Liverpool's squad now even with United's?

All 3 United said:
Liverpool now have a significantly better first 11. By not signing anyone we have effectively accepted Liverpool and City finishing above us which can only be called nothing short of pathetic for a club bigger than both combined.
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This sounds like something Mourinho would say.
 
I think the gap is much closer. Over the years these combined XI’s have usually had more United players than Liverpool ones, but it’s definitely more balanced now.
 
Interesting thread, this. If I was to choose a starting 11 from both squads I'd go:

De Gea
Valencia Baily Van Dijk Robertson
Matic
Pogba Keita
Salah Lukaku Sanchez
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No one can argue against the fact that they have closed the gap somewhat

Here's hoping that the new guys would flop and that Salah's last season was an exception rather than the rule.



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I really don’t want to be named a ‘scouse lover’, so I’ll whisper it quietly. I think they have done well in the market (on paper at least) and expect them to be title contenders this year.

I don’t think we are too far off ourselves, but we need another couple of signings before we can seriously compete IMO.
 
I'd say pretty much even, yeah. We've got a better manager though, so we'll beat you to second.
 
Igor Drefljak said:
Not much in the squads in my opinion.
Big difference for me though is Klopp will get a lot more out of his players than Mourinho will.

Bookies have Liverpool second favourites as of now, and for me, it's solely down to the managers
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if city go top again and if liverpool don't push them alll the way, if they are 20 0dd points or something adrift again, he will get stick.
 
Goalkeeper - United

Defence - Both are poor, I'd give the slight edge to Liverpool as van Dijk is comfortably the best of the bunch

Midfield - United. Just about, as Pogba & Matic are proven to be quality players. This could change though depending on how Keita & Fabinho settle. Had Liverpool signed Fekir I would have given them this.

Forward - On paper it's close, slight edge to Liverpool. In terms of performance it's Liverpool by an absolute country mile.

Overall, I'd say Liverpool have a slightly stronger squad.
 
WR10 said:
The only reason they didn’t win the league last year is because of a lacking squad at times. They should give city a good run for their money if not win it this year
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Liverpool got 75 points from their 38 league games. City had that points total by game 28. They could have played 50 games to City's 38 and still wouldn't have troubled them.
 
Liverpool slightly better imo. Sadly I have this sneaky feeling they’ll continue their attacking form, while gaining greater control over games overall as they’ve identified their weaknesses and adressed them accordingly. Ala Chelsea’s last title under Mourinho when they brought in Costa, Fabregas and another I keep forgetting.
 
ivaldo said:
Sanchez is better than Mane and I'd prefer Lukaku over Firmino. They function better than we do, that's it.

Our midfield is better than theirs and our keeper is better than theirs, while our overall options at CB are better, with VVD and Bailly being the pick of the punch.

To say their starting XI is better than ours is hypobolic bullshit.

If you said theirs is slightly better than ours then fair enough, but no, it seems you can't make a point here without going stupidly over the top.
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Wouldn't be such a problem if you didn't get so triggered everytime you read one of my posts. It's not the first time and I left it previously since pedantic conversations are a waste of time.

Clearly you and I differ widely on how we value our players, hence the differing opinion. If you think Sanchez is better than Mane, well all I can say is enjoy the season ahead. What you don't realise is that the best teams have good attacks, Liverpool reached the CL final and played good football in the PL in the second half of the season with a midfield of Milner, Henderson and Ox. Why? Because of their attack. I don't care if Pogba is great player, if Lukaku is, or if De Gea is, because while all three are, there's nothing else up front for us. Why did we look so toothless up front last season? Lack of good wide forwards and full backs. If you think the standard of our players on the wide positions is good enough then you're in for a shock this season.
 
CognitiveNeuro said:
Liverpool fan here.

De Gea vs Allison - De Gea

Valencia vs TAA - Valencia

Bailly vs Lovren - Tied. Maybe edge to Lovren since he reached WC Final with Croatia and played well.

