Liverpool FC Forum

[Benny The Noon]

if we have any sort of pretentions of being the dominant force in english football again we have got to keep hold of players like luis.
this policy of selling your best player and trying to replace him with another top player is just russian roulette.
keep your best players, sell your poor ones, you`ll be amazed how far a club can go doing that.

Unfortunately that would mean trying to persuade the best players to stay if a big offer comes in whilst we are not in the CL

Selling Suarez if it was to happen could allow the manager to bring in 3 quality players that improve the squad overall- so whilst you lose one top quality player you actually improve the overall squad.

We have had Suarez for 2 and a half years now and let's be honest they are close to our worst two and a half years we have had in the league for decades - maybe we are too focused on building around one player ? Maybe as good as Suarez is we actually rely on him too much and we need to get a stronger squad.

Suarez is one player - we need to build a squad - a team that works together. The sum of all parts is normally better than the individual. The current scum team aren't blessed with massive individual talents but they work as a team which is why they have won the title where as both City and Chelsea have lots of stars but not much of a team.

Look at the bigger picture - and that's having a gelled squad working as one.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

if we have any sort of pretentions of being the dominant force in english football again we have got to keep hold of players like luis.
this policy of selling your best player and trying to replace him with another top player is just russian roulette.
keep your best players, sell your poor ones, you`ll be amazed how far a club can go doing that.

Unfortunately that would mean trying to persuade the best players to stay if a big offer comes in whilst we are not in the CL

Selling Suarez if it was to happen could allow the manager to bring in 3 quality players that improve the squad overall- so whilst you lose one top quality player you actually improve the overall squad.

We have had Suarez for 2 and a half years now and let's be honest they are close to our worst two and a half years we have had in the league for decades - maybe we are too focused on building around one player ? Maybe as good as Suarez is we actually rely on him too much and we need to get a stronger squad.

Suarez is one player - we need to build a squad - a team that works together. The sum of all parts is normally better than the individual. The current scum team aren't blessed with massive individual talents but they work as a team which is why they have won the title where as both City and Chelsea have lots of stars but not much of a team.

Look at the bigger picture - and that's having a gelled squad working as one.

...as i said, a thatcher worshipping liverpool fan who wants to sell suarez....

[Benny The Noon]

if we have any sort of pretentions of being the dominant force in english football again we have got to keep hold of players like luis.
this policy of selling your best player and trying to replace him with another top player is just russian roulette.
keep your best players, sell your poor ones, you`ll be amazed how far a club can go doing that.

Unfortunately that would mean trying to persuade the best players to stay if a big offer comes in whilst we are not in the CL

Selling Suarez if it was to happen could allow the manager to bring in 3 quality players that improve the squad overall- so whilst you lose one top quality player you actually improve the overall squad.

We have had Suarez for 2 and a half years now and let's be honest they are close to our worst two and a half years we have had in the league for decades - maybe we are too focused on building around one player ? Maybe as good as Suarez is we actually rely on him too much and we need to get a stronger squad.

Suarez is one player - we need to build a squad - a team that works together. The sum of all parts is normally better than the individual. The current scum team aren't blessed with massive individual talents but they work as a team which is why they have won the title where as both City and Chelsea have lots of stars but not much of a team.

Look at the bigger picture - and that's having a gelled squad working as one.

...as i said, a thatcher worshipping liverpool fan who wants to sell suarez....

Can you please point out where exactly i have said i "want" to sell Suarez

and Please point out my worshipping

or will you run away again with your tail between your legs like you did in the Thatcher thread.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

i didnt realise you spent so much time in the thatcher thread benny, i`ll leave you true blue`s to it, couldnt stand the woman personally.
then again thats the price i pay for being born and raised in liverpool i suppose.

[Kenny Kan]

yawn

[stmichael]

The major concern for me is the lack of pressing. When you are playing against good quick technical players you need to make a concerted effort to get the ball back and at least try and force them to overplay. It's ok being a counter attacking side with two very good strikers but if we do somehow stay up near the top and somehow get top 4 I'd severely worry about this side in the Champions League going forward. It's patently clear that we're not a side that's set up to control football matches.

[jacdaniel]

The major concern for me is the lack of pressing. When you are playing against good quick technical players you need to make a concerted effort to get the ball back and at least try and force them to overplay. It's ok being a counter attacking side with two very good strikers but if we do somehow stay up near the top and somehow get top 4 I'd severely worry about this side in the Champions League going forward. It's patently clear that we're not a side that's set up to control football matches.

I posted this in another thread but I'll post here too:

Its not really just the midfield thats a concern.  I'm concerned with how deep we sometimes become.  We often see Suarez or Sturridge pressing high up the field and the opposition defence pass the ball past them and suddenly our closest player is Gerrard on the half way line. 

The reason for this is that Gerrard and Lucas are not able to press high.  They don't have the pace or mobility.  at least not anymore. 
So they have to stay deeper.  This in turn causes the defence to sit deeper. 

Lucas and Gerrard are not the only issue though.  Skrtel is also not capable of playing higher up the pitch, becomes too prone to errors in such a system.  Also Mignolets distribution is not great so he would find it hard to play as a sort of sweeper keeper. 

How do we solve the issue?  Well, the below formation might work a bit better.

                                   Mignolet
                         Toure            Agger
Johnson                                               Enrique
                                      Lucas
                       Henderson         Allen
Suarez                                                    Coutinho
                                   Sturridge

I can see a line up like that having much more control in a game.

