Jamie Carragher believes he will hang up his boots at the end of the season with Liverpool firmly heading towards future glory under Brendan Rodgers. The centre-back feels the manner in which the Reds have performed since the turn of the year suggests they're in a good position to continue to progress. "There are some very positive signs," said Carragher, who will retire from playing at the end of the season. "We had a tough start in terms of the fixtures and in an ideal world you would play those teams later on in the season when you are up and running. But in the second half of the season there has been a bit more experience in the side. "The manager made a couple of good signings in January which gave us a boost. He has been able to implement his ideas a lot more and players have got used to the way the manager wants the team to play. You can see that in the results. "Since around January, we've been on a decent run. Since the United game, we've only lost to West Brom and Southampton. "We want to keep that going and the club needs to build on it and take that into next season." Carragher has just two games remaining as a Liverpool player - a trip to Fulham on Sunday before a final-day meeting with Queens Park Rangers at Anfield. Nevertheless, the 35-year-old typically has a target in mind. The Reds have kept 15 clean sheets so far this season, with only Manchester City having managed more (16). "Pepe (Reina) and myself have always enjoyed keeping clean sheets and breaking records," added Carragher. "He's told me that Man City are currently one ahead of us. We would like to get two more clean sheets in the last couple of games, just like the strikers would like to get a couple of goals. But really the most important thing is coming together as a team and winning. I'd rather not keep a clean sheet and win 2-1. "I've got two games left for Liverpool and I always give 100 per cent for Liverpool. I will thoroughly enjoy these last two games." http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/carra-foundations-are-in-place
I'm in two minds here. 1. lets wish Carra well and see off a legend in style so the last paragraph i agree with. 2. I am getting a bit tired of the attitude around the club as shown in the first paragraph. "we've only lost to West brom and southampton" That's something that at the top we'd be raging over frankly. those are terrible losses. I also don't agree about if we'd played those games at the start a bit later... we were dross when those return fixtures came round! we're so far off the mark its untrue. It annoys me to hear someone who should be talking the highest standards talk like this aint to mad. 7th is terrible. Over all i have to give an exaggerated, exasperated sigh and park the annoyance don't I? roll on summer.
It will be an interesting Summer, will we add 1 or 2 players and rely on our academy or will we invest in 5-6 players?
I totally agree, more quality all round. fewer mistakes,higher expectations. examples: glen johnson has phoned it in for at least 2-3 months. why has he not been dropped or rested. Why is daniel agger forgiven closing his eyes on attacking set pieces? why does he let guys get a run when marking from set pieces? why did gerrard play every 90mins early on then look shattered lately. (lets not mistake a derby battle for the way he does look like he's struggle to the pitch of the ball in the last game) Why is suarez forgiven and defended for so much.. just cos he's our only world class player? Why are players allowed tattoos and hair cuts mid season. coutinho ruins his game by getting a boyish cout and suso amongst others seem to think they are on hols so they can get more art done. Why do we allow time to make losing to west brom EVER ok? I think quality is the only way to go. 5/6 ****s on low fees or fress is no good. We know as fans what we need so i hope come augst we are not shaking our heads at crazy silly buys. I rea do nthe summer transfer thread that douglas would be a "squad player" that makes it ok??? i just thought krygiakos! no not again!!!
I rather we go down the route of buying around 5 players to strengthen the core of our team. It lacks experience (not age) - we need players who can step up a level and actually play at a top 4 level consistently. We don't have enough players who know what it's like to play for a big club or on the big stage. Coutinho is only 20 yet he contributes so much - his experiences at Inter and Espanyol, as well as being such a highly regarded talent in Brazil have helped him deal with the hype and expectation on his shoulders.
To summarise - not enough competition. The squad depth is weak and the squad quality is even worse. Our first XI (on their best day) can compete with anyone but then we'll drop points the following week. We lack ruthlessness and competitiveness at times. However, developing a winning spirit is developed over time and with a stable figure leading the club.
This is where some fans will disagree. Do we and can we spend big on lets say 4 players to dramatically change the squad quality. Or do we buy 2 quality players because that's all we can afford and then rely on the likes of Wisdom, Suso, Sterling etc to get better and therefore increase our depth through these players?
01 Jones 16 Coates 37 Skrtel 33 Shelvey 11 Assaidi 29 Borini 30 Suso Our bench on Sunday - far too average I agree with MITO that BR needs to be more ruthless with dropping people. Johnson has been ****ing awful for too long now and that is not acceptable, he was at his best beginning/middle of the season when Wisdom was showing his ability, he has got complacent again since him and Kelly have been unavailable. CB, CDM & another Forward needed at the very least.
