Liverpool Banter

10 Jan 2026 11:21:55
Was just reading that Enriques contract at PSG ends this summer and he hasn't signed a new deal. Not sure if it's just paper bull. So potentially that would be both Enrique and Alonso available in the summer. Good options if we are removing Slot.

10 Jan 2026 12:10:15
But according to the slot sympathisers no one is ready to replace such a terrible manager.

10 Jan 2026 12:20:40
When is Alonso available? Only joined last summer and is now back on track.

10 Jan 2026 12:40:35
Slotthedross, the key word in Red Jones' post is "potentially". And you're right, Slot is a terrible manager. He's only won titles in 2 different countries. Do you actually support Liverpool or are you a troll, given your username? If you're a disgruntled season ticket holder, accept my apologies for having a pop.

10 Jan 2026 13:14:32
@Dross, I see what's happened. You just didn't read or understand what has been said.

The conversation was that if we got rid of Slot mid-season, there weren't any viable candidates to make a difference for the remainder of the season.

The conversation also looked at the options if Slot were to be removed at the end of the season and Alonso was identified as a suitable (at least to a fair percentage of contributors to this forum) candidate to fill the position. As has been mentioned there is now another likely candidate and, I suspect more candidates will be mentioned and perhaps considered by 5he club should they wish to replace Slot in the summer.

Not sure where you got the idea that Slot couldn't be replaced.

10 Jan 2026 13:59:48
I think Enrique's contract runs until 2027.

The talking point is about rumours of him not wanting to sign the "lifetime" contract PSG are putting on the table, which naturally leads people to look at his previous quotes of him wanting to manage a team in the Premier League one day.

10 Jan 2026 09:02:30
Reading about Villa's interest in Conor Gallagher, loan with an option to buy of around £40m.
I'm sure many will disagree but I think he would add some much needed energy to our midfield, i've been a fan since his WBA loan days and would be starting him over Macallister. A trio of Gravenburch, Soboszlai and Gallagher in midfield for me would be a success.

10 Jan 2026 09:34:33
I'd sooner start my grandmother before MacAlister lord rest her 🙏.

10 Jan 2026 09:36:24
A good player Ernest no doubt but imo not what we need, it's more a bruno g, caicedo, Anderson type we need who more defensive minded, high energy and v aggressive.
Would do wonders for us I reckon.

10 Jan 2026 09:51:49
You're right I disagree. If he's not good enough for Chelsea or Athletico he's not good enough for us. Decent player but not Liverpool quality. If we want to meander around fourth from now on then fine, otherwise a hard pass from me.

10 Jan 2026 10:01:31
Still no defensive midfielder though,

10 Jan 2026 10:47:55
Earnest. IMO that's a good shout at that money he would be an excellent addition. People disregarding him out of hand rearly don't see what a good squad player he could be. That guy leaves everything he has on the pitch. Never gives up, has bite in the tackle and can score a goal. I agree he's not world class but, I would have him.
Emery knows a player when he sees one.

Tbh I totally forgot about him, he went abroad at the same time as Mctomeny another underrated player.

10 Jan 2026 10:55:45
Gallagher doesn't play in the DM/ deeper role, IMO. If we need a midfielder with bite to help Grav in the pivot then, not sure Gallagher is that guy. Good player, tho.

10 Jan 2026 10:59:11
I think there is a bit of hang up on the "defensive midfielder' issue. I would say better midfielders and a bit of depth. City and Arsenal don't play with a defensive midfielder as such and do just fine.

Again it's as much down to tactics and our way of playing that doesn't help our issues. Same midfield as last season PL Champs, this season pretty dire! Can't all have just fell off a cliff at the same time🤷‍♂️.

{Ed001's Note - City and Arsenal both play with one. Rodri and Zubimendi play that deep lying midfield role.}

10 Jan 2026 10:59:51
After the way villa have dealt with Elliot, I'm not sure any club should enter a loan to buy with them.

10 Jan 2026 11:05:16
Frode Kippers - Salah wasn't good enough for Chelsea mate.

10 Jan 2026 11:16:19
Please god know 🙏 Gallagher is nowhere near good enough mid table quality at best.

10 Jan 2026 11:38:07
We need a passer in midfield who can also tackle if needed. Gallagher is an all action midfielder who does a lot of things decently well and has a good engine but he isn't outstanding at anything, isn't technically great, isn't a passer and isn't a particularly good progressive passer either, he's a good presser and reasonably decent carrier of the ball but also technically a bit limited, which isn't something we look for in midfielders.

I'd say Jones is superior to him in pretty much every aspect.

10 Jan 2026 11:44:04
Chewy "mate" Salah was in his early 20s and was considered a promising talent and only appeared a handful of times. If you're comparing that to Gallagher then you're deluded.

10 Jan 2026 11:50:44
Supposedly its an option to buy after the initial loan so seems pretty risk free, only Villa linked at the minute.

10 Jan 2026 11:27:18
I just can't believe Barry has joined the dark side and become so negative!

Come back to us Barry!

10 Jan 2026 12:22:12
Sean please tell me how you can be positive especially about MacAlister?

10 Jan 2026 13:12:02
Apologies when I said"defensive midfielder " I was referring to a specific type of player, someone who put the boot in as such. As you say Zubi and Rodri both do it for their clubs more technical players . Which sort of proves my point that maybe it's better midfielders we require and also it's a much down to tactics and our style of playing.

{Ed001's Note - Rodri very much sticks the boot in, he has a lot of technical ability with it, but he certainly does not shy away from tackles. Zubimendi tries, but he is just weak, but they have Rice alongside him to provide the bite. I do get what you mean, but no point getting more technical players if they are going to still get bullied.}

10 Jan 2026 13:28:12
I wish he was Gary McAllister.

10 Jan 2026 13:29:23
I never said Gallagher was a world beater. But he would fit in as a squad player. I'd have over Macalister any day. You won't see him rolling around faking injury. He won't sulk either. He's a Stevie Nicole type, never going to be the big cheese, but he knows where the cheese is kept and makes a good sarni.

We could do worse. 40m is good money for the player that left. Don't know if he's improved his game, but a few seasons in Italy won't have done him any harm?

10 Jan 2026 14:03:11
Conor Gallagher is a decent midfielder with tonnes of energy.

However, I don't think that is what we need and nor is he Liverpool level.

We have so many box-to-box 8s - we need specialist DMs and/ or deep lying playmakers.

Could see Gallagher at Spurs, Newcastle or even United.

10 Jan 2026 08:52:03
I can't understand the stand off position LFC are taking with Palace! What's the alternative?

So Konobhead goes on a free. leaving us with VVD Joe Gomez and a recovering Leonie in the summer. Clearly under pressure to sign a ready made player for CB. Looking at £70-£80m?
By then 2 would be required. So say £120m spend?
Taking a chance on letting city in makes no common sense to me.

Go and get the player this week. It will pay dividends in the long run. He is a Class player.

YNWA.

10 Jan 2026 09:31:50
You're disappointed with the summer transfer window, already, Chrisy?
We might have wanted Guehi in the summer because of the price, £35m, and because he wanted to come. Things changed and things might have changed again. A deal might be less doable now.
I do hope the club will be looking at centre back options in the summer, too, though.

10 Jan 2026 09:49:26
Class players don't stay at smaller clubs ( no disrespect to palace) why haven't we, United city Chelsea Arsenal etc shown interest before? It's because he's free it's attractive. Bournemouth had class defenders last year was they only there 12 months and gone.

10 Jan 2026 10:04:37
I genuinely think that people are total over estimating guehi's ability just because of how bad our defense has been this season. I actually think he's not much of an upgrade if any at all on what we have. He plays in a back 3 currently that sits deep, we play totally different.

I get we need more bodies to cover but it's not like he's prime Maldini. We clearly need players but I won't be overly upset if this lad ends up somewhere else.

