The Liverpool FC Thread XII

We just need to Luis Garcia them and then watch Mourinho explode.

The first leg is at Anfield so hopefully we can get a good result and then grind out a draw at Stamford Bridge ala Benitez.

Who do you think will win? Liverpool or Chelsea?

you forget that rodgers as a manager doesn't know what "grinding out a draw" is.
chelsea will go ham either way - mourinho may not care about the league cup but there's no way he'll want to lose against liverpool.



logically chelsea should win - they have better players in every single position.
but since when has football ever been logical?

We just need to Luis Garcia them and then watch Mourinho explode.

It's fine, we can all post from our smartphones

you forget that rodgers as a manager doesn't know what "grinding out a draw" is.
chelsea will go ham either way - mourinho may not care about the league cup but there's no way he'll want to lose against liverpool.

logically chelsea should win - they have better players in every single position.
but since when has football ever been logical?

Goal Line Technology

Nah 3G reception there is awful, unless you're in the Centenary Stand with wifi.

Derby fan here. Just seen the news that Ibe is being recalled early (some time later this month).

Have to say, I'm really disappointed. Not only has he just started to find his feet with us but also because I just can't understand the reasoning behind it.

He's getting game time, he's playing reasonably well and he seems very happy here. So I'm sure it can't be coming from the player's end.

Also, the lad's nowhere near good enough for the Prem. It's only recently that he's started to look the part in the second tier and he still makes a truckload of mistakes that come along with being young and relatively inexperienced. So if Brendan thinks he can go some way to playing a part in saving your season, he's more clueless than I originally had him down for.

Fine we'll just outscore Chelsea

We better not play the 3-4-3 against Chelsea. He'll just put Hazard on the flank and destroy us.

Derby fan here. Just seen the news that Ibe is being recalled early (some time later this month).

Have to say, I'm really disappointed. Not only has he just started to find his feet with us but also because I just can't understand the reasoning behind it.

He's getting game time, he's playing reasonably well and he seems very happy here. So I'm sure it can't be coming from the player's end.

Also, the lad's nowhere near good enough for the Prem. It's only recently that he's started to look the part in the second tier and he still makes a truckload of mistakes that come along with being young and relatively inexperienced. So if Brendan thinks he can go some way to playing a part in saving your season, he's more clueless than I originally had him down for.

About time


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Derby fan here. Just seen the news that Ibe is being recalled early (some time later this month).

Have to say, I'm really disappointed. Not only has he just started to find his feet with us but also because I just can't understand the reasoning behind it.

He's getting game time, he's playing reasonably well and he seems very happy here. So I'm sure it can't be coming from the player's end.

Also, the lad's nowhere near good enough for the Prem. It's only recently that he's started to look the part in the second tier and he still makes a truckload of mistakes that come along with being young and relatively inexperienced. So if Brendan thinks he can go some way to playing a part in saving your season, he's more clueless than I originally had him down for.

What would you score him out of 10?

In fairness Rodgers gave Sterling a lot of game time and helped him develop quickly into a first team player. Although I agree about the competition - Sterling, Coutinho, Lallana and Markovic.

Like I say, I'm really disappointed to be losing him. He's the one player in our team that the opposition literally can't gameplan for. You can bully Will Hughes, you can cut off the supply line to Chris Martin but it's literally impossible to stop an in-form Jordon Ibe. I just hope he goes out with a bang against Forest on Saturday.

7/10. Started very slowly and a lot of fans started to get on his back. Just really simple stuff like ignoring the easy pass and trying to take on four defenders. Players like that don't go down well at Derby given the style of football we play.

Recently though, he's been on fire. His decision-making has improved drastically and he's also stepped up his defensive side of the game. There's been a few times where he's ran the length of the field and made a goal-saving tackle in his own penalty area - very impressive to watch. Not to mention the pace and trickery that you'd expect too.

Like I say, I'm really disappointed to be losing him. He's the one player in our team that the opposition literally can't gameplan for. You can bully Will Hughes, you can cut off the supply line to Chris Martin but it's literally impossible to stop an in-form Jordon Ibe. I just hope he goes out with a bang against Forest on Saturday.

