Thiago Alcantara (Bayern Munich)

I think some are embarrassed that we are keeping our best players for what reason only they know. The best players have to be paid competitively whether that is legends like Gerrard and Carra or mercenaries like Owen and Torres.  It must be embarrassing that top top quality players aren't treating the club as a stepping stone.

The difference at the club in how we nogotiate compared to when FSG first came in is startling.

I think someone else mentioned the prices we got for players Klopp didn't fancy, and it really was excellent business.
Add in that we paid relatively small amounts for very good players, and then went all out for VVD and Alisson.

Our transfer dealings now, compared to the last 25 ish years before Klopp came in are brilliant.

At this point, I'm not even sure what he would add that we don't already have, apart from more work for the medical team.

For someone who can see precisely how we play in greater detail than others and makes the point of saying can’t understand how people haven’t realised how we play yet, I’d have thought that for something simple, you’d have realised that Thiago’s last significant injury was 6 years ago and how he’s played 200 games in the last 5 seasons.

Again the fact you don’t know what he’d bring suggests to me that you know very little about the player, which I kind of guessed already seeing as you believe the rest about his apparent struggle with injuries (see previous point). None of our midfield options can pass and create something out of nothing like Thiago can, his ball retention is superior to that of any of our current midfielders and he can really dictate the game which is again something that doesn’t happen much with our current options.

Mount was saying the other day how he couldn’t get anywhere near Thiago when they faced each other, you don’t really hear anyone saying that about our midfielders. As good as our midfielders are I would put them in the category of defensive workhorses more than anything attacking (certainly Fab, Hendo and Gini). Keita and Ox are obviously a lot more attacking than the other 3 but they are injury prone and suffer with injuries a lot more than Thiago, and Ox is also massively inconsistent.

Thiago would bring a whole new dimension to our midfield and offer us something we don’t currently have. Far too often a game will pass our midfield by and we become far too reliant on the full backs because the creativity isn’t there from the midfield.

Don’t get me wrong, I think our midfield is bloody good, but too often it lacks in breaking down a team that’s sat behind the ball.

For someone who can see precisely how we play in greater detail than others and makes the point of saying can’t understand how people haven’t realised how we play yet, I’d have thought that for something simple, you’d have realised that Thiago’s last significant injury was 6 years ago and how he’s played 200 games in the last 5 seasons.

Again the fact you don’t know what he’d bring suggests to me that you know very little about the player, which I kind of guessed already seeing as you believe the rest about his apparent struggle with injuries (see previous point). None of our midfield options can pass and create something out of nothing like Thiago can, his ball retention is superior to that of any of our current midfielders and he can really dictate the game which is again something that doesn’t happen much with our current options.

Mount was saying the other day how he couldn’t get anywhere near Thiago when they faced each other, you don’t really hear anyone saying that about our midfielders. As good as our midfielders are I would put them in the category of defensive workhorses more than anything attacking (certainly Fab, Hendo and Gini). Keita and Ox are obviously a lot more attacking than the other 3 but they are injury prone and suffer with injuries a lot more than Thiago, and Ox is also massively inconsistent.

Thiago would bring a whole new dimension to our midfield and offer us something we don’t currently have. Far too often a game will pass our midfield by and we become far too reliant on the full backs because the creativity isn’t there from the midfield.

Don’t get me wrong, I think our midfield is bloody good, but too often it lacks in breaking down a team that’s sat behind the ball.

Spot on

When you have a team as good as ours, it takes a special player to be able to improve the starting 11. Thiago would improve the starting 11, I don't think that's even debatable. The fact that he's available at a seemingly cut rate price makes it a no brainer really unless we don't have the money for it (which is what it's looking like). That's a whole other discussion but it's kind of sad that after all of our success we can't take a calculated risk on a world class player.

Whether we have good midfielders already or not doesn't change the fact that if you can bring in superior players you do it....that's called strengthening from a position of strength. Who cares if we already have Ox and Keita and Henderson doing a good job....if Thiago would do a better job than any of those three, why would someone be against bringing him in? Creates competition and it shows the team that you don't just rest on your laurels.

