Liverpool FC Forum

[maypaxvobiscum]

I think it's the Soccernet article bitch haha

[maguskwt]

I think it's the Soccernet article bitch haha

I'm telling you he's gonna be awesome...

[Stu the Red]

I think it's the Soccernet article bitch haha

I'm telling you he's gonna be awesome...

This reminds me a bit of 1234ram.

Dis guy will be wkd... he plays for sum israyli team man....

booya mother fukka! wkdddd

[jacdaniel]

Its starting to become an issue again isn't it?  When we got it under control in December we looked like title challenging material but since then we've gone back to being over run.  Obviously the injuries to Lucas and Allen haven't helped at all. 

But i think we need to look at benching one of our 4 attackers in order to gain some more control in matches.

Hopefully Allen returns to the line up for the Arsenal game. Him and Hendo can press high and get in Arsenals faces from the kick off.

[Ben Patrick]

Its starting to become an issue again isn't it?  When we got it under control in December we looked like title challenging material but since then we've gone back to being over run.  Obviously the injuries to Lucas and Allen haven't helped at all. 

But i think we need to look at benching one of our 4 attackers in order to gain some more control in matches.

Hopefully Allen returns to the line up for the Arsenal game. Him and Hendo can press high and get in Arsenals faces from the kick off.

For me this has to happen.
I said it in the West Brom match thread the Everton result has clouded the issue regarding the balance in midfield.
We have now played those players in 4 games.
We have drawn 2 against sides that this team should be beating and we struggled for large periods against Bournemouth.
One of Coutinho Sturridge or Sterling has to come out for me.
Get Allen back in and get the shape back.
I actually feel sorry for Henderson and Gerrard, they are being asked to do too much for me.
What we are also doing by playing this system with these players is forcing Suarez or Sturridge to fill in on the left.
That's not where they want to be or where they will cause much damage.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

I'm not sure what the answer is but something isn't quite right, even against Everton we only had 39% possession and that was at home. I know possession isn't everything but it's usually a reasonable indicator to which team is doing the attacking.
If we continue putting in the type of performances that we've seen since new year I don't think we'll get 4th. Draws against mid table fodder like West Brom and Villa, even with a big derby win inbetween, isn't going to be enough IMO.

[Johnny Boy]

A dominant, physical midfielder in the Yaya Toure mould is a must, we won't win anything until we control games more from midfield.

[SouthCoastShankly]

A dominant, physical midfielder in the Yaya Toure mould is a must, we won't win anything until we control games more from midfield.

It's more than a physical midfielder though. It's a physical midfield with adept touch and ability to score. Pretty much an all in one package.

How many of those are around?

Despite Gerrard's failure to adapt quickly to his new role, I think Rodgers will persist - and I agree. Gerrard is still a great player, he is just taking time to adapt to a new role his is unfamiliar to. I wouldn't write him off to nail it.

[maypaxvobiscum]

I really like Sissoko from Newcastle. He's very good!

[Stu the Red]

I really like Sissoko from Newcastle. He's very good!

[RED BEERGOGGLES]

Our Midfield is still incredibly lightweight ,and it offers little or no protection whatsoever for our defence .I personally find it extremely
disconcerting when our offensive play hangs on the cusp of phenomenal ,but our propensity to allow teams to pass around or sometimes
straight through our middle is more than frustrating.

I just hope our gung ho approach (see Keegan's Newcastle 1995-96) to the game will not be the cause for more consternation and we actually
revert to our high intensity pressing game more,which was so evident against Spurs ,which in theory should see the opponent starved of the ball
rather than spoon-fed generous helpings of possession.

I want Liverpool to (whilst completely overawing a team) win by keeping a modicum of of rigidity in our midfield and defence,not opening
ourselves up to ridicule when a Swansea team shorn of Michu causes our defence to fail more times than Todd Carty on fucking ice.

Its just watching games such as Sundays whilst leaving the media delirious, does nothing for the supporters carrying heart defects ,I hope
we can grind out a win at Southampton, and even a deflected goal and retaining a clean sheet would do..... Enough's a enough , we're far
too close to qualifying for a Champions League spot to leave games open to chance ,we need to improve the  defensive side of our game
drastically and effectively balance it out with the brilliant work our strikers our doing.

[devaney]

Come on RBG a dodgy free kick and an even dodgier penalty and your apoplexy goes into critical overdrive. CALM DOWN! CALM DOWN!

[RedAnt]

Come on RBG a dodgy free kick and an even dodgier penalty and your apoplexy goes into critical overdrive. CALM DOWN! CALM DOWN!

