Liverpool FC Forum

I think. We need to be looking for a suitable replacement in the near future. He's pondering his England future, but if I was him I wouldnt bother. Hes made 30m quid over the past 15 years. He dont need the hassle.

We simply cant afford to be as giving as we were last season ,and finding a player that can replicate
Gerrard's  passing as well as someone who can genuinely protect our back four and not just pay it
lip service is positively essential to garner any further improvement .

RED BEERGOGGLES » Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:39 pm wrote:We simply cant afford to be as giving as we were last season ,and finding a player that can replicate
Gerrard's  passing as well as someone who can genuinely protect our back four and not just pay it
lip service is positively essential to garner any further improvement .

It is going to be a landnark season for Gerrard but not in a good way. It may be the first time ever he is benched for tactical reasons.

with any luck this can lad will do a job.
there is still quality in stevie and i think less games will give us just that when he takes to the pitch. top prem games and CL is what id be playing him in and as i said hopefully emre will prove to be worthy of the rest.

My goodness, i know our captains form hasn't been his best this season and i have called for him to be dropped, but all over the papers they are saying that we see Fabian Delph as the long term successor to him 

If that is really the best we can do, then we are in more trouble than we thought

Rather than wasting another 20+ million on this kid from Villa, surely someone like Jordan Rossiter should be given the chance

cardiff-red » Dec 19th, '14, 09:58 wrote:My goodness, i know our captains form hasn't been his best this season and i have called for him to be dropped, but all over the papers they are saying that we see Fabian Delph as the long term successor to him 

If that is really the best we can do, then we are in more trouble than we thought

Rather than wasting another 20+ million on this kid from Villa, surely someone like Jordan Rossiter should be given the chance

As I've said before, BR has shafted the Academy players.

Anyway, this thing with Delph (are LFC thinking small again!!) my understanding is that it's for a pre contract agreement  in January going by what is reported. However, I don't think we can do this, if I'm right, football clubs that are in the same FA  must wait  approx 1 or 2 months? from the end of ones  current contract to make a pre contract offer. However, football clubs outside of the EPL can  only do this, I.e. Offer a pre contract offer in Jan.

Just read that about delph being gerrards long term replacement    I had thought we would at least be aiming a bit higher than another player who has spent most of his time in lower leagues  especially after the ridicule rodgers and that committee has gone through recently.
When that muppet got the job he banged on about having fantastic connections in europe and yet all he has done here is cram us full of players from bottom premiership level clubs and then he looks absolutely miffed when we find ourselves in a position like we are now.

Mid-table obscurity beckons us 

Just another rumour, can't see it myself as he's not good enough as a replacement for Gerrard, he is though better than Allen or Henderson

Boocity » Fri Dec 19, 2014 11:30 am wrote:Just another rumour, can't see it myself as he's not good enough as a replacement for Gerrard, he is though better than Allen or Henderson

I think he's a bit under-rated myself, we have struggled against Villa's midfield in recent years and I think his energy and aggression has definitely been a factor in that. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying he's anywhere near Gerrard in terms of pure footballing ability but we don't really need him to be, we just need him to do a specific job.
If we persist with this 3 at the back (which I hope we do as it allows us to get more creative players into the line up) we will need players who are athletic enough to do the holding job in midfield. I think buying a couple of players like Delph and Song from West Ham could really revolutionise us, they wouldn't cost the earth but they are mobile and athletic enough to give our creative players a platform to perform from.
Something like this could work -


                                        Begovic

                         Toure       Ilorri      Skrtel

                                 Delph       Song

                  Lallana.        Coutinho      Markovic

                               Sterling        Sturridge

If ball retention is so essential to our play then Rodgers needs a word ,way too many over hit balls that surrendered possession meekly....We were brilliant with the
ball and our pressing today was an example of how we damaged so many teams last season ,our short quick passes cut Arsenal to pieces,it was only when Gerrard
hit a stupid aimless long ball up field that we found ourselves under concerted pressure that led to the goal ....Other than that one bugbear I think he played well
earlier, just needs to think more before hitting such ridiculous balls that leave us open to the counter attack.

Absolutely stupid and needless free kick which gave them the equaliser. If that was Lucas I'd be spitting feathers.
Get a grip Stevie lad

Saw a stat that said we enjoyed more possession today against Arsenal than any other team in the Opta era (since they starting collecting data) so both Stevie and Lucas must have been doing something right back there in our engine room.

Playing with "1 shot 1 goal" Jones and Gerrard is not doing any favours to our backline. We can have a 3 man CB of Hyppia, Carragher, Agger (in their prime) and we would still concede loads of goals with those to in the team.

So I take it that the experiment with gerrard further up the pitch is over ? Now he is back to playing the quarter-back role ..... Holy cr@p.

Hopefully today's game was enough proof for Rodgers that we don't always need to play Gerrard and that infact we can play better without him. His passing is still fantastic but he's just too slow, lacks energy and doesn't have the mind of a DM and as much as I love Lucas he's not that great of a player to be capable of doing Stevie's defensive job along with his own. Brendan said that Balotelli doesn't suit our system because he can't press, the same should apply for Gerrard.

I think that Lucas + Hendo or Lucas + Can should be our midfield partnership. We might lose a bit of creativity that way but our midfield won't be so easily overrun. Lallana and Coutinho should be enough in terms of creativity if they keep this up. I'm not asking Brendan to bench Stevie for good but he needs to sit out at least every second game. After listening to Brendan's post match interview though I doubt he's even considering any of this.

To be fair to Gerrard our midfield was just as impressive against Arsenal, it was just that we shot ourselves in the foot defensively in that game.