Mweh, talk about Suarez other than as a statement that we played geared to getting the best out of him last year and are looking for a way to play without him is pointless. He's gone. It would have had no effect on results so far as he wouldn't have been allowed in the training ground yet never mind not playing if he'd stayed with us so his "leadership" (if missing fully a third of your time at work is seen as leadership), would have been irrelevant. Bleating about the girlfriend that left you, that tried to leave you the entire length of the relationship is pointless and wallowing. BR is playing a very difficult game IMO. It's a knife edge. How long does he persist with Gerrard before the misty nostalgia is removed from enough supporters eyes to accept a team without Gerrard. Gerrard has no intention of retiring this year so BR has to engineer his removal. Anyone saying they'd have not gone off on one of Gerrard hadn't started the season and we lost a few is dubious.... (To be fair there are one or two who could) Best way he seems to believe is to buy all these players play them all in variations and systems to cover all our "what ifs" until enough of us accept you can't have an immobile midfield and expect to win or even compete at the top end of the PL. And no matter how you play or who else you play, that midfield will always be immobile with Gerrard in it. I mean there's still enough debate about "****",New signings, etc etc to suggest we are not at that stage yet. Were any of our signings world class? No. Were they all to a man better than they've shown for us so far? Yes. The risks of BR's strategy are that he will go too far making his point before putting in the midfield he actually wants....we still lose a few afterwards and it's too late, he gets the sack. He's also seen that injury can delay the change even if he thinks it's time (no evidence he does yet) The other risk is that you disillusion your youngest talent before you get your way. There are signs of that with Hendo, Sterling, Coutinho and Sakho so far this season. I mean if the plank of wood you have to run twice as hard to make up for earns three times your wages wil you keep it up indefinitely? Yes we can all point to his career and say he deserves it but look at your own work: would you accept the justification that "he was once great at his job" as a valid reason for being told to do his work as well as your own? For taking the flack for bad results when you ran yourself into the ground and he trotted about the place and then gets to say "WE didn't care enough" or "WE didn't work hard enough"?
first 5 games last year yeiled 10/12 points... we've 6 from the same. talk of suarez is indeed pointless but yes he did set the tone. BUT today is today. we are looking to lads to tep up and show their mettle. I said preseason i was hoping for a big year from coutinho. he could have been the one. but the effort he showed last year is gone and so is his belief. so he's a boy playing a mans game. that's a shame cos frankly if you haven' the will unless someone else does it first means you are never going to be a top player. He's got to wake up. whatever about gerrard I say a 4-2-3-1 formation where all 3 in the line of attackers showed very little. sterling ran about a bit more but he was shockingly poor. the others may as well not have turned in cos they could have been abut basel making life hard... after all thats what made mr kuyt anything more than a total donkey. I think 90% of reds fans will appreciate effort more than tricks. suarez had both... but markovic might have tricks i dunno but so far the effort and getting about peopel is totally lacking. coutinho last year did it now he's not.. simple as. and if you play one up those three MUST get close t badontelly to make it work.. they didn't
Forget the defence for one minute - we proved last year that we can still succeed and win matches with a sh*T defence. For me, the attack is the most concerning thing. But, I'm confident we will get back to our best. Why? Because Joe Allen and Sturridge will be back soon. These two alone will press and move - they will bring back much needed energy, intelligence and most importantly ... balance.
Yeah I agree, we simply HAVE to play a diamond with Sturridge back. BR is going to insist on playing Gerrard so we have three players who are energetic and press all game long in Henderson, Allen and Lallana - 2 of these need to be picked to play infront of Gerrard, then Sterling OR Coutinho to play infront of them at #10 with Sturridge and Baloteli up top. This should in theory get us back to pass and move, creating runs and scoring goals.
coutinho should not get a game after last night. sterling in front of goal this season has me wondering seriously about tip of diamond role in general... I'd agree to put energy in there but we'll see. allen and henderson and setling behind badontelly and sturridge. before the season started or even after game 2 I would have said... sterling and sturrdige up top and coutinho behind but IMO the two have done nothing to merit such trust. that performance last night will take months to regain trust.
Coutinho shouldn't be playing as a number 10 IMO. He simply doesn't have the goals in him to succeed in such a role. His best position is playing in the midfield 3 ahead of Gerrard, alongside Henderson. He and Allen should be rotated depending on the situation. Sterling should be the number 10, at the tip of the diamond. With Balo and Sturridge up front. With Sturridge out, Rodgers should have played Sterling as Balo's partner.
Why did Sterling keep freezing like a deer in headlights yesterday when he got through though? Can't have that from your striker!
One poor game in how long? Give the lad a break. Everyone is allowed a off day. Its just a shame it was so costly to the team.
I'm not laying into him mate - just giving a counter-argument to 'throw him upfront'. I'd say give the lad a break and DON'T do that persoanlly.
Fair enough fella. I've saw a few have a pop at young Raheem last night too so just thought I'd throw it out there and defend the lad. Been defending Markovic too
He's been scoring more goals over the past 9 months or so, and more importantly, he's getting into the right positions. I rather have someone up front who runs at defenders and moves, and get into those positions, than someone who has no movement and simply isn't driving towards the box. It;s all about balance at the end of the day - we lost Suarez but we had a natural leader of the line in Sturridge. Without Sturridge, we need someone who moves, press and has speed. Sterling has similar attributes so the disruption to our player would have been minimalised and it would mean we would play the diamond, which then gives Gerrard more protection by having two CM's in front of him.
Yeah I mixed my points. Meant in previous games about the running, last night was evidence that they'd got fed up with it.
