Liverpool Long Term Story

MisterObjective · Sep 25, 2017

MisterObjective · Sep 26, 2017

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Not a great tournament for many lads at Liverpool really, all of the five lads away with England didn't play that good and it was typical England really. Despite beating the eventual winners France 1-0 in the their opening game and winning all three group games, they lost to Croatia in the Second Round! Speaking of Croatia, Dejan Lovren was a key part of their side and they probably were the surprise team of the Euros this year, beating England in the Second Round and then Spain in the Quarter Finals. Eventually being defeated by Portugal in the Semis.

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A tournament to remember for Divock Origi claiming four goals and two assists in the first three group games! Belgium went on to be knocked out in the Semis by France but Origi was still on form in the knockout stages, finishing the tournament with five goals and four assists. He also finished 3rd in the race for the Golden Boot and was named in the Dream Team. As for Gini Wijnaldum it wasn't a great tournament for him largely on the bench and Holland were knocked out in the Second Round by Germany.

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I have noticed a couple of young players in the squad stagnating a little bit these last few years, the lack of games means they're not getting better. One of them is young keeper Kamil Grabara, he'll be one of a number of players going out on loan this season. Trouble is that leaves just Jon Coleman as back up to Loris Karius, I did say I was only going to sign one player per season but seems as Naby Keita cost absolutely nothing! We may as well just sign a back up keeper.

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That back up goalie is Pau Lopez, looks pretty solid and any competition for Karius in goal should only make him a better player. He might get a run out in the FA Cup maybe, once he's had time to settle in at the club but for the most part Karius will play every game in goal. It's fair to say Martin Morris looks a prospect in goal as well, with so many young talents between the sticks I have a feeling Pau will move on a few years to further his career but he does have a long contract and could possibly stay if he's happy as back up.

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Great news for the club, deciding it would be a good idea to extend several key players contracts. Optional contract extensions for Divock Origi, Cameron Brannagan, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben Chilwell, John Shields and Emre Can, all of them had just two years left on their current deals. Fantastic news coming out of the club today as well, with Roberto Firmino signing a new five year deal and the man stealing all the headlines Philippe Coutinho, constantly linked with a move away also signing a five year deal!

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So Brexit is upon us and the United Kingdom have officially left the EU, on Football Manager. Because I've been only signing one player for the first team per season, more than half of which have been home grown players anyway it turns out our foreign player count is actually quite short. Taiwo Awoniyi, Roberto Firmino, Yuto Nagatomo, Pau Lopez, Naby Keita and Ramon Rudeck complete the list of six names and with a foreign player limit of 17 out of 25 players in the squad, we have plenty of room to manoeuvre if our homegrown talent isn't cutting the mustard. Also only two of those players are first teamers, Pau will need to be registered as back up and Awoniyi will have his chance this year.

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I thought Taiwo Awoniyi would be spending his final year on loan in Holland and finally gaining Dutch citizenship but luckily for us Brexit has come at a good time and he's now eligible to play for Liverpool! Can't wait to see how he does, we've been waiting long enough and it's basically like have a new signing, I mean quite literally he's yet to play a game. Ramon Rudeck, a new signing this summer was granted a British work permit as well and time will tell if he'll turn out to be good enough.

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I swear the good news just keeps on coming this summer. The European Championship concluded and several Liverpool players in and around their 30th birthday announced their retirement from International football. Dejan Lovren retired from playing for his national side Croatia with 58 caps, Gini Wijnaldum was perhaps the most surprising because unlike the other two players he doesn't turn 30 for another couple of months. Jordan Henderson hanging up his boots for country definitely made me happy, Gini too but Hendo is getting to an age were he will need a rest now.

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I say this every year but another good pre season for the lads ahead of the new season, plenty of goals from our strikers Firmino and Origi but even Awoniyi who played more in the first couple of games, was banging in the goals as well. We dominated our final two tough fixtures against Roma and Juventus, winning 4-0 and Origi got a hat trick against Juve putting him in good shape for the upcoming season.

