If Klopp hits the ground running and it doesn't take long for squad to adapt I don't just think top 4 is feasible, I think it's likely given how bad everyone else is doing that is usually in contention. Sure some of the contenders will pick it up again but it's likely one or more will continue to have a poor season. If the squad don't immediately adapt and we get 5th or 6th. That won't be a disaster it will just mean the squad didn't adapt quickly. Usually the first 2 or 3 games you get a boost from the players morale being up and wanting to impress the skipper. So even if they don't learn new strategy quickly I'm optimistic for next few games. After that you hit a patch where the new-manager smell wears off so they may struggle for a bit until new strategy is 2nd nature. So if this is a normal manager takeover midseason we should see three good games followed by 3 poor games and after that we should hit some equilibrium close to his we can expect with this manager/squad until the summer. It will be Xmas before we see the true nature of Liverpool under Klopp.
I read in the article too that Barca where also interested. Now I know Coutinho is a quality player, but is he really Barca quality? This is a club who Fabregas and Sanchez couldn't get a regular first team place at, and I'm not sure Coutinho would either. 50 million seems a lot of money, but then again, as you found out with Suarez, even if you have loads of cash to reinvest its not always easy to buy replacements who can make up for the loss
Barca have said that they admire Coutinho but denied looking for any new playmakers. If you take them at their word. Cout is safe for now.
Coutinho is going nowhere as he is "extremly happy in Liverpool" according to his agent. I'll take his word for it over some tabloid journo.
He's happy at the moment, but he hasn't been tapped up by City who'll tell him he can earn 270k a week. That's what they had to pay De Bruyne who was also apparently 'happy' at Wolfsburg
I don't believe anyone journalist, agent, manager, player, or club. They all lie based on what best serves their interests.
He's great but I don't feel he's really City first team calibre. He's developing here very nicely and should stay.
That's what was said about Cesc and Xavi. He may be Liverpool's best player but he's still well short of Barca's first XI (as pointed out earlier, better players have already been let go). He'd just sit on the bench. Given that and Klopp's appointment, i'd be hopeful he's staying put.
Xavi was around along time before Iniesta you know, and will be remembered as a great player in his own right. Not a lot between the pair if you ask me
Like Owen got splinters in his arse due to his time on the Real bench, the grass ain't always greener elsewhere.
Playing every game for 50k a week or sitting on the bench for 100k a week. I know which grass id think was greener
But you're a dead racehorse and dead racehorses have no ambition, some players put ambition before money. Maybe it's because you've never had a lot of money that you make it your main priority, I'd guess Couthinho is already worth a few Bob.
It is an ambition to want more money in life. That's what most people would see as ambition. It doesn't matter how much money people have they always want more. You find the people with the most are actually the ones who want even more, you won't find a self made multi millionaire who isn't still trying to earn more. Let's not pretend that if someone offered to double your wages that you'd turn it down. Or should I say double your Giro
Majority of people would have said the same for Sterling (some of us still do) but he's starting just about every game for them since moving
Coutinho isn't good enough for Barca imo. Maybe in time he will become good enough. However, that wouldn't stop Barca going for him if they wanted and it wouldn't stop Coutinho wanting to go either.
But....footballers wages are astronomical, you can safely bet that once Sterling was offered £100k a week at LFC the likes of Couthinho had a word about a payrise. But to put my point into perspective, Owen left LFC for Real Madrid and played no more than a handful of games, he obviously got more to sit on his arse than he was getting at LFC but realised game time was important if he wanted to further his international career, he was offered a chance to come back to LFC(obviously for less than he was on at Real)but decided he'd move to Newcastle United on a mega-money deal. He won **** all, and sat out a fair chunk of his career with phoney injuries, Fergie gave him a last bite of the cherry and yep he won a title medal, but his time at Real and Toon was wasted, if he would have had ambition he would have chosen a different path other than a lifestyle he already had. And don't forget he was already a millionaire when he left Liverpool.
Totally agree, but just like Real took Hernandez and there was no chance of him pushing the main men out of the team they like to have decent players on hand in case of an injury crisis or player bans, just because he ain't good enough for their first team won't mean they won't start asking about him when it suits them.
