Look at Spurs. Friedel starting, Lloris on the bench. Thats a dream selection. Butland is a good call but he needs games to help him develop further. If we sign him in January we can loan him out, or even if we sign him in the summer. I think Rodgers would be more willing to gives Butland games than Dalglish was. Dalglish only changed keeper when he had to. Great for Doni's confidence aye...
I think we will sign a strong attacking left back next summer. Kind of in the Glen Johnson mouled. Rodgers likes the full backs to attack, which is not Enriques strength. A solid hard tackling defense mid to cover Lucas, who could also tuck into the back 4 if needed would definitely make us stronger. But I dont have any names in my head for this. Generally our midfield is strong and well balanced. He have a lot of good passers and movers, we have energy and attackers. But apart from Lucas we lack a solid tackler who can break up opposition play. That would make the squad stronger as a whole. After that we just need goals from our front three.
Butland would be one of my top targets for next summer, even if we do loan him straight back out for a year or so
lets just look at the squad we have GK: reina jones RB johnson kelly flanagan wisdom RCB: skertl carragher sama LCB: agger coates wilson LB: enrique robinson DM: Lucas sahin ACM: gerrard shelvey suso CM: allen henderson LW: sterling downing CF suarez pacheco (nominally as he's played this in reserves this year) yesil morgan RW: borini assaidi we can debate what we like about quality but we've a lot of players so I get a bit perplexed by tlak of such a small squad and that irks me.... IMO the club had a fiasco in the transfer window with carroll and EVERYONE can take a good chunk of blame. I think we ought to have suarez wide right where he does his very best work and while FSG mouthed off about risk spending its very very clear that unless a genuine forward is purhcased to play no 9 we are going to struggle...
Same here! I think we should look to sign Sahin permanently next summer as well as a cheeky bid for Xabi Alonso
I think it could be swap deal that, just by all the reports awhile ago about how much he ( Xabi) still loves LFC, doesn't want to stay in Madrid, etc.
Sahin is a fair few years younger though. If Sahin has a good season, I'd like him to stay. I am not sure the owners would be happy to invest in Alonso unless his wages are low and his fee nothing or near nothing.
I would love Jack Butland. He's better than Joe Hart was at the same age. Joe Hart in my opinion is the best keeper of his age-group in the world, and very few will debate that. Butland is already a better commander of his area than Doh Gay despite being younger than Doh Gay and would probably cost £12 million less than Doh Gay did. As for other positions, I think we need to get rid of Downing and Enrique. Downing has been a disaster since he signed, and Enrique has just evaporated, he's not the player he was when he first joined the club. I think we should cut our losses on both and sign overseas replacements for half the money, but better quality. They are out there i.e. Assaidi. Jack Robinson is going to be a terrific player, but we need another left back. Forwards? There is a long list of players we could sign between now and next summer, not at massive prices either. Walcott, Llorente etc. Even next summer we should try again for Ricky Van Wolfswinkel.
I would be happy to get rid of Downing but only until we bring in a few players first. The last thing we need to be doing is reducing the squad ... Enrique is an unusual case. I would still keep him because we know what he is capable of and he was doing it week in week out for half a season. I do believe he is suffering from a recurring knee injury which may be the cause?
I'd at least keep Downing for the season. Rodgers likes his wide men to cut in onto there stronger feet to sheet. Sterling and Suarez are both right footed (though I dont think it is a big deal which side they play). I'm not sure on Borini. Assaidi is right footed. If we get Walcott, he is right footed.
If FSG are all for resale while profit can be made; is now the time they would sell Pepe or is it too late? 30 yrs old & on 160k compared to bringing in Butland on smaller wages. I'd give Enrique the chance. When I look at our squad I say to myself if everyone is fit & grows into their potential over the next year it will be very strong indeed. If we can keep Sahin great! As mentioned: Downing & Cole (we keep forgetting about him don't we?) must go. We must bring in a top class striker. Doesn't have to be a big name just someone that actually scores goals: hope the scouts are doing their work after all that gardening. I'm maybe too positive but I firmly believe (not attributing this to BR but all the managers bar the Roy) we now have the perfect base squad to get us up to that top 6 fight permanently (I'm writing this year off but wouldn't be surprised if we did it anyway) and that its young enough to keep us there for 5+ years. Now this is where I want to test BR's , the scouting teams and the Owners capabilities & pockets. From now on I only want to see superb buys. It can be as little as one a year for all I care but each acquisition has to improve on this base squad not just be absorbed by it. They don't have to be ready made superstars either but I want to see a much much lower transfer failure rate than has gone before. The same failure rate can't be excused if FSG is not going to throw money at it. But even saying that. They bloody better back the manager from now on. If he & his team want a player, FSG better just put pen to paper. By all means haggle like they're in an Egyptian market but get the deal done.
The summer maybe was but right now certainly is not the right time (ignoring transer windows). He has made a fair few clangers this season already and his value will be down. I don't want to see Reina leave but I can understand the logic should we get a £20+ offer for him
I don't want to see him leave either. We may be in the position to have young centre backs play a lot more & having a young keeper as well would be risky. But I think the decision has to be made this year. If we say 2-4 more years of Pepe then there is no point in going for anyone other than the youngest of back ups. I don't know who our youth keepers are: do they show any promise?
I think the fact that Brad Jones gets the nod every time suggests not. Our alternative is Gulucci. He went on loan to Hull and didnt do to well, so LFC may not be his team. Jason Steele could be a good alternative to Jack Butland. I always liked Wayne Hennessey at Wolves. He is 25 though.
