What was it a certain manager said not so long ago? Wasn't it something along the lines of anyone can park the bus?

Could not have happened to a better team

Brendan showed what a tactical genius he is. He ought to ring his mentor up for advice on how to change a game and defend.

Come on people, defending is anti-football and will get you slagged off on Talk Shite by a bunch of people the Jeremy Kyle show would not even give air time too

That's a very stupid post and worse still, i don't even think you really believe what you said there!

Every single Liverpool supporter will have been thrilled by their peformances attacking play this season!
But every single one of them will know their defence isn't good enough and will want to see it improved for next season.

As much as i love stylish, attacking football, i also fully appreciate magnificnet defenders like Cole and Terry.
For me, one of the highlights of the last World Cup was seeing JT laying on the ground desperately trying to put his FACE in the way of the ball being crossed.
While he failed to stop the ball, just seeing that kind of effort and commitment was just awesome!

Do i think Talk Shite has a very high number of idiots phoning up? Yep I do (also seeing as I live around the corner from the studios and see the state of the presenters coming out of the pubs before going on air I dont think much of them as well).

I think they're thrilled because they've been winning matches and have a chance
( even if it's now a very slim one) of being PL champions. I don't think they would have been so thrilled if their exciting, attacking football had left them mid-table.
All sport is about results, the purpose is to win. In the end, the journey you take to winning (providing you have not cheated) is fairly irrelevant. If England were to win the World Cup this year, I doubt there would be many complaints about the football being unattractive.

Having seen Moses' miss the other night it got me wondering about the loan players we'll be looking to sell this summer. I can barely remember seeing him for Liverpool this season, so surely his value will have dropped quite a bit?

Kakuta was doing OK for Vitesse, then switched to Lazio (which I didn't even know) and - according to wikipedia - hasn't even played for them.

Marin seems to think we want him back here.

van Aanholt's also expecting to return. He's highly rated, but every time I read a Vitesse report he always seem to be at fault for them conceding.

(Piazon hasn't scored since December, but I don't think we'll look to sell him just yet)

We must be looking to move McEachran on now.

I can't see us bringing in too much from any of them tbh. It really would be nice to have 1 or 2 players come back here so we can the benefits of loaning so many out. I thought Chalobah and Kalas would have made an impact this season.....

There will be a big clear out this season (Ash's wages will the biggest plus point from the point of FFP).

Josh is hard one, I can see us going either way on him, Moses will be gone,Kakuta also I think.

I think it will be a slow process instead of getting rid of them in one big go. Think we might see some surprises myself

Deleted, double post.

Apart from the obvious, Lukaku and Courtois, I think there are a few who could make it.
Zouma of course, Piazon deserves a chance, Thorgan Hazzard, Chalobah, Wallace, Traore, maybe even Romeu. Some of those are very young and could be loaned out again, but I would like us to bring a few into the squad.
Others are now heading towards their mid 20's, they're either good enough now or they they never will be. Moses, Bertrand, Marin, Van Aanholt etc might as well be sold or released.

We have to try and clear the decks of those who will never be first team players to allow the next batch to have a go.

Marin and Romeu barely play for Sevilla / Valencia, so they're never going to make the grade with us. No surprise with Marin considering how poor he looked last season, but I did think Romeu had potential before he got injured.

I want Thorgan Hazard back. He won young Belgium player of the year and the main award, he has done all that has been asked of him whilst out on loan. He's been getting some high praise and i would love to see him get a chance.

15 goals, 20 assists, 49 appearances. I would like him to either come back here or loaned out to a Premier League team next season.

Impressive stats from young Thorgen!
But does he run around a lot and track back? That is what really matters!!!

No but I hear he has over-active sweat glands which means he sweats more then others so he should be ok

I think its best we know what Talksport, ex-pro's and the written media think of young Thorgen before we make opinions about him.

I take it you're not dropping this shit any time soon?

I can see Thorgan Hazard moving to Vitesse for a year, then moving on. I'm not convinced we signed him for any reason other than to impress his brother.

Romeu looked great to me when he had his run under AVB. That injury when Rafa took over probably finished his career with us.

