Liverpool FC Forum

[Kenny Kan]

I'd like to see Henderson play the 'Gerrard' role more in behind the striker and in front of a central pairing of Spearing & Adam. I think Henderson given time can become something of note in the middle of the park, at times he played in behind Suarez away to Chelsea. But nowhere did enough to support Suarez, he dropped back a lot and roamed out to the right, occupying the same position as Kuyt? However, with a little more training blah blah blah and all that old tactical bull. stuff Henderson could turn out to be a polished gem for us there.

This also relieves him of the RM role, a role in which I think doesn't suit him and this would give Maxi and Beller's more of an opportunity there IMO.

[stmichael]

The midfield was far too deep today imo. We need to get more midfield runners into the box to attack crosses or at least compete for second balls. I lost count of the number of times the ball was headed away and the ball fell to a Blackburn player.

We still need a top class attacking midfielder.

[Thommo's perm]

I think the time has come, or should be near at least, for KK to start  kicking some ar'ses. I understand this arm around the shoulder and patience approach but we are half way though the season and need to start getting ruthless.
The Suarez stuff hasnt helped because we have been distracted and KK cant start ripping into people when hes trying to encourage unity. But we need to be showing that this slackness cant be tolerated any more

[JC_81]

Frustrating as it has been recently, I genuinely think the best is yet to come from this set of players.  We at times play some lovely football, the defence is now really solid and it's just the lack of goals that is killing us at the moment.

Of Kenny's signings, Suarez, Bellamy and Enrique have been definite value for money imo.

I would argue Adam has been too, but last few games his form has dipped badly.  Downing has looked great some games, it's just his end product that's not been great, same goes for Henderson who is young and will undoubtedly improve.  Carroll is the obvious disappointment.  If you look at the style of play we're going with then you have to question the decision to sign him, we just don't play to his strengths.

We were really strong after Christmas last year until the last 2 or 3 games and if we get into our stride in similar fashion this season then we can still make top 4, but there's a lot of 'ifs'.

I'd be a lot more confident if we signed a goalscorer in  January...

[stmichael]

Frustrating as it has been recently, I genuinely think the best is yet to come from this set of players.  We at times play some lovely football, the defence is now really solid and it's just the lack of goals that is killing us at the moment.

Of Kenny's signings, Suarez, Bellamy and Enrique have been definite value for money imo.

I would argue Adam has been too, but last few games his form has dipped badly.  Downing has looked great some games, it's just his end product that's not been great, same goes for Henderson who is young and will undoubtedly improve.  Carroll is the obvious disappointment.  If you look at the style of play we're going with then you have to question the decision to sign him, we just don't play to his strengths.

We were really strong after Christmas last year until the last 2 or 3 games and if we get into our stride in similar fashion this season then we can still make top 4, but there's a lot of 'ifs'.

I'd be a lot more confident if we signed a goalscorer in  January...

I think that's a sensible post.

As you say, it's fortunate that Chelsea have been so poor that we're still within touching distance from 4th. Arsenal are playing well but they're only a Van Persie injury away from disaster. They are also known to fade badly from March onwards anyway.

It's just really frustrating that we should be at least 8-10 points better off. We create more chances in games now than I can ever remember but our lack of composure/decision making in the final third and finishing is beyond a joke. The defence is immense but we need more from our attacking players to make the top 4. Gerrard will obviously help this but he can't do it all on his own. We are about to lose Suarez aswell for a run of games. Kuyt has been woefully off form. Whenever Bellamy and Maxi play well they seem to get dropped the next game. Maxi scores nearly everytime he plays ffs.

It's plain as day to see how much we miss Lucas. Without him we don't get the best out of Adam, and Shelvey and Henderson are kids still learning the game. All in all, we don't have a big enough goal threat from the middle of the park because we don't get enough players into the penalty area.

[andy_g]

i agree with you two. i'm genuinely bemused as to why we are getting so little out of our recent games. when it clicks - as it regularly does - we play some great football. its a long, long time since i've seen us put teams consistently under so much pressure. if we'd been slightly more clinical and had seen fewer keepers play blinders we'd be a good 9 or 10 points better off - and look where that would put us. i'm as disappointed as fook right now, but there has to be more to come from this rebuilding project.

