Your side is average. Wolves are an average side. They both beat United last season. Go figure. Ok, i'll help you out... It's called a "bad day at the office".
Even with downing starting on the left instead of maxi our 1st team is improved, if ashley young gets in the team ahead of nani or valencia on either wing could you say that was a genuine improvement ? he has been playing centrally for england recently would he be an improvement over who you have there ? I rate ashley young btw and he will add even more quality to the squad my point is he's not necessarily an improvement to the first team.
And downing is that mush of an improvement for you? Good god you must have a poor team, if he makes that much of a difference. Young is another player to the squad, he can offer things that Valencia and Nani cant, its not just first team anymore.
Oh my god its like talking to my Nan !...we went over this didnt we EAT CUSTARD ?!, you even quoted me when i said we're improving the squad in terms of quality and depth and addressing our defficiencies i.e downing for width where as you havent, carrick & anderson\fletcher cente mid ? My 2nd point was our signings have also improved our starting 11 where as yours argubly havent ! now im not suggesting Man Utd need improving in cm they won the league and its your managers perogative, i merely said our signing's have improved our squad and more importantly our 1st 11, more so than your signings have improved your 1st team...DO YOU GET IT ? For the record i also think you will be weaker in goal than you were last season, i think de gea is a fantastic prospect but will make more mistakes than van de sar would have.
Actually I would say that your signings haven't significantly addressed your main weaknesses. You are still weak in defence, particularly left back and also centre back if Agger cannot stay fit, and you have signed two central midfielders despite already having three (Lucas, Gerrard and Meireles). Downing will probably improve you, and address your weakness on the left wing, although it remains to be seen whether him playing on the left will impede Suarez, who did some of his best work last season cutting in from the left (including for the first goal against us). And you still don't have a good out and out right winger. Gerrard, Kuyt, Meireles and Henderson can all play on the right, but imo none of them will be as good at taking on full backs and getting in crosses as someone like Valencia, Nani or Young. In contrast, Ashley Young and Phil Jones do address some large weaknesses we had last season, namely the lack of a true left winger (with Nani being mainly a right winger), a lack of wingers in general (Park is not really a winger and Giggs is too old for the wing) and a lack of cover for Rio. I think it's quite interesting to note that in our first three league defeats, against Wolves, Chelsea and Liverpool, we either had at least one 4th or 5th choice CB on the park (Evans or Brown) and only one winger (we either had Giggs on the left or Fletcher on the right). So we have clearly addressed two of our biggest weaknesses in the league last season, and we are still looking to address the third. Admittedly that third (the lack of a world class CM) is the biggest weakness, but that obviously makes it the hardest to address, and like I have said before I still don't think a deal will be agreed until August at the earliest.
" Originally Posted by Diadora Barnes storm Oh my god its like talking to my Nan !...we went over this didnt we EAT CUSTARD ?!, you even quoted me when i said we're improving the squad in terms of quality and depth and addressing our defficiencies i.e downing for width where as you havent, carrick & anderson\fletcher cente mid ? My 2nd point was our signings have also improved our starting 11 where as yours argubly havent ! now im not suggesting Man Utd need improving in cm they won the league and its your managers perogative, i merely said our signing's have improved our squad and more importantly our 1st 11, more so than your signings have improved your 1st team...DO YOU GET IT ? For the record i also think you will be weaker in goal than you were last season, i think de gea is a fantastic prospect but will make more mistakes than van de sar would have." those are your opinions and you are entitled to them, most on here will disagree with you, that is our/their right too. You could argue till the hell freezes over the fors and the againsts. If you actually took the time to read the majority of posts on this board they will mostly state the glaringly obvious that we need a CM of some quality, so you're flogging a dead horse there. As for young De Gea - in no stretch of the anyone's imagination is he at his tender age going to directly play at the level at arguably one of the world'd greatest keepers! but he has the potentila to become a great. Now search deep down inside that soul of yours and hand on heart do you believe that Adams & co are goping to be up there with the legends of Anfield ........... ... no I thought not!
Our LB position is not really a problem Aurellio when fit is a good player and Robinson a star in the making, we also played Johnson there with some success. The center back position does worry me Carra and Agger is a great pairing but Aggers fitness is a doubt. Then again Kelly is the future at CB and may step in there next season when needed. I must admit i'm not a fan of Soto or Skrtel.
Mine would be: Johnson, New CB, Agger, New LB Henderson, Gerrard, Lucas, Downing Suarez, Carroll Obviously Carragher would go in if there was no CB and Johnson would shift to left back if there was no new left back and Kelly would play RB. That's really dependent on the likes of Agger, Johnson, Gerrard and Carroll staying fit though.
