Pre-Season Matches: Summer 2023

I can only think of last season where you could argue we went into a campaign with a squad that could be viewed as weak.

You literally can only name a squad of 25 players and for the most part we've had a squad each and every season capable of challenging for honours which we have done.

Our squad is not top 4 material this season

For our standards that is weak

Our defence is europa level as is our midfield

Our keeper and  attack is c/l level

We have not addressed our weaknesses from last season

Good old Lallana is your guy

In his defence he did say 50-60m

I had to go take a break for 2 days after reading his reply with that in it

He’s also back tracked on the big 200m summer we will have with klopp will be happy with the squad in the end when he realised the investment won’t happen

Fair enough.

Did Lallana say we'd spend £200M? Not sure about that either

Fair enough.

Did Lallana say we'd spend £200M? Not sure about that either

This is what I said


“So Klopp is only keeping them because he can’t bring anyone else in ?!

Stop talking nonsense

Maybe it’s because they are young lads , maybe it’s because they haven’t been bought for £50/60mil

But there is no doubt that Klopp rates them highly”

Fair enough.

Did Lallana say we'd spend £200M? Not sure about that either

Yes he did, I can’t find his other properly as he has edited it when looking through his
History as he said it a couple of times and I am struggling to find any now

Last year near the end  he was talking about how he thinks klopp will be backed and spend 200m or so

When he realised it was not the case, he switched it up to klopp will be happy with the squad

I obviously cannot find it and I expect him to not be truthful again but his agenda is clear

Just seen goals some poor defending and keeping . Just hope we find some more backup or that we get very lucky with injuries

Yes he did, I can’t find his other properly as he has edited it when looking through his
History

Last year near the end  he was talking about how he thinks klopp will be backed and spend 200m or so

When he realised it was not the case, he switched it up to klopp will be happy with the squad

I obviously cannot find it and I expect him to not be truthful again but his agenda is clear

So far they have spent just under £100mil , there will be more arrivals that could potentially take it up to £200mil 🤷‍♂️

Yes he did, I can’t find his other properly as he has edited it when looking through his
History as he said it a couple of times and I am struggling to find any now

Last year near the end  he was talking about how he thinks klopp will be backed and spend 200m or so

When he realised it was not the case, he switched it up to klopp will be happy with the squad

I obviously cannot find it and I expect him to not be truthful again but his agenda is clear

I've seen most his posts on here and never once seen him say Jones is a £60M player as he tends not to talk in money terms like that.

So far they have spent just under £100mil , there will be more arrivals that could potentially take it up to £200mil 🤷‍♂️

You know very well when you made your comments, you did not talk about sales using to find the buys

0 chance if that as you knew our cm was on the verge of being worth little to nothing bad youngsters until Saudi came

You thought we would spend 200m bet pretty much but back tracked when you realised it’s not happening

Anyway this isn’t about fsg

Such a demoralising summer in terms of the club

The lack of reinforcements in defence will hurt us a lot this season and dm/cm

You know very well when you made your comments, you did not talk about sales using to find the buys

0 chance if that as you knew our cm was on the verge of being worth little to nothing bad youngsters until Saudi came

You thought we would spend 200m bet pretty much but back tracked when you realised it’s not happening

Anyway this isn’t about fsg

Such a demoralising summer in terms of the club

The lack of reinforcements in defence will hurt us a lot this season and dm

In his defense, and he's a big boy and can look after himself so I'm sure he'll clarify as well, Lallana always talks about the spend on players without taking into account what we get back in sales.

He's been consistent on that.

You know very well when you made your comments, you did not talk about sales using to find the buys

0 chance if that as you knew our cm was on the verge of being worth little to nothing bad youngsters until Saudi came

You thought we would spend 200m bet pretty much but back tracked when you realised it’s not happening

Anyway this isn’t about fsg

Such a demoralising summer in terms of the club

The lack of reinforcements in defence will hurt us a lot this season and dm/cm

The club is self sufficient- sales are always included within the income 🤷‍♂️

Net spend is something used by people like you to point fingers at the owners

I take no interest in net spend - I only take interest in the player that arrives - whether that player is a free transfer or costs £60mil - it’s always will be about the players ability

I’ll take a MacAllister over a Mason Mount. The fees are irrelevant- their ability is

Good old Lallana is your guy

In his defence he did say 50-60m

I had to go take a break for 2 days after reading his reply with that in it

He’s also back tracked on the big 200m summer we will have with klopp will be happy with the squad in the end when he realised the investment won’t happen

shock horror the link between transfer and money who would have thought that FFS.  It was £200 mil war chest but Jürgen had to sell
£180 mil first

The club is self sufficient- sales are always included within the income 🤷‍♂️

Net spend is something used by people like you to point fingers at the owners

I take no interest in net spend - I only take interest in the player that arrives - whether that player is a free transfer or costs £60mil - it’s always will be about the players ability

I’ll take a MacAllister over a Mason Mount. The fees are irrelevant- their ability is

I've never understood the argument against net spend. That's how you measure investment properly. Without it, owners, in any business, could sell off all the valuable assets, rake in a load of money, then spend 10% of it and go "look, we're investing!", when actually they are asset stripping.

