Liverpool's Two Ways To Build A Squad
Transfers in football often seem reasonably straightforward. Building a squad is easy - you just isolate areas in your squad where you need another player, either because you’re a player short or because your strongest player in that area is a weak link in the squad. Then... you buy a suitable player. But over the last few years, building a genuine squad has proved problematic for Liverpool. Partly because they’ve bought poorly, partly because there was a lot of deadwood …
Tranmere Rovers v Liverpool - Match Preview
The Reds start at Prenton Park again as Jürgen Klopp gets set for a massive season.
It was time for Jürgen Klopp to put the umbrella hat back in the suitcase for another year as he arrived back at Melwood to see what state his Liverpool players were in. Hopefully a good state - in just one week’s time he’ll be taking them across the water to Prenton Park as the Reds kick pre-season off against Tranmere Rovers for the …
The Seven Year Itch | FSG - A Review
In October of 2010, Fenway Sports Group purchased Liverpool FC for £300 million. In his first statement as owner, John Henry claimed,
'We're here to win and we'll do whatever is necessary.'Fast-forward almost seven years later, and fans are still divided as to whether FSG have been good owners for the club, and whether the club has progressed, regressed, or simply remained stationary for this period. Under FSG, Liverpool FC have had four managers: Roy Hodgson (sacked January 2011), Kenny …
Revisiting & Respecting Rodgers
In light of the treble-winning climax to his first season at Celtic, I’ve recognised the end of the 16/17 campaign to be a suitable time to revisit Brendan Rodgers’ time at Liverpool. In Rodgers’ first full season away from Anfield, he’s managed to secure the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup, and the Scottish Premiership via an unbeaten season. However, the reaction from a significant number of Liverpool fans towards Rodgers’ success has been somewhat bitter, disrespectful and unsupportive, and …
New Deal For Can? It's A No Brainer
Starting 46 games last season, Emre Can was tipped to have an extensive and successful career at Anfield. He was Klopp’s go-to man, running games in the number 6 role by injecting drive and energy to help push Liverpool towards a Capital One Cup and Europa League final. This campaign, however, has seen Can’s career stall alarmingly, with the 23-year-old struggling to establish himself as a key member of the squad.
A Stuttering Season Turning Good?
Emre Can has divided opinions this season …
Another Crocked Liverbird: Liverpool's Knee-Hilistic Past
Some weeks make you wish God had come up with something other than knees - weeks when you can't wear shorts for fear of seeing your own knees in a mirror and losing all sense of what it means to 'be'. It has been a year since the beginning of one such week, when as a result of two Liverpool employees falling over in unconnected incidents, the phrase ‘anterior cruciate ligament’ achieved unprecedented frequency of use.
At the time, Danny Ings …
Giorginio Wijnaldum: Liverpool's Gini in a Lamp
In recent seasons, I think Liverpool’s transfer dealings – signings mostly – have been pretty poo. From Balotelli and Benteke to Carroll and Markovic, there have been a number of expensive signings bought for their individual quality rather than as crucial cogs in a cohesive machine.
I think the aforementioned are all talented players, but Markovic spent some of his time under Brendan Rodgers at right wing-back, and I’ve never really known Liverpool to succeed on the route one, cross-pumping …
Observations from Liverpool's loss to Burnley
Same shit different season. It wasn't supposed to be like this, a full Jurgen Klopp pre-season was supposed to get the Reds in the right frame of mind to blitz the Premier League. No European distractions and reinforcements arrived in the summer. If there were any positions / areas Klopp wasn't happy with he's had ample time to address them. So a 2-0 defeat away to Burnley just isn't acceptable.
It's scary that a side tipped for relegation, no matter …
Assessing Liverpool's Attacking Options
Liverpool go into the 2016/17 season with the best attack that they have had in a number of years, with a number of genuine high quality options across all positions.
Although there is much more to any attacking player than two stats, ultimately they are judged on two things: goals and assists. Therefore to gage a better idea of Liverpool’s options this season particular attention has been paid to these figures. To calculate each player’s effectiveness per game a “CpG” …
A Case for Marković
Since his arrival from Benfica two summers ago for a healthy £20 million, the word which best describes Serbian wide man Lazar Marković has almost universally been "frustrating."
In his debut season he struggled to break into the first team, despite inconsistent performances from fellow new-boy Adam Lallana. While Lallana struggled to get into promising positions and his touch too often let him down, Lallana worked tirelessly and his work ethic was never in doubt. Marković, meanwhile, struggled to affect play …