The Soccer Blog: Liverpool Sign Raúl Meireles

Sunday 29 August 2010

Liverpool Sign Raúl Meireles

By: Ed | August 28th, 2010

The Portuguese midfielder joins Liverpool on a four-year deal.

From the official site:

Liverpool have completed the signing of Portuguese midfielder Raúl Meireles on a four-year contract.

The Reds have paid 14 million euros for the services of the 27-year-old midfielder, who has won four titles with Porto and been capped 38 times by Portugal, including in all four of his country’s games in this summer’s World Cup.

It’s hard to formulate many thoughts on this signing, mostly because it’s out of nothing. I think we all know that Meireles had a great showing at the World Cup, but I’d but surprised if anyone thought that he would start September in a Liverpool shirt.

For me, this is the best of the signings that Liverpool had to actually pay for. Meireles will enter the fray not as a direct replacement for Javier Mascherano or Alberto Aquilani, but as an adaptable box-to-box midfielder that provides a link in the central areas. At the present moment, I think that’s something Liverpool are sorely lacking, and the capture of Meireles should fill that gap.

I’ve had a passing interest in Porto since 2006 and watched matches here and there (mostly Champions League), and I think he’ll add a solid awareness, good workrate, and efficiency to the midfield. As mentioned above, I’m guessing he’s joined to provide some sort of forward fluidity to the midfield—not strictly defensive-minded, but not one to bomb forward completely, he’s probably unlike any of the midfielders currently in the squad.

The signing comes at a good time—he’ll obviously not feature tomorrow, but there’s a full two weeks in between tomorrow’s match and the visit to St. Andrew’s on September 12th. I’d guess he gets recalled to the Portuguese national team in the meantime, but he’ll have an opportunity to get settled and familiar prior to his first match with the club.

**Strange sidenote—when researching the Portuguese schedule in the next couple of weeks, I stumbled upon this: A match review from the future on Soccernet designed to report the 2-0 victory by Portugal over Cyprus. In a strange twist (as if the future part wasn’t strange enough), it’s actually an account of Sheffield Wednesday’s opening-day victory over Dagenham. So, no news about Meireles and the Euro qualifiers, but I’m betting it ends 2-0 with an own goal and a Clinton Morris strike, somehow.**

As has been mentioned in the comments sections of previous threads, there’s a good amount of surprise that comes with this signing. But I don’t think I’d be incorrect in saying that this time, it’s surprising for all the right reasons. A deal done without weeks of rumors, at a fee that makes sense, and a player joining that will likely make the squad better.

Tough to argue with that.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:Liverpool Sign Joe ColeMatchday: Liverpool v. FK RabotničkiMatchday: Liverpool v. KaiserslauternMonchengladbach 1, Liverpool 0: Betrayed by the InternetFernando Torres, Beef, and Liverpool

Category: Team News, Transfer News

Tags: Raúl Meireles, Team News, Transfer News
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Azmatshahsbeen looking for a site where i could reveal my thought on our signings and chairman and manager and a little bit about the fans. and i have been an avid reader of this blog for a long time now, one of the few places i trust on the net with good info on it. i dont always agree with the editor though. which in my view is a good thing. ok to start off i have to say that when i heard purslow was in at anfield i was pretty happy, having some one who is known in the business world for shrewd tactics, and a ability to handle massive companies or institutions. liverpool is his side game and understandbly so considering BA is a billion dollar company. anyway he has brought stability to the club by appointing WOY and being there himself to steer the ship. the man has no intention to tarnish his own reputation cause of a 6 month stint at a football club. he has made all the right noises and taken all the right steps till now in my view. selling a football club is not a easy task at all and just to have the balls to step in and take up the job is a risk anyway.
as for our signings i reckon they have been pretty damn good, getting poulsen in my view was a very good option, cheap and reliable, plus he has a very good relationship with the gaffer and speaks the same language too. monster masch has always been one of my favs at liverpool but it was time for him to go, i thought it was time for him to go last season.
i really dont think we will be picking up a winger, maybe maybe if we are VERY lucky we will pick up a striker to play of torres, that even i doubt. i reckon we will be seeing alot of Ngog this season.
as for aquaman, i really dont think roy had much of a choice, it wasnt his call to get rid off him. it was the finance division saying look mofo we already broke and we have a midfielder sitting on the bench earning a shit load of money for doing just that. so i think it was the boards call to loan him off.
konchesky at left back is not a bad option, either way we need sum1 soon cause agger does not belong there, he is one of the best CD ever and needs to be played with the greek or skrtel in the middle.
i love carra for everything he is and the player he has been but honestly i dont think he would make it into any 1st eleven over the greek, agger or skrtel.
but what can we do?
anyway cheers!GrubbThink you've got Purslow and Broughton confused there bucko me lad.Azmatshahsmy mistake.. but u know wht i meanEdGlad to have you around Az, and glad you decided to comment.

Please don't feel like you have to agree with me to comment on a more frequent basis--as you mention, it's great to have a range of opinions and ideas about the club. I've gotten used to visitors pointing out errors, typos, instances of sheer idiocy, etc. on a regular basis.

