This Summer - Who Leaves and Where do we need to improve?

To be brutally honest,as a season ticket holder for the last 46 years,I have seen many regenerations of our club.This time we face an un-precedented "cliff" to climb.Our previous owners,have set us back a generation of potential EPL success.the current owners,so far are not willing to throw money,to buy instant ECL qualification,so our Manager has a problem before we start the season.Top 4 is a minimum requirement,so time to sell off the deadwood,and at least back the Manager for one transfer window.

We aren't that far off, certainly not as far off as an 8th place finish would suggest!! We completely missed a striker who could put the ball in the back of the net last season, that's what we need this season, more than anything else, that should be the priority!

If we're going to try and utilise Andy Carroll's strengths and main attributes we also really need an out and out winger!! I'll never understand how Dirk Kuyt spent so many years on the right hand side of midfield!! I'm not saying we should sell Stewart Downing but the boy clearly didn't cut it last year and I got the feeling Kenny was never a fan of Maxi, so the lad had very little competition for places!!

Adam Johnson would be my choice, I get the feeling he isn't going to be first choice at Man City and we should be jumping at the opportunity to sign the lad!!

I'd assume that's in a 433 or 4231, in a 442 Sigurdsson would be wasted out wide. But that would be a very good starting 11

I think you're right, we wouldn't get the most out of him out wide, I would see him more in a 433

7 weeks to go until the start of next season. I'm not sure about everyone else but I'm getting antsy as hell. We really need to push this year its becoming a trend of not making top 4 and that's simply not good enough for a club of our stature.

So far we have signed 0, with Sigurdsson looking about 80% complete - This makes me ask the question, how many signings are we expecting to have this summer?

Looking at our squad of 33 I would list the players we have as deserves a starting birth / cover...

Goal: Reina,                   
Goal cover: Gulacsi, Jones (presuming Doni's leaving, but I was impressed with Jones last season and heard raving things about the young Hungarian)

Defense: Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Enrique,                 
Defense cover: Carra, Kelly, Flanagan, Coates, Robinson, Wisdom, Coady (Realistically the cover isnt good enough at the moment and even though full of promising talent there's not a player that can "slot straight in other than Kelly (who took a step back last year and cant play on the left) and Carra". In my op another LB needed)

Midfield: Gerrard, Lucas, Sterling, Bellamy, Suso, Henderson
Dubious midfielders we have: Adam, Shelvey, Spearing, Downing, Aqualani, Cole, Maxi, Pacheco, Eccelston . (Out of this lot i'm completely puzzled, if i'm being honest and compare our midfield to the best in the prems we have no real game changers here. I would probably keep Shelvey as shown some promise, but for one reason or another, i just cant see any of the others developing into a player to really hold down and cement his position in the squad. I would scrap the lot of them, but i know thats not possible, i would keep 3-4 out of 9 and either promote the youth squad to cover the reserves or look for investment. Possibly another 3 midfielders/wingers needed to make a top class midfield with some depth.

Forwards: Suarez, Carroll.
Cover: None - this is obviously worrying and either 1 gets injured and were forced into a 4-5-1 formation unless Bellers goes up top, where hes not as effective. 2 forwards needed

With that assessment we would need 6 signings (4 top, 2 developing; Top LB, CM, RW, CF Developing CF, DM) to become a team with some real depth and make a proper go of it. Realistically i can see us getting around 4 of those with Sig being one, which will be the rest? Where would that leave us next season?

7 weeks to go until the start of next season. I'm not sure about everyone else but I'm getting antsy as hell. We really need to push this year its becoming a trend of not making top 4 and that's simply not good enough for a club of our stature.

So far we have signed 0, with Sigurdsson looking about 80% complete - This makes me ask the question, how many signings are we expecting to have this summer?

Looking at our squad of 33 I would list the players we have as deserves a starting birth / cover...

