I think that time it had to do with Benitez...

SAF wasn't on good terms with him.

True. But lets say, if there was a healthy relationship between those 2 managers, I think ( talking a bit of c0ck now), the deal might go thru.

Who would have taught that a deal between Utd and Arsenal for the RVP deal would go thru, since the relationship between SAF and Arsene was fierce during the late 90's up to 04 or 05. Then, it mellowed down.

And in the case of Mata as well, Jose could have sold him somewhere else, might be the ridiculous price Utd gave that promted the decision, but he was their best player for 2 seasons. Could be that Jose respected SAF...or like you have said about not a direct rival, hence Jose decision to sell Mata to Utd and make some serious profit from there.

......and no one raised an eyebrow when arsenal sold/released afew to citeh.   

Appears the modern footballer are more protected and therefore more fragile.

In the olde days, the tackles are harder and dirtier. Maybe thats why them oldies are tougher!

However, having said that, the top teams certainly play more games in a season.  Having more competitions.
In the olde days, EPL was 42 game season and Cl was knockout competition with less teams.

Still can go for Reus lar, he can score goals too, and Sturridge is coming back, I don't think Sturridge will injured again, I hope.. 

Cassilas or Valdez also no problem, even Romero also can, as long as better than Mignolet.

i heard news that Sturridge will out for another month and he will miss 7 games..
dang, we are really fucuk now

Koeman is getting impressive day by day. Steps into new office, a new team, new players which he has zero knowledge on their strength and weaknesses, and missing the core players...........yet 3 months later, he turns this demoralized stripped out Soto team into a beast outfit.

Instant impact. No sorry excuses related to time. Gets the job done with players he has. Brought in unknowns and make them play like marquee signings.

Mark of a great manager. No tiki taka sales pitch.

If I remember correctly, Balotelli scores when he is nearer to goal. He is not getting anywhere near because our midfielders are not able to penetrate. Our midfielders are also not running off the ball and getting into good positions.

What has BR been telling these guys?

I have this feeling that BR has got his tactics all wrong in this game so far.

I dunno why ppl blame Balo man...to me, he is playing his game exactly the style he is renowned for. He is never a creator runner like Suarez type (Suarez is the one and only) nor he is a flanker who drops deep to collect the ball and drifts to the flanks.

His style is somewhat similar to Torres right now, this guy holds the ball but needs the god damn service and defence splitting passes from the midfield to strut his stuff, which we failed to do so epicly.

God damn scouts and BR himself should know what to expect before they brought him in man....BR is not playing to his players' strength, he is more obsessed with his stupid tiki taka diamond formation which doesn't work at all than gauging his players ability. It's the same for the past 3 seasons...only this time he got no Suarez's brilliance to shadow his incompetency.

The defence? 3 yrs has gone and multiple faces come in and out. Same old stuff. Clueless.

I'm not blaming Balo. I'm just disappointed that he seemed lazy on the pitch, being sulky when things don't go his way. I also realize that the team performance was crappy anyway and he didn't get the service he needed. But when he did get the chance, he did nothing much. I'm not expecting him to be a Suarez, but I know he's capable of a lot more than what he showed last night. And yes, BR has to know how to play to his strengths. Right now, the team is absolutely clueless on how to operate with Balo alone upfront.

please get rid of Balotelli

need a striker like Suarez

Suarez =31 goal + 20 assist

#ynwa

and james, and chicarito.
nm, we hope pepe can score some OG for us

He wont listen one la. if he is still alive at Anfield next season, he willbuy another team. it has proven buying the 'Saints' ws a wrong decision. All are flop in my opinion! The current saints without the flops  is actually sitting  higher than pool at the table standing! Well, at least they can score and keep a clean sheet!

we need a new striker.... balotelli cannot play, sturridge out. sterling by himself isn't enough.

liverpool needs a new keeper, one more central defender and a striker

Or the cheapest way to improve our squad is to change our team strategy n philosophy... that might cost BR's job

the same argument i have seen before when things seemingly not working out in early days with suarez, and a few other instances.