When you have a team as good as ours, it takes a special player to be able to improve the starting 11. Thiago would improve the starting 11, I don't think that's even debatable. The fact that he's available at a seemingly cut rate price makes it a no brainer really unless we don't have the money for it (which is what it's looking like). That's a whole other discussion but it's kind of sad that after all of our success we can't take a calculated risk on a world class player.

Whether we have good midfielders already or not doesn't change the fact that if you can bring in superior players you do it....that's called strengthening from a position of strength. Who cares if we already have Ox and Keita and Henderson doing a good job....if Thiago would do a better job than any of those three, why would someone be against bringing him in? Creates competition and it shows the team that you don't just rest on your laurels.

Facts

When you have a team as good as ours, it takes a special player to be able to improve the starting 11. Thiago would improve the starting 11, I don't think that's even debatable. The fact that he's available at a seemingly cut rate price makes it a no brainer really unless we don't have the money for it (which is what it's looking like). That's a whole other discussion but it's kind of sad that after all of our success we can't take a calculated risk on a world class player.

Whether we have good midfielders already or not doesn't change the fact that if you can bring in superior players you do it....that's called strengthening from a position of strength. Who cares if we already have Ox and Keita and Henderson doing a good job....if Thiago would do a better job than any of those three, why would someone be against bringing him in? Creates competition and it shows the team that you don't just rest on your laurels.

I don't think we rested on our laurels last season nor will we this season.  I just think we are more pragmatic in our solutions.  We signed a goal keeper that was no Clemence but played a massive part in us winning the league title.  The first 8 games he was brilliant and played his part.   We signed Harvey that looks very good for the future and Minamino is showing promise.

A few weeks ago  hardly nothing about Alacantra.  Looks like a very good prospect for the first team, but nothing is undebatable when it comes to transfers.  We have all seen the worldy's in the years gone by not deliver.   That said I have been convinced by posters on here that he is a very good player and worth going for. 

Barca are in trouble Why don't they put in a bid for Gini?  He's might be available to them for peanuts.  Instead of window shopping with Mane?  It is all part of negotiations?   

For someone who can see precisely how we play in greater detail than others and makes the point of saying can’t understand how people haven’t realised how we play yet, I’d have thought that for something simple, you’d have realised that Thiago’s last significant injury was 6 years ago and how he’s played 200 games in the last 5 seasons.

Again the fact you don’t know what he’d bring suggests to me that you know very little about the player, which I kind of guessed already seeing as you believe the rest about his apparent struggle with injuries (see previous point). None of our midfield options can pass and create something out of nothing like Thiago can, his ball retention is superior to that of any of our current midfielders and he can really dictate the game which is again something that doesn’t happen much with our current options.

Mount was saying the other day how he couldn’t get anywhere near Thiago when they faced each other, you don’t really hear anyone saying that about our midfielders. As good as our midfielders are I would put them in the category of defensive workhorses more than anything attacking (certainly Fab, Hendo and Gini). Keita and Ox are obviously a lot more attacking than the other 3 but they are injury prone and suffer with injuries a lot more than Thiago, and Ox is also massively inconsistent.

Thiago would bring a whole new dimension to our midfield and offer us something we don’t currently have. Far too often a game will pass our midfield by and we become far too reliant on the full backs because the creativity isn’t there from the midfield.

Don’t get me wrong, I think our midfield is bloody good, but too often it lacks in breaking down a team that’s sat behind the ball.

I didn't say I could see it in greater detail, I said I am surprised, and still am by this post, that people don't understand our full backs are our creative outlet.

It's not that we are reliant on the Fb's by accident, or because our midfield lacks creativity, it's Klopp's system.
He's been very clear about that on a number of occasions.
It's why TAA was fast tracked, and why we bought Robertson.
The whole point is to create overloads in wide areas to draw out opposition and leave space in the middle.
If they don't come out or stay disciplined, we get crosses in the box.

