We are at risk of gaining the 'pass to Suarez -> did Sauarez score -> No -> Pass to Suarez' mentality.
well obviously, because there is a gulf in class in our team. The fact that Downing and Suarez are in the same bloody team is a joke in itself. Suarez could be a starter for Real and Downing for bloody Middlesbrough!
Suarez (class as he undoubtedly is) should take his fair share of the blame for what happened last season. Running past people is all well and good but his game intelligence is seriously lacking at times. Needs to play the simple pass and get himself into the box more often, needs to score headers from two yards out, needs to stop crying every time an opposition defender goes near him and needs to mix up his game much more. Wonderful to watch in full flow....needs to learn how to do it week in week out.
I think Suarez could be more effective out wide. -Downing-----------------Suarez- ---------------Borini----------------- -Suarez----------------Borini--- --------------Carroll------------ Or deeper. ---------------Suarez-------------- ----------Carroll----Borini---------
i think personally its the old problem we had with Gerrard, in the sense that he carried us in most games, which he is now paying the price for, as he has been surrounded by poorer players for quite some time now depressingly. we all go on about the spine of the team to make ourselves feel better, but the problem is the rest, Suarez would probably be similar to Nasri in the sense he would thrive in a team where the pressure isn't on him to score and others help out, but sadly we don't have that luxury and Suarez probably feels pressured although they never admit it. just for a laugh put our players into categories and we would not have many in the top 4 def category it would be Reina,Agger,Gerrard(think he still has it personally you may disagree) and Suarez, who else seriously do we have in that category for a team that wants to be back in the top 4. good players would be Johnson,Skrtl,Enrique next we have potential that quite a lot of our players would fall into ie Henderson, Borini,Sterling,Oussama,Kelly,Shelvey next we have the never know if they come good or not after the ridiculous money we spent on them, hope so ie Downing,Carroll next is why? ie Adam,Spearing and could put Downing in this category as well and Carroll. we are trying to get rid of Adam and Spearing and its only Championship clubs that want them for god sake, we cant expect miracles of a top 4 when we have some of the shambles we do, so its no wonder the pressure is on Suarez to perform. just glad the owners have now realised this just a shame it was at the Kings expense!! 2 cup finals isn't ruddy good enough,although league form or luck if you like was poor saying that. feel free to agree or disagree, we all have dif opinions on where we see our club, be interesting to see what others think of where we are at, but that is my take on it so i think top 6 finish we should be grateful. just glad we have some loyal players at last
jk has it as i see it too. suarez is a world class right sided forward, in front of goal he's not good. create the chances, shooting form side or getting along the byline... great... stick in in front og goal and he keeps on missing.
It is too early to draw any definite conclusions, after just one match. These are my views after the WBA match: Suarez cannot be our only goal scorer (I agree withGM) as his conversion rate is too low. He should ave scored at least one goal this weekend. Some players are clearly coming to the end of careers after giving us good service: Carra, and unfortunately Gerrard (not as obvious as Carra) It will take time for the players to adjust to BR style of play. I noticed a bit of hesitancy and indecision about what to do at the back: hit it long or pass it short ? Do we have the right players to play BR's style? It is possible we may need wholesale changes. Can we teach old dogs new tricks and in doing so do we diminish them? The BR style of football can be very effective (Swansea thrashing QPR 5-0 away). Can you imagine what it could do with top players (which we could afford more than Swansea)? There will be a period of uncertainty and drift (aka defeats). Let's hope that this is as short as possible and we recover in time to be near the top.
I have to agree that we are not getting the best out of Suarez by playing him as our main striker. Where I disagree with many is that we already have the answer right in front of us. I believe that we must play Carroll as our CF. Even if he doesn't score he will take a lot of the weight of responsibility from the other forwards and attacking midfielders. The man is ready to do that role and is hungry to prove his value. So instead of asking him to change his style to be a link man, get the others to link with him. Simples as the meerekats say! We haven't got a Rush or Torres and to buy one would break the bank. But we do have a major asset in Carroll if we use him to the best of his abilities. Perhaps then we could see him forming an effective partnership with both Suarez and Borini whereby they look for him and he for them - not unlike Toshack and Keegan. Please don't tell me it's a different game nowadays. We have got more class in our side than we give ourselves credit for - Reina, Agger, Gerrard, Lucas, Suarez. We have got loads of potential - Kelly, Coates, Rpbinson, Shelvey, Henderson, Allen, Borini (?), Sterling We have got quality players - Johnson, Enrique, Skrtel We are NOT as poor as the critics wish us to believe we are. What we do need is a reason to believe. Off the pitch that has to come from Rodgers. On the pitch it has to come from the confidence that we CAN score goals. Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't look for another striker as well but let's at least give the one we have a chance.
Carroll at the end of last season and at euro's was quality. He must play. Every one at Anfield must sing for him!
Sorry Pal , we don't play brs style of play, he didn't invent our tiki taka style but best of luck for the future!
