Topic: Xherdan Shaqiri - Sponsored by The Cube

[Medellin]

Relaxing after the game..

[number 168]

Probably ran more in 45 minutes than Charlie Adam did in his whole Liverpool career.

[joekim87]

Did we strike gold in missing out on Fekir and ending up with this guy?

[xbugawugax]

seems to be trying to hard to make and impression like ox initially. Loads of running but not in sync with the team yet

things going to get really interesting once he settled down and get used to our pressing triggers. when to and not to press

really impressed with his play on the ball. never hiding and loves to play the quick ball into space for our players to run to.

[newterp]

Did we strike gold in missing out on Fekir and ending up with this guy?

We would have had them both.

[elpistolero7]

seems to be trying to hard to make and impression like ox initially. Loads of running but not in sync with the team yet

things going to get really interesting once he settled down and get used to our pressing triggers. when to and not to press

really impressed with his play on the ball. never hiding and loves to play the quick ball into space for our players to run to.

The mentality of players Klopp buys is just something else. Our recruitment is at a level I've never seen to be honest.

Under Rafa we did incredibly well on recruitment considering what we were up against, and how little he had to work with.

Klopp is even better I think. Every player we sign seems to be desperate to play for him and make an impact. The turnaround in our fortunes under him in terms of recruitment is massive. From being turned down by the likes of Mkhitaryan, Willian and Sanchez to buying the best CB, GK and CM 'relatively available' on the market (not saying Keita>Modric or anything, Modric, Busquets etc are not buyable).

First time since Rafa I feel like top players really want to play for us. Great feeling.

[RedForeverTT]

The mentality of players Klopp buys is just something else. Our recruitment is at a level I've never seen to be honest.

Under Rafa we did incredibly well on recruitment considering what we were up against, and how little he had to work with.

Klopp is even better I think. Every player we sign seems to be desperate to play for him and make an impact. The turnaround in our fortunes under him in terms of recruitment is massive. From being turned down by the likes of Mkhitaryan, Willian and Sanchez to buying the best CB, GK and CM 'relatively available' on the market (not saying Keita>Modric or anything, Modric, Busquets etc are not buyable).

First time since Rafa I feel like top players really want to play for us. Great feeling.

How true.

Still could not forgive how the mucks like Miki and Sanchez turned out down. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise in the long run barring a 2 years of short term pain. Imagine us getting saddled with their salaries like Utd did.

However, I feel FSG was really tight back then and haggling over that 1 or 2 million and it is quite different this season where we finally flex our muscles.

[Caligula?]

Now that he-who-shall-not-be-named is at Barcelona, Shaqiri can take over the mantle of long range screamers. A 35 yard winner in stoppage time at Old Trafford please.

[Petadroli]

Now that he-who-shall-not-be-named is at Barcelona, Shaqiri can take over the mantle of long range screamers. A 35 yard winner in stoppage time at Old Trafford please.

With De Gea fumbling it in, please.

[clinical]

Did we strike gold in missing out on Fekir and ending up with this guy?

We wanted both. Shaqiri is now only being used in centre because we missed out on Fekir imo. BUT if we can increase his work rate like we did with Chamberlain he can be just as good hopefully. He's quicker than Fekir.

If he suits that position then I think we'll play him there instead of the wing and go for someone like Pulisic to rotate with Mane/Salah either in Jan or next summer. Shaqiri has got that attributes to play there, just the work rate question for me, but if Klopp can't get that from him no one will. He's worked hard so far.

[Lone Star Red]

Did we strike gold in missing out on Fekir and ending up with this guy?

No.

[LallanaInPyjamas]

Did we strike gold in missing out on Fekir and ending up with this guy?

We wanted both.

We don't know that. That was a line in the Echo, which at the time felt like their usual management of fan expectations, but for whatever reason everyone has taken as the truth.

What we do know is that they are both left-footed, diminutive attacking midfielders. We know that the Shaqiri link emerged around the time Fekir was failing his medical. We know that he is at the club and Fekir isn't.

[Pradan]

Old piece this but here is something Ted Knutson put up on Shaqiri a few years back:
https://statsbomb.com/2014/06/xherdan-shaqiri-vs-adam-lallana-a-liverpool-joint/

'He’s a natural wide player, but could potentially play more centrally with some training work. 2.8 shots per 90 isn’t there, but if he played more centrally he would likely turn into a shot monster (4+ a game).'

