• You may have to login or register before you can post and view our exclusive members only forums.
    To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Signings by age

Status
Not open for further replies.

Rosco

Worse than Brendan
Member
Following on from the discussion in the other thread, about how all LFC managers focus on signing players in their early twenties. I'm bored in work and don't believe it's true

So starting with Benitez:
59 players signed. About 12 players were in their early twenties when he signed them. He signed about the same amount of players in their late twenties.

He signed more teenagers than anything else.

So to say he focused on signing players in their early twenties is incorrect, although our biggest successes do come from that cohort. Our biggest failures come from the late twenties category and most of the teenagers never panned out.

And that's why moneyball thinking a few years ago indicated that early twenties was where it was at.
 
20-25 is the right age bracket to target, but simplifying it to that alone is also stupid.

In Rodgers' time, we've mostly signed in that age-bracket, but still wasted tonnes of money.

Ability to identify talent, and placing the right value on it is just as important.

We've failed on both counts - Borini, Aspas, Alberto, Assaidi - just not talented enough.

Lallana, Lovren, Markovic, Benteke - reasonably talented, but valuation was way too much. Should thus have been avoided.

Also critical in squad-building is the ability to prioritise and accord funds to positions that actually need strengthening. Don't make signings for the heck of it, especially when you have talented youngsters in that position (unless you have an unmissable opportunity to get a top class player) - See Toure (blocking Coates and Ilori), and Lallana (blocking Teixeira, Alberto and Suso).
 
Which 'older' players have we signed that were failures ? I can only think of two recently, Gary Mac and Toure and both of those were successful signings for what they were signed for and to do. IMHO. We could do with a couple more like that when you consider the average age of PL winning side is ca. 27-28 yrs.
 
Following on from the discussion in the other thread, about how all LFC managers focus on signing players in their early twenties. I'm bored in work and don't believe it's true

So starting with Benitez:
59 players signed. About 12 players were in their early twenties when he signed them. He signed about the same amount of players in their late twenties.

He signed more teenagers than anything else.

So to say he focused on signing players in their early twenties is incorrect, although our biggest successes do come from that cohort. Our biggest failures come from the late twenties category and most of the teenagers never panned out.

And that's why moneyball thinking a few years ago indicated that early twenties was where it was at.



How many players aged over 25 did Shankly or Paisley buy?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom