[SKT174]

Not because I'm a liverpool fan but I totally agree with you nod1e. LFC spent about 27 ml in total and Chelsea spent that money and more on just 1 player (Shevchenko) who I value at 14ml.

[chica1985]

Yeah but you'd like some Superstars at your club wouldnt you? Like Torres for example, you wouldnt be able to to afford them. It's an argument over quantity vs quality.

Also Chelsea really dont need to have a lot of changes, they have won the league twice y'know. And they can pay 30mil cause they can and they have the financial power to do so, if you've got it flaunt it I say.

[Dave_L]

Calling any midfielder a poor man's anything is an insult. Carrick is stronger than xabi defensively, and has a far superior dribbling quality. I still think xabi is the better player overall, but that doesn't make anyone less quality than him a poor man's xabi. man of the match means nothing right now, as we're comparing style of play, not neccessarily quality. otherwise i can go around calling every winger in the prem a poor man's giggs or ronaldo.

also, sharpen my football knowledge? I know about all of liverpool's signing(save gonzalez, never heard of him). not being able to list them all at the top of my head doesn't mean i don't know them. i was going to make another post talking about all the signings i've forgotten but i figured i already posted enough in this thread.

anyway, my point is, for you to call someone a poor man's anything implies that they have a near identical playing style, and one is better than the other. for this, only the latter applies.

Also, i know rafa is loads better than SAF in the transfer market...but hell, fergie makes up for it with his genius on the pitch. I wouldn't have expected him to finish 2nd with a weakened squad.

[Dynamic]

I agree with Nod1ne, Bellamy is class. When he was at Celtic, i obviously seen him play alot, but he was class at Blackburn aswell. I think that if Liverpool didn't get him, then 'United would've.

Emma, I kinda agree with you, as the board wouldn't pay that much for 1 player. Although Liverpool don't have much 'World Class' stars, they certainly do have 'Premiership Class'.

[laytownking]

Frystorm, i told you to sharpen your footballing knowledge awhen you had got it completely wrong about Paletta coming for free and not naming any of the transfers and then proceeding to you categorically dismiss my footballing opinion!.. Lets just drop it.

Anyway, the whole poor man's yada yada yada is going way out of context - we could go on arguing for days. But, if you want to compare the players, Xabi is the better passer, he is a better playmaker, he gets in more tackles and he can control the game better than Carrick. Carrick gets ahead more often, and has better dribbling skill as such. He too is very good at controlling the game, but Xabi's better .

But it will be interesting to see how Carrick settles into a better team, a team where he has to share the limelight with many other stars, no disrespect to Tottenham.

Bellamy and Pennant

Last season, a SoccerNet correspondent rated Bellamy the signing of the season at 6m. We bought him this year at 6.5m - that is AMAZING business. If it wasn't for the get-out clause, we wouldn't have got him for anything less than 9-10m. He's going to be really good for Liverpool. His footballing ability has never been questioned, just his temperament. He knows this might be his last chance to play at a top club, so he'll behave! So will Pennant. I believe, the two of them at a combined price of 13m was the best business done by any club this summer.

Shevchenko, and the 'Galactico' mentality

Chelsea had the spending power to buy 2 world-class players in Ballack and Shevchenko. But at 30, Sheva has around a maximum of 3-4 years to go. Is it worth the 30m (transfer fee) and the 100,000+/week salary? I guess only time can tell. Its a financial risk, but considering Roman's billions, its not so much of a risk for him.

[Dynamic]

Originally Posted by ritwikr

Shevchenko, and the 'Galactico' mentality

Chelsea had the spending power to buy 2 world-class players in Ballack and Shevchenko. But at 30, Sheva has around a maximum of 3-4 years to go. Is it worth the 30m (transfer fee) and the 100,000+/week salary? I guess only time can tell. Its a financial risk, but considering Roman's billions, its not so much of a risk for him.

I totally agree, I think at the age if 30, £30 Million is extorchanit(sp!!!!!)
I think in about 2-3 years, Chelsea will be finsihing 2nd-6th again as they're players will be gettign really old and the money will be dryign out.

