I think he can still do a job as backup. He just needs to stop shooting from 30 yards all the time because he can't hit a barn door. If he just concentrates on winning the ball and playing it simple he'll do ok.
I think what Gerrez is leaning towards is we lost that shield that protected the back four correctly as Lucas positioning was excellent. I think you tie that in with Agger's injury and our Defense was just lacking at the end. Lucas was also composed on the ball and kept the play ticking along quite nicely this past year and hopefully he can continue doing that for us. Agree with you 120,000,000 % about the chances. Too many missed chances and they always seemed to come back and haunt us or put us in tough spots. QPR away was a prime example of both ends of the spectrum there, missed chances to just bury the game ( even at 2-0) and defensive frailities due to no Lucas or Agger.
Who would buy him? Depends on how much we could get for him I suppose and can we get adequate replacement for that sum.
I don't agree. I think our season was going fine until he got injured, even Adam looked half decent up until that point. Once Lucas got injured we lacked the defensive midfielder so others had to take the responsibility which nobody in our squad could deal apart from maybe Spearing who, lets face it, isn't good enough. Our results changed changed was Lucas was out of the picture and that was the start of the end for Kenny Fair enough though, you're entitled to your opinion.
Just posted this on another thread. When it comes to our midfield I imagine most would be happy with this... Gerrard--Lucas--Alonso Alonso being the type of player that can cover Lucas. So finding a player to fill that Alonso hole is still a priority?
Defour possibly, Banega is probably the best and closest thing to Alonso out there but at valencia he has CL so doubt it really. Sneaky bid for Pirlo
I think Spearing isn't good enough for the first team however he is a good squad player that is not on high wages, nor would he fetch a great deal in terms of a transfer fee. I would keep him. Man Utd made use of players like this for years to boost their squad numbers with players like Phil Neville, John O'Shea, Wes Brown, Nicky Butt, etc. Plus, Spearing loves the club and we add a team spirit and drive to the squad
Defour has been about for a while now (24 now), why hasn't anyone taken him...? However, if we got him and Kjaer in we would have a trio of Danish players, this would surely help with team spirit?
That is true, I'm just not sure he's good enough though. I think if he's to stay then others need to go as we are heavy in midfield though not blessed with quality.
Main reason I put him in there, no one is or has talked about him so we could sneak in. I think we could use an Argie in the mix as well, snap someones ankles off if needed but provided some quality in the squad
I agree on Aquilani and leaning towards cutting our losses with Adam, I don't see him fitting in with the work ethic that Rodgers will bring.
Does the maximum of three non-EU players rule still exist in the Premier League...? We already have Doni, Lucas, Maxi, Suarez and Coates although i am not sure if any of them have a second nationality as a loop hole. For example, Maxi was in Spain for five years so may have gained Spainish citizenship?
Doni I think has both, Coates might due to Scottish grandparents possibly? Not sure how that all works to be honest.
1. ok good to try and give a opinion and thats respected and valued here.... 2. LB, can't believe you wrote no problems here when Robinson was injured all year and is wet behind the years. ok johnson can cover and so can agger but its really suboptimal if 4-3-3 depends on actual quality from full backs to create width. 3. re shevely, i think it is only the last 5 games that he showed he could make it as a real player IMO, not to say good enough but just showed some more work rate and aggression to get on the ball etc. 4. re coady, way to early, he needs a kick up the behind and less of the spot light from the website and evetns and such... will be a CB IMO like carra if he develops... last 12 months he's not really come on. 5. the article shows that there are question marks in peoples minds about an awful lot of players... and thats just being even good enough or would work hard or even be fit enough. that tells a story. 6. finally suso, he had a distinctly poor 9-12 months a while back but for the past at least 