Yeah I've heard that. But some won't be happy whoever is made captain. I'm at the point of 'Yeah whatever'. I'm more concerned with the performances overall rather than which poor sod is next in the firing line.

Not sure when, it's behind closed doors v Huddersfield (Klopps best man / best friend is manager there), I believe it's just friends and family, but that last bit was just rumour, not sure of facts.

No point having a regular captain right now until you know who is going to be the mainstays of the team. Just do it on a game by game basis until someone earns it.

Probably the best way.

Echo reporting sakho refused to go to stoke on loan. Also Dortmund refused an offer for Christian Pulisic

While I don't actually mind Rooney being the captain, I do like that Allardyce is looking to change it, clearly thinking of the future and how Rooney's efficiency will have diminished by 2018.

I'd agree with your approach, maybe someone will crop up and make a name for themselves in the meantime. Maybe someone like Eric Dier if he has any leadership qualities.

Thinking about it, Henderson seems more of an obvious choice now given that he's Liverpool captain. If you're going to pick a new captain and you have a poor pool to choose from, might as well pick someone who's their club captain. Henderson does have some leadership qualities. Best of a bad bunch, I think. He's well behaved, isn't known for being a dirty player and I think he's liked by his teammates. He's 26 so he's the right age for it, too.

There's also the Klopp factor that might benefit England, if Henderson can develop under him. So far it remains unclear, it might not work out, only time will tell but if he does prove to be able to work under Klopp then it'll help England.

The problem with making Henderson the permanent captain would be that he's in no way 'one of the first names on the team sheet'. I'd question whether he should actually be in the side at all.

If you're going to take it from Rooney, I'd go for Cahill. Solid, experienced, unlikely to be dropped anytime soon, plays for a top club, etc.

Yeah, I agree with all of that, Rooney is probably the leader in the dressing room and the person with most top level experience, there is not many other candidates to which he could pass it on to at this stage.

Hopefully in a year or two that might have changed.

According to BBC Sport, Rooney is the 'new' England captain. Allerdyce reckons it was an easy decision to make. I for one think it was a wrong one, and no, I didn't want Hendo for it either.

More of a continuation rather than a new captain, who would you rather it have been?

I agree with Cahill, Rooney is cr*p playing for England, and being captain he's an automatic choice in team selection. He might be OK for you, but for England? No.

Yeah I don't think he is a sure starter, but then he did play regularly under Roy. If he can stay injury-free then I imagine he'll play quite often, and with the armband he might well be a regular starter, rightly or wrongly.

His place in the Liverpool side is currently in question, and, even though I've always been a fan of his, I don't think he should be our captain. He's certainly no Gerrard. And I think Cahill would be a good choice, probably a better choice than Henderson.

But due to the lack of real options, if Henderson plays then I think the fact that he is Liverpool captain has helped Allardyce make the decision. It's like he had to pick someone and used that little factor to separate him from the rest. Maybe if someone else makes a case he'll change the captaincy again.

You don't need the official role to show some leadership on the field, so if there is a leader on the pitch amongst them they'll let it show. For us, we have some who show leadership, Emre Can, Sakho, and Lovren are three. Karius has shown he can be a commanding keeper. Can and Lovren seem the most likely to be chosen if Henderson doesn't step up this season. So hopefully one of the England regulars make themselves stand out, rather than waiting to be picked.

Cahill is a good shout, and personally I think it would have been best to start of a new manager with a new captain, but there was not that many other options to select from, so I can see why he continued with him.

Hopefully soon others start to show more leadership qualities so that this decision becomes harder and harder to make it the future.

Agree with this. Far too much is made of the captaincy in this country, at international level.

As you intimate, there'll be a handful of experienced players in the side at any given time, all of whom should be capable of helping the less experienced players along.

More important at club level, I feel. Even then, it only really makes a difference if it's a talismanic figure, in my opinion.

If you remember the World Cup squad of 98, there were plenty of leaders within in, any of which could have been made captain, that should be the sort of thing that we should aim to try and replicate, so that we are not solely reliant on just one person to bring that level of leadership to the team.

