The_MC

Toure Sturridge Mignolet

That about sums it up nicely. Good performance from Toure vs Benteke, and Mignolet did well when called upon. Excellent goal for Sturridge too. Considering we're meant to have padded out the squad with the early signings of the transfer window, resorting to putting a left back in midfield and an unfit Joe Allen on to offer more presence is baffling. 3 more points in the bag though and still more than enough time to make a few additions. Luckily the lads had 45 minutes off too so they shouldn't be too knackered for the next game.

The way this is heading I can't see us coming away with 3 points. Poor passing and poor possession at the moment. As the pressure builds, at 1-0, they'll get chances. Need to concentrate on keeping the ball moving and pinning them back when we have possession, otherwise we'll be relying on another late save to keep the win.

Don't think any of the yellow cards shown so far today were correct. Seems the ref is pulling his cards for almost any foul, so the players better be careful. Gerrard needs to pick up his passing in the second half and Aspas needs to get involved more so we can keep possession when they are pressing (especially making himself available when Coutinho is looking for a pass). Decent performance so far but we need to create some real chances as there have been very few apart from the goal.

Stegen is still a Mönchengladbach player. Personally I still expect Reina to be a Barca player by the start of the season but now we have Mignolet in there isn't so much worry as to whether it happens now or later.

He's hardly going to say he's transfer listed him is he? That would throw away any chance we have of getting a decent fee for him. I'd like to think we have the two of them fighting out for the position but in reality it seems highly unlikely. Best case scenario for me is that they're phasing Mignolet in for the first half of the season, learning what he can from Pepe and getting used to the style and players around him, then Reina goes over to Barca in Jan to transition in the same way but with Valdes. Takes the pressure off the players and gives them a chance to settle in rather than getting destroyed by the press as so many new keepers do.

He's been linked as a loan signing hasn't he? Really don't see the point. If he does well then he holds up the development of our current players for a year then goes back to Barca, if he does badly then we simply pay the wages of a Barca youth player for a year then don't want him. Don't see where we win out of it unless it has a clause to make it a permanent deal? Loans only work for small teams who need instant squad players on the cheap in my opinion. I don't think we should be plugging gaps in the squad with short term solutions.

It would be a bad message to send out to the squad too imo (selling Henderson that is): basically you can keep quiet and work hard, get back into the first 11 on form and turn many fans opinions onside but you still get sold. That wouldn't sit well with me. He has the right attitude, is very versatile, and has some real talent there in my opinion. Has certainly done enough to earn another season.

The problem with that is how do you counter attack against a team who don't commit players forward? Some of the teams that come to Anfield sit so deep and only commit a few players into attack at a time. Counter attacks work well against the better teams but when it comes to the likes of Stoke they keep so many back there isn't any space to counter attack into. I'd suggest we're targeting quick players because part of the key to possession based football is player movement, especially when waiting for space to play the 'killer' pass. The players linked also tend to be very versatile in terms of their positions, again suggesting the importance of movement and finding space to find the ball wherever it's available.

Hopefully we won't spend huge amounts on sacking managers and staff, then paying out compensation and signing on fees for new ones like we've done so often in recent years. Would much rather see that money go on improving the squad.

Very good. 6 months of procrastinating, then after 1 week of organised protest in the form of e-mails they get it done. Just goes to show e-mail campaigns aren't a waste of time. One step at a time, hopefully his Knighthood is the next to go.

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This is taken from our friends over at RAWK, so I thought I'd pull it across to a proper forum for anyone who hasn't yet seen it. I'm sure you'll agree it's completely inappropriate for Bettison to have an Honorary Fellowship from a Liverpool institution. So if anyone has a spare minute to put across their thoughts to the University then get on it. For those who don't have time you can just copy and paste from the article.

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