Plead the 5th when you are guilty Dave Apparently one of these signings will excite us all, would be really sweet to get a name in who can also do the business.
Guilty of what? The Andy Carroll of the end of last season and for England was outstanding as a goalscorer and link man. Therefore why should Rodgers want to be rid of him? People bang on about strikers that they hardly know as though they were the answers - well perhaps as 3rd strikers. Given the choice between Dempsey and Carroll, I know which I would go for - and its not the Yank!
Dempsey's not really a striker for me, needs to roam around more to be dangerous. I was only joking about Carroll. But he had a lot of joy when playing for England because of the directness of the play, I would use the Liverpool end of season more than the England performances as the styles just contrast too much.
Rodgers tends to play with 1 striker and I think it will be Carroll with Suarez playing as part of a front 3, I think Liverpool will then sign another player who will join that front 3, Borini for example. This will give Liverpool 3 players who can play together and any of them can play as the striker if needed.
Just because a player is good does not mean he will fit into our system. Carroll is a good player for many reasons but many of those reasons are why he would not be a good fit in a faster pass and move system. I don't know who should be our striker, I just think Carroll isn't the answer. Put it this way, if he was still a Newcastle player would you want us to sign him as our star striker?
Carroll's strengths: Good headerer of the ball (assumes lobbed crosses - doesn't fit), brings the ball down well (assumes lobbed crosses - doesn't fit), Has a good shot on him (fits the system) Carroll's weaknesses: poor first touch (doesn't fit a system where ball is moved quickly with minimum time spent on ball), Poor dribbling (important in the final third where passing/dribbling is used to beat players rather than lobs), Added to that the general point that I still think he is a very inconsistent player and up until recent performances has had hit and miss matches.
The system that I saw Swansea play last season relied on Graham holding the ball up and distributing it left and right or back into midfield, he also came deep to receive the ball a a lot. Carrolls first touch and sheilding of the ball has improved a lot but this will need to be worked on. As far a scoring goes he won't need to dribble as we will work the ball into the box, again most of Grahams goals were in the area.
Can't be bothered getting into a fit of speculation. I know next to nothing about most of the players mentioned, so it's wait and see for me. I don't even care if we get a "big name" as long as we get the right players.
In a recent interview Rogers was asked about Spains system of having no recognised striker with a 'fulse number 9'. Rogers replied: 'Thats some thing I'd like to introduce to English football.' So we could play that way again certain teams. Man City for example. Could Gerrard be a fulse 9?
