So the morning press today have been quoting our man Joe Allen as saying that the Liverpool team has now learnt to be better with out Suarez and is better than last years team. We could look at the league table and some of our worse games this season and ask Allen what he is smoking. But when we consider some extra facts can we actually conclude that Allen is correct? Last season we finished second, two points behind first place City. We scored 101 goals and played some of the best attacking football football the league has seen in years. This season we are currently outside of the top 4 with little chance of matching that goal tally. But looking at our recent form we are currently on a 16 game unbeaten run and we have kept a clean sheet in 5 consecutive away games for the first time since 1985. Last season our defense was a joke. We conceded 50 goals, some of which were ridiculous. Despite our defense looking even worse earlier this season it has now turn around completely and is looking a lot more solid. Last seasons midfield was good at creating goal chances and playing nice forward passes, but the balance was way off and defensively it was a liability. Currently our midfield is tight, compact and well balanced. It barely looks like the same midfield at all. As for goals we have scored a lot less this season. But with our defense being better we can afford to score less. Last season we were also very reliant on SAS and penalties to get our goals, but now our goals are coming from many more areas, with Sturridge, Sterling, Lallana, Markovic, Coutinho and Balotelli all grabbing at least a couple of goals over the last few weeks. We have no glorious front runner in the goal charts, but a lot more players are putting the ball in the net, meaning we are a lot less reliant on just a small selection of players. Plus we dont need to score 5 to win a game, 2 or even just 1 is often becoming enough. Finally we must consider squad depth. Though some positions are hopeless for depth, last season most positions were hopeless for depth. Now we have a grand selection of AM and wide options, 2 decent full backs on each side and we are not crumbling with out our first choice DM. An option like Balotelli also gives Rodgers the option to change the playing style mid game if he needs to, which has helped us out a couple of times recently. So, as it stands is our current team now better than last seasons?
my view is the title says one thing and allen says something else as does the poll. Are we better without suarez... **** no are we over all better as a quad than last year? sure.... now that can and markoivc have given some to the team and ibe has come in and sturrdige and coutinho found some form... sure we are better. last year we had aspas and moses to turn to... this year lucas, gerrard and others have been injured and its no longer hurting as much. barring the woeful signing of balotelli who faield utterly to replace suarez we have been a better squad and have coped with league cup and fa cup well enough.... but only once we found a way to play and got the signings going somewhat... even lallana and lovern to whatever extent we have frankly been woeful from September to middle of december and have paid for it big time in europe and league.... we cannot change that and i showed we are 16 points worse off than last year. 16 more points this year and we are in a title race FFS.....
We have a better squad but Suarez would improve us and with him in the team we would be higher in the table.
what are we now PL, 6 wins from the last 7 games. last 11 = 8 wins 3 draws. That's pretty good freaking form, we even threw 2 of those points out ourselves v leicester. We have improved steadily throughout the run too. 5 out of the last 7 games we kept lean sheets too. Ming's new found form is a big help. As a team we are definitely better than last season, since December anyways. MITO, FYI Can wasn't match fit up till the "injury" reshuffle anyways and Sahko showed form he hasn't shown up till then. Those two made it work and really neither was up to scratch until that point, especially Can. Ming's good form is also a recent thing. Luck schmuck
How about you all make that judgement at the end of the season? That's what matters, not who has the best form during mid-season.
