David Hodgson

I think it's 'Johnny' by the Fine Young Cannibals.

Yes. I’ve been telling people we’re the best team in the world and I think they think I’m joking . But we are. It’s only Barca and Man City in the conversation with us. Literally no one else even close. Barca - I think there’s daylight between us and them . City - harder to say. It’s close.

I was told by a journalist with the right sources , before Klopp signed, that Edwards was the one at LFC who was reticent about Klopp. If memory serves, I think he wanted Ancelotti. He might have changed his mind though.

Prefer the Japan version .

Couldn’t Spurs still lose Erikssen and Alderweireld ?

Is right lad . Let’s get into these. Finally . Right at the death , I’m back with you on everything . Feels better.

Yeah, I hear you, but I’m taking the composite of our front 3 and our supposed dodgy seconds over their front 3 and their slightly more polished back ups .

He’s in their front 3 already .

They’re decent players but big drop offs. Mahrez is a show pony. He gives you nothing defensively and he’s not sensational on the ball. Jesus still looks potential at 22. He’s miles off Aguerro. Would you swap Mahrez for chamberlain? I definitely wouldn’t for the pre-injury version . Would you swap Jesus for Brewster’s anticipated potential ? Maybe on balance , but I wouldn’t do it lightly . And we have numbers - Shaqiri and Origi too.

City losing Leroy Sane is massive . Suddenly you look at their front options and they don’t look particularly richer than ours. Their front 3 back up is now Mahrez and Jesus. Ours is Origi, Brewster, Shaqiri and possibly Chamberlain. Suddenly it’s not night and day , in terms of relative attacking resources . We’d look seriously weakened if we lost Salah for a spell but they would equally if Sterling had a problem. At the risk of being the worst guy in the room , I’m going to say them losing Sane is the best new signing we could have made.

Is there ye. I’m more than comfortable with our options should he not play . I just think he will.

I get that , but I’m not sure why they wouldn’t have just let him have that extra weeks holiday then. I do wonder if some of the thinking is that next summer he gets to have a serious break.like from mid May til mid July. Unless I’ve forgotten some tournament he’ll be required for.

He sure is. I do wish this window didn’t shut so early for us though. The early games can be so instructive . Players seem vulnerable to a big injury early on, and with others you can just sense if it’s going to be their season or not . Take Chamberlain - he could look sharp and ready or he could look like a lad who isn’t going to get his mojo back for at least 6 months. Then there’s Brewster - he could ‘do a Michael Owen ‘ or circumstance could dictate he’s barely getting near the match day squads and he starts to disappear from view. The whole picture could look very different in 3 weeks time. I’m saying that whilst I buy into everything Klopp is saying , it would be nice to have 3 full weeks of evidence so that he could make doubly sure that what he’s certain of today is going to be sustainable . But this is a different subject really.

He won’t play in the league cup and expect there to be discussions about getting respite from international games. There are other Norwiches at home to come. Bench him for one or two of them. We’re not sports scientists but my hunch is that it’s better to have periodic rest rather than longer sustained rest and then non stop work. Who knows. My fear is that if you treat the opening 4 games as literally Mane’s ‘pre-season’ then you’re going too far backward to go forward. We’ve got a player now who is relatively well rested ( no game in 3 weeks) and who is also in peak condition . Starve him of full games for another couple of weeks and whilst that might have longer term benefits , it could short term mean we don’t see full throttle Mane until quite a few games in.

My view was that I’d have liked us to make one reasonable status attacking signing . I think that would’ve been funded had the manager insisted on it. Recently I’m swayed by klopp’s argument and that’s calmed me right down. I think we’ll be more than ok.

I get that but I think that may be afforded him further down the line. For now, it may be better to play him to keep him in rhythm. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to be shocked if he’s nowhere near this starting line up either.

