well i wasn't expecting an acutal deabte to break out.... thanks to those who made it one. re: 2009.. we beat utd at home as we had keane and kuyt and benayoun and such. no gerrard and torres true but at old trafford they played... it was ONLY when rafa sold keane in january that we immediately dipped and lost to boro with ryan babel up top and then drew i think to wigan we took 4 point sout of 12 and utd zoomed away... re: mentally strong v physically strong. i think personally coates bottled it physically but allen's problem was purely one of game awareness. He was all at sea chasing about like a headless chicken and getting in others way.. it was more about being caught in possession, making god awful inaccurate passes and being out of poistion etc... For me both players had shockers its just one just wasn't up for it while the other has sucummed to the pressure of a big club scrutiny and is all over the place. BOth need a good talking to and different actions from here. Coate needs to be told to get in the gym and man up... allen needs to be brought back to basics and just foucs on being there for a pass, move it short and on quickly to a prechosen target (ie pick your damned pass) and he just needs to sit in with lucas. thats my opinion on it.... I think robinson isn't ready and it showed in decision making so we can forgive that with him. Wisdom is more ready but i'm not sure why he was hauled off when in fact downing could have gone LB and played lw in that game, gerrard could have replaced allen at half time and so could carragher for coates but then broini also deserved to come off....
It also shows why, carthorse or not, Carra still has qualities we need- and we should squeeze a bit more out of him yet.
Interesting that in those quotes, Rodgers picks out Allen and Borini - his first 2 buys? Is it a question of methinks the lad(y) doth protest too much i.e. he's gettng his excuses in about them both not being lightweight before anyone can point them out first as the two MOST lightweight players in the 'group' (that word annoys me) He's bought Coutinho another slim built lad - is he buying 'surrogate sons' for the team who he feels he can 'parent'? Is it a reflection on his own age that he wants younger players who will respect him and be more prepared to listen - rather than the Sneijders.
We need a couple of Micah Richards in the team - or lads like that Smith at the weekend, built like tanks, play like tanks. Thinking about it, didn't Carroll almost fit that bill!!
carroll not quite, he was an awful player to watch strolling about. I have to say still borini being called powerful was an eye opener. anyway i think wisdom is powerfully built but he got took off to tactically do what? keep allen on and shove the better player into an alien position where he stil lworked his socks off. I'd have hauled off coates at half time personally and maybe borini for downing and gerrard for skertl. jones (needs a slap for bad tehcnique) wisdom carragher skertl robinson henderson allen gerrard sturridge suarez downing but thinking on it there were too many players like sterling, robinson, allen, borini to fix it. wrok day, wrong pitch wrong set up to play a physical team. (hindsight) we also picked 4 forwards effectively going away to oldham on a mucky forzen tpye pitch... that was a mistake and with the players also playing badly (like coates) there were too many things to try and fix.
Yes Wisdom is a more solidly built player, as is Kelly which is good going forward. I also think young Flanagan is more capable of holding off a push and a shove - but we need experienced players who won't be pushed around. Team selection v Oldham was just wrong for all the reasons you say. Liverpool have always had a hard man in defence and that's just one position we need to fill. Rodger's is as inexperienced as his young players and he has as steep a learning curve, if not steeper, than them. I'd actually give Robbie Fowler a pay as you play till the end of the season! What did BR say 'Spanish is sexy but scouse is better'