Lol coming from an Arsenal fan, that's quite funny. You guys are up and down like a yo-yo dozens of times during a season - wenger in, wenger OUT, wenger in...etc... After 26 games + all the other cup games etc, I think we care able to make an informed choice on the OP
yeah like one up in a 451 was working and moreno at lb was amazing and johnson didn't pull up. V utd we played Jones, Johnson, Skrtel, Lovren, Moreno, Henderson, Gerrard, Allen, Coutinho, Sterling, Lallana. rodgers threw toure on when johnson got an injury against utd.... it was 4-3-2-1 that day. he said he was working on it but in reality johnson had carried the injury and stood playing 343 in the prior game We played ok but players like allen stood square on valencia let him walk past and tee up rooney while Moreno trotted back not bothered.... we played well but lost 3-0. I mean credit where its due to stick sterling up and hope he works as lambert ran out of legs after 5 games in a row but again.... if he had been able to run would he do it... hmmmm our team v arsenal was jone, toure, skertl sahko henderosn markovic, lucas, gerrard, lallana, coutinho sterling markovic LWB cos moreno was unplayable??? he was sat on the bench.. scratching round for a full back option... henderson RWB... poor there... gerrard in CM. you'll note lovern got injured so was not o nthe bench here.... 3 at the back was all 3 fit CBs. not cb on the bench Rodgers happened to have sahko just back and rolled the dice on markovic. he could have played moreno and never knew markoivc coudl do it. what happens... gerrard gets little injury.. henderson middle.. markovic wide right.. then it all worked.. Can came in v burnely on boxing day at half time when toure got injured... the very next game.... was can close to the selection or a pure guess.... well you'll have to look at the bench we had for the game. same team played as arsenal but there was NO CB on the bench so Can was actually it or manquillo... rodgers could have again put on moreno and went 4 at the back with him but rodgers I think was more focused on not playing moreno after his mistake v utd than anything then came swansea 4-1 result... why? I'll tell you why Gerrard didn't play and henderson moved to CM, moreno came in at LWB and manquillo at RWB. Through it all coutinho sterling and lallana played all games... the only area withiout an injury How can we say that lovern injury, toure injury, johnson injury, gerrard injury did not play ANY part in the decision making... NONE??? nope all luck and circumstance rodgers deserves no credit for this ****... he caused all the problems he had
Definitely better last season. You were smashing teams last season. This season you've had a few where you're scrapping it out for wins. Last season everyone was scared of playing Liverpool. This season i'm not sure they are Last season from 1st January you went on a run of 14 wins and 2 draws in the League. Right now you're last 11 is 8 wins and 3 draws. Think that tells a story in itself.
That comparison will only become valid after we've played 16 games this year. I do agree to an extent, though. We were much more exciting last year, and I've said all along I felt much better being 2 or 3 nil up after half an hour than 1 up with ten minutes to go. Are we better without Suarez? In some areas perhaps, but I'm sure we'd be better still with him in the team (minus the biting, arm-waving and play acting, of course).
One individual doesn't make a team however, Suarez was that good and that much of a team player he wasn't just an individual for us. He was the life and sole, the spark and the tenacity of our team' Without doubt, we were a better side with him in it. In fact 99.9% of teams would be a better team with him in the side!
If Suarez had stayed I think Rodgers would have kept last seasons diamond but with Moreno at LB (and Johnson at RB). But once Sturridge was injured it would have changed to 433 with Lallana coming in. With Balotelli never having signed our only others strikers would be Lambert and Borini. Earlier this season teams learnt that if they get physical against Gerrard and Coutinho in the deep midfield areas you can take them out of the game, cutting out the strikers delivery. Gerrard has also struggled for form over all. This would have scared Lovren more than our team with Gerrard and Henderson playing deep. A front three of Suarez, Sterling and Lallana, with out awesome delivery from Coutinho and Gerrard, does not sound like a title race team to me. I'm not sure if this is relevant to the thread topic. Maybe I'm calling Sturridge the key player and not Suarez. I'm just rambling. Suarez was banned for the start of the season to. With Suarez still in place we could be even lower down the league than we really are.
Oh I was just pointing out to Sisu that your best run of form last season (11 wins in a row or the stat i reeled off over the 16 games) is better than the run of form you are having now and will require you winning another 9 in a row just to equal last years form. Last year you were a devastating team and there was this aura in the 2nd half of the season that no matter what would happen, you guys would go onto win it. This year it's starting to look that way a bit recently but the wins and performances haven't been convincing. You have a far better squad and a better balance but your first 11 last year was much more deadly
He did have great feet But Suarez practically single handedly carried this team and he improved those around him. Naturally, we improved the squad because of him. But our attack is weaker is a lot weaker without him. Had we kept him, I genuinely would have been confident of challenging for the title again.
nobodies challenged the actual facts on the injuries we had at the time of the move to 343 and finding our best set up
