sangria

I doubt that Benitez was entirely familiar with Kyrgiakos before he signed him. But given the needs of the squad, the budget we had, and scouts familiar with what the manager wanted, he was identified and the deal done inside 48 hours or so. And for the nche that he was signed for, a CB to head everything away, he did well enough for the price we paid.

We loaned him out whilst bringing in Mignolet for 10m. Even before we think about making good decisions, we should at least try to minimise bad ones.

I'd actually look for a goalkeeper of the type that Hodgson rates. His defensive plan was to concede the wings and invite crosses, with CBs and a goalkeeper chosen for their ability to deal with crosses. A goalkeeper who is average at everything except dealing with crosses, which he is excellent at, would cut down a lot of our weaknesses. We should look for a Schwarzer type from the lower leagues.

English top division clubs have never been as rich in the past relative to foreign clubs. We don't absolutely dwarf other top division clubs any more. They can all afford big money signings. That means they don't need to sell their stars to survive. That means we need to pay big to convince them to sell.

We're fond of buying star players from midtable PL teams. Despite all the logic and evidence pointing to that strategy being a probable expensive failure. If we're looking in the domestic market, we should be looking at cast offs who will be undervalued. If we're buying big, foreign markets are almost always better value, not to mention better quality.

We had a fetish for overpriced players from midtable EPL clubs. Especially players who did well against us.

I wish we could find a Maxi. Free transfer, not a top earner, and scored 15 in 57 league games during his time here.

Jones?

Balotelli Mk.2, or possibly Mk.1.

Big money move for the star player of a midtable English club. Not likely to be value for money since all English PL clubs are flush with TV money and they don't need to get rid, and the player isn't likely to have experienced the kind of pressure that big clubs have. Less likely to succeed, and we're likely to pay significantly through the nose. By default we should be avoiding that kind of signing, and if we do, it's up to the signer to prove that it works. Yet we kept making that kind of signing throughout Rodgers' tenure.

Arrogant b*****ds are best value for money when they play up front. How is Ibrahimovic these days?

We're minted in world terms, but we're the 5th richest club in the league with those ahead of us far ahead. If we spend more wisely, we'll compete more regularly and maybe win the odd one. But we won't win regularly against these odds. Only a genius tactician/motivator time traveller from the future with a history book of which players turn out well can make us regular champions.

We need a friggin oil baron owner if we want to win the league regularly. Until then, we'll have to do the best with what we have.

Fewer games to win to win the league cup though. 6 games to win the FA cup. 2 games to win the league cup.

They were on the same pitch.

Could try and persuade him to buy FSG out.

Also his anecdote about using "injuries" to have an extended rest, working up a rest 10 minutes before someone came round to check his recuperation so as to pretend he was on the recovery programme. That kind of mentality in the 90s lot is why we're on 18 and not more.

Ayre's job?

I don't mind us getting lower league British strikers, but we should be getting them while they're still in the lower leagues. English football produces target men, big CBs, and agricultural FBs. If we want players to do a limited job and we're worried about the squad's composition, we should get cheap players from the lower tiers, not marginally upgraded versions from the PL at 10x the price.

Or even, is he going to do it in this guise or as a regen.

There will always be bigger giants abroad if you're not Madrid or Barcelona. However, there aren't any massively bigger giants in English football than Liverpool. If our players leave, for the most part they won't be strengthening our direct rivals. If we get the success that Klopp got at Dortmund, it's a near certainty that our departing players, if they leave in their prime, won't be going to our direct rivals. There won't be the equivalent of Lewandowski leaving Dortmund to join Bayern. I wonder if Lewandowski was the last straw that made Klopp look abroad for another project.

According to that article, his sons became interested in Liverpool as a result of the Sahin connection, and got to know everything about the club. Klopp was interested enough at the start of the 14-15 season to know that touching the TIA sign was a traditional thing for Liverpool people. Perhaps the 13-14 season got Klopp interested. But from the article, it's more likely his sons' interest, deriving from Sahin's time here, that got him interested in us. Also, many people have pointed out that Liverpool are the equivalent of Germany's Dortmund, but minus one massive disadvantage; there aren't any significantly bigger clubs here that can regularly draw away our best players. If he achieves success here, as he did at Dortmund, any players that leave in their prime will be to foreign leagues, not to direct rivals. That may have been a significant factor, given his statement about making this a club that players won't want to leave.

Rodgers didn't have enough experience with any of the systems to judge whether a failure was a fundamental flaw or just a blip that needed some adjustment. There wasn't a single basic system with variants depending on game situation and opposition, but we had lots of different systems and styles that were vastly different and mutually exclusive. There didn't seem to be anything that Rodgers believed in, but it was clear what he didn't believe in, such as DMs, and defensive organisation in general. The best coaches, while conversant enough with other systems to know what to do, tend to stick with one basic system which they thoroughly know the ins and outs of. The connection was via former Dortmund player Nuri Sahin. http://www.squawka.com/news/klopp-my-sons-came-to-watch-nuri-sahin-at-anfield/486255

Didn't the same happen to Steve McMahon?

I don't think I've ever seen any keeper put so much effort into his kicks as Grobbelaar did and got so little distance on them. Fortunately (under the then rules) his throws went a fair way.