Goal: Reina,                   
Goal cover: Gulacsi, Jones (presuming Doni's leaving, but I was impressed with Jones last season and heard raving things about the young Hungarian)

Defense: Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Enrique,                 
Defense cover: Carra, Kelly, Flanagan, Coates, Robinson, Wisdom, Coady (Realistically the cover isnt good enough at the moment and even though full of promising talent there's not a player that can "slot straight in other than Kelly (who took a step back last year and cant play on the left) and Carra". In my op another LB needed)

Midfield: Gerrard, Lucas, Sterling, Bellamy, Suso, Henderson
Dubious midfielders we have: Adam, Shelvey, Spearing, Downing, Aqualani, Cole, Maxi, Pacheco, Eccelston . (Out of this lot i'm completely puzzled, if i'm being honest and compare our midfield to the best in the prems we have no real game changers here. I would probably keep Shelvey as shown some promise, but for one reason or another, i just cant see any of the others developing into a player to really hold down and cement his position in the squad. I would scrap the lot of them, but i know thats not possible, i would keep 3-4 out of 9 and either promote the youth squad to cover the reserves or look for investment. Possibly another 3 midfielders/wingers needed to make a top class midfield with some depth.

Forwards: Suarez, Carroll.
Cover: None - this is obviously worrying and either 1 gets injured and were forced into a 4-5-1 formation unless Bellers goes up top, where hes not as effective. 2 forwards needed

With that assessment we would need 6 signings (4 top, 2 developing; Top LB, CM, RW, CF Developing CF, DM) to become a team with some real depth and make a proper go of it. Realistically i can see us getting around 4 of those with Sig being one, which will be the rest? Where would that leave us next season?

Very Good Analysis.

I am truly amazed with our transfer activity so far. We are strongly linked only to Siggurdson and its taking forever to complete that deal.

I am truly amazed with our transfer activity so far. We are strongly linked only to Siggurdson and its taking forever to complete that deal.

are you really? see i'm not worried one bit. it's not even july and as long as i've been following we don't really wrap them up early... i remember that sylvian marveaux thing went for ages he seemed to be our first buy then newcastle offered him more years, well who really cared how that turned out, he couldn't get on the park. not having a go just wondering should we be worrying yet? we know we do our business behind closed doors too, so for all we know we could have three players all ready to pose holding our shirt together in a photo..

The closer we get to the pre season the more exciting it is, doubt that Adam will be leaving though, but it is interesting to see who will come in during the next 8 weeks

I dont think adam is leaving as we already lost out on sigurdsson

I dont think adam is leaving as we already lost out on sigurdsson

Says who? I haven't seen Sigurdsson say where he's going!

Not sure this is the right topic so if needs to be moved, please do.

I watched that Lionel Messi All star match last night where Luis scored a brilliant hat trick  and in that match there was a sub that came on called Nene.

Think the commentator said he plays for PSG. Thought the lad was cracking and I know it was a relaxed game but he sure had all the skills needed to be playing in our squad, scored a cracking goal. Would love him at Anfield but I don't watch any other teams other than LFC so was wondering if anyone knows this lad and is he really any good? Would he be available? and if so what would be looking at him price wise?

Not sure this is the right topic so if needs to be moved, please do.

I watched that Lionel Messi All star match last night where Luis scored a brilliant hat trick  and in that match there was a sub that came on called Nene.

Think the commentator said he plays for PSG. Thought the lad was cracking and I know it was a relaxed game but he sure had all the skills needed to be playing in our squad, scored a cracking goal. Would love him at Anfield but I don't watch any other teams other than LFC so was wondering if anyone knows this lad and is he really any good? Would he be available? and if so what would be looking at him price wise?

http://www.transfermarkt.de/en/nen/profil/spieler_29091.html

Nice website for looking things up. Seems he's valued at about €14m, bit steep considering his age and he's about to enter the last year of his contract.

Thanks Rodders, will check out the site when it's not so friggin busy at work! 

I want Adam to stay, I like him, he has stepped up so often that I truly think he deserves another season at least. I didn't want im here but he convinced me with his passes, but his tackles and corners/free kicks were just atrocious; but 11 assists and 2 goals is good for a team which has scored about 50goals in one season. We still need a creative CM(AM) and a DM though. Spearing is not good enough and will never be IMO and Lucas needs over. Aquilani would be good at the creative CM task or Sigudson. we need 2wingers at least, maybe one of which can play as striker-someone like Loic Remy or Sturridge. as for defense, it depends on Wilson, I think he might get a chance under Rodgers who seems to like introducing young players.

