The Liverpool FC Thread XII

i was actually giving a sly dig to united....

dat small team attitude
preparing for a defeat against Swansea

damn i got rekt

I watched him in games and read reviews. He dropped off considerably for a lot of the season. His stats were mediocre or worse, and even then boosted by set pieces. Being one of Almeria's 'stand out' players doesn't mean anything either.

More potential than Coutinho? Never.

Of course he dropped off, he's only young. But he showed more than enough to be given a chance.

Borini is terrible but tbh putting him in for a tough game like west ham does no favours especially when the main fault was the midfield behind him getting dominated and outnumbered, there's nothing borini can do about that, you then find yourselves 2-0 down early on, again not his fault but the fault of the midfield and defence. You have Henderson marking a west ham CB ffs. You don't put on Sakho and have Skrtel who's known for his defensive lapses on set pieces...

All I need to say was that Balotelli was pretty ineffective vs West Ham and Villa but isn't getting as much stick as Borini.

As a backup option he's fine, not many teams can boast having Lambert and Borini as backup options, I'd take it over Arsenals backup options anyway. Lambert offers 15 goals when fit, Borini works hard and can give you 5-10 goals off the bench.

Suso is in a position when there's many players who play in his role. Buying Markovic for big money has pretty much ended Suso's career, at least you could have seen a future for him on the wing but he's a bench option when people are injured at the very best with the cup appearances as a starter.

mertesacker from arsenal,

Mertesacker would no doubt be your best defender

So Sturridge still not back in training. Looks like he won't make the derby. Not good.

first of all that's a dubious statement at best.

secondly i never mentioned defenders; this is just the hilarious notion that mertesacker would be liverpool's joint #1 player with sturridge or that cazorla is undisputedly better than any player we have...



never thought he would tbh
do you think he'll be back for wednesday away to basel?
or do you think rodgers would be careful and save him for next saturday at home to west brom?

But it's just fifa..

Anyway, which defender in your squad do you think is above merte and why?

it's only a game but things like that just make me laugh.

yep, covered that already mate...

don't get me wrong, mertesacker is quality aerially and positionally but his ridiculous lack of pace puts him way down in my eyes - sterling would run rings around him.
not saying we have better defenders but you were saying it with such certainty as if mertesacker would come in to our team and instantly we'd be solid.

if he's as good as you claim, why is your defence a load of bumbling idiots?
no offence, not like i can talk.

There's more to a defender than just pace though. Anways all I said was " he's no doubt better than the defenders you have" so you're putting words in my mouth by saying I said he'd make your defence solid.

There's a difference between our defensive issues and your defensive issues. Man for man I'd say our defenders come out on top (taking into consideration individual quality and etc). What makes ours look so shaky is the amount of times our CB's push up so far and play a high line even when we've constantly been left exposed. When we set up shop we're actually very solid and there aren't as many mistakes as people make out to be, or compared to what I've seen of Liverpool's defence (albeit not so much so this season so I haven't really made much criticism of it my self).

Anyways, I wasn't really here to make a point about which defence is stronger, I just made the point that Mertesacker is better individually than the defenders you have. Our defence has been awful compared to how solid it was last season although conceding 1 goal to Leicester compared to 5 from UTD should tell you enough..

Lovren is clearly a better player than Mertesacker. Mertesacker is a classic case of Arsenal fans massively overestimating the quality of their players.

oh of course there is, but don't underestimate the importance of it in modern football.

true, your defensive lapses are a great deal to do with your past it manager.
in a way though you're kind of like us - on paper you have decent quality defenders and we actually do too (believe it or not)
man for man i wouldn't say you have significantly better defenders, but as a combined unit right now you're superior.

meh, i'm not bothered about comparing defences.
honestly i found the cazorla thing funnier than the mertesacker thing.
a guy who barely gets in to your starting XI is deemed superior to the likes of sturridge and gerrard (albeit playing in a different position)
EA have outdone themself yet again