I'd not go that far with manquillo. I'd say he's a young arbeloa... using by best louis walsh x factor impersonation. thats not too shabby at all and for me if jonhson gets back in its a joke. moreno has more potential but needs the right coaching so we'll see if he gets that at anfield.
perhaps.... yes markovic out and someone in but not sure who. I do think lallana and coutinho both are too lightweight for cheslea.
Because we had Toure who likes to play the ball. Lovren looks like a calm and composed defender so it gives the impression that he can play with his feet. Compare to Sakho who looks awkward, everyone thinks he's sh*T on the ball but is far more composed. Toure brought some composure to the defence. And Skrtel and Migs both benefited from it. Not only that - we had Lucas in the DM role. Players around him were moving because they knew they would receive the ball. Compare that to when Stevie plays who basically looks for the long ball to the wing all the time. Result - you have a more confident, mobile and cohesive unit. I can't remember the last time we played poorly without Stevie playing?? Rodgers needs to have the balls to continue playing Can, and to drop Stevie.
Markovic and Lallana come out for me. Markovic is simply not ready yet - give him the season to bed in. And Lallana is simply all style and no substance. He's a Coutinho-lite. You say Coutinho is light weight but he's one of the few players who can get on the ball, turn on it, keep, beat players and fend off others. We simply cannot afford to leave him out.
yes you are right on that.... and he plays well on left. i feel with cheslea its hard to know but if the lads would play the same and stay wide we'd be okish. i do honestly hand on heart feel jonhson cannot play v hazard... he just can't
Seem to be agreeing with you a lot on team issues Gonzo I think its clear that most would be happy to see Sterling and Coutinho return. Of the other four (Johnson, Gerrard, Lovren and Balotelli) that were dropped, the only one I wouldn't mind seeing return is Lovren but it needs to be alongside Toure. I think a Toure & Lovren with Lucas protecting them would work much better. I've already said what team I'd go with, it's the same team as gonzo suggested too
Lallana - good pace, energy, great with his feet (does a nice heel to toe cut etc) but no end product yet and not very strong. Still offers the team something so I say keep him in. Markovic - Can run fast, erm did i say he can run fast, well, that's about it. oh, he has long hair. Not good enough, needed to be loaned but either Rodgers has made a bad call or bought the hype around him. Manquillo - Proving to be a very determined, committed, strong and quite hard player despite his initial deer in the headlights photos which didn't bode well Moreno - Has very good all round ability, little bit uncultured and needs to harness his best qualities still, tendency to stop thinking when he gets on a run and get carried away. Agree that Gerrard, Johnson and Balotelli should not play on Saturday. Two of those should never be seen in one of our shirts again if there was any justice in the world. juuuuuustice
I agree. lallana's best position is in the left channel right on the box edge. after that we have little else to say. he is indeed very light weight. I think he would have played well with suarez... one twos and such but... Markovic.. can run but he's not searing like ibe and sterling. I am not sure on him. if he was more.... positive and took shots and got a few goals he might look better. he passes off too much Manquiloo has played hardly any games so he's doing well Moreno... i agree with what you said.. its a good way to look at him. learn to LOOOOSE it from carra sometimes and he'll do better.
1) Agree 2) His attitude is poor but there is a player in there somewhere, can Brod entice it out of him? 3) defensively sound but definitely stunned by bright lights when he gets beyond the half way line. Needs to learn how to avoid tackles and understand what it means to be part of a team! 4) I like this lad, he will become a great player if he can sort out is mentality issues. Common for young players to lose concentration though, he'll get better with experience. 5) Interested to know which two you meant
greez is right. they ended being real right after "They got what they came for: defeat with honour." everythign else sounds like uir grinding his teeth in frustration after having a hatchet piece the'd prewritten having to be torn up.
'First team' got battered by them, at home, and same players showed no signs of life in the most recent game so to play the 'reserves' wasn't conceding the match. This journos looking at it the wrong way, by being suckered in by the 'big names' for big games philosophy (worked well for England over the years hasn't it). I don't care if Rodgers made the call to give squad players he hasn't used much, not reserves, a deserved chance (that's key - football's a squad game now, our squad isn't the strongest like Chelsea or City but you work with what you've got), or if he made the call purely hoping the underused players would put in a performance as they would want to prove a point in a massive game. Either way they did. And you're not telling me for one second that this team went out there playing to lose or that Rodgers knew we would lose or wanted to throw the match, that's just insulting to the club. They did what they could, Real were still the better team even on a slight off night, but we ****ing knew that already. The real criticism should be levelled at the gashtastic performances put in against the 'lesser teams' in our group where we should've won/drawn and practically already qualified. And look which faces were starting in those games, oh yeah, the ones who have been phoning it in now for the whole ****ing season.
Whether it the truth or not, to me that stinks of a Man Utd fan. If people can't see that we'd have taken a much bigger battering if we'd played our so-called first team then I pity them
Haha so we play against the in form team on the planet, Kings of Europe, have scored at least 2 goals in their past x amount of games, Ronaldo has scored in the past 11 consecutive games - and lose 1-0, Ronaldo and Bale were kept relatively quiet. But let's focus on the team selection
Lol I think he's scored more goals than our whole team this season. Very annoying that there is this focus on our team selection - it basically implies that we would have beaten them if we had the 'big names' starting which is b*llocks. If we had Sturridge, Coutinho, Sterling in the attacking positions, then we could have nicked a win. For once, we adapted our game to become more solid and with better attacking options, we would have countered to better effect. It was the makings of a classic away tie, ones that Rafa was famous for. And this was against the best attack in the world. No mugs.