My choice for this transfer season would be:
Get Pacheco, Aquilani and Cole back and see if they do well in pre-season, f not sell them at the start of the season.
sign Sigudson and a DM. sell Spearing
Rodriguez and Vargas would be great to me.

                         Carroll/Suarez
         Rodriguez                        Maxi/Suarez
           Aquilani/Sigudson    Gerrard
                             Lucas

Enrique    Agger              Skrtel               Johnson

                         Reina

I think Rodgers can do  great things here, it's like the change of administration that occurred at my college:
we all wanted a teacher of our college to become director, but another woman from a smaller but good college arrived.
we were all upset at first but she has done miracles because she has brought in new ideas, discipline and a new vision to our college but she kept the strong tradition of the colle(she is much aware of it). We all wanted Rafa but Rodgers will bring new ideas to our club and I think he might do wonders.

GK - Fine...for now

Reina
Doni/Jones - 1 is expendable
Gulacsi - Keep hearing he's got a chance of making it

RB - May need better back up, if Kelly is moved to CB, no rush though.

Johnson
Kelly
Flanaghan

LB - Think we need an experienced player as cover or maybe maybe someone who will push Enrique.  That could be Robinson, but I'd still risk a small outlay on cover for this season.

?
Enrique
Robinson

CB - Be honest and say I hope the 3 below Carragher get more game time combined than he does this season, but think we've enough cover.

Agger
Skrtel
Coates
Carragher
Kelly
Wilson
Wisdom

CM - Think we need one more, preferably someone who would be considered a starter.  Spearing is useful, more as a Academy Home Grown, for Europa quotas, than a bench warmer and I hope we see less of him on the pitch this season.  Wouldn't be sad to see Adam go though, to accommodate a better player.

Gerrard
Lucas
Adam
Aquilani
Henderson
Spearing
Shelvey
Suso
Wide Players  - We need to strengthen here or change the way we play.  I think we need two quality signings here and I hope to see Sterling get more time than Cole.

Downing
Cole
Sterling
Bellamy

FW - I know we have players in other sections who can play here, but we're crying out for 1 new signing at least here.

Suarez
Carroll
Ngoo
Morgan

A lot will depend on the formation of choice that Rodgers implements though, but two wide men, a striker and possibly cover at LB on the cheap is the minimum we need to focus on, imo.

we need a  striker for sure   even BR knows that it is a must......and to strengthen our team we   need a player like Tiote in the centre of our midfield
and a CB 

As an outsider looking in I feel you need to strengthen the following areas:

Decent centre back cover
Right and left back cover

A top quality Defensive midfielder somebody in the fold of De Jong to allow Gerrards to go forward
A real Left winger anybody other than Downing would do
As above but on the right wing

And a 25 goal a season forward can't see Suarez been that man

As an outsider looking in I feel you need to strengthen the following areas:

Decent centre back cover
Right and left back cover

A top quality Defensive midfielder somebody in the fold of De Jong to allow Gerrards to go forward
A real Left winger anybody other than Downing would do
As above but on the right wing

And a 25 goal a season forward can't see Suarez been that man

I think we're okay at CB, alot of promising younger players who could step up, RB is covered, could do with some competition for Enrique at LB if it's too early for Robinson. We need back up for Lucas as we already have a top quality defensive mid in him, we need someone who is slightly better than Spearing although i actually don't mind him. We need wingers which is pretty obvious, and we need competition up top, wouldn't bet against Suarez putting away 25 next season tbh, he's in form atm.

Forgot all about Lucas to be honest mate.

How's wisdom doing? For him from Bradford do financially his succes at Liverpool is pretty important for us

Haven't seen alot of Wisdom recently myself, but seems he's doing well for us and England.
Seems we'll bring in Borini and possibly Dempsey as strikers to replace Carroll, then look at some AMs/ wingers.