The table doesn't lie, and we are where we are etc but... Our issues this season are among the easiest to fix - ie 1. We need a poacher (go buy one) 2. We need the rub of the green a little more (I'm not saying we have been unlucky all season as that's daft, but we have had crucial decisions and woodwork go against us more often than not. A goalscorer will ease the pressure on others - allow them to relax a little and the breaks will come) 3. We need to handle the media better to take pressure off our lads (hire a proper PR / Comms team) 4. We need to improve our home form (see points 1,2&3) We do not need wholesale changes. We do not need to change the manager. We do not need to drop Gerrard or string Carra up on the Shankly Gates. We need to keep our influencial players and buy a striker and maybe a winger and that's it folks. We have a good, young team who are playing for eachother and creating chances. It's time we saw the colour of the owners money (net spend has been minimal so far) and we will be ok.
A well balanced post. To respond to your points: 1. We appear not to have a poacher in either the squad or the reserves so we have no option but to buy. Now the debate about who that shoud be will go on all Summer. 2. Whilst we have created so many chances, the breaks just don't seem to have come our way this season. Well before Christmas, Kenny was saying that one game we would give the opposition a true pasting. Well that finally happened in the Arsenal game - and we still lost!!!. It's now got to the point that not scoring has almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy. 3. Our PR has been very poor and it has cost us dearly. Perhaps that is why David Deane has been seen at Anfield recently and maybe why our in-house lawyer has now left the club. 4. If we are being truthful, we have to accept that our home form has been a problem for many many years.
1. We need a poacher (go buy one) 2. We need the rub of the green a little more (I'm not saying we have been unlucky all season as that's daft, but we have had crucial decisions and woodwork go against us more often than not. A goalscorer will ease the pressure on others - allow them to relax a little and the breaks will come) 3. We need to handle the media better to take pressure off our lads (hire a proper PR / Comms team) 4. We need to improve our home form (see points 1,2&3) All sensible points, to respond in kind. 1. Carroll is never going to get 20 plus goals a season, and Suarez is more a creatative forward. We need a Defoe type of player, someone who gamble's in the area,is constantly looking for tap in's. Our forwards seem unable to gamble. 2. We havn't had the rub of the green, but that's no excuse. When you create as many chances as we do per game being unlucky doesn't come into the equation it comes down to rank poor finishing. 3. Agree are PR has been awful, we have managed to shoot ourselves in the foot time and time again. 4. To be in the top 4 your home form has to be 1st class, we have let to many teams come to Anfield and get away with murder. Is it the pressure of playing at home that somehow effects there performance?
We need to stop rushing to put the ball in the box. We need to take our time to put a quality ball in instead of constantly bowling it in. We also need more players getting in the box. We defend and keep the ball very well, and apart from in the final third, we are cool, calm and confident. In the final third we are impatient, have road rage and are getting caught again and again. We need to be more composed.
In my opinion a lot of things need to improve but the thought porcess behind the OP's thread is a good one. In actual fact i feel we are 2 defenders (CB,LB) 2 midfielders (at least) and two strikers away from being a real squad at this time. We have to replace a lot of aging guys like maxi, and kuyt as well. We must be realistic. a carling cup and an fa cup final is a fabulous return but the players are not bothered very much i nthe league and i am 100% sure kenny has assessed and found them wanting but can't change it over night. I hope we can make big changes to address this in year. Realism suggests 4th is something that requires a big improvement but if newcastle can do it we can do it. To challenge for a title will take a lot longer and if that doesn't suit some i suggest respectfully they go support another team. Its getting to the point on this website that i'll be telling peopel to go be city fans and stop mouthing rubbish.
I agree with the OP- wholesale changes would just put us back at square one. Of course almost any team could be improved upon in almost every area, but it doesn't mean we couldn't compete well enough with a couple of crucial additions. I've said for months, if we'd had a striker who'd put away 15-16 by January we'd have been up near the top and we wouldn't be having this discussion. Change the area where it clearly isn't working asap, then improve other areas gradually. We dominate games and we make plenty of chances, we need someone to put them away. Everything else is secondary.
MITO bit server lad, defence is not the problem up the other end needs sorting. KD or whoever is at the helm next season, needs to go and buy a 20 goal a season striker, not a forward an out and out striker. We also need a genuine right midfielder and a creative midfielder to partner the returning Lucas. Like Saint said wholesale changes again are not the answer, lets address the main problem area's first.
Andy Carrol is a decent striker you are just not using him properly. Andy needs decent delivery from his wide men and he gets nothing like he needs at Liverpool. On his day and in the right formation Andy Carrol is UNPLAYBLE at any level of football. Sell him to a club that knows how to use his talents, Dalglish is clueless.
But not as clueless as you. You are already banned from this board as Ben Arfas Revenge and are no kore welcome in this persona.
Contrary to what people believe, Carroll has had some very good chances but his heading has been poor this season. I'll agree that the service isn't that great but there have been a few good crosses put in only for his heading to let him down or his lack of intelligence/movement put him in the wrong position.
mobly.. re what i think... frankly if we don't sort every area we will come up short. it only took one injury to agger and our defense went to pot. we must replace carrgher and aurelio.... it ALL has to be improved.... our midfield is totally lacking in running and creativity and this is where 70% of the problems stem from. lets be frank, carragher, aurelio, kuyt, maxi and jsut maybe even gerrard are past it and need replacing. if we continue to shield ourselves form the reality of the job ahead we are mad. we got shut of a shedload of muck last summer thanks fully but there is much more to be done. time to get real and see the true picture of the work ahead.