10 Jan 2026 10:10:41
I would imagine if Palace are willing to sell they will want to get in a replacement beforehand.

10 Jan 2026 11:00:58
EM, Guehi was having a medical at LFC while City had Igor from Brighton coming in as a replacement. Well, up until Glasner threw the he toys out the pram and scuppered the whole thing. At least, that's what Ed01 said, I think.

10 Jan 2026 11:01:52
Hellohello, I get your point on Guehi. Last season I said exactly the same, every single time I watched him he didn't look good at all but this season he looks much better. I think he'd be a big improvement on Konate but that's not very difficult to find because Konate is absolutely useless.

I hope we sign him but I don't think we will, I can't see any deals getting done this month.

10 Jan 2026 11:11:29
Hi Rigsby.
It's well documented on here I have been singing MG PRAISE since way before the summer transfer window opened.

I was fuming when we didn't get it done. I also blame Hughes for leaving it so late.

I was chuffed like most with our summer window! Like most posters I thought we would kick on and dominate for years to come.

I highlighted in several quotes I couldn't see how we made the players fit together. But trusted Slot to blend them.

How wrong I was 😩 I had a nagging doubt about the way we played on the run in and again posted about it on here.

People saying he's not a good player are miles of it. He is a class act. He will become a legend at Anfield.

So overall mixed feelings about summer window. I think the players in big plus👍 wish Diaz stayed, but take Ed001 point him and his dad were sneaky snakes, who disrespect what we did for them.
I guess my big disappointment is the fact that Slot just isn't what we all thought he was, and has totally missed what's required by us as fans, the premier league as a whole.

YNWA.

10 Jan 2026 11:23:54
Chrisymate - Fully agree, if I have to watch another much needed talent get snatched out from under us, and still have to listen to fools claiming "Edwards is playing a blinder" I'll end up pulling me hair out mate.

10 Jan 2026 11:34:11
At last a voice of reason hellohello. By the way people talk about Guehi you'd think the lad could beat everyone on his own.

He plays on the left of a back 3 with loads of protection all around him and no space behind him.

We'd be asking him to play in a 2, much higher up the pitch, going one on one with strikers and wingers. It's a totally different skill set. He could adapt really well but I suspect he lacks the height, speed and physicality to do it.

I think he could end up being a worse option than Konate. At least Konate has the height and physical strength even if he does have a million brain farts a game.

09 Jan 2026 11:47:03
ED001, bit of a long post sorry.

Any chance you could provide a tactical breakdown on what the new tactics/ style slot has introduced are and what he's trying to acheive on the pitch? Would love a youtube video but no pressure, i know you are all busy.

There's no off the ball movement, no patterns of play, no passing lanes being created, no creativiy. Its all just slow, safe and negative.

The midfielders push up the pitch and are just static. Macca for example is having a tough time at the moment. Is it simply down to him not being good enough or is he just unable to play this style and these tactics? In one of the early games this season he was basically playing as a striker for most of the game which meant there was even less room uptop and left a hole in midfield.

Thanks to all the Ed's. Appreciate all you do.

{Ed001's Note - I have actually been looking to do this for a long time. I did even produce a couple of videos in the close season on our style of play and how it evolved under Klopp and then how it was under Slot last season. But I recorded them on my tablet, which decided to have some kind of seizure and lost all the info on it and reset itself to factory settings. The screen is not working on it now, so I haven't been able to even try and rescue them. But I will try and do this instead for you mate.}

10 Jan 2026 09:02:05
It's tough to assess it this season because of so many factors.

But in general, wide wingers, inverted fullbacks, 2 CMs dictate play, CAM floats between the lines and link with CF. Fullbacks play dynamic and flexible with wingers - think the few moments vs Wolves.

10 Jan 2026 11:04:37
@ghost121, your post is not long at all. You should see some of the posrs @MKS posts at times. It's like a thesis, lol.

Big Up, MKS btw.

