Topic: Chewer of Toffees, scourge of Barça, Peeler of Spuds, Arse kicker, Wolves slayer

[dudleyred]

He played really well when he came on!! He will move to this type of level when he moves club, he’ll score loads given the right opportunity. His work rate was quality

Wouldn’t be so sure he’s off to be honest

I for one hope not. Young still and a talent

[lamonti]

Excellent when he came on.

[Drinks Sangria]

Strong, willing and direct when he came on. Gave Fulham another threat to deal with. Well in lad.

[Upinsmoke]

At least he offers some direct running. I cant see him being here next season but will always remember his goal against Everton.

[ScubaSteve]

Wouldn’t be so sure he’s off to be honest

I for one hope not. Young still and a talent

He’s playing well enough to warm the bench that’s for sure

[SlowRap]

can't ask much more, head down 100% effort and making an impact when it matters

[WaterfordRed]

Another good job done today.

[SpartanTree. No deccies or lights.]

Quality shift when he came on.

Well done to the lad !

[newterp]

He's actually starting to trust himself, providing an outlet, and also being aggressive. He's still a good step below the main 3 - but it's evident that Klopp feels that when Origi comes in he will press and work hard. Not that Sturridge doesn't want to - but he just can't.

[Bird Bird Bird The Bird Is The Word]

If we can contribute as part of a front three as effectively as he can contribute on an individual basis, then he will be a potent option. I'd like to see him start and perform with the same energy he had today, and see how well he linked up with the rest of the front three, but not a chance we'd risk that at this stage of the season willingly.

[Gaz123456]

I hope he stays for next season. He brings something different, has a goal in him and is an effective substitute.

[RainbowFlick]

It’s clear his touch has improved this season. Seems to have got smarter and is playing to his strengths.

Amazing hair too 

[Lofty Ambitions]

It’s clear his touch has improved this season. Seems to have got smarter and is playing to his strengths.

Amazing hair too 

Yes, yes, yes, and yes 

[MD1990]

I would offer him a new deal.

Only 23 has looked very good in 2019.

[CraigDS]

I would offer him a new deal.

Only 23 has looked very good in 2019.

to be honest he's miles away from the level we need. Come the end of the season I think club and player will know it's time to move on.

[MD1990]

to be honest he's miles away from the level we need. Come the end of the season I think club and player will know it's time to move on.

He will prob want a move.

But you think we are paying 70-80m for a back up to the front 3?

Someone as good as will cost over 100m.

Unless we unearth a gem for 20-30m.

[aw1991]

He will prob want a move.

But you think we are paying 70-80m for a back up to the front 3?

Someone as good as will cost over 100m.

Unless we unearth a gem for 20-30m.

Fekir was touted at around 50mil when we nearly signed him. Even Timo Werner or Luka Jovic wouldn't cost 80m.

[LallanaInPyjamas]

to be honest he's miles away from the level we need. Come the end of the season I think club and player will know it's time to move on.

With Sturridge gone, can we afford to let him go? I can't see us going out and buying two or three strikers given that we haven't signed one for about four bloody years.

He's proving himself to be a decent impact sub at the moment.

[mrantarctica]

Thought his performance against Fulham was his best yet. He looks like he's really trying very hard with his running, energy. I think if he can just add a bit of quality and intelligence to his play then he might earn himself more time here. But then, that's always been his issue. I don't think he has that game intelligence. He has the raw attributes in abundance, but his best level doesn't seem to get any better season by season which it should really do for a young player. In any case, he's done well. Certainly making the most of what opportunities he has had and I have to say whenever he got the ball against Fulham, I thought he would make something happen or score.

[Giono]

to be honest he's miles away from the level we need. Come the end of the season I think club and player will know it's time to move on.

Agreed. Pleasantly surprised at the changes to his game and his relative effectiveness. But we will retool our bench in the summer with a player that will push the front 3 and be able to play in midfield on occasion.

[Giono]

With Sturridge gone, can we afford to let him go? I can't see us going out and buying two or three strikers given that we haven't signed one for about four bloody years.

He's proving himself to be a decent impact sub at the moment.

Sturridge's replacement is Brewster.

We almost signed Fekir last summer. We'll be back for a similar player this summer.


He is 23. He needs to be something more than an impact sub. Can see him getting a contract at another PL club that he will suit better.

[CraigDS]

He will prob want a move.

But you think we are paying 70-80m for a back up to the front 3?

Someone as good as will cost over 100m.

Unless we unearth a gem for 20-30m.

I still don't get why people consider a 4th attacking player, when we play with 3, a back up. Plenty of times this season all three of Mane, Firmino and Salah have looked like they need a rest, or been injured, or not been on form, so over the course of a 50+ game season a 4th player would easily get 2000+ mins.

[Nessy76]

He will prob want a move.

But you think we are paying 70-80m for a back up to the front 3?

Someone as good as will cost over 100m.

Unless we unearth a gem for 20-30m.

