Feel free to have a go but i'll at least be consistent in my opinion here. First off Rodgers took an awful risk last night and I don't think for one minute it's of any benefit to the "first Team" away to Norwich. I personally feared we'd take a hiding if we put out such a team. i thought if we played this sort of side against a fellow premier league team we would get beaten, I'm gald we didn't but i don't think this game could be translated into a league game scenario. Second a few things happened last night that were important to note; (bullets for RHC) I think scratch side would not fully describe what we played. It looked to me that carragher and coates played a little bit better together than against young boys. We have to acknowledge that west brom applied very little pressure to our back 4 or midfield and sat really too deep, they had one up front and he didn't get after either centre half and was quite isolated. Just about every young lad we played stepped up to the mark and delivered... for example while wisdom rightly gets plaudits Robinson on the other side looked way fitter and more full of running than he has been for over a year. We also had a nice slice of luck, ok Jones messed up for their goal but Foster handed us one back and while we were never under pressure that slice of luck went a long way to giving us a platform to build on. I simply feel that when that team was put out that the west brom side thats done well in the league would have been rubbing thier hands with glee so i really don't get why they sat back so much and really didn't come after us at all. Just after half time they step up 5-10 yards as a unit and we came under a bit of pressure but that quickly vanished. in the end they didn't try much unitl we scored a really nice goal and then they resorted to pushing loads forward and hoofing it.... which troubled us a bit but we held out. I do want to say that people are rightly listing 4/5 players who really stood out for us, wisdom obviously, sahin, henderson, assaidi and coates... All 5 have to be pushing for starts in the "first team" at this point given our injuries and suspension and 4 are senior players of course.... but on the other hand at 0-1 down it could have gone really badly for us too so i do hope people can at least see that even though it worked out on the night. Maybe this is the luck rodgers needs, who knows. final point....... anyone count the shots and crosses we made, we still are shwoing a real issue in terms of bodies i nthe box and genuine chances cos despite all the ball we were allowed west brom were rarely in danger...... and funnily the great goal we scored is exactly the type of situation where we've seen the first tema have the move break down and we end up conceeding from.... It was a great triandlge of first time passing o nthe right and wisdom put it back to coates when west brom made the area congested... coates was really positive in striding forward and giving it to suso but that took him out of position without real cover... had the move broken down (like it has done with gerrard) we were exposed. Suso did great, assiadi got in behind and played it quick and i was deligthed to see sahin as the man getting in there as we need midfielders to make that extra man. ............................ summary; Glad it worked out, i enjoyed the game, delighted for young boys but think we're taking big risks as i really don't think that come next feb/march that playing once per week now will benefit us. Roll on norwich .....
I thought the pressing was extremely impressive which meant WBA couldn't mount any attacks. There were 1 or 2 LFC players around the WBA midfielders. We won the ball quickly and kept it - again, it's why WBA struggled. Also, they did take the lead and looked very strong in the opening minutes but WE calmed down and dictated the tempo.
There's nothing wrong with your opinion MITO. There is so much that can go wrong with Rodgers current opinion of fast tracking the young players, 1 bad game and a players confidence could be rock bottom. Injury is another worry when a young player is playing too much he could pick up an injury that hampers his whole career. Tactically it can go either way, young players are not as disciplined as more experienced players but do tend to make up for it with effort, this was evident last night. Where you are not a fan of this current method others are and that's just opinion. For me this is very much the way forward if Rodgers can bring a whole buch of youngsters up to the required standard then it is going to save the club a lot of money and maybe enable us to purchase the right player for the club in the future other than the complete overhaul that seems to be needed every pre-season. I understand your concerns but at some point we have to put our worries to one side and just trust in the manager as we have always done (other than Hodgson). Rodgers has a long way to go before winning over everyone but he's made a few steps in the right direction lately.
I don't see what the risk was, if we played with a team that was closer to our strongest 11 then we could be inviting the risk of another Lucas situation. Also if we lost with the team we put out last night it wouldn't be such a travesty. Think a slightly stronger team should be played against Swansea though, one of United and Chelsea will go out in the next round and I think we can make it all the way again.
