Liverpool FC Forum

by **JBG** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:37 pm

I think we'll do better than a lot of people are giving us credit for.

Its not as if things are perfect with our competitors as well: UTD losing Ronaldo & Tevez, Chelsea's aging side & transfer ban, Arsenal's lack of steel & lack of spending power, and Man City aren't ready yet for a title challenge.

by **bigmick** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:05 am

It really depends IMHO on what your aspirations are for Liverpool Football Club this season. Clearly we are good enough to have a "good" season, to ruffle a few feathers, certainly to progress through the penalty kick stages of Europe, and perhaps even to break our drought of winning trophies via one of the cups.

Good enough to win the Premiership though? Not in my opinion no to be totally honest no. I've seen us play a few times now, and the impression that the squad is nowhere near strong enough on this occasion is hard to shake.

Torres continues to plough a lone furrow up front, and despite the fact that he looks very jaded to me he must play nearly all of nearly all of the matches, simply because we have nobody else. N'Gog in his cameo against Burnley demonstrated yet again that at best he is a long way short of being fully developed, and at worst clueless. Voronin is just Voronin, while Babel didn't even make the bench which says it all both about the managers opinion of him, and how well he's taken his chances on the odd occasion they've come along.

In midfield, Masherano looks a shadow of the player we knew, while Lucas has shown clearly that he is going to be incapable of performing anything like the Alonso role. Gerrard can of course, but then in using him to help us move the ball from A to B in less than 37 passes we lose him up top, where the cupboard is bare. At the back, once again we look light to me, particularly in the centre of defence.

Against the likes of Burnley we can overcome our shortcomings with a nifty piece of tactical swervery which basically ensured we had plenty of people in the final third at all times. Against stiffer opposition though, sterner questions will be posed and I wonder if we'll have the answers. I wonder if we'll have the answers even with our best team available, without a key player or two for an extended period we will have our hands full to finsih in the top four IMHO.

Whether it's the owners fault, Rafa's fault or even my fault is neither here nor there, the stark facts of the matter for me are that we are short in terms of depth and quality. If we can stay in some sort of touch until Aquilani gets fit, and he turns out ot be a signing of the Torres type masterstroke rather than of the Keane variety, things may look slightly better.

My feeling is though that we are a couple of top quality players short of being contenders right now. Aplogies as ever if it makes me not a real fan for saying so, but that's the way I see it as of now.

by **Sabre** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:12 am

JBG wrote:I think we'll do better than a lot of people are giving us credit for.

Its not as if things are perfect with our competitors as well: UTD losing Ronaldo & Tevez, Chelsea's aging side & transfer ban, Arsenal's lack of steel & lack of spending power, and Man City aren't ready yet for a title challenge.

I agree, REina himself is a mayor name. And Mascherano might not be as brilliant as when he came, but top players do not forget playing football, I hope we learned that lesson with Alonso.

I interpret Reina's message as a direct message to the owners. It's worrying, because we have seen players leaving because no big names come somewhere else, in Arsenal.

If we want to keep the Torres and the Reinas we must be able to have some funding to bring important players, this is valid for any team.

We have to be close to the top until we get Aquilani, if he's half as succes as Mascherano and Alonso we'll be fine. Johnson has improved the RB position, so I also think we'll do better than we fear.

by **Owzat** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:42 am

Well let's show our results by our opponents finishing positions last season

6th villa (h) - stuffed them 5-0 last season, they did win 10 away last season but we were poor
8th Tottenham (a) - played poorly and lost, at least last season we played well and lost
12th Stoke (h) - we beat them which we didn't last season, just a correction of last season's result
13th Bolton (a) - only just beat them thanks in no small part to a red card, Lucas filling in nicely for Alonso
25th Burnley (h) - beat them comprehensively, but they only just got up via the play-offs

Not exactly convincing, losing to spudz away is one thing but at home to villa for the first time in a long time was as poor as the performance. The highest any of the teams we've beaten this season finished last season is 12th and that was at home. It's too difficult to say where we will finish based on the results so far, if we don't show significant improvement against the better sides then I think top four could be a struggle.

EDIT : the only significant absentee is really Aquilani, besides him we're playing pretty much our best XI. Is that one player going to make a big difference? It's a lot to pin our title hopes on

by **Sabre** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:44 am

EDIT : the only significant absentee is really Aquilani, besides him we're playing pretty much our best XI. Is that one player going to make a big difference? It's a lot to pin our title hopes on

We come from a title challenge don't we? Is the absence of Alonso going to make a big difference if we attend to your argument?

Well it will if we play like against Tottenham and allowing goals in set pieces, but if we manage to be there until Aquilani returns, we'll be fighting. Winning the league is very difficult, but I've read too much fears about being out of the top 4.

by **DrPepe** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:59 am

Owzat wrote:Well let's show our results by our opponents finishing positions last season

6th villa (h) - stuffed them 5-0 last season, they did win 10 away last season but we were poor
8th Tottenham (a) - played poorly and lost, at least last season we played well and lost
12th Stoke (h) - we beat them which we didn't last season, just a correction of last season's result
13th Bolton (a) - only just beat them thanks in no small part to a red card, Lucas filling in nicely for Alonso
25th Burnley (h) - beat them comprehensively, but they only just got up via the play-offs

Not exactly convincing, losing to spudz away is one thing but at home to villa for the first time in a long time was as poor as the performance. The highest any of the teams we've beaten this season finished last season is 12th and that was at home. It's too difficult to say where we will finish based on the results so far, if we don't show significant improvement against the better sides then I think top four could be a struggle.

EDIT : the only significant absentee is really Aquilani, besides him we're playing pretty much our best XI. Is that one player going to make a big difference? It's a lot to pin our title hopes on

the only significant absentee is really Aquilani

shirley the big loss has been in our defence rather than CM (3 changes in our defence) - aurelio , skrtl (agger to a lesser extent), and without arbeloa

the evidence is plain to see in the types of goals we've conceded from set plays

ONce we settle our defence, i would hope to see a recovery of form

by **bigmick** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:35 am

I think we're already seeing a recovery of form to be honest. We have definately learnt from the previous five seasons that against rubbish at Home it's really just a question of going for it and the result should look after itself, and I shouldn't think anybody was overly surprised we accounted for Burnley and Stoke comfortably.

I would also expect us to beat west ham Away in our next game (although it'll be trickier) but the overriding worry for me is the lack of quality and depth. We got away with it last season but I don't think we will this, already we are stretched as we have had to pull Gerrard out of the hole and bring him back into midfield to cover for Lucas. it worked alright against Burnley because Benayoun scored three goals and nobody really cared that Torres didn't get in the game, but against better teams Benayoun won't score hat-tricks and we'll need a contribution from Torres.

I think we'll continue to see an improvememt in form, and provided Gerrard and Torres stay fit we'll make the top four alright. I don't think we'll win it though.

by **yolz** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:40 pm

How long has it been since a premiership trophy?
While it gladdens my heart that so many die-hard Liverpool fans are still here believing, I have to say that we need a little realism here
While I optimistically expect a trophy, the premiership title is what I really hope for
and we are still woefully short of being a complete team that can withstand the rigours of the ardous premiership title
If lady luck smiles our way in terms of draws and injuries, we have a fighting chance
However, once Torres, or God forbid, Stevie G is injured, we really have no firepower
What Reina said IMHO reflects what the players and supporters feel
For a club as massive as Liverpool, we need to be a world classed team in terms of players available and infrastructure
Since we've signed a record breaking sponsor deal, we should take it from there and ensure that our development continues
We should be right on top as the biggest, best run team in England, we just haven't reached that standard yet

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