Rumours over signing cut-price Rice & rival duo to miss Reds games – Liverpool FC Roundup

Small children woke up on Friday morning having known, for the first time in their lives, what it was like for Liverpool to lose a home league game. Weird.

Liverpool in the hunt to sign Declan Rice

Transfer news, is it?! An intriguing rumour, although an improbable one given reports over the past year.

Declan Rice has been excellent for West Ham this season, but he has also been long linked with a move to Chelsea.

90 Mins claim inside info from the England international’s family and close ties suggest that City, the Reds and United all want him in summer – as the Hammers will be forced to sell for a cut-price fee of £50m, having previously valued Rice at £80m.

That’s a huge discount, and of course it’s the ‘rona pandemic, no fans and all the rest of it which is supposedly forcing West Ham‘s hand.

Chelsea want him in defence, we want him for midfield. Fabinho staying at the back if so, you’d imagine.

Top-four clashes…or title make-or-breaks?

LEICESTER, ENGLAND - Sunday, December 1, 2019: Leicester City's Jamie Vardy during the FA Premier League match between Leicester City FC and Everton FC at the King Power Stadium. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Quite honestly, we have to go with Klopp’s assessment at this stage: forget the title, focus on the next game. The next goal, even.

But the matches keep coming anyway and two upcoming league clashes are pretty huge, whatever the ambitions which remain are.

After United in the Cup this weekend, we face Spurs, West Ham and Brighton, then Man City and Leicester – the latter two are second and third, so we’re playing catch-up and they will be must-win games, if we have any kind of form by then again.

Big news, then, comes from both clubs as they have a key man out for several games each: Kevin de Bruyne is out for four to six weeks and Jamie Vardy will miss two to three weeks.

The Reds play City in 16 days; the Foxes in 22 days, so the latter will be right on the verge of his comeback.

The buck always stops with the boss

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, January 17, 2021: Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp during the pre-match warm-up before the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Manchester United FC at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

At any football club, whatever the objectives, when they’re not being met it’s always the manager who faces the questions…and has to come up with the answers. Good job we’ve got a great one, then, in Jurgen – time for him to work some magic.

Quickfire LFC news

MUNICH, GERMANY - Friday, August 7, 2020: David Alaba during a Bayern Munich training session at the Saebener Strasse training ground ahead of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg match against Chelsea FC. (Photo by M. Donato/FC Bayern Munich)

  • The Reds are still in the running to sign David Alaba (Bild)
  • Former goalkeeper David James has an interesting theory on the scoring slump: with the centre-backs injured, the strikers aren’t getting as sharp a training session as usual (Goal)
  • Gini Wijnaldum says the Reds must be more greedy when it comes to finishing chances (Sky)
  • And one incredible statistic from the last four games show just how unlikely it is to have ended up with zero goals (TIA)

Around the Prem

Brendan Rodgers, Leicester ((Mike Egerton/PA))

  • Leicester officials have been literally ROFLing after receiving notice that Christian Eriksen wants £300k a week to prove he’s way past his best (Telegraph)
  • Martin Odegaard is close to a loan move to Arsenal after realising Zidane is going to keep fielding the same Real Madrid XI until 2030 if he’s allowed (Sport)
  • Marseille boss Andre Villas-Boas says Villa’s offer for Sanson was “pathetic”, which ironically is what most fans remember his stints with Chelsea and Spurs as being (Mail)
  • And Arsenal have signed Mat Ryan on goal. If you’re wondering why, it’s because of this (AFC)

Stupid press conference answer of the day

Frank Lampard no longer has the option of saying “I don’t read the headlines” after losing his head completely about some perceived negative articles about his team…who have won three of the last 10.

Tweet of the day

What we’re reading

A very good Neco Williams interview about dealing with online abuse, learning from Trent and more, from The Independent‘s Tom Kershaw.

Worth watching tonight

If you’ve forgotten what scoring goals looks like, ‘Gladbach vs Dortmund should provide a reminder. BT Sport, Bundesliga, 7:30pm.

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