Well there i was wondering what the hell to do when there's no football on, if its a choice between walking babies or watching LFC TV old matches you can guess what I went for. First it was goals goals goals and then of course some exciting matches form the past. It did get me thinking though and looking back i can certainly see why we always thought we were just one more player away from a title. If we go all the way back to 1998 we had a team that lacks centre backs James Carragher Song Babb Staunton McManaman Ince Redknapp Berger Fowler Owen guess what guys we finished 7th... amazing that. The talent of macmanaman and berger and berger on the wings and seeing owen and folwer together... gerrard was just starting as was carragher. we'd got murphy, bjornebye, heggem and others all aorund the squad too. Bloody hell that's a talented unit that underachieved. Moores appointed huloier to work with evans and it poisoned the squad and when evans eft we had to struggle... david moores so how about jumping forward to 2002 Dudek Carragher Henchoz Sami Hyypia Riise Gerrard McAllister Hamann Murphy Heskey Owen coming off a 4th place, and 3 cups this was the most used team. we'd the end of berger there, lots of good players and finished 2nd and won the two bob cups. here you can see god we need some real talent on the wings like we had in 1998! Jump forward to 2006 Pepe Reina Steve Finnan Carragher Hyypia Riise Gerrard Sissoko Alonso Kewell Morientes Crouch Again we won the FA and finished 3rd in the league, we had agger and cisse and others about the place as well.. it was the last year gerrard played wide for us. Jump to 2009 finsihed 2nd Reina Arbeloa Carragher Martin Skrtel Aurelio Mascherano Xabi Alonso Dirk Kuyt Steven Gerrard Riera Torres nice team but lacked depth, we had keane and got rid, babel never worked, we had benayoun as a sub who always came on and saw the end of players like finnan and risse etc. In many ways this was the last time we had a squad. Jump to the nightmarish 2010 we sold torres, we'd lost alonso and mascherano others like gerrard and agger were constantly injured.. there was no back up to torres but FSG came in and bought us and we went out and got suarez... carroll was a total disaster buy then. reina Johnson (when not injured) carragher (falling apart) skertl (doing well) Konchesky (ran out in jan so robinson had to play) Lucas Meireles Kuyt gerrard Maxi (kept cole out) N'gog ......................................................... It is actually amazing to look back at how good most of our teams actually were and how high a standard it would take to win a league considering how close sides we'd kill for got. We were never really close but every side that won something for us in the period had real talent in its first 11 and had real back up and competition for places as well. It would be my hope that if we look back in ten years at the current and about to be team that we will banish the memory of selling players and buying rubbish and see a team of genuine quality on the field and on the bench.... Its only getting harder to find players cos in 1998 fees were small, in 2004 fees were high like cisse for 14mil but already now in 2012 fees have doubled again and make things next to impossible to compete with the mega mega rich, even if we did spend 40mil net last summer. I just hope we know that our defence could fall apart if we don't keep it strong in numbers, we will the midfield gaps and we strengthen the forward options.
AT LAST!, it appears that we agree on something. Liverpool sides have always been at their best when they play bright attacking football and there is competition for places. I believe that the nub of Kenny's idea was to create a squad that was capable of imposing itself on the pitch but also capable of being changed during the match so as to influence the game ie giving the opposition far more problems than they could reasonably cope with. For many reasons he was not able to achieve that. I really hope that Rodgers can refine this with some quality signings.
We have always done better, like all teams, with a good balance of attack and defense. Good attacking line-ups often are lacking in the defensive portion and rely on the denfese and keeper being reliable and solid. When we've had good attacking options we've often lacked in defensive and goalkeeper dependability, and vice versa. Our best league results have come when we've had a solid back four and keeper and had a decent goal-thread - in short when our team was well balanced. Last season the balance was potentially there, but we couldn't finish to save our lives. With decent finishing we (and everyone else - maybe!) would be talking about our squad much differently. We just need a couple of key signings and to build on the performances (but not the results) of last year.
Yeah for a while last season we got the defensive side side but that tailed off after january when agger got injured. I thought we never played for 90 mins but should have won far more games from even the displays we did put in. The one thing rodgers keeps talking about is working harder and making teams wish they didn't have to play us so I am hoping this will improve things for us. the issue with that is with no back up guys will burn out... we saw enrique burn out this last year. I think swansea faded a little mid year, or perhaps seeing i couldn't follow them that closely maybe they hit a bad patch of games. we need options to keep the runs going
