Liverpool FC Forum

Our turn around started with the introduction of Lucas ,it emanated from the manager receiving criticism for his insistence on playing Gerrard,and his position at the
helm of this club being questioned by not only the media but the fans.  Balotelli showed in games against Spurs and the Bitterz why the lethargy he was accused of was
just  perpetuated on a myth.

Any manager would be slavering at the opportunity to pair Mario with Sturridge ,practically championing in every sound-bite the vision of these two being afforded the
time to strike up a formidable partnership ,Rodgers seems less inclined to concur with the impact the Kop sees Balotelli making ,preferring to pander to the media's
perception of the player ,in point of fact pandering is too less a description of Rodgers consistently fuelling this myth with his decidedly unbalanced asides at the lad.

I don't know RBG, we have a system that's working, why rush into changing it? Also, Rodgers is over the top with his comments on Balo but there's a reason why Mario hasn't been playing for the last few months. In other words, he's not as good as you're trying to make it seem. For the time being the system is fine and Mario's role as an impact sub should be enough for him. I'm definitely against changing the system against Southampton away, though I'd be happy to see Mario at some point in the match.

Anyway, this is going to be an important game now. We win and we're only 2 points behind 4th.

It would be extremely simplistic to say that our turn around started with the introduction of Lucas in the midfield. It wasn't long ago that most fans were having a go at Lucas for not being "Liverpool material" and being too slow and only passing side ways. Lucas' role in the 3-4-3 was perfect for him and he had his resurgence in terms of his career. But it is the change in the system together with the change in personnel that turned it around, such as taking out Lovren and Balotelli from the team, introduction of Can at CB, re-introduction of Sakho at CB, making use of alot of our creative players like markovic, coutinho, lallana and with them flooding the midfield, thereby mitigating the lack of pace by Gerrard, the introduction of Sterling at centre forward (more of an introduction of direct running and playing on shoulders of defenders which Balotelli's play lacked). In this kind of scenario, when extreme criticism and pressure was put on the manager, and he managed to turn it around completely, by rethinking the whole system altogether, could anyone fairly put the blame on the manager for being reluctant to re-introduce one of 4 reasons that failed him in the first half of the season?

maguskwt » Sat Feb 21, 2015 5:51 pm wrote:It would be extremely simplistic to say that our turn around started with the introduction of Lucas in the midfield. It wasn't long ago that most fans were having a go at Lucas for not being "Liverpool material" and being too slow and only passing side ways. Lucas' role in the 3-4-3 was perfect for him and he had his resurgence in terms of his career. But it is the change in the system together with the change in personnel that turned it around, such as taking out Lovren and Balotelli from the team, introduction of Can at CB, re-introduction of Sakho at CB, making use of alot of our creative players like markovic, coutinho, lallana and with them flooding the midfield, thereby mitigating the lack of pace by Gerrard, the introduction of Sterling at centre forward (more of an introduction of direct running and playing on shoulders of defenders which Balotelli's play lacked). In this kind of scenario, when extreme criticism and pressure was put on the manager, and he managed to turn it around completely, by rethinking the whole system altogether, could anyone fairly put the blame on the manager for being reluctant to re-introduce one of 4 reasons that failed him in the first half of the season?

By most fans I'm surmising you refer to yourself ,Thommo, and Only Me, a triumvirate that had already arrived at the conclusion that Lucas would bring nothing to this
team prior to him being the catalyst in our rise up the table .It seems all of the above in the case of Lucas , have been are surprisingly silent of late with their degenerative comments. 

As for Cans introduction to CB ,that evolved because Toure got injured against Burnley, it was more to do with not having a recognised CB on the bench than a stroke
of genius from the manager ,so you can completely drop that belief and refrain from utilising it in the future ,as for making use of our creative players ,what took
him so long ,I mean did we really have to drop out of that Champions League before he realised this   

So your condemnation of Lucas ,how did that go for you 

maguskwt » Sat Feb 21, 2015 5:51 pm wrote:It would be extremely simplistic to say that our turn around started with the introduction of Lucas in the midfield. It wasn't long ago that most fans were having a go at Lucas for not being "Liverpool material" and being too slow and only passing side ways. Lucas' role in the 3-4-3 was perfect for him and he had his resurgence in terms of his career. But it is the change in the system together with the change in personnel that turned it around, such as taking out Lovren and Balotelli from the team, introduction of Can at CB, re-introduction of Sakho at CB, making use of alot of our creative players like markovic, coutinho, lallana and with them flooding the midfield, thereby mitigating the lack of pace by Gerrard, the introduction of Sterling at centre forward (more of an introduction of direct running and playing on shoulders of defenders which Balotelli's play lacked). In this kind of scenario, when extreme criticism and pressure was put on the manager, and he managed to turn it around completely, by rethinking the whole system altogether, could anyone fairly put the blame on the manager for being reluctant to re-introduce one of 4 reasons that failed him in the first half of the season?

Mig was getting loads of stick earlier in the season and he has turned it around, the same goes for Sakho, Allen has played well the last couple of games and you constantly champion BR for turning the season around with his tactical genius (although I thought it came to him in a dream), why then is it not possible that Mario could turn it around and flourish in a winning team. I honestly believe that if BR started playing Mario, Sterling and DS together up front and they became the new SBS, it wouldn't be long before you contrived that to BR's tactical genius.

Let's make no bones about it DS is back but we still aren't scoring enough goals, we need more fire power and Mario and Sturridge are the best strikers we have so we should use them.

RED BEERGOGGLES » Sat Feb 21, 2015 7:18 pm wrote:

maguskwt » Sat Feb 21, 2015 5:51 pm wrote:It would be extremely simplistic to say that our turn around started with the introduction of Lucas in the midfield. It wasn't long ago that most fans were having a go at Lucas for not being "Liverpool material" and being too slow and only passing side ways. Lucas' role in the 3-4-3 was perfect for him and he had his resurgence in terms of his career. But it is the change in the system together with the change in personnel that turned it around, such as taking out Lovren and Balotelli from the team, introduction of Can at CB, re-introduction of Sakho at CB, making use of alot of our creative players like markovic, coutinho, lallana and with them flooding the midfield, thereby mitigating the lack of pace by Gerrard, the introduction of Sterling at centre forward (more of an introduction of direct running and playing on shoulders of defenders which Balotelli's play lacked). In this kind of scenario, when extreme criticism and pressure was put on the manager, and he managed to turn it around completely, by rethinking the whole system altogether, could anyone fairly put the blame on the manager for being reluctant to re-introduce one of 4 reasons that failed him in the first half of the season?

By most fans I'm surmising you refer to yourself ,Thommo, and Only Me, a triumvirate that had already arrived at the conclusion that Lucas would bring nothing to this
team prior to him being the catalyst in our rise up the table .It seems all of the above in the case of Lucas , have been are surprisingly silent of late with their degenerative comments. 

As for Cans introduction to CB ,that evolved because Toure got injured against Burnley, it was more to do with not having a recognised CB on the bench than a stroke
of genius from the manager ,so you can completely drop that belief and refrain from utilising it in the future ,as for making use of our creative players ,what took
him so long ,I mean did we really have to drop out of that Champions League before he realised this   

So your condemnation of Lucas ,how did that go for you 

I'll keep saying Lucas is average as average goes ,i will agree he is a better DM then Gerrard ,And removing Stevie from this area in fact helped stabilize the defense (among many others changes). Lucas injury didn't hurt the defense one bit so one might say your point is void and i would say that i find Allen a better solution in this position ,a confident Allen has more pace then Lucas and better passing...But we can argue about that another time.