Jones vs Van Dijk - Van Dijk

Young vs Robertson - Young

Matic vs Fabinho - Matic

Pogba vs Henderson - Pogba

Lingard/Herrera vs Keita - Keita

Mata vs Salah - Salah

Sanchez vs Mane - Mane

Lukuku vs Firmino - Firmino

Maybe it's tied...but honestly, Man Utd's defence and midfield is light years ahead of Liverpool's while Liverpool's attack is much better but not light years.
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This is a flawed way of comparing teams.
 
Pool’s defence and GK are worse than ours. VVD is over rated and quite shaky, he isn’t better than Smalling or Bailly. He is better on the ball but defensively nah.

Fabinho and Henderson wouldn’t get into our midfield and it is up for debate who is better out of Keita and Fred.

Salah Lukaku Sanchez would be the front 3. Would be interesting to see Salah keep up his form from last season.

Sanchez ans Lukaku have proved they can do it in the PL for more than 1 season so lets wait and see.

We will finish above them bin dippers as usual.
 
marktan said:
Wouldn't be such a problem if you didn't get so triggered everytime you read one of my posts. It's not the first time and I left it previously since pedantic conversations are a waste of time.

Clearly you and I differ widely on how we value our players, hence the differing opinion. If you think Sanchez is better than Mane, well all I can say is enjoy the season ahead. What you don't realise is that the best teams have good attacks, Liverpool reached the CL final and played good football in the PL in the second half of the season with a midfield of Milner, Henderson and Ox. Why? Because of their attack. I don't care if Pogba is great player, if Lukaku is, or if De Gea is, because while all three are, there's nothing else up front for us. Why did we look so toothless up front last season? Lack of good wide forwards and full backs. If you think the standard of our players on the wide positions is good enough then you're in for a shock this season.
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Just goes to show how much crap you post then. Better yet, if you stop posting with ridiculous levels of hypobole, I wouldn't be responding.

I will enjoy it thanks, something I dont you'll be capable of. You'll be too busy telling everyone the sky is falling down, again and again and again.*

"The best teams have great attacks." Statement of the century! Beleive it or not, they also have great midfields and great defenses. Shocking, I know.

Oh yes, they were so incredible last season they managed to win absolutely nothing while finishing comfortably behind us in the league.

You don't care if they are great players... when your post was about direct comparables between the starting XIs. Makes perfect sense!

*and again and again and again...
 
Camilo said:
They've got a good side, no doubt about that, but I'm not sure there's really much between them, City, us, or Chelsea when it comes to the first 11.

We've been pretty terrible for 2 years, but it's not been anything to do with the personnel.
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really?
 
Because of Salah I'd say they might be slightly ahead now. Having a superstar player who can get you that many goals should make a difference. With Pogba we wont be getting the same thing.

But we'll have to see how their new players gel into the team. Some might take a year to get going
 
For me, Liverpool have added real quality where they needed it in their first team. The likes of Allison, Van Dijk, Keita and Fabinho were much needed additions because the options they had simply weren't Premier League class.

Shaqiri is the only one I see as having added depth to a position in their squad. If something happens to a starting keeper, centre back or midfielder, they are still going to be relying on some very average players to back them up.

We have two good keepers in reserve, a gaggle of centre backs who are all at a fairly similar level (if none so good as Van Dijk), guys like Fellaini, Herrera, Pereira and McTominay in midfield and Martial and Rashford up front. We still have by far the greater strength in depth to deal with injuries and rotation.

Thr problem for us is that depth only means so much. They have such a cohesive attacking unit up front and we have such a disjointed one. They'll score far more goals than us and with the added quality to their first team, barring too many unfortunate injuries, I think they'll finish ahead of us this year.
 
ivaldo said:
Just goes to show how much crap you post then. Better yet, if you stop posting with ridiculous levels of hypobole, I wouldn't be responding.

