Likely leaving. Kuyt/Maxi will be shifted out first, of course, along with Aquilani/Cole/Aurelio/Doni
This is all we need, I heard a stat yesterday that if we had scored one more goal in our home draws we'd be third. Also I believe we have hit the woodwork 22 or 23 times this season. Thin lines between challenging for the league and 7th I believe.
You can't rely on Gerrard for much longer. Age and injury mean he's unlikely to play a full season again. How many of your players would get in the Manchester City team? One of Agger/Skrtel maybe, Enrique perhaps, not a lot more. It would take a new manager and half a dozen top players to put Liverpool on a par with the Manc clubs over the course of a whole season.
Johnson, Agger, Skrtel, Enrique, Gerrard, Lucas, Bellamy, Suarez could potentially improve the City team. Give us Silva, Toure and Aguerro and we would win the league.
I think they'd improve the squad but I don't think you could honestly say any of those would walk into their strongest XI. Players of Silva, Toure and Aguero's would mean spending a serious wedge which I think Dalglish has shown isn't his strongest suit.
But we keep hearing about how its a squad game these days, not saying we are anywhere near good enough to win the league but we certainly have a few players who are.
How many Man United players would get into the City XI on paper? Vidic, Rooney and possibly Nani. Not much more than the amount of Liverpool players that would get in. Yet they are only 2 points behind City and in better form than City. When will people notice football is played on grass, not paper.
We have to stop kidding ourselves. The replies to this thread are delusional. Win the league? A better question would be what would it take to finish in the top 4 again. Man City and Utd will always be above us. Chelsea with Abramovic's money are going to compete. Spurs look an amazing side at the moment. Arsenal always do well under Wenger. We have to start setting realistic expectations and build from there. We always try to run before we can walk.
1. tactics 2. professionalism 3. a will and focus to win at all times 4. dropping gerrard or at least acknowledging he's got zero stamina. 5. 6 new players, all 20mil +
I said elsewhere, I don't think width is a worthwhile pursuit. People banged on for years about how we lacked width, but spraying balls into the box is a game of percentages. Stoke's defence can mop that up all day, as they have shown against us this season, when we wasted 90 minutes trying to reach our centre forwards from the wings with a 0% success rate. maybe it's just because Hendo, Adam and Downing were rubbish, or equally how good Shawcross and Co. are. Unless the winger can commit to getting it to the 6 yard box byline and pinging one in on the floor, you will be lucky to get one or two a match that reaches the head of Carroll, and which he then does something worthwhile with. I think we should be looking at alternatives, like people who can dribble from midfield. I want to see Sterling given a chance at some point this season and a full pre-season, and if it works out, full promotion to the starting 11.
