I say that it was a huge mistake Wenger holding onto RVP for so long without any end product. Sure he had one good year with Arsenal then sodded off as soon as Unt were interested. He spent many many seasons perpetually injured just earning and was never a prolific scorer. Abou Diaby was worse, Wilshere, Ramsey and Walcott are hugely disappointing as well.

Daniel Sturridge‘s hamstring injury is not as bad as feared and should see him return for the Reds’ festive fixtures.

Reports on Tuesday evening claimed Sturridge would be sidelined until the new year, but the injury is believed to be not as bad as first feared, and is not a torn hamstring meaning less time on the sidelines.

Jurgen Klopp‘s pre-match press conference ahead of the Reds’ Europa League final group game against FC Sion takes place this evening once the squad has arrived in Switzerland. The manager will update the media on the striker’s injury then.

Another player not making the trip to Sion is winger Jordon Ibe, who has an illness the day after turning 20.
LINK

Hopefully correct on Danny, but, I still stand by my above post.

Tut Tut Mr Ibe - did we celebrate the birthday a tad too much!

I wish you would stop coming on here talking sense

You as a MUFC fan could be forgiven for mocking us and in fairness you haven't but all the same as one who is not so emotionally involved as the rest of us in here you can be dispassionate about it - some of what you say is not good to hear even tho it is true!!

I do not know how contracts work these days with the power of agents and people suing each other left right and centre but I would have thought that if poss we need to tell him he can stay but his contract needs to be adjusted to bring in a pay as you play element. So 100K or whatever his current wage is if he is available for selection but half that if he is injured - sounds harsh but I think it is fair and I think if we did let him go at any new club they would very quickly put something similar in.


I felt that he was not suited to LFC before we signed him - as did many others - but in fairness he has not been totally rubbish with some good displays and goals - but I do agree that on Sunday he and Firmino (both cost around 30m this summer) were both awful. We cannot have too many more displays like that. Origi in contrast V S'ton and even in his little cameo on Sunday looked better so maybe while Studge is out we need to play Origi with Benteke on the bench - a hard choice for JK.

ops delete

I'm tired of will if Sturridge is fit or not, hate to say it but it's a joke and a shame he is a brilliant striker.

We should look to replace him by getting in another top class act up front.

It is a tough one, as when he is fit, he is such a great player, and he offers you so many different options on the pitch, but his injury record is holding him back sadly.

Perhaps a start for him might be to say he will not be available for international selection until he can get himself fit for a good period of time?
That might be a very hard thing for him to say, but it might be in his best interests, as it would take away a bit of pressure from his shoulders, which he could put into his fitness for your club.

It is a very unfortunate situation for all concerned though.

That would be disgusting and rightly no it couldnt be done. As I said before the club has made its bed with the contract. Sturridge for the last 18 months hasnt been fit enough but to be honest I dont see what he earns has anything to do with it.

You are right about another club not paying him what he earns here hence why he will be here long term. He wont walk away from his contract and I very much doubt a top side would want him so that leaves the likes of West Ham, Newcastle, Stoke etc etc.

His not going to drop down to that level

Ibe's probably just hungover after celebrating with his birthday pal Raheem Sterling. Probably been on the happy juice with him. Especially after getting two goals in Europe.

haha watch this that's trending around.

https://www.facebook.com/dreamteamfc...3628265989430/

I heard the Sturridge injury is not as serious as first thought. He has been pretty inactive for over a year so it is quite common to pick up injuries like this as his body adjusts to the rigours of training at full throttle, hopefully the injuries will become lesser and lesser, he is a great player and should be worth taking a risk on, but not to build a team around. We played our best football with Firminho leading the line anyways. So I am not too worried about his latest injury.

Brilliant!

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/firs...mstring-injury

Alan, none of us would know what's in his contract and I doubt he would renegotiate a contract which would see him earning less and no doubt his agent has things pretty well sawn up with no loopholes to exploit even if LFC wanted to. Us mere mortals often have capability clause written into our contracts and we quite happily accept them because we have little choice, unlike football stars.

According to the Mirror (from a Google search) he is supposedly on £150k a week, with the contract lasting until 2019. If that's true then he doesn't need to do anything. He's not going to alter his contract for our benefit. He could sit on that contract until 2019 if he wanted to. He won't need to reopen any negotiations for a couple years at least. He'll also know that a contract at his next club won't be as good as the current one, and with his insurance probably being high, as will the club. It won't be easy for the club to make him take a paycut and accept half his wages whenever he's injured.

Although if you offered me £100k a week, and £50k a week if I can't play, I'd be made up.

The Mirror link:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...erpool-4374150

****ing mr glass

we need to get a new striker

Klopp is hoping Sturridge will make a return as a sub against Watford on the 20th of December. That leaves us only Sion and WBA in the way. Just in time to get injured so he can get drunk and fat over Christmas.

That boy was made in China.

Say we get a new striker we potentially could have

Sturridge, Benteke, Origi, Ings, Fiminho and a new striker all fighting for 1 spot, 2 at best.

Total overkill

How important is a win tonight? Apart from assisting our UEFA co-efficient, is there any direct advantage in the next round for teams topping their groups?

far less important than sunday's game so I hope klopp rests loads of players.

Delete.

If we win the group it means we'll be seeded in the next round and will avoid playing the CL dropouts

Actually the 8 champions league drop outs are split in two. The four with higher ranking will be seeded and the four with the lowest ranking unseeded.

Could we have one, if you have one going spare?!

We are a bit short number wise up front!

That's the problem though, "potentially"?

I agree we have sufficient strikers above but Sturridge has only played 16 of 71 games I think it said, therefore we hardly ever have the above options. At this time we have both Sturridge & Ings out. Benteke & Firmino together as a pairing haven't impressed me so if we can get another striker we should.

In saying that Klopp knows best, maybe he thinks the front 3 that destroyed Chelsea, despite none being actual strikers is a better option whilst we have injuries.

Gotta love Klopp - smiled when I read his press comments below:

When asked by a journalist what differences his own team will show from that fixture, the Reds boss joked: "Do you work for FC Sion?"

He then added: "It's not something we can talk about before the game, you can ask me after the game what was our idea.

"Since [the first game] it's been about two-and-a-half months, so it's a long time in football and in England it's 425 games!

The point isn't how many strikers we have. The point is how many do we have that are good enough for a team aiming for the top 4 and who can be relied upon to play more than a couple of games without getting injured?! We're still going to be fighting on 4 fronts in the new year so frankly that list of 5 does not look the least bit like over-kill.