It's not just playing him that's important, it's how we play him. Up to now he's always been used as a link man creating opportunities ahead of him for Suarez and others. I want to see him played as an out and out CF. Whilst he's good in the air, he's not good with 'square' crosses from the wing. He does not thrive on corners. But give him a whipped-in curved ball like Gerrard provided at the Euros and you see a very different player. Give him a ball that he can bring down and then smack with his left foot and he'll leave more than Terry sprawling as he scores. If he's in and around the box he's going to create space for Suarez and Borini. Then we'll see our goal tally rise!
No, he just refined it from being pretty to become pretty effective. Now he has to adapt that style to meet the needs of different players with a different skill set - that's his challenge.
Gary McAllister is right to a point. The point he is wrong with is, Luis Suarez would not necessarily be able to play with a Michael Owen type. Thats unless Suarez changed from being a ''classic number 10'' into an attacking midfielder/withdrawn forward. Suarez plays across the line better than anyone but would be better suited playing alongside a poacher, a player that comes alive in around the 6 yard box. In other words a Robbie Fowler type. There is a huge difference in the styles of a ''Young Owen'' and a ''Young Fowler''. Owen like Fernando Torres played on the shoulder of the last defender, this relies on clever movement. Neither were as good as Ian Rush at it. Robbie Fowler who Suarez in my opinion would be better suited with was a clever finisher. Robbie who was lethal in the box, and gobbled up chances. His alertness was frightening.
Dave; I honestly don't think it's Carroll himself that BR sees the problem with. It's the ingrained mentality in the rest of team, particularly the back 4 that switch to hoofball when he's on the pitch. I think he believes he'll not break the style with Carroll upfront. He's the sacrifice to the overall style he's trying to enforce. Which is a shame. I mean Carraghers maybe a lost hope in changing but he's not going to feature much more. If Agger is "world class" he should have no problem resisting the hoof. And the rest (bar Skrts) are young enough to have it beaten out of them or bugger off if they won't. It's the only theory that can be used to make not starting him logical. Otherwise as you say why on earth are we putting natural support players in the striker role & if he does come on put the striker in the support role. It makes no sense against all of the so called "weaker" teams who will never play a high line against us so automatically neutralizes Carroll as the knock on man. Personally Is play him & bollock the players that give in to the hoof but it appears I'm not right.....
well..... sighs... in the main i think its important to say i'd not pass it to stuart downing either. we need to see 2/3 little things that hurt us here as well as the big things. First the full back situation bit us. I don't think kelly is quite as far along as he should be but if you notice when we were struggling he was AWOL up the pitch and nobody covered. Yet in the first half allen and lucas were quite effective at knowing where to be and dropping in to create the "tactical Discipline" rodgers talks about. Where was everyone when agger was so exposed? that's where the pen and sending off really stems from... over stretching to chase a deficit rather than backing yourself to score. the secondly we were not sharp even in the first half. when we play gomel there was a distinct (and of course impressive) two touch mentality and routine that was sharp. Against west brom i thought there was a lot of ball holding and looking for passes so either the movement dried up or guys were just not confident suddenly of playing it about. Not sure which but i saw an awful lot of lets just lay it rback right where it came from (20 yards stuff) or centre half wandering about taking 4/5 touches before passing it. I think there's an awful lot to improve before we even look at the way we fell apart or how we missed a shedload of chances. those are big ticket items the manager has to sort but each player ought to be working in training to sharpen up big time.
MITO, I think you may be a little unfair in your analysis. If the manager espouses a 'rest on the ball' mentality wherein the we are prepared to go back and kick the ball between the CBs, there's not a lot you can do about it but do as the manager wants. It's something that you are just going to have to get used to. Anyway it's not the subject of this thread and you've brought the matter up elsewhere. As far as I can see Andy Carroll has always been a player that we try and play through. What I would like to see is him given the opportunity to be the player that we PLAY TO. Since his arrival that player has always been Suarez. I'm convinced that given the striker responsibility Carroll would respond as he did in the FA Cup final and the Euros. I think that it would also lift a burden off Suarez's shoulders. IF we do that, then as I said above we need whoever is the wideman to deliver balls that Carroll can usefully turn into chances - these are more likely to be balls delivered from the touchline rather than the classic byline cross
Shoddy journalism, Suarez was banned for 9 games last season. 1 game ban for the finger to Fulham fans and 8 game ban not too long after.
ok you could be right but i understand "resting on the ball" as making it do the work... ie keeping it moving and the players only moving 5-10 yards to make the options all the time not sprinting 30/40 yards or playing long crossfield hollywood passes or holding on to it until someone finally closes you down then passing it back... I just thought passing meant the two touch type football we saw the kids try to play and we saw v weaker opposition. squarez finds great space and never stops moving and thats why he gets more ball in build up. could he do that from right wing? I think he could and yes carroll could be top top to play to to finsih but it seems rodgers doesn't like him at all. I do have to say the two headers that fell to suarez... well carroll's nodded a few wide himself bu he would be back to socre from free headers like those. i suppose credit to suarez for finding space but he missed sitters. all in all i still think its the little things that can be improved on first, we'll need far better tactical awareness v man city. allan and lucas will need to be right on it.
