The Liverpool FC Thread XII

should i be offended by that?

You're a married man


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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.

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

If it's any consolation we've pissed away just as much money on Zaha, Young, Bebe, Smalling, Nani, Anderson etc.

The last two are costing us £200k per week in wages and won't ever play a single minute for Manchester United again.

I can see Can, Manquillo and Moreno as successful signings to be honest. Lallana looks alright but struggles to impose himself on the game so we have to wait and see. Not looking good for Lovren, same for Balo although we have yet to see Balo play more games with another striker so we'll see. Markovic is too raw atm, price tag however deems it a flop signing for me. Lambert is hardly given any game time so can't judge yet although he played well up front with Balotelli against Hull.

I can see Can, Manquillo and Moreno as successful signings to be honest. Lallana looks alright but struggles to impose himself on the game so we have to wait and see. Not looking good for Lovren, same for Balo although we have yet to see Balo play more games with another striker so we'll see. Markovic is too raw atm, price tag however deems it a flop signing for me. Lambert is hardly given any game time so can't judge yet although he played well up front with Balotelli against Hull.

Looks like Luis Suarez still rules the media

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/luis-suarez-denies-racist---8003220


After all is said and done, LFC could have hired a team of Latin Lawyers to handle this case.

Forgive me if I don't have much optimism for tomorrow night

Moreno looks great. He just needs to bulk up a little (but not lose his pace like Insua did) but I think he can hold down LB for the next few years if his confidence/form/injuries don't ruin him.

Manquillo is still a couple of years away I think? He's built like a big unit but you can see in games that he struggles with the pace for the full 90 mins at times. He looks solid but he's more defensive of a fullback. It's good for now since Moreno bombs forward but in the future, we'd probably want a bit more from him (although he's got a decent cross on him from deep).

Can I'm not sold on yet. He's a big, powerful lad but I've not seen a dominant performance from him yet? Still would like to see him in another 5-10 games before deciding what I think. He's got the potential and on paper looks good though.

I actually like the look of Lallana. He's like a David Silva-lite. The ball just sticks to him and he's able to twist both ways (it's actually a great ability of a lot of Rodgers' signings - Sterling, Lallana, Coutinho, Sturridge all have that ability). Just needs to impose himself more in games and make that decisive contribution. The problem is that Lallana and Allen are great technical players but look like they need to be carried by the team a little? I think that's perception rather than the truth though.

Johnson and Enrique are past it now though. Hopefully Flanagan comes back stronger. He's still out for another 2 months. I do sometimes wonder if Flanagan and Manquillo are enough quality for the future. We'll need another LB too for when we let Enrique go. Least that can be a back up to Moreno.

Well we're not in great form at the moment. I imagine we'll rotate and all the fringe players will get a game..

i agree - out of all our signings i'm most pleased with our fullbacks.
it's a shame our defence is as bad as ever but i wouldn't put it down to manquillo/moreno; they're clear improvements on johnson/enrique.

yeah there was loads of big talk about can, like him being a powerhouse than can dominate midfield.
the problem is we haven't really seen much to suggest so.
however it's very early - he's barely had more than a few games for us and i'm sure he'll settle in well.

again with lallana the problem is consistency.
we can't have another player like coutinho who may do one amazing thing then be totally anonymous for the next half hour.
i do think lallana wil impose himself though - he was a clear, consistent presence in the southampton team last year and i think he just needs more time to replicate that here.

overall it's quite clear that we don't really have much of a clue how good some of our signings are gonna be.
obviously opposing fans are gonna jump in saying how ineffective they have been but i won't judge any of them fully until at least after xmas.
except balotelli, he can go back to milan....

Jones
Enrique, Johnson, Lovren, Toure
Can, Allen, Lucas
Borini, Lambert, Markovic

That's pretty much second string?

Well I'm delighted with Moreno over Enrique. Johnson has been average to poor but I don't think Manquillo has been that great. He's been solid at best (which isn't working when the rest of the defence are making so many mistakes).

Well Can had all those injuries for quite a while. I do sometimes wonder if Gerrard playing puts pressure on the CBs and his CM partner?

We have too many players who want to play centrally now - Coutinho, Sterling, Henderson, Lallana etc.

Well we saw people jump the gun and judge Henderson very quickly but a few people thought he would come good.

If Balotelli managed to get a hattrick, I think we'd see a different player for a few games. You can see that his confidence has taken a hit.

i'd like to see brendan experiment too - maybe play borini and lambert up top in a partnership.

I would definitely like to see a Lambert and Borini partnership tomorrow. Whilst they both lack a little bit of quality and influence in a game, I do think they would be well suited to each other and could a better bet than a misfiring Balotelli. I'm not completely sure Borini is fit though? He's not been on the bench for the last 2 or 3 games, but that might just be because BR wants an extra midfielder on the bench and feels Lambert is more likely to have an impact from the bench than Borini.

I do think the diamond is over-rated and last season we played better with a 4-3-3 and we only used a diamond in order to get Suarez and Sturridge in the best possible positions. However, it is obvious none of our three back-up strikers is good enough or can have enough influence in a game to play as a lone striker. Every time we have gone to a diamond this season, we have started to play much better and I would like to see us starting with it until Sturridge is back.

Unfortunately it means players like Lallana and/or Coutinho dropping to the bench and Markovic getting absolutely no game time at all but I think it's for the best.