The Liverpool FC Thread XII

Original post by sr90

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Reply 4501

Gob Bluth

In terms of money available, how much could Liverpool have available in January, and where would some of you want to strengthen? Fairly clear at the moment striker is a massive problem. Who is available and would fit the side?

Reply 4502

Mackay

17

We need a commanding midfielder ready to do the dirty work, a striker, a goalkeeper, and a central defender. Problem is, I don't trust Rodgers' scouting system.

Reply 4503

Original post by Mackay

We need a commanding midfielder ready to do the dirty work, a striker, a goalkeeper, and a central defender. Problem is, I don't trust Rodgers' scouting system.

Essentially this

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Reply 4504

Bubzeh

3

Jam, stop embarrassing yourself pal.

Hahahaha at you lot already talking about spending in January. You've just blown 130 million and now you want more?

Reply 4505

Original post by Bubzeh

Jam, stop embarrassing yourself pal.

Hahahaha at you lot already talking about spending in January. You've just blown 130 million and now you want more?

Rodgers spent wrong.

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Reply 4506

Original post by Gob Bluth

In terms of money available, how much could Liverpool have available in January, and where would some of you want to strengthen? Fairly clear at the moment striker is a massive problem. Who is available and would fit the side?

Original post by Mackay

We need a commanding midfielder ready to do the dirty work, a striker, a goalkeeper, and a central defender. Problem is, I don't trust Rodgers' scouting system.

exactly, we need a LOT and i doubt we have the money for more than a few players.

for me, a CB and striker are ESSENTIAL - lovren is okay but he isn't the commander i thought he could be.
as for up front, if balotelli doesn't seriously improve before january, i really wouldn't care if we let him go for less than half of what we bought him for.

as much as i criticise mignolet, in recent weeks he hasn't been that bad - i think we could hold out until the summer for a new keeper, same for a centre mid too although we really do need defensive protection.

somebody rightly pointed out on here that rodger's primary targets are generally pretty good but he is a terrible manager for back up transfers.
the problem is that when you're where we are as a club, a lot of our primary targets will have options at top, top clubs so most won't be bothered about coming to liverpool when they could go to arsenal for example.

Reply 4507

spurs lost, not bad.
everton won but have looked very poor.
it's still early but i don't think those two will be problems for top 4.

just gotta keep an eye on united and arsenal.
equal with arsenal and 2 points ahead of united - pretty decent considering how bloody awful we've been.

Reply 4508

Louis.

16

Original post by Lúcio

i agree to an extent - way too much focus on him however you're giving him too much leeway.
how many chances has he had now; how many starts has he had this season with 1 goal against a 4th seed CL team?
it's clear he's blocking lambert and possibly even borini too - i'm confident in saying that given the same amount of match time this season they would both have had a much greater impact than balotelli.
lambert may not be the (long term) answer but balotelli isn't just getting in the way of him, he's hindering the entire team.

it isn't just that the guy doesn't score, it's that he doesn't move.
he doesn't create space or opportunities for our other players, he slows the play down, makes the wrong decisions and takes a shot at every single opportunity.

You knew what you were getting though. He's not the type of striker who can lead a line by himself, for the reasons you said. Rodgers must have known that about him but he's still asking Balotelli to do it. Against QPR you just kept pumping long balls up and expecting him to compete with Dunne, that's not his game at all.

Whenever he has played well its been when teams have got players around him in central areas. City almost always play 2 forwards, Milan got El Shaarawy/Kaka etc close, at Euro 2012 Cassano was in support. I haven't watched every game of yours but your midfield trio generally seems quite restrained and Sterling is playing wide. He'd do better if you played a narrower system and got Sterling/Coutinho/Lallana close to him. Maybe that's the plan when Sturridge comes back, that's if Balo's not completely mentally messed up by then.

Reply 4509

Original post by Louis.

You knew what you were getting though. He's not the type of striker who can lead a line by himself, for the reasons you said. Rodgers must have known that about him but he's still asking Balotelli to do it. Against QPR you just kept pumping long balls up and expecting him to compete with Dunne, that's not his game at all.

Whenever he has played well its been when teams have got players around him in central areas. City almost always play 2 forwards, Milan got El Shaarawy/Kaka etc close, at Euro 2012 Cassano was in support. I haven't watched every game of yours but your midfield trio generally seems quite restrained and Sterling is playing wide. He'd do better if you played a narrower system and got Sterling/Coutinho/Lallana close to him. Maybe that's the plan when Sturridge comes back, that's if Balo's not completely mentally messed up by then.

oh yeah i don't disagree - it isn't just balotelli that has been poor, the team selection and set-up has been usually bad by rodgers at times.
in particular, constantly playing a single striker when it clearly isn't working and leaving lambert on the bench has frustrated me the most.

you can defend balotelli with us not playing to his strengths but you simply can't excuse him for some of the misses he has provided us.
i'm sorry but strikers dream of chances like he has had, and we're you're struggling so much with creation like we are, there's no room for a passanger who can't score to save his life.

the problem is that with sturridge sidelined our main threat is sterling who can just pick up the ball and run through a defence on his day.
since sturridge is out, teams just need to throw 2 men at sterling whenever he has the ball.
at that's left is the hope for a bit of magic from lallana or coutinho, otherwise we're screwed.

we'll see a major difference when sturridge returns but we simply can't rely this much on such an injury prone player.
that's why even though we spent so much in the summer, we need to spend a bit more in jan.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4510

Louis.