I know what Thiago brings, and again, I'll make the point that in a side that played an open game, he'd be great.
We don't play an open game, we compress it.
We have 8 players in their defensive third for long periods of matches.
We drop deep (not go backwards) to reset, draw the opposition out, then attack again.
The midfielders, in that instance are backups, defenders, recyclers


Again, these overload zones are nothing new, these are well known principles, and yet even knowing this, very few teams can stop us, even on bad days, so that's the "we've been sussed out" argument debunked, yet again.



Injuries;


So yes, he gets a fair few injuries in a fairly tough league most noticeably, the same type of injuries that started to hamper Gerrard at around the same age.
They catch up with players in a fast league, and that's a concern.

I like him, he's a player, no doubt, but I'm not going to go by anything a kid says about him, when that same kid couldn't get any change out of our midfield.
Then there's his assist record, which isn't great for a player supposedly so much better than any of ours, and nor is his goal record.

This damning with faint praise I notice is somethign regularly seen here.
I see it so often that "Gini is having a nightmare" when he's not. He's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing.

If Gini leaves, all well and good, if he stays, I don't see the need.

Why are people so quick to forget that we just got 99 points, and had 97 the season before?
It's a team that is superbly balanced, attacks very well with 85 league goals last season @ 2.24 per game, and 89 the season before @2.35 per game.

What is broken that people think needs fixing so badly?

Our midfield is not an issue, and they are more than just "bloody good", they are one of the best units in world football.

There are other areas of far greater importance if we're going to spend, and Thiago is a luxury when we need greater cover at CB.
That is surely the number one priority, not making doe eyes at a fella we don't really need unless we're losing someone, namely Wijnaldum

So, what do they have to show for it? They have a relegation and a future in the Championship whilst we’ve won the CL, been runners up in the CL and won the Premier League.

Exactly that's the shocking part, that with a net spend lower than Stoke we have achieved what we have, imagine what we could have done with a net spend similar to Leicester or Everton! 😉

I didn't say I could see it in greater detail, I said I am surprised, and still am by this post, that people don't understand our full backs are our creative outlet.

It's not that we are reliant on the Fb's by accident, or because our midfield lacks creativity, it's Klopp's system.
He's been very clear about that on a number of occasions.
It's why TAA was fast tracked, and why we bought Robertson.
The whole point is to create overloads in wide areas to draw out opposition and leave space in the middle.
If they don't come out or stay disciplined, we get crosses in the box.

I know what Thiago brings, and again, I'll make the point that in a side that played an open game, he'd be great.
We don't play an open game, we compress it.
We have 8 players in their defensive third for long periods of matches.
We drop deep (not go backwards) to reset, draw the opposition out, then attack again.
The midfielders, in that instance are backups, defenders, recyclers


Again, these overload zones are nothing new, these are well known principles, and yet even knowing this, very few teams can stop us, even on bad days, so that's the "we've been sussed out" argument debunked, yet again.



Injuries;


So yes, he gets a fair few injuries in a fairly tough league most noticeably, the same type of injuries that started to hamper Gerrard at around the same age.
They catch up with players in a fast league, and that's a concern.

I like him, he's a player, no doubt, but I'm not going to go by anything a kid says about him, when that same kid couldn't get any change out of our midfield.
Then there's his assist record, which isn't great for a player supposedly so much better than any of ours, and nor is his goal record.

This damning with faint praise I notice is somethign regularly seen here.
I see it so often that "Gini is having a nightmare" when he's not. He's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing.

If Gini leaves, all well and good, if he stays, I don't see the need.

Why are people so quick to forget that we just got 99 points, and had 97 the season before?
It's a team that is superbly balanced, attacks very well with 85 league goals last season @ 2.24 per game, and 89 the season before @2.35 per game.

What is broken that people think needs fixing so badly?

Our midfield is not an issue, and they are more than just "bloody good", they are one of the best units in world football.

There are other areas of far greater importance if we're going to spend, and Thiago is a luxury when we need greater cover at CB.
That is surely the number one priority, not making doe eyes at a fella we don't really need unless we're losing someone, namely Wijnaldum

You assume we can only play one way, using FB's, the issue is if we do that the teams will work out that the way to best us neutralise the FB's. If however you have some creativity in the midfield then it would be almost impossible to stop our attacks. I'd actually argue that our attacks are better when coming through the middle for example when Keita plays.

