Certainly the later Gerrard, and I do think Shelvey could be just as good as him. But will he get the opportunity to do that? I hope he does because since he's come in to the team he's bought something new and fresh, but will the demands next season force Shelvey to retire to the bench and not fulfill his potential while another midfielder be bought for the instant impact?
Gerrard has played brilliantly for Liverpool in numerous positions. He dragged us into 4th place in the 2003-04 season by himself almost from the centre of midfield. He played off the striker in the champions league run then the season after he played off the right when we won the Fa Cup and got 82 points in the league. Then when Torres came he moved in behind there and excelled. Wherever he plays he has been brilliant for us, even right back in the European cup final. We'll never replace him on his own, we'll need two quality players to even try and replace his influence on the team. People won't see how good he's actually been for Liverpool until he's not playing anymore.
I do believe if given the chance Robinson has the potential to be a great player, looks so mature already and should definately be back up to Enrique next season ... Flanagan on the otherhand still needs to mature and has a lot to learn, but even the mistakes that he makes will result in him being a better player.
Next season Shelvey has to have Gerrard's spot. He's in our squad already and we should look to him before we look elsewhere. The former is 20 now, so it's time to get his name on the team sheet more weeks than not. Gerrard is far better when rested, too. He always comes back well from an injury lay-off. Luckily (for once) we have EL, so that will offer decent playing time for both of them. Anyway, definite outs: Aurelio Jones Darby (can't believe he's actually still our player) Cole Aquilani Maybes: Kuyt Maxi Adam Pacheco I think we should probably move on the likes of Amoo and Ecclestone, too.
We really need to figure out what formation we're planning on playing before looking at signings. The Banega link is strange as it would suggest that we're looking to go back to the two holding midfielders that we used in the second half of last season. Spearing and Adam could be decent back-ups in that system. In attacking midfield we'd have Gerrard or Shelvey. The wide areas would need a lot of work though. We could play a front three of Downing, Carroll and Suarez but that formation might give Suarez too much defensive work to do and wouldn't play to his strengths. I do think a Banega type signing is the way to go though rather than trying to find some sort of box-to-box midfielder to play with Lucas in a 4-4-2. There aren't many of those types of players around at the minute. For wide players in that formation I think Clint Dempsey could be a good signing at the right price and might free up money to buy a top class young wide player at a big price.
I'd prefer to see who we are bringing in before we do a clearout to be honest, for many seasons under the two yank pricks we had to do the sell to buy transfer policy, which meant our squad strength always fell short. We don't have to do that now. Of course players like Aquilani and Aurelio are definate leavers, Cole too but beyond that we don't know who we'll need and who we won't. Also if we were to sell Kuyt, you've to look at the fee he'd generated as if its peanuts then its not worth it.
I think it was just a Twitter rumour but the source was quite decent, can't remember who though. He's not the sort of player you would bring in to be a squad player, which is why i think even just considering signing him could be an indication of the direction we're heading tactically. Being able to change tactics for certain matches is obviously a good thing but I wouldn't want to see us going through another season changing our formation so often.
Banega would come in straight away into the starting 11. Would be ideal for us I think. Him and Lucas with Lucas staying and Banega going box to box, tasty to say the least.
Would be a hell of a signing, I don't think it would necessarily mean a change to more defensive tactics. Banega has immense vision and he's skillful too, unlike Adam he wouldn't let Lucas do all the defensive work because he is a very good tackler as well. Just seems a bit far fetched for us at the moment, not getting my hopes up.
