This podcast is part of the SportsSacial Podcast Network. Turn off your laptop. We're on Stakeation. I'm on TotalWine.com. They have so many rosés, chardonnays, and prosekos, it feels like a real vacation. Wonderous selection, helpful guides, ridiculously low prices, total wine, and more. Turn off your laptop. We're on Stakeation. I'm on TotalWine.com. They have so many rosés, chardonnays, and prosekos, it feels like a real vacation. Wonderous selection, helpful guides, ridiculously low prices, total wine, and more. [MUSIC] Lego. Lego. No Lego here. It's the day trippers. [MUSIC] Tonight, we head enthusiastically into the first of our World Cup theme podcast, which will fill the void 'til pre-season training commences in July. On the show, we'll discuss the runners and riders in the greatest show on earth, which this year returns to the home of football, a place where men aren't afraid to talk about erectile dysfunction, Brazil. How will Liverpool FC influence not just England, but the World Cup in general, with so many of our players taking part in the tournament? We call our likely semi-finalists. We flag the players to watch for from some of the lesser-known countries, like Argentina and Germany, and we discuss our first transfer as a dyed-in-the-wool red completes the longest and unlikeliest of journeys towards finally making his debut at Anfield. We also look at our likely second signing, and what else we can expect now that players taking part in some respect actor have left, Melwood? Right, first off, it's an actual LFC done deal. And no one saw this one coming in a bucket of bank holiday Mondays. It was always likely to be a Southampton player, but Ricky Lambert was definitely not seen by anyone. Given his massive red, and previously released by the club, this is some fairy tale, isn't it, Karl? Yes, a pretty amazing story for Lambert, all right? And as you say, nobody saw this one coming at all. It's something that's come out of absolutely nowhere, and it's done as quickly as we've probably seen the deal done over the last few years as well. Absolutely, and for the man himself, I think there's been such a genuine reaction from fans towards him. This seems to be such a positive response to his just kind of raw emotion and delight at the transfer. Yeah, I think that seems to have gone up another notch today once it's been confirmed. I mean, once the rumours started, obviously, it was the usual split on Twitter and social media about whether he's good enough, whether there's too much money in all the rest of it, but I think everybody's seen his face and his reactions and his comments today, I think everyone's just delighted they've got another player who's really going to fight for the team. And just an initial response to you, just a one or two line, are you generally happy with it as a first signing of the summer? Yeah, yeah, I don't see any downside with it at all, to be honest. We know he's not going to be a world beat to like Suarez is, but yeah, he's a good addition. Absolutely, absolutely. James, your own initial response to the signing of Ricky Lambert. Well, my initial response was, I'd kind of been asleep for a short while in the evening, such the word I was, I keep, and then I woke up to see that it was very quickly. It came completely out of nowhere, you know, and folded in a matter of hours, didn't it? And it sounded like immediately, it was almost a done deal, and I was delighted. Because certainly for as long as I've actually kind of ever watched him in the Premier League, I've rated him really highly. I'm already a little bit sick of kind of like reading about people saying, "Oh, you know, he's not just a target man, and you know, he's actually quite good with his feet." Because I kind of think with anything, I think, and Carl would possibly have the numbers to sort of corroborate this. I think if you watch Lambert, and then you actually look at his output, I think it's the other way round. It's more the case that he's a very cultured and very sort of, you know, a very cultured striker who's got a high creative output as well as a goalscore now, but who also happens to be 6'2" and probably decent in the air and go with his back to goal. Because he's actual, if you look at his scoring record last season, I think he got 13 goals into 30-odd appearances. I mean, some of those appearances were playing off the striker. He can't play there when Osvaldo was in the team. But I think the thing with him is, is that it's as much about what he creates, because I think where Lambert will come in useful for us, I mean, I've long been to the opinion. The third-choice striker for us has got to be someone who provides something a bit different. A lot of people wanted Remy, but to me, Remy would have been kind of an upgrade on Barini, persistently flexible, but kind of quite one-dimensional, just scores goals. And, you know, that's fair enough, but I think in the case of Lambert, you know, you pay £4 million and £30 grand a week. We don't lose anything if he doesn't, if he doesn't turn out to kind of like, quite be able to make the step up, but you know it won't be for the one to try. And because this is dream come true, and that itself could be a good thing for the squad, because you're not going to get someone like, "If we're going to get Barney, you are quite rated." He might have not been too happy about not starting, you know, 30-40 games a season, and then the other thing as well, I was going to say with Lambert, is basically that, what we, I thought we needed something different, and what Lambert will actually provide is just the space people create for people. And if you look at his output, the kind of key passes in that kind of thing and chance creation, that it's outstanding now. He's normally going to have one of Suarez and Sturridge playing up there, so that's out of the first, you know, probably the best striker in the league, and, you know, maybe even the third best striker in the league alongside him, then Sterling who gets quite a few goals now, then Henderson just got the potential to add that to his game. Potentially, if we bring in Lelana from Southampton as well, there's another player that's got a decent goal record. So I think it makes a lot of sense in that he does offer something different, but not so much as a pure kind of battering round, as a kind of a player that just creates very, very well in the film. Absolutely. Neil, yourself, just to get your own immediate feedback to it, is it a transfer that you're happy with? And what do you see that this guy is going to add to the team? Well, I suppose just to carry on from what Kyle was saying, I'm sorry for James, but for James to say, the first thing that springs to mind to me is versatility. It seems to be Roger's first part of Colin, and he transfers seems to want versatility with all his signings. I suppose the most refreshing thing about it in relation to transfers and the way football has gone there, there was no mention, there was from Ricky Lambert's side, there was no mention of money or transfer fee or wages or anything, like he just wanted to design for Liverpool. There was no uncertainty whatsoever involved, and I suppose the rate that the transfer happened. It's testament to that. And for me, it's very refreshing to see someone that genuinely wants to play for Liverpool, and finances were second, which I'd say is nearly as it's probably a once-off, now it's very rare anyway. Absolutely, absolutely. Phil, your own initial response, and maybe you could lead us into talking about the player himself, the fact that he's not a traditional target man, despite the fact that that's the impression that there are most some people, and that he is a man of some considerable quality for the price we're getting. Yeah, look, formerly in Kuwait, a guy who scored 28 goals in his last two seasons in the premiership, he's gone to come and knows himself arriving that the men in front of him are