16

Original post by Lúcio

oh yeah i don't disagree - it isn't just balotelli that has been poor, the team selection and set-up has been usually bad by rodgers at times.
in particular, constantly playing a single striker when it clearly isn't working and leaving lambert on the bench has frustrated me the most.

you can defend balotelli with us not playing to his strengths but you simply can't excuse him for some of the misses he has provided us.
i'm sorry but strikers dream of chances like he has had, and we're you're struggling so much with creation like we are, there's no room for a passanger who can't score to save his life.

the problem is that with sturridge sidelined our main threat is sterling who can just pick up the ball and run through a defence on his day.
since sturridge is out, teams just need to throw 2 men at sterling whenever he has the ball.
at that's left is the hope for a bit of magic from lallana or coutinho, otherwise we're screwed.

we'll see a major difference when sturridge returns but we simply can't rely this much on such an injury prone player.
that's why even though we spent so much in the summer, we need to spend a bit more in jan.

It's just with Balotelli, with all of his issues, you have to play to his strengths. To my knowledge he has never performed well in a system that isn't narrow. Playing him in a role he's not suited to was always going to lead to attitude problems. That's not a defence of him, it's just a fact. And that's led to confidence issues, leading to the better bits of his game falling off. I think I'd fault Rodgers more than anything, you make that kind of signing and you have to commit to the special kind of man-management he needs.

Yeah it's different for Sterling, and Sturridge to an extent for that matter. Last season Suarez was the main goalscoring and the main creative threat, and that gave Sturridge and Sterling so much more freedom. But now Sterling seems to be the main creative threat, and Sturridge will be the main goal threat, and opposition defences will respond accordingly. Even harder for them when Rodgers is (somewhat understandably) going for a more conservative system too.

Original post by Bubzeh

Hahahaha at you lot already talking about spending in January. You've just blown 130 million and now you want more?

Given Liverpool's recent record in the transfer market, seeing them with more money to spend isn't worrying in the slightest. Rodgers has signed 21 players in his time at Liverpool. Aside from Sturridge and possibly Coutinho, who has actually been a success?

''If you spend around £100m, then you are expected to be challenging for the league.''
Brenton Rodgers, 2014.

Reply 4512

Bubzeh

3

What gets my goat is how Coutinho is constantly being played out of position. This guy was a genius when he was younger and still is just behind a Striker. Not out wide on the left or right, cutting in trying to be a Messi.

#BrendanLogic

Reply 4513

Mackay

17

Original post by sr90

Aside from Sturridge and possibly Coutinho, who has actually been a success?

A case could be made for Allen to be fair, but that's it. You're right.

Reply 4514

samir12

16

Even a team like Chelsea suffered today without their top striker. One top striker can really make the difference.

Reply 4515

Zerforax

Original post by ShotsFired-9941

You are getting ridiculous. For a team who is pursuing a highly valued player his contract situation hardly holds any water as long as it's confirmed he will be leaving in the upcoming transfer window.

Either I didn't explain substantively in my previous post or you are going off a tangent... tbh...I really don't care.

What nonsense are you on about? Having only a year left makes a massive difference - Owen left us for 8mil despite being a Ballon d'Or winner because he only had a year left.

Reply 4516

Original post by sr90

Given Liverpool's recent record in the transfer market, seeing them with more money to spend isn't worrying in the slightest. Rodgers has signed 21 players in his time at Liverpool. Aside from Sturridge and possibly Coutinho, who has actually been a success?

''If you spend around £100m, then you are expected to be challenging for the league.''
Brenton Rodgers, 2014.

you're completely right and i can't tell you how frustrating it is.
it's a double whammy too - we buy the wrong players and severely overspend on them.

but the season is young, i still have faith, there is still time.

Reply 4517

Original post by samir12

Even a team like Chelsea suffered today without their top striker. One top striker can really make the difference.

exactly, this is the argument for sturridge.
somebody a few days back said that the longer sturridge is out, the better he seems to become.
that is true - the worse we're doing, the more we think sturridge will change things when he returns and we really shouldn't put that much pressure and expectation on him.

that being said his input is massive, absolutely massive.
he can create goals from nothing.
he can distract a few defenders by making a run making space for others in doing so.
he's a vey fast player with great intelligence and chemistry with the players around him.
and most importantly he actually delivers; the scores the goals, he finishes the bloody chances that we just cant finish right now.

Original post by ShotsFired-9941

...Did luke hack your account or what?

Original post by Zerforax

I'd much rather read Luke's posts than your drivel.

should i be offended by that? :rolleyes:

Reply 4518

Original post by Obiejess

Luke. I'm going to be blunt here. Sometimes you chat absolute ****, and it tends to piss people off. You play into the trolls hands, and then wonder why people get irritated at you.

On the flipside, you can make excellent contributions and make some really good points that make sense.

However, in order for you to gain any nuance of respect you need to stop looking for a fight. I'm being serious. Zeforax just defended you there and you didn't have to respond to that other muppet. If you stop feeding the trolls, they'll leave you alone, and people will actually consider your posts worthwhile.

/rant

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nah that's fair enough - i got no problem with people being blunt if the intentions are good.
just people being needlessly childish, starting battles behind their computer screens are the ones that annoy me the most.

yeah sometimes i look back and wonder what the hell i was thinking when i posted that but at least i try to post about football.
please don't call me Luke though - that isn't my name on here anymore and people should respect that.

Original post by LosingDogs

Lol at Obiejess saying Luke chats **** when she's the worst poster in this section of TSR ^

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i wouldn't say so.
obiejess can be a little pessimistic at times but there's nothing wrong with that.
i don't see her starting pointless petty fights on a football forum, i see her giving her opinion on the sport.

Reply 4519