David Hodgson

I’m in Madrid . Ticketless . Anyone scoped our a bar to watch the game in ?

I’m going to be in Madrid , ticketless . No idea where to watch the game.

A new centre back who is significantly better than Lovren/Matip is important. If he can cover at leftback too, he's a gift from the gods. De Ligt isn't a luxury (assuming a) he's gettable, and b) worthy of the hype), hes an essential. We need 3 exceptional centre backs who can rotate the 2 roles between them, and maybe one of them (Gomez) can also put in some shifts covering at full back. Gomez is a touch injury prone and we have no one near Van Dijk's level if he gets injured. We can get by and may be fine next season without a new centre back but I think if we want to truly cement our new position as 'one of the best 3 teams in the world' we should have a squad depth that takes no chances. Even more essential is the signing of another top attacking player and I'm not even sure one is enough. I'd be ruthless and bin Lallana, Sturridge and take a good fees for Origi and Shaqiri. I'd then buy a Brandt/Fekir type and another top class pace merchant (ideally Dembele from Barca). Those ideal 3 (De Ligt, Brandt, Dembele plus Brewster) would massively strengthen the depth in the squad and cost about £170m all in. We'd subsidise that cost by selling Origi, Shaqiri, Camacho, Wilson, Lallana, Lovren, Moreno, and bringing in at least £100m.

She's been with you that long she'll know what it means to you. Suggest another date and up the ante. Only things I've let get in the way of football have been death and birth of kids. And even then.

Why ? They’ve rested people today . No game in the midweek after City. They can play the same side on Wednesday and Saturday if they want .

This is virtually all wrong. You’ll be made I’ve put you right there. You’re welcome. Seriously though, you are wrong. He’s going to be very good for us. He presses like a man possessed. He can look rusty, he needs to build confidence , but that will come. After a nervy start last night he was good. Listen to Klopp in the post match stuff on him. He was very happy with Naby . Some good detail about why.

He He's injured ! And you want him booted up the ars'e ?! That'll get him fitter quicker. He was beginning to play well before his latest injury. Had a couple of good games. Has shown in patches previously too. I get losing patience with squad players like an Ings or a Solanke, but when you buy a player with Keita's pedigree and obvious talent, you don't just write them off. And your nuts as well. F.ucking hell.

I think Milner will cover for Robbo.

How much have FSG taken out of the club ? It’s zero isn’t it ?

That's too conservative for a home game. Need one of Keita or Shaqiri in there.

I think if you put another outstanding attacking player in the squad and you get the best version of chamberlain back then that’s a complete squad . Maybe Milner will need replacing with a right back . At the moment if we lost Salah and Mane to injury we’d be utterly toothless. Shaqiri is decent but he does not adequately cover either . When we had coutinho within the ‘fab 4’ It looked like we had the resources we needed in attack .The next forward we bring in needs to be world class, or at least potentially so.

Ha ! Yeah. Wouldn't know him if I walked into him and its staying that way.

They were in a game against Wolves until that sending off. Ignoring those mad cup games, I don't think City have turned in a really top performance since winning 4-0 at West Ham in late November.

Ah, but United and the player can contrive a deal that makes them both fortunes. If United can effectively buy an £80m player for just £6m they can afford to offer him ridiculous wages. Or United can do a deal where they 'back to back' him, whilst weighing him in. So, they buy him from Palace for £6m, with a pre-agreed deal to sell him straight on to Liverpool for say £80m, with the player bagging £20m for agreeing to the overall deal. Something like that anyway. Everyone wins but Palace, who get royally shafted.

That's exactly the team I'd predict. Set up as a 442 diamond.

Yeah, the cute move would be to actually go and win the league. With a club record points total.

I've checked it out. It's a shoe in. Also, I share your disdain for the injured. A bit right wing really, but we have no places for weaklings in our new world order.