storage and Suarez. He's not going to expect to demand the force to him in place as he comes in the door. But what he's going to give is that I keep thinking back, I keep thinking to the Bellamy Transfer when Kenny was in, and the passion and the desire and the will just to do well for wearing the red jersey, it's above nearly everything. You could see the embroidered joy the chap had in his interview, you can see it in the pictures, he's borsing, he's just borsing, even the one where Skoy Sports caught him at the airport, and he couldn't talk about it, and you could just see, he was rubbing the face, he wanted to tell the world how brilliant this was, and as a story, I was just saying to me, Mrs, who absolutely poisons football and couldn't care less, and I was saying to her, I was explaining to her, this fella was released when he was 17, boy Liverpool, he spent 15 years more or less trying to get back to the top level, managed to get there with Southampton, and has now come back to the club that he supported as a boy and still support, such as still a massive red. I said, all that's missing now is the penalty to win the Champions League final in extra time next year in Berlin, because in reality, this is the type of fairytale film plot that you have, it's been down in the domes and then suddenly walking your way back right to the top, it's got everything that you need to actually make a great film out of it. The player himself, James has covered most, but look, he's not a traditional target man, he looks like a traditional target man, but there's more to him than just that, and the one credit to him is every time he's gone up a league or stepped up to a different team or a better team that he's seen, he's progressed as a player, even as he matured in years, he's progressed as a player himself, and he does score goals, and anyone, look, we're going to have 48-out games next season between Champions League and between the league itself and various court matches, and we're going to need fellas who can come in for league matches, who can cover when, and we know storage is a bit, is a bit, you know, tender when it comes to injuries and picks them up and will miss 10-12 games over the course of next season, and we need somebody that we can rely on that can come in and score goals, and also give us something else when things aren't necessarily going away in the pitch. Again, like, like if, if, if a Chelsea or something comes and parks the bus, and we're basically have a seven-man attack going against Chelsea, what he can do is he can hold the ball, when that ball goes in there, it doesn't keep bouncing back, or if we put a ball into the box, you've got the, he has the area ability to get on the end of it, but that isn't his prime focus. He can create things, he can make other things happen for the likes of storage and storage, buzzing around him, and he fits into the squad, and I said this two weeks, and I said it again last week, we have to not be afraid of signing players because we need a squad next season, we need, we need 18-19 capable force team players, and players who will be able to interchange and come in and go out, and come in and go out, and not be bogged down the idea that we have a force 11, and that's our force 11, and then the lads on the bench, yeah, they can come in and do a job whenever, but you know, it's not, it can't be an 11, it has to be at least 16-17 for the amount of trophies, the amount of trophies that we're going to go for, and also to retain our challenge and status, or even to challenge again to win the league, we will need at least 19-20 players, because you're going to have injuries, you're going to have other things that happen over the course of the season, and Ricky Lambert, for four million quid, a 22 is a fantastic sign on my book. Yeah, Karl, maybe to finish this out, so that we just get a more rounded picture of what we're getting here for our for our money, and into the squad, and you're talking about a guy who's with Blackpool, Macklefield, Stockport, Rochdale, Bristol, up as far as I think 2009 before he moved to Southampton, but his figures since then have been pretty impressive, I mean, this is going to be our third strike, our third choice striker, but with the, with Daniel Sturgeon, his likely, likelihood to be injured, he's going to get a game or two. What kind of stats can you provide for us based on what he's done so far? Well, I mean, the thing with Lambert is that positionally, he seems to be, he's quite similar to Daniel Sturgeon away in that he does play through the middle and he leads the line and all that, but he'll drop off, he'll drop into the channels, he'll come deep into midfield to pick up the ball, Sturridge does that north a lot for Liverpool, and that gets overlooked a little bit at times. Where he's different to Sturridge is that Sturridge will then, he'll just move it forward a few yards or he'll try a dribble and a shot from a long range or whatever it is. Lambert will wait for another player to move in from the flank sort of the second line of attack to take that space that he's left, and that's where his creativity comes into play. He's a little bit in the way of like a mix of Suarez and Sturridge, obviously not to the levels that those two reached last season, but he's a bit of the two of them. I mean you look at his chances last season, he created 52 or 54 chances I think it was last season, which is somewhere in the middle of Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson if you want to compare it to the Liverpool players. I mean you add in a third choice forward with better players around him, with better movement, you know he had the likes of Daniel's Valdo who didn't really settle last year. J Rodriguez went through a four or five month spell of being very good, but either side of that obviously had his injury and he wasn't quite up on top of his game. He's got better players around him now at Liverpool, so even if he's not going to be playing every single game he's still going to be creating an awful lot of chances he's going to have better people around him to play off his through balls, which are very very good. We talk about him as being a bit of a target man as well, but not just that. Well Mickey Lambert in terms of the aerial drills that he won last season was pretty much exactly the same as Louis Suarez, whether you want to say that that's a little bit to do with the balls that were coming towards him or the fact that he was up against defenders who were specifically targets and then because they thought he was very good in the air as well, obviously that's a matter of context. But he is someone who's going to offer the chance to do both of those things and the other thing is that he said he did play off the front man a couple of times last season, especially when they had, or when they were trying to integrate as Valdo into the side last season at the beginning. Lambert can play through the middle, obviously in a one or a two for Liverpool. We could see Suarez and Sturridge flagging him or he can partner either one of those two and the idea really for a third forward you would hope anyway is that to not have Daniel Sturridge injured as much as he was because we'll be able to take him out, we'll be able to rest in for the last 20 minutes of matches when he's sometimes picked up injuries, we'll be able to leave him out for Cup Games where he's previously played League Cup, Pripy League and hopefully that extra time to recuperate for Sturridge is going to leave him fit for the big games for the Champions League and everything else. So we won't have to rely on the third striker or such coming into the team because he has to but rather because we can change them. Yeah it's a very very good point actually. I suppose moving from someone who's going to be hopefully flexible and in fitting or what Brandon seems to want from players these days to someone who's a little bit more of a