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MisterObjective · Sep 28, 2017

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It was Harry Kane with the early chance but fortunately for us, he put it over. This game really was very open, both teams went for it and either side could of scored! It was the boys in red who were clinical though, Brazilians Philippe Coutinho and Roberto FIrmino couldn't be stopped, Coutinho opened the scoring and FIrmino smashing in to the top corner for our second! It was actually Naby Keita making his first start for the club with the assist but Tottenham fought back in the second half, Christian Eriksen's deflected free kick found the net. Despite Emre Can stupidly getting sent off and Kyle Walker late on for Spurs as well, we did manage to hold on to our lead.

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[video=youtube;bXhufYHdPRU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXhufYHdPRU[/video]

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Much like the last game this match was a similar one. We got them two early goals this time coming from Divock Origi, his first of the season. Charlie Taylor with the cross and he scored our second as well, bending his free kick in the top corner. Monaco came back in the second half, with a goal from Bacca but we managed to stay strong and hold on yet again.

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[video=youtube;1nZC5FMUDps]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nZC5FMUDps[/video]

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We might of started the season with back to back wins and two trophies to boot but Philippe Coutinho unfortunately picked up an injury in our last game against Monaco, he'll be out for two weeks.

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The first game of the league season then and interestingly it was also the same game Liverpool recently played kicking off their new season. On to the game and we really did make a great start, Firmino was fouled on the counter but quite easily converted the penalty. The lads really kicked on, interestingly named on loan Arsenal centre back Spencer Owen, put one in his own net, If you don't know he's a youtuber. I really am getting sidetracked, Gomez added a third before half time and Ojo scored a nice goal to make it four in the second half! Mahrez did get one back for Watford but it doesn't mean much with a stomping start to the season.

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[video=youtube;wlOKGU3n1aw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlOKGU3n1aw[/video]

It was Danny Ward's first game against his former club with Middlesborough back in the big time, after successive promotions with Danny in goal. It wasn't a happy return for him though as we scored four goals, Roberto Firmino with the first two, they did get one back but Mane made sure of the points. Origi came off the bench to skin his opponent, step up and slot him the penalty, making it 4-1.

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[video=youtube;G2uTTWsoWQU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2uTTWsoWQU[/video]

We made it hard for ourselves today, we could of scored much earlier but we were denied by the post numerous times. Our defensive was solid though and we never looked like conceding a goal, QPR didn't even have a shot on target. We did eventually make the breakthrough though Joe Gomez with the opener and then Roberto Firmino off the bench, adding our second of the game and securing all three points.

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[video=youtube;AcnzL1UCU54]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcnzL1UCU54[/video]

Trent Alexander-Arnold will miss the next three weeks with a back strain, injured in training but a chance for Jamie Thomas to get some minutes then. The lads drew Rotherham away from home in the Third Round of the EFL Cup, meanwhile in the Champions League group stage draw, we've been given quite a tough group this year. Monaco and Inter are both good sides but I'm still confident we can top the group.

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Emre Can could be facing an uncertain future at the club after a row with the manager over his wage at Liverpool. I don't want to lose him and I was a little surprised there was no offers on deadline day for him.

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Plenty of big deals going on this summer and a lot of players coming in and out of the Premier League. Man City sold Paulo Dybala to PSG for a huge £114M! They invested that money into Kingsley Coman from Bayern and Luciano Vietto from Sevilla. United went big on Amadou Diawara for £46M, while Chelsea lost star man Leon Goretzka to Barcelona for £72M! PSG left it until deadline day to sign Christian Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund, costing £56M.