I don't think we can spend big on individual players because a) we can't afford it and b) those expensive players aren't likely to come. We need more Sturridge/Coutinho transfers - young players who have good experience and only cost around £8-10m. As an example, Toby Alderweirald of Ajax is valued at £7m (due to contract expiration I think) and this is a player who is playing for the champions of Holland, a prestigious club in world football. There is a lot of value in the market, which means we don;t have to spend £20m on single players. 4-5 players at this level would equate to £40-50m. Rumours are that we have £20m plus player sales.
This Can't add anything to it - our squad depth is what it is, and it needs sorting. However, it doesn't mean that we buy players who can fill the squad. It means we need to buy good players who can compete for a first team place. The new signings should be better than the existing players, who then become the squad player. This is how the squad evolves and becomes better. Easier said than done...
Good point and that works well if all those players turn out to be good, the problem lies when for every good player in the mould of Coutinho there's always one that doesn't turn out to be good enough. I'm hoping we can get 2 players both for around the 20 million mark so a Suarez other than a Coutinho standard of player and fill in the gaps with younger players. We'll have to wait and see what happens I suppose.
Look if FSG can't pony up a miserable 50milthewn they should sell. we can all see it thin kthat mixing it up is good and that under no circumstances should a player be signed as a squad player any more. Alderweirald in my mind would be just fine at 7mil thats a ok... williams at 12 is a shocker... its that simple. We will need to "take a risk" along the way. I eman frnakly who gives a crap about jones. right now. If we talk squad then just write the list. Reina Johnson, wisdom, kelly. Coates, agger, skertl - obvious gap here enrique - obvious gap here but we are not utd, we cannot afford to spend on other full back to sit for two years. Lucas, gerrard, henderson, shelvey - the issues here should be so plainly obvious as not needing a mention. suso, sterling, borini, downing, coutinho - again patently obvious. Suarez, sturridge So do we go buy a full back or do we live with it if a CB is priority. We desperately need midfield options and if not the no 9 role then at least a real quality second striker type to displace downing and borini types. those 3 are bare minimum and unless they are real quality that can hit the gorund running we are still looking at a weak squad. oh for alonso, hyppia and fowler.
Another striker, central midfielder and a central defender would be my priority for the summer. Improve the core/spine of the team. Under Rafa, we had Reina (£6m), Agger (£6m), Skrtel (£6m), Mascherano (£18.5m), Alonso (£10.5m), Gerrard and Torres (£22m). It was a settled spine and it was world class. Just to reaffirm my previous point, (with the exception of Torres and Mascherano) it shows you that there is a lot of value out there. Not to mention Arbeloa at £3m, Aurelio for nothing and Kuyt for £9m. Hopefully we get lucky again in the summer because we did great business in January. But if we're after players like Williams, Pearce, Sinclair then I'll be worried.
but our best under rafa saw hyppia play a part while agger was injured a lot. carra was proabably at his prime or just near it anyway. I agree, reina again playing far better than today... alonso came back form injuries and then peaked elsewhere unfortunately. Gerrard at his prime and not THAt much injured but 2 injuries in 2009. torres was also class and out as much as suarez. But lets be fair also we had, and i keep making this point about 2009, robbie keane and as big a flop as it was he socred vital goals while torres was out and kept us in the hunt. once he left (huge error) we dropped off the pace cos torres got injured. I honestly would think about building round about 5 players only now. i'd be looking at some others as squadies and i'd like the rest to get stuffed cos i'm sick of it. I'd have reina still, i'd get a keeping coach in though. I'd have gerrard and enrique warts and all, i'd have suarez even though he's an idiot and i'd have countinho...... after that johnson ,agger, lucas and even sturridge would be looked at by me as needing to improve on consistency and mistakes etc to be considered vital. Lucas has to prove himself in my mind after injury as slapping into the back of someone after 3 mins of a game for a yellow is not where he was at as a standard. If he can't make it back..... We've good youths as well, its not that bad but we need a player in every position thats top 4 quality not scratching. then the squaddies should at least fill out the team to top 6 quality. Right now ladslike borini, downing etc look bottom half at best.
I'm slightly gutted as from the title of this i thought it was a thread about carra having an extension on his house. Which would possibly be slightly more realistic .....
Definitely more quality needed but unfortunately FSG appear to believe in Brendan as much as the muppets who think he's where the quality lies. The squad is not the problem. Some people seem to forget we had Poulsen, Konchesky and Jovanovic and Kenny didn't have a problem with any of them to get the form of 2nd when he returned. That's how you instill belief in players, not by waving sealed envelopes about like you're Derren ****ing Brown.