specialist and it's being linked very very heavily with the club to the point that an awful lot of people are reckoning it's almost a certain type of deal and that's Mr. Moreno and Neil have you any information for us on this guy? Well what I can say about him is well for me before Liverpool make any sort of any defensive zone it's the prerequisite for every defender is that you can defend and he seems to be a very good defender of course we don't see as much as this managed league as we do at English League but however haven't said that he's excellent in possession he's a great force touch and he's excellent going forward and he seems to be a very good defender too so he seems to have all the ingredients at 21 though at 21 and for I suppose it's around 20 million I think it's a transfer fee it's hard as your else has been talked about. For personally if you're spending 20 million euros on a defender I think you should be buying the finished article and not buying potential so much. Now at 21 he is by no way the finished article so you're gonna have to allow my betting imperative at Liverpool if he does silent you're probably going to and if he doesn't have a good game I suppose what the feedback might be or he needs six months to settle in whereas I don't think we can allow we haven't a time for anybody to allow them to settle in so not knowing as much as I'd like to know about him he seems to have certainly have all the ingredients been playing at the top club and Raya Madrid seem to be interested as well so and Liverpool so I suppose that speaks volumes in itself. Having said that I prefer as to sign somebody who was better known not necessarily better known for the sake of it but somebody who's won championships elsewhere has been part of a winning team and knows what it needs in the final stages of the season to get it across the line which I in my opinion fullbacks Glenn Johnson led us down massively towards the end of the last season he has he's a winner he has 50 caps and he didn't do the business so I think we should be bringing in players who are the finished I've got particularly for that amount and having said that Mourinho has all the attributes to be to be a top full back. Fair point. Fair point Karl. Yeah just on that point I mean you talk about the finished article which is fair enough everybody wants people who can come in and contribute to the team now and we do definitely need to improve the team right now from the first game here right there but who you know there are not a lot of good attacking left backs around other than who are already at say Real Madrid or Barcelona or whoever I mean and he was close to travelling with Spain wasn't he I mean he's yeah yeah exactly I mean he played just the other night against Bolivia I think it was and he you know he had a good game and if not for Abiliquet that haven't played right and left side this season I'm pretty sure he would have gone but now because he's covering both sides of defence that's allowed them not to have to take a full four full backs and but with regards to left backs elsewhere I mean you know or not just left back but full backs on both sides we've we've got one who's supposed to be the complete package already he's experienced with the international caps with the name and with the big price tag and as you say Glen Johnson was a load of rubbish last season you know yeah we can go out and we can buy a name who's who's won a Premier League title who's in a different league you know and they've been around for another five years on top of what Moreno's got already it's not going to make them any better necessarily there are not that many very very good ones around and if you look at the prices that you're being quoted for the likes of Luke Shaw who obviously is even younger than Moreno I don't think it's a bad investment at all and haven't seen him you know quite a lot of us in the obviously this season I don't really have any doubts about him being worth it over the the next two or three years I suppose Carl my my only take in this and it's rare that this happens is that you've got the likes of Ashley Cole who's available on a free transfer and I think some people will will sort of gravitate towards the idea you know where we lose where we gain on a transfer fee you'd happily pay over the wages for someone like Ashley Cole now again we're back to an issue similar to storage that if you do go for Ashley Cole his fitness record hasn't been great over the last four or five years in terms of missing games and then you're back to a position where I suppose you're playing John Flanagan out of position I've had a look at Moreno as well in that way I think they allow for me I think Moreno is more more um uh finished in the attacking form of the fallback as opposed to defensive form and that's the one bit that you'll have to walk on when he comes in and a lot of people are saying potentially it's the way that the Seville had set up in terms of how attacking and how high up the pitch he wanted him to play but that's not unlike what we're talking about the way Brendan wants his fallbacks to play and there's a part of me that's thinking that if we bring him Moreno to play on the left hand side and play and he's gonna play as a very attacking fallback that we're potentially looking at maybe more a more defensive right back so that effectively if you have somebody like wisdom or Flanagan coming in they won't bomb on as much down the right hand side of the pitch and we'll probably could potentially fill in that gap alongside Gerard or something know that that's based when in true transition because they're not going to be as high up the actual pitch um I do have the same concerns around the transfer fee the only name that I was thinking that sort of meets the qualifications that that Carole was talking about in terms of who's out there that's what that's actually gone now and won a championship and has performed under pressure and in a way has performed where you know teams have been suffering with with a supposed jinx is Siquera a Benfica who we were linked with previously and there's talk that the Benfica haven't made a good enough offer to someone Siquera on on a permanent deal and it was interesting that that that sort of I saw that link um yeah I think it was linked I think that's already broken a bowl of the the Portuguese newspaper and it was sort of it was retweeted et cetera last night when it was floating around and you just wonder if the room was then of Moreno potentially going to Raya Madrid because he has kind of way right in thinking that well he was quoted at one stage that Moreno said that he'd prefer to wait for Raya Madrid if there was if there was talk from him actually coming in from um don't think it was him himself he said all along that you know until the World Cup squad was told that he wasn't saying anything about his future one way or the other that's all he was concentrating on but yeah of course like with Suarez as lawyer and everybody else who wants a bit of money this time of year yeah there's been talk from his solicitors and his agents and everything about the bigger money the bigger clubs yeah yeah and so in reality to me there's only two potential options and that are different to Moreno in terms of experience was etc that's there that we know that are available and that we potentially interested in the only other name that's been that's been shown in the ring that would fit the profile etc would have been Ricardo Regina as a Wolfsburg but I think you're talking the same money if you had been going in for him at the same time so to me it's it's one of the other and we've gone from Moreno they seem to put all the eggs in the basket if that's the fallback the type it's the attack and football back that we we always put with a Brendan Roger solid then look I'm I'm all for it it says to me that we have money to spend which is great which is great you seem to be talking yourself into a a duo of flannel on his more natural right side and and the new kid Moreno and squeeze now for a Glenn job that's basically okay one can always dream yeah speaking of dreaming Steve Brennan and welcome to the bonk again brother hey Shikiri yeah talk to me about Shikiri it sits more your opinion and I know Phil agrees with me we should be offered Shikiri ahead of the Lana all day long like the prices that are really weird to be cold when I was looking at Twitter they're on the way up and sitting down to name on 30 million for the Lana like we should literally just walk away from that there shouldn't even be another negotiation 30 minute quay for the Lana is ridiculous for that money to be looking at someone like Fabregas not the Lana but gone by to Shikiri Shikiri you play ball toys plays number 10 he does a lot and he's just he's been a low key a boy in Munich like when he left bar there was and there was a lot of talk about where he should go and he I think it was obviously kind of his dream to go and play with Boyer at that stage and it just hasn't worked out purely because they've re-rearing Robin hmm playing either side of a number nine and Shikiri could fit into our team in a number of positions like he could he's genuine we're seeing the World Cup like I believe it's going to be one of the stars of the World Cup I think so it's not have an excellent solid and he's the main man for Switzerland I really I look for a quite one I mean if they're looking for 15 million which is half what's at Hampton looking for the Lana it's an all-brainer yeah James it's it's fair enough point to see my star is that like not getting in on a regular basis to the Bayern Munich team which just kind of reminds me of the of the AC Milan of around 1990 year or they just bought all the players it's not exactly much by all the players it's it's not exactly a criticism so would he be a guy that you'd be excited to see coming towards Anfield because that's Shikiri yes right yeah I mean funnily I suppose yeah I mean I saw him more at Basel to be honest but when you when you saw him at Basel in the Champions League games he's very very impressive you know very quick feet very fast you know basically and it's such a simplistic thing to say but a player you know clearly had the capacity to make things happen and funnily enough before I came on I was just reading a thing on that stats bomb website comparing the Lana and Shikiri it's kind of apples and oranges really because I think the Lana is kind of a midfielder you know Shikiri is sort of a you know kind of a wide forward he's more of an attacker but Shikiri's sort of numbers for a player of 22 are you know very very impressive you know he's very good at more or less everything in attacking terms and I think the thing with the player of about that age and I think you know a carnal Jana every pronounce it would be another if we got him and Moreno would be another they may be big fees to play particularly well certainly in the case of Moreno which looks like it may even be the next one that happens but your buying players at the age of between 20 and 22 it's a very good age to buy I mean we saw this with Henderson if you find a good one it's great because you know if the clubs you know if the player proves to be very good and the club is actually successful and if otherwise to actually put the player to be happy to stay where they are you know you might happen for 10 seasons and if they're not that you know if they're not that great they've still got a certain amount of resale value you know you make a loss but you know another club might think well look didn't work out from there but they proved before they got there they were decent you're buying a player at 20 to 22 23 they've already shown that they can come through probably the possibly the most difficult thing where some players fall by the wayside which is making the step up from kind of youth level and sort of development level football to senior football and they've already shown some of what they can do and what they've shown is what they might be able to do in the future you're buying them sometimes for big fees but you're buying them in an age where the resale value is pretty good whatever happens but there's the excitement of what they might go on to do and be capable of particularly when we've obviously got a manager who's shown himself to be very good at improving you know you know yeah very very fair um a point that another point that you made there Neil is uh that's the deal with the lana the reported deal lana and of course we're dealing rumors at this stage seems to have uh many rumors so many some honey and they're all so vague but the the numbers seem to be consistent enough they're being thrown out here would you be in of the school of thought that says walk away from 30 million deal for that kid no i wouldn't you wouldn't simply no and i think they're i think we um as supporters and Liverpool's apart and followers i think we're concerned in ourselves a little too much for price tags um the targets have been identified by the club and they know i did i'm sure Liverpool are aware how possibly high the transfer of free could possibly go i mean if we want to compete at at a high level on all fronts not like we did last season just in the league we want to compete everywhere we're going to have to pay a premium for players because forcefully throughout the footballing world everybody knows just the uh we have the champions league money and we've increased tv money and so we're going to pay a premium for any player we want to sign and we just need to identify our targets and go and get them because if you're a member in the last transfer window there around Christmas time people were saying why don't we just pay the money and go and get them for a kind of play anchor deal for example just pay the money and go and get them but this time people are more apprehensive saying hold on to the money and don't be spending so much i think we get caught up and all that too much identify your targets and go and pay whatever he costs if we if Rogers and the committee and do the unfair to common thing on your fingers there yeah good though as well yeah that's the point i'm making is if if if they see he's what we need and that's how much he's going to cost just go and get him and don't get caught up so much in transfer please because does this this this this stems though from from 11th doesn't it this stems from Andy Carroll Stuart Downins your badly damaged play that i cannot find Liverpool fan who's not badly damaged but but particularly Stuart Downins the point what about the point that the Neil's making there but it's not a no the general point is fine right yeah and i completely agree if if if if we identify a transfer target and that's who we want and we go all in then we have to be prepared to go but there has to be a cap at some point that and you'd imagine and look we would discuss the committee last week but you know you're talking about lads who are paid to make these decisions right and i don't for one second believe that they will go in and say right we're going it's not like they're bidding for a house and they're getting carried away with the auction here you know what i mean um there's there's there's talk that's been floating around that you know the a lot of this is is shadow boxing effectively that the Southampton board want to look like that they've getting a good deal out of this and they're pushing it and if you remember go back to about three or four weeks before the season ended and there was talk that a £25 million deal had already been agreed now for all intense purposes it looks like we're going to end up at a £24m figure if we're going to so in lalana right but there's all that other stuff that's going on with Southampton in terms of losing the manager they've already sold Ricky Lambert they would need to look like that they've got the best deal possible for Southampton out of this and for the fans sake if you know you know to save some face because if what that appears to be a bit of a for sale that's at that's happening at South Hampton this summer with pudge the statement today where they're saying yeah we have a preference not to do deal to the new managers in place but if it's right for the club exactly which is just exactly and I think no that's a side to well how does security play the security in terms of value terms rate to lalana you know you can have these discussions separately they aren't tied up in one you're allowed to think that lalana is a good player but you don't necessarily think he's a £25m player you know that's where the reservation will stem from if we were talking you know the difference between 15 and a £17m bid and and and South Hampton wanted 17 or 18m I don't think I'd have a have an issue in terms of that I just feel that £24m it's a bit back to what we talked about the Moreno thing right I just think that a £24m you should be buying something close to a superstar yeah you know um in those four years for 22 and a half milli I know it was for soreness was a bargain at the time yeah but there was also baggage with soreness bagger yeah so I think that's where the apprehension goes we're a bit we're a bit damaged with the with the um the carol and the downing thing right but look look up the the m62 to Manchester right and look at that when they signed for Ron he was a flop for them right and look like he was a war class player coming into that side they spunked acres of money on nanny and Anderson when they signed them as well you know you know out of them nanny's being good at best in in his things but they didn't sign war class players on the last fellow all those players that they did sign for those replacement process they did win the league more often enough yeah I know that's my general point when you get to a stage where you want the challenge for your your your fishing in a bigger barrel of this stage and you're also fishing with with heavier line on a bigger rod really you know what I mean that's a fucking wonderful metaphor I'm gonna finish on that that is fucking beautiful I'm so happy with that okay let's move on talk a little bit about the World Cup which is basically what's going to be driving us through the next few weeks while we're waiting for our preseason to start um carl brazil home of football five times world cup winners this tournament's probably likely to go right off for a number of reasons isn't it yeah I think every ever since it was announced the brazil we're gonna hold it this time I think everyone's been waiting for and looking forward to it certainly every single player that you hear doing interviews says oh you know playing in brazil of all places this is the one we want to take part in yeah so with that and the football and then we got the backdrop of obviously a bit of social unrest around the place as well it's just this you can't miss any of it I mean really the football everything that goes around at the stadiums the nonsense of FIFA the whole lot combined is it's going to be amazing yeah and even even the downside as it seems at the moment compared to the potential absolute cluster folks that are ahead of us in the next two world cups the way they've lined them up at the moment people are going to absolutely savour this aren't they it's being in a proper football nation and full for the most part of people who really want to see the the team's play um Neil would you have any concept what you think is going to be Liverpool's star man at this tournament I suppose the obvious answer for everybody is swires isn't it obviously well that if he's fit we don't know whether he's going to be fit or not now all the noise that's coming from your guy he's going to be fit but I suppose that they will be there to be seen I suppose looking a little bit closer to home if the potentials well after storage his goal they run out against Peru he has all the he has all the potential in the world if England go a long way in the tournament he's going possibly going to be their star man because he's going to score the majority of the goals they score because really he doesn't seem to be informative in it and suppose allied to that as well it's just thinking of the Liverpool connection he is staring but I know he didn't start you know like but it's when he came on he made enough of a difference the suggest he should start yeah so from the Liverpool end of things depending on who they signed before the World Cup as well it has to we have to this is a very good point but I suppose initially Suarez and storage potentially very nice James for you who would be the guys to look out for from a Liverpool perspective who might shine at this World Cup yeah I mean Suarez is very obvious so in terms of someone who can kind of really announce themselves it is hard to look past sterling and storage because you know storage is kind of you know storage is in a subway advert now and he's kind of always made itself but he's starting to get the record we know I mean yeah recognition is mentioned in you know in adverts for you know to takeaways yeah he's the way around this storage is he's starting to kind of be recognised as kind of the main man now he's England's number nine isn't he yeah and it comes at a time where Rudy's been looked at going into a tournament with a sort of a sense of well if Rudy doesn't do it this is national tournament or never have done it once since he was 18 and you know people are even asking is it worth building the team around Rudy because you kind of have to do that you're going to play both Rudy and storage you have to kind of build it around Rooney is it worth doing that when the guys not performed at a tournament okay injuries but a lot of the time the reason he's not been fit for the tournaments is because he's not the you know the greatest athlete or the greatest professional when it comes to getting over those injuries so you wonder but I mean storage yeah for that reason he's just started to get that bit of recognition domestically he's kind of England's you know main man in terms of goals and he's scored 21 goals in the Premier League and all that kind of thing but obviously he's not played the great he's not played European football for Liverpool he's he's only recently come into the fray really regularly for England so certainly storage sterling as obviously impressed anybody you want to watch the Premier League but in a wider sense again he's pretty new I would say those two ahead of Henderson just by virtue of the fact they're attackers you know attacker score goals attackers you know you know set goals up that they they get the attention you know Henderson could well impress people there but I mean yeah it's hard to look past those two because I think most of our players will cover the England players and Suarez aren't they you know there's not too many others that have gone either because they've been left out of you know the Brazil squad Lucas and Catina will play for countries that haven't got there I mean Sacco's another one but yeah again same thing you know attackers attention don't I? That's it that's a very good point Steve Brown I could see you kind of leaning in when Sacco was mentioned is that a guy you think might show wealth? I'm intrigued to see his Sacco gets on um we've I don't think we've seen anywhere near the best of Sacco um in a Liverpool jersey this season obviously at the season was in through a lot with injuries and form so on so I think it'd be a very interesting to see who or how sorry Heavy gets on playing with France um he's the main man at the center of France defense apparently so be interested to see how if he can make that step up next season into a Liverpool jersey it doesn't be in the main man because think last season it was obvious Skirtle was the number one of someone partnering Skirtle and so I'd like to see hopefully Sacco is the number one choice next season of someone coming into partner Sacco rather than Skirtle so it'd be interesting I'm intrigued to see how he'll get on and he was pretty central in fairness to them getting there in the first place you scored the two balls into Ukraine and the in the playoffs but there were there's a two-wheel down one-wheel one or two-wheel down just for us the first time and he scored twice in Paris so he will be integral to any hope that France could just blow up up to the first game like it's just very true very true it's been their captain as well in the in the war games yeah yeah yeah they seem to see a little bit more perhaps on them than than it's been seen and being recognized just yet Liverpool I think Carla is there anyone that stands out for you apart from the obvious names we've mentioned um no I think it's gonna be Raheem Sterling to be honest yeah I think he can probably gonna have some sort of tournament along the lines that Michael Owen did back when he first made the grade I think he'll start off as sub he'll have a big impact off the bench he'll learn himself a stat and spot and he'll go on to be the the main man yeah yeah whether that means England actually do anything or not remains to be seen but if they do it's you know on account of us having all the players then there's a good chance that someone from Liverpool will do well Liverpool are going to win the World Cup Liverpool on Sterling yeah the one thing that Sterling has gone into this and is that he did play in the under 17 World Cup of Mexico a couple of years back so he's used to he'd be more like he's played in this type of temperatures on in a tournament football and he set that tournament a lot as well he was England's top player in that actual tournament so for me like he's already got the ground and the training to come in and take the world stage in this type of tournament format um Sacco yeah I think like again Sacco plays the way he naturally plays when he was up PSG in terms of he's aggressive in his attacking and funnily enough I think France are potential dark horses and for because they've a decent enough defense they've got a strong midfield and if Bensum is on for where he can score goals but the problem you have is that they've they've suffered with um infighting as we know true to things um and I don't know it's it's it's it's it's it's looking at it you know the there's plenty of potential stars in the England team who are Liverpool players and Gerard going into his final tournament could set the world of where in the same way Port Perilodid in the European Championships you know this this is his last chance in it in in a real sense to do something here and make us mark and as England captain going into this well let let look if you've already sort of half done a sneaky segue into an expert so let's leave how do yous Inger Pools one side there and let's move on to Inger Pools you think my Saltinger Pools mentioned France there's a potential dark horse um outside of the obvious ones I think everyone's predicting Brazil, Argentina, Germany spent for that for that for the last four who do you see um you know if you go if you go on on the the likelihood of how many European teams have managed to win a World Cup outside of Europe yeah right the the whole thing is that I it's against a European team winning this actual tournament just didn't you know the history and the stats and I'll back it up so I'm then you're looking at okay who's likely to win it out at South America if it's not Argentina or Brazil um and arguably Colombia are the best position team of all the South American teams outside the big two they've got they've got a reasonably good defense they've got um you're one Fernando Contero the the kid who's who's meant who's expected to set the world of Lloyd de Vodka Hammez Rodriguez who hasn't had a great season at Monaco this year but he had played incredibly well for Puerto beforehand and done well there one issue is the folk how I think is now out of the squad those talk of the season I didn't say the point as well I think he's missing out because of the ACL however in Jackson Martinez in reserve they have another player who can score a lot of goals um you know I mean what think you've been writing about these guys lately I haven't I know no that's cool well I'm impressed with that so I just they have the firepower defend look I think every team in this in this tournament are questionable defensively so I think it's again it's gonna it's gonna boil down to you know can can a European team overcome the odds and actually put you know go on to lift the trophy outside it's down to those three in my opinion okay uh Steve you're a man of those World Cup as well tell me tell me things about dark horses and potentials and Colombia and my dark horse I've been looking at it for a couple of weeks now it all depends like it actually doesn't depend as much on Farco people seem to think Farco doesn't play we just did this yeah I know because you're looking at his piece i'm looking at his piece again yeah kind of pieces away please thanks anyway go ahead no it's I can't see it being a World Cup of many dark horse many shocks um I think it's going to pretty much go to form yeah um as I said this quarterfinals maybe you'll get one or two but up to the semi finals it's going to be I think it's going to be Brazilian Argentina Germany so because he's playing and knocked out early so you can't you can't see past the obvious the big the big shots not to win okay fair enough James your own shed for um who you think might be outsiders are possible uh likely can they so upset um I think Steve said it well really it doesn't really look like much of a tournament for the dark horse because I think anyone in europe who's not considered you know sort of strong enough to be going there is one of the favourites anyways probably going to have that kind of that slight disadvantage of playing on you know playing in south america and depending on whether fix your spall altitude you know heat and all that kind of thing but I think the other fact is that the other kind of factor is that I think two of the teams that a lot of people would look at as well they've got really good squads on paper at columbia and belgium will neither have been to a world cup in a long time I think i'm out of turn if i'm right and saying i think belgium were at 2002 weren't they yeah yeah it's columbia in essence 98 so you've got generations of players who've not been to world cups and I just wonder whether that kind of might make it a bit more difficult for them to actually really put put something together then again you know that might have been said about turkey in 2002 and they got to the semi-finals then you know in so did south korea but then that was just a very very weird tournament anyway um yeah but i mean if the argentine look a good bet because i think you know a lot of pressure in brazil whether the the adverse atmosphere with some of the political stuff might not be the you know the the best thing for them i'm not sure probably won't really probably won't filter into the stadium but tim vicary who's you know would have his finger on the pulse with south america floss gives the impression that they will be quite a fickle crowd and this isn't you know on paper the most outstandingly talented brazil team it's it's probably be a bit of a crushing machine really yeah and i think they could depending i mean to be honest if you if you if you're brazil you might be hoping for the fact that spain's struggling their group because you could end up you know struggle to the extent that they they end up in a sharp knockout because that would be a difficult point to play then again they they battered spain in the confederations cup didn't they so argentine i think would be one because uh messy had a big mid-season break there's not the kind of the the tevez messy dynamic there those two not really working that well together they've got a very good team on paper if if not as good defensively at the other end you just wonder and i think that they're kind of they're run their potential run is a bit more favorable you wonder whether it's a sort you know messy's never really done it for us and seeing the same as yes with Barcelona yeah i i i can design you wonder whether it might be the time but dark horses it's hard to see i think yeah i i have to i'd have to roll in behind you there i think i i'd have a strong fantasy for argentine myself carl finishes out with your thoughts about who you think might be possible at dark horses and then if you might you might move on to who you think might be some surprise players of the tournament outside of the pool uh connections all together all right well i mean dark horses uh we've woke up at that i think uh columbia are probably the only not one of the first four favorites we've reasonably got a good chance um i i don't think uh you know people like holland are even gonna get past their group to be honest i think uh chilea probably get through their head often yeah yeah um uh spain i don't think spain will go out maybe as early as was saying here but i do think germany might do that um i could see germany not doing as well as everybody thinks they're going to do at all to be honest right right interest very much the germany aren't they i think the fixtures they've been in difficult climates i think a lot aren't they yeah they're struggling with the squad as well aren't they carlick if you look at cadir who who you'd imagine would have started and i know he made the squad but like he's he's he's not back in the format yeah so moving moving along then carl uh who's going to be possible you know pobarski's are sally james of this tournament fellas they want to make a breakthrough and get a big move and then possibly not be very good so well i mean you know you think that by now most teams know all the players who are going there you know maybe apart from a few that's when they're from algiary or whoever it might be here and um but it's definitely a lot of players around who you know normal fans might not have seen enough or to know who they're going to be and then they get their transfer move afterwards and you know people like kalesan actually they're left back from Bosnia head to governor and i think Bosnia probably go through actually it's the first world cup but i do really like their squad it's very compact and it's been pretty much the same people all the way through and everybody he's obviously very behind the nation at the moment and switzerland obviously i've got a good few uh fabby and share there coming through he's just about made himself a first choice at center back and whether that changes when the world cup starts is is another matter and the same with greece as well um cost us manelas is is really good center back um he's a young player but just during the the qualifiers obviously greece have got fantastic defensive record anyway all the time um but he came in and he really looked the part to be honest and so thank you i'd like i'm sorry to interrupt you maybe i'm just i'm wondering here because uh Phil's taking my um panini sticker album so i can't i can't actually do my research here live as we speak but did did uh pop it up let's make the no no squat he didn't okay okay right so i'm glad this will be the other start even think but yeah he also picked up i'm not going to think i think he's been named in the squad anyway but so i may have to wait and see if he's fit to start okay cheers uh neil finishes out with this in terms of uh players you think might break through this this tournament or just at least be the star man well i think the probably is it maybe it seemed a little bit obvious to some but uh rice from british adorna i think it's potential to be one of the best players in the world it might break through similar to ozel did in the last major championships yeah or sorry the last World Cup um although he is playing for one of the leading lights in europe i think if he does have a the competition i expect him to be have it could be there could be a bidding war towards the end of an under fee could go anywhere maybe as more because he seems to have all the attributes and maybe a little bit more than got a fail has in my opinion so i can see his fee going sky high so i've Dartmouth certainly i'm going to settle before the competition if because he has potential to be the best player there in my opinion yeah okay so macarose fee okay Steve um dependent on how france do a pop pogga okay i think pogba is he's a young yagatora he's that good yeah um i've been watching the event this season the kid has everything he has everything he can pass tackle score goals anywhere he will if france hold things together and i'll kill each other and i think pogba could be the star of roko okay very interesting what about yourself though um i know we we've moved past the dark horses i think roshet i'm going to do well in this tournament right and i think because of it i think the likes of zaguev is is going to light up a thing if you remember the last year was the the the russians where they were very unfortunate in front of gold you were making acres of chances but they weren't taken and they should have easily gone through and done more in the actual tournament itself and i'm i'm just looking at an outside you know they've a fair decent goalkeeper go back for decent midfield and again the the issue is possibly is up front whether caris golf is going to score enough goals from our cochron is going to come in and light up tournament the group that the rain is you know is is in that we qualify but they're in myself career Belgium and Algeria and you imagine themselves and Belgium will come out of it right and generally it's a team that you know that has the basics that's there i i think teams with strong defenses in this world cup are going to do very well because there's so many teams who who are going to open themselves up to quick transitional play and it'll be just someone that's that's able to withstand the barrage and then break quickly and score and that's where it looks at Belgium with hazard and the other players that they're like Lukaku in terms of the power and the pace and they've got one of the best golfkeepers in the world you know you look at the defenders and it's strong throughout similarly switzerland and i was steven tussard as well i'm looking at grande chaka i'm looking at and you know they've got barrami there they've been in inler as well they've a strong midfield i think this could be the World Cup of midfielders as opposed to center forwards i go back to remember the year that um kind of arrow won the player of the tournament and it was it was it was it was six yeah and and it was like you know it was it the fourth time i think the defender had won best player of the tournament i think this could very well be at midfielder because if you look at the way football has developed over the last six seven years the all-action midfielder has sort of made a comeback when we look at Henderson in terms of who he plays for us we've talked about Pogba there he he goes box the box sitting sitting alongside parallel when he's when he's playing for Juventus and it's definitely to me it's just you know it's i'm looking at a midfielder more so than than than a center forward or a number 10 he's potentially going to load it open when for me Pogba's a good chills um vidal a chilli chilli chilli get out with the group i know everyone knows vidal you know from from Juventus but he is he's the way you know he has the skill set to load up this World Cup as well and it's those type of midfielders that i'm looking at that that could potentially be the sort of the newly found superstars as such um and that's why you're looking at i suppose i said that it's agoe effort Russia but that was going more so for the tradition number 10 and playmaker who who do something there excepting um so right last part of our pod as ever is devoted to the mentored world of listeners questions so let's get the ball rolling with a query from paul bowler and paul wonders uh carl how would england winning the world cup affect your life um it's going to make me considerably poorer because i've promised people that i'll fly back to england if england do get to the world cup final all right and work wise i'm hoping that i'd be able to pick up a bit more work than i got in a minute and other than that it would make me very very drunk in the big path the afterwards well that's that's that's very very true James yourself how would it affect you um it probably mean a lot more retweets for a kind of a rehash of um the hodgy photoshop with obviously the album i got it on it's called heroes so it'd be perfect i mean i should have got off my arse and got a billboard in advance the torment anyway but i didn't so yeah yeah yeah hopefully hodgy's about for the for the next euro so that i can just do it then and get my act together i love to work i love the way you're hanging it would be a good fun but i mean wouldn't really wouldn't change my life okay okay in on a related topic fill casey uh daren pritchard asks uh and i've i've heard some stories but you know this this makes me wonder uh if England won the world cup and they erect a statue of of the hodgy how long will it be before that statue is destroyed i'm speaking to a man who's possibly attempted some hodgy damage in the back is the statue of why do we deem our night today stand under the white cliffs and over isn't i hope that's gone it's a serious question do you do you think i'd love them to fly that statue out and stick would be so close to the game and we come for the world cup that to me would make the world cup jesus and roy that's the boards it'd be wonderful um i don't know i i think in the same way the car would get a flight home to England i'd personally get a flight over to England to take the statue down just to do it bring it out yeah i i have to say i'd be more than very suddenly sweet all do you get a statue um i fucking Christ there are two royals no they put me they put my bookie on palace surely wouldn't they fuck the queen now honestly if they want to work up of course they will yeah yeah yeah he'd get it real he'll tell who's next in line willy is it how willy you're not getting in here hodgy's in there i can't do the toy you see and peek at people out of the courts oh jesus steebren dave thomas a regular trip we don't do that even if he doesn't win the world cup you just think i'm on the top of it and the flagpole let's just do that let's just do that anyway it'd be wonderful wouldn't it how do you book house yeah it would be the right statement for it a tabloid no i'm not a broad cheeky broad cheeky king in the tabloid world yeah yeah loveeels there's a questioning from flats here and flats says you're on desert island we always have a desert island question and you're with jose marino and rio fernand who do you kill and eat first and it's interesting question as far as now but suppose right if you're really well fernand probably takes a bit like duck think about it i wouldn't need fernand force because you know the way cows have to be checked for angel dust and possible joke jokes put into the cows for gross enhancement but growth enhancement yeah so you couldn't eat rio because he is potentially have taken some of them because he was very close to a drug standard day enough so long ago right so it definitely wouldn't eat rio because you probably yeah no death just wouldn't eat money it's that okay and i would eat marino and the reason i would eat him was because he looks a little bit like a dry edge steak right right you know i see where you're going i've had a kind of background they also have a kind of red knee inside yeah i'd say it'd be nice right you see actually you're quite looking forward to that yeah that's interesting that's good a chance don't marino read himself before you get a chance to oh he does he does on a regular basis uh niel cauldron man's wondering uh who did you pretend to be as a kid football or otherwise i am i said i said jackie jackie nielski what he used to play up front for seltic oh yeah yeah a long long time ago that was your yeah go to go i don't know why i just did yeah maybe it's because i had a seltic jersey with his name on the back of it oh yeah fair enough fair enough that was all i had is i was had to write that every day so fuck it out here my name is carl uh if if they were real i'm sorry actually a different one here this is from uh proper praline twitter and she wonders if you could run someone's twitter account for a day who would it be all right i'm gonna mess with the whole of Liverpool sides of twitter i'm gonna take over dave hendrick's twitter profile and i'm gonna agree with everything everybody says oh i really really hope davis and listen does he's got a little that one that's quality mate i love baby knows that it's just right i know finally some admin then a big shout out to astral park as ever for hosting us all year here if you want to play five or seven aside football get onto them and book your game thanks as ever to johnnie repp they may be getting world cup rest but they will be back keep your eyes in the sight as each of us will be doing a preview of the world cup groups in our own style including someone who completed this piece then berated everyone else for their tardiness and managed to get one of his own four teams wrong so a little self-editing may be required there by phil scissors hands we also have a couple of new writers coming on board to expect some good content as ever over the next few days your day trippers tonight were kara mattett neil grey steven brown james owns phil casey and myself trev downy okay parachutes ready boy the things i go through to get on our loan rates as slow as 0.99 percent APR for 60 months on new vehicles with pen fed you are aware that you don't have to be a military member to save hundreds on your auto loan aren't you anyone can join pen fed as someone terrified of heights i probably should have looked into that probably drop me off at the shore pen fed credit union visit penfed.org/autos or call 1-800-247-5626 advertised rates available through the pen fed car buying service to receive any advertised product you must become a member of pen fed injured by ncua ese vultimo magna get me toka me porque soila mayor shne he eso que tiene que veer los mayores esa respitean eso nexiste cierto mama yeah que habens a tranquilla aki aya yodra cajita de mcnuggets respiteo biste el noy rivalee dar kondo a mi nugget steel ayun dio para que la serida familia de mcdonalds compranos a tospa burritos comos mi nuggets a dsps as una big matt una quarter pounder with cheese own fillet of fish ita de vasotro por un de la por timpo el nidal porisic porisic passin por de maier la valligo para un plut de la de la monadralor. 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WORLD CUP natter starts now and we are jumping on the bandwagon. Joining Trev and Phil tonight were regular tripper James Owens and debutante Neil Gray one of the brilliant writers found on www.lfcdaytrippers.com. Also joining us as a special guest was the brilliant Karl Matchett. We talk about the potential impact of LFC players at the world cup, who the dark horses are, who are the ones to watch out for and anything else we can think of. Karl Matchett has authored a wonderful book on the season gone, Poetry in Motion, which is available in paperback and kindle format now. Kindle: http://amzn.to/1iMZNXJPaperback: http://amzn.to/1pAZ8jBWe discuss transfers especially the wonderful story of Rickie Lambert move back to LFC and the impending move of Alberto Moreno and the stalled move of Adam Lallana. Apologies for the shortened length...
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