If we take it seriously then there is little doubt in my mind. Playing the reserve type team like last night would still have a chance but it does become significantly less
that's fair enough luv.... I think I'm more a fan of the 3/4 kids than i am of some senior players. i thought downing looked sharp and that worries me seeing he's terribly sloppy did west brom yjust stand off and let him? For me I've always maintained we needed to bring on these players once they are good enough for the standard... again the GAP is upfront and nobody at the club who's >18 is a proper no 9 thats ready to play... n'goo hasn't the work ethic, yesil needs to learn the system, strengthen up and get i nthe box, morgan has not got the raw pace IMO and sincliar is 16. this is why we struggle. I've said wisdom is one, robinson too... this is why back in may i put CB and LB as lower down the list of my priority of LFC signings.. but robinson's injuries are worrying too. I've said suso and sterling are very psecial and why we sold ince and silva. these two boys are going to be our real finds.. but they play on the wing and second striekr/no 10 roles. I'd like to see them play with suarez not downing you get me? I am not a fan of treating the league cup as a trianing excerise and with repsect to sinclair him coming on at 1-1 with potential extra time looming shows that this was the case... this is ok when you are rafa in the CL and in the top 4. I wrote ysterday that I didn't want us to be like everton and pereniially throwing away chances at silverware. Thats were i come from. win the game first, develop players second.. rest players is the lowest priority. interestingly hodgson is the only lfc manager since shankley took over to not win anything with LFC. Had he done better even a little in the legaue and stayed in the league cup i wonder if FSG would have had the bottle to push him out 9at that time) I'd like to think that rodgers would give himself the very best chance of winning something to take that monkey off his back as it was somethign that affected evans slightly as his reign rumbled on in the 90s. The league cup, fa cup and europa are all there to be won by playing on the day. if 4th is all we care about then i'm afraid that where we are now looks very bleak doesn't it... the perfect storm is how i describe rodgers' start as manager. Everything has gone against him, i'd rather he didn't make it worse for himself on top of the injuries and failures in the transfer market AND a league fixutre list that was amazingly unkind by risking losing in the cups too boot. Here's to our first league win this saturday as those mollycoddled stars had beeter play well and put a shift in!
1. we rested everyone v young boys and we went out and lsot to utd injuring 3 players.. .therefore the rest thing doesn't come into it. 2. Lucas did himself by not reporting the thing properly and going out to play. 3. the risk taken is with the result... if we got hammered the press would be on rodgers big time. if we get hammered it can affect players chances... I'm glad pacheco did well second half, but what if we were 3-0 down at half time.. would we see pacheco again in a red shirt? who knows... 4. the final risk is to my mind chopping and changing doesn't allow us to get our best players into rodger's system quickly and they are learning in league games which is not so good. I'd rest gerrard and sterling for sure and the injuries need sorting but do we really need to know that jones is a bit dodgy or reina needs a rest... wouldn't reina getting to know wisdom and coates be better for us?
MITO... I'm starting to think along similar lines. Why rest players at the expense of a trophy when we aren't going to get fourth anyway? However, the reserves (not just youngsters despite nearly all being young) did good last night and would Rodgers be the right man if he didn't believe we could get fourth...? I don't think we can just play our strongest eleven in every game. Yes, they would cope with two or three games in a week in the short term but towards the end of a grueling the effects of playing so many games early on will come into effect. I'm going to use Rafa as an example... people questioned his rotation policy, it was said he was changing things for the sake of changing things, however his teams always finished a season strong. Is this a coincidence or was it that he kept the players that little bit fresher...?
Even you know you can't really use that argument. Man Utd are a very good side and resting players does not mean they won't get injured in the next match Fair point
but the point was lucas got injured playing twice in a week... yet the players who got injure dplaying utd did get a week's rest... i don't consider 2 games a week a risk.. thats my point.
With the type of rehab, diet, recovery sessions, and just modern technology these guys have, they could play back to back games and be fine. **** me this summer our team had 3 games in a row away in Toronoto! ( Fri, Sat, Sun) it was brutal.
