Your signings under Dalglish have strengthened your Squad, but not the 1st XI You will/should finish above the also rans of the Premier League but you are no closer to winning the Premier League and still have a very tough ask to finish 4th. As I said at the start of the season, you will not be able to compete for the best Players until you have Champions League Football, OR. Pay Madchester Citeh Money And as you have neither, this all you can expect.
I understand what you are saying and agree with you a bit. The squad is much stronger, but the first 11 has benefited from having more option, and more balance. Before we had no width across the middle or in attack and the team was very right side, containing very little balance. The first 11 has also gained some pace. If the first 11 has not got stronger, how come our midfield can dominate possession against any team in the league and create chance after chance in attack? We now have a good balance of left foot and right foot, passers and runners, muscle and height, flair and creativity. Once this team has come together and gelled a little more, it could be very deadly.
Not a chance, alot of us would like to see him given more first team opportunities. The lad is something special
The only Player that looks a nailed on improvement to your 1st XI is the left back. The others are just more of the same.
Well having Suarez, Carroll and Bellamy is a massive improvement on a stroppy Torres and N'Gog. The player on the left flank changed so many time last season that I lost count, but Downing is a definate improvment on Joe Cole and Jovanovic. In fact we havnt had a natural left winger in a while. Charlie Adam has got our passing game a lot better. Strictly speaking we did not have any one doing that job last season. I think you may be judging this to much on how famous the names on the team sheet are, or how big the individuals status is, but that is not what its all about. Its about how the players compliment each other, how balanced they are and how they work together. Those factors have all improved, resulting in a strong first 11.
"I think you may be judging this to much on how famous the names on the team sheet are, or how big the individuals status is, but that is not what its all about." I agree entirely that names/fees can cloud the issue, but for example ; Is Carroll really any better than N'Gog? might need a pause before answering that one, but check out N'Gog's Goals v Starts for Liverpool and it makes interesting reading (42/19 overall and 21/9 in the Premier League. Is Suarez going to score more goals than Torres? Is Charlie Adam fit to lace Gerrard's boots, never mind replace him? Have you signed anyone better than Kuyt?
How can you consider Adam a replacement for Gerrard, when they've played together in both the games Gerrard has started this season? Anyway I don't see the point in comparing individuals like this, is Welbeck better than Berbatov? No, but he's much more suited to Man Utd's style of play. Another example would be Milito vs Ibrahimovic. Was Milito a better striker than Ibrahimovic? No, he's not even close to Ibra's ability but he was much better at being part of a team, and he was one of the main reasons behind Inter winning the treble.
Adam is a different type of player to Gerrard and was not singed to replace him. But Adam has improved our passing game, chipped in some goals and given our midfield balance. He may look like a plumber and have one of the commonest names in the book, but he's a quality player. It doesnt matter if Suarez scores as many goals as Torres as long as the team scores more as a whole. Before, the team became to reliant on Torres and Gerrard to score the goals. They were scoring over half the teams goals. If the rest of the team had chipped in more, or had more goal scorers the results would have been much better nd the stress on Torres would have been less. If the team did not have to rely on Torres he could have taken proper time off to recover from his injuries, then maybe he would still be banging in the goals for us. With the Carroll V N'Gog thing you cannot judge on goal stats alone. Carroll arrived at Liverpool injured and has had to play with a team that is still gelling. When N'Gog did get a run of games in the team he struggled a bit. His goals were spread out here and there. Sure his goals to game stats are good, but you have to look at the bigger picture. And Kuyt is a top quality player, end of debate. Though Suarez is better so the answer to your question is yes.
As usual with Scofield, he will pick upon stats (eg Ngog/Carroll), surround them with assumptions (eg Adam as a replacement for Gerrard) to make an argument that totally misses the prime purpose of what Liverpool are setting about. Everybody asociated with the club have said that we are engaged upon development programme who's sole purpose is to take us back to the top and keep us there. If you look back at previous great Liverpool sides, they contained some outstanding players but their success was built upon the solidity of the unit. Dalgliesh is using the same principle but applying it to the squad. Hence on a player by player basis other sides may appear to have more stars. However, when you look at the balance and flexibility of the squad a totally different picture emerges. The present squad is very far from the finished article - in fact it should never become the finished article - but far more balanced and flexible than anything that we have had for a very long time. We are no longer a 1/2 man team. We are creating goalscorring chances from our attackers and midfielders at a far faster rate than any other team in the division. Our defence is offering fewer goalscorring chances to the opposition. We all know that it is our present profilagacy in front of goal that is costing us dearly. Yet, if all of the shots that have hit the woodwork had gone in we would be a minimum of 7 points better off. We know that there is far more to come from both Carroll and Henderson. We have not yet seen the best of Kelly and Coates. Shelby ( next season), Sterling, Suso, etc. await their opportunity. Sure we will buy to improve further but it won't be 'names' who are already playing at the peak of their potential or require the rest of the squad to change to get the best from them. We will be looking for an even more precious commodity - skill that can be nurtured and improved to meet the needs of the squad ( and that may again lead to accusations of "paying over the top"). We have already proved that we can play and win without Gerrard. Our defence did not fall apart because Carra was missing. At some point in the season we are probably going to have to play without Suarez. But I believe that we can do that because we have the squad that we do and are building a true squad ethic. I'm glad that saurez came off the pitch angry on Saturday. Dalgliesh was angry - as were a lot of us! The team is not always going to get it right. Dalgliesh is not always going to get his selections/substitutions right. However we do have enough resources to overcome that. 4th spot is not going to be decided this year. Like the title, it will be won and lost after New Year and we are still in with a very good shout - despite Schofields opinions.
Dave, some very good words there. I look at December and I see this as the real test for Liverpool. 05 Dec - Fulham (A) 10 Dec - QPR (H) 18 Dec - Aston Villa (A) 21 Dec - Wigan (A) 26 Dec - Blackburn (H) 30 Dec - Newcastle (H) Every one of those games are the type of fixture that can frustrate us like we have been in the last few days. 6 games in a month. I would like to see us set up well for the secnd half of the season, but there is no doubt in my mind that this will be our toughest month of the first half...I just hope it's our best.
As you say these are the games that the past few seasons, and this one, frustrate us. The good thing is that every one of those games is winnable. If we got 18 points from those, imagine the turnaround in morale, press off the backs, etc. It could do wonders.
Just saying, if I am looking at that Fulham Villa (maybe) and Newcastle where we drop points, still 12 points in there if we tie these three, but I still think we can get more. I believe our squad is stronger than these and we can get results.
The 2 previous times a looked ahead at fixtures were the Stoke and Spurs games...and the Norwich, WBA and Swansea games. Both times I expected/predicted a healthy points balance so this time I'm not going anywhere near trying to guess! But yeah 12 would be my minimum expectation.
People can throw around wait, be patient, etc but looking at that run of games, 12 points is a minimum of standard if we want to be at least sniffing around the top 4 still, then do whatever we need to/ or not need to in January. Still hold the squad we have in a high enough regard to take care of business against these teams.
If we look at our pts average so far and X it by 38, then we're on course for 65 points. No team since Everton in the 2004/2005 (61 pts) has finished 4th with a points tally of 65 or less. Looking at that fact it underlines the importance in starting to win games at home instead of drawing against the smaller teams.
The Daily Post magnified the situation. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk...ng-team-in-the-premier-league-92534-29751343/
The lad has premiership experience. He has already shown that he has loads of potential. If he keeps improving at the rate he currently is then his market value will be far more than the £16m we paid for him.
