Liverpool FC Forum

With the players we've signed / are about to sign how would you line up next season?

What's our best 11 ?

What formation will we play ?


For me

-------------------------Reina--------------------------------
---Flanno------Lovren---------Agger-----Enrique---------
------------------------Gerrard------------------------------
----------    Henderson------------Lallana-----------------
----Sterling------------------------------Coutinho----------
----------------------Sturridge-----------------------------

Tough decision, with Ibe looking really good and signings like Can, Markovic and Remy to fit in. 

At least we'll have a decent bench for a change.

This is a very poor starting 11 to be honest. Cant think of a single player currently at the club who would make it into the City, Chelsea, Arsenal or even UTD starting lineup. Last season you would have argued that Suarez-Sturridge would have been the best attacking force in the prem (largely due to Suarez's brilliance and Sturridge's form). You probably could have made a case for Gerrard (who has had arguably the worst 3 of months of his career recently, plus is a year older) or even Sterling (who came in and surprised everyone by his performances and his form towards the end of the season). But the way the other sides have been strengthening and the way we have spent all the money we have and still struggle as fans to fit 50+mill worth of new buys into the starting 11 is just laughable.

For me, I'd go with:

-------------------------Migs--------------------------------
---Flanno------Lovren---------Sakho-----Enrique---------
-------------------Gerrard---Henderson----------------
----------  -----------Lallana-----------------
----Sterling------------------------------Markovic----------
----------------------Sturridge-----------------------------

That leaves us a strong bench of: Reina, Agger, Johnson, Can, Lucas, Coutinho, Remy

Mignolet (Reina if available)

Flanagan      Skrtel     Lovren     Enrique

                Gerrard      Henderson

Sterling              Coutinho                Lallana/Markovic

                         Sturridge

SouthCoastShankly » Sat Jul 26, 2014 4:11 pm wrote:Mignolet (Reina if available)

Flanagan      Skrtel     Lovren     Enrique

                Gerrard      Henderson

Sterling              Coutinho                Lallana/Markovic

                         Sturridge

Swap Can for Gerrard and maybe Sakho for one of the 2 CB's and that would be my side too.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Sat Jul 26, 2014 5:25 pm wrote:

SouthCoastShankly » Sat Jul 26, 2014 4:11 pm wrote:Mignolet (Reina if available)

Flanagan      Skrtel     Lovren     Enrique

                Gerrard      Henderson

Sterling              Coutinho                Lallana/Markovic

                         Sturridge

Swap Can for Gerrard and maybe Sakho for one of the 2 CB's and that would be my side too.

I agree with that

Amazing to think that with all this spending we haven't actually improved the starting XI 

Without Suarez it looks downright average for a team that will be challenging on 4 fronts......

Think we have bought equal quality to our best 11 and players who can operate in different areas
so we keep the opposition guessing, and please keep in mind our first choice 11 is a match for any
team and only the depth killed us last year. We finished second.

Squad now is extremely flexible with lads that are comfortable in several positions and are tactically
smart and know our system.

Our depth this year will be massively better than last and that's without spending a penny more.

parchpea » Sat Jul 26, 2014 9:58 pm wrote:Think we have bought equal quality to our best 11 and players who can operate in different areas
so we keep the opposition guessing, and please keep in mind our first choice 11 is a match for any
team and only the depth killed us last year. We finished second.

Squad now is extremely flexible with lads that are comfortable in several positions and are tactically
smart and know our system.

Our depth this year will be massively better than last and that's without spending a penny more.

I think eds makes a good point though mate, with Lovren's arrival we will have spent near £90m this window and yet if Gerrard and Hendo are paired up the middle again the midfield and defence won't actually look that much different to last season.
All this talk of replacing Luis with a better all round team looks a bit hollow ATM.

The only way to improve our first 11 is to chuck money at the real big hitters but for one the club wont
pay it and two they probably wont come anyway.

In terms of buying players that are on the cusp of greatness and us offering them a platform then we have
done well overall.