Balotelli can play but probably not this Lfc style atm. rodgers feels he can turn balotelli to a suarez. while many of use feel he is trying to fit a square peg into a circle of which will balo let him or can he?

So true, I don't know why most of the blame is on Balotelli. Furthermore Balotelli is consider a bargain buy, imagine if he's overpriced like Lallana, Lovren, and Markovic. I guess people will hire assassin to assassinate him. 

You didnt see meh all those putting all the blame on Balotelli saying he lack of effort lar, lazy lar, doesnt do headless pressing lar. Come on lar seriously, Balotelli is just not that type of players, and he doesnt possess any pace to do all those things, so what do you guys expect?  ask him to become an entirely different type of player?

To put it simple, why other manager can take the best out of Balotelli, but BR cant? Its all up to the manager tactic on how to make the best of the players. Of course I understand BR cant change his entire tactic just to accommodate Balotelli, so why bought him in the first place?

Got to agree that Lovren is the most not value for money player this transfer windows. And I really hope BR can bench him and play Sakho instead when he come back from injury.

Not saying BR is doing a good job with Balo but what made you think the managers before BR took the best out of Balo? If they did what do you think made them give up on him one after another? He wasn't a success at Inter as he was still young. At City he was often playing second fiddle to Aguero and Dzeko mainly as a sub player most of the time. He scored more goals at Milan but statistics show that most of those goals come from set pieces (free kicks & penalties) and the rest mainly comes from long shots. His conversion rate is terrible because he takes way too many long shots.

Maybe you are right that BR shouldn't have bought him in the first place simply because he isn't the type of player that fits our high intensity style but are you really defending a professional for being lazy? Does is warrant him to not put in a shift just because he is THAT TYPE of player? Every manager/club has its style and the players are supposed to learn and adapt as they are paid handsomely to do so aren't they? Do you expect to go to Barca and play long balls instead of learning their ways of tiki-taka? I know Balo is not used to doing it and he might not even be good at it but what fans expect to see is him putting in effort instead of simply not trying. It is different matter if he tries and ends up not being good enough. Look at what happened to Mata and Kagawa for not adapting to Mourinho's and Van Gaal's philosophy respectively. It is only a matter of time the same happens if Balo doesn't try to learn and adapt to us.

Also, Balotelli has pace and although not as fast as Sterling or Struj but that shouldn't stop him from pressing should it? Suarez wasn't a particularly pacey player either and he was a nuisance to play against as he fights to win back every ball especially the wons he lost. Even Lambert put in way more effort in pressing when he started in place of Balotelli and the high intensity allowed our offense to operate so much better for the first time since the Spurs game.
Please do note that the ones criticizing Balo aren't pinning all failures this season on him. He is just ONE OF MANY problems we are having to endure this season. Lovren, Balo, Markovic and even Coutinho has been criticised thus far but Balo's criticism is louder than the rest simply because of his lack of effort in trying to play as a team.

Wouldn't you be frustrated if you were one of a few who runs tens of yards only for the ball to reach Balo's feet and it is blasted way off the goal? How would you feel if a teammate of yours gets a small bump on the back which isn't even a foul where he gets robbed of the ball and he then sits of the floor sulking for a couple minutes instead of getting back up to win the ball back?

I know our other new signings are performing poorly but it is not for their lack of effort. It is a different matter entirely from Balotelli's. Perhaps you could pin the blame on BR by saying he doesn't know any other tactic other than the high intensity high risk style we are accustomed to seeing last season but it is clear that is the style that suits the rest of our team and Balotelli is the odd one out here. Shouldn't we see more of an effort from him in trying to adapt to this style? We were never really good at dictating the tempo from midfield even from last season anyway. Many of our goals came from winning the ball back high up the pitch and breaking forward with pace.

Oh oh and for that myth that the rest of the team isn't providing him with enough service? "Optastats suggest Balotelli has missed four clear-cut chances this season. Nobody in the Premier League has wasted more." Once again reiterating that I think he is only being unlucky with those missed chances not bemoaning his lack of goals. I'm only criticizing him for not playing more as a team player.