I know this morning Kenny Dalglish is going to conduct the autopsy, he said yesterday before the game that he found it difficult to leave Maxi out, and he eventually left him out.I do not know whether his statement is part of the politics of being a football manager.If a player is scoring goals he must be encouraged, but I would not like to question Kenny Dalglish's judgement. I think our opponents are now of the opinion that if they can stop Suarez they can stop Liverpool.Goals must come from other area of the field if the opponents are making life difficult for our forwards. I have nothing against Andy Carrol, but I strongly believe that he should be on the bench yesterday. Lucas absence was obvious yesterday, we all know now how importance he is to the team.
We really could do with Gerrard back, as he's always good for a goal from midfield. Not just that, but as he's often the head midfielder and can often be found getting up as often as the strikers then it pushes the rest of the midfield to do the same, and we have endless options up front but as it is we haven't really played a natural creative CAM for a while. Shelvey would fit right into it I think; especially after he's impressed at Blackpool - The only problem is, who does he replace? Hendo has really earnt his place in the side, and been a real class act lately, against Fulham I was very impressed as he was perhaps the classiest player to keep hold of possession. Adam has established himself as our only ball playing midfielder at the moment, long balls are needed to get past some defences and he's quite good at it most of the time. Maxi, Downing, Kuyt and Bellamy are all good players and I think you'd have to be pretty good to displace any of them from the side; Shelvey will really have to step up his game and show what he can do to cement a place in the side. Personally, I think he has what it takes.
i wasn't at all impressed this time round with henderson. Last time he did well, this time he was so out of position in a three man midfield it was awful. He left johnson wide open most of the time when in fact he needed to bring glen into the game. fulham figured it out and had our right side nullified for most of the game as a result. I thought on his previous outing he showed some lovely touches but he really needs to learn about positional awareness (so does adam) I think going back to a 4-2-3-1 needs to be done here with putting someone just in fornt of the back 4 and trying to just hold station. however the cookie crumbles its a lack of goal socring that is hurting us.
Agree with most things said however I don't see Gerrard making the kind of impact he once did. A lot of people are excited by his return but we've not seen the best of him for a while. Perhaps the injuries have taken its toll. To me, he is a useful squad player rather than a world class midfielder. IMO - there are more important and better players at the club. Henderson was very good, has a nice burst of pace and good technique. Good foundation to build on. Downing and Kuyt are easy to displace - the latter has been poor for a while and does not contribute enough to the team and generally slows down the play. Downing can be good but has struggled to build on his earlier performances.
who would currently get into the squad ahead of Gerrard? Lucas is injured, Spearing suspended and Henderson has shown that his talents lie in attacking, he's far from the complete midfielder. We need Gerrard back Asap because a midfield of Adam, Henderson and Shelvey doesn't fill me with confidence.
Agreed, Hendo deserves to be in the starting 11 but he is not strong in 1 on 1 challenges. Keep him on the right or in an attacking role. For me it has to be Aurelio or Agger for the next 3 games. I don't think the FA will accept the appeal for Spearing's red card.
It would be nice if we werent asking the midfield to carry the work of the forwards. Whilst I agree the midfield of a team should always chip in with goals and score 'X' amount per season, its the job of the strikers and forwards to put the ball in the net. Suarez is brilliant but infuriating. The lad is a genious with the ball and has been a real boost to the team, but some of his shots are wasteful, he does go to ground too often and the prolific nature shown for country and in Holland hasnt come through for us yet. I think alot of this is down to the fact he has the wrong striking partner or is played without a partner. For Uruguay he plays along side a class finisher in Cavani, someone who obviously brings the best out of Suarez. Carroll, its difficult to asses. I want him to do well and the price tag was well over inflated, I think if we had bought him for 10-20mil instead the expectation and pressure would be alot less, but his general performance (bar a few games) has been poor. I feel that at the moment Carroll isnt the man to be playing 1st team and should be benched and in Jan a better player should be bought to take his place which would give Carroll more time to develop. Sorry for alittle bit of a rant, but its frustrating when we see results like last night and the chances created only to see them not taken
I think Kenny at the start of the season really saw the value of having everyone in the squad fit, in form and battling for a starting berth. He knew he really needed to give Carrol(and Henderson) a vote of confidence in order to take the pressure off him. Unfortunately this has backfired because Carrol looks more out of place than ever! I think we will see Carrol on a sustained bench position now much like Downing because no question we are carrying him way too much now and it is affecting the results. For me I want to see Maxi and Kuyt get more time from now on. At the moment we seem to be taking the wrong option too many times in the final third(especially Suarez) & Bellamy(against Fulham), we also I think are really missing intelligent runners in to the box like Gerrard and this is exactly what Maxi brings to the team. OK he will never give you the energy of others but it is this intelligence that we are crying out for right now, the build up play is actually quite good and for me the only thing missing is someone ghosting in to the area. At the moment both Suarez and Bellamy are providing all the creativity but we need both Maxi and Kuyt to finish it off! I know Kuyt is not the greatest but with a run of games I reckon he could at least find his scoring boots again, I am certain that he will bring more than Carrol right now. As for Downing he started very slowly at Villa too and for me I think he will come good when he finds that understanding with his team-mates.