Aurelio to me is becoming like Agger and Ferdinand. He's pushing 32 and has barely managed 20 games in each of the last two seasons. He's the kind of player you want to save for the big games. Robinson may be a star in the making, but with only a couple of games under his belt you can't really rely on him. Johnson imo is not good enough for a top four club. Carragher's fitness seems to be going a little recently as well - didn't Skrtel have to play every game for you last season, so you never had the Carra / Agger pairing together. That to me is the biggest thing you have to address if you are ever going to challenge for the title again - every title winning team is built on at least two, and usually three top quality centre backs. Right now Liverpool have one and a half at best - I rate the Arsenal defence ahead of the Liverpool one right now and that's saying something!
No Adam, Kuyt or Meireles? Interesting. Including Maxi, you've chosen a team without your top three goalscorers from last year.
My friend you really should take some of your own advice, if YOU read the posts you'd see that i was not arguing with anyone, i was trying to explain to EAT CUSTARD what we where talking about as he completely missed the point !....twice over ! it's frustrating when someone doesnt read the thread, skims over it and answer's with somethings which has no relevance to what your talking about....i'm sure you'll agree. Regards the "world class" keeper de gea, i already said he had fantastic potential but you wont be as strong in goal next season, you've essentially agreed with me so i dont see what your problem is, raw nerve maybe ?
I think we could do with 2 new centre backs but lets be realistic, where not man city with limited investemnt you have to target the right areas, they could gamble of spreading the funds around the team but its attacking options we have been screaming out for. if we can add a left back i honestly think our back four and cover would be good enough to challenge for the top 4, for this season at least. we can target CB's next year or even in january ifneeds be.
I think arsenal are the team to target, 2 of their best players want out, clichy has already left saying they were losers, what kind of messege does that send the rest of the players ? I dont think spurs have the defence good enough to cope with their lack of goalscorers & although i feel chelsea might not do as well as previous seasons, i still think they'll just about finish above us. I see the prem finishing: 1.Man Utd/Man City 2.Man City/Man Utd 3.Chelsea 4.Liverpool Goin by the current squads.
I am just astonished that Liverpool have blown so much money on such average players. I thought that there must be a bottomless pit. Even City are more careful with their cash.
What you've got to consider is Meireles' goals came from playing in behind the striker, as Suarez is here now you'd imagine he'll be taking up that position, which means Meireles will be shunted out wide and his productivity from the wings isn't great, he contributes more defensively than offensively on the wing anyway. Let's be honest "most" of Dirk's goals were from penalties and when he was playing upfront, I can't see him getting playing time upfront with Carroll being fit and he simply isn't good enough on the ball to justify a starting position on the wing. Adam is a good player in my mind, but he's not up there with Gerrard in terms of impact on the team, so I can't see how a Gerrard and Adam partnership would work in midfield so Adam has to make way a more defensive minded midfielder, which in this case is Lucas. Its hard to say at this minute what formation we will start with though, so I just have to base it on what Kenny played at Liverpool when he was manager. An alternative formation would be switching Henderson for Adam and playing a 4-3-3 with Adam, Lucas and Gerrard as midfielders and Suarez on the right with Downing on the left. I feel Maxi, Meireles, Kuyt, Aquilani et al are there to add depth to our bench more than anything. Look at our bench in Dalglish' first league game in charge: 42 Gulacsi 03 Konchesky 16 Kyrgiakos 22 Wilson 17 Maxi 33 Shelvey 24 Ngog Hardly inspiring. And the only players missing there were Carragher and Gerrard, meaning that Poulsen and Skrtel may have been on the bench if they were starting, not the most inspiring depth ever. Imagine now we had a selection of Meireles, Henderson, Adam, Spearing, Kuyt, Maxi, Kelly, Skrtel, Shelvey etc. It isn't as bad then is it mate? For the last 18 months our managers have had their hands tied behind their backs when trying to change the game as there's never been anyone on the bench with the talent or ability to change a game, now we've got that flexibility then it makes the managers job a lot easier. EDIT: On Maxi, I feel he's a good squad player, but not good enough to start, yes he hit a purple patch towards the end of the season, but he doesn't provide a consistent stream of goals, they come in dribs and drabs a bit like Berbatov if you like (though he isn't as prolific as Berbatov)
"Its hard to say at this minute what formation we will start with though, so I just have to base it on what Kenny played at Liverpool when he was manager. An alternative formation would be switching Henderson for Adam and playing a 4-3-3 with Adam, Lucas and Gerrard as midfielders and Suarez on the right with Downing on the left. I feel Maxi, Meireles, Kuyt, Aquilani et al are there to add depth to our bench more than anything. Look at our bench in Dalglish' first league game in charge:" I agree with Raaaul on this, Aquilani, Mereiles and Kuyt fit in this formation if players are injured or rested as does Henderson, it's a really good forward line and midfield with plenty of cover in every position.
