The Liverpool FC Thread XII

Suarez with an assist on his debut..

Well, I disagree here.

If we had a ****ing striker, we'd have only dropped points in the City and maybe West Ham games so far.

We've honestly not been that bad. Balo has missed sitter after sitter - and we all know that Sturridge is TWICE the player, for goalscoring and creativity both.

Hull, Stoke, Swansea, Saouthampton etc ...All such stubborn sides tbh.

Stoke away is the one game we can wave good bye to 1 or 2 off our players

Not trying to WUM/Troll here but it's hilarious how many of you were saying Rodgers was one of the best managers in the league, yet are finally seeing his flaws.

We were shocking against Villa and West Ham. My stream went at the end so I didn;t see Balo's miss at the end of this match but apart from that he had a really bad miss at QPR (which we won anyway). What other sitters has he missed? In games like Villa/West Ham he was wasteful with the ball outside the box but we never created anything clear cut for him iirc.

Honestly I feel like Sturridge is just getting better and better the longer he's out for. We've played two games with Sturridge in this particular team? Not enough to infer that we're going to be some great team when he's back. We'll be better with Sturridge in the team no doubt, but we won;t be good enough to outscore our awful defence like we were last year

Honestly I just don;t want to get my hopes up and rest the entire season on Sturridge's back.

.Not trying to WUM/Troll here but it's hilarious how many of you were saying Rodgers was one of the best managers in the league,

He is.

His poor team selections says otherwise tbh, wouldv'e won the game if we started with Coutinho.

Come on man, this is silly. He ****ed up by not playing Coutinho today, we all know it. It doesn't mean **** in the grand scheme of things. I cba for a Rodgers discussion really, silly to have one until the end of the season. He won the Manager of the Year award last year for a reason, he's damn ****ing good.

He missed chances against West Ham and Villa both. It's more than just that - it's that Sturridge has an incredibly positive effect on our build up play whereas Balotelli is not only a passenger, but he's an outright detriment. He breaks down almost every attack.

So with Sturridge in the team, we'd both finish off more chances and we'd create more. He might even improve Balotelli's performance. We've been average in some games and poor in some games. But we also haven't got the goals that our pressure has deserved. On the basis of the last 25 minutes, no-one could begrudge us a win today, we also deserved the points against Everton (where Balo missed a few easy chances) and Villa (again Balo, not the sole culprit I guess but one of them). I'd also have bet that with Sturridge in the team, we'd have made it from 2-1 down to 3-2 up against West Ham, but that's not really the point. We've dropped points in 5 games, three of them can be put directly at the play/**** finishing of Balotelli. Another was against the champions and another is a close one to call. Sturridge is both as good as we say he is, and is good enough to take Balo's place in the team and fire us to the top four.

What is the most annoying thing about today is that Coutinho came on last week and won us the game, then in midweek he was one of only two players that looked good against Madrid, and he didn't play the game. But Rodgers thought it right to play Lallana and Sterling, both who didn't have that extra energy/spark today, instead of him. And Joe Allen, for ****'s sake. Very, very poor management to keep Coutinho out of the team.

We've also got points we didn't deserve, against QPR and Soton.

It's harsh to criticise him for every miss, the sitters yes but as soon as you start blaming him for missing every odd chance you're into that scapegoat territory. Sturridge isn't some infallible striker, you have that game against Arsenal in the FA Cup last year here he missed around 3/4 sitters? And in games where he'd have an off game Suarez would step up, we won;t have that anymore.

Look on the bright side, Liverpool finally kept a clean sheet.

But Sturridge would atleast provide assists or create an opportunity for someone else to score via his movement, passing and holding of the ball. Ballotelli has done none of that, so its one thing providing nothing going forward for your team, but when you start missing sitters, thats when you basically ask for criticism. Fair enough that he admitted he cannot play alone upfront but that doesn't excuse you from missing sitters which costs your team points, he's had a few chances now. Rodgers is also to blame for putting him in that position so I agree that Balotelli is being scapegoated a bit the main problem in our attacking play is due to him.

Yes I know but my point is no-one else on the team is doing that, the entire team has been ****e for the most part. Balo gets the most blame because he's the striker and the onus is mainly on him, no doubt, but lets not be so naive here and act like everyone else has been great. We'll obviously be better when Sturridge is back, but I'm just having doubt whether it's enough to fire us back into the top four unless other people start stepping up.

Coutinho was playing crap up until two games ago. Gerrard is very hot and cold. Lambert, I don;t even know. Markovic has been so passive. Lallana has been getting better but still settling in. The less said about Allen the better. Borini is bang average and doesn;t even get any game time.