Vesper

I want, I truly do, for Willian to have a huge year, same for Morata and even Luiz. I agree with you on Pedro prima facie being a better Sarriball player, perhaps there is something we do not know (slight knock, bad in training, etc). And yes! lets kick some Boccy arse!!!!

Azpi, hands down, unless Hazard renews. I will have a fit if it is Luiz. Cahill will barely play (hopefully) this year. Fabregas also is not going to get huge minutes and cannot see him or Cahill here next year.

I am not, Sarri clearly favours Willian and Luiz over other options.I really think Sarri was a driving force behind putting the kibosh on the Willian sale/swap. He must see something there, what it is, i do not know, but thats why he is a top 20 footie manager in the world and I am just a punter. He also clearly doesnt not favour AC (grrr) Emerson, Ampadu, RLC (this is going to explode soon, as he is massively frustrated), CHO, Zappacosta, and Giroud, some rightly (perhaps) some not so much. I think he will play Fabregas more once his knee is fixed, and Drinkwater might as well just go on holiday now, lol. We WILL need all or most as we go deeper into the cups (fucking scousers in 3rd round of Carabao, ffs) and Europa League.

In terms of the Scousers, Salah looks lethargic and certainly not at level he was last year, Klopp tried Henderson over Keita today, and Henderson looked like shit. Gomez, on the other hand, is yet again playing to world class level, if he continues, he will soon be the next superstar English CB. I would take him over Stones anyday if he continues this progression. He has looked better than VvD in first 4 games, and VvD has not played badly. LPool also looks to maybe (far, far too early really to tell at all) have been bitten by the Monaco MF curse with Fabinho not even being on the bench yet again. https://www.101greatgoals.com/news/fabinho-explains-absence-from-liverpool/ LPool's big issues is little depth in the back 4 and the front 3, especially if you are comparing them to Shitty

Ghost of Karius past, LOLOLOLOL

It did say Ratcliffe had a £2bn offer rejected. I had not seen that before. I think it is time to sell. The political situation is untenable atm, and will only get worse I fear. Huge benefit to a sale is we will see the backside of the Sibneft mafia, especially Marina. I am just going to be utterly patient, as I don't see any other British team of import Ratcliffe would buy. He seems a Chelsea man.

Oh, I dont think Moses will see much playing time. My main point (or question) was what about trying Barkley at winger. I really rate him AND Kovacic. Want them both on the pitch. Barkley is, IMHO, superior in most facets of rhe game to Moses. Maybe Moses wins on sheer stamina and durability, but Barkley seems a far better winger prospect. I don't think Moses is a shit player at all, like I do with Luiz, he could be starting for well over half the EPL teams. He just isn't needed here. I am overall thrilled with Sarri, over the moon on all things save his refusal to start AC over Luiz. I am going to stop whinging on about Luiz until he seriously fucks up. I am boring even myself. If Moses comes good as a winger, then I am truly happy as it adds to his resale value.

Barkley should be switched to RW. Far better than Moses. The change Moses needed was to be sold as soon as the window opened. What's next, Drinkwater at striker?

That's what happens when your country is raped and laid waste to by the IMF, Goldman Sachs (and other predatory private finacial entitles), the ECB, etc. Disaster capitalism and a ruined economy ramps up the crazy in all aspects of life as you seek distractions and villains to take out aggression on.

Lets see him ask that same question next August. Manure is a fucking trainwreck atm.

They still were definitely attacking centre backs, I stand 100% behind my entire post.

Yes, he was wonderful at headers.

The year he scored 19, 11 were pens yes, but for his career less than half of his goals were pens. He definitely played a big role in his teams attacks. He also is probably the least offensive of all the ones I listed, with 113 goals in his career. He had many headers from open play bombing up the middle or the side as well. I would deffo classify him as an attacking centre back at the end of the day.

Franz Beckenbauer (greatest defender of all time, IMHO, overall, as well), Steve Bruce (19 goals in 1990-91 alone), Laurent Blanc (146 career goals) Fernando Hierro (163 goals in his career), Daniel Passarella (175 goals in his career) and of course, the greatest scoring central defender of all time, Ronald Koeman (253 goals in his career, 26 goals in a season for PSV in 87-88). The vast majority of all their games was at CB/Sweeper. I am sure there are others

He has scored only 2 top flight goals in his life (and actually only one, for Real Betis 13/02/16 against Deportivo, as the other was against Forest in the League cup on 20/09/17). He couldn't even get minutes in the shit Scottish Premiership (dont give a toss it was Celtic, their overall quality is shit, just look at most of their Europe games, where they usually get smashed) The ONLY players Celtic have who are even remotely of interest are LB Kieran Tierney and then CB Filip Benkovic, who was linked to us, bought by Leicester, and loaned to them, all in the space of a week or two. After those 2 (and again, one isn't even theirs) the next highest rated is former Chelsea flop, Sinclair, at a paltry £4m. Goes to show how truly bad the SPL is, that a shit team like Celtic can go through undefeated. I like Scotland, have many great mates from there, but their footie is cat piss. So, no, I don't rate Musonda as having some great level of talent, at least not at footie. His career has been shite to date.

