by stmichael » Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:09 pm
Just to elaborate, we still have several problems.
We don't often enough demonstrate the positive movement of the Mancs or Arsenal, even Chelsea last season but not so much this season, on the break. Our breaking play is often signposted and pedestrian. There have been improvements this season, particularly once we've got the first goal, when we suddenly morph into an attacking team which has been as pleasing on the eye at times as any other team in the league. But not enough and rarely before we've gone ahead. I can only think this is in some way down to confidence as we seem scared of going behind in matches. This often serves us well against weaker teams, and we are starting to produce the consistency in most of our games that we need to make a challenge, but give the better teams a whiff of blood and they will hurt you.
We do seem to make strange substitutions, but we're missing a few important players to give us the strength in depth to have game-changing players on the bench. Losing two of our better players who can play on the wings for large parts of the season has given us a big problem here, and if Kewell and Garcia had been available more then I think we would have stronger options to change the game. Although we have four strikers also, only one of them has real pace, so again we don't have the variety we need. I think on reflection we could have done with Pongolle who although not a starter has proven an important impact player for us in the past. Another thing which frustrates me is that we rarely take Kuyt off when he's having a sh#t of a game. On Saturday he should have come off and Bellamy stayed on, but I suppose the thinking was that with only one pacy striker we had to save his legs for Barca.
As for Gerrard, he hasn't helped himself this season by having a dire start when he could have made last years impact from out wide. When he plays in the centre he has proved more effective than in previous seasons in keeping the shape of the side and I've been impressed by the way he's learned to make runs at the right times and stay back when needed, but surely no-one is in any doubt that he's at his best when the shackles are off and he has the freedom to roam and make lung-bursting runs all over the pitch. I think the lad himself needs to decide what he wants to be, as he can't be everything at once. With Garcia on the pitch, Gerrard can play the midfield general role to a tee, but when we have no-one else to cause havoc then we're missing that side of his game. Missing Momo for a stretch didn't help here either because he gives Gerrard that license he needs, but since he's been back I don't think Momo has hit form apart from away in the Camp Nou. Kuyt has also been fulfilling the roaming role outside the box, but it leaves us a man short in the danger area, especially with Bellamy often drifting into space, which is his forte.
We've had worse injury crises, but the ones we've had this season have been telling, and our much-vaunted squad depth has been found out to be a myth. I also think we lack that conviction at times that we're going to get a result no matter what. When it's going well we look better than last season, but when it's going badly we seem to roll over.
Just a bit of a rant from me in the theme of the thread. I do think Rafa can get it right for us but we need some backing from our new backers. I'm not generally a lover of big name purchases, as I prefer to unearth a gem and bring them into the Liverpool way, but at the moment we need a few more top players and I think we will have to pay top dollar to get them.
Last edited by
stmichael on Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