Swansea still got into those positions mate. It happens too easily. Part of our problem lies in the fact that 'gung-ho' and counter attack are contradictory too each other. We have no height in attack, so if teams park the bus, we need to press forwards and rely on quick, interchanging passes into feet. We're ok at that, though often it goes nowhere, or we end up with 20 shots and no goals.

We're a lot better if we play to avoid our own weakness's. Pressing, quick and aggressive, serves us well. And hopefully we can fire ourselves into a 3 goal lead in 20 minutes and then sit back and show how well we counter. Swansea though are a good attacking side and got at us constantly which meant we could never play to our leisure. That will happen again and again, and we need options to counter all tactics that may be employed against us. In truth, I'm not sure we have a great many, either on the bench, or tactically.

Again though, this season, anything will do, so long as we're back amongst the big boys. Brendan is young and learning fast. So long as he's not too stubborn, and continues to learn, we should start next season with much wider scope in all ways.

Right now though it's about propelling this clumsy machine as far as it will go in the next 12 matches.

[Stu the Red]

Come on RBG a dodgy free kick and an even dodgier penalty and your apoplexy goes into critical overdrive. CALM DOWN! CALM DOWN!

Swansea still got into those positions mate. It happens too easily. Part of our problem lies in the fact that 'gung-ho' and counter attack are contradictory too each other. We have no height in attack, so if teams park the bus, we need to press forwards and rely on quick, interchanging passes into feet. We're ok at that, though often it goes nowhere, or we end up with 20 shots and no goals.

We're a lot better if we play to avoid our own weakness's. Pressing, quick and aggressive, serves us well. And hopefully we can fire ourselves into a 3 goal lead in 20 minutes and then sit back and show how well we counter. Swansea though are a good attacking side and got at us constantly which meant we could never play to our leisure. That will happen again and again, and we need options to counter all tactics that may be employed against us. In truth, I'm not sure we have a great many, either on the bench, or tactically.

Again though, this season, anything will do, so long as we're back amongst the big boys. Brendan is young and learning fast. So long as he's not too stubborn, and continues to learn, we should start next season with much wider scope in all ways.

Right now though it's about propelling this clumsy machine as far as it will go in the next 12 matches.

There has been far to many occasions this season where we've conceded two or more. I expected a poor showing from the defence this season, but they have at times been an absolute embarrassment to the club. Toure was brought in on a free and as back up, so I don't really have a problem with his performances, he's been hit and miss, but he's played a lot more than expected due to Injuries to Sahko and Agger, which has been unfortunate.

The clown and the keeper together have gifted the opposition between them approximately 16 goals this season with basic, schoolboy errors... while also contributing to other goals where you're thinking "they should have done better".

The midfield is a concern, Gerrard is clearly past his best yet is still our best midfield player. That is a worry. Luckily, Henderson has contributed well since November and has definately earned a place in the squad at least for next season.

In the summer the first two priorities have to be a big dominating midfield player, who can head, tackle run and most importantly pass, and a quality centre half (hopefully a leader) who is in the Gallas (at his best) type mould who's quick, reads the game, can tackle and can play.

If we can offload the dead wood like Skrtel, Lucas and Johnson, I believe we'd raise at least £12,000,000 to put towards those two key players.

Johnson has contributed absolutely nothing to the season and Lucas is a player we must dramatically improve upon to have any serious hopes of challenging. I believe had we improved on these two players in the window in January we may have had a real outside chance (instead of a hopeful/hopeless one) of winning the title.

There are four players in league I personally would splash the cash on that are achievable targets, Schneiderlin (failing that Tiote),Begovic and Dejan Lovren.

Southampton have only just signed Lovren so that would be an issue but he does have a touch of quality about him. Schneiderlin would cost about £15,000,000 to £20,000,000 but we'd be signing a classy player with the qualities we need who's proven and is a massive improvement on Lucas.

Having him in the first team with Gerrard, Allen and Henderson left to choose from as a partner would look pretty impressive.

If we can sort out a centre half and a top goalkeeper, that should be enough to cemment us in the top four again next season... the season after, we can push on and hopefully start to be realistic challengers.

One thing I agree with so far, is hasn't seemed stubborn and seemed very willing to learn... hopefully he won't go the same way the spaniard did and have a personality transplant.

[LFC1990]

If you look at games V Arsenal and Everton at home then our midfield was amazing The balance between Gerrard Hendo and Coutinho was perfect.
Then you look at games like Swansea where we lacked a bit of cover for our defence and Citeh and Chelsea away where the midfield was far too strong for ours and think it needs improvement.

I dont like saying we need players for our starting eleven as our eleven will change depending on opponents type strength but we still need that solid player in the middle of the park to hold on to leads or stop ourselves getting dominated against teams.

I would love it if we could somehow get Matuidi from PSG but i cant see that ahppening so Tiote would be a good back up