[Dave_L]

The only reason i said i was dismissing your opinion was just because i don't like it when peopel slap that label on carrick...didn't really mean anything by it tbh.

fair enough on the first 2 points, xabi is a better playmaker and passer, but he looses possesion too easily to simply imply that he's better than carrick at everything. Well, we have a disagreement on who's better defensively, so i really don't see the point of argueing back and forth about it. But keep this in mind: Xabi is weaker as a holding midfielder simply because, he can't keep the ball for long enough to be relied on for that role. that's why liverpool have to play a rather defensive midfield line...they have no real holding midfielder.

to be honest, i don't know about xabi having better control over the game...it seems carrick has more of a presence on the pitch, but maybe that's just me.

but anyway, let's just get on with the thread, because it seems like an interesting topic for discussion.

i dont think chelsea's money will ever dry up as long as roman is around. billions of pounds>100 million. though why roman is letting mourinho spend so much is beyond me. I hardly think of shevchenko and ballack as assets, what with both earning 120-140k a week(not sure about these figures, not from the most reliable source, but it's going to be around there anyway).

Has anyone considered this?

Kuyt----Crouch-----Bellamy

Possibly the most repulsive strike force in the history of football. They'd make a fantastic team, but they're just offensive to the eye (its a joke before anyone takes it seriously -_-

[Dynamic]

That would be brilliant but Rafa wont do it.
The squad for the season will most likely be:

Reina

Carragher - Agger - Hypia - Riise/Aurelio

Sissoko

Garcia - Gerrard - Alonso - Gonzalez

Kuyt/Crouch/Bellamy/Fowler

[laytownking]

Kuyt, Crouch and Bellamy wouldn't work up front. Kuyt's more like Ruud. I'm not saying he's better or anything, but his style of play wont be suited on the wing.

Big Man, Little Man strike-force

Bellamy and Crouch fit the bill. They can form a very good partnership up front, with Bellamy running off Crouch's flick ons/headers. Theoretically, a very good partnership.

Squad

Rafa's got a massive squad this campaign. Its very tough to choose a starting XI and i don't think there will be a fixed first XI every game. We have atleast 2 quality players fighting for every position. Now, we can go into a game without Gerrard, and without Carragher and still have a very very good starting XI. Because of all the different types of players he has got into the squad, we can play quite a few different systems - 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2, 4-3-3 as well as 5-4-1 (as we played against Newcastle last season with Agger in the team).

There's a tactical flexibility that the Houllier regime lacked.

We have a great chance of winning it this season, there's absolutely no doubting that!

[SKT174]

Originally Posted by Frystorm

The only reason i said i was dismissing your opinion was just because i don't like it when peopel slap that label on carrick...didn't really mean anything by it tbh.

fair enough on the first 2 points, xabi is a better playmaker and passer, but he looses possesion too easily to simply imply that he's better than carrick at everything. Well, we have a disagreement on who's better defensively, so i really don't see the point of argueing back and forth about it. But keep this in mind: Xabi is weaker as a holding midfielder simply because, he can't keep the ball for long enough to be relied on for that role. that's why liverpool have to play a rather defensive midfield line...they have no real holding midfielder.

to be honest, i don't know about xabi having better control over the game...it seems carrick has more of a presence on the pitch, but maybe that's just me.

but anyway, let's just get on with the thread, because it seems like an interesting topic for discussion.

i dont think chelsea's money will ever dry up as long as roman is around. billions of pounds>100 million. though why roman is letting mourinho spend so much is beyond me. I hardly think of shevchenko and ballack as assets, what with both earning 120-140k a week(not sure about these figures, not from the most reliable source, but it's going to be around there anyway).

Has anyone considered this?

Kuyt----Crouch-----Bellamy

Possibly the most repulsive strike force in the history of football. They'd make a fantastic team, but they're just offensive to the eye (its a joke before anyone takes it seriously -_-

I think that in the Alonso-Carrick affair, LFC supporters consider Alonso better and UTD fans consider Carrick better because they are United fans. I say one thing, time will tell.


For the Chelsea thing, keep in mind that Abramovic doesn't have a great football knowledge and he might be using the club to make an advertisment. With no dis-respect to the Russians but Russain business man haev a selfish attitude (one of the reasons why they get rich as well though) so don't wonder if Chelsea might find themselves in big trouble in the next 8 years (mark my words everybody!)