[Mikus LFC]

If you do Jim, you’d might as well get the engravers out. Arsenal must be in a quandary over what to do; on one hand they don’t want to lose two big players (including Özil), of whom they’d struggle to replace, on the other, both players at times look like they’d rather be elsewhere.

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[Mikus LFC]

If I could see evidence of a ‘sea change’ under Southgate, I’d be more optimistic. Granted we’ve got some better players coming through now, we will still have a glass ceiling under him imo.

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[Mikus LFC]

I agree Nine but I think a lot more of the club fans would be more sympathetic if England actually performed well on a regular basis. But it’s the same old story every time and as much as Gareth Southgate is a lovely chap and it’s relatively early days in his tenure, I just don’t see us doing very much under him. He completely lacks any charisma, which in my opinion is an absolute necessity for the England job because the players need a figure they can warm to if the going gets tough, and he needs to galvanize spirit into the team. So to most club fans, the quicker this charade is over, the better.

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[Mikus LFC]

I think Moyes has been quite naive in his attitude in all of his jobs since leaving Everton and has clearly underestimated all of them.

At Man Utd, I think undoubtedly the six year contract gave him a false sense of security whereby he thought he could take his time and there’d be no consequences. The Sociedad move was always a strange one for me and again I think he naïvely thought he could do a job without speaking a word of the language. And again at Sunderland I don’t think it ever seemed to strike him about the size and urgency of the job there – rather than maintaining the foundation and siege mentality Allardyce had installed, Moyes seemed to act as though he was taking charge of a mid table side whom he could coach some nice football to. If he underestimates the West Ham job, he ain’t going to last long.

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[Mikus LFC]

Jim, yeah as I say, I’m just partly playing devils advocate in a way just to look at the other side of the debate which I think is worthy of examination and does raise some important points.

If you’ve not seen it yet – a very good recent film (that as often happens goes under the radar of the main blockbusters) is one called “Miss Sloane”. Very much pertinent to this debate, especially the issue of lobbying which is basically an industry over there and the effect on democracy.

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[Mikus LFC]

Yeah fellas, I should stress I certainly wouldn’t want to see such lax gun laws in this country, particularly the automatic arms that can fire huge numbers of rounds rapidly. I was just trying to take somewhat of a neutral position to examine everything.

Jim, as for my last paragraph – I agree on the surface it seems ridiculous that the modern state would take over, though in 1929 many in what was a liberal democracy in Weimar Germany laughed off what they deemed a ridiculous idea that Hitler would ever gain power. As I say above, I wouldn’t want to see the same lax gun laws here, but we should always be wary of an ever more powerful state which we have been seeing in many nations in the West – I’m not saying they’re necessarily going to go rogue but I’m simply stating that a nation in which only the state (and criminals for that matter who get them by smuggling) have guns where the citizens are not allowed them is one that, in many ways, seems troubling.

The root problem here is trust – in the US, there is less and less trust in the citizens because there is less community, more drugs, more mental health problems, as well as other societal problems that help give rise to such massacres. Giving the state more power can work to an extent, but thinking the state will solve the root problem is not the answer either. If western civilisation is ever to solve its problems they need to come from within – the state can only do so much, and if you get the balance wrong and give it too much power, then that too can be dangerous because you can’t always trust the state either.

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[Mikus LFC]

I hear what everyone is saying and we all obviously want to see an end to these massacres, but these would be some thoughts. Firstly, I am always surprised when these stories appear that less attention seems to be paid as to why the incident happened as opposed to the means by which it happened. The root causes of these massacres are ultimately people, with the availability of guns obviously exacerbating the problem, and they are usually caused by people who are completely deranged from reality who are often taking powerful mind altering drugs. Having gun control may well reduce some of it, but it will not solve the problem – and bear in mind that some of these people will still be determined to kill others regardless of whether guns are available and so they’ll just find another way – either by way of explosives or other means. China for example have had several knife massacres in recent years. Should we ban the sale of all types of knives? Will that solve the problem?

As for the UK, look at the alarming rate of increase of acid attacks we have, and of knife crime which is now a daily occurrence in many of our cities. Whilst they may not all cause deaths, they cause terrible life changing debilitating injuries.

Calling for the ban of such weapons (which in these cases is impractical anyway) will not solve the root causes. I wish there were more news reports that investigated what the actual causes of these crimes are. But this you hardly hear of, you just hear the usual lone wolf reason or simply gang criminal activity in the case of incidents here – but that isn’t good enough for me. We need to find out *why* more and more people are doing this as opposed to just examining *the means* by which people are doing it. Before people say it – I know a lot more die in the US from such massacres but any death from a massacre anywhere in the world is obviously one death too many and we can’t just shrug our shoulders and put them all down to ‘lone wolves’. There’s clearly more to it than that.

