1 hour ago, icecoolguy22 said:

I'm sure Liverpool fans will claim the purchase of Van Dyk is a sign of ambitions, I see it as an act of desperation to pay an extraordinary amount for any defender, even City didn't pay the asked price.Southhmapton is laughing all the way to the bank, they'd never believe anyone would pay the asked price. It will make or break (likely) Klopp, somehow this will be seen as the last piece of jigsaw for him. I better Jose will be mad, even Liverpool is paying striker price for a defender.

They have had so many final pieces of the puzzle, I'm losing count. Just like I'm losing count of the pieces of silverware they have been winning the past 10 years or so 

4 hours ago, enigma said:

all but the top 5 clubs have regressed this season. heck, even us and utd have regressed a little bit. spurs have stayed pretty much the same, and liverpool have improved a bit. burnley is the only club that's surprised me this season by how consistent they've been, but apart from them the rest of the bottom 10-15 teams have been so poor and defences are conceding for fun. every season we say next season will be better, but then it's always disappointing in some ways when it comes around. 

I'd argue that the rest of the title challengers have been the biggest letdown...even if they've all lost to city, that doesn't excuse the poor results and points lost in other games...e.g., heard chelsea alone are 10 points worse off than last season (so gap could be 6)...and off top of my head we lost 13 compared to last year by losing to West Ham, Palace, Burnley and drawing to Everton and arsenal...(we picked up three by winning at Spurs)...

this is not the first pl season where lower clubs have been this negative and poor...but it is rare for not one other title challenger to be good enough to capitalise 

Liverpool missed a top defender since their potency in attack is only behind City's but their ability to defend in set pieces and inability to read the forward movements let them down. This is an excellent signing and 75m is really a standard price these days. 

For the record, the money has always been there since their owners 'FSG' came into the fold, but didn't really have  enough trust in the manager to offer those. Seems like Klopp has won their trust. Now according to their reliable journalists they'll be strongly monitoring Goreztka and Lemar, who would be pretty key especially if Coutinho would leave

2 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

I'm sure Liverpool fans will claim the purchase of Van Dyk is a sign of ambitions, I see it as an act of desperation to pay an extraordinary amount for any defender, even City didn't pay the asked price.Southhmapton is laughing all the way to the bank, they'd never believe anyone would pay the asked price. It will make or break (likely) Klopp, somehow this will be seen as the last piece of jigsaw for him. I better Jose will be mad, even Liverpool is paying striker price for a defender.

I agree, totally desperate...klopp couldn't coach an improvement so is hoping the chequebook will...and What a surprise, Liverpool fans are deluded, talking about winning the title next season etc. It will take more than one overrated defender to improve their defensive record...plus they don't seem to realise that coutinho will soon be on his way to Barcelona in the summer, so they'll regress elsewhere anyway.

For all the money being spent by PL clubs, the quality does seem to be going down. Just look at how many times Spurs, Liverpool, Utd or City are scoring 4 or 5 goals in games. Defences beneath the top 6 are just a joke.

The price might be high but at least Liverpool actually strengthen in a position they are screaming for reinforcements. Thats a lot more than we have been able to do for a while.

i think saying the board haven't been actively trying to improve areas of weakness is harsh. we tried to sign sandro, juve weren't going to let him go. if he's apparently a no.1 target of conte's, why would we then spend money elsewhere on an inferior left back? the only other areas of weakness may be a wide attacker/creative outlet which are quite difficult to find at the moment. people speak about lemar, but in the summer we already had willian and pedro who were coming off of a very good season, both putting in impressive stats between them.

we bought two centre mids in baka and drinkwater to strengthen that area, and also a striker to replace costa. christensen and rudiger have both come in and imo been very impressive in the majority of games played. i am not sure i can criticise the board because they were unable to get targets who were unattainable. the only targets you could say we missed out on were ox, barkley and llorente, but they are all mediocre and would lack the quality needed at chelsea. any other top targets were just not going to be let go or didn't want to leave. 

49 minutes ago, The Brit said:

I agree, totally desperate...klopp couldn't coach an improvement so is hoping the chequebook will...and What a surprise, Liverpool fans are deluded, talking about winning the title next season etc. It will take more than one overrated defender to improve their defensive record...plus they don't seem to realise that coutinho will soon be on his way to Barcelona in the summer, so they'll regress elsewhere anyway.

And if it's not Coutinho, someone like PGS or Real Madrid will probably come after Salah.

i think it's best to wait if salah keeps up this form. mane was in top form last season, but this season he's been below-par. if salah continues on a harry kane like trajectory then a big club may come in for him, but too early to say. every season a new player is hyped up and the next season they taper off, bit like dele alli, jamie vardy, benteke, llorente, lukaku and so forth. 

Edited December 28, 20178 yr by enigma

3 hours ago, enigma said:

i think saying the board haven't been actively trying to improve areas of weakness is harsh. we tried to sign sandro, juve weren't going to let him go. if he's apparently a no.1 target of conte's, why would we then spend money elsewhere on an inferior left back? the only other areas of weakness may be a wide attacker/creative outlet which are quite difficult to find at the moment. people speak about lemar, but in the summer we already had willian and pedro who were coming off of a very good season, both putting in impressive stats between them.

we bought two centre mids in baka and drinkwater to strengthen that area, and also a striker to replace costa. christensen and rudiger have both come in and imo been very impressive in the majority of games played. i am not sure i can criticise the board because they were unable to get targets who were unattainable. the only targets you could say we missed out on were ox, barkley and llorente, but they are all mediocre and would lack the quality needed at chelsea. any other top targets were just not going to be let go or didn't want to leave. 

Glad someone mentioned this. The keyword is “unattainable”. You can’t just say you want Walker, Sandro etc & not enquire if they are interested in playing under you, or would be willing to push for the move. Heck even tap them up like Van Dijk. Walker was only ever going to play for Pep, and Sandro wants his loyalty bonus intact.

Swansea appointed some former Sheffield Wednesday manager.

55 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Swansea appointed some former Sheffield Wednesday manager.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42501945

It would be interesting to see how many english teams go into QF. I fear that even if we pull out a miracle win against barça, we'll get beaten by a f***** english team in the QF, espcially if it's City! Especially considering the fact we quite don't have as much rest as them, while playing the exact same number of games so far ... and not the same squad depth too of course ! they kinda remind me a bit of barça 2012 : pretty much invicible up until we faced them in the UCL !

Edited December 28, 20178 yr by Londonisblue

what is woy's obsession with playing ruben out wide on the left of midfield?  

townsend equalized

RLC subbed off.

Stream turned off.

And its 3-1 to the arsenal......put away by sanches.........we really should be going after him in jan........but we all know it aint gonna happen.

Don't get your hopes up.

Need you on Sandro watch again big man :) highlight of last transfer window aha!

2 hours ago, LengmanJedi said:

Need you on Sandro watch again big man :) highlight of last transfer window aha!

I swear, if United sign Sandro, I will implode.

I had to share this cause gooners were taking the piss (to use a British term) & are worried about playing Chelsea next week

 

AC Milan....
Proof that money doesn't buy you happiness, can't believe how crap they are doing in a relatively weak league expected them to at least be in the top 3!

Real Madrid love their goalscorers, maybe they will pick Salah over Hazard.

Hoping for at least a draw today for Southampton 

Salah can't stop scoring. 

They will probably sell for 100 million if it continues 

 Leeds have lost to birmingham

Edited December 30, 20178 yr by Londonisblue