Liverpool signings mean 25/26 title in bag as Man City ‘gutting team of leaders’

Liverpool fans are feeling very giddy as they splash the cash, while Man City and Rayan Cherki are criticised.

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Liverpool title is in the bag
It’s over, thank you for participating. There is no way Liverpool does not win next season with our signings. We won at a canter this season by carrying a lot of weaknesses. Robertson was a walking disaster, we couldn’t finish off lovely moves with Nunez nor Jota, Trent’s ‘defending’, Gravenberch running out of steam towards the end and no one on the bench that Slot trusts.

Oh, and Salah after Christmas.

In the one season FSG spent money, we have wiped away most of the problems, solidified our flanks with pace and power, and established reliable defending with goals thrown in. Trent’s creativity is now replaced by the best of the bestest attacking midfielder in the world. Now let’s see teams triple-mark Salah and leave all that space for the brat Wirtz. If rumours are true and we go for a No 9, he’d surely do better than Nunez by a factor of 10, plus our bench will be full of Premier League winners.

City will be our challengers, but it’s a steep curve for Pep after last season, it may be another year or two before this City team gels. By then, Pep would be scar-faced and gone, leaving Har-har-harteta as the only one standing in our way. Newcastle might come good, as will Chelsea, but they’re at least a couple of levels off. Spurs are interesting, I want to see what Thomas Frank offers, but Top 5 will be a dream. United, just to get Amorim’s feet under the table, will need 3 seasons.

So, 21 for Liverpool is a sure thing, although I do want to win that Champions League as well, we were a penalty kick away to the eventual champions, fair-dos.

Life is sweet as a Liverpool fan, I’m wearing nothing but rose-tinted glasses; let’s go break some effing records!
Vinnie Pee

Alvarez next?
I’m surprised no one has made this connection yet but with Atletico Madrid apparently batting their eyelashes at Liverpool for Andy Robertson and Darwin Nunez, would it not make all kinds of sense for both parties to arrange a swop deal for Julian Alvarez.

Liverpool with the two most prolific creators in European football in Wirtz and Salah surely need a prolific reliable intelligent No 9 with great movement – enter Alvarez and Atletico need a new fullback – Robbo has another 3 years top level football ahead of him and I suspect Nunez has the potential to return to his Benfica heights away from the Anfield spotlight and back in a more familiar Spanish speaking environment (having always struggled with English since moving)

Obviously Alvarez has a higher current market value than Nunez but a swop deal plus 20mil from Liverpool should do it with two surplus squad players now (if Kerkez signs) and our ideal no 9 in place.

Plus think of the fun spearheading our team with an ex-City player for the next 5-7 years, supplied by the no. 10 they craved but could no longer afford, seems like wins all round to me.
Dave LFC

Does Rayan Cherki know who he has signed for?
What am I talking about? This quote upon signing for City:

“Today’s game is less beautiful, fewer mistakes, but also fewer risks taken,” Cherki added “I want to bring that spark back and give kids the joy it once had.”

Why did he sign for a manager world famous for turning creative free thinking players into cogs in the machine? I can only come to a couple of conclusions. Either Rayan doesn’t know anything about Pep Guardiola or Rayan believes he is the level of Messi and will be given a pass under Guardiola to do as he pleases like Messi was.

Otherwise what he said upon signing for City genuinely comes off as something that only someone with genuine brain damage would say given who his new manager is. I wonder what the odds are on Cherki being the first player to fall out with Guardiola and be ejected from City in January are?
Lee

Man City are being dismantled
RHT/TS x’s message reminded me of that summer that Man Utd fans spent going on about what a great signing Anthony was going to be for them.

Man City are slowly gutting their team of leaders and highly paid stars and replacing them with players on half the wages. They’re either preparing for a transfer ban, relegation or proper scrutiny of their very suspicious accounts.

But yeah I’m sure everything is fabulous at the team that just collapsed and became a shadow of their former self where their generational manager is running down his contract and preparing to depart.

Keep throwing stones at other people’s houses sweetheart, you might not notice yours has caught fire.
Minty, LFC

Declan Rice: Actually pretty good
Interesting point raised by Andy D about Rice’s role for England. He definitely isn’t as good as DM but to say he’s overrated is probably a bit of a stretch. It does depend to an extent what you want the other midfielders to do so I thought I would check the statistics of the names mentioned (Rice, Palmer, Jude, Foden, Rogers, Ez and Mainoo).

Do we want the midfielder to score more goals?

Rice is in the top 10% of midfielders in Europe for non-penalty goals, he is also in the top 8% for assists. Palmer is next closest top 11% and 35% respectively. The others are some way off. Rice is also in the top 10% for touches in opposition box so he will continue to get high numbers

Do we want the midfielder to get the ball forward?

Rice is in the top 6% for progressive carries in Europe and in the top 22% for passing the ball forwards. Next closest again is Palmer with 50% and 12%, with the others generally lower

Do we want the midfielder to retain possession?

Rice passes in the top 40% but only a completion in the top 50%. Only Foden (12% and 4%) and Palmer (33% and 45%) are in the mix for this one, both significantly outperforming Rice.

Do we want to add more defensive solidity?

Ez and Mainoo are better here but frankly, nothing to write home about, they are all pretty bad

So if we look at Jude who is in the top 10% of midfielders for almost all attacking and possession statistics in Europe, wouldn’t we want the next best player next to him? I can’t help but feel having one of the best and most athletic midfielders in Europe alongside him isn’t a bad shout. Especially as England don’t really need to retain possession against most teams and I would rather get the ball forward to our elite front line as quickly as possible.
Rob A (has Rice somehow gone under the radar because he doesn’t play the position we thought he should be?) AFC

The biggest clubs? Really?
I do love an arbitrary method of seeing which clubs are the most successful when there is any even better way; counting how many trophies that club has won.

So, by that metric, Villa aren’t sixth.

And as for City and Chelsea’s – I’m removing pretty much every single trophy City has won, and loads of Chelsea’s.

Which, by doing that, does in fact move Villa back up to sixth.

Fair play. That was a waste of time!
Dan Mallerman

The Club World Cup and instant mild heartbreak
Just to follow up on the recent question in the mailbox regarding whether people are paying attention to the Club World Cup or not.

My experience is that I set up a fantasy CWC team on Saturday, selected Harry Kane as my captain, and the following day Bayern scored 10 (ten) goals, of which my captain Harry Kane scored 0 (nil) and assisted 0 (nil). I immediately lost all interest in both the fantasy game and the tournament.

Cheers,
Dan (shades of Salah blanking in the 9-0 win against Bournemouth the other season), Worthing

READ: Fixtures Day and Club World Cup among ‘football’ stuff we don’t give a f*** about