A Year on the Liverpool Offside: The January Window Closes

Fernando Torres was a red, torres torres
and now he sits on Chelsea's bench, torres torres
we brought him through from sunny Spain
and now he'll never score again
Fernando Torres, who the fuck was that again?
naa na na na na na na na na naaaaa na naaa
na na na na na na naaaaaaa naaaa na naaaa
naa naa nananana nana nana nananana na  naa
Fernando Torres hope Agger  smacks you again.

Last Xmas (cue the song) we werent just a team in meltdown, we were a Club in meltdown.

We had enemy agents scattered around key positions inside the club...including the manager's job.

Many of us were seriously considering the possibility of Championship (aka 2nd division) football as a worthwhile cost for neutralising The Hodgepocalyse.

Then all changed. We suddenly had a future again. We began to start talking about things on the pitch...

It all feels so frustrating, seeing how close we are to running smoothly as a team - but misfiring and stuttering along whilst maintaining a tantalising grip on our dreams of dominance and a Red Resurgence...but we're in a different place now. A better place.

At the risk of flogging the Suarez horse too much, this is a good article from Rory over at The Anfield Wrap: 
http://www.theanfieldwrap.com/... 

Good, (fairly) neutral take on it.  Plus I do believe there was an eloquent intelligent Utd supporter commenting there too.  Proof of their existence, for those of you looking for it.

Wow, thanks for sharing. That was a very good read and excellently written. The only part I disagree with is where he claims Liverpool's claim against Evra for saying "Sudaco" was been "rightly" derided? Why rightly? Both said questionably loaded words, both should be equally looked into. And he claims that Evra speaks Spanish? This is news to me! That means that Evra knew exactly how inoffensive the word was (if it indeed was "negrito") but chose to interpret it as a racial slur. If all this is true, then I dislike Evra more than ever now. 

from liverpool3, wolves 0 : " It was a perfectly timed run from Meireles and an even better ball from Christian Poulsen to set things up, and there’s no doubt about Torres’ ability to find the net with that type of gift."    A sentence that reads very differently now, only one year ahead! As you said, being a liverpool fan is fun.

Well it's been a harrowing December.  the whole suarez thing has been incredibly emotional and upsetting, though everyone accepts the ugliness of racism, this seems totally off.  The judgement was read out on TalkShite radio this afternoon, and the FA couldn't even bring themselves to say there was a racist comment made.  Instead they dressed it up with a very technical statement about causing offence.

5 points dropped to Fulham and Wigan :-o, just mad.  Andy why?  Adam takes a totally crap pen, and Fulham was a lot of huff and puff.

We would be with chelski now, just with 1 of those results coming good.  

Guess, that shows how actually we're still very close even being unable to finish.  If we sorted the finishing out, we'd be heading the charge after the top 3, and even putting pressure on the Spuds.

I'm hoping Gerrard will change the balance for the good, give us some bite.  I'm also really hoping we learn to be strong without Lucas. It would be very good for us to do that, and damn important with January and February fixtures coming up.

But when all is said and done, we have to beable to score.  We seem to have no problem creating goal scoring chances even with players under development, so KK and SC must be credited for that.  

But so often you actually have to change a fair bit to actually get the goals.  Are we going to have to do that?  
Are Kuyt and Maxi going to be traded this summer to bring new 'goalscorers' in?  Is Carroll ever going to be mobile enough to lead the line?

After this December, I'm not sure what i want in January.  Some good vibes I think.  Some good results would be excellent.  ENOUGH OF THESE DRAWS!

"We seem to have no problem creating goal scoring chances even with players under development, so KK and SC must be credited for that."

- It's amazing how low we have set the bar for the current squad. Yeah, allright, we can create goal scoring chances, Fulham and Wigan also didn't have a big problem with creating scoring chances, no? Every fucking profesional team anywhere in the world is creating scoring chances, I mean how can you not? It's not rocket science after all.

...oh my do I miss u Stevie!

Well said. If our fans here had watched enough other club matches. The broadcaster at Spurs/Bolton match said it could have been 7-0 instead of 1-0 at the half. Spurs ended up with 16 clear chances not counting those open nets with Dafoe and Adebayor wishing they have longer legs. And we count goal posts and brilliant saves? Those are part of the game!!!!

oh come on, the bar was under water with Hodgson.  We were lucky if we created one or two chances in a game in a squad with 13 internationals/world cup attendees.

We don't just create chances, we create very good chances and no one can believe they're not getting put away.  Several per game.

Here's hoping it's just a team maturing thing.

yeah right, forgot about Hodgson! thanks for reminding me!

The season is like a football match in itself, and we're approaching half time.  Liverpool have created plenty of chances but failed to convert.  Typical.  These past two games against Fulham and Wigan were two free headers, but one ended up sailing harmlessly past the post and the other was a tame effort straight at the keeper.  Had plenty of chances before that too, but just didn't take them.