We didn't pay that kind of money for any of the actual front three. We bought all three for less than £100m combined.

[Charlie Adams fried egg]

I still don't get why people consider a 4th attacking player, when we play with 3, a back up. Plenty of times this season all three of Mane, Firmino and Salah have looked like they need a rest, or been injured, or not been on form, so over the course of a 50+ game season a 4th player would easily get 2000+ mins.

I agree, I think we could benefit from having an "any 3 from 4" option with no drop off in quality.
As you say it allows the minutes to be shared and I think we have been extremely fortunate with our lack of front 3 injuries over the last couple of years especially when we compare it to injuries in the midfield and defence.

An added benefit of having 4 of the same quality is that the club we're playing against don't get a lift from one of the current 3 either not playing at all, or getting subbed.
No one bats an eyelid if Sterling, Aguero, Sane start from the bench.

[jonnypb]

I'm starting to like him as a player again.  I thought he had potential when we first got him, but then he went off the boil and I don't think he had that successful a time out on loan.  I think he's done OK since he's come back (Very good against Fulham) and although I don't think he's the answer to be the main backup to our front 3 as the quality is quite a way off Salah, Mane and Bobby, I think he is a very good squad player for us.

I hope he stays with us, but if he's wanting first team football week in week out, then he may be off at the end of the season and if anything his current form should get us a few more ££££ for him in the summer.

[blacksun]

We didn't pay that kind of money for any of the actual front three. We bought all three for less than £100m combined.

True but the market changed significantly after we bought Salah. Neymar, Mbappe & Dembele (and Coutinho) all went for 100M+ and with Madrid, Bayern, Utd, Chelsea plus the usual suspects in City/PSG all potentially splashing huge cash this summer its certainly not going to get any better.

[Nessy76]

True but the market changed significantly after we bought Salah. Neymar, Mbappe & Dembele (and Coutinho) all went for 100M+ and with Madrid, Bayern, Utd, Chelsea plus the usual suspects in City/PSG all potentially splashing huge cash this summer its certainly not going to get any better.

Not really the point. The players you talk about there were established megastars. We have done much better business than all of that by good scouting, buying players with the attributes to fit the team, rather than asking a twelve year old "who looks good on FIFA?" which is the essence of the PSG/Real/Barca method. Even at the time we signed them, none of our front three were world shaking transfer deals.

Unless I missed something and all our scouts have just dropped dead, we can still go out and find more where those three came from, and we won't pay through the roof when we do.

[RyanBabel19]

True but the market changed significantly after we bought Salah. Neymar, Mbappe & Dembele (and Coutinho) all went for 100M+ and with Madrid, Bayern, Utd, Chelsea plus the usual suspects in City/PSG all potentially splashing huge cash this summer its certainly not going to get any better.

This is wheeled out every time a big deal happens and although the market changes and players on average cost more now than previously, overall its never really rung true in the way its used. Remember when 'the market changed when Pogba went back to the mancs' but we still bought Salah after that. The trend will never change imo, the average cost of players will continue to increase, but there will always be overlooked players like Salah who go for a lot less than their true value.

As far as I can see it, we rarely pursue the massive massive players. Van Dijk and Alisson are the only 2 i've seen in a long long time, before them, who was the last player we bought and everyone sat back thinking that's a huge deal and statement of intent? Even going back to Torres, it wasn't massive, a good deal, great potential but many pulled up the fact he wasn't putting up huge numbers in spain

[ThePoolMan]

Sturridge's replacement is Brewster.

We almost signed Fekir last summer. We'll be back for a similar player this summer.


He is 23. He needs to be something more than an impact sub. Can see him getting a contract at another PL club that he will suit better.

Speaking of Fekir, he may be too chancy at 50 plus million but what if he were signed on a free transfer? That may ameliorate the risk to some extent and perhaps add some performance related pay scales in case he is knocked out by injury in his contract?

[Jookie]

Speaking of Fekir, he may be too chancy at 50 plus million but what if he were signed on a free transfer? That may ameliorate the risk to some extent and perhaps add some performance related pay scales in case he is knocked out by injury in his contract?

If Fekir was available on a free transfer, I would suspect every top club in Europe would have a passing interest in him.

He's likely end up with multiple contract offers on the table. A performance related contract probably wouldn't be that appealing to him in that instance.

There's also the small matter of what Fekir thinks about joining us. We pulled out of a deal for him at the 11th hour. Understandably so from our position. However, I wonder how Nabil Fekir feels? Does he just view it as one of those things and if we rocked up again he'd be interested? Or is he annoyed at Liverpool for pulling the plug on the deal last summer and denying him a dream move but also at the same time alerting every other club in Europe to a potential medical issue?

[88_RED]

Just have a feeling that this lad will have a big say in the title race and the trophy ending up at Anfield come May..

