I like the sound of his words here. I am glad he is aknowledging the link up play between Sturridge, Coutinho and Gerrard. I hope Aspas can join that.
That's a very decent offensive spine. With a defensive spine of Agger and Mig to add to that - We have some very good players to base the team around. If Suarez stays and sorts his ****ing head out - Coutinho and Suarez are going to destroy many defense's this season.
If we sign Papa or another similar and equally talented cb this summer, but no one else, I will be very satisfied.
I think Papa will be our next signing, and probably our last. I'm a big fan of his, a very strong player and gets a few goals to boot Skrtel will probably leave, I'd like to see us keep him though - he is still a very capable defender. It was only 2 years ago that he was one of (if not the) best CB in the PL. Just a shame he's lost a bit of confidence in recent times.
It is also down to style with Skrtel. With Dalglish and Roy's old school approach to defending he was at home. In Rodgers modern set up he is exposed.
I really want to believe but after watching yesterday my main response is deflation. I can see us having a fair few more of that type of game, 70% possession zero goals, then the other team sneak the win... coulda, shoulda, woulda and all that. It's not that we play badly, we just never finish anything off, Suarez is obviously a class finisher but there's so many more ifs around him now.
That's an interesting observation, it would tally that his first shocking season is the one under BR. Seeing him play with Agger, Agger is the more dynamic player and will offer you more than just the central enforcer role. Last season Skrtel didn't even seem to know where he was supposed to be positioning himself in our six yard box, very hesitant. Agger on the other hand would sort of maraud and then recover. He's a quality defender Agger, didn't produce his best last season so let's hope he's to raring to go to expunge that, the VC should help.
I think his chance conversion stats would disagree with that, i believe it was around 12% last season. That said, he makes hell of a lot of chances for himself. I think this is a very revealing line from Rodgers: "We've got some top players here - the likes of Steven Gerrard, Coutinho and Sturridge. They're all on the same wavelength and their interplay and how they combine is very promising." No mention of Suarez.
I was going to mention Luis' ratio too I refuse to call him a striker, he's a forward! We need someone in the Fowler, Shearer, RvP, ilk; when they get a chance you know they'll take it. unfortunately, BR doesn't like players that can only play one role and these types of players are normally like that. Hopefully, Aspas and Sturridge can help out there though Or Allen
This is the problem when a manager talks up individual players, you tend to wonder about the ones he hasn't mentioned. (I'm talking generally here, not about the particular case that is Suarez). Him saying you could see the difference when he came on is nice for Sturridge, but perhaps reflects badly on Aspas. I prefer it when managers talk about the team rather than dwell too much on individuals. Of course I haven't read the full interview so this could have been lifted out of context.
But that speaks for itself though, 12% conversion rate and the guy still gets 30 goals in 44 appearances. The only reason he doesn't mention Suarez is because his future with the club isn't decided atm, if it's settled and he stays Rodgers will start talking about him again. Just because he doesn't mention him once when tensions are high and the player's future at the club is up in the air you can't take that comment as gospel.
Suarez is a goalscorer. His stats throughout his career would endorse this. But he's not a clinical/natural goalscorer in the mould of Fernando Torres/RVP (eg). FT and RVP typically only need one chance and they will take it. Suarez needs several chances because he's not clinical. Having said that, he creates that many chances and has big impact in our attack.
Thing with Suarez is he only converts 12% of his chances, but he creates probably 30% of his own chances. Someone else may have a better conversion rate, but they may only create a handful of chances for themselves so yes the stats look better fro a % but I'd rather have Suarez create 300 chances and take 12% of them than someone create 100 and take 20% of them. I don't mind BR speaking about specific players but I wish he'd move on from Coutinho. It seems every week there is a new article about BR praising Coutinho, saying how he'd pay to watch him, how wonderful he is. It's like he knows he could be in trouble trying to keep him next year so is sweet talking him already!
Suarez doesnt need a high chance convertion rate. The high amount of goals still come so it does not really matter.