Take the Las Vegas shooter – the bulk of the media reports and discussion since have been about gun control. But I doubt many will have heard that the shooter had been prescribed diazepam in the year before the massacre, which can apparently lead to aggressive behavior. Now this drug may or may not be a cause here – but wouldn’t it be sensible to put the same effort investigating these potential causes as we do when investigating/revising the gun laws? Another problem I would point to is the increasingly individualist nature of society where everyone keeps themselves to themselves with nobody looking out for each other – again society has to take some responsiblity by looking out for strange behaviour in their close family/friends/neighbours etc. This recent Texas shooter posted a picture of his gun the week before on social media with the caption “She’s a bad bitch.” Nobody close to him think that was rather odd when coupled with other behaviour?? If you are to have guns in a society you have to have an extremely vigilant one or else you’re asking for trouble.

Obviously to many citizens, it’s all still a price worth paying for because it would make it a lot harder for a hard-line government to seize control if large parts of the population were heavily armed. So it’s not so much guns they love, but the ability to keep the government from ever becoming all powerful. When you consider the tens of millions of citizens killed by despots over the 20th century, they will see it as a justifiable and essential liberty to have. Interestingly the UK law on guns a century ago was pretty lax – and indeed the reason why gun controls were brought in by the UK state was because they feared popular uprisings by their citizens after the Russian revolution of 1917. See the link below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7056245.stm

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[Mikus LFC]

Nine, I wonder if the CL results last week had an impact (even though it’s not the PL).

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[Mikus LFC]

Balerion, I partly agree. City, although currently looking very good indeed, are still not perfect. Indeed in their game vs Liverpool I actually thought their cracks were starting to show up until Mané got sent off. Meanwhile Mourinho got crucified by the media for not having a go at Anfield. But it’s all about picking up the points, keeping momentum and not peaking too early. Obviously if Man City can maintain this form, the championship is theirs. But for me, their current form is just that – form. The battle certainly can not be deemed to be over already.

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[Mikus LFC]

HH, I think the criticisms were obviously in the context of our whole season, both domestic and European, what with our inconsistencies and ongoing problems. But admittedly, Keane went a step too far and over-sensationalised them.

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[Mikus LFC]

HH, there were some valid criticisms but Keane’s ‘bottom of the garden’ jibe was just him trying too hard to be funny and sensationalist. He does that quite a bit as a pundit for me.

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[Mikus LFC]

Am increasingly impressed with Pochettino, he’s building a very well balanced and, most importantly, effective side. What would still frustrate me as a Spurs fan after last night however, would be the result, as Sean said, at the weekend at OT. Yes, Kane was absent, but a team like Spurs should now be less reliant on certain individuals. I assume more money wasn’t spent in summer because of the new stadium? If so, then obviously Spurs are planning for the long term which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, Pochettino ain’t going to be around for ever (neither are Kane or Alli if they don’t win a big prize soon) and had Spurs just added one or two real world class players to their team they would be right up there as one of the teams to beat.

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[Mikus LFC]

HH, for me that mid to late 90s era was when we had the best balance in the premier league between the best foreign talent and the best club youth talent. It’s clearly gone too far the other way now – some will say it’s better because we have the best talent now from the whole global pool of players. But would you say the premier league is now miles better than what it was entertainment & quality wise?? I wouldn’t say it necessarily was. We’ve lost a lot of club identity for me and it goes without saying that the England team has suffered as a consequence. I suspect over use of the loan system has also damaged the prospects of a lot of our best kids. We’ve sacrificed the soul of our game and I don’t think we’re better for it.

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[Mikus LFC]

Almost like a Prost/Senna rivalry between the Manchester clubs – City obviously looking hot at the moment and play glorious football. Man Utd under Mourinho though will keep racking up points consistently and suspect they won’t go away. It’s City’s to lose but José will be waiting for any slip ups to take advantage.

Man Utd @ 9/1 worth a punt?

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[Mikus LFC]

I know many would point out he tends to only go to the super-rich clubs, but if Ancelotti was targeted and came in, it would be fascinating to see how he’d get on. I disagree somewhat with the Editor above. He was arguably sacked unfairly at Chelsea. I wouldn’t say he was a disaster at Madrid either – politics tends to play a big role in these situations. At Bayern, whilst his record, particularly towards the end looked poor, again I think politics started playing a role as I believe he had started to drop certain players that the board deemed undroppable and the players tend to get their way in the end. Ancelotti tends to win by creating the right spirit in a side but if he comes up against club politics, there’s only one winner.