FSG are not asset stripping, but net spend measures this. Your measure doesn't, and is effectively meaningless.

(Deep down you know this, which is why you simultaneously make a different argument - that you only look at the quality of the players and ignore the money altogether - "fees are irrelevant" etc)

(Deep down you know this, which is why you simultaneously make a different argument - that you only look at the quality of the players and ignore the money altogether - "fees are irrelevant" etc)

Actually the quality of the player is more important than any net spend figure. Surely that is basic common sense?

Net Spend does not automatically translate to success on the football pitch.

Actually the quality of the player is more important than any net spend figure. Surely that is basic common sense?

Net Spend does not automatically translate to success on the football pitch.

Evidence would suggest otherwise, why do the most successful teams always top the net spend list?

Surely no club would spend money if they thought they can get success another way 🤷‍♂️


Edit : That’s not exclusive to just the EPL either.

We need a cb that competes for the first team with pace for our new system and a new rb to go into the 11 possibly and people make excuses in defending not getting it with naming youngsters

Ffs 🤦🏾

We literally haven’t addressed our 3 main weaknesses fully from last season and have come into the season looking like this

Evidence would suggest otherwise, why do the most successful teams always top the net spend list?

Do they always though?

A number of clubs have a higher net spend than us over the last 5 years and either very little or nothing to show for it.

And I said it didn't automatically translate to success.

Actually the quality of the player is more important than any net spend figure. Surely that is basic common sense?

Net Spend does not automatically translate to success on the football pitch.

I know. I didn't claim it does.
I was saying that net spend is more meaningful than gross spend, not that it was more meaningful than the quality of the players.

I was even pointing out that the latter is a different argument (and saying why I thought Lallana suddenly switched to it mid-post).

Only seen the goals. As I've repeatedly said the failures of last season just have not been addressed.

This team needs a right back and a quality centre back and quality 6.

Once again it seems this club has to go through severe pain before it does what needs to be done.

Don't give me this friendly bs ... we're pathetic at the back and it's carrying on from last season.

Problem is who wants to sell quality players 9 days before the season starts. They've had ages to sort this out but we're just walking head on into another poor season because we've got no solid foundations. The usual suspects out making the same old excuses. They were making the same excuses this time last year and it's happening again.

Another failure of a summer window.

I can’t argue with that - we are deffo going into the season ill equipped again

Evidence would suggest otherwise, why do the most successful teams always top the net spend list?

Surely no club would spend money if they thought they can get success another way 🤷‍♂️


Edit : That’s not exclusive to just the EPL either.

https://www.football365.com/news/transfers-premier-league-five-year-net-spend-man-utd-man-city

So

Arsenal
Man Utd
Spurs
Chelsea
Newcastle
Villa


All above both ourselves and Man City over the last 5 years

Which teams are more successful

As a rule I don't set much store by friendlies, however given we fielded a strong team against a capable opponent and are only a couple of weeks before the season opener away to Chelsea, shipping 4 goals in a manner consistent with some of our worst defending last season does slightly unnerve me. I think that context is important.

If we are prepared to praise our attacking play in these types of fixtures we have to have to accept the corollary as it relates to our defending. Hopefully it gives the club some gentle encouragement to get this Lavia deal over the line and perhaps to rethink whether we need a defender.

I can’t argue with that - we are deffo going into the season ill equipped again

I can see you're already half way behind the sofa mate 

I can see you're already half way behind the sofa mate 

Chelsea away for the first game of the season?! Ha ha nightmare!

Say it slowly


It’s a pre season game - the result doesn’t matter , mistakes don’t matter - it’s going to happen

When we used the formation and tactics last season where we were unbeaten Konate was in the back line covering not Matip

There is still plenty of time for Klopp to work on it - to find the balance because “it’s pre season”

I know you overreact all through the season but didn’t expect the toys to be thrown during pre season as well

Sorry John, I had to pull you up on this


"Plenty of time??? Wtf mate?? It's the same sh*t problems we had all last season and it doesn't look like changing anytime soon.

Surely all of last season and this pre season, there was plenty of time to have this issue addressed. It doesn't look like it all to me.