I've said this many times before- almost any team can be improved in almost any area, but our problem is scoring goals. We need to sort that as number one priority, nothing else comes anywhere near being as important. If we'd scored the goals we should have done from the chances created, the rest of the team wouldn't be under scrutiny. Too many changes at once will put us back to square one. Of course they're ageing in some areas and that will need to be addressed fairly soon, but first things first. If your car runs out of fuel it won't help to change the tyres- even if they are wearing a bit thin.
knocking a few more in won't get us back to the promised land. If you want to talk priorities then I hope you will acknowledge the root and branch transformation of also rans into league contendors will take more than one season. yes buying two strikers should be our no 1 priority BUT the thing is you must allow for natural wastage too. if we are not improving faster than we are seeing players fall off the high performance required then we go nowhere. Kuyt and maxi MUSt go, they must be replaced and equally carrgehr must be repalced and now. If i were writing a shopping list ofr LFC it would have 6 players posiitions on it in the following order. 1. Striker. no question no replacing anyone one striker MUST be bought. 2. Attacking Midfielders - replace maxi and kuyt with the types of players that are sorely missing.Mata, hazard, silva types. 3. Central defender. - depserately needed IMO. replace carrgehr cos one injury and it all goes to pot. 4. Striker. - replace bellamy if there is someone we can get. he can't go on very much longer and while a bargain and bonus we need 4 genuine dependable forwards 5. Defensive/box to box midfielder. - supplement lucas with another player to partner him. 6. Left full back reserve - we don't know if robinson can make it yet, aurelio must go so this slot is only covered by johnson. Priorities are good but we must see that to improve if we don't move guys out and just let them decay before our eyes they do nothing to help us do they? i don' think this is going back to square one... I think it is taking the next necessary steps that we need to following on form last summer. At the very least replacing carrgher, maxi, kuyt and aurelio is MUCH better than having to get shut of poulsen, konchesky, degen, and the like. We are talking getting rid of aging legs not no hopers.
oh and the analogy of fuel and tyres doens't add up cos iwth the players i'm on about their tank is empty.... wether or not you have a new set of boots on the car if the thing doesn't move its no good... where we were was having blad tyres and sliding off a cliff, we replaced half the tyres last summer, the others need changing ADD the tank needs topping up too. give it the 3 years it needs, year one will be glorious if we win an fa cup too.
The cahnges we need to make IMO Sell all guys out on loan for as much as we can get Aqua,Pacheco,etc Offload Maxi,Adam,Aurelio and possibly Spearing ( if we bring a cm in , we dont need lucas,gerrard,hendo,new cm,shelvey AND spearing- spearing would be the 1 to go the others are either good players or young ) Maybe offload Dirk if 2 wingers and 1 striker comes in Bring in goalscoring striker Defo 1 winger, probably 2 wingers 1 CM Something like this players coming in Gaston Ramirez,Matias Suarez,Hoilett,Banega Robinson ( better than Flanno)Johnson,Wilson,Agger can all do a job as back up LB, our money needs to be spent elsewhere
daydo... i'd agree in part but i think the showing since agger got injured has been an example of why we need to not forget about a new CB as well. I think we need to prioritise yes but until we get the work donw there no point demanding a league title push or even 4th place. if you really look at it the objecitve evidence was 4th was a tall order and we've done worse than even what we could have as well. If we go in to next year like this: GK: reina doni jones RB:johnson kelly LB enrique robinson CB: carra skertl CB: agger coates DCM: lucas spearing DCM: adam henderson RW: maxi kuyt LW: downing, bellamy ATM: Gerrard ST: Suarez, carroll well we are going nowhere fast. you are quite right about two winger and quite right about at least one striker and a midfielder to stand in for adam/hnederosn is also good. But i will maintain we cannot take our eye off the back line either, a new CB is needed and LB cover is lacking slightly. I won't say we cannot get by but that is not optimal either. all in all if we wrtoe a team of: Reina Johnson skertl agger enrique lucas martinez suarez gerrard hazard higuin then have downing, bellamy, coates, kelly, henderson, carroll in reserve... theres still work to be done there but it'd be more interesting wouldn't it? I think we'd all be estatic... yeah? now that aint goignt o happen but think baout it, 100mil and teams willing to actually do a deal and something LIKE it could materialise. I only added 3 players to the first 11 there....
Dont think we are gonna get given the cash FSG to get the likes of Martinez,Hazard,and I dont think they would come anyway with no CL.Plus if we get quality striker/wingers there will not be much cash left for a defender,we can get by IMO with the defenders we for another year IMO.We will only get max £40m net off FSG this summer,and not £70m which is what we would need to get Hazrad/Martinez, plus we will get next to nothing off sales of unloading players, cant see us getting more than £5m for Aqua,and anythin for Cole whith his wages
MITO understand your veiw point, think Coates will get more games next season so defence bar a complete run of injuries is ok. Agree with midfield, seeing Spearing & Henderson together doesn't inspire confidence, Wonder if time and injuries are catching up with Gerrard and simply put Adam and Downing are ****e. Here's one to consider Ardan Turan, tricky winger gets goals, quick known Liverpool fan. But like Saint says we've created time and time again, its sticking it in the net that's the problem. I hope Kenny gets a true striker first up.
