Hightown Phil

Maybe, but I reckon 92 is probably a fair expectation for them as we are now. I'm not convinced I'd suddenly expect them to get 100+ if they sign him.

Last season I'd agree yeah, but not from where I'd expect us to be next.

Then we should sack everyone.

I think last year is a complete anomaly myself. Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips are unlikely to kick a ball, Fabinho will play more than 1/3 of the season in midfield, no reason to think Thiago will miss half of it. Firmino and Mane probably won't have to be too much better in a more stable/better side.

85 is what I think would be par for us next season but I'm not really comparing it to anything, just looking at the squad, the players we have, the level of the league and other such things. I couldn't upgrade it much above 90 if we signed one of them. Haaland might turn loads of games in to wins, but he also played for a team who failed to win 14 of their 34 games last season. 20 points, as a number that's been mentioned, is a huge amount and I think people overvalue the impact a lot of players have when you convert it to points, like Lewandowski scored 41 league goals last season, if they'd swapped him for an average striker I wouldn't think they'd have come 5th and he scored 41 goals which is basically more than anyone ever.

You could make an argument that we'd be stronger than last season if van Dijk, Gomez and Matip had retired and we'd just signed Konate though.

Because we'll be playing centre backs and have a functional midfield.

My personal expectation would go from roughly 85 points to 90 or somewhere in that region if we added them, which is sort of the point about transformative I guess. That isn't transformative.

I don't think we'll have a problem next season, and I'm talking about next season?

I'm talking about next season not last. If we had Gary Cahill in our squad last season I think we'd have come second, never mind winning the league or European Cup with Mbappe.

We got 69 last season not scoring an open play goal at Anfield for about three and a half months so I'd have 75 on the low side myself. If you put Mbappe or Haaland in our team I'm not sure our output would increase dramatically from where we are now. We'd be better, absolutely. But it wouldn't radically transform us and make us substantially better I don't think.

How many points do you think Liverpool will get next season? A freak season with no real use for talking about the future. Harry Maguire would have been worth 15 points last season, never mind Mbappe.

How many points more do you think we'd get next season if we signed any of them? It's not more than 5 or 6 surely?

And if we sign no one in the next two or three years this is a valid point. We paid £40m+ for a 23 year old attacker last summer, we've signed a £35m 22 year old centre back this summer. Is this not part of a constant evolutionary process? Like, I get the idea of being younger, but there's a line between making yourself younger and lessening your chances of winning in the here and now. It's assuming a lot, such as needing to replace van Dijk at 32. Italy just won a European Championship with a 36 year old centre back so maybe it isn't that simple.

I'm not sure what approach you are after that would have been capable of withstanding losing three centre backs for the season to be honest. The ageing team thing is getting a bit silly if we're being honest when you break it down. We've got like 1 player who is aged 31 or older, and he's bit part at best, and it seems to assume that we're buying no one for about the next 3 years and we're going to wake up in 2024 with a bunch of 32-34 year olds which isn't going to happen.

The football has been good though.

Grujic makes 18 I think, but if they were that bothered you'd guess they've have looked to replace Adrian with a Lonergan type.

The low bar thing is dead weird. Gary Neville said that England had overcome the odds so many times this tournament. They were favourite for every game.

I think he's decent but gets caught out a bit and manages to get back in with his pace. Looks like he needs coaching and he ain't getting that there. Not done anything to stop me from thinking they'll finish 4th.

Wacker, Wacker, Eh, Eh. This time for Austria.

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Just did what every keeper should do for Jorginho. If you prepare for him and have some bottle about you, you hugely reduce his chances of scoring given how he takes them.

I think he's good, been great for Chelsea this season just gone, but the midfield's inability to get the ball forward at pace to get the opposition turned round doesn't help the attackers. Sterling, Kane and Mount were all really quiet last night.

Was a point second half when it was 518 passes to 203. Italy not being great is sort of the problem really, they gave Italy the opportunity as opposed to Italy giving it to themselves. Only thing I really remember England doing was when Italy played a loose ball inside, Henderson fed Sterling and it went out for a corner.

Are they not saying they f***ed it because England shouldn't have taken it to that point? I certainly am. The second half was absolutely pathetic and it looked like the manager had absolutely no clue what to do other than hope the defence wasn't breached, but no actual plan as to how it wouldn't be. He gave Italy the ball and they got deeper, and deeper, and deeper. It was really bad. And then when they'd conceded it took them another 45 minutes or so to string about 4 meaningful passes together. No talk of English arrogance or anything like that, just a manager who didn't give England the best possible chance.