And yet behind Coutinho were probably our two best players yesterday (not in your opinion of course). In case you missed it...we played Arsenal off the park yesterday. Had it not been for Markovic dallying on the edge of the box with seconds to go until half time we'd have gone in one up and the whole game could have been different.
I think he measn the two players behind Coutinho. Ie Gerrard and Lucas (that'll please you ). What billy is saying is we dominated the midfield and those two were key to that.
You wouldn't notice because your blinkers would fit a shire horse but yeah IMO they both had decent games...
You dominated the midfield, but I wouldn't say it was down to Gerrard at all. You simply crowded Arsenal out in the middle of the park through sheer weight of numbers. The 2 wing backs with the 2 central midfielders plus at least one of the front 3 (usually 2) dropping back in and giving them no time and space on the ball. Arsenal were lacking orthodox central midfield players as well, and the 2 combined meant you won the midfield battle from the first whistle.
Try watching the game again without the blinkers Add to that Lucas too who you were slating this morning...in fairness I thought Sakho had a decent game too. If there was one of the three centre backs who had a bit of a stinker it was Toure
So we dominated the midfield but players playing in midfield don't deserve the credit for it Genius PS...not too many praising Brod either
Fair enough mate - I saw Gerrard being a passenger once again and giving away possession needlessly. It's funny how you were quick to blame Markovic for the first goal but didn't mention Gerrard losing possession with a pointless hollywood ball for the second goal. I really cannot see what Gerrard did yesterday. Skrtel makes mistakes - he has done ever since he played for Liverpool. What annoys me is that he will continue to slide by unscathed because he scores a few headers and makes a few crunching tackles. Losing that header to Debuchy is criminal and just shows you what a liability he is. Agreed on Toure, he was poor. Lucas is the best of a bad bunch. I agree he has brought more balance to the team but are we really going to settle with that?
I think every single person on this forum wants to buy a DM - but getting rid of Lucas in the process would leave us seriously short if that new signing was injured.
I agree - I was thinking of selling players who could generate some funds for new players and are most likely to leave. Lucas and Borini are the two most obvious candidates I think. Inter Milan are in for Lucas and we could fetch around £8-10m for him. Put it like this - we keep Lucas and fail to secure a top DM target because of lack of funds. Or we sell Lucas to fund the target.
As I said yesterday, we were 1-1 at the time and Gerrard was trying to regain the lead by using the pace we had on the pitch. He plays the long diagonal ball a dozen times a game and when they come off they are brilliant, but much like a tricky player can't beat his man every time (see Marko for more detail here), Gerrard can't find that pass every single time either. At the end of the day, he lost possession eighty yards from our goal (he wasn't that far away but the ball was). I'll always applaud players for trying to create something. You won't find me complaining about Marko, Coutinho or Sterling despite them all losing possessions several times when attempting to beat their man. So long as they attempt to make amends then I don't mind.
And sell Lucas to fund the target only to realize we either 1) cant attract any one better, or 2) No one decent is available because January is a tough market to buy in. Personally I dont think we should be letting any one go in January. Though I think a deal for Borini is already agreed.
I didn't think Gerrard player particularly well. He was a 6 out of 10... was ok but gave the ball away a bit, have away the free kick for the first and lost the ball with a 70 yard attempted pass. Shooting was off as well. I think reason we dominated midfield was that Coutinho and Lallana tucked inside to make it near enough 4 central midfielders with markovic and Henderson staying wide. Having those 2 inside more meant arsenals Midfield was unable to pick up all 3 players in there so we always had at least 1 man spare. I was sceptical of the formation but it worked a treat you have to give Rodgers some credit for that. Not much else he could have done to win that game really.
