Enrique have been exceptional signings and at the time I wanted us to sign Carroll (not for 35 mill) as I thought he would give us a physical presence we were clearly missing. Ok it hasn't worked out but that may change. Completely understand the signing of Adam (good cover for gerrard while injured) and Downing (We would never have got Mata). Clearly Downing needs to up his game. Only one that did baffle me was signing Henderson to play right wing I think we should have only signed one of him or Adam to play in the middle. If Carroll starts scoring though as well as Suarez converting more of his chances we'll be winning the games we've been drawing. If not we'll have to sign another striker.
Sorry I've just not been impressed with Downing. 20mil is alot of money and for that I'd expect something more than just running and then crossing to no-one (sounds like Aaron Lennon) An intelligent player would do something different if there was no-one to cross to.
Liverpool left it too late to make transfers and paid over the odds, only Suarez being worth anything near what was paid for him. The early bird catches the worm and at a much cheaper price.
no you are a wum... i just accuse you of it cos i'm on a faceless internet forum and you come off as one.... I couldn't care less really but seeing you go all defensive without actually saying you are now. i am presuming yuo want a big angry tirdae from me on you saying that so you can have the usual giggle but tough.
Am I the only one who is happy with our signings? Okay we're having a bad season and we're SIXTH, last year when we was having a bad season we was in and out of the relegation zone, the teams around us have improved, and so have we. The favorites of finishing top 4 change every month, a few games in we was favorites now tottenham are favorites and title challengers. We're unlucky to have dropped the points we have, the only games we've played bad in was against Swansea and Spurs with 10 men, We're playing decent football, easy on the eye, creating alot of chances.. Maybe it's that old cliche that we need abit of luck! That last minute chance to go in, that conterversial decision to go our way. We've made some great signings in Suarez and Enrique, Henderson has impressed me alot, Coates im sure will be a first team player in the future. Adam has been good and consistent, question marks over his defense abilities but hey, it's lucky we have Lucas sitting beside him (most of the time) Okay Carroll hasn't been the best signing, certainly not a 35m player but he's improving, He's still only young and finding his way in a demanding Liverpool team. Downing has started well and has faded a little but you could say the same for Young at united (arguebly) but that doesn't mean hes a bad player. And Bellamy was a shrewd piece of business and looks dangerous everytime he comes on. I dont actually know what my point is but we're having a bad season and yet we're sixth and have only played bad in 2 games, I'm still optimistic about top 4 Hopes, but so are Arsenal and Spurs fans. Both sets of supporters will be dissapointed not to finish fourth and in a way that shows how tight it is up there. Maybe we could of got some of the big names the OP mentioned or maybe we couldn't. We can't go back now so we have to be optimistic about what we do have Side note- Suso, Morgan and Sterling are looking really sharp at the moment and I can see atleast 2 of them breaking through to the first team in the future
for the record.... no you are not. suarez - amazing enrique - amazing. bellamy - good option coates - young but bags of potential Henderson - had his name been hender"nandez" we'd all be gushing. plenty of potential there and better than any other kid at the club, shelvey and kelly included. That only leaves 3... carroll and downing and adam. Downing has not done much yet and i expect a bit more but i nthe end he's fit and trying so he has to settle. I'll agree carroll hasnt done it and the risk taken was too much of a risk for me and i said so on old 606 as i can't see us ever recouping more than half the fee...... in the end ONLY ADAM isn't good enough at all. I feel his work ethic is just lacking and positional awareness is bad and that can't be taught at his age. I feel adam was bought as we are not in europe and won't get much more than him at this point. Name one player we would have gotten realistically thats much better..... i don't know. Big names are unrealistic, again, simply as big names want big money and CL..... again it took city 3 years under hughes and mancini to get to the CL and have spent 500mil. now they are there suddenly they look like winning everything. God lets give it 3 years and hell if adam is a bench warmer beacuse we further improve i'll be happy! same for carroll.... BTW dzeko looked poor last year at 30+mil and now he looks fantastic. Never stop saying things are not good enough or not right but give everyone at the club support in getting there over the period.... 3 years, not 1.... finally... it aint like the season is ruined is it? we're still in it so i get the impression guy want to be 6-10 points clear of 5th place to be happy. leagues don't work that way. Come april i'll predict whomever is in 4th, 5th and 6th will be split by 5points or less.
I think the op is completely wrong. Adam has been a great signing, as has Suarez and Enrique. Those can not be questioned. Henderson has done very well to, settled fast and has an incredible amount of potential. Bellamy has done a nice neat job. Carroll I feel has been a tad unlucky and has been judge to harshly. He has done well but has had some fitness issues. Downing has been quitet, but should be supported and encouraged. At least he hasnt played bad, he just hasnt been great. I think the players are just still geling and getting to know each other. They are still learning how each other move, how each other pass and exactly what kind of balls to play to Carroll and co up front. Remember when Man City first started the spending spree. They needed time to gel. They broke the record for the most consecutive Premier League draws and were very unbalanced. By that point they had already spent more than Liverpool and splashed the riches on bigger name than LFC have. We have to be patient. Its been ridiculous around here lately.
