Liverpool FC Forum

by **Scottbot** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:14 pm

I'm not expecting to win the league this season, i never am. But I can't face another year of being out of it by January (regardless of our progress in Europe) and i'd be delighted just to be in touch come March. Just to be in with a shout would count as good progress for me.

So what needs to happen for us to be challengers this season? Let's take 'Rafa playing a more settled side AS A GIVEN shall we coz everyone knows everybody else's thoughts on rotation and to be frank, it bores the absolute s..h..i..t out of me!!!

Suggest you stick with what we've got coz Barry will be the last big transfer of this summer so no good wishing for this player or that!

The three for me are:

1/ Gerrard and Torres have to match (or come close) their performances of last year. they need to stay fit and fot and we will need another 40 goals goals from our two best players.

2/ Set-pieces - A big problem last season. Smaller sides struggled to score past us in open play but often got a lead they didn't deserve through a soft free-kick or corner. You could see they really fancied there chances every time the ref blew his whistle. i don't what the stats say (Owz??) but i'm sure we'd be a LOT better off in terms of points if we'd improved this by 50-60%

3/ RYAN BABEL - Massive year ahead for the player. A lot on here like him and a good few are still not sure. I'm one of the latter. He's shown it in patches. He's strong, quick, skillful, direct and he gets a goal or two but is also very inconsistent, dissappears from matches, makes poor decisions and at times he looks like he cost 2 million instead of 12. If he can REALLY step-up this season I like our chances. Torres is the only player on the books who can truely make something out of absolutely nothing (you could argue a case for Gerrard here as well) but Babel has it in him to do the same. We need a confident Ryan Babel running at players, playing it simple when it's needed, scoring/providing goals and getting involved in the game from start to finish. I'm not sure he'll do it mind but that's what we need.

by **GYBS** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:20 pm

1. Bit of luck with injuries both for us and maybe some for the other teams ie mancs loosing fakey etc

2. A genuine attacking player for the left side

3. The ability to win against the lesser opposition and not throw away silly points against the likes of wigan etc .

by **taff** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:23 pm

1. Get more points than Chelsea

2. get more points than Man Utd

3. get more points than Arsenal

by **stmichael** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:25 pm

We as team don't commit enough bodies forwards when we attack. We always talk about the likes of Pennant having poor end product but if there are two bodies in the box when he crosses his cross has to be INCH PERFECT. Commiting more bodies to attacks and counter attacks would cause the opposition all sorts of problems but would leave ourselves open for the counter attack ourselves, well, no guts no glory. We got 12 draws last season (12!!!!!) we would have been better off losing 6 and winning six. It's almost better to lose the game trying to win it, draws are next to nothing.

by **Owzat** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:25 pm

1. Score more goals, especially from midfield. Torres and Gerrard will do well to get close to their tallies last season, Pennant, Alonso, Mascherano, Babel, Benayoun, Kuyt etc could all up their output by 100% and still be short of good enough (Benayoun scored two hat-tricks, against H & W and in the 8-0 over Besiktas)

2. Defend better from set-pieces and in general. I'm not a fan of our defensive system, I can see it hampering any title challenge bigtime. If the boss won't change it then the players have to make it work(able)

3. Be more ruthless against the lower placed sides and give as good as we get against the title rivals. or put in one category, drop less points against the usual suspects. 1 and 2 should lead to 3, of course it would need to result in less draws which should follow on from the first two anyhoo

by **Roger Red Hat** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:39 pm

taff wrote:1. Get more points than Chelsea

2. get more points than Man Utd

3. get more points than Arsenal

... in a nutshell.

next question

by **66-1112520797** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:42 pm

it bores the absolute s..h..i..t out of me!!!

Tough cookies.

1) Rotation: Has to be one of the main points, Rafa has got to rotate less. Stop rotating for the sake of rotating. Give the team a chance straight from the off this season, they have to find a rythm and a groove to get that cohesivenss together.

2) I personally would like us to be a bit more cavalier in our play, some of that one touch stuff the lads pulled off against Rangers was very good. If they could take that kind of football into the new campaign I'd be well happy, and on top of that as said before I'd like to see us go for the jugular a touch more. Kill teams off and put them to the sword, in seasons gone by we havent done this and dropped points and have landed frustrating draws.

3) A winning consistency.

by **Leonmc0708** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:42 pm

1) Not drop any points to the other members fo the big three.

2) Turn those draws into wins

3) Score more goals from defence

by **SouthCoastShankly** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:44 pm

I think the key for us that the other top 4 four teams have is the ability to create a goal in any circumstance.

We always seem to draw a blank when a team decides early on to shut up shop and defend, hoping that they can hold out or even nick a 1-0. Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea all have a variety of routes to scoring a goal, whereas I feel we don't

by **GYBS** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:51 pm

SouthCoastShankly wrote:I think the key for us that the other top 4 four teams have is the ability to create a goal in any circumstance.

We always seem to draw a blank when a team decides early on to shut up shop and defend, hoping that they can hold out or even nick a 1-0. Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea all have a variety of routes to scoring a goal, whereas I feel we don't

yep agree - we need another player with a little bit of creativity to them - keane will provide a bit mroe but think we still need another person .

by **Scottbot** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:52 pm

Bamaga man wrote:
it bores the absolute s..h..i..t out of me!!!

Tough cookies.

1) Rotation: Has to be one of the main points, Rafa has got to rotate less. Stop rotating for the sake of rotating. Give the team a chance straight from the off this season, they have to find a rythm and a groove to get that cohesivenss together.

Am not saying i don't agree with you, i do! Just didn't particularly want to spend another thread talking and reading about it.

by **Scottbot** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:54 pm

GYBS wrote:yep agree - we need another player with a little bit of creativity to them - keane will provide a bit mroe but think we still need another person .

Problem is that it's not gonna happen now is it? unless Rafa can pluck some bargain buy from somewhere (i'd almost rather he saved the money tbh) That's why i think Babel is potentially the big hit or miss for us this season. There is quite a bit on his shoulders.

by **GYBS** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:59 pm

Scottbot wrote:
Bamaga man wrote:
it bores the absolute s..h..i..t out of me!!!

Tough cookies.

1) Rotation: Has to be one of the main points, Rafa has got to rotate less. Stop rotating for the sake of rotating. Give the team a chance straight from the off this season, they have to find a rythm and a groove to get that cohesivenss together.

Am not saying i don't agree with you, i do! Just didn't particularly want to spend another thread talking and reading about it.

Rafa will rotate as much as he see fit i guess - pretty much the same as all the other teams - the difference is the other teams have stronger squads than us so have the back up - maybe this year we might have better back ups so when players come in will still be up to the job .

with the demands of the season you have to rotate players and keep them fit throughout the season - Rafa does it , ORN does it , Chelsea did it , everyone does it .

by **GYBS** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 2:02 pm

Scottbot wrote:
GYBS wrote:yep agree - we need another player with a little bit of creativity to them - keane will provide a bit mroe but think we still need another person .

Problem is that it's not gonna happen now is it? unless Rafa can pluck some bargain buy from somewhere (i'd almost rather he saved the money tbh) That's why i think Babel is potentially the big hit or miss for us this season. There is quite a bit on his shoulders.

its why i think rafa should just forget barry and spend money on an attacking player.

by **account deleted by request** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 2:16 pm

1/ pick a formation and broadly speaking stick with it

2/Patience, I think at times we try to play too hurriedly and start to panic if we don't score.

3/ confidence, I think a title winning team needs to really believe they are going to win the league, then go out and prove it.

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