[Thommo's perm]

Either the players arent good enough, i.e. they cant pass, tackle, shoot, defend, attack and score properly
Or
The coaching, tactics, formation, selection and management is wrong

Which is it?

[Reg]

Dunno but we have a rare gift of taking a promising player and making him look cr@p.

[lakes10]

Either the players arent good enough, i.e. they cant pass, tackle, shoot, defend, attack and score properly
Or
The coaching, tactics, formation, selection and management is wrong

Which is it?

tactics

we are always trying to play a high ball in when it should sometimes be a ground pass.  Look for the holes and not not try to lob it over.


another point, last night when we was pushing with the ball, we always had all our players down one side, only once did one of a players get in the space in the middle of the park and that was SG........shocking.

[Thommo's perm]

Either the players arent good enough, i.e. they cant pass, tackle, shoot, defend, attack and score properly
Or
The coaching, tactics, formation, selection and management is wrong

Which is it?

tactics

we are always trying to play a high ball in when it should sometimes be a ground pass.  Look for the holes and not not try to lob it over.


another point, last night when we was pushing with the ball, we always had all our players down one side, only once did one of a players get in the space in the middle of the park and that was SG........shocking.

So it is the coaching thats the problem?

[Kerry07]

Either the players arent good enough, i.e. they cant pass, tackle, shoot, defend, attack and score properly
Or
The coaching, tactics, formation, selection and management is wrong

Which is it?

the first

The methods are good.. clearly, when you see the stuff we produced at Fulham last season especially. What we did have on that night was the best players who could execute the methods.

It comes down to players... you could have a coaching team of Pep Guardiola, Johan Cruyff, Rinus Michels, and Bob Paisley.. but you give them a front six of Andy Carroll, Jay Spearing, Dirk Kuyt, Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson (to a lesser extent), the methods will not be executed.

You often hear of quality ex players who become managers in the lower leagues having to lower expectations .. they have to accept that the players they coach dont have the talent that they did as a player... and that the methods they teach will not be properly executed simply because the players dont have the ability to do so. So they do their best. You could be the best school teacher in the world, but if you teach a below average student, you dont expect them to get a mark in an exam that is way beyond their ability.

It comes down to players, and what we had out there last night wasnt good enough. We barely threatened their goal.. unsurprisingly.

[stmichael]

the tactics weren't the problem last night. it was the personnel we had to carry out those tactics. as soon as i saw the lineup i knew we'd get beat. you're never going to play pass and move football when the four best players to play this style (maxi, bellamy, gerrard and suarez) didn't start. at least we essentially played 4-3-3 which i've been banging on about for ages. get bellamy and maxi in the wide areas with gerrard back and carroll down the middle and we'll look a whole lot better.

[Fowler_E7]

The Tactics and style of play and fine, its the fact that we simply dont have a squad with good enough players, on paper we are about we are about the right position in the league if we compare our players to Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Tottenham and at best were equal to Arsenal, which is not good enough IMO considering the huge amounts of money weve spent on players, last nights team cost around £130million for Chirst sake

[Ola Mr Benitez]

The Tactics and style of play and fine, its the fact that we simply dont have a squad with good enough players, on paper we are about we are about the right position in the league if we compare our players to Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Tottenham and at best were equal to Arsenal, which is not good enough IMO considering the huge amounts of money weve spent on players, last nights team cost around £130million for Chirst sake

IMO we look better than Chelsea at the moment and I can still see us gettin 4th behinf Man City, Man Utd and Spurs.

You say our team cost £130 mill but look at what City's team cost? It doesnt compare

We played pretty well last night, apart from the final pass and of course the lack of goals.

I thought City where quite fortunate to get the early goal, because 99 times out of 100 Pepe would save that.  Because of that goal our game plan went out the window.  We had loads of the ball but a couple of silly mistakes killed us off.

We are a work in progress, our aim is 4th this year and I think we will still make that

[stmichael]

i can't emphasise just how much we miss lucas because we have nobody who can lace his boots in terms of the job he does for the team. adam's form in particular has suffered remerkably since lucas got injured. before that the two of them were playing excellently and forming a great partnership.