I don't consider two games a week a risk but I do think if you do it every week then it becomes an issues later in the season. Basically, it is about keeping players as fresh as possible.
That is fair but I don't think its entirely practical to do what we are doing when we look back at rafa or look today at how the big 4 handle the CL. The only way to manage a team IMO is to have the quality dpeth to be able to drop 2/3 players into a side without affecting the result. If we wer ein a situation where we could play 2/3 guys as a change up it'd be good. Rafa never rested torres and gerrard so they got crocked, simply as he never had the qulity to do so... he also never rested carragher or hyppia or alonso in the pomp as thir positions were different. For me i'd rather we be fit enough to play 2 matches per week then we stratecially drop out a player to the bench and bring in the guy we'd sub on anyway.... examples: johnson - kelly agger - coates Lucas - henderson? shain? shelvey Gerrard - as above. Allen as above. It all breaks down when we think of sterling and how its downing to come in or assaidi.... or worse when we shudder to think of what happens with suarez on the bench if we play a league game..... One or two players in the transfer window would have made all the difference..... risky spending... that what FSG called it.. i call what they did as taking risks with the clubs future. As it stands now we are being told we've a small squad. reina jones johnson kelly flanagan wisdom skertl carragher sama agger coates wilson enrique robinson lucas sahin gerrard shelvey suso allen henderson sterling downing suarez pacheco (nominally as he's played this in reserves this year) yesil morgan borini assaidi It seems to me we sent players out on loan cos our squad was too big, it seems to me that in writing this out that there are only 2 kids (robsinson, sterling) in first or second choice slots and the issue of CF is of our own making. why can't we put 2/3 guys in to play norwich and stil lwin that but we CAN take a big risk in the europa and lague cups where in both games we had a eriod of time where it was going wrong and we were behind... in both cases we recovered. Why not play suarez v west brom and rest him v norwich.... My point is really just that i feel as though a kick of the ball or two going against us (like it has done in the legaue) and we could be struggling/out of cups. I'd kill for a slice of that luck in the league though!
The 3 injuries on Saturday were the results of knocks and Kelly got twisted awkwardly during a challenge, whether they were rested or not wouldn't have an impact. I was on about Lucas last season when he injured himself against Chelsea in a Carling Cup game going into a tackle. We can't afford to lose Allen, Suarez, Gerrard etc in the league cup. I think Suarez is on 4 yellow cards already..one more and he is out for 1 game.
and theres the whole point... if you rest guys and wrap them in cotton wool they can still get an injury. i thought you meant where lucas got injured v city having played midweek. though if i had understtod that you meant last years league cup.. i'd say any injury no matter wehn is bad but he did it in a cup game i still value. if gerrard allen or suarez broke a leg playing west brom in he cup i'd not be happy but we simply can't extend this logic as then we get to oh this league game is agaisnt southampton or norwich and we can't be having them injrued for utd. BTW saurez big mouth is the issue on yellows, he's antagonised the entire reffing community and they are just waiting to yellow him, epsecially away games to deal with him.... the minute they do then the chants of you know what you are and such start. Suarez is his own worst enemy. league cup or not.
yeah... diving is whatever... that was only one card. when ithink about the way refs like halsey go about the job (whoever is in his mind gets the punishment) or howard webb (smiling gleefully while sending gerrard off) I an only conclude that at some point soon a ref is going to give suarez two yellow cards just to prove a point. Its better to play with a smile on your face but luis has his way and its not that uncommon in SA... or even spain.. but over here with history you have to play the game... so we need some of the others to do a carra or rio.. run 50 yards and give the ref what for.. gerrard only rarely does this and usually its too late and the hands at the back pocket... reina got book v utd for mouthing too... halsey is an ass.
Carragher often spins around to run at the ref but stops after about three yards when he realises how far away the ref is, the game only lasts ninety minutes!
I think Suarez has been booked twice for diving but replays have since shown there was a contact in both incidents ...