Interesting.... considering Klopp clearly has eyes for him in a CM role.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

We don't know that. That was a line in the Echo, which at the time felt like their usual management of fan expectations, but for whatever reason everyone has taken as the truth.

What we do know is that they are both left-footed, diminutive attacking midfielders. We know that the Shaqiri link emerged around the time Fekir was failing his medical. We know that he is at the club and Fekir isn't.

We were linked with him before Fekir had his medical. The report came out the day before.

[LallanaInPyjamas]

We were linked with him before Fekir had his medical. The report came out the day before.

I recall it being the same day as Fekir was having his medical, and a day before the news came out, but you may be right. Either way, I think it's entirely plausible that we followed up our Shaqiri interest because of Fekir failing his medical.

Personally, I genuinely don't see why we'd want both when there's a bigger need for a back-up to Firmino or a wide player with genuine pace.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

I recall it being the same day as Fekir was having his medical, and a day before the news came out, but you may be right. Either way, I think it's entirely plausible that we followed up our Shaqiri interest because of Fekir failing his medical.

Personally, I genuinely don't see why we'd want both when there's a bigger need for a back-up to Firmino or a wide player with genuine pace.

Fekir can play the role that Firmino does and cover a role in midfield. He can't really play wide as he has no pace to do so, he wouldn't be effective there. Shaqiri does have pace plus other abilities that may be similar to Fekir's, but it's not outlandish to want both.

[LallanaInPyjamas]

Fekir can play the role that Firmino does and cover a role in midfield. He can't really play wide as he has no pace to do so, he wouldn't be effective there. Shaqiri does have pace plus other abilities that may be similar to Fekir's, but it's not outlandish to want both.

Agree Shaqiri definitely has more pace than credited for, but he wants to use it in central areas, be it from starting there or moving inside. I think we lack a player who is more comfortable using his pace on the outside - i.e. what we have seen at times from Mané at his flying best.

I also agree that it's certainly not outlandish that we may have signed both in an alternate universe where Fekir has fully-functioning knees. I'm just not sure we can say that's what the club definitely wanted to happen with certainty based on a line in the Echo.

[clinical]

I recall it being the same day as Fekir was having his medical, and a day before the news came out, but you may be right. Either way, I think it's entirely plausible that we followed up our Shaqiri interest because of Fekir failing his medical.

Personally, I genuinely don't see why we'd want both when there's a bigger need for a back-up to Firmino or a wide player with genuine pace.

Fekir was the back up for Firmino mate.

It wasn't just echo all papers said it wasn't one or the other.

I'd bet my house on Shaqiri initially signed as back up winger to mo and mane. But I think in training Klopp has been impressed and tried  him in centre.

[Johns_Barn]

Xherdan will be a cult hero by March.

^dis.

I'm still pinching myself he cost £13m...he'll be hailed as the buy of the season.

[AmanShah21]

Referring to the Ted Knutson article, one uncanny thing you'll notice is that most of our buys come from individuals that he also recommended, which makes me wonder if the club uses a similar model to find the perfect fits into our systems. Around that time, another link we had was Depay, and he also was highly recommended by Knutson in 2015. Given that we've kept track of individuals that we missed out on to see if we could go back for them at a later date if they keep up their numbers (a la Salah {that rhyming was unintentional} or Shaqiri), I guess we'd be interested in Depay too if it weren't for United's buyback clause because he's done fantastic once he went pack to playing progressive football instead of too sour defensive c*nts in Mourinho and Aloysius Paulus Maria "Louis" van Gaal.

[Oberyn_Martell]

Agree Shaqiri definitely has more pace than credited for, but he wants to use it in central areas, be it from starting there or moving inside. I think we lack a player who is more comfortable using his pace on the outside - i.e. what we have seen at times from Mané at his flying best.

I also agree that it's certainly not outlandish that we may have signed both in an alternate universe where Fekir has fully-functioning knees. I'm just not sure we can say that's what the club definitely wanted to happen with certainty based on a line in the Echo.

Do we have anyone that really constantly goes on the outside?
Mane used to do it in his first season here but he's been playing a playmaker role since mid last season. He picks and chooses his moments to try and beat defenders.