10 Jan 2026 12:11:38
Just play 4-4-2 we won loads of trophies playing 442 i am still trying to work out the Terry Venables christmas tree system that every team tried except two us and united who won the most trophies with their system us and man united YNWA.

09 Jan 2026 22:58:06
I was dreading the Arsenal game. I honestly thought they would wipe the floor with us. After 20 mins I felt it was any moment now. Then lfc strung a few passes together gained a Litle confidence. Bradley's attempt hitting the bar again helped.

I know the pundits say it was boring and so on, but I felt we had a descent 2nd half. Without threatening much. Over the pitch everybody seemed focused and on task. Both full backs and Frimpong had much better games.
Macalister up to his old tricks peed me off. Pedestrian at best.

But imo after not expecting anything I was more than satisfied

So gutted for Bradley. I do not accept Martinelli didn't know he was Bradley hurt. I would have chinned him without a second thought in my day.

God wish we had a Steve McMahon now.

09 Jan 2026 23:52:54
Arsenal don't wipe the floor with many teams, Chrisymate. They aren't set up to outclass the opposition, and they'd lose more games even if they were. They are a team set up to never be in vulnerable positions defensively in any situation and winning games through attrition, but this has real consequences for their attacking play - they are awful at it.

Awful. On current form, they will be the first champions since Leicester to score fewer than 2 goals a game. Now, this season, who cares if they win the title? Well, they aren't winning another one doing this - if it hadn't been for the frankly atrocious performance of Arne Slot this season, they wouldn't be leading this one either.

10 Jan 2026 00:05:14
Steve McMahons wouldn't last 10 minutes now unfortunately.

10 Jan 2026 04:40:10
i was disappointed, because i felt like arteta planned the game as if we were no 1 in the table.

eventhough it was not a full squad if we had brought the game to then, we could have won the game. but we were playing the slow possession game, this season reminds me so much of brendan rodgers, but with a better overall squad.

10 Jan 2026 05:13:29
To be fair it was two risk averse teams against each other, we didn't try to go for it when we were on top, arsenal's style of play is so methodical but so unadventurous, they never try to play a risky ball down the middle or do anything other than try to play a perfect ball down the flanks at the exact right moment, they relented in the press second half because they were terrified of getting caught in behind, they are champions in the making but they certainly don't play like it, it's football motivated by fear rather than the will to dominate.

They bought a central striker who is just there to feed on scraps whenever they fall to him and try to occupy defenders to get them away from saka because he certainly isn't there to run in behind, to be a target man to play others in or be part of the build up, he is so peripheral to the team and looks so lost every time I see him play for them (mind, our plan with isak is equally mystifying) .

We are pretty much the same way at the moment but we went through a catastrophic and traumatic run and are missing all our starting attacking players, not sure what their excuse really is. If we had ekitike in that game or frimpong made a better decision once or twice and delivered a decent ball I'm pretty certain we would have won it.

{Ed025's Note - i cant argue with any of that PB..

10 Jan 2026 06:29:39
No disrespect to Macca, who was brilliant here - but i'd love to see Ronnie Whelan in today's game.

I think he would an absolute superstar.

{Ed025's Note - Ronnie was very underrated for me Tuzza, but Macca was far from brilliant mate he was half decent but still a dirty stinking cheat mate..

10 Jan 2026 07:30:48
Haha. I love it when you sit on the fence Ed.

Ok, we'll agree to disagree on Macca, but I totally agree on Ronnie - he was vastly underrated. Perfect 6/ 8 hybrid in today's jargon.

{Ed025's Note - he was the heartbeat of that side for me Tuzza, a lot of my friends who were reds were not big fans of him actually...i dont know why..

10 Jan 2026 07:31:55
Great player Ronnie Whelan.

10 Jan 2026 09:44:33
Some player ronnie whelan, could do everything and always a big goal in him.
Would've won goal of tournament at euro 88 only for van Basten wonder strike in the final.