Coming out for the second half, I expect we'll still dominate possession, play some good football and fashion good chances.  But we really need to put them away on a regular basis or we'll end up in May with a disappointing draw, points dropped again, and only looking ahead to the next match (season).

Extended metaphors are what this blog is all about.

There could be a problem that most of us haven't forseen. What if the owners don't want to splash more money?

Now don't get me wrong I have been happy with FSG but they might think 'we have spent £80 million on Downing, Adam, Henderson and Carroll and they haven't improved us, why should we spend more?

Hopefully though they will take a longer term view and King Kenny will be given the funds to buy the players he wants.

Reaching the CL group stages produces $30 mil pounds of additional revenue. That't their minimum target for this year. They will do whatever they consider necessary to get us there. It will likely require 76 points and there are at least 4 very good teams targeting 3rd and 4th place.

There is no guarantee that players bought in the transfer market will produce the goods and always a risk that a player will not work out. Happens all the time to even the most brilliant judges of football talent. Creating a championship caliber football team is an enormous undertaking and understandably takes a good deal of trial and error over a period of time before everything comes together on the pitch. Yes we have spent $80 mil pounds on CHAD (Carroll, Hendo, Adam, Downing) as you mention, but we have received $50 mil pounds from the sale of that Spanish kid who subs on at 75 minutes for Chelski and $12 mil pounds for the Mohawk. So, the "net" spending is "reasonable". We also are fortunate to have the wisdom of Kenny and Comolli to guide us in building the squad.

The factors for January are: who is available?, what price?, will they find us attractive considering no CL football yet?, do they improve the 1st 15 team, will they offer us more than we would have if we are able to bring the best out of CHAD?, can we expect Stevie to be back and play a big role? Etc.

Henry and Werner's ultimate goal is to bring a championship to Liverpool. There's obviously no magic formula, the challenge is immense, and we have City spending $300 million pounds on transfer fees and enormous salaries, (and we have SAF being himself), but these guys are pros at developing a creative and effective strategy to achieve their goals. They will do whatever it takes, within reason. My money is on them.

"There is no guarantee that players bought in the transfer market will produce the goods and always a risk that a player will not work out. Happens all the time to even the most brilliant judges of football talent."

Yes, but it is notable that when we signed each piece of 'CHAD', that the general reaction of the fans of other teams was, "you paid how much for who?" We fans wanted Mata, Suarez, and Enrique. And none of the fans were asking for any of 'CHAD', especially not at the prices paid.

At the very least it would be nice to sign players who make sense at face value and no more 'wtf??' signings. I'm all for signing Junior Hoilett, who looks a good quality attacking player, but not for 20m.

I'd love to get Mata, Hazard and guys like that too, but we're competing with Barca, Real, City, United and Chelsea. All of those teams have significantly more money, higher salaries, CL football to offer and the real possibility of competing for championships. We're at a BIG disadvantage for the really world class players. We will likely not get those type of guys, YET. You want world class? So do I, so does Kenny and so does Henry. Not possible, YET.

Carroll was brought in during January where the new owners felt they had to make a marquee move to quell the disquiet from losing Torres and show they were willing to spend and make a bold move. They brought in Suarez too, who was from the Dutch leagues and they could not know whether he would do the business. (Chelsea thought Mateja Kedzman was going to light up the league, and what happened with him?) So, we brought in two supposedly tremendous strikers to hedge our bets. Can't really fault them, considering the circumstances back then. It's easy for all the geniuses to be critical a year later, after watching the results. The Kop seemed pretty excited when Carroll was formally introduced. I didn't hear any boos or any complaints. LSD, am I off base here? You actually go to the games. Anybody from the Kop unhappy with Carroll the day he was introduced?

Hendo will justify his fee and do well for us for many years. He's getting better every game. (My opinion). Charlie was brought in for $6 mil. Well worth it. Not what we need for CL, but can play a role in the squad. Stewie has potential, hasn't shown it yet. But we'll see. The Jury is still out, somewhat. Except LSD. We overpaid $5 or $10 mil? Who cares? It's petty cash in the overall scheme of things.

Kenny brought in Bellers and Enrique too. Were those moves OK? The fans wanted Enrique? I don't remember it that way, exactly. Kenny, Comolli and Henry will make adjustments as things develop. Not sure who might be available in January. We'll see.

We have the best defense in the Prem. Tremendous really. If we had Lucas and Stevie fit and Suarez firing, imagine how good we would be. If we just converted the normal % of our chances and had 6 or 9 more points right now, would any of us be complaining?

And the issue of adding another $100,000 per week salary to the payroll right now is insignificant if it takes us into the CL where the additional revenues from reaching the group stage are approx. $35 million pounds. That's $2.6 mil pounds of additional salary over 6 months to create $35 mil pounds of additional revenues. Even if you want to use "chance creation" theory from my MBA classes (years ago), if Henry thinks the additional salary has a 10% chance of getting us to the champions league, he should pull the trigger. 
 

