Re: Job too big for Rodgers?
Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2014 12:56 pm
mramo » Fri Nov 28, 2014 10:16 am wrote:SouthCoastShankly » Thu Nov 27, 2014 4:49 pm wrote:devaney » Thu Nov 27, 2014 10:48 am wrote:This completion is a bit of a money making joke. If we win against Basel we get through to the last 16. Buy a couple of players in January and go on and win it
Consider the parallels to the CL winning season of 2005. The similarities are actually quite stark.
Squad comparison
The 2004-05 players are ordered by appearance
Defence
2004-05 - Dudek, Riise, Carragher, Hyypia, Traore, Warnock, Josemi, Pelligrino
2014-15 - Mignolet, Johnson, Skrtel, Toure, Lovren, Moreno, Manquillo, Enrique
Midfield
2004-05 - Garcia, Gerrard, Hamann, Biscan, Alonso, Kewell, Nunez, Smicer, Diao, Le Tallec
2014-15 - Gerrard, Coutinho, Henderson, Lallana, Lucas, Can, Allen, Suso, Sterling, Markovic
Forwards
2004-05 - Baros, Sinama Pongolle, Cisse, Mellor, Morientes
2014-15 - Lambert, Sturridge, Borini, Balotelli
In my opinion theres not much in it. 2004-05 defence wins, Midfield is a tie if considered across starting XI and bench. Forwards, for me this year even without Suarez.
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Another good comparison is League and CL performances.
By this time (game 12) in 2004, we had the following league and CL record.
League - W6 D2 L4 20pts 6th
CL - W2 D1 L2 7pts 3rd
Now
League - W4 D2 L6 14pts 12th
CL - W1 D1 L3 4pts 3rd
Obviously this season is a shocker but the 2004-05 was by no means happy days, even by this seasons standards 2004 was a poor start.
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I guess what I take from those comparisons, is how a season can be salvaged despite having a relatively poor or under performing squad and a bad start to the season.
Our next five games are
Stoke (H) - League
Leicester (A) - League
Sunderland (H) - League
Basel (H) - CL
Man Utd (A) - League
It is this period that I truly think will decide the fate of this season. Failure to capitalise on the next three leagues fixtures will lead to CL exit IMO. Inversely winning these and doing enough to qualify for the knock out stages may be the bump start we've been searching for.
I agree with the similarities compared to 2004/2005. However that season we were plagued with injuries to Djbril Cisse (leg break), Smicer, Xabi Alonso (Lampard tackle), Steven Gerrard (broken metatarsal), and Harry Kewell but still statistically did better than our current team only missing 2 players (Daniel Surridge, and Flanno). It was Rafa's season debut which was an exception compared to Brendan's 3rd season in charge.
Agreed, not exactly the same but some clear similarities.
Especially when you consider the transformation of the team in 2007 when we signed Torres. I believe a quality striker signing could also transform morale and team performance. Rodger's strategy is a clear attacking one, I believe that "fixing" the Suarez issue goes a big way to fixing the performances in general. However, his downfall is not having a back up strategy for the time we are without the team members to enable this strategy to happen.