Liverpool FC

[The Camel]

go on then il lay the rest whatever u want at - dont rate them but they should be able to do this

I'll have another £100 @ 3/1

I think Carroll will turn out to be a great buy for you, he has the potential to be world class, the fact it's just potential at the minute is why it's a great deal for us but still a little disappointed that he's gone.

The thing I do not understand  why Newcastle sold him so late with no replacement lined up.

The choices up front are not exactly appealling as a quality Premiership strikeforce.

Best, Ameobi, Lovenkrands, Ranger.

Nowhere near safe yet, a couple of losses now, the wobbles will set in.

£35m is great business, but not if it costs you your Premiership place.

We've had a few decent performances recently (except v stevenage...) that carroll has been absent for. I think to claim he's the difference between relegation/survival is a bit extreme.

As much as I'd like Carroll to stay in the side you simply can't turn down £35m+. I wanted to keep him at £30m. But giving it some thought, and then hearing £35m + extras, it's just a ridic price. Just know hoping obviously that the money goes into the team in the summer...

What price will you lay me that Newcastle score 15 goals or less in the last 15 games of the season?

3/1

£100? Or whatever you are comfortable laying mate.

£50 and your on

Booked.

If tonight's performance is anything to go by, you boys are going to do your money.

Just for the record, you win if Newcastle score 52 goals or more, any less I win.

[booder]

loving the little trianlges moves we are now playing.  passing one touch and move...love it

It's just like watching the great sides of the 70s and 80s............almost.   Pass and move has always been the Liverpool creed , it got a bit lost over the passing years , nice to see it's return.

[The Baron]

Exactly Dan. Play Johnson and Kelly at their strengths. Let the three best passers of the ball not worry about defending. Good decisions IMO.

3-4-2-1

Six/Seven defenders on the field, but seems to be genuine tactical innovations to me

I like the ideas.

Well Johnson had the best chance of the first half and he's being encouraged to go forward (as has Kelly).   The formation seems to be giving Aurelio, Mereiles and Gerrard room to play and spread the ball around.  Also giving Agger license to play a lot higher and encouraging him to join in with the attacks.

Still only one goal though, and Stoke will get chances.  Probably more so now Delap is on and Salif Diao is off

[The Baron]

I've just read that Adam scored directly from a corner tonight for Blackpool.  Obviously he's let the transfer talk get to him

apparantely he went mental when he scored!

Apparently he has a real knack of doing this and I read a few weeks ago that he often did it in his youth sides.

[TheChipPrince]

I've just read that Adam scored directly from a corner tonight for Blackpool.  Obviously he's let the transfer talk get to him

apparantely he went mental when he scored!

Apparently he has a real knack of doing this and I read a few weeks ago that he often did it in his youth sides.

lol, I can understand a knack if hes swinging high towards the back post, but last night was poorly hit and even worse defending.

[77dave]

Starting lineup and formation for the chelsea game?

anyone think Kenny will go 3 at the back again?

[kinboshi]

Starting lineup and formation for the chelsea game?

anyone think Kenny will go 3 at the back again?

No idea!  Difficult to guess his selection never mind the formation.  Seems to be getting it right though at the moment.

Like this article:  http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_6720442,00.html

Doesn't look like the Dalglish factor can be underestimated.

[boldie]

Starting lineup and formation for the chelsea game?

anyone think Kenny will go 3 at the back again?

No idea!  Difficult to guess his selection never mind the formation.  Seems to be getting it right though at the moment.

Like this article:  http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_6720442,00.html

Doesn't look like the Dalglish factor can be underestimated.

yeah because it's not like he was angling for an EPL move way before Kenny came to Liverpool.

Also love this comment from the Liverpool supporter below the artice

Well done son, he seems like a nice down to earth kid very respectful about Kenny that will please the liverpool faithfull,

down to earth kid? Suarez? Don't get me wrong, he's a great player and will do well but down to earth he is definitely not.

[kinboshi]

You reckon he'd have been as keen to join Liverpool before Kenny took over?

(serious question)

[The Baron]

Impact short, medium and long term?

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/03022011/58/premier-league-pub-landlady-ushers-tv-football-rights-revolution.html

[boldie]

You reckon he'd have been as keen to join Liverpool before Kenny took over?

(serious question)

Yeah, I think it was a lot of spin by him TBH. Clever obv as it goes down well with the fans, and probably Kenny as well, but he already wanted the move and had been talking about it for ages. I don't know how many clubs were seriously talking to him but I haven't seen any reports in the Dutch media that said that another club came in for him during this transfer window. Kenny might have handled him well, talking to him and all that, but I am not sure he even knew who Kenny Dalgliesh was let alone have his desicion swayed by meeting him.

[Graham C]

Good offer from Paddy Power

http://paddypower.com/popup/torres-caroll-freebet.html

[Waz1892]

Henry hinting at Anfield re-vamp instead of moving.....and Benitez states he'd jump at the chance of managing us again.

Full interview on Football Focus, BBC1 12.15pm

[kinboshi]

Henry has said how impressed he is with Kenny.

Looks like he might be staying...

[The Baron]

Interesting view of how we got to the Torres figure. Also read today that £25m was agreed by Ashley last week then he did an 11th our uppage to £30m then £35m.