Lucas Leiva is Liverpool linchpin Brendan Rodgers wants to keep

Roberto Mancini may not succeed in luring Lucas Leiva to Internazionale this month but his interest has accomplished the often thankless task of demonstrating the Brazilian’s importance to Liverpool. It is not only Steven Gerrard who has the capacity to create an alarming void in Brendan Rodgers’ midfield.

The former Manchester City manager wants to add Lucas to his ranks at San Siro following the January signings of Lukas Podolski and Xherdan Shaqiri, although, despite reports of a £7m bid, there has been no official approach to Liverpool from Internazionale so far. Rodgers will be standing in the way should one materialise. It is a surprising stance given his past treatment of the 28-year-old and now a necessity because of Lucas’s influence on Liverpool’s recovery from the malaise that had enveloped the club and manager merely seven weeks ago.

There have been several factors at play in Liverpool’s tentative step forward from 12th and four points above the relegation zone after the 3-1 defeat at Crystal Palace on 23 November to eighth and five points adrift of fourth place following Saturday’s win at Sunderland. Rodgers’ bold switch to a 3-4-2-1 formation is chief among them, with Philippe Coutinho and the currently injured Adam Lallana liberated by the system, and the first signs of why Liverpool paid Benfica £20m for Lazar Markovic have been instrumental, too. However, there at the core, unfussy, uncomplicated and unheralded as always, stands Lucas.

Rodgers conceded that his job could be in jeopardy after Liverpool’s latest demoralising experience at Selhurst Park in November. His response upon leaving Croydon was to end the adaptation process for a few summer signings and revert to those he trusted to dig Liverpool out of trouble. “I felt I needed to go back to what I knew from the players who were here already after the Crystal Palace game,” the manager admitted. Lucas was recalled and Liverpool have lost only one of 13 matches since – the 3-0 defeat at Manchester United in December when the defensive midfielder sat on the bench throughout. It is the only game Lucas has not started post-Palace.

Internazionale’s interest in the midfielder, who remains under contract at Anfield until 2017, has sparked inevitable debate over his value to the Liverpool team. Appreciation may have soared in comparison to the judgment on Lucas’s early Anfield career but for some his reliability – he ranks top at Liverpool this season for the average number of tackles won per game, interceptions and possession – will never be enough. More important than polarised opinion, however, is the contrast in Liverpool’s results with and without the Brazilian’s defensive cover.

Rodgers’ team have taken 11 Premier League points from a possible 33 without Lucas in the starting lineup this season, winning three, drawing two and losing six of the 11 games. In the 10 league games with Lucas in the side Liverpool have collected 21 points from 30, winning six, drawing three and losing one – West Ham United away. Liverpool last lost a game with Lucas in the team on 4 November, at Real Madrid in the Merseyside club’s short-lived return to the Champions League, and last gained a point in the Premier League without him on 25 October in a goalless draw at home to Hull City. They conceded an average of 1.5 goals in the 12 league games up to and including Palace and one per game on average since.

An out-and-out defensive midfielder was not a priority for Rodgers last season when Gerrard was allowed to flourish in the playmaker role by Luis Suárez’s movement and the pace of Daniel Sturridge, who is due to return from injury later this month. Yet, with Lucas’s involvement often limited under the Liverpool manager, it was strange the club did not sign a proven player for that role during their £117m summer spending spree.

Emre Can was acquired as potential from Bayer Leverkusen and has had to wait for an opportunity to arise at centre-half to impress. Jordan Henderson and Joe Allen would be the remaining options should Lucas, as Mancini perhaps hopes, push for a move and follow Gerrard out of Liverpool before the start of next season. Central midfield will have to be addressed this summer regardless of Lucas’s future following the captain’s decision to leave for LA Galaxy, but the loss of two experienced heads in that department represents a sizeable risk for a club that has struggled to land top talent.

“Lucas was one I never ever said that I wanted to move out,” said Rodgers late last year and in response to interest from Napoli and Galatasaray in the midfielder during the summer. “There was speculation but he was never one we wanted to move on. He is an important part of our squad. It’s been difficult for him because Steven Gerrard was playing in that position he played. But when he’s been called upon he’s reacted really well. Whenever we need someone who can give us that defensive solidity in there, someone who can press the ball and give us that aggression, he can do that well.”

Rodgers’ reluctance to part company with him has subsequently increased.