Liverpool FC Forum

[bigmick]

We all know that we need a cente-half, another forward, maybe some central midfield cover etc. IMHO though, if you were looking for immediate impact, we either need to get the players we've already got to contribute from right/left midfield or we must bring some in who can. In all our away games sofar wide midfield contribution has been negligable. Cloud cuckoo land here but does anyone not think if we had Duff on the left and Renaldo on the right that we wouldn't have been more of a force yesterday? Yeh yeh I know, if my granny had bo##ocks etc etc I've picked on two of the best wingers. Here's another try, Gronkjaar on  one side, Downing on the other?
My point is, though I love Garcia as a footballer he didn't contribute yesterday nor has he away from home sofar. He's making Smicer look like Tommy Smith at the moment. Before you all rush to type, I'M NOT SAYING SELL HIM!. I'm just saying if he's gonna play wide right, and I suspect long-term he isn't, then he needs o contribute and compete far more than he did yesterday. As for Kewell, I don't buy all this 'now he's got his dosh he don't care' stuff. We're not talking Diouff here lads, this lad wants to play and give something to the team but at the moment it just ain't happening pure and simple. It's probably a confidence issue, he doesn't seem to believe himself when he tries something that it will come off, mind you nor do I to be frank. I think it needs to be spelled out to him that if he plays, he needs to concentrate on workrate, working up and down the line, putting in tackles etc so that we get a solid workmanlike performance or two out of him so we can rebuild his confidence. I'm talking a Steve Stone, Norberto Solano, Simon Davis sort of performance. Not his natural game I know but at least he would contribute. Would take a bit of pressure off him to make something happen as well.
I'm really hoping that Nunez is a good player. Not only that, but that he posesses the physical attributes needed to flourish in the premiership. I agree with one or two on the forum who thought Josemi struggled, but just imagine how different it would be if Duff had to track back to double up on Nunez, and was then confronted by a workmanlike defender in front of Josemi when he recieved it. Changes the whole dynamic in my view. Multiply that by two, one right one left and you would have high impact on performance for relatively small outlay (strikers and central-defenders come at a higher premium).

[106-1093504160]

i thought this forum was supposed to be serious. a question of width, what does that mean   lol

[Starbridge42]

You've never heard that expression before?  I'm in agreement with bigmick.  We do look short on width.

[106-1093504160]

aye, we were a bit narrow

[stmichael]

one of our main problems at liverpool is that we have lacked width in recent years and have not rectified the problem properly yet. gone are the days of barnes skinning everyone or mcmanaman dribbling down the right wing with the ball stuck to his feet. jesus, even mark walters was an out and out wide man and took players on in wide areas (even if it did involve 45 stepovers).

look at it this way. when we won the three trophies in 2001 and then finished second in 2002, we did so with a narrow system. quite often, hamann, gerrard and murphy played narrow with smicer or litmanen in the hole. all width was reliant on the likes of babbel and riise bombing forward from full back which they did to great effect. smicer could play wide but tended to drift in and wander. eventually, towards the end of the season we ended up playing heskey as a left winger which was a joke in itself.

however that summer, we had the chance to sign damien duff but houllier turned it down because he wouldn't meet blackburn's valuation of 17m. he offered 12m. now considering we spent 20m of diouf, diao and cheyrou (2 are out on loan and the other is still here but sh#te), what would have been the better purchase?

after seeing duff play yesterday it summed up the difference between a WINGER and a WIDE MIDFIELDER. chelsea had great width, especially down the left and also with ferreira down the right. kewell used to be as good as duff but is shot to pieces at the moment and garcia can play wide but tends to drift into the middle a lot. maybe nunez is the answer i don't know?

whatever the case, width is an issue we need to address if we want to break teams down.

thoughts?

[106-1093504160]

we need players who adore LFC, not folk who want the dosh only