10 Jan 2026 10:30:02
He was indeed. Bob didn't make too many mistakes in the transfer market back then and he was a snip from Home Farm, a Dublin team, A great player for Liverpool and a great player for ROI too. Terrible commentator though!

10 Jan 2026 11:14:25
PB, we were never going to go for that game regardless of whether we had our CF's available or not, considering the way we have been playing. It simply wouldn't have happened hence with CF's missing, no chance on earth, for real.

Now what I was surprised about with Arsenal (and their fans were fumming about this too) was that they didn't go for the game either which suited LFC to a T. Not only did couldn't/ wouldn't step it up, Slot went 1 v 1 in the second half which was Arteta's kryptonite already at Anfield this season.

From the moment he couldn't figure it out and with us outnumbering them in midfield (due to the lineup) and with us picking them off with Frimpong, I think Arteta just gave up and just went for the draw.

As for Gyokeres, I have always believed that Arteta's style does not suit a traditional CF esp. one who needs a lot of service. It fits more of a false 9 like Havertz. Or a CF/ winger who can drop in and orchestrate like Jesus.

10 Jan 2026 11:18:27
Ronnie Whelan was a great player for us in the 1980s.

10 Jan 2026 11:43:41
Patrick you say we didn't go for it but in the same breath say a couple of better decisions by Frimpong and we could've won it.

The fact is we were dominant in the second half and got into some great positions to win the game but the final ball was off. Wirtz could've also had a penalty after a mazy run.

This does not suggest we were playing for a draw or not going for it. We were trying to win but Arsenal are an extremely defensive team and have the best defensive record in the league. If we had gone gung ho and got caught on the break these pages would be going mental about how naive we were.

It was a decent performance, away from home against the title favourites. We should all be satisfied with that and hope we can now take confidence from it moving forward.

10 Jan 2026 09:39:26
Ronnie Whelan was absolutely brilliant. I loved him but you're right Ed025 he never really got the praise he deserves.

{Ed025's Note - he done all the messy jobs Barry and was the glue that allowed the others to express themselves mate..

10 Jan 2026 10:21:36
Was Gary Neville sighting violence on Thursday night with his comments over Martinelli incident some one from liverpool team take a red card! If so can someone inform the police so they knock on his door at1am in the morning and arrest him. YNWA.

09 Jan 2026 19:44:14
But this is what I was saying earlier. Edwards and Hughes might see a problem now but they think longer term. In all the years I have followed Liverpool I can't ever remember Liverpool buying a player to fill a short term gap and that player being a success. So they will look at the worse case scenario and that's Konate re-signing on a much higher salary in the summer and Guehi coming in and Leoni as a back up.

So why spend 60m now when there will be better options in the summer and the picture will be much clearer on who is staying and who is going.

09 Jan 2026 21:36:37
Guehi will be a City player on Feburary 1st. We have missed the boat on a fantastic player and one we desperately need.

09 Jan 2026 22:58:40
Guehi is a good player but he's certainly not a fantastic player. Seems like a good lad but he plays on the left of a 3 for Palace where he's got plenty of support.

For us he'd be asked to go one on one against big centre forwards and would get bullied. He lacks the pace a physicality to play in a dominant team.

If we get him on the cheap or for free in the summer then great, if he signs for someone else I won't lose any sleep over it.

09 Jan 2026 23:11:49
Kimuraking, you just make up fairy tales in your head and then write them down here. You have zero background information nor foresight. I'd say you're still in school going by the garbage you spout.

09 Jan 2026 23:39:11
Kim, I am not sure I would want you in the trenches with me. You come across as someone who wants us to lose.

10 Jan 2026 00:28:44
Fulham 2 Liverpool 0
Arsenal 6 Liverpool 1
Marc Guehi to be a Man City on February 1st.

Keep them coming, kim.

10 Jan 2026 05:59:21
Besides the vitriol, Guehi would be a miss for us and a good gain for City.

10 Jan 2026 10:27:37
Guehi looks too short for me for a center half, could not see him winning a lot of headers .