'He is nowhere near a Klopp' yet he has won the key prize. What does that tell us about the winning of that prize ? It's yet another indicator that there isn't a straight line correlation between being a great manager and being a trophy winner. Arguably, up against this Man City, Paisley doesn't win a single league title. Yet he could still win exactly the same amount of football matches and that still be so. If Paisley was a genius of a manager having won us all those leagues via all those wins, would he not be so if they had not yielded a league title ? I realise it's not this simple, but on some levels, it actually is. We like to perceive titles as usually being long battle royales between two teams, but in reality they only play each other twice. We mainly have parallel seasons and count up the points in the end.

Well that's my entire point. That is the entire point. It's obvious, but still the 'but he/they have to win trophies' refrain has gained traction. Even amongst sections of our own support. But, if you then add the 'but it would be so much greater an achievement for Klopp to win the league with Liverpool than it is for Guardiola with City' then heads have to get scratched. The true statement is not 'but he has to win the league/trophy to be considered any good' it is that 'it would be a crying shame if a manager clearly this effective wasn't able to technically mark a fantastically successful period with the time honoured symbol of success that trophy winning represents'. A bit more of a mouthful, granted.

There's a case for gambling and just going strongest in each game over xmas. There's 5 day gaps between Wolves and Newcastle and between the Arsenal and City games. Klopp could convince himself that whatever shift we put in v Arsenal, that 5 days recovery is ample to get all batteries recharged for City. His dilemma is around the Arsenal game. Can he expect the same level of performance if he goes as strong as possible v Newcastle ? The midfield tends to rotate itself, and switching fullbacks in and out is no massive deal. The call , for me, would be to bench Salah v Newcastle, and maybe Firmino v Arsenal . Sadio can play all the games as he's had rests recently.

A mate of mine has a very good friend who is part of the wider coaching staff at Melwood. He said that when he returned from his injury a few weeks back that Keita was unreal in training. Like, the best we player we had in the practise games. Apparently all were hugely excited about what he could yet deliver this season. I think he's being outstanding in moments, but has yet to have enough great 90 minute games. At Burnley, recently, was his most complete performance IMO. There he was genuine class from start to finish. I think in some games he's been mildly hindered by being stuck sort of out-wide in 4231 set ups. If the play is on the opposite side, you can look like you're not in the game for much of the time. The injuries have also added to the disjointed feel to the start of his career with us. We can never say exactly how things will pan out but to my eyes he has the highest ceiling (or as high a ceiling at least) potentially, as anyone at the club right now.

Ok, but back in the real world, my point stands, that talking about managers like Klopp and Pochettino having to win trophies to prove their worthes, at their respective clubs, is being unfair to them. Next time when one of 'them' chimes in with 'of course he's achieved nothing at Liverpool til he wins a trophy', I'd love someone sane to bite back '..but when he does, it'll be a far greater achievement than any trophy Guardiola has ever won yeah ?..'

Even if. for argument's sake, we got their optimum, whatever that actually is, it doesn't make us as resourced as Man City, the Spanish giants, PSG, Bayern, United, and possibly Chelsea.

The 'it's all about winning trophies' mantra belongs to an age where there were umpteen trophies to win and be celebrated. When I was a kid you might win the league, the FA Cup, the league cup, the European Cup, the UEFA cup or the Cup winners cup. Out of those, only the league cup might be considered a modest return for the expectations of the biggest clubs, and even then. Any one of the others made it a memorable season and would be considered a significant achievement. Now, we're down to 2 trophies that bring any recognition. We also live in an era today where it is all but guaranteed that certain clubs, because of their wealth, will be in contention for those two significant trophies every single year, more or less - Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris St Germain, Man City, Man Utd and (maybe until very recently) Chelsea. Clubs like us and Spurs are financially a tier below those sides and in the mix with quite few other clubs at our level. So we have to rise to the top of our pile and then find ways to outstrip clubs with greater resources than us. The odds of us doing that are tough, even if we're buying perfectly, are run perfectly and have a great manager. I think if you're a manager of one of those super rich teams it is reasonable to expect a league or champions league from you, now and again, but below that wealth bracket, it's a different ask. If someone says 'hey klopp, you're nothing until you win the champions league ', he can reasonably respond 'fine, give me the Barca or Man City jobs and I'll do that'.