If we don't buy anyone else...

[rurikbird]

…are we already a much better team than last season?

We have around £13M left in the transfer kitty, if my calculations are right. Let's say Mkhitaryan costs £23M + £2M in add-ons to be paid later. We can sell Shelvey, Assaidi and Spearing to bring the balance to zero. Let's say at that point our transfer activity stops. Suarez is going nowhere, Skrtel, Reina, Downing and Henderson all stay. Suso and Sterling go out on loan to get regular playing time.

We begin the season with the same defense as last year, except for Toure instead of Carragher. But we have improvement in goal as Mignolet and Reina are competing for the position.
In attack we still have Suarez and Coutinho, but now Aspas is competing with Downing - and there is a completely new kind of attacking threat in Mkhitaryan (who will most likely take Henderson's spot in CM), plus there is a kind of a wild card in Luis Alberto, who will take over Shelvey's role, hopefully with improvement in quality. Hopefully Sturridge and Borini both stay healthy to give us different options at CF.
In midfield Gerrard, Allen and Lucas now compete for the remaining 2 spots, with Henderson ready to slot in if needed.

How much better do you think would this team be compared to last season's?

 

[white-sox]

I was thinking the same last night. Everyone seems to be focussing on the necessity to reinforce the defence immediately but this time last year most people would of been more than happy with the Skrtel and Agger pairing, having just had the best season of their lives (as a pair). I guess the key is if Skrtel has the potential to rediscover his form...

If this is Rodgers preference it makes sense that we are after someone like Illorri - someone for the future but has the talent to provide competition and step up if needed. Maybe Rodgers is waiting to see how Skrtel performs when he returns to training?

I believe the team has substantially improved already and i'm looking forward to pre season!

 

[Whirly]

On paper it's better just from a depth perspective, but at the very least I think we need to sign Ilori to say we took a step forward: the backline has been the biggest concern since winter.

 

[Mystic]

We cant underestimate the difference having Coutinho and Sturridge from the begin will have. I still really hope we sign Papa John, that would be a well iced cake for me.

 

[rurikbird]

If Suarez leaves, we will definitely have funds to sign "Papa John" and Illori and maybe somebody else (Wanyama?). But losing your best player it would be harder to see it as a definite step forward. So if I had to choose between those 2 scenarios, I would probably rather have Suarez stay and leave our defense unchanged than the other way around.

On the other hand, I do wish Rodgers got a lot more money to spend this summer, because finally we seem to be going after the right kinds of players. He is rebuilding the squad with young-ish players, which is a great and noble strategy, but takes a few years to fully come to fruition. The earlier he can make the needed investments, the less time it will take for us to get back to the top. So I don't quite know what to wish for.

 

[keniget]

We probably would be on paper, yeah. I guess much of it would depend on Sturridge, Suarez and Coutinho carrying their form into next season and the likes of Aspas making an impact.

One of my main concerns last season was that the balance of midfield was all wrong. As Sheik said in another thread, teams were just playing through us like our midfield wasn't even there throughout the season.

It looks like we'll be able to rely on the attack to get us goals but as things stand I don't know whether we can rely on the rest of the team to give them a good enough platform to win us games consistently. For me that is the difference between top 4 and top 6.

 

[dmishra]

Pretty much. We need a midfield which can consistently control games, and a defence that is more error free.

That definitely requires personnel changes, else I don't see us doing much better than 6th.

 

[Glen C]

Obviously we'll be stronger in attack. But we would still lack someone other than gerrard who can impose himself in the middle and a very fragile defence. We'll still leak the same goals and have no leader in defence. To me that should be a higher priority than buying all these attacking players.

 

[Woland]

If we start another season with Lucas as first choice it will be yet another failure to qualify for the CL.

 

[Mystic]

If Suarez leaves, we will definitely have funds to sign "Papa John" and Illori and maybe somebody else (Wanyama?). But losing your best player it would be harder to see it as a definite step forward. So if I had to choose between those 2 scenarios, I would probably rather have Suarez stay and leave our defense unchanged than the other way around.

On the other hand, I do wish Rodgers got a lot more money to spend this summer, because finally we seem to be going after the right kinds of players. He is rebuilding the squad with young-ish players, which is a great and noble strategy, but takes a few years to fully come to fruition. The earlier he can make the needed investments, the less time it will take for us to get back to the top. So I don't quite know what to wish for.

I agree, I'd rather keep him.

 

[Buddha]

I reckon we'll buy a shit-hot CB (Papadopoulos etc) and DM making this an excellent window.

The open question is whether Suarez leaves, but even if he does I'm confident we'll go after a promising alternative (Muriel etc).

I'm seriously optimistic about next season (and by that I mean continued progress, not a title challenge).

 

[Modo]

I reckon we'll buy a shit-hot CB (Papadopoulos etc) and DM making this an excellent window.

The open question is whether Suarez leaves, but even if he does I'm confident we'll go after a promising alternative (Muriel etc).

I'm seriously optimistic about next season (and by that I mean continued progress, not a title challenge).

I don't think we're buying another DM, when we've got Lucas and Henderson around.
We're not playing in Europe next season so I'm not sure if we can afford such a big squad.

Brendan said it himself, he wants "a real core of 17 or 18 players who feel they should always be playing".

 

[Buddha]

I don't think we're buying another DM, when we've got Lucas and Henderson around.
We're not playing in Europe next season so I'm not sure if we can afford such a big squad.

