"Meanwhile, Rodgers has taken exception to Alan Shearer's analysis of Joe Allen, 22, and believes it shows the former England striker does not grasp how his Liverpool team operate." (The Grauniad) "(T)he vilification of Luis is both wrong and unfair." Brendan Rodgers, to the BBC. When even Alan Hansen says Suarez is a diver, Rodgers needs to button it - he's making himself sound like a fool. As for his whine at Shearer, whilst it is true that Shearer is tactically inept, it isn't just Shearer who doesn't grasp how his Liverpool team operate - the players he sends onto the pitch don't, either...
In fairness I was embarrassed for Shearer when he was talking about Allen. He encapsulated why England haven't won anything since '66 in the space of two minutes.
Allen's essentially playing the holding role for Liverpool in Lucas' absence, so you don't want him giving the ball away or trying a lot of risky passes. Gerrard overdoes the Hollywood balls as it is, so you they don't need anyone else adding to it. If they had anyone decent to fill in instead of Spearing, then you'd see Allen in his more natural role and Gerrard in a more advanced one. Rodgers has written the names of players who will let them down in the three envelopes. I'm going for Suarez, Gerrard and Downing. That's the first envelope...
Little unfair I think. He can come across as clueless but lots of English players past and present either don't or didn't. Thankfully the future of English football isn't solely in his hands. Mind you on that note, and slightly off topic, I was a bit perturbed to hear that Roy Hodgson was talking about consulting Dave Brailsford and Stewart Lancaster. We spend enough time back pedalling and blasting the ball over the bar as it is........
The most annoying thing was Shearer saying Allen needed to be more directly attacking... without realising how many of our attacks start with Allen taking the ball in a congested zone and zipping it out to where there's space.
I've been tuning out Shearer for years - the fact Rodgers listens to him and gets wound up says quite a lot, frankly. The low point of Shearer's punditry career? During the 2006 World Cup, France were drawing 0-0 with Switzerland and the panel were asked for their views as to what France were doing wrong. Martin O'Neill answered first, and gave a clear and concise analysis of what France were doing wrong. Then the question was put to Shearer. His reponse? "I don't really know, to be honest."
We heard the same ****e about Modric not scoring enough or getting enough assists. Astounding ignorance of the game, frankly. Probably explains why he got Newcastle relegated, though.
It appears the pressure is really starting to get to Roy Rodgers, going on the defensive about his signings and biting back at pundits... along with unjust complaining about refereeing decisions and stupid moaning about lack of protection for his diving players, it one excuse after another and deluded Rodgers needs to wake up and take the blame for his obvious inadequacies and ask himself why he loaned Trigger to Wet Spam when his team could obviously do with him. I agree with Shearer, while Allen is a neat and tidy footballer and is excellent at 5 and 10 yard passes in his own half, he cant dribble and rarely gets involved creatively. Spurs have a similar player in the form of Jermaine Jenas, maybe Allen will try to take up a more creative role when Lucas returns.
If you watched a full Liverpool match you would see that Allen displays very good close control and tight dribbling skills - and can when required make surging runs (see vs Norwich for example). He is currently being played as a holding player - so going forward he's obviously limited. To compare him to Jenas is laughable. NB - Rodgers allowed Carroll to be loaned because he believed Ayre would bring in Dempsey. He didn't. Nothing to do with Rodgers EDIT: I also would imagine that Rodgers made a comment on Shearer because he was asked - it's not exactly a MOTD feature from last weekend or anything.
what a kick in the nuts. http://www1.skysports.com/football/...claims-he-rejected-an-offer-to-join-Liverpool
fair enough. Not saying that any of the fans necessarily wanted him, but to reject liverpool to play for sydney (so he says), can't be nice to hear.
while looking at that Del piero story,there's a piece by John Barnes saying Saurez does'nt Dive,his playing style makes him fall over a lot more than other players, what a pile of S*** to come out with,i Almost fell off my seat Laughing.
As mentioned previously, can we have no Hillsborough talk on what's meant to be a lighthearted thread, please? Feel free to discuss it on other articles or via PM, but this isn't the place for it. Bit of an unnecessary jibe about Heysel by Del Piero too, though I'm not sure how it makes him bitter, exactly.
That comment by Barnes encapsulates, in one sentence, exactly why England have won nothing since 1966
