The Liverpool FC Thread XII

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Starting Borini would be nonsense, he's toothless and ****e beyond belief.

Lambert-Sterling as a front two is something I'd consider.

Gerrard
Allen Henderson
Coutinho
Lambert Sterling

Henderson and Coutinho busting a gut to support on the counter.

Reply 4081

Shady's back

Original post by jam277

West ham can get something vs City. They're at upton park and will press hard for the ball. Good defensively too and with a midweek game City may be tired

City have too many goals and too much power in their team to be bullied, I think. The likes of Milner, Yaya, Aguero are too strong to be pushed around like a lot of teams are at Upton Park.

Reply 4082

Shady's back

Can't really dwell on the two Jagielka points dropped. It's football, **** happens lol. We've looked worse than the other teams and somehow we're sitting here with 4 wins still, with only one big team to play until the middle of December. I think there's huge reasons for positivity for all of the three 'chasing pack' teams, but somebody will have to miss out and I just don't think it will be us. Sturridge comes back and we'll start going hammm again. Performances have been mediocre but they will be, when you have passengers (or outright detriments) like Balotelli up front - if we had scored some of these sitters then all the tension, nerves, apprehension and indecision in the team would have disappeared very quickly and our opponents would no longer 'smell blood'. Goals change games and that's how we tore the league up last season, we were often average until Suarez or Sturridge produced some brilliance. You can look at Swansea at home eg.

I think it's just a testament to how Rodgers has set us up and how many goals Rodgers has in the team, even after losing the third best player in the world, the current best player injured, the next player burnt out, and none of the new signings going yet. We score goals, we're very good at that.

What's more worrying is that it'll happen again if Balo doesn't start putting his sitters away. Sturridge would be sitting here with 9-12 goals by now.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4083

Shady's back

Balo doesn't know **** about being a striker. His movement is amateur at times. It's so frustrating that no-one has taught him this **** yet, and such a ****ing let down after seeing Suarez and Sturridge all last year who are supreme strikers and know everything their is to know about their trade.

For the first own goal, his ****ing back was turned until the ball was practically in the net. Complete opposite of Suarez who was like a kid on sugar in the candyshop, around the box. Would Luis, ever, ever, ever turn his back to the ball? Let alone when you've got a free kick in a good position? Like **** would he. Suarez-esque creativity/urgency from Sterling for the quick free kick.

Raheem is carrying this team. He's not scoring the wondergoals but he's doing everything else. He's ****ing remarkable. Predicted 15-20 goals for him and I have no doubt they will come about. But aside from that, he's running this team completely and at 19. If he had Sturridge fit the whole year, Raheem could have fired us to the title or to serious contention anyway - emulating Suarez. Next season he'll be ready to go one step further than Suarez, and if Rodgers can just sort out his ****ing squad then Raheem will prove his greatness. I don't think he's a Messi/Ronaldo/Neymar level (ie multiple Ballon D'ors) talent, but the next level below. I'd give him a 10 year contract without a second thought.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4084

Shady's back

****ing Suarez never got injured as well

Reply 4085

doobucks

Original post by jam277

Well I've said that Liverpool will get third. They obviously cocked up with replacing Suarez, have no replacement for Daniel Sturridge and have way too many injury issues to be in a title challenge. Had they just sorted that out they'd be within 6 points of Chelsea. Would have probably still lost to City at the Etihad but would have beat WH. They are getting results though, which United are not getting despite having an even stronger team, they've both had key injuries that need to gel, one has lost their best player while United just bought their best player.

Arsenal I find it hard to predict with them. They are getting many key injuries(which again I think has stopped them from being in a title race like Liverpool and United) but are stumbling in matches. Sanchez obviously doing a good job for them so far with Welbeck and Wilshere, bar that can't single out anybody for good performances from their whole squad.

It's going to be Arsenal and United fighting for 4th I feel. Who will win, depends on injuries in my honest opinion. United have the stronger first 11 and don't have midweek to worry about so the fixture list is ok for them, but Arsenal have their hard games more sporadically, which means that they can get into a run of form and afford to drop points, United cannot do that and can easily find themselves off the pace(like Arsenal did from feb-may last season) and it could be lights out for United.

I think Liverpool will sign another striker in January as Rodgers does not rate Borini. Unlikely a CB unless he doesn't fancy Sakho anymore.

