the only thing is disagree on is that i think you have far better distribution skills than mingolet.....
Are you his agent or something? No one's scapegoating him or blaming the result on him...nothing even close. People are just pointing out that he failed to make an impact. Which is true. Yes, he needs game time and consistent time at that to be able to show what he can do so it is a reason, but it still doesn't mean he wasn't effective. The whole team was poor, the substitutions were too. No one has singled Markovic out.
We played 3 matches and we got 7 points. Acceptable you might say. Then if one looks further into it... these 3 matches were against Stoke Leicester and Sunderland. Hardly difficult matches against top teams. The performances were dire. None of these we dominated and were in total control. Leicester could have got a result and we scored a fortunate goal near the end against Stoke
Really would like to see us try Sterling and Markovic up front - just to try something a bit different and to inject some pace and movement up top. Must be frustrating for Coutinho (and Lallana to some extent) having to try and play with someone like Lambert! I would say it must be torture.
Sir Red seems to think he was an average joe in the Portuguese league (hint: he wasn't). That we wasted 20m on him, blah blah blah. That's his opinion but my opinion stands in response to the scapegoating we do all the time. If there is a reason for it, (Johnson being **** for 4 years) then it makes sense. But when we do it for our youth then we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. Fair enough but my comment wasn't only about Markovic, it's about Can, Moreno, Manquillo, and Suso too (I know he's injured). Coutinho to some extent as well. I'll even go as far as to say that we've jumped on the media bandwagon and criticised Balotelli for not being Suarez. At the end of the day one comment here and one comment there are all it takes for criticism to start. Was Markovic useful? Not more than anyone else was. Was he poor? Once again, not more than anyone else was. Can got some criticism back when he started, Manquillo as well. Balotelli has played alright (more dangerous IMO than Lambert), yet he gets comments like that all the time. But if we want to be known as a top destination for world talent then we need to treat them as such and give them meaningful games before writing them off as duds. That's all.
Agree with you on this - people call him lazy which is actually nonsense. He tracks back and he presses. The ironic thing is that he works just as hard as Sturridge. And I'd certainly be dropping Lambert once Mario is back from injury. ----------------------------- EDIT: In Sir Red's defence, I think he's more p*ssed off that we spent £20m on potential rather than someone who is more experienced.
No way does Balotelli work as hard as Sturridge. That is the biggest pile of nonsense I've heard on this forum today, and someone even said Sterling was a flash in the pan on here. He might do a decent amount of pressing but he does little when we've got the ball, which is why we've struggled with Balotelli up top instead of Sturridge.
I meant in terms of pressing and working for the team. Agreed that he doesn't make the runs that SAS do but Mario gets criticised for not working hard enough which is my point.
There are some pretty long comments above and all and sundry knows I can't be arsed to read them. However, I just saw this comment. Anyone claiming Balotelli works as hard as Sturridge (who isn't the hardest worker in the world but he does his bit) is either blind or as deluded as UIR!!! Edit: just realised it was Jimmy that said it so I'm going to move along, had this conversion with him about a dozen too many times
Haha was waiting for you to pipe up! But honestly - compare Sturidge and Mario and you'll see both are very similar in terms of their pressing and tracking back. Now we end the debate!
I did say a while ago that I wouldn't talk about Mario again until I had something positive to say. I've failed miserably with this but I am still trying
Mario works far harder than I expected with pressing and tracking back to win the ball. I've seen him on the edge of our box helping out. I can't fault him on that and I would say in this regard he is a harder worker than Sturridge. That said, Sturridge stays a little further forward and works harder up top (arguably in the part of the pitch he should be in) and his movement when our team has the ball is far superior - hence we have options and space for our midfielders when Daniel plays yet we look static and ordinary with Mario. Let the defense and midfield defend. A forward has to work hard off the ball to create space and options. This is what Mario doesn't do and is a large part imo on why we don't score much when he plays. People want to play both...I don't see why we should do. Just play Daniel flanked by Sterling and Lallana with Coutinho in behind (or Gerrard) and watch the movement and goals follow. Play Mario next to him and we'd score just as many, but lack numbers in midfield.
He does work harder than I expected him too (before we signed him) but he doesn't work as hard as I expect a Liverpool player to still.
He's simply not got the legs to do so much movement up top on his own for this many games in a row. I think it's pretty obvious we have no other options other than Rickie at the moment, but hard to blame him for it.
Yeah, Lambert wasn't great today but he's not done much wrong in the other games so I guess he's allowed a off day. Just hurts more because we only drew. I don't think he'd have played today if Borini had been fit. IF Danny or Mario are fit he wouldn't play no matter what form he's in.
Definitely agree that Mario's movement is poor when we have the possession. My comment was largely based on the defensive aspect. But we should remember that Sturridge had a genius playing next to him who would co-ordinate the pressing from the front. And also, Mario's strength's is not based on movement - it's his link up play. Not easy to change his style completely to suit the team. Overall, the problem is with Rodgers - he doesn't have a clue on how to set this team up. We seem to be playing far too many crosses which is pointless.
