The Unreliable Rumours Discussion Thread (Part 2)

The thing about this time of year …

We can get excited about a new toy every day.

Is anybody monitoring private jets leaving Nice en route to Liverpool yet?

He also peaked too early. Too many games in those legs :wink: :wink: :face_with_peeking_eye:

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I’m not saying that all of these will be massive successes here (provided they sign in the first place) but it’s exactly the price and age bracket that made previous Klopp’s team so great. It’s probably not ideal to have too many young players carrying your team all at once (see Arsenal and their collapse of title challenge) but it’s a huge step in the right direction.

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Nice :wink: one.

Though it sounds like you are advising your daughter about picking guys :laughing:

I don’t see this being an issue unless we see a mass exodus of players. Our squad strength is (or would be with the rumoured signings) deeper than Arsenal’s. We’ll still have a lot of experience there to back the younger players up too.

Arsenal did not have depth - that was their issue. Young and hungry works for me…

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It’s too lazy to compare us. We still have enough experience in our squad and the experience of winning things recently. We can say Arsenal failed in the end, but they went from 5th to the high level of performance by large this season. I bloody hope we can show that next season. Win something and also try and return to a competitive level in the league, if not more (can’t expect it, but can hope for it).

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They have more depth than we did when we won it.

We were perhaps a little more fortunate with injuries, we had the front 3 firing on all cylinders all season long but it was the same front 3 every week. We had the same midfield 3 featuring every week. An injury here and there could’ve derailed the season but we really didn’t have the depth there.

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Thats everyones issue when it comes to the sports washers

In my opinion, we had more depth. Their lack of depth also cost them a top 4 finish last season. They were cleaning the squad and cleaned perhaps a bit too much. By the time we won in 19/20, we were already building for a few years under Klopp and already got our first big trophy. I mean, they had the likes of Holding, Kiwior, Elneny, Nelson and Nketiah either as part of their straight backups or coming in to play this season when they had to. They tried to help their cause by signing Kiwior, Jorginho and Trossard in January.

Saying that, I can’t wait when we trim our first team squad this summer. There’s numbers and there’s quality of course. We have to get a few signings right and also get rid of more.

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Arsenal have had the same amount of time to build under Mikel as we did with Klopp, and as you say Klopp’s done a far better job of it in a shorter period of time…you forget where we were before Klopp took over it’s a miracle what he’s done…any other manager we’d still be sat on 5 CL’s and 18 League titles.

We had to roll with Trent and Robbo playing 38 games because we had no depth at full back…Neco Williams was next in line.

We had 3 senior CB’s in Virgil Gomez and Matip…Nat was our 4th option.

In midfield there was no real depth beyond Fab Hendo Gini & Milner.

We had 4 attackers with Origi Bobby Mo and Mane

Very thin squad, The first XI played about 95% of the minutes that season…we only really rotated with a 15 man squad that season with Adrian Origi Milner Matip the only other 4 that were awarded 500+ minutes.

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Line ball really.

Liverpool 19/20
3 players >4k minutes
7 players >3k minutes
2 players >2k minutes
6 players >1k minutes
7 players >300 minutes

Arsenal 22/23
1 player >4k minutes
6 players >3k minutes
4 players >2k minutes
6 players >1k minutes
6 players > 300 minutes

I’d say us just ahead mostly because we distributed minutes a bit better without it being forced through injuries.

EDIT: There are a million ways of interpreting these numbers but the way i’d interpret them is the count in players with more than 2k minutes. I’d expect a proper depth player to get a decent share of minutes and IMO that would be around the 2k mark.

2nd EDIT: just be aware this is comparing apples to oranges. Without knowing the total minutes played by Arsenal Vs total minutes by Liverpool I wouldn’t know which club played the most. I probably should have limited the comparison just in terms of the league considering we played a number of special cup games like the Super Cup and CWC.

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I do remember that we had numbers and good experience. Quality often not so much. But we also had luck with health in some key starting positions. About 7 main CM’s. Nat wasn’t our 4h option in our title winning season. Lovren was still here. We had Shaqiri already and also Minamino in January.

For me, we had a better prepared team and more rounded squad. Arsenal really cleaned a lot by the summer of 2022. Cost them losing top 4 and was maybe part of not winning the title in the end. Though also not the only factor.

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Shaqiri and Lovren want a word with you.

From the treatroom room? Shaqiri started 2 games that season…the other 5 games came as a last min sub. Sure while he was “part of the squad”, that’s not depth.

Lovren has a stronger case tbf but it’s Lovren.

Let’s look at Arsenal…White Tomiyasu Gabriel Saliba Holding Tierney Zinchenko + arrival of Kiwior in Jan…that’s like double the defenders we had. They’ve also sent 3 other senior defenders out on loan + their record signing…let’s not talk about comparing depths, only 1 winner here & it’s the bottlers of 2023.

When we talk about depth, I was looking at the number and quality/experience of players who were part of the first team squad in our 19/20 vs their 22/23. There are games and minutes played, but also decisions to play or not play some players more often. That, I’m not comparing, because we get nowhere.

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Anyone can edit Wiki…

Did you just do this?