[stmichael]

3 at the back was never a long term solution. I think we stumbled upon it due to injuries at fullback and the fact that we brought 25 centre backs in the summer. Then we get a few decent results and all of a sudden we feel obliged to stick with it as it as enables us to get two strikers in the side and also play 3 in the middle. The system is flawed though if you don't have attacking wingbacks who are comfortable on the ball going forward. We only really have Johnson who fits this crieria. Asking Flanagan to perform that role was just madness.

You're exactly right about defending higher up the pitch aswell. I see it working is if the team pushes up and defends higher because otherwise we're going to be relying an awful lot on the midfield for defensive work. It leaves a huge amount for the two men in the middle to do. They need to cover a lot of ground, win the ball and release the wide men on runs, or feed it to the front men in advantageous positions. It's a lot to ask, and against a mobile and physical opposition, it can leave us over-run in the middle.

The system will work against the lesser teams but we need better technical players to make it stick against the better teams.

[Kenny Kan]

Glad to see Rodgers revert to a back four yesterday. First clean sheet too. It was hard to gauge how much the formation suited us as Fulham were fvcking awful and we could have beaten them with 3 at the back.

The lads looked comfortable and Suarez was brilliant (again), Gerrard was good too. I hope Rodgers sticks with this formation and Glen Johnson certainly made a difference down the right, good to see this underrated player in the side again - we missed him.

[Stu the Red]

Can you please point out where exactly i have said i "want" to sell Suarez

I know he's not here to defend himself...

But proof that the lad had lost the plot... he's spent the hole summer banging on about wanting him out then comes out with a statement like that!

Glad he's gone!

[devaney]

Can you please point out where exactly i have said i "want" to sell Suarez

I know he's not here to defend himself...

But proof that the lad had lost the plot... he's spent the hole summer banging on about wanting him out then comes out with a statement like that!

Glad he's gone!

In several of the many spats I had with BTN about Suarez he consistently stated that he wanted Luis out of the club as soon as possible. No doubt you will remember that I asked him what he would do with the £50m if we sold him in January and he came up with a somewhat questionable collection of names.

[Stu the Red]

Currently Southampton have this absolutely nailed on and its a model I think Rodgers needs to look at and needs to bring in the appropriate players for.

Its very simple what they're doing. They're allowing players at the back just enough time to get the ball under control then bang, they're onto them. They're pressing goal keepers ruthlessly aswell and its forcing alot of long balls from the opposition which, turn, is making it very easy for their big, powerful centre halfs and central midfielders to win the headers and turn what should be spells of opposition possession, into a battle.

They're stopping other teams from playing in a really effective way.

Even against Chelsea the other day, I'd say for large periods Chelsea found them very difficult to play against. It was only really down to two set pieces that Chelsea managed to get the win. Thats a side with Hazard, Torres, Oscar and Mata in struggling to create chances.

[Ben Patrick]

Totally agree about Southampton Stu.

At anfield we literally couldnt get out of our own half because of how quickly and agressively they pressed.
I was very impressed by them and then when they win the ball they have some very tidy players in Lallana and Schneiderlin.

[red till i die!!]

kinda like the stuff we should be seeing    y'know "tiki-taka, death by football winning the game in the opposition half etc etc
they are good to watch and play a tight game but they will finish up the season in 7th or 8th. thats still some turnaround for your 2nd year in the prem.
i felt sorry for adkins at the time but it turned out to be a great move by the owner as the new guy has them playing far beyond any level he could have got them too.

[damjan193]

Currently Southampton have this absolutely nailed on and its a model I think Rodgers needs to look at and needs to bring in the appropriate players for.

Its very simple what they're doing. They're allowing players at the back just enough time to get the ball under control then bang, they're onto them. They're pressing goal keepers ruthlessly aswell and its forcing alot of long balls from the opposition which, turn, is making it very easy for their big, powerful centre halfs and central midfielders to win the headers and turn what should be spells of opposition possession, into a battle.

They're stopping other teams from playing in a really effective way.

Even against Chelsea the other day, I'd say for large periods Chelsea found them very difficult to play against. It was only really down to two set pieces that Chelsea managed to get the win. Thats a side with Hazard, Torres, Oscar and Mata in struggling to create chances.

I'd actually say that Chelsea were lucky to win. Because of what Southampton were doing to them, they had to skip their entire midfield most of the time which didn't work that well. It's a shame that Southampton conceded 2 goals in such a way, because I thought they were the better team and deserved more.

I think that if I say that Southampton have the best midfield in the league at the moment I wouldn't be too wrong. They might not have the best midfielders in terms of individual ability but the way they play it suits their players completely and uses their full potential. With the tireless Lallana and Schneiderlin(sp?) and that beast Wanyama, it's no wonder that that pressing game of theirs works so well. I expect us to lose the other game against Southampton as well because our team can't handle any kind of pressure.

I think Rodgers wants us to play this way as well but just doesn't have the personal. You can't play like that with midfielders that look like they can barely stand never mind run half a marathon for the whole game (Lucas and Gerrard), and you can't play a passing game when your best passer (Gerrard) is all about Hollywood long balls while the other two can only pass to him or back to the defenders. I don't think we're that far though. I believe the rest of the team is to Rodgers liking, it's just the midfield that needs a few adjustments.