I will enjoy it thanks, something I dont you'll be capable of. You'll be too busy telling everyone the sky is falling down, again and again and again.*

"The best teams have great attacks." Statement of the century! Beleive it or not, they also have great midfields and great defenses. Shocking, I know.

Oh yes, they were so incredible last season they managed to win absolutely nothing while finishing comfortably behind us in the league.

You don't care if they are great players... when your post was about direct comparables between the starting XIs. Makes perfect sense!

*and again and again and again...
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I'll wager you this then, Liverpool will finish ahead of us in the league and will go further than us in the CL. And that'll be a direct reflection of the teams we have.

Also funny you accuse me of posting hyperbole, when you misconstrue criticism of our team and its weak areas as doom-mongering. The skys fine, but our team isn't as good as you seem to think it is. Crazy opinion right? Forgive me for wanting a bit of ambition and improvement in our team. Better than having your head up your arse and pretending that everything's great anyway, which is all you seem to do.
 
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It doesn't really mean anything comparing player for player. Their first 11 have all been bought with a plan to play a high energy game, we have a mix of players that suit different styles, put them under Klopp and they wouldn't fit the way he wants to play. If we played tomorrow I'd expect Liverpool to beat us.
 
I rate Allison, van Dijk and Keita. Shaqiri is a great squad option. The squads are not too far apart. It's Salah and Klopp that makes me think Liverpool is that bit better.
 
When they are on song, their starting eleven is strong and can beat anyone so Liverpool's starting team is better than Uniteds starting eleven.
However it's really close and United definitely have better depth.

One thing that irks me is how suddenly a lot of people are talking like Liverpools fullbacks are almost world class. Robertson has been a decent player for a few years, nothing more and TAA is a good talent but let's see. They had a good run at the end of last season but there are less than 50 games for Liverpool in between them, pretty sure they gonna come back to earth this season.
 
Hard to say on the squad but I would rate their first team over ours for sure. We maybe have a better squad. But honestly I'm not sure.
 
If you compare player for player in a 433 / 4231 formation used by both teams, it could be 6-5 or 5-6 = pretty equal 1st eleven on paper.

In real life it's a whole different story: Liverpool have a couple of "superstars" in key positions that really performs at a very high level (VVD & Salah) whereas Uniteds "superstars" Pogba and Sanchez doesn't really stand out for them. Personally I rate Martial a bit higher than Sanchez. But that's another story.
 
I believe, our squads are comparable in quality. You have more quality in depth though.

Last season we played more fluid as a unit, where you relied more on individual performances. We were probably better than the sum of our parts, meaning better coaching/system or whatever. So when you ended 2nd despite your team wasn't that well functioning, it says something about your individual quality.

But it's a new season, and it almost never goes as predicted, so we can measure our di*ks all we want for now, but it really doesn't matter how big it looks. Can we finish the job and make the ladies happy, is what matters.

I expect Man United and Liverpool to compete for 2nd fwiw, but we've seen almost every season, that some teams rise to the occasion, and some teams fall apart, so let's see where we are, when the fat lady sings.

I for one can't wait. Let it roll.
 
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I think United are getting 80+ points again this year, don't see any reason why not and Liverpool will get 85-86 max, so it will be very close between the two in the end, but unless City completely collapse at some point, they should win it comfortably.
 
All this and that being their attack better....

If ours pull their fingers out,
Martial-Lukaku-Sanchez
Equals
Salah-Firmino-Mane
 
marktan said:
I'll wager you this then, Liverpool will finish ahead of us in the league and will go further than us in the CL. And that'll be a direct reflection of the teams we have.

Also funny you accuse me of posting hyperbole, when you misconstrue criticism of our team and its weak areas as doom-mongering. The skys fine, but our team isn't as good as you seem to think it is. Crazy opinion right? Forgive me for wanting a bit of ambition and improvement in our team. Better than having your head up your arse and pretending that everything's great anyway, which is all you seem to do.
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So it's got absolutely nothing to things like tactics, playing style or the managers approach then? All the matter is who has the best XI...

I'll gladly take that wager.