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[Mikus LFC]

Nine, don’t disagree with much of that – that is certainly part of the problem – I had such concerns as he was being unveiled as our manager. He has also been quoted as saying that he likes to entertain first, create that excitement & winning feeling, and belives this is a good way to build momentum – that itself sounds exactly like a page out of Kevin Keegan’s book.

I just think he thinks he’s also been given a long mandate to implement his way – he obviously wanted to bring in VVD & Keita – whilst they wouldn’t have solved our defensive issues (I think we’ll always be vulnerable under Klopp), I think they still would have strengthened us and Keita would have acted perhaps more like Kante has for you & been a kind of insurance policy (though his red cards aren’t currently making that case :-)). And we’ve seen what happens when Klopp doesn’t get who he wants – he leaves it rather than adds someone that doesn’t fulfil his particular criteria. Again, I think part of this is down to him believing he’s been given a long time to rebuild us so he’d rather do it carefully than in a more rushed sense. Problem is, the PL is less forgiving than the Bundesliga, and so the pressure is now mounting up. Also, Liverpool still has quite a big stature and media focus – hence his moaning of the history putting pressure on the young players – a further sign of him wanting to play the long term game and hence his desire to try and lower the expectation levels. It’s a critical time for him. He either learns these lessons (he’s being paid enough), or he’ll go the same way as Rodgers did.

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[Mikus LFC]

Nine, I can’t see many more explanations (unless there are hidden problems between him & the board). Granted he has certainly struggled with the physicality of the league, during his unveiling as LFC manager, he said he would need 4 years before he could get the side challenging for a title. In last year’s summer window, Klopp bemoaned the media/fans obsession with the transfer window, saying it was all about coaching what he had. He is also quoted as saying that he wanted to make Liverpool the ‘most together’ group possible. At the end of the recent window, he again said he was unconcerned if he couldn’t bring in other players. He’s clearly playing the long game here. Why else has he not looked to act more quickly in solving our issues?

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[Mikus LFC]

I echo much of what has been said on the thread. I would point to a few reasons why I think Klopp has taken the stance he has over transfers. First I think he thinks he has the luxury of time to build us up after FSG brought him in – even more so when they extended his contract after less than a year in charge last summer. Has that made him feel a bit too comfortable? Also, he has struggled with the physicality of the league which has exacerbated things. The CL has also raised expectations in a period that he sees as merely the middle of a transition process, hence there’s a disparity between what the fans expect and him playing the long game to build us up gradually.

As regards transfers themselves, I don’t think Klopp is used to having more control over transfers, and, like Wenger, I wonder if he now has too much power and control over who comes in. I’m not advocating the return of a transfer committee, but it strikes me that FSG are very passive owners who seem to think Klopp will take care of everything and have thus given him a lot of the control. Klopp’s ‘no signing better than a bad signing’ actions that we’ve seen over recent windows is I think, symptomatic of that. The club obviously need to support him in a resource sense as much as a financial one, but if Klopp becomes too stubborn, it will cost him.

The evidence for my analysis has been seen in his bemoaning of the stature of the club and blaming it’s history for putting pressure on our younger players, as he put it. Whilst he does have a point, it is futile to moan about something he can’t control – there will always be a strong media focus on Liverpool. This is a critical time for him, and he seems to be finding that the premier league is much less forgiving.

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[Mikus LFC]

I’m with Oz yob on this. Mourinho always plays the percentages and in this particular game he simply deemed it too risky to have a go. I also think that even though Man Utd have spent a lot of money, they still have a dearth of match winners and I think this fed into José’s thinking at the weekend. I just don’t think José has quite the side he did whilst at Chelsea during the years he won it. If you compare the spines – De Gea is obviously strong enough, but in defence they are not quite there IMO. In midfield he’s very close having Matic & Pogba, but again, I just think Makalele/Lampard & Matic/Fabregas were more refined and reliable. As for up top, again I think Drogba & Costa were still that bit more reliable/refined than Lukaku. Mourinho needs a very specific spine for me, and he just hasn’t quite got it yet though he is close to it.

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[Mikus LFC]

Nine, if you refer to my link above, Chelsea did win £5 million more in prize money, but the TV money was about the same as Liverpool. So in total, Chelsea walked away with about £5 million more. You can obviously see a bigger step change in terms of total TV & prize money after the top 6 clubs because their TV appearances are much lower. The step change isn’t huge though between Man Utd & Everton – around a 9.2% drop by my rough calculation. I think we can obviously say the premier league is more competitive now because the TV money is still pretty good and thus the teams lower down can spend quite a bit more money than they used to. My concern would be more against owners who can now sit in the top 6 and enjoy a total revenue (TV & prize money) which, at worst, is just 6% lower than what the champions get – there is an argument to try and increase some kind of incentive there. Arsenal is a prime example.

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