Quoting myself on this thread because I think it's relevant. What do you think will happen with the striker situation? If Sturridge was fit you'd have beat Everton for sure and West Ham. Sturridge is your best player when fit. Sterling second. Coutinho starting to step up, if he had more consistency then there'd be a lot of positivity around here with your play in the final third.

I'll have to see if United get anything from Chelsea. If they don't when Liverpool and Arsenal win, then it's going to look quite stressful for them. 4 points behind liverpool with a very hard fixture list, while being 2 points behind Arsenal is going to look peak. Add to that they have City at the Etihad the next week which is pretty much a certified loss for them that could be 7 points off Liverpool and 5 points off Arsenal. That's not looking too good. Fixture congestion or the lack of it may allow United to turn it around in the second half of the season. If Van Gaal is 10+ points behind after Xmas then I see him getting sacked at the end of January personally.

Reply 4086

Shady's back

Original post by jam277

What do you mean, 'what do [we] think will happen with the striker situation?'

We sit and we pray that Sturridge recovers quickly, and pray that Balo starts doing a mildly acceptable impression of a football league player.

Reply 4087

doobucks

Original post by Shady's back

Borini was clearly not wanted so was going to be sold by Rodgers. Rodgers likes to play 2 strikers together, he's not scared of dropping Balotelli and Sturridge struggle for fitness.

If Balotelli keeps up the poor performance and Borini realises he's not wanted he'll dip in the transfer market in january.

Reply 4088

Shady's back

Original post by jam277

Not sure if he will, because I don't know who would be available, and we already have Origi coming in next summer. Only way he'll buy a striker is if he's sure that he's offloading Balo in the summer, I think, but idk if he'll have made his mind up about that by then.

Rodgers has said before that the two striker system was the best way of fitting our two together - he doesn't do it because he's stubborn or anything. As far as formations go he's one of the most flexible managers in the league, and he won't buy a new striker just because he wants to play two up front. I think in all competitions we've probably only played about 10-12 games using the diamond, so it's much less of a thing than you're making it out to be.

Reply 4089

The_Mighty_Bush

Liverpool fans may as well watch the Basel v Ludogrets game tomorrow instead.

Reply 4090

Zerforax

Original post by The_Mighty_Bush

Liverpool fans may as well watch the Basel v Ludogrets game tomorrow instead.

They wouldn't be Liverpool fans then would they?

Reply 4091

Zerforax

Original post by jam277

The striker situation is tough. Rodgers obviously didn't expect him to get injured so often this season. I think last season he only missed those 9 games in December and January?

We currently have Sturridge, Balotelli, Lambert, Borini and then Origi will join in the summer. I don't expect Lambert or Borini to be here in a year and a half (possibly not Balotelli either) and possibly they will leave sooner. I imagine we'll dip in for another top striker when available.

I don't think 3rd will be easy as you think. We play 7 league games before we face Man Utd in mid-December. Only Chelsea are in the top7 in that run of games. We need to pick up a good haul from those possible 18 and really beat Man Utd. If we picked up say 14/15 points and beat Man Utd, I'd suddenly start feeling more confident.

I don't think LVG will get sacked this season tbh. He'll claim that they improved in the second half of the season, that they need stability and he needs more time. Only way they would sack him if another really attractive option arose imo.

Reply 4092

The_Mighty_Bush

Well they would still be, because the Basel game actually matters as there is a decent chance Basel will drop points while there is no chance in hell Liverpool don't get pumped home and away.

Reply 4093

Pn94

We look absolute ****e so I'm expecting a comfortable 0-2/3 for Madrid tomorrow with another bland performance from Liverpool.

Hopefully I'm wrong and we **** the silly pricks.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4094

Zerforax

Original post by The_Mighty_Bush

Well they would still be, because the Basel game actually matters as there is a decent chance Basel will drop points while there is no chance in hell Liverpool don't get pumped home and away.

Don't be an idiot. Why would any Liverpool fan miss playing against one of the biggest sides in the world? Losing doesn't matter unless you're just a 12 year old glory supporter.

Every Liverpool fan will check the Ludo/Basel score of course.

Reply 4095

doobucks

Na losing matters as you'd be ecstatic if you beat Real Madrid and pleased if you got a draw in any of the ties.

Losing only doesn't matter when you have the mentality of a loser.

Reply 4096

Mackay

Not long now. This is the type of night I've been waiting for.

Reply 4097

Zerforax

Original post by jam277

Na losing matters as you'd be ecstatic if you beat Real Madrid and pleased if you got a draw in any of the ties.

Losing only doesn't matter when you have the mentality of a loser.