Fair point. Nearly all the fans were happy with the Carroll signing (although just about everybody said that we overpaid by at least £15-£20 Million). This was rationalised with the money we received for Torres.

My personal opinion (at the time) was that it was a good signing that would give us an extra dimension but I felt we should have made the signing 6 months later and saved some money!

My concern then and it is now was how would Suarez and Carroll play together? I think Suarez likes to play with other forwards who he can play quick 1-2 with (Maxi, Bellers) and this is really not big Andys game.

Well in jpr. Thoughtful, on the money posting, fella...

You said good words

I believe we'll have a fair bit of money to spend if we want to.  Dalglish and Comolli's call.  Especially given that FSG haven't really spent much at all on the team (net).  They know what it's taken for other teams to get up there and they're nowhere close to that level of investment right now.  Add to that, even the biggest 'soccer' players aren't half as expensive as the baseball investments they're used to.    

Kinda wish Rafa had this kind of backing.  I'd put my money on him building a team of world-beaters with any half-decent support.  But we have Kenny and that's good too.  We're not at the stage where money is an issue - yet.

As successful businessmen, I don't expect Henry and Werner will care too much about the sunk cost -- that 80m is gone. The wage bill is another matter. We may have to wait until the summer just because it will take until then to dump the big salaries of Carra, Cole, Aquilani, and whoever else (maybe Kuyt & Maxi).

Also, I got to say I don't really trust Kenny with the money at this point (sorry, Kenny!). He is a great manager and face of the club, but they should not let him have so much input as he is too positive in his thinking. Instead of going for world class, he looks for good people with just average or above-average ability.

Weren't we the most convincing opposition for Citeh this season (until Chelski went and beat them unexpectedly)?

We are looking for players who can break down teams like Fulham and Wigan when they have everyone behind the ball. Dalglish thought Downing, Henderson, Carroll, and Adam would do that right away, and here we are with barely a goal per game at Christmas. 

That's why I question his judgment in this area. What he thought was top quality was just above average -- good enough for 6th, not 4th.

When I saw 'January' in the title I thought this would be about the coming window, but it was interesting to look back at what you guys wrote here back when I didn't follow the site -- thx for the links. 

Especially this potential lineup and how it looked that day:

Reina
Kelly Carragher Agger Johnson
Gerrard Lucas Meireles
Kuyt Carroll Suarez

The back four actually turned out better, but we expected to be so much better in attack! We thought Carroll might be the business, and just look at that midfield, eh?!  /drool

Rape face Torres. Lovin' it. 

Christmas has come early here, at the Hundred Acre Woods. 

So yes, January was incredibly stressful dadeedadeeda I was checking my phone every 5 minutes blablabla bottoms up. Long live Ryan Babel.

This was the most emotionally exhausting transfer window of my life. I was excited about Suarez but a tad skeptical about Andy. 12 months later, not much has changed. I was very optimistic about the future though, tuning into LFCtv watching John Aldridge and two other Johns (can't remember who) being all positive and optimistic about the Suarez-Carroll partnership and i just couldn't wait to get it going. Again, 12 months later... not much has changed.

Not to be a downer or anything! Statistics say, you can only go unrewarded for skill and raw effort for so long. Just look at Spain. Pre-2008, they were the fit bridesmaid that for some reason just could never nail down a decent bachelor, making everyone else at her best friend's wedding wonder just what is wrong with her. Now, they're the kings atop both Europe and the world, feared by all. 

Some motivation is required, some morale boosting and maybe a few introductions this upcoming January window, but what we all know for sure is somebody's gonna be at the business end of a 5-0 thrashing sooner or later, and it ain't gonna be pretty!

We'd probably have to make that 8-0, since the Manc clubs dole out 4's and 5's pretty regularly now.

It's funny how 12 months on, Torres still makes it a point to emphasize that fans don't know the real reasons behind his departure.

So what were the real reasons and why can't he share them?  I mean, we'd like to know the truth as much as he wants to share it.  What's keeping his lips sealed?
Were they lies, broken promises?  Yes we know H&G spouted plenty of those, and so did Purslow, but surely he knew the club was under new management now.  So what was it?

I still like the guy.  And I think he still has an affinity to the club where he really 'made it big'.  So why all the secrecy.  What's with all the opacity?  And the FA's not even involved in this one...

This was the first time I was actually glued to my computer to observe the transfers - and I used to criticize my friends for tuning in all day to watch the NFL draft. 

Not sure what to say, only that I hope this January Comolli/KK can bring in someone who can cause a spark much like Suarez did last year. Just wondering how much there is in the bank to make such a splash...

and if the targets are there to give us what we need.

Money is not a problem. It's whether KD has won the owners' confidence.