If you don't find it shocking that a club of our size has spent less on transfers over 5 years then Stoke, then there is no reason to continue this discussion. Results indicate that it is working, but then again we have a very high wage bill, but I would still like to freshen up the squad a bit, not with mega signings, but with clever ones like Thiago, Sarr and Traore

We have spent more on transfer than Stoke

Spent over £470mil on transfers in the past 5 years

Not sure how players like Traore for over £70mil would be classed as “clever” - getting someone like Robbo was clever or Mane

Exactly that's the shocking part, that with a net spend lower than Stoke we have achieved what we have, imagine what we could have done with a net spend similar to Leicester or Everton! 😉

Probably we would have achieved about Leicester or Everton have, minus the title that Leicester won.

More is not necessarily better. In fact, it more often is not looking at the world of transfers.

Probably we would have achieved about Leicester or Everton have, minus the title that Leicester won.

More is not necessarily better. In fact, it more often is not looking at the world of transfers.

Or we might have won 2 premier league titles last season!

Or we might have won 2 premier league titles last season!

or prem and a cup last season, look at how a deep squad has helped City in the past few seasons.

Why dont we do this deal ?  were a shambles on the transfer front. Ive never known a team who has won what we have and not improved the squad. Were run by minges

It's only been the newspapers/journalists/twitter that have said there even potentially was a deal.

Personally I gave up on listening about transfers years ago, I just wait until there's an official announcement and then look at who we've signed.

All the speculation from hundreds of 'experts' does nothing to help and sky sports having to fill 24 hours with made up news just adds to the frustration, add to that their unhealthy need to focus on how much has been spent in each transfer window and it's all just noise.

Exactly and since edwards and klopp have been doing transfers, weve had loads that the press and pundits never even knew about. .

Why dont we do this deal ?  were a shambles on the transfer front. Ive never known a team who has won what we have and not improved the squad. Were run by minges

Minges who turned us around from a laughing stock when they took over and helped guide us to our 6th Big Ears and 1st League Title in 30 years.  Some f**king minges.... 

EDIT:  To add some context, here is a link to an article that compares the team we had when FSG took over to the team we have now.  Simply put, it's chalk and cheese.  When our current owners bought the club, we had Hodgeson at the helm, Konchesky at LB, Poulsen at CDM, and Joe Cole as our LW.  But don't worry, we had a bench full of quality including the likes of Jovanovic, Spearing, and N'gog...

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/fsgs-shocking-first-liverpool-team-17063208

Supposedly Ole has met Thiago in person to try and convince him to play for Utd. F**k me, I'd sign him just to keep him away from Old Trafford.

Minges who turned us around from a laughing stock when they took over and helped guide us to our 6th Big Ears and 1st League Title in 30 years.  Some f**king minges.... 

lower net spend than Stoke over 5 years, yes they are minges, although they do spend a lot on wages, I'll give them that.

Supposedly Ole has met Thiago in person to try and convince him to play for Utd. F**k me, I'd sign him just to keep him away from Old Trafford.

Where are you seeing that? United already packed at midfield and just signed a new one. Really doubt they care about Thiago at all.

lower net spend than Stoke over 5 years, yes they are minges, although they do spend a lot on wages, I'll give them that.

Such a proper 🛎 end

lower net spend than Stoke over 5 years, yes they are minges, although they do spend a lot on wages, I'll give them that.

That's the spirit.   

or prem and a cup last season, look at how a deep squad has helped City in the past few seasons.

we won 2 cups last season and one of them at the expense of a third one.   I don't fantasize over the City squad,  I am proud of our own squad it is absolutely brilliant and wouldn't swap it for no other.

we won 2 cups last season and one of them at the expense of a third one.   I don't fantasize over the City squad,  I am proud of our own squad it is absolutely brilliant and wouldn't swap it for no other.

Seriously, if people are so enamored with City and their spending, go support them. They have plenty of room for more glory hunters.