Well I doubt the player gets injured on purpose. I'm pretty sure he doesnt enjoy being injured.


I knew after it happened this would be mis-reported and seen as a celebration of the result rather than a celebration of the support.

Klopp is trying to build a spirit and relationship between the fans and the team.

That would be Arsenal

I can see why Adam Bogdan was more expensive than Mignolet on Mondogoal. Simon had a negative score, so I'd have been better off with Bogdan.

We draw Augsburg in the Europa.

A return to Germany for Jurgen Klopp to face Bundesliga side Augsburg.

Yeah, this is pretty annoying to be fair. Loads of people deilberately mis-interpreting the gesture in order to take the piss out of the club I feel.

I thought that it was a good thing to see, I don't really like to see the players just waking off of the pitch, at least this way, the fans get to see the players doing something to thank them, and to recognise their support.

Last time Klopp faced Augsburg Dortmund lost 1-0 at home which sent Dortmund bottom of the Bundesliga, couple of the Dortmund players went up to the fans in front of the Yellow wall stand, that set the tone for the Dortmund recovery to finish 7th & reach the German Cup Final.

Van Persie's career at Arsenal coincides pretty well with their long trophy-less spell. He joined in 2004, they won the 2005 FA cup then nothing until last season's cup. Perhaps had they had a reliable, less injury prone lead striker they might have won a few more things in that period?

The point, in fact, is not that we have to rely on a injury-prone striker, it's who we have to rely on when he's out. We need better.

I just saw a picture on Facebook of Mignolet with his rather disturbing statistics since he joined us.

Appearances 90
Goals Conceded 112
Clean Sheets 28
Save Success Rate 67.6%
Successful High Claims 79
Punches Clear 80
Errors Leading to goals 8

I knew he has had a few nightmares but never realised the total so far.

All that is actually pretty irrelevant unless compared with other PL goalkeepers stats.

The point I was getting at, is that Van Persie was quality, they'd have kept him if they could, regardless of his injury record.

Same with us and Sturridge.

Let's be honest, we have Ings, Origi and Benteke. They are good enough. Okay Ings is out, but between Benteke and Origi we should be able to perform better.

Benteke might take some time to adjust, but we can't just write him off after what, half a season?

Origi has shown, in bursts, that he has potential, and Firmino can slot in if necessary.

If we want another striker, I'd suggest one would have to leave..

No doubt one would have leave. With everyone fit we already have 5 if you include Firmino which you could argue is too many.

We should have more than enough to get through to the end of the season @ minimum.

I don't actually personally feel we need another striker.

I'd rather strengthen elsewhere. A defensive midfielder, a centre back and a goalkeeper wouldn't go amiss. I wouldn't complain if we got in a couple of wingers too so that we don't have to rely on one tactical system..

Better news than I expected regarding Lovren: no ligament injuries, just soft tissue damage but he'll still miss the best part of a month.

You have to admire the way Raineri has Leicester just trotting along game after game. I'll stick my neck out now and say if we can't beat them in the upcoming game then I doubt we'll get above them this season. And I guess that would mean making sure we get above Utd, Spurs and Everton.

Oh and I wished we'd have found Mahrez ( or could tempt him in the summer ) . He might be having the purple patch of his career, but the way he dribbles and just seems to be able to going through tackles reminds me of how Suarez used to do it.

With the number of strikers we have (all playing for one place, realistically) then we're not getting anyone in January or the summer unless someone was to go. And if we do get another striker then they'll have to be a big name who'll come in and make a big difference, otherwise there's no point. Signing someone like Alexander Pato wouldn't make any sense since we won't need anymore "good" strikers, whereas if we were to get Benzema (okay, not him, but at that level) then it'd make more sense since he'd make a difference. He'd have to improve the starting XI, and with the money we've spent on Benteke I don't know if we'd even do that. And with £35m still being our record, I don't know if we'd even go out and pay £50m-£60m on a world class striker.

All these stats about Mignolet - I have seen some in the past which show him to be one of the best in the PL so it makes me mega sceptical of stats - something modern football seems obsessed by. After Sunday I saw a FB post saying Can did the most passes in the PL this weekend - as if that was something we need to cheer about. The same as when we were told that Milner ran further than any other midfielder - my response I must admit is a bit 'So what!!'

The only stats which interest me are goals - so lets look at our midfielders record on goals in the PL this season so far with us nearly half way through - Can 0, the same as Lallana, the same as Ibe (if he is seen as a MF player), the same as Allen, the same as Lucas meanwhile Firmino has one, Hendo one (from very few games), Milner 2 but one of them was a penalty - not good stats are they!! The only one who scores anything like how he should is Coutinho - unless our MF players contribute goals then we will always struggle to get where we want to be - I do not care if they are the best runners or do the most passes frankly.

Yes stats can be of interest and can point us to potential recruits but then go and watch them play and do not over rely on the stats to decide if they are good enough, they are only a small part of the picture.

Well here are the stats on Mignolet since 2013/14:

Comparison to 31 goalkeepers who have made more than 20 PL appearances:

Save success:
67.6% - ranks 18th out of 31

Crosses:
"Mignolet is the only 'keeper who has opted to punch the ball clear more times than he has successfully caught it from a cross (79), since the start of the 2013/14 season. To put that into perspective, the vast majority of 'keepers have caught crosses more than twice as many times as they've punched the ball."

Overall performance:
Ranks 22nd out of 31 - only 9 keepers rate lower

http://www.skysports.com/football/ne...r-since-201314

And yet Migs had the joint highest number of clean sheets last season. Stats can say anything you want.

The stats on Sky Sports still rate him highly for clean sheets. Clean sheets are only part of the picture though.

Of course. I was trying to point out the apparent contradiction to mlt11's use of stats to show that Migs is crap. He clearly isn't. Neither is he the best keeper in the league. He's about as good as the rest of the team in all honesty.

Divock Origi needs one more goal to be our joint-top goalscorer this season. What a flop that guy is.

Don't take your eye off that golden boot, Jamie Vardy!

Our strikers suck

Oh, I'm not sure anyone was saying Mignolet is crap, however, he isn't good enough.

We need a commanding keeper, who can distribute the ball well.




Thanks for the fascinating insight..

CC hits the nail on the head - Mig is OK but ideally we need better than OK as a good keeper can make a big difference - so that does not mean Butland, it means probably recruiting from abroad. I actually quite like Bogdan in his LFC displays so far but long term I doubt he is the answer. Watching the team you can see they lack confidence in Mig sadly - at set plays it is clearly in evidence.

Other needs? - 1) more goals from midfield 2) maybe another CB but when Sakho is fit we will have 3 good ones so not sure of that (see I rated Lovren as a good one there - he has gone up in my eyes!!) and 3) an alternative wide player to Ibe. I do think tho that it may be best to wait till the summer to bring people in unless an outstanding player was available in January which is not that likely - and by the summer JK will have had time to properly assess the squad.

One thing which concerns me about JK is some of his comments about players - he seems happy with them all. I just hope that is a public face and that behind the scenes he knows who needs upgrading. I agree with some of his stance tho - he is right to give everyone a decent chance before ditching them and he is right to support his players - but maybe at times it is a bit OTT - like this week praising Mig and it now seems he is being given a new contract which puzzles me a bit. Hopefully it will mean nothing as most contracts do and is just a way of getting more if we sell him to get in an improvement

there is nothing else to say about them they just do.