RaoulD

Agree, Sometimes it is easier to sign a player in January where he is nearing the end of his contract as the selling club might be more interested in doing a deal to get some cash rather than waiting for the summer when the player's agent will be auctioning him to the highest bidder. Obviously the biggest name falling into this category is Mbappe and he will almost certainly go to Madrid in the summer if he remains at PSG. However, players such as Kessie, Dybala, Dembele or Belotti are in the same position and would certainly improve our squad.

From Benitez's viewpoint I don't think it was a ridiculous decision. He has kept his home and his family here whilst he has worked abroad and managing Everton would have appealed to him as a professional football manager. Whether it was a good idea for the Everton board to have appointed him depended on the results and ultimately the current run of form would have resulted in the dismissal of the manager regardless of who he was. If I had the misfortune to be a blue, I would be more worried that a manager with Benitez's quality could not halt the slide down the table. There is obviously a lot more wrong with the players and/or their set-up than an unpopular manager.

The missing one is Karius who also returned in the the summer. He is most likely to be dropped from the squad if we sign another player and don't free up space by selling one of the others on the list since we already have 3 other keepers in the squad who are over 21. I think this is slot is being earmarked for a possible January addition other than Gini. Bellingham would not require a slot as he is under 21 and also would be regarded as home grown having spent time on the books as a youth at Birmingham. The missing one is Karius who also returned in the the summer. He is most likely to be dropped from the squad if we sign another player and don't free up space by selling one of the others on the list since we already have 3 other keepers in the squad who are over 21. I think this is slot is being earmarked for a possible January addition other than Gini. Bellingham would not require a slot as he is under 21 and also would be regarded as home grown having spent time on the books as a youth at Birmingham.

We would need to drop one of our non-home grown players from our PL squad to accommodate him as our quota of 17 non-home grown over-21 players is full at the moment. With the emergence of Morton and Harvey hopefully coming back into the picture, I think we have moved on from the position at the end of last season where he would have been a useful squad member had he remained. The reason why he chose to leave still applies and I therefore do not see him as an option for us now.

No requirement to quarantine just have a test before departure and within 48 hours of landing. Tests could be done on arrival back and then the players get results before training the next day. All assumes they have been vaccinated as otherwise there will be a need to quarantine. However as elite sportsmen there are exemptions for training and playing so even if not fully vaccinated they are still able to leave quarantine to train and play.

He is being asked about the contract every time he is interviewed by the world media. We all know it is being negotiated and the terms being offered are being kept quiet for the simple reason that neither side wants to lose face by revealing what they want or are prepared to pay/accept only to agree on different terms. That is why players have agents. The player is making it known what his wishes are to counter the speculation that will inevitably follow if he says anything to suggest that he is either holding out for a figure that he knows FSG will not agree to or that he will look to run down his contract so that he can move for the mega payday elsewhere. If the negotiations do not result in a contract agreement, Salah will not want his last season with the club overshadowed by the fallout that will follow. I just wish the press will stop asking him about the contract and talk about his football.

RIP Ray. It was a privilege to have seen you play and for me you were the greatest to have worn the number 5 shirt.

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I think we are a midfielder light because of the injury record of Ox, Keita and Thiago. Curtis is still a long way from the finished article and is not a particularly strong tackler (and ditto for Ox). Gini's strength was in retaining the ball in tight positions. Thiago is probably better at this in that it is allied to his distribution skills. However, Thiago's injury record (which has always been an issue) means that whereas Gini would play or be available for every game, we only see Thiago in patches. Fabinho's absence means our captain has to take on a greater defensive midfield responsibility and whilst he is good at this, his real strength has always been as a box-to-box midfielder. Our set-up really calls for one defensive midfielder, one box-to-box midfielder and one attacking/pressing midfielder. The first choice defensive midfielder is usually Fabinho but Henderson or Milner can also take this role as can Thiago (but I think he is less effective in this position) The first choice box-to-box midfielder is usually Henderson but Keita and Milner are also effective in this role. The first choice attacking midfield options are Thiago, Curtis, Ox and Keita at the moment in the absence of Harvey. This is the area where I think we are weak and vulnerable due to injuries and form. The weakness then either puts pressure on the other 2 players in midfield to support our front three or draws Bobby into midfield nullifying our forward press to some extent. The starting midfield 3 yesterday of Henderson, Keita and Curtis was OK. As was the starting midfield against United of Milner, Henderson and Keita. The drop off when one of the three departed (as against Brighton) or when two of the three departed (as against United) highlights the midfield imbalance caused by Gini's absence. I am not sure we need a straight replacement for Gini but I do think we need more cover in defensive midfield so that our captain can play in his best position in the absence of Fabinho.

