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Hoffenheim vs Liverpool FC
Reds unchanged for Champions League play-off LFC starting XI: Mignolet, Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Matip, Moreno, Henderson, Can, Wijnaldum, Salah, Mane, Firmino. Substitutes: Karius, Klavan, Gomez, Milner, Grujic, Solanke, Origi. Hoffenheim vs Liverpool in the Champions League play-off 1st leg kicks off at the WIRSOL Rhein-Neckar-Arena, Germany at 19:45 on Tuesday, 15 August.
Liverpool’s New Transfers – How Should They Line Up?
Liverpool have signed 5 players with a sixth (Southampton’s Nathaniel Clyne) seemingly just days away after a £12m fee has been agreed. Milner (free), Bogdan (free), Ings (fee to be decided by tribunal but likely to be around £8m), Gomez (£3.5m) and Firmino (believed to be around £22m but rising to £28m with add-ons) have or at least will sign for us on July 1st when the Transfer Window officially opens. Firmino is yet to have his medical due to Copa America commitments but issues over his work permit are resolved and the FA have already stated there is no reason why he won’t get one. Liverpool will also lose the services of Gerrard, Johnson and Brad Jones as well as a couple of youth players that have been let go too. Aspas has been sold for a fee believed to be £5m to Sevilla...
Liverpool’s Disappointing Start to the Season – Who’s To Blame?
Liverpool have had a very disappointing start to the 2014/15 season which is compounded after the highs and performances of last season. So who is to blame… Its quite easy to single out certain players or the manager, but are they the reason behind the slump in form. Steven Gerrard seems to be coming in for quite a bit of criticism of late, comments made about his age and his impact in the team but lets be honest, you can’t fault his love and dedication to the club. He is younger than Lampard who is still performing in a Premier League club at the top end of the table. Whilst Gerrards stats my not be as impressive overall compared to last season, I think he has been one of our better players. Last season we had a settled midfield with Gerrard being partnered by Henderson. A com...
Liverpool FC’s Summer Transfer Window Breakdown
The summer transfer window has now closed so we know what Liverpool’s squad will be – at least until January. Its been a record breaking transfer window and Liverpool have been one of the busiest – signing 9 players for the first team as well as acquiring a couple of players for the Academy. Most of their business was done early on and the last player incoming was signed a week before deadline day. However Liverpool were busy right up until the deadline with players leaving. Its probably best if I start by talking about the players out first. Obviously Liverpool let 2 players who featured quite a bit in the last years squad return to their parent clubs following a loan spell – these of course being Moses and Sissoko. The big story of course was Luis Suarez moving to...
Is Mario Balotelli a Risky Signing?
Personally I think he is maybe a little more risk than any other signing because of his history. That being said, is he any more of a risk than if we kept Suarez? Had we not sold Suarez, we would not be benefiting from his undoubted ability until the end of October and no guarantee he wouldn’t have further behavioural issues in the future. We had been linked with Falcao who suffered a big injury. He has not really recovered from this it seems and I think it would be a bigger and more costly risk signing him for a year on loan. Another point is that Mario is not coming into Liverpool as the ‘number 1’ striker. Sturridge is still our main striker but there is a ‘risk’ he will be out for a number of games due to ‘injury’ particularly if we didn’...
Has Our Summer Transfer Spending Been Unbalanced?
There has been a lot of talk – particularly in the media – saying that we have had an unbalanced transfer window with the players we have brought in. I disagree and this is why. Last year we conceded a lot of goals and came 2nd in the Premier League for ‘defensive errors leading to a goal’. At times Mignolet may have seemed ‘nervous or unsure’ particularly after the impressive start – some of that maybe due to the lack of confidence he had in the players in front of him. Starting with the 2 centre backs – We haven’t looked composed or solid for a few seasons now. At one point Skrtel and Agger were one of the best pairings in that position but Agger’s injury record has meant that we have had to use different combinations – Th...
The Size of our Squad
Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool seem to be coming in for a bit of criticism for the size of his squad and number of players bought so far during the summer transfer window. We seem to be getting a lot of comparisons with Tottenham too who bought in a lot of players with the money they got from selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid. The only similarity I see though is that both Spurs and Liverpool have sold one of its biggest stars for a lot of money. Spurs Sold Gareth Bale quite late on in the Transfer Window and literally panic bought a lot of players in a very short time however Liverpool sold Suarez much earlier and have a lot more time to pick and choose suitable players to enhance their squad. Its no secret that Liverpool had a small squad for last season and certainly lacked quality subst...
Rating Liverpool’s Summer Signings So Far 2014
Brendan Rodgers has stated that he is NOT doing a Tottenham – basically buying anyone after the sale of their big star. I have reason to believe him too. Prior to the World Cup we heard that Liverpool would have a fairly large kitty to buy new players and improve the depth to be able to compete in 4 competitions – League, Champions League and 2 Domestic Cups. Rumours indicated that this could be as large as £60m not including any extra generated from sale of players. We also had the impression that Luis Suarez may have been staying – after all he got his wish of playing in the Champions League, supposedly happy with all the support and awards he won and even enlisted his children in a school in Liverpool too. However things have changed and our star striker has left us. M...