by maypaxvobiscum » Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:52 am
Roy Keane was right when he said that we bought players in the wrong department. The defense more or less picks itself with Carra and Johnson certain starters while Agger, Skrtel, Kelly and Flanagan battle it out for the remaining 2 spots. My ideal selection would be as follows:
-------------------------Reina
Kelly/Flanagan---Carra---Agger/Skrtel---Johnson/Insua
Forget about Aurelio, he is injured too often and isn't reliable. Kyrgiakos is having his final season in our colors and we have Wisdom ready to take his place as 4th choice defender.
The midfield however, we have so many options and it's not funny. Firstly, Gerrard as club captain will start. Put it this way - a half fit Gerrard is still as good as most of the midfielders in England today. Despite his age and injuries, he has a lot left to contribute towards success. This means, that there are 5 more spots up for grabs that would be contested among Meireles, Aquilani, Adam, Lucas, Henderson, Kuyt, Downing, Suarez and Carroll.
That's 9 players already, without mentioning Poulsen, Spearing and Shelvey. IMO, Shelvey should be loaned out while Spearing and Poulsen can be sold.
I won't have Lucas in my starting 11. Instead, Adam and Meireles would play. Unlike Lucas, the duo are capable of starting a counter attack on more occasions with their passes for Downing, Suarez and Gerrard to manipulate.
So that's Gerrard, Adam and Meireles in midfield. I'm unsure of Gerrard's fitness but I always found him most effective on the right side of midfield. Not only does he score and create, but his presence there causes the opposing fullback to be more wary and hesitant to go forward. After investing so much money on Carroll, it would be silly not to play Downing. Suarez is a certain starter as he is THE man. As of now, my first team looks like this:
--------------Reina
Kelly---Carra---Agger---Johnson
------Meireles---Adam
Gerrard---Suarez---Downing
-------------Carroll
The need for another striker of better quality then Ngog is overrated on the condition our midfielders are capable of contributing to the goals instead of being reliant on 2 or 3 players as we have been in the past consecutive seasons. Plus Kuyt can also play there.
At this stage, what we have is more of quantity then quality. By buying a left back, Johnson can be shifted to the right to battle it out with Flanagan and Kelly can be shifted to the center of defense to replace Carragher in due time.