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On the Liverpool front not to much to talk about, Mich'el Parker moved on to Millwall for a decent return of £1M, including a buy back clause of £3M. Plenty of players on the fringes of the squad going out on loan, will be interesting to see how Kamil Grabara gets on, playing in his homeland of Poland and for the best team over there right now, he should do well. Ben Woodburn off to newly promoted Middlesborough and Ovie Ejaria wasn't getting the game time at Crystal Palace so he's now on loan at Championship side Nottingham Forest. A chance as well for a number of young lads to make an impression out on loan this year.

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We really did narrowly get over the line winning back to back trophies against Spurs and Monaco! The lads did it though and I feel like that really gave us confidence winning our next three and making it five out of five wins, a perfect start to the new season. Next time we really should keep our run going, with four games that should be won but a tough test against Inter in the Champions League.

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MisterObjective · Oct 1, 2017

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We really should have opened the scoring in the first half, plenty of opportunities but it just wouldn't go in, Firmino missed a penalty and it was Sunderland who opened the scoring, with a wonder strike from Ndong. I'm not quite sure about Karius's positioning in goal, in the second half we did get one back from substitute Origi. Unfortunately though we couldn't collect all three points and I'm not quite sure how, the lads hit the post an incredible 5 times! We only have ourselves to blame though, the chances were there but hopefully this doesn't happen again, Taiwo Awoniyi made his debut off the bench and like so many others, he also hit the woodwork.

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[video=youtube;N6NHK8lGXsU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6NHK8lGXsU[/video]

Roberto Firmino is now a British citizen after living in the country for five years, goods new for us helping us with our already short list of foreign players we are limited to.

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What a game we witnessed in our first game back in Europe! With 33 year old Giroud up front and Guirdiola as manager, Inter could be a force in Europe once again! It was Giroud who opened the scoring and he was a constant problem all game, Firmino scored twice in the second half to put us ahead. Giroud scored once again after the break but it was Origi with two goals who made sure of the win, Giroud even completing his hat trick but Inter couldn't equalise and the game finished 4-3.

I have to say, I wasn't impressed at all with our defending in this game, we actually played 4231 for only the second time this season, previously switching back to 433 after a poor first half against Sunderland. Unlike the game at the weekend, when I played Wijnaldum behind Firmino, I played Firmino behind Origi for this game and while we did score plenty of goals our defending really wasn't great. One thing is for sure, our defence needs more cover in front of them but the idea was to play 4231 and get Taiwo Awoniyi involved off the bench, moving Firmino in to an attacking midfielder role. The team is always the most important thing though and Awoniyi hasn't been great from the bench so far.

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[video=youtube;Oa4W3HN_ea4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa4W3HN_ea4[/video]

I really wasn't impressed with this performance, we have to be doing better against West Brom. Ultimately we missed Jordan Henderson, his replacement Chirivella was actually one of the best players on the pitch but after just two days rest from that game against Inter, in which the players really put a lot in to, the rotation players just didn't cut it today. Mane and Matip both played despite being tired, our centre backs looked leggy late on and Rondon put West Brom ahead! Luckily for us Coutinho equalised with a rocket from distance! We really do need to start winning these games!

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[video=youtube;ckFW1SPUllI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckFW1SPUllI[/video]

A much better performance from the lads today! We got off to a perfect start just 30 seconds in to the game, when Firmino pounced on a loose ball and confidently finishing the chance. He even went on to score another, Gomez knocked on a near post cross towards Emre Can making it three. In the second half, teenager Joe Fairs replaced Mane from the bench and did well to beat his man, assisting Divock for our fourth of the game!

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[video=youtube;mLlgTIJcGGc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLlgTIJcGGc[/video]

A mixed bag of results in this update really, early signs that we might not be as good as previous seasons! Defensively we haven't been great and Lovren looks like he's on the decline now, two games in the league we should be winning and dropped points in both of them! We did win in Europe despite conceding three against Inter and defeating Rotherham as well. Next time we've got some tricky games coming up, particularely in the league with home games against Everton and Arsenal.

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Liverpool Long Term Story

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