What is your proof of this based on? Carroll has played a full 90 mins 7 times this season in al comps. Liverpool 1 - 1 Sunderland (Perfectly good goal disallowed) Spurs 4 - 0 Liverpool (We had 2 men sent off so any striker would be ineffective) Liverpool 2 - 1 Wolves (Put in a MOTM performance) Everton 0 - 2 Liverpool (Scored) Stoke 1 - 2 Liverpool WBA 0 - 2 Liverpool (Scored) Chelsea 0 - 2 Liverpool Not a bad record is it? 5 wins out of 7 and the only loss was when we finished with 9 men. Other games he has started but was subbed... Arsenal 0 - 2 Liverpool Liverpool 0 - 0 swansea Fulham 1 - 0 Liverpool Again not a bad record considering that we should have kept 11 men vs Fulham and we don't know whether Carroll would have gone on to score in the Swansea and Fulham games had he been kept on. It's all well looking at Carroll and blaming him for not finishing, but neither is Saurez or Kuyt. Give the lad time, the whole team are having rotten luck in front of the goal and I'm sure the goals will come.
Fair point! However its not so much about his lack of goals but more his contribution to the rest of the team. Nobody can question the value Suarez and to a lesser extent Bellamy bring to the team, bur for me Carrol is creating very little for others, loses posession too easily at times and fails to get in to intelligent positions to be on the end of others work. Statisics are all well and good but for instance vs Swansea(missed a simple header), vs Chelsea (missed penalty), vs Everton (good finish but was a passenger for most of the game and his goal was down to the brilliance of Bellamy and Enrique). Also compared to other strikers in the league is contribution is not so good! Carrol..............................mins...........728...........Goals...2.................asisits.......0 Adebayor.........................mins............981...........goals.....7...............assists................6 Sturridge..........................mins...........719............goals......7...............assists...........1 Defoe...............................mins............646...............goals......6...............assists............2 Hernandez.......................mins.............688...............goals......6...............assists............1 Helgusson........................mins..............661...............goals.....6...............assists............2 I am not saying Carrol has nothing to offer but for me we would be better having him come on for the last 20 or so minutes and give Maxi or Kuyt more time. I am not a Carrol hater at all just feel of all the attacking players he is contributing the least, not one assist in the league. Even Defoe and Hernandez two of the greediest strikers in the EPL have at least one!
Although Carroll has been unlucky in some cases, he's done sod all during the games. His touch, control and all round contribution is poor. He does not fit in with the quick pass and move style. As mentioned above - Suarez might not score more but no one doubts his contrbutions. Always bullys the defenders, causing problems and getting in good positions.
Do we need to depend only on our strikers to score goals.??? In a word no. Goals must come from all areas of the pitch, predominately form the strikers of course, but go back to 2008/9 and see how our haul of 73 was distributed: Gerrard 16 Torres 14 Kuyt 12 Benayoun 8 Keane 5 Riera 3 Babel 3 Alonso 3 Lucas 1 Ngog 2 Aurelio 2 Agger 1 Dossena 1 Hyypia 1 Arbeloa 1 The inherent danger of relying on 1 (or 2) main strikers is clear - at some point in the season they will be either injured or suspended, then where do the goals come from? We definitely need more of a contribution from the midfielders, and currently apart from Maxi, nobody is stepping up to the plate.
shanks and zingy both make good points and back them up with good facts. I think I agree more with shanks to the extent that in the end carroll's job is to score goals not run about defending in our half so I think he needs to get more selfish and actually argue his corner with guys o nthe pitch to put it where he needs the ball played. I don't think he's done sod all though, i just think he's not worked hard enough at times to get there, I wouldn't care if he never did anything but score goals... lord help owen and fowler they were not precisely contributors round the pitch at his age but they got the goals. the point on when he has got pitch time is well made alos but we can see the compariosn of sturridge and hernandez too. the importnat stats can be found simply on LFC website. defense tackles 8 success 75% clearances 14 blocks 2 distribution passes 270 long passes 3.7% pass accuracy 66.3% passes per game 20.8 crosses 6 succesful crosses 0 shot assists 10 Attack goals (prem)2 mins per goal 363 shots 29 shots on target 12 goals inside box 2 goals outisde box 0 conversion rate 6.9% discipline fouls won 15 fouls conceeded 14 yellows 3 Other posted the rest. so what does this say? 1. assists are not just a factor of the result but also the intent. ie he made 10 assists but on each occasion someone else missed or it was saved. Ergo while someone like sturridge made a goal perhaps andy is again unlucky that others are not scoring either.... he is getting knock downs i nthe box. 2. Defensively he's important to us. set peices and corners you can see he's contributing... minor in this discussion but needs to be said. 3. For a big man you'd expect more "action" in terms of fouls for and against, honestly peter crouch fouls or is fouled more in one game than andy has been in 728mins of play. The lad is not putting himself about enough. (my opinion) 4. his distribution is nto that bad, yes it could be better and there were some glaringly bad passes or miscontrols but i think we ought to give him a break here 5. finally lets look the opposite way... suarez had a stat of 19 crosses and 31% success rate, and 27 shot assists in his time o nthe pitch, 1125 mins, thats 50% more time and so his stats are not hugely higher, we need to get andy up in the box on the end of this supply line...... if we've got enrique, johnson, suarez and downing/bellamy then andy really should not be running channels out on to the wings unless it is when we are clearing the ball/ breaking from deep. when we are in possession of the ball andy needs to park himself on the shoulder of the CB and make for the penalty spot and let others work wide. If he never touches the ball unitl he is required to finish that is ok!
If Carroll could replicate his performance against Chelsea in the Carling Cup, then I would have no problems with him. He fought for the ball, bullied the defenders, won a lot of headers and his hold up play and linking was very good. All in all, he did the basics very well.