[AmanShah21]

I think he's worth a pretty penny in the market and we'd expect to get his worth. If we dont get a competitive bid, we might keep him and give him a contract and he's a sound option off the bench. If we do see a bid over the 25 million mark, then it'd be hard to turn down though, because he probably could be a first choice option for many a top division club.

[jckliew]

Just have a feeling that this lad will have a big say in the title race and the trophy ending up at Anfield come May..

[blacksun]

This is wheeled out every time a big deal happens and although the market changes and players on average cost more now than previously, overall its never really rung true in the way its used. Remember when 'the market changed when Pogba went back to the mancs' but we still bought Salah after that. The trend will never change imo, the average cost of players will continue to increase, but there will always be overlooked players like Salah who go for a lot less than their true value.

As far as I can see it, we rarely pursue the massive massive players. Van Dijk and Alisson are the only 2 i've seen in a long long time, before them, who was the last player we bought and everyone sat back thinking that's a huge deal and statement of intent? Even going back to Torres, it wasn't massive, a good deal, great potential but many pulled up the fact he wasn't putting up huge numbers in spain

Except it is true, Salah was our record signing, since then every main player we bought has been that and more fabhino was the same amount as Salah, Keita, Allison and VVD were all significantly more. Since Salah's transfer Neymar, Coutinho, Mbappe, Dembele and even 31 year old Ronaldo have gone for over 100M. These are top players as you said but now even decent players are crazy money Lukaku 90M, Kepa 70M, Lemar 60M Mahrez 60M Morata 60M

My point is there wont be many decent players at cheap prices because the top players raise the bar and now every team wants top money for the better players. Werner a player many think we might be after will be at least 50M. This idea that we will be able to find rough gems lying around for peanuts is crazy as soon as we are remotely linked to anyone now the price will rocket, its why agents keep throwing our name around as possible destinations for their client

We all believe we are back at the top of the game again and competing with the Barca's, Madrid's, Utd's, City's and rightly so. The problem with that is we will also be charged the premium they get charged for players they want too.

And to claim Torres wasn't a massive signing is crazy he was our record signing in 2007 and many pundits, fans etc thought we'd massively overspent on him, thankfully they were sooooo wrong but we didn't break that record again until we sold Torres and used the money to buy Suarez and Carroll.

[Giono]

Speaking of Fekir, he may be too chancy at 50 plus million but what if he were signed on a free transfer? That may ameliorate the risk to some extent and perhaps add some performance related pay scales in case he is knocked out by injury in his contract?

But what if he does goes down injured and his wonky knee needs to be rebuilt? That is the cincern zi think rather than the money. I don't think we need to be buying any ticking timebombs when we need all hands on deck to fight for titles.

[jepovic]

I don't expect us to find another attacker for less than 50M, but it's not impossible to find very good players for cheap. We've found Robertson, Matip and Shaqiri very recently.

[Qston]

Just have a feeling that this lad will have a big say in the title race and the trophy ending up at Anfield come May..

Our Macheda ?

[Nessy76]

Except it is true, Salah was our record signing, since then every main player we bought has been that and more fabhino was the same amount as Salah, Keita, Allison and VVD were all significantly more. Since Salah's transfer Neymar, Coutinho, Mbappe, Dembele and even 31 year old Ronaldo have gone for over 100M. These are top players as you said but now even decent players are crazy money Lukaku 90M, Kepa 70M, Lemar 60M Mahrez 60M Morata 60M

And? We could quote a lot of players not as good as Salah who cost more than him before we bought him. There are some very expensive players. That does not mean that all good players are equally expensive.

Here are a few from 2016, the year before we bought Salah:
Sane £37m
Stones £47.5m
Hulk £46.5m
Higuain £75m

More? How about these from a year before that?
Martial £36m
Sterling £49m
Di Maria £45m
De Bruyne £55m

Plenty of clubs spending a hell of a lot more than us, always were. Means nothing. We find value. We aren't trying to buy big names. The club is very good at finding the right players, and we have the resources to bring them here.

[Hazell]

Who the heck signed Hulk for £45m? 

Martial for £36m is a rip off too, given his return. And Man Utd have played payed some more since then I think.

[blacksun]

And? We could quote a lot of players not as good as Salah who cost more than him before we bought him. There are some very expensive players. That does not mean that all good players are equally expensive.

Here are a few from 2016, the year before we bought Salah:
Sane £37m
Stones £47.5m
Hulk £46.5m
Higuain £75m

More? How about these from a year before that?
Martial £36m
Sterling £49m
Di Maria £45m
De Bruyne £55m

Plenty of clubs spending a hell of a lot more than us, always were. Means nothing. We find value. We aren't trying to buy big names. The club is very good at finding the right players, and we have the resources to bring them here.

Thanks for proving my point, all those you quoted were less than 50M (bar Higuain) the year before, the following year players of a similar standard were 60+ so the market is going up at huge numbers every year now. If you think anyone is going to sell us their best player for 8M now you're nuts. As soon as we ask they are going to bump the price up because we are now part of the top table group.