Davvo

That's true, but considering how little that lot contributed last season, you don't need to replace them with 8 players, and again given how few minutes they played, they don't need replacing with highly paid players either. Borini, and 2 or 3 more forwards (Dempsey +1/2?), with support from the likes of Robinson, Wilson, Jones, Sterling, Pacheco, should leave us no weaker, infact probably stronger in terms of a regular starting XI. The nett result of all that is probably circa £300-400k p/w better off. With perhaps Allen replacing Adam and or Spearing, and taking into account the others who left last August, we'd be in significantly better shape on and off the pitch I'd expect.

It's worse than net spend vs gross spend this accounting nonsense, can be very misleading if taken at face value. The interesting thing for me, is to watch for any moves that seem to add short term value, or limit short term loss. There was a lot of that going on towards the end of H&G's reign, to make the accounts look as healthy as possible.

If he is analysing the accounts, then he's referring to the profit made on the book values of Torres and Mascherano, which will have been very low at the time of sale. The players purchased will also have been included in the accounts as assets, so that's why they are not mentioned in the same breath as those 2 sales. The cost of those players in accounting terms, is spread over their contracts.

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hope you're right, I thought he looked a long way off.

I can understand that, but with no Bellamy or Suarez, and presumably Borini included in that fitness concern, then we have noone to put the ball in the net.

Yeah I found that odd, though I guess we're guilty of underestimating the Spanish League a little there. He wasn't an automatic starter at Norwich, so no reason why he should be at Rayo ? I think he could be useful for us as back up, think he can still develop into a decent player.

I thought Adam, Spearing and Aquilani controlled possession very well in the first half, that was exactly what I'm expecting from Rodgers' team. Where we struggled in the first half was a lack of any quality upfront, and I think that's where we are desperate for reinforcements. Suso and Shelvey looked to cause more problems for the opposition than Adam/Aquilani, but they also gave the ball away a lot at close quarters, which is part of the gamble of trying to be more creative I guess, an interesting contrast between the two pairings though. Good to see Lucas come on and look assured at DM too. I don't think any of our midfielders look like they'll struggle to play Rodgers' system, it's just a matter of combinations. LIke Swan Red said above, there are some decent squad players there, but you worry about the overall strength without Lucas/Gerrard. We have Henderson and Spearing as cover for Lucas at DM, and then Gerrard, Shelvey, Adam, Aquilani, Suso, and maybe Allen for the 2 slightly more advanced CM positions. Thats possibly 9 players for in reality 6 or 7 first team squad spots., with a handful capable of playing anywhere in the 3. Upfront, at the moment we have Suarez, Borini and Carroll to come in, but of the 6 that started against Toronto, I think only Sterling and Pacheco could possibly add something to the first team squad, and then at no better then 5th/6th/7th choice. We desperately need one more forward player, probably two, aswell as replacements for anyone who leaves permanently or on loan. I don't think Cole is remotely equipped to play as a wide forward any more. He's best shipped out, but his only potential use would be in one of the 2 advanced CM spots, and even then I'm hugely sceptical, plus we are well stocked there. I can see us being stuck with him as a squad player though because of his wages.

That's superb it really is, cheered me right up.

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Cracking opening scene to a movie that.

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Not true. Started attacking CM but gave the ball away a lot, then moved to wide forward in a front 3, never a 9.

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Struggling to see te contradiction. He likes to be wordy and modern does Brendan by the looks of it. He seems to be saying you don't know a players character and personality until you spend more time with them, bit obvious really. He says nothing about changing his mind about anyone's technaical or tactical abilities ?

If that's true, it his dicking him around yes. Our prerogative though to change our mind I'd say. I find the criticism of all this a bit odd, unless it's just people upset that we're getting shut, that's fine but just say that.

Because you aren't wondering about him, you know. Why mess about trying to fit what you feel is a square peg into a round hole, when you can sell the square peg and buy a round one ? Keeping him to have another look and try and make him fit, would smack of uncertainty, and not knowing his own mind to me. He doesn't want him, sell him, don't waste time. The point in all this, is that with Carroll, he woud appear to feel he knows what he needs to know about his game, and it's quite understandable to reach that conclusion without seeing him on the training pitch.

Borini.

Why not do so? Because he's more than capable of judging him from watching games, why is that so hard to understand ? It's a perfectly sensible argument, the fact is, you can judge a player by watching him play, and see if he's likely to fit your style of play or not. Rodgers presumably doesn't think Carroll can play his way, and it baffles me that people think he's not in a position to make that judgement.

Surely you see how a manager can know whether a player is someone he wants, without needing to see him train though ? I really can't understand the block so many people seem to have on this. If a coach can't tell from watching game videos/matches in the flesh, that a player could potentially fit into his style of play or not, then he's in the wrong job. I'd rather we kept him from a personal view, but if the manager doesn't want him, then I can quite easily see that he's got enough information to reach that conclusion, and I admire the way he appears not to be hanging around. For one thing, he surely wants to be working now with players he's going to use in the season, getting them used to his style of play, we have a very short pre-season with lots of players missing big parts of it.