I'm surprised one of the clubs promoted last summer didn't move for Chalobah. He's one that really needs a season of top tier football. With Zouma coming in Kalas needs to go to a Prem team as well - his performance against Liverpool should be enough to get teams interested.

Wallace looked good in pre-season but has had a wasted season with Inter.

It may have been the initial reason we signed Thorgan Hazard, but as SegaGamer said, he's had a very impressive season. I hope we take a pre-season look at him, he's 21 so it will be decision time soon.

Yes, sad about Romeu, a lot of good judges were predicting a big future for him. He's made 13 appearances for Valencia who are decent outfit, so perhaps there's still a chance ?

I've watched Chalobah a few times, not sure about him to be honest. But he's still only 19, plenty of room for improvement. As you say, loan him out again.

Surprised you want to loan out Kalas. I would keep him in the squad now we know he's dependable. I suppose it depends on John Terry's future.

Zouma is a fantastic prospect, only 19 but he's played a lot of senior games for St-Etienne. I would bring him in Immediately to share opportunities with Kalas. But Zouma appears mature for his years, I can see him becoming established in the back four in 12/18 months.

I don't really know much about Wallace. He's small in stature, not something Mourinho generally likes with his full backs. Maybe bring him back from Inter and try to arrange a loan deal in the PL ?

I would have thought Piazon might be worth a squad place as well. He did most of his best work earlier in the season, but he's got 11 goals and 11 assists..not bad at all. We haven't got too many goal scoring midfielders, and it might be better than taking an expensive gamble elsewhere.

Traore looked an exciting prospect pre-season, but only made about a dozen appearances for Vitesse. Probably needs another season out on loan, only 18 and one for the future.

Don't forget though that he only joined them in January, as we had to wait till then to officially sign him. So he's probably been involved in most of their games since then. Hopefully we'll get another look at him when pre-season arrives again.

With 3rd place sewn up I'd like to see Kalas and Ake given a run out on sunday.

Throgan Hazard's definitely worth a look. Piazon burning out after half a season is disappointing - same thing happened with McEachran last season after a good start.

I only want Kalas loaned out because I expect Zouma to play a lot more than him next season, and he's already had one wasted year with us. This time last year I wanted him a Prem team so we could brining him in this summer to replace Ivanovic, but Bran has found his form again (and stopped attacking people). 1 season of first team football in a top league and he'll be ready to compete with Zouma to partner Cahill IMO.

Of course, we've still got the two elephants in the room, Lukaku and Courtois.
What does everyone think we should do there ? I'm in favour of bringing Lukaku back and giving him a season or two in the squad. I accept there's a danger that we might lose out on the chance of receiving a big offer for him now, but given the amount we've thrown away on players who have amounted to nothing, I think it's a gamble worth taking.


The Courtois situation is a very tricky one. Widely regarded as one of the best keepers in the world already, he could become a Chelsea legend. Petr Cech has had yet another great season, and as far as I'm concerned he is a already Chelsea legend. But putting sentiment to one side, Cech has had surgery on his dislocated shoulder and will be out for 8/10 weeks. Could it affect his game, we don't know. This season he's probably been 80/90% of the player he was in his prime, and that's been good enough for him to remain one of the best keepers around. As fantastic as it would be to have both to call on, that's probably being unrealistic.
Heart says Cech, head says Courtois.

I agree about Courtois, we should bring him back now. Nothing against Cech, but.....head rules heart.

Lukaku has to come back. I know he's not the finished article, but there's no point shelling out for the 2 strikers we need (3 if Eto'o leaves) when we have someone with as much potential as Lukaku. He's had 2 season of first team football - time to bring him back and let him improve with the other quality players - and manager - we have here.

Re the goalkeeper situation I think we need to look at who our back 4 is going to be, if JT does not stay I not sure changing our goal keeper the same season as a new centre back pairing is such a good move.

We also need to see what he wants to do, Does he want to leave a team that could have just won the Champions League and the League (as far as I know they still in the mix). I think everyone has to sit down, Cech as well and see where everyone is. The Costa deal might also be a factor.

Although it's important to sort it out sooner or later I think we need to sort out our new striker and if JT and Lamps are going to be around next season first.