I recall people saying similar things about Adam Johnson. Where's he now? Jelavic had a great season, huh? Whatever happened to Sterling? Did you lot cover him in jism and give him herpes? It's better to have a good first season than a bad one but it guarantees nothing. I read today that "Brendan Rodgers insists he only wants to sign winners" - well, he inherited a squad of those, a squad most pundits said was better than 8th and played some amazing football to beat better teams than we could this season, which many appear to have forgotten because it wasn't spoon-fed to them by media luvvies. Where's Brendan's winner's medals? Andy Carroll almost won the FA Cup single-handed and Rodgers couldn't wait to shove him out the door to make room for....Clint bloody Dempsey. Yeah, FTW. You could give Brendan half of Barca and half of Bayern and he still wouldn't achieve because he doesn't inspire to achieve, as great managers do, and that is one of my main problems with him. Being a winner isn't as easy as looking under the right section of Football Trader.
Oh, and you talk about Rodger's not being a winner but use Carroll as an example of a 'winner' because he nearly delivered in one match?
Since you're obviously saying the squad left were winners because they had won the League cup (can't be anything else considering we didn't win anything else and finished eighth!), does that mean that despite being relegated, you think Wigan have a squad of winners too then? Of course, feel free to also ignore the fact that three important and experienced players were leaving in Kuyt, Bellamy and Maxi and that FSG wanted the wage bill cutting (for reasons I agree with but we all know how much you love FSG too) (again, no response expected)
To be fair, we've had a few players named with a decent first season now.. Johnson, Cisse, Sterling and Jelavic.. I could name you tons of players who have gone on to be quality players, it's all subjective really. Did any of the above really make the same impact as Coutinho did in terms of making the whole team look better? I don't know really. This isn't a direct reply to MFG as 1) He won't reply, or 2) He won't even bother listening and he'll belittle anyone who doesn't think BR is the antichrist, it's his opinion so fair enough. It's hardly burdening him, I'm not saying he's going to win POTY next season nor win the Ballon d'Or I just reckon he'll be a big player for us, Facking hell
Of course, those players that are deemed to have been a one season wonder is subjective but they also raise expectations too. Maybe they have just had a good season but others expect them to improve? I know its not a one season wonder but look at Gerrard, people have called him to b dropped (myslef included prior tot his year) but if you ignore previous season and look at what he contributed it is still more than most, we have come to expect a very high level from him.
Super-pessimist devil's advocate: Coutinho is a one trick pony, once defenders get used to his secret technique of using the outside of the foot, and they run left instead of right to make the interception, all his through balls will lose their effectiveness.
The question is, is he that good at it that the defenders won't be able to stop him anyway? This is what separates the very good players to the best in the league. For example, defenders know Bale and RvP want to shoot with their left but it still happens. Defenders know that Suarez wants to go alone but they still can't stop him (apart from James Collins that is).
Coutinho can drible and makes good forward runs to. Cracking strike as well. If defenders learn him to quick in a game we move him wide. When Suarez plays the opposition are to occupied with him to mark Coutinho to.
Agree. The best players in the world are able to create that half a yard of space to create something - small margins.
for the record I am looking forward greatly to see how he rises to the challenge and this question adds quite a lot to my excitement for the season to come. Will he be as good? will he be better? I think personally that you can put a big pile of young players like coutinho, sturridge, suso, sterling and even ibe in the same boat, add wisdom, even kelly to the list. They all have some stepping up to go do. 20 is not a bad age to do it at as some mancs proved in the mid 90s. The fact is for all of them this will be a first real full season to play and perform in and thats a big step up. stelring unexpectedly did a half season before vanishing (we all thought rested too late) Even sturridge will find this season comeing a step up as he's never had to play a full year as a no 9. It is fascinating to see what will happen. Which is why more senior players are needed. Frankly buying winners is what i want to see.
How has this thread lead to you go on about BR not being the right man for us? You are so sad it's worrying. Dying for coutinho to flop next season I'd imagine so no credit can be given.
look what i will say is no matter how i think rodgers is a bit of a clown who likes to talk i think if we gave him half of barca and half of bayern (i presume that means the good halves) then i am fairly sure we'd win the league Messi, xai, iniesta, martinez, muller, schwienstieger, lahm, neuer... yes PLEASE!!!! just the same as city, quality players = wins. mancini is a clown too... the english press just seem to want to turn a failure into a valiant trier for some reason. ergo I hope coutinho proves himself really next year an i for one dearly hope january is repeated not last summer.
We have enough to be optimistic about I feel, 90% of us didnt expect much better than what we did achieve but at times we ripped teams apart - just need to learn how to keep that intensity up week in week out. I love Kenny as much as the next fan but the fact is there were none of these games where we tore teams apart, the few points we did pick up we're often snatch and grabs and scrappy
Be fair - MFG is right about Carroll being shoved out the door for Dempsey - He hasn't exactly pulled up trees for the Spuds, has he? I know he is a gloomy soul who loves Rafa (I appreciate Rafa too, but he'll not be back in the next 4-5 years at least), but he has a point here...
True but we only wanted Dempsey at the right price. And in contrast, we spent £35m on Carroll - he's not exactly done much.
Mandy mightn't have done much, but he's been on loan to Fat Sam's Hoofball team. We'll never know whetehr Mandy could have adapted to playing more Rodger's way, or whether he could have been kept fitter and injury free at Anfield (I suspect his fitness would have been better than under Sam...) - so in all a bit unfair on Mandy... As for Dempsey at the 'right price' - he's had 4 times the pitch time in the PL as Borini and scored 4 times more often. So I don't think we missed much there. Cash in the wallet better than in the Spuds transfer kitty...
The Carroll saga was a **** up and every single one of us knows it - but why continue to hang on to that to doom and gloom all over OUR manager - why not see a different light on things and say 'well he certainly made up for that in January - maybe he does know what he's doing after all' MFG would rather we fail so BR leaves than us succeed under him - what sense does that make? BR didnt sack Kenny and there is no way Kenny himself would be hoping BR fails so why does this plum?
i agree. day one heads in hands hearing 30mil bid for carroll. TURNED down... then 35mil... oh god. then the guy was injured then he looked awful. I think sturridge is the better option up front. I wish we'd never done this but we did so that 20mil loss should be pinned up beside the 6-7 mil loss on keane on the board room wall with a few slogans "never buy someone the manager doesn't want" "never buy injured players" "never overpay or worse boast about overpaying" carroll will knock in a few through out his career but the highlight of that career could be a league cup medal... he won't get back to a top 4 club and i think lfc need not look back with any anger just cos he might knock in 20 goals or something.