Alonso's offensive prowess makes up for his defensive liabilities (and I must say he looks better defensively as each game goes by), plus I think Sarri is pushing him hard to improve there. He is a very unique player, for better of for worse. Luiz is not, and you are spot on about the danger of playing them both at the same time. People on Luiz's tip all base it off 2016-17, post Arsenal game (the back 3 switch game). Luiz was totally protected then by the other 2 CB's on his flanks, and still made too many mistakes. People get carried away with his flair. His passing also is overrated. He had some hit and hope great plays, but to see a true Sarriball passing CB, just go watch Koulibaly over the last 3 years. I am resigned to the fact that Sarri is going to roll with Luiz, but if he starts playing like last year, he better bench his arse and play AC, who is as underrated it seems by many as Luiz is overrated. I am still raging over that fucking Newcastle header with Luiz going his typical ballwatching statue act. There is a reason why Germany utterly destroyed a Luiz-lead Brasilian defence 7-1 in 2014 WC. He is nothing but older now, with all the same bad habits.

We so need to tie up CHO on a new contract. He is out of contract in 22 months. Would be a catastrophe to lose him to Shitty or Real or PSG or Barca or Bayern or Juve. They all are sniffing around. To lose him AND Hazard would fuck us up to no end. Next summer they both have the whip hand on us if they refuse to renew. We would lose both a free the summer after that. That's the type of blow that is hard to recover from, especially if we got zero quid in return. This is exactly what I mean about how absolutely shit our board is. I look at both near and long term event horizons in terms of all my moves I posit. We have a pack of rapidly ageing players who will garnish us shit in resale value that is vital due to our one-out-before-one-in overall policy (Cahill, Luiz, Fabregas, Pedro, Willian, Giroud) plus the next tier in Azpi and Drinkwater, both of whom will be 30 next season. Summer 2019 is going to be the most important to our club since the first 2 windows under Roman. If we don't play cards right, we could be staring down table of a disastrous 2020-21 season, (especially if we lose Eden and CHO on frees), unless we drop well in excess of £200m net in summer 2020. Anyone who thinks my list of ageing players will still be going strong in 2020-21 is in for one hell of a rude awakening.

What about Barkley at RW? I would love to see that experiment in a cup tie. He certainly has the pace and the dribbling skills.

its not scapegoating, he genuinely is shit at defending

I am all in on them, I just think we need 3 or 4 rock solid CB's plus Amapadu. AC Rudiger Is 2 So 1 or 2 left to buy Pavard can play RB too, so even more reason to grab him, as Zappacosta is not a happy camper and will demand a transfer of be doesnt get significant playing time this year.

He is 33 next season, that's not the stuff of champions, he isn't bloody Ronaldo, ffs, and his passing is vastly overrated. Even in 2016-17, we won despite him, certainly not because of him.I have never rated him, no clue why Sarri does. He all have players we cant stand, well Luiz is mine. My issue wilt Willian was simply the extraordinary price barca and Manure were willing to pay for a 30 year old RW. If he was 25ish, I would have far less issues with him having a go here, BUT we all know how it goes now here, they wont spend unless they sell, and in Willian's case, thinking we will get anywhere near £65m again is a crack pipe dream. Not selling Luiz and NOT buying Thilo Kehrer and Benjamin Pavard (whilst dicking around with the impossible to deal with italian cunts) was even worse. PSG is now set for years at CB, and I lay wager Pavard will get snapped up by Bayern in January or Summer 2019. We will not spend the £70m or so that Ajax will demand for Matthijs de Ligt, Kalidou Koulibaly will, next summer, only have 2 more years until he turns 30, and zero chance we dump £90m on him. José Giménez will not be sold by AM, even if they did, he is £80m plus or so Marquinhos will cost £80m plus, so I doubt we drop that sort of quid, Alessio Romagnoli will not be sold by AC Milan, now that they have billions backing them via that ruthless right wing USA hedge fund, Stefan Savic and Kostas Manolas are not really Sarriball CB's i do not think (Manure sure could use them though, lolol LOLOLOLOL) Dayot Upamecano is having a 100m euro release clause slapped on him by RB Leipzig Milan Skriniar will not be sold by Inter, I just cant see it happening, they have huge ambitions Manuel Akanji from Dortmund looks to be not progressing so much as he should, and even if he turns it around, his price was being quoted by Bild as around 60m euros That leaves only speculative options the two giants, Jonathan Tah (22) and Nikola Milenkovic (20), both 1.95m, but not sure if they are up to EPL and Sarriball pace, they do intrigue me Rúben Dias, 21yo from Benfica Malang Sarr, 19yo from Nice Panagiotis Retsos 20yo from Bayer Leverkusen It's basically Pavard and maybe one of those last 5, or dump out £80m plus, which we all know isn't going to happen, and THAT even assumes that AM, PSG, Napolii!! (LOLOL) would even sell to us, which they wont, not those 3 players (De laurentiis will wait 3 more years, when Koulibaly is 30, then offer him to us at a £20m discount of £70m!, book it)

We finally caught a break. Now lets hope there are no upsets in the CL groups of death OR some big teams shit out and finish 4th

If they give Luiz a new contract I am going to lose my mind.

Sevilla sign Quincy Promes https://www.football-espana.net/73970/sevilla-sign-quincy-promes Spartak Moscow winger Quincy Promes arrived in Seville on Thursday night ahead of completing a move to Sevilla. The club confirmed that the Russian-based player watched their Europa League tie against Sigma Olomouc and will undergo a medical on Friday. On Tuesday, Sevilla Info initially reported the Andalusian club’s interest in signing the Dutch international, who has netted 59 goals in 115 Russian Premier League matches. The on Thursday, fresh reports suggest the player wanted his €3m salary as net and not gross, meaning his agreement with Sevilla has broken down despite a €21m fee being agreed. However, such concerns appear to have been erased with the player now set to undergo medical examinations with the club. The 26-year-old netted two goals as Spartak defeated Los Rojiblancos 5-1 in the Champions League last season but the club have failed to make the same stage this campaign. Promes, who operates mainly as a winger, has been capped 28 times by the Netherlands and scoring five goals.