[PhaseOfPlay]

Fekir was the back up for Firmino mate.

It wasn't just echo all papers said it wasn't one or the other.

I'd bet my house on Shaqiri initially signed as back up winger to mo and mane. But I think in training Klopp has been impressed and tried  him in centre.

We don't play with wingers, though.

[JC the Messiah]

Thought Shaquiri was bought to strengthen the squad, but he's already showing why he could play, and start, a lot more games than I thought - and I was keen on signing him both before he joined Stoke and also during this window.

His play last night was a case in point. Really want to see him get a chance behind the front three to see the damage he can do from there. Think he could be phenomenal for us this season. £13m is an absolute steal.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2wpYVLaGJzw

[jepovic]

Price tags shouldn't matter, but they do affect expectations.
Must be nice to come in with such a smallish price tag.

[stevensr123]

Him and a fit strurrige basically "replacing"  ings and solanke as options around the first 11 is a massive massive improvement.

Add in lallana who hopfully kicks on again, jones who is looking class etc and our depth is looking fucking awesome.

Was hoping for a fekir but if the cube keeps playing like this, their is no need.

[SlowRap]

Like every one else I'm massively impressed by him. Can't remember him giving the ball away, he shields it well, turns well, spreads passes inside and out. I think he's loving playing with intelligent players like Sturridge

[clinical]

We don't play with wingers, though.

Just take the word winger out and point still stands.

[rob1966]

Him and a fit strurrige basically "replacing"  ings and solanke as options around the first 11 is a massive massive improvement.

Add in lallana who hopfully kicks on again, jones who is looking class etc and our depth is looking fucking awesome.

Was hoping for a fekir but if the cube keeps playing like this, their is no need.

Looking around at the second half team last night and thinking of the players who were unavailable, our League and FA Cup teams are going to be so so strong this season. Really do think we will pick up some silverware.

Was in row 10 of the Main last night at the Kop end, so got a really good look at Shaqiri in both the warm up and the second half - fucking hell, he is solid, looks like a mini Juggernaut from the X-Men. never realised how good he is, so good with his feet, turns really well and he put a great cross in for Sturridge.

[PIPA23]

he was a stand out player sorounded by not that great players...

in this team he will thrive, less expectations on his performances alone means more freadom for him...

[Zoomers]

Motherfucking Shaq x2

[Dubred]

He's a very very good player.  Always has been.  Its not that huge a surprise that he's starting to show that potential again.

The obvious taint for many is he came from Stoke, and why was he there in the first place, if he's that good.

Without tracking his career that closely in all honesty, and just trying to use common sense.......he was massively sought after as a 20yr old as we know and for good reason at the time and joined Bayern as one of the best young players in Europe.  Things didn't work out there, went to Inter, another big team.  Things didn't work out there.

Maybe he was just stung one time too many by the big clubs at the time.  He was only 22/23 and it was maybe just too much, too soon, and not the support network at those clubs he needed to thrive under.

Mark Hughes was at Stoke at the time and to be fair, he had some decent players there at the time, playing decent football.

And he probably sold a good project to Shaq and gave him a bit of the love and arm around the shoulder he probably needed for a lad that age.

I don't think Stoke was necessarily the wrong move for him, but he possibly stayed there a little too long.

But who are we to complain?  As a result, we've got a genuinely brilliant player at a knock down price, and who has grown up and matured brilliantly over that time, which he wasn't afforded at Bayern or Inter, and who is ready again to step back into the big team arena, that bit more experienced and savvy.

Got a lot of expectations about this lad, but shocked at what I've seen so far is not one of them.

[Adam_LFC]

Just love when a player is able to slot right into the side like he has always been here. Shaqiri is one of them. He offers us serious strength in depth, and imo he should be starting along with the usual 3 in home games against 'park the bus' teams.

[LallanaInPyjamas]

The obvious taint for many is he came from Stoke, and why was he there in the first place, if he's that good.

Yep, but you do wonder when exactly a huge portion of our fanbase will learn with regards to this. It's fine to be sceptical about signings if you don't particularly rate the player, or struggle to see how he will fit the system perhaps, but there's certain fans out there who judge our new signings based almost entirely on which club we sign them from. We've signed Robertson and Shaqiri from relegated clubs and Mané from Southampton and all of them were widely sneered at despite being very good footballers.