Plus if all Liverpool supporters agreed with me I'd be deathly afraid for the future of the club.

Anyhow, thanks for sharing your thoughts--I'll respond to a few of your points in the morning, but it's about bedtime for me if I'm planning on being somewhat coherent for the match tomorrow.

Take care.RoscoHell, there the only reasons I ever comment ha haDavidI watched Man U v. West Ham today. Watching Paul Scholes, the fine wine that he seems to be, made me miss Xabi Alonso in Liverpool Red so badly. I can only hope for the best with Meireles.EdFrom this point on, comments implying any sort of admiration for Paul Scholes will be deleted immediately, and the poster's IP address and email will be publicized for nerds everywhere to exploit.

Also, give me more warning if you're going to mention Xabi Alonso. I don't need anyone to see me cry.YNWAgood god, scholes is such a cuntGrubbCorrect, and a horrible tackler. But the man can play, it would be stupidity to deny it.NoelI'm still not sure how I'm supposed to process this. I mean, it's not the completion of a drawn out chase for a second tier Englishman. It's not a pub player from Kristiansand in on a free. It doesn't seem as though the club's been taken by the fee. And it actually improves the squad at a position of need (even if it wasn't a position of need before the season started).

This is all very, very confusing to me.Galahad ThreepwoodAfter reading this, I feel bad about calling Masch petulant: http://www.anfieldroad.com/news/201008283944/ma....

Still happy we got Meireles, but now I'm not sure Masch deserved all the crap he got from the fans.Galahad ThreepwoodFINALLY we spend some money in the transfer market--and on a very savvy choice. Meireles isn't going to be a direct replacement for Masch, from all I've read, but that's not so terrible. He'll add some creativity and cohesiveness to the attack, and we need that. And we stole him away from Man U (sort of), which is the icing on the cake. Can't wait to see him in a Liverpool shirt in two weeks.GrubbLol @ Soccernet.

The talk on twitter is that we're also possibly in for Gokhan Inler, although he might have been a contingency if the Meireles deal fell through. However I have a funny feeling about Lucas possibly being on his way out and I wouldn't be surprised if our midfield consisted of Gerrard, Meireles, Poulsen and Inler this season.

Inler is a great passer. No Alonso mind, and not a DM, but a good creative player who moves the ball nicely. I think Roy has seen our inability to link play and has targeted passing midfielders who will join our deadly attack to our solid defense. Here's hoping anyway!DeadpoolDon't wanna be the party pooper, but how are you guys talking about more midfield depth specifically central areas. FFS we need that experienced striker for the spells that Torres is out and we need some wide players. Trust me, it would be all well and nice to have inler, meireles, stevie, and poulsen but who the in the hell are they gonna pass it to? We are too narrow in our matches and this needs to be rectified. Oh well, it's been this way for a while now and no one has sought a remedy. YNWA :)GrubbI think the plan is to shore up the central areas first. The biggest fault I have seen over the past season has been a lack of quality ball from midfield areas. Quality delivery creates chances and puts players into space in wide areas (somewhere our players never make runs, because they don't trust that the ball will get to them there).

As far as who they will pass it to, if we get Toivonen as cover for Torres, and Stevie displaces Cole in the hole, then our options up front look pretty good.

We still need some skill on the wings (as we've discussed before) as we have too many similar players there - Kuyt and Maxi in particular - and most (all?) of them are converted strikers. But I have a feeling that's for the next transfer window.EdI actually just saw the Inler stuff as I was typing this up--hoping, like you, that there's depth of quality on its way in the midfield. As you say, there really isn't (or hasn't been so far) much ability to link play at the present moment. Carra-hoof needs to end, and quickly.

Dunno if the Lucas stuff carries any weight, but I've seen more of it in the past couple days. Hodgson seemed pretty high on him in the preseason, and he's been solid thus far. Then again, he really liked Aquilani and Insua, so who the fuck knows.GrubbAgreed, 2 days ago Meireles wasn't even in any of our thoughts and now he's got a contract. Anything could happen and only Roy/Purslow really know what is going on. I like what is happening though!

Thinking this all through, even if Lucas stays, Inler is still a possibility.

Cole has looked 'iffy' in the hole, whereas we know Gerrard is deadly there IF he can get the service from midfield. I was wondering if our squad could look like this:

DM: Poulsen/Lucas
CM: Meireles/Inler
AM: Gerrard/Cole

Presently our band of 2 DMs works best when we have a defensively solid player alongside a player prepared to push higher up to support the AM. So you would select one of each pair for your midfield (in an ideal world). Cole could even play wide right, he's dinked some nice balls in from there already this season.

Big points to Purslow who has taken care of business this transfer window. He has a target on his back from a section of the fans but I can see we have a stronger, more talented squad than last year (Konchesky, Inler and a striker would top things off) and once we're playing as a team, we'll push those top clubs hard.PaulI know crazy right? A premier league manager conducting transfers the right way- out of the public eye.GrubbAwesome Inler vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4wmjiF1U8E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_QyQgEarDQblog comments powered by Disqus