On the day Fernando Torres was unveiled as a Chelsea player, Liverpool's American owner, John Henry, has criticised Chelsea for their extravagant transfer window spending, questioning Chelsea's commitment of Roman Abramovich's club to Uefa's financial fair-play rules. In an interview granted exclusively to the Guardian, Henry suggested Chelsea may be planning to "evade" the rules and called on the governing body to ensure they are strictly followed by all clubs. The fair-play rules, which require clubs to spend only the income they make and not rely on subsidies from owners, come into effect from next season to 2014.

"I was surprised Monday morning to receive an offer [from Chelsea for Fernando Torres] in that amount [£50m] at the same time they were announcing such large losses [£71m for 2009-10]," Henry said. "The big question is just how effective the financial fair-play rules are going to be. Perhaps some clubs support the concept in order to limit the spending of other clubs, while implementing activities specifically designed to evade the rules they publicly support. We can only hope that Uefa has the ability and determination to enforce what they have proposed."

Chelsea have insisted since signing Torres and David Luiz that they firmly intend to comply with financial fair play and that the £71m outlay was within overall progress towards cutting costs.

Henry, setting out his thoughts on Liverpool's direction almost four months since his Fenway Sports Group bought the club by paying off the £200m debts Tom Hicks's and George Gillett's "leveraged" takeover had loaded on to Liverpool, said he is committed to the club living within its income. "We've always spent money we've generated rather than deficit-spending and that will be the case in Liverpool," he said, referring to the group's ownership of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. "It's up to us to generate enough revenue to be successful over the long term. We have not and will not deviate from that."

That commitment to sound financial management was followed, not breached, Henry asserted, in the £35m Liverpool paid Newcastle United for Andy Carroll, a fee that astonished English football. Henry said the £35m made financial sense because Liverpool were only paying to Newcastle what they were to receive from Chelsea by selling Torres, whom they allowed to leave because he had become too evidently unhappy at Anfield.

"The fee for Torres was dependent on what Newcastle asked for Carroll," Henry said, explaining that Liverpool wanted Carroll, plus £15m, to replace Torres. Together with the £6m sale of Ryan Babel to Hoffenheim, that effectively financed Liverpool's £22.8m signing of Luis Suárez, meaning the club bought two strikers but net, spent almost nothing. "The negotiation for us was simply the difference in prices paid by Chelsea and to Newcastle," Henry said. "Those prices could have been £35m [from Chelsea for Torres] and £20m [to Newcastle for Carroll], 40 and 25 or 50 and 35. It was ultimately up to Newcastle how much this was all going to cost. They [Newcastle] made a hell of a deal. We felt the same way."

Saying Kenny Dalglish has "exceeded our expectations" as the club's caretaker manager, Henry explained that Liverpool retain ambitions to qualify for European competition this season, so insisted they had to sign a replacement striker, preferably Carroll, if Torres was to go. "We weren't going to write off Champions League and Europa League for the sake of someone's happiness," Henry said of Torres. "The striker position had to be filled, by someone who made sense for the long term. With about 24 hours remaining, the possibility of Andy, who was No1 on our list of possibilities for the summer, emerged."

Henry explained how Carroll, even at £35m, fits into FSG's philosophy, which famously learns from the strategy honed by Billy Beane, the general manager at baseball's Oakland Rangers. As described in the book Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, players are assessed from performance statistics, not solely by scouts rating how good they look. Henry, however, said this did not mean they were not prepared to spend big fees on the right players, as the group has done when turning the Red Sox into a World Series-winning baseball team again.

"The Moneyball approach is about poor decision-making in baseball, based on anecdotal evidence [about players' qualities] as opposed to hard, statistical evidence. If the Red Sox are a Moneyball team it has to be noted that we are second in spending over the last decade within Major League Baseball. We have been successful through spending and through securing and developing young players."

That, he said, will be Liverpool's two-pronged approach to rebuilding the squad, which will be financed only out of its income; he and his fellow investors in Fenway will not be pouring cash in. "We intend to get younger, deeper and play positive football. Adding two top players [Carroll and Suárez] who have just turned 22 and 24 is a good first step."

Henry lavished praise on Dalglish, although he declined to say whether Dalglish is likely to be offered the job permanently. "We didn't know Kenny well prior to him coming aboard as manager," Henry said. "But he has exceeded our expectations on all fronts. It would be inappropriate to comment publicly on what happens beyond the end of this season."

FSG is, Henry confirmed, studying the possibility of expanding Anfield rather than building the long-mooted new stadium on Stanley Park, a plan which he criticised. "It's not a coincidence that the last two ownership groups could not get a new stadium built," he argued pointedly. "What they proposed or hoped for just didn't make any economic sense or they would have been built. A lot of time and effort is being put into study and creatively looking at all options."

With his first, extraordinary, transfer window done, in which Liverpool managed to part with English football's most astonishing fee ever while spending nothing overall, Henry argued the new American owners' strategy, to refashion Liverpool as a major club, is on course. "Our goal in Liverpool is to create the kind of stability that the Red Sox enjoy," he said. "We are committed to building for the long term."