Misconstrue? I highlighted the clear hypobole at play. You stated their XI was, and I quote, "far better than ours." Even the Liverpool fans here are calling it pretty even.

Really? How good do I think the team is? No, I can see the weaknesses in our squad, and have spoken about it on several occasions, but I can express my opinion without sounding like a manic teen going through puberty.
 
Our goalkeeper is better. Equal in defence. Their midfield midfield is better hands down, would take Fabinho over Matic easily and the attack is similar on paper but their attack gels better. They are a better team than us this year.
 
How would the two squads look if you only swapped the managers?
 
There starting XI is as good as ours. Their squad, not so much.
 
Their squad is better. We’re kidding ourselves if we think otherwise. We have more depth at centre half. We’ve a lot of very average players in our squad now and it’s ageing.
 
ericking said:
How would the two squads look if you only swapped the managers?
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This is the key point. Man for a man there’s not much in it starting 11 wise. One manager let’s the team express themselves and play with enjoyment, the other tries to spoil the game and bore every one to death and nick a goal. We could buy all the players anyone likes but if we don’t let them play there’s no point really
 
I actually think Liverpool will play slightly defferently this season - the gung ho stuff is great for fans but look at the gap between Liverpool and City last season. And to think you had people saying Liverpool are the better team! There needs to be more defensive structure and you can't always press the press.

Klopp has bought in a new GK (no brainer), 2 CMs & Shaqiri. I think this will mean there'll be more strucutre about how they play. Shaqiri is just cover/competition for the front three.
 
ivaldo said:
So it's got absolutely nothing to things like tactics, playing style or the managers approach then? All the matter is who has the best XI...

I'll gladly take that wager.

Misconstrue? I highlighted the clear hypobole at play. You stated their XI was, and I quote, "far better than ours." Even the Liverpool fans here are calling it pretty even.

Really? How good do I think the team is? No, I can see the weaknesses in our squad, and have spoken about it on several occasions, but I can express my opinion without sounding like a manic teen going through puberty.
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Funny, you've been in hysterics in each of your replies.

Clearly tactics do matter, but the biggest role over a season will be the players. We'll see. If you want to see how badly you'd be priced for odds - go look at the bookies. Liverpool are currently almost half the odds of us for finishing top of the league. I'm guessing guys who price odds for millions of pounds in value know less than you?

And I have a feeling a lot of Liverpool fans are being magnanimous. Ask them how many would swap their team for ours, and the answer would be more forthright.
 
They have the same quality squad. They will attack better and defend worse due to coaching differences. Sanchez martial and lukaku are arguably better than their front 3, but they make their games play out to favour their attacking players so well
 
royboy16 said:
Liverpool now have the luxury of resting players with these new signings which will suit Klopps style of play so they should pick up more points this season and not "burn out".
I see them as City's main challengers this season.
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City have Bernardo Silva, Mahrez, Sane, Sterling as well as Aguero and Jesus for the three attacking positions. That's a real pool to choose from, that's why they win the league with 100 points. Liverpool have Solanke, Sturrige and Shaqiri, let's not over-estimate the influence from these players.
 
Squad wise I think we're pretty even, with us maybe, just maybe, edging ahead because of a couple of really high quality players.

However, taking into account the quality of the coaching it's not even close this season - I expect Liverpool to outperform us significantly in the league. They're just a better and more cohesive team than us, and that's down to the manager.
 
How are you judging this? Based on last season or the quality of the individuals?

United didn't perform well yet still easily finished 2nd. Despite Liverpool apparently having a phenomenal season and Salah breaking records.

De Gea is better than Allison.

Defence is pretty much like for like.

Fred-Matic-Pogba should be great together.

Fabinho has looked poor but Keita should be a good addition. Not sure their midfield trumps ours though..

Salah-Mane-Firminho
Sanchez-Lukaku-Martial

If United's gel then I don't see much difference. Lukaku and Sanchez both proven to be capable of 20+ goals each.
 
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