Schurrle is decent but nothing much. At the right price, I'd have him but not at the reported £25m. Gez - the reason why Rodgers wanted the likes of Bony and ended up signing Balotelli is because he knew he couldn't replace Suarez like for like. That meant a change in style. So what we ended up doing was building the team around someone else - it could have been Sterling, Sturridge .. but no. He ended up building it around Gerrard. Possibly the worst decision ever. The reason why I think this is because: 1) Rodgers wanted target men this summer. It makes the Lambert signing make more sense, targeting Bony, Balotelli etc. 2) Fast, energetic fullbacks in Manquillo and Moreno who can push up. 3) Playing 1 up front - the target man. He's consistently played 4-2-3-1 because he wants Gerrard to launch balls to a target man. 4) In the 3 - the wide men are fixed in their positions. They dont have the room to drift inwards so they act more like traditional wingers. This simply does not suit the likes of Sterling, Markovic or Lallana. Again, BR wants Gerrard to ping those balls out to the wings. That's my theory IMO.
Jackson Martinez is a good striker and his record at Porto is not too shabby, I think he's got around 50 goals in 60-70 games. Experienced striker, fast and the lad simply knows how to score goals.
Latest rumour is that we're in for Christoph Kramer. Another talented midfielder in the Can mould - without the physicality but more technical ability.
I think LFc have far more issues than merely one worldie. Lets face it even lambert tried to close down and run about and he was chasing a guy down then would turn around and see ZERO and i mean ZERO closing down form the 3 guys emans to be his press gang... coutinho, lallna, sterling... not a sausage of effort to close down high up. Now this is rodgers philosophy blown right there. never mind the awful johnson killing ourwhole elft side of attack by back passing and letting the ball run out of play any time if got near him... never mind gerrard not making a tackle nor covering any full back run (of which only manquillo tried one) never mind allen not being able to physically compete, never mind GK and deep CBs... those 3 players have GOT to work a lot harder. they cannot and if you insert X or y from the squad its still not happening. The reality is LFC need a total wake up. 1. Drop mingolet. I mean it I'd stick in jones just to give a wkae up call. jone can drop them just as good and kick just ad bad. 2. drop skertl. Play toure. 3. Play manquillo and morneo. no more in and out. let them bed in good or bad. 4. Drop gerrard. Stick in lucas as DM 5. Play hednerson... in a kuyt role. If we have one striker then out henderson back wide right and tell him to press high up and then cover FB.... use his assets 6. Play can and allen 7. decide what to do up top. has to be lambert 8. Stick coutinho wide left. 9. Rest poor sterling. he is playing poor so rest him! 4-2-3-1 Jone Manquillo Toure Lovern Moreno Lucas Can allen Henderson Coutinho Lambert Theory is the front three must press and work, just press and work no shirking it what so ever. Lucas must cover full back runs. the other two CMs must play box to box. Toure must shepard lovern along and get line higher Jones must be told I don't f'n care if you get chipped 10 times you play on the edge of your box at all times... sweep the **** behind those two.
There was one player available who fitted the bill and that was Lavezzi. In style Lavezzi is close to Suarez, he is skillful and crafty. He may not score as much as Suarez but he would keep up the flow in the same way. Lavezzi is referred to mainly as a false 9 but has often spent his career out of position on the wing, but this versatility just makes him even more appealing. Lavezzi scored 9 league goals from right wing last season, which does not seem like much when replacing Suarez, but in a central role he could score a lot more. Unfortunately we have a very strict recruitment policy which says that Lavezzi is to old to sign, which means he was probably completely ignored. I usually agree with our policy but some times rules need to be bent.
sadly they are when they are cheap ie lambert. what would lavezzi have cost?, going to assume a hell of a lot more than 4 mill lol.
It's not that our policy has to change - I think it's right that we're targeting quality young players. Rodgers got his way and signed players like Lovren Lallana and Lambert - all above 24-25. We just need to spend better. So much quality at affordable prices yet we want to p*ss it up the wall on British players.
Of all the players we bought in the summer, only two were British, and one of those was only 4 million.
Completely agree. Lavezzi was the guy I wanted us to go for. I'd have accepted Tevez too. Its the work ethic and movement we needed, the goals would have come anyway. Maybe not so flowingly but they would have come.
hwell lads lets call a spade a spade... the the thought of a busy player extends back a long way. Craig johnston... work horse ray houghton... busy little be in my youth There was a long period where we didn't have someone... david thompson was one. GERRARD At RW (and whining about it) was another then Dirk Kuyt was the archetypcal work horse Suarez's work rate and hunger is only one element of his game. Torres has the... get it to him... he will score magic... so if you add torres and kuyt together you get suarez... all action, never say die, nut megging, outrageous player. you won;t find one player to replace him but you will be able to do it with 2 or 3. LFC bought balotelli to replace suarez... and markovic. 36mil down the pan right there.... thats the unforgivable sin in my eyes. We got torres and kuyt for the same money 8 years? before... that shows we've had the balls in the past and while kuyt was actually an admirable failure finding a role through hard work the point must be.... not one f'r we've bought has shown the bottle to do that!
Only thing I'd say is 8 years ago top quality players were going for 30m. Now it still gets you quality but Torres quality is going to cost you 40m minimum. Di Maria bale Rodriguez all 60m plus this window. You can't compare prices like for like from then to now as time change.
Welll...... this is true so if we simply then drop the money stuff and focus on the player type which is the core point. Now would a torres (23, at a club that is not acheiving) looks great but so far hasn't exploded... would he really be 40mil or would he be less? I don't know. many factors comes into play like james at real madrid has a great world cup. for example. you rightly point to his massive fee but his fee to monaco was half that. I mean I think you can still get a real top guy for 30mil out there. and you can still get a real top top guy for 10-15mil if you spot them in the right league. Lets face it origi is not either he's 10mil for potential. can is 10 mil buyout and we hope its a total bargain. that sort of thing. I think southmapton prove you can find two lads like tadic and pelle for the same outlay as one sale like lallana. Di maria in fairness was a big fee for a big reputation, so was sanchez fee... what we are more talking about is a torres who everyone knows is going to be good but just needs the step up... kind of like an Alan shearer when he moved from southampton..... this is why scouts are paid the big bucks. We need to find players to replace suarez, to complement him if thats what the strategy was pre world cup.... I mean lets face it.... markovic... how on earth does he fit the model? I eman ok the lad might have skills... i still dunno... but i don't see blistering pace like i should so i cannot see how we thought he was a 20mil sure thing.... and balotelli. god how on earth did we think he'd fit any model? how does lallana (not that fast, no physicality, can't see where he'd play really well) So yeah ok I shouldn't point to 36mil then and now but the type of player is the point i was really trying to make. I'm sure there's a few busy style players out there as i listed above and a few goal scoerers too that we could have added. 2/3 players to replace that in our team. We did the exact opposite in terms of effort and style. We bought light weight, low work rate players who need leaders to hold their hands.
Still, for me, that I don't see anything in Lallana that Suso couldn't do and one was damn near free and the other 25 million. Really hope he gets a run of games. Someone send Rodgers the tape of Suso taking it to Barca last year please.
I think Lallana is good but even when we were looking at him I was thinking we have an in-form and really maturing Suso coming back.
