Allucas: do you not think that maybe just maybe its swinging because its a (for all intents &purposes) new very very young team? I like the swing. Few games attack! But lose or draw. Then!:not a great game but win (& still creating 18 chances...) Imagine if MFG doesn't get his way and no matter what, BR & this team gets older & older, playing with each other & a little bit wiser.... I like what I see MAY happen...
Absolutely- we will get better if these kids stick around and improve together. Chances are we won't keep Sahin after the year is up- but players like Shelvey, Stirling, Suso, Allen, even Wisdom- If they all stay and gain the experience playing together- 3 years from now, will be quite formidable... they already are heading that way.
Loving that MOTD were singing Sterlings praises. Also love the fact that he's not our best young prospect and they don't even realise it. I thought Suso performed very well today too and I think he will be the star of the young group
Exactly: I don't think we'll keep Sahin for 2 reasons: he can't yet cope with this pace.& a bit of me thinks he doesn't want to. He thinks he's better than the team he's been sent to. Don't get me wrong: I'd love him to snap up to it but like you; in THAT position. I'm not overly worried. Wisdom:: I'm liking him.Suso, has stepped up. Sterling, looks good. Shelvey looking more like a man every day except he has a bad passion to skill ratio: not good for this eras football. And I still think Robinson is our future left back. & Lucas......
Improvement in parts of our game, definitely. We again fail to make the best of a 40 minute spell where we should have been 3 up and all of this mute. Striker was our main issue last year and it is again this year. Thank you Sterling! Great finish. I think even this team without additions is gong to get better, this is far far far too early to judge anything, and no MFG, had kenny been US Corporate politically aware he'd have avoided the sack, otherwise he'd still be running the club
It's noticeable that ,with the exception of Henderson, all the money spent last season on players,none of them are playing. Adam and Carroll gone,downing surely on his way out. ( cole too hopefully) . What a damned waste of a season and £100 million that turned out to be. I don't include Coates or Enrique in that (although I might do if Enrique doesn't pull his finger out) just think what we could have done with that money.
I thought Jose played well when he came on... I'm liking Shelvey more and more, as well. He's what you might call a physical presence. Just needs to stay calm and carry on etc. However...I watched the game yesterday and really didn't feel as though we have moved things on a great deal. IMHO we were a couple of breaks away from a 1-2 defeat - against READING (who I thought properly turned up for a game, BTW.) The defence is fragile, but as someone said earlier I think the issue has less to do with the talent (perhaps Skrtl apart, who still flatters to deceive on occasions) and more to do with the organisation. The there is a distinct lack of confidence in the air, something that I hope might return when Lucas is back in the fame. So I am more 'nervous' at the moment, rather than uncommitted to the BR project. I am quite prepared to give the guy time to get back to the original LFC 'pass and move' way. At least BR has a vision of what great might look like - and the resource needed to achieve greatness. It's not that dissimilar to the vibe when Rafa turned up back in the day. Sadly, I never got the same feeling when KK took over. GKRK
Progress overall but there will be bad days to come. What I'm hoping is that we can fight for 4th and that by the start of next season we have a squad that is capable of doing more. With Sterling, Suso, Wisdom and others like Kelly, Robinson, Yesil and Morgan we have a great base to start from. We are already at a point where we need 1 or 2 players to progress because of the quality of our youth, if it wasn't for the youngsters we would need 6 or 7 players. A striker is needed without a doubt and Sahin needs to be bought. If we bought a quality striker and Sahin I'd be happy with the squad.
Tbh at the moment I would start Shelvey ahead of Sahin. I think he's obviously quality but we haven't found a position for him yet that he can excel in. He tends to drift in and out of games at the moment. As for our progress, I think it's quite evident and we have definitely improved on last season but we knew that we'd still be profligate infront of goal and struggling for them until January where we can hopefully bring in a goalscorer. We are moving forward but it'll be tough to show that in terms of points/results until we get a clinical striker in.
I like many others here will give BR the benefit of the doubt. He needs time to get his system going. We need to keep calm. Not to get too optimistic after a win and not to be too pessismistic after a loss. One major disappointment (and it isn't BR's fault) is that the striking problem that was evident last season is still with us. Many of us saw it as a top priority. When we have the lowest goal to chances ratio (and we had the highest woodwork hit rate of any team, how can that not be barn door obvious? In a way you have to admire BR to stick to his convictions and see the long term in not requesting Carroll back. This would have only been a short term solution as he does not see him being part of his plans.
We need an accomplished striker in Jan. Someone to work off of the good work done by Suarez. Our delivery needs work. A few times after breaking down the left we then allowed Reading to get back and then chose the wrong option as wit the cutback to Gerrard when there was someone on the far post unmarked for an early ball and even after the reading back line got back the player was still unmarked and it was a tap in. Against City and United we had spells that should have yielded more than one goal. Against Arsenal early on we had a decent spell and again penetration is lacking. There is a lot to be said for drawing a player to you in this system we play, we are giving the ball off to someone even when we've 10 yards open pitch ahead. This system demands pulling a player to you and then giving the ball off to a team mate and then go past the player receive the ball in space pulling another player to you and opening up space, Suarez and Sterling do this mainly, but Allen Gerrard Suso and Sahin and others all need to do same at times to open things up.
Oh I like what I see, add some confidence to this team, and the sky's the limit... But at the moment, confidence is in short supply, and until we start banging the goals in, I don't see us getting much further any quicker. We got a clean sheet yesterday, through no thanks to our own defending, just that Reading were not the most ruthless team at Anfield this year. Citeh took advantage of our mistakes, and so we need to stop making them, but I wouldn't pressure the players until we have a couple of new strikers scoring every game, then we may fire on all cylinders. So progress yes, but not enough to sustain takeoff and flight. I don't expect that until next year. I just think that we are getting to play some right rubbish has helped recently. I may start to change my mind, if we get more than 3 points from the next three league games.
Without doubt we are gradually making progress, we have offloaded £25m per season off the wage bill, yet the team still seems as good as last season, and we are probably even more attacking than last season, MILES better to watch,retain the ball even more, with a team of considerably lower average age, earning considerably less money.The YOUNG team is only gonna get gradually better too, I see lots of similarities with BRs team now and Rafa in his 1st season BR has realised Sterling is prob as good as Bellamy,as is the case with Suso over Kuyt and Wisdon over Aurelio for a lot less cash What MUST happen now in January is the money that has been made extra in sponsorship,and the fortune that has been saved on wages must bes pent on the team.ON WORLD CLASS.With the cash we have saved we should have a budget of £40m, I would get Damiao and Isco if possible and sell Downing and bring in Redmond from Birmingham.IF we dont get £40m NET in January of the owners, IMO it is starting to look like the owners are taking money OUT of the club as the last scumbags where, I can handle being self sufficient and BR has done an excellent job of trimming the overpaid older players, but if looks like FSG are taking money from the club I will be v annoyed.I suspect we will get less than half the £40m net in Jan,which would mean FSG are here to take money not to invest it,and arnt here to WIN but to make money
Have we not learnt that January is a bad time to spend money? Get a stop gap striker and be done with it. There's no point paying £35M on a player just cause it's JAnuary. Had we waited until the summer we could've got AC for £15M. Ridiculous