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They had a decent player called Francis Joseph playing for them who caused us a few problems early on but after half time we stepped up a gear.

Remember the last time we played them away. They had Ron "Chopper" Harris trying to stop Ian Rush!

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I think most of the predictions are based on the fact that Chelsea were also quite fancied last season but it was tempered by the fact that they had signed quite a few new players and had a relatively inexperienced manager in Lampard. This season those new players will be expected to have bedded in and the manager is clearly an upgrade on Lampard. Add in the signing of Lukaku to bolster the attack and it is easy to see why there is an expectation that they will do well. However, Chelsea have been in this position in the past and often turn out not to be as good as the sum of their parts on paper. They do seem to be relatively weak at the back and that was their main problem last season. City will always be favoured as they have the squad that comes with their wealth. However, they have lost the aura about them which means that more teams will fancy their chances against them. They have also lost a lot of the experience that got them to where they are and I am not sure the replacements are as good. United still seem disjointed as a team and have not really addressed the issues from last season, particularly in midfield and at full back. Varane might be a slight improvement at CB but he has no real experience of the Premier League. Sancho does not add much offensively to what United already had up front. Their real problem is their manager does not seem to have a settled plan for getting them to play as a team rather than a collection of talented individuals. We are the dark horses because of the lack of activity in the transfer market and the lack of a title challenge last season. The mitigating circumstances for the latter are largely forgotten when it comes to future predictions. However, the team are still largely the same team that dominated the league less than 2 years ago and most of our players are still in their prime. In my view. the addition of Jota, Thiago and Konate over the last couple of years offsets the loss of Lovren and Gini but the problem of the depth of the squad remains. Whereas the likes of Chelsea, City and United can rotate their squad without any real difference in quality, I still think we are dependent on a clear first 11 with fewer options to change things if form or injury impacts on them. This is what scuppered us last year so much will depend on our luck this year.

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I think we try to keep our targets quiet as most clubs do in order to prevent a competitor coming in and triggering a bidding war. However, agents are usually keen to do the exact opposite in the hope of getting the price (and their cut) to rise because of the competition. A club's denial of interest could therefore mean either that the club is genuinely not interested or that the club is actively pursuing the player but wants to dampen down interest from elsewhere. Thiago's signing might have been similar to Fabinho and VVD had it not been for the fact that the domestic leagues in Europe and Champions League ran into September last year due to Covid and he needed to remain a Bayern player until those competitions were completed.

I think the vast majority of us fall in between being ok with it and seeing it as an insult to LFC. The reality is that Rafa is both a football nut and a family man. His ideal job turned out to be managing us as he fell in love with the city and decided to make it his home. He did not want to leave us in 2010 but was sacked by F & G. He owes the club no loyalty but has always been very respectful towards us even when managing a rival team. If the prospect of managing in the Premier League presents itself again to him, why shouldn't he consider it? Personally, I think it is more of an issue for Evertonians as I suspect the reception he will get from them will initially be hostile so unless he wins them over by success on the pitch, I cannot see him staying very long. I would prefer him not to go to Everton as I still think he is a very good manager who may get them back to competing with us in the same way that the appointment of Ancelotti did. On the other hand, it could easily backfire on them and the divisions he will create might cause them to go backwards rather than forwards in terms of trying to catch up with us. He will always be a Liverpool legend because of what he achieved with us and the support he gave to the Hillsborough campaign.

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