It is better. Trent is a year older - beginning of last season he was still regarded as ‘a bit raw’. Fabinho is ready . Start of last season it was said it would take him a while to get up to speed . As it proved . Chamberlain is available. Potentially a huge benefit . Origi is equipped to contribute . Was written off a year ago. Brewster is a big potential bonus we didn’t have then. Looking at last season as a whole : We can expect potentially more from Keita , Gomez and chamberlain. Those are massive potential pluses .

How is it different ? If they wanted him to genuinely have a pre-season then you don’t bring him back after just 17 days. That’s like a mid season break, it’s not the type of down time that then requires a ‘full pre season ‘ to prepare him. Just because he gets his 17 days off in the summer nothing mystical happens to his body that wouldn’t happen if he had the break mid season. Today, Mane is fit and ready to play football at the highest level. He played in a final just over two weeks ago. He will have lost no fitness. The only thing that stops them throwing him straight in vs Norwich is the potential desire to create a full pre season for him , to equip him better for the longer term. If that’s the case, he probably doesn’t start a game till possibly Arsenal in two and a bit weeks time. But then that would beg the question as to why he wasn’t granted a longer holiday . I could be wrong , but I don’t think my guess is preposterous. I think they’ve chosen to keep him ticking over and that he will get mini breaks throughout the season . There’s no international tournament for him either next summer.

I’m convinced Mane will start. He only had a 17 day break and has trained this week. If he was injured for 17 days and then back in full training for a week he’d go straight into the starting 11. This is no different .

More quotes from Jurgen : "And making this team stronger, the starting line-up, that's really difficult and very expensive and we don't have that money. That's how it is. You cannot go out with £150m or £200m and just say, 'Yes, that's the guy we need and he can make us better'. "Because, also, that would only be if one of the others cannot play. These players, you can't really get, because they ask, 'When will I play?' and I have to tell them, 'When he is ill or when he leaves.' It makes it even more difficult. "It's the price you pay for success and for having a good team, and it's also why I say settle down, watch, work, improve - because we have to - and then find the solutions in the moments when you need them."

Yes. Exactly .

Assuming Klopp is being genuine in those quotes above (and it sounds like he is ) he’s possibly concluded that : - Keita / chamberlain can in their own ways match what a Coutinho or a Fernandes would bring . And may be better fits for his system . - Brewster is as good as any young pacy forward we’ve looked at, like maybe Hudson Odoi, Chukuweze, even Jadon Sancho, who he was very much on a level with pre-injury. - Origi is back on an upward trajectory and there’s no reason to think he can’t be as effective as a Zaha or a Pépé . - other interesting squad level players out there like a Ziyech aren’t any better than Shaqiri . We’ve been saying since January 2018 that we’ll definitely go backwards if we don’t replace Coutinho and just rely on solanke, sturridge , Origi , Shaqiri, Brewster , whoever , as back up to the front 3. But here we are, 18 months later, 2 European cup finals , current champions of Europe and all but champions of England . Jurgen makes his bed and then lies in it really effectively .

There’s a Seinfeld episode that deals with this. Obviously.

But he’s not a big buy, on loan . You really think if Klopp said to fsg ‘can I have Coutinho for a year, it’ll cost £15-20m plus his wages’ that they’d slam the door in his face ? Course they wouldn’t . Selling mignolet and Camacho virtually pays for the loan fee. Getting people like sturridge and Moreno off the books all but pays the wages. Unless you want to argue that FSG don’t , as an absolute minimum, allow Klopp to spend what he brings in ? You’d be arguing in the face of all available evidence . So have it your way - sell to buy - the fsg way = buying Coutinho on loan .....

Why would the owners block a loan deal for Coutinho if the manager really wanted him ? They adore Klopp . He’s made them fortunes . Ok the loan fee and wages for Coutinho aren’t small but they’re virtually paid for by the outs this summer ( mignolet , Camacho , Grujic , wilson , sturridge, Moreno ). If Klopp wants Coutinho he gets him .