Brendan said it himself, he wants "a real core of 17 or 18 players who feel they should always be playing".

I don't think we'll get wanyama etc but wouldn't rule out a Biteco type signing.

 

[Modo]

I don't think we'll get wanyama etc but wouldn't rule out a Biteco type signing.

Yeah, I'm all for that. I don't believe Brendan wants to chop and change too much.
I think our midfield is sorted with the Armenian joining.

 

[Modo]

…are we already a much better team than last season?

We have around £13M left in the transfer kitty, if my calculations are right. Let's say Mkhitaryan costs £23M + £2M in add-ons to be paid later. We can sell Shelvey, Assaidi and Spearing to bring the balance to zero. Let's say at that point our transfer activity stops. Suarez is going nowhere, Skrtel, Reina, Downing and Henderson all stay. Suso and Sterling go out on loan to get regular playing time.

We begin the season with the same defense as last year, except for Toure instead of Carragher. But we have improvement in goal as Mignolet and Reina are competing for the position.
In attack we still have Suarez and Coutinho, but now Aspas is competing with Downing - and there is a completely new kind of attacking threat in Mkhitaryan (who will most likely take Henderson's spot in CM), plus there is a kind of a wild card in Luis Alberto, who will take over Shelvey's role, hopefully with improvement in quality. Hopefully Sturridge and Borini both stay healthy to give us different options at CF.
In midfield Gerrard, Allen and Lucas now compete for the remaining 2 spots, with Henderson ready to slot in if needed.

How much better do you think would this team be compared to last season's?

Personally I think it's too early to tell. We've signed two unknowns (Aspas and Alberto), one who's surrounded by question marks (Touré) and one good keeper.
We've got another unknown who's about to sign (Mkhitaryan) and we still don't know if Reina and Suarez will stay.
We need to improve our defence and the right wing. We also need to add some more creativity in midfield.

It'll be interesting to see who Brendan decides to get rid of. But it's pretty evident that at least two midfielders will leave considering how stocked we are.

 

[Whirly]

Given the holes then, would you swap Suarez for a 15-20M Striker 10M Dmid and 10-15M CB?

Really depends on how well we spend the money I guess.

 

[Modo]

Given the holes then, would you swap Suarez for a 15-20M Striker 10M Dmid and 10-15M CB?

Really depends on how well we spend the money I guess.

If they are better than what we have, of course.

 

[King Binny]

One of my hopes for the transfer window is getting in a Coutinho type player, someone who can unlock stubborn defences. We need to turn more of those 13 draws into victories. The good news is we've brought in a couple of attacking options so far (in Aspas and Alberto) but obviously the doubt remains at present as to whether they are the ones to help us get those additional 2 points from stalemates. That is why I'm looking forward to that 'marquee signing' (i.e. Henrikh Mkhitaryan or whoever's behind that smokescreen).

 

[mark1975]

I guess you can probably account for a couple of players maybe pushing their way in too, the likes of Wisdom and, if he stays fit, maybe Kelly.

 

[Torv V.2]

So far we've been buying well. Seems that Rodgers focuses on players who possess the ability to keep the ball well and make decisions quickly (obvious skills to have but you'd be surprised how there aren't too many players like that around).

We are Liverlona after all.

 

[hamstrung_pigeon]

One of my hopes for the transfer window is getting in a Coutinho type player, someone who can unlock stubborn defences. We need to turn more of those 13 draws into victories. The good news is we've brought in a couple of attacking options so far (in Aspas and Alberto) but obviously the doubt remains at present as to whether they are the ones to help us get those additional 2 points from stalemates. That is why I'm looking forward to that 'marquee signing' (i.e. Henrikh Mkhitaryan or whoever's behind that smokescreen).

Not all the draws were due to our inability to unlock defences; sometimes it was woeful finishing while other times it was woeful defending that cost us leads:

Draws from winning positions (4):
- Twice against City, away against the Gunners, away against Everton

Draws from losing positions (4) - Suarez scored the crucial equalizer in all these games:
- Twice against Chelsea, home against Newcastle, away against Sunderland (we had 23 shots in each of the games against Newcastle and Sunderland but yet ended up with a goal in each game, while they scored their goals in half or a third of our attempts).

Boring 0-0 draws (5):
- Home against Stoke, away against Swansea, home against West Ham, away against Reading, home against Everton

Along with greater creativity, we need better precision in finishing, better defending and an unwavering desire and commitment to settle for no fewer than 3 points every game.

 

[Rafiagra]

Would be great if Kelly could step up to fill one of the CB roles, and remain injury free.

For me, there is a big question mark over Lucas if he cannot regain his form.

 

[King Binny]

Not all the draws were due to our inability to unlock defences; sometimes it was woeful finishing while other times it was woeful defending that cost us leads:

Along with greater creativity, we need better precision in finishing, better defending and an unwavering desire and commitment to settle for no fewer than 3 points every game.

Indeed. Even turning a fraction of those drawn games to victories would earn us an additional 8-10 points.

 

[Molbystwin]

A top class centre mid who can defend a bit is what I hope we can buy.... yes we need more goals from the centre as well but it was the lack of protection in front of the back four and the change in style which made us look shakey last season....

happily take Masher back...

even lucas on form would be acceptable....

Impossible mind you but...