Suarez cannot be instantly replaced by a club like Liverpool but we can strengthen in an area where we
clearly weak last year and that's quality in numbers.

We would all love to see lads like Reus or Vidal rock up for bragging rights and send a message but at this
point its beyond us.

parchpea » Sat Jul 26, 2014 11:39 pm wrote:The only way to improve our first 11 is to chuck money at the real big hitters but for one the club wont
pay it and two they probably wont come anyway.

In terms of buying players that are on the cusp of greatness and us offering them a platform then we have
done well overall.

Suarez cannot be instantly replaced by a club like Liverpool but we can strengthen in an area where we
clearly weak last year and that's quality in numbers.

We would all love to see lads like Reus or Vidal rock up for bragging rights and send a message but at this
point its beyond us.

All valid points Parchpea, but what I am most disappointed in is the fact that we have had the money (close to $130m) to spend on at least 1 or 2 particular players that would dramatically change our starting XI.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Rodgers is taking a massive punt in bringing in other types of players to "strengthen" the squad. I am all fine with that but the actual starting XI should have been our main priority before this "squad building" nonsense. We got nothing out of Ilori, Aspas, Cissokho, Moses, Alberto last season so there is a general concern that Rodgers might be repeating the same failures but on a much larger scale, which would be catastrophic if we fail to get 4th at the end of the season.

What is obvious is that we have needed to replace our fullbacks as Flanagan and Johnson are not good enough when you compare them to the elite teams all over Europe and the top 4 in England. Enrique is OK but I would see him as a back-up at most of these clubs rather then there number 1 LB. Lovren should make a difference, but besides him, the jury is definitely out until we see Lallana, Can, Markovic and Remy perform in a red shirt.

Also the goal keeping situation doesn't seem to be resolved with Reina still in limbo and Mignolet still confirmed as our number 1, which is also worrying.

for me
                                                     reina
              glenda              skrtel                 lovren          enrique

                                        gerrard         henderson

                       sterling              coutinho               remy

                                                sturridge

we have added good depth. lallana, markovic, can, lambert, flanagan, sakho, coates, mingolet, manquillo ? and we still have others like suso, llori, ibe, lucas and agger should they stay.

                                                     Mino
             Johnson               Sahko                 lovren          enrique

                                        gerrard         henderson

                       sterling              coutinho               Markovic

                                                sturridge


No way Riena starts with his want away attitude. Sahko still looks more reliable than Skrtel in my opinion, I don't want to start the season by scoring own goals.

Markovic is so far the most promising signing he has to start. Remy will come in when Sturridge is off his game or gets tired around 60-70 mins.

Allen replaces Hendo around 70 mins, can replaces Gerrard/Coutinho to stabilize the midfield.

We get all 3 points 

Everyone who has posted up a team in this thread has more or less picked a back 4 and midfield consisting of players already at the club. The only new signing to make it into our 'back 7' has been Lovren.
Our defence/central midfield were carried by our forward line last year and by the looks of it there is going to be a lot of pressure put on our front 4 again, only this time there'll be no Suarez to do most of the heavy lifting.
In my eyes all we have done is spent £80m and added a bit of squad depth. Once again there has been a lot of money spent and not much of it has ended up in our starting XI.

If we are talking about the long term success and stability of the club then we have improved the squad with young and talented players that want to prove themselves, Spurs never did that. I think that merely buying an expensive player for the sake of appeasing the fans is superficial (like buying Caroll when we sold Torres). Remember we have some very young players that played well last year that will only improve and play better. Coutinho and Sterling will be better next year and I have no doubt that we have our new Suarez hiding amongst the buys. We have always had a history of world class strikers at Liverpool, we make them. Just ask Rush, Owen, Robbie, Torres and more importantly Suarez, who owes alot of who he has become to us. I want steady progress and not mushroom out of control and I do feel that Rodgers is of the same mindset. Steady progress requires patience, a rare commodity in this day and age of instant success.

I think the most important factor this year will be how Gerrard plays and how the manager manages him through his decline and whether he has the character to bench him when it is clear.