[Dubred]

Yep, but you do wonder when exactly a huge portion of our fanbase will learn with regards to this. It's fine to be sceptical about signings if you don't particularly rate the player, or struggle to see how he will fit the system perhaps, but there's certain fans out there who judge our new signings based almost entirely on which club we sign them from. We've signed Robertson and Shaqiri from relegated clubs and Mané from Southampton and all of them were widely sneered at despite being very good footballers.

Its the snob in us I guess 

Which is sad really as Liverpool fans because if you know your salt about our history....and you should if you're a real fan, you should know that some of our very best players came from lower leagues and became superstars here.

I know the game has changed somewhat, but the point remains that we have a very good scouting system in place, and a very good manager whose hit rate has been excellent with transfers recently, including from the 'lesser' teams.

People shouldn't even question who we are signing players from at this point given what Klopp has done.

But in all honesty, even with the snobbery, the Shaq one confuses me.  He's a clearly really talented player.  Thats always been there to see, regardless of his old club.

[emitime]

We've signed Robertson and Shaqiri from relegated clubs

And Wijnaldum. Milner was relegated with Leeds, Sturridge has been relegated too now technically. We've got a right team of losers.

I wonder what the most relegated players a team has had when winning the league...

[Lofty Ambitions]

Has this been posted yet? How to pronounce his name:

From: https://pronouncer.org/2016/06/21/12327/

Granit’s international teammate Xherdan Shaqiri, who was born in Kosovo before emigrating to Switzerland shortly afterwards, also poses a problem. The UEFA article mentioned above gives the pronunciation of his name as “Cher-dan Scha-ki-ri”, again following the German pronunciation.

In Albanian, the name is pronounced [ʤɛɾ.dan.ʃa.ci.ɾi]. In “Cher-dan” [ˈʧɛʁ.dan], we again see the /ʧ/ standing in for Albanian /ʤ/ in the German pronunciation typical of Switzerland. Again, for German speakers who distinguish /ʤ/ and /ʧ/, [ˈʤɛʁ.dan] would be advisable. JER-dahn [ˈʤɜːɹ.dɑːn] or JAIR-dahn [ˈʤɛə̯ɹ.dɑːn] would also be better for English speakers.

The usual German pronunciation of Shaqiri is indeed “Scha-ki-ri” [ʃa.ˈkiː.ʁi], with the q having the /k/ sound as expected in German spelling. But Albanian q represents either the voiceless palatal stop [c] or the voiceless palatal affricate [c͡ç], sounds that are not present in German or English. Furthermore, in some dialects of Albanian, it might become an alveolo-palatal affricate [ʨ] or postalveolar affricate [ʧ], in the latter case merging with the sound /ʧ/ written ç in Albanian. The latter pronunciations are widespread in Kosovo, for example. So a closer approximation of the Albanian pronunciation in German would have been “Scha-tschi-ri” [ʃa.ˈʧiː.ʁi]. But it seems that the pronunciation more intuitive to German speakers stuck.

English speakers similarly expect the q in Shaqiri to represent a /k/ sound, so most commentators say sha-KEER-ee [ʃə.ˈkɪəɹ.i], which approximates the German pronunciation, whereas sha-CHEER-ee [ʃə.ˈʧɪəɹ.i] would be closer to the Albanian. Given the overwhelming popularity of the former pronunciation in English, it would feel needlessly pedantic to insist on the more Albanian-like pronunciation.

Now we know 

[Dench57]

Just call him the skill goblin and be done with it

[lamonti]

Just call him the skill goblin and be done with it

lol.

the lad's fucking talented and really hungry. i imagine he'll be given chances to start throughout the season.

[Van Halen]

Der Kraftwürfel!!!!

Der Kraftwürfel!!!!

Der Kraftwürfel!!!!

[fredfrop]

Was in row 10 of the Main last night at the Kop end, so got a really good look at Shaqiri in both the warm up and the second half - fucking hell, he is solid, looks like a mini Juggernaut from the X-Men. never realised how good he is, so good with his feet, turns really well and he put a great cross in for Sturridge.

Holy shitballs!