***Official*** English Football Season 2017/18

[Johnners]

All the Fekir rumours, what position has he been playing in France?

 

[sledger]

One suspects if he comes he will be more or less a like-for-like replacement for Coutinho.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

People having a cry about Sterling getting a tattoo of a gun on his leg.

Totally bizarre, young bloke getting crap tattoo shock.

 

[sledger]

Totally bizarre, young bloke getting crap tattoo shock.

I can understand people saying it is unwise etc. Prima Facie it looks like some sort of endorsement for guns I guess. But all of the moral panic about how he should be banned from playing for England etc. is really dumb. It's his body ffs.

 

[Uppercut]

Fabinho and Keita are serious signings for Liverpool tbf.

Their recruitment is so so good. Fabinho isn't as spectacular a coup as Keita, but it's a really solid signing. Right age, decent price, area of squad they needed strengthened.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

I can understand people saying it is unwise etc. Prima Facie it looks like some sort of endorsement for guns I guess. But all of the moral panic about how he should be banned from playing for England etc. is really dumb. It's his body ffs.

Exactly, personally I think it looks bloody ridiculous but 99% of tattoos do anyway so not going to get wound up about this one. His body, he can do what he likes.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Their recruitment is so so good. Fabinho isn't as spectacular a coup as Keita, but it's a really solid signing. Right age, decent price, area of squad they needed strengthened.

Still need a goalkeeper and a centre half though. Spent a fortune in areas that aren't as weak as those.

 

[Uppercut]

Still need a goalkeeper and a centre half though. Spent a fortune in areas that aren't as weak as those.

Yeah I assume they'll get a GK. Alisson looks likely, though he was pretty crap against Liverpool which often puts teams off.

They've been linked with Lascelles and Tarkowski but I'm not sure how well sourced those stories were. They might need to clear another CB out before getting one in.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Yeah I assume they'll get a GK. Alisson looks likely, though he was pretty crap against Liverpool which often puts teams off.

They've been linked with Lascelles and Tarkowski but I'm not sure how well sourced those stories were. They might need to clear another CB out before getting one in.

Guess Butland may be an option as keeper. Can't see him staying at Stoke and unless De Gea goes there are only really Liverpool or Arsenal who could possibly afford him and need a new keeper.

 

[Uppercut]

Guess Butland may be an option as keeper. Can't see him staying at Stoke and unless De Gea goes there are only really Liverpool or Arsenal who could possibly afford him and need a new keeper.

I don't think Butland's good enough or the right type of keeper for a top six club. Hard to say who their second choice would be, possibly someone like Burki, but even then there's a big drop off from Alisson. With Keita and Van Dijk they waited a window or two to get the guy they really wanted and I think they'd do that again.

 

[sledger]

Butland not good enough at actual football to play for a top team. Solid enough keeper I think, without being spectacular.

 

[Cabinet96]

Remember when people used to kill Liverpool for using analytics in their recruitment lol.

 

[Uppercut]

Remember when people used to kill Liverpool for using analytics in their recruitment lol.

TBF it was pretty justified under Comolli.

Thing is, the clubs that clearly don't use analytics aren't even anywhere near the level they could be at without it. Simply aiming to sign fast 23 year olds instead of slow 30 year olds would improve Everton or United's recruitment by several orders of magnitude. The problems run pretty deep.

 

[andruid]

Exactly, personally I think it looks bloody ridiculous but 99% of tattoos do anyway so not going to get wound up about this one. His body, he can do what he likes.

You Englishers love having a go at Raheem Sterling, don't you? Whose sausages has he eaten? This smells like lazy, maybe even covertly racist, stereotyping on the part of some, sad sad person

 

[cpr]

No we don't, its just The Sun "journalists" who love to have a go at him, everyone else pretty much calls it for what it is - pathetic attempts to demonise someone purely because he's young, rich and black.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

You Englishers love having a go at Raheem Sterling, don't you? Whose sausages has he eaten? This smells like lazy, maybe even covertly racist, stereotyping on the part of some, sad sad person

Is that comment aimed at me?

Don't care about it at all and think it been blown out of all proportion. The same people who are wound up spend all the time telling us we shouldn't look at footballers as role models and are now up in arms because he is a role model setting a bad example.

 

[wpdavid]

Butland not good enough at actual football to play for a top team. Solid enough keeper I think, without being spectacular.

Liverpool would have settled for 'solid enough' on Saturday.

And it's not as if it was a one-off. People forget that Karius made exactly the same mistake in the first leg against Roma as he did for the 3rd goal in the final. Except that against Roma he got lucky and the ball hit the cross bar. As the score was 0-0 at the time, I think we can say it was significant. Someone who doesn't keep doing that in major matches would be an upgrade.

 

[Uppercut]

Liverpool would have settled for 'solid enough' on Saturday.

And it's not as if it was a one-off. People forget that Karius made exactly the same mistake in the first leg against Roma as he did for the 3rd goal in the final. Except that against Roma he got lucky and the ball hit the cross bar. As the score was 0-0 at the time, I think we can say it was significant. Someone who doesn't keep doing that in major matches would be an upgrade.

Clubs get into trouble when they sign too many average players to plug gaps though. Their level doesn't have far to fall before they become a liability, which is already what happened with Mignolet.

Plus they'd end up paying a big fee and wages anyway, because "we think you're mediocre but we're settling" doesn't really fly.

 

[sledger]

Zidane very wisely choosing to get out of dodge here imo. Only way to go here is down.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Zidane very wisely choosing to get out of dodge here imo. Only way to go here is down.

Yeah, age of squad and showed in league they can't compete with Barcelona at present.