January is a bad time to buy. Who you thinking of getting? Be careful. City and chelsea 'scouts' check forums and the press for ideas on who to buy.
Mario isn't a Rodgers type signing and doesn't share any of the attributes he looks for in a player. I'd say he was a signing pushed by the committee rather than Rodgers and one who has flopped because they have no clue what Rodgers wants. I don't see the club being given money to spend unless we sell, would be my corrected version, rather than just being Rodgers given no money.
Absolving Rodgers of the blame for signing a dud is laughable. He's the manager, the ultimate decision would always be his, so making out Balotelli was somehow foisted on him is delusional. It's hardly a shocker that he's bought another dud anyway, as with a couple of notable exceptions his transfer business has been appalling.
I think Mario is definitely a committee signing but he was a last resort. The committee (ex City scouts) had worked with Mario before and see his potential, plus the way Rodgers openly criticises him is another indicator. Going to Tobes points, everyone should take blame for it because their attempt to replace Suarez was pathetic.
To me, Rodgers had learnt his lesson from the first summer he was with us and we were left short after Carroll left. He didn't want a repeat of that situation so we signed Mario.
I thought Moyes had signed some flops, but loking at Rodgers..................WOW that man can pick em
His transfer record is terrible. I would say only sturridge and coutinhio are hits, but both spend more time out injured than Kone
True but the real issue is why did we end up with Mario? We should have targets lined up and signed. Instead, we're left with Lambert, Balotelli and Borini, plus signed Lallana as our replacements for Suarez.
The flip side is - If the targets we wanted, wanted to come, and we had the money to spend on their huge wages (al la Man Utd et al.) we could have signed - Costa, Falcao, Willian etc etc. Clearly after one good season and the fact we were losing our best player, we simply didn't have the pulling power. His signings so far have largely been disappointing, but it's early days and I see a glimpse of excitment in all but - Markovic and Allen! Balotelli, may well up his game with Sturridge next to him - We'll wait on that one. If you flip it round and Everton finished last season in the top 4, do you honestly think you'd have the pulling power to get world class players in? I don't. You would simply be fishing around for potential like we've done. It's far too early to write ALL our signings off. However, I've said it before - bringing so many in, in such a short period of time was madness and clearly effected the dressing room. All our players are still getting to know each other etc. Whereas, last year our players were all on the same wave length, and it showed on the pitch - the opposite is happening now. So my opinion is as the season goes on we'll no doubt improve. So if that's the case, looking at the PL table - we're not in too bad a position. I always stand by the fact that we should have brought in 2-3 players per window and introduced them into the club properly. A complete overhaul was a massive mistake. Especially when our first 11 is pretty much the same - Except Suarez and a couple of new defenders. Interesting season for sure, and the polar opposite to last season.......SO FAR
I can understand that you mention Everton as a comparison IF we managed to get into the top four. However we would not then be able to go out and spend the kind of money Rodgers has done on potential...Markovic, Lovren and the rest this some were all big money moves.....unless thay have so much potential?
I said on another thread that I'm not going to talk about Mario until I have something positive to say so I'll decline to comment
Markovic is still a kid, potential? perhaps - not convinced. Lovren I do agree, he's still reasonably young but should be the real deal by now - as it goes I honestly think if him and Sakho play they will become a very good CB pairing, but they've had limited chances so far. Lallana - should be coming to his peak and hasn't done too bad to be fair. Can - I have high hopes for this lad personally, only 20. I won't list them all, but yeah I guess he bought a mix of potetnial and ready to go players, but the price tags are confusing - 20mil for Markovic and 10mil for Can etc. Basically, we overpaid on most - but that's done and can't be undone so we just have to get on with it now.
Players like Moreno, Manquillo, Can and Markovic are young with plenty of potential, and with the exception of Markovic, they have all done very well. My issue is with the senior players - we spent over £50m on Lovren, Lallana, Lambert, Mario and these have been the biggest disappointments. In fact, a lot of our senior players in the squad are letting us down - Skrtel, Gerrard, Johnson, Enrique, Lucas. And I know not all have played, how are the youngsters giong to benefit playing with senior guys who make so many mistakes.
Our problems are definately down the centre of the pitch. I disagree with you on Lallana. I think he has done well. Especially when you consider his early injury setback.
Lallana is a cracking player and by for the best purchase of the summer, in fact the only one not to flop, a player I rate highly and he is an Evertonian
Not sure what Lallana has done to deserve the praise to be honest? He's scored a goal and runs around. But when you spend £25m on a player, I expect him to be better than what we already have and make an impact - he's not looked that threatening when he's on the pitch and doesn't have the same creativity that Coutinho possesses. I know some will say we should disregard the price-tag as it's beyond our control but it's still relevant because it represents poor value for money, which could have been spent far better. The team is suffering in the attack - we spent £25m on Lallana to boost this attack and it's had zero impact so far.