Yeah I think it's one of those things that fans care more about than the actual club, or at least the manager. If you're a professional and you have leadership qualities, it'll show, you don't need to be told to be a leader.

While Gerrard was our captain, Jamie Carragher was the real leader, and not because he was the vice-captain. But as a captain, Gerrard fits into your talismanic figure criteria. He worked as a captain because of who he was, and he lead in a different way. Even when Gerard Houllier gave him the armband he was a natural. He was a real captain whose captaincy mattered, I think. While Gerrard was the captain, Carragher, or Reina, never hesitated when they were being leaders. While he was here, Kolo Toure was a bit of a leader, too, and Lucas is now, in a similar way. More arms around the shoulder kind of guy, and helps the new players settle in.

Of the current lot, Henderson is our captain, but you don't really look at him and think "there's our captain" like you would with Gerrard. He doesn't have that presence about him, but he is a good professional. Right now we don't really have that talismanic figure. Emre Can has the potential to be that kind of player.

The captaincy is more of a fan and media issue now. A lot of attention is given to who is actually selected for the role. They can become scapegoats because of the armband, and if it's someone like Henderson or Rooney they'll come in for a lot of criticism and claims that they shouldn't be the captain. I think the main thing the captain should have, if they aren't a Gerrard-like figure, is good media training and professionalism. Handling the ref, talking to the media, looking confident, etc. Henderson seems okay to talk but he's not exactly charismatic. Having said that, even though he has qualities of a captain, while he's gotten better in recent years, public speaking has never been one of Rooney's strengths. He doesn't "erm" as much as he used to, but he still sounds nervous like he hasn't gotten over stage fright. He still sounds like a college student being asked to deliver a presentation.

The captaincy is more of a throwback issue really, it was obviously highlighted by Bobby Moore lifting the World Cup trophy in 1966, but since then, who the captain has been has not really been that important really.

What has mattered far more is the number of players on the pitch willing to take their own fair share of responsibilities, without having to look to one player in particular.

If you have a squad packed with leaders, then no matter who is given the armband, it will just be a symbolic gesture, as the rest should be able to still be leaders.

You used the Gerrard/Carragher example, and that is a good one, as players should not need an armband to show leadership qualities.

Yep, pretty much agree with all of that.

The Gerrard/Carragher combo is exactly the kind of thing that I was getting at. Gerrard was obviously talismanic, but Carragher was the one delivering orders, more often than not.

As you say, ideally you just want several leaders on the pitch, the armband is little more than symbolic. The obvious exception was Keane, both talismanic and absolutely the boss of the team, on the pitch.

Keane was fantastic, he was a sort of player/manager without being a manager if you get what I mean.
He made sure that everyone knew what their roles were, and that they carried them out fully.
He was a true captain in the fullest sense of the word.

It is hard to think of anyone in a similar mould to him playing now.

Has this turned into the Neutrals thread of a sudden? I fully appreciate the majority of posts in here were Liverpool connected, but now it seems to have gone off on an issue nothing to do with LFC.

You are quite correct, the issue at hand has slightly changed from having a Liverpool connection, so if you or any other Liverpool fan, wishes to get back to talking about the club, then that only seems fair.

Nice of you to grant permission.

Oh that is so kind and thoughtful of you, I am overwhelmed at your generosity.

I was genuinely just trying to be nice and respectful, sorry if it did not come across that way.

Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho has been informed that he won’t play for the club this season, with Jurgen Klopp urging a loan move.

So this looks like a definite exit for Mama, something has been going on that makes Klopp unhappy with the player, and it must be very significant for him to be insisting he needs to make a move for at least a loan.

Quote TIA: " Sakho has dropped down in Klopp’s defensive options since the end of last season, with the German expressing concerns about his attitude.

This culminated in the Frenchman being sent home from Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the United States, in a move that proved something of a drastic decision from the manager.

Now, Sakho is available on loan, with Klopp supposedly looking for the former Paris Saint-Germain captain to prove his professionalism.

But with Sakho having already turned down offers from Stoke City and West Brom, Klopp has made it unequivocally clear that he won’t play for Liverpool in 2016/17."