Our centre back pairing of Dagger and Skrtel are frequently injures... for back up we have JC who regrettably is past peak and doesn't cut it anymore and younger players like Coates, who are fine against weak teams but not good enough for the tougher teams we will face... not yet.. will be. We only have one senior full back who is natural to the left and does well there. Left back has been a scrappy area for us since riise left. Striker... we only really have Carroll who is your traditional centre forward and Rodgers doesn't favour him. I still think he might prove doubters wrong. Other forward areas and central positions we seem to be fairly covered for... ... why do we keep getting linked to central midfielders with all these holes all over the field? Couple of our cm I'd like to upgrade... but its not the area of immediate concern. ... and how did we get this way from the days Rafa had decent backup for every position on the field? I think we've got good youth coming through that will push us upwards in a few years... but the here and now is rocky... we can do well this season but only if we avoid injuries.
We have to give Coates time on the pitch, he may prove that he is up to the task. Dare I make a Swansea comparison? Caulker was outstanding last season and is 1 year older than Coates so if we give him a run of games he may prove to be the solution.
Even when we had pennant we had better cover than him... rafa may not have always chosen to select the better cover but it existed...
Not meaning to steer covwrssation to rafa but for most of the rafa years our 2nd XI would have been good enough for a top yen finish...
i don't think we have many holes, we have loads of youngsters who should be ahead of some of the more senior players. think we badly need strikers as Coates and Wilson(may not agree) should in my opinion be ahead of Carra, and if they aren't ready, we need to stop getting these type of players as we have Wisdom etc to come through. Shelvey and Henderson should be ahead of Spearing and Adam, so get rid no need for them, Coates and Wilson,possibly Kelly(although some think been Rb too long so wont be good for CB) ahead of Carra so sentiments aside should now be coaching, i think he is of more value that way to teach the youngsters in training, rather than screaming at them during a game. Sterling and Oussama should both be ahead of Downing and Cole, who i don't see much benefit from keeping personally. we have lots of potential in the team and they need to be given a chance, and some of them are certainly better than what we have ahead of them. we have brought potential and some may be future stars,now is the time to let them prove it. i don't know to be honest, we have huge potential in this squad,its just whether they live up to it, hope so, cant keep wasting £20 mill on crap like Downing or £90k a week for Cole, when we have younger, hungrier and less wages in Sterling and Oussama, same as our defence.
2007... what was our second team then? taken right out of wiki Jerzy Dudek 2 Spain DF Ãlvaro Arbeloa 3 Republic of Ireland DF Steve Finnan 4 Finland DF Sami Hyypiä 5 Denmark DF Daniel Agger 6 Norway DF John Arne Riise 7 Australia MF Harry Kewell 8 England MF Steven Gerrard (captain) 9 England FW Robbie Fowler 10 Spain MF Luis GarcÃa 11 Chile MF Mark González 12 Brazil DF Fábio Aurélio 14 Spain MF Xabi Alonso 15 England FW Peter Crouch 16 England MF Jermaine Pennant 17 Wales FW Craig Bellamy 18 Netherlands FW Dirk Kuyt 20 Argentina MF Javier Mascherano No. Position Player 22 Mali MF Mohamed Sissoko 23 England DF Jamie Carragher (vice-captain) 24 France FW Florent Sinama-Pongolle (until May) 25 Spain GK Pepe Reina 26 England MF Paul Anderson 28 England DF Stephen Warnock 29 Argentina DF Gabriel Paletta 30 Italy GK Daniele Padelli 32 Netherlands MF Boudewijn Zenden 34 Spain DF Miki Roque 35 England MF Danny Guthrie 37 England MF Lee Peltier 39 England DF Stephen Darby 40 England GK David Martin 42 Morocco FW Nabil El Zhar 45 England DF James Smith 46 England DF Jack Hobbs 48 Argentina DF Emiliano Insúa we could argue about it for hours i suppose but i think itts very easy to write 2 sets of 11 today.... it was awful when rafa left and odgson took over but today ican name 2 11s.
Got to give Coates the game time, yes he may make mistakes, but he has to make them to learn, and this is a transitional year, and the emphasis should be on building the team, not trying to get 4th. Gerrard was a prick for opening his gob about that.
Mito... idefinately think there are two top ten teams you can make from that... I will when: get home tonight and have a keyboard.
OK Mito Circa 2007 from your list: 1st team: ----------------------- Pepe Reina ---------------------------- Ãlvaro Arbeloa - Daniel Agger - Jamie Carragher - Fábio Aurélio ---------------------- Javier Mascherano ---------------------- -------Steven Gerrard --- Xabi Alonso ----------- Harry Kewell --------------- Dirk Kuyt---- Peter Crouch -------------------- 2nd team: ----------------------- Jerzy Dudek -------------------------- Steve Finnan - Sami Hyypiä - Stephen Warnock - John Arne Riise -------------------- Mohamed Sissoko ------------------------ Jermaine Pennant ----- Luis Garcia ----------- Boudewijn Zenden -------- Craig Bellamy ---------- Robbie Fowler --------------- Sucks I had to use Pennant for the 2nd team... Not sure that Fowler could make it either- perhaps I should put Pongo there... Still in 2007- that team would have been a contender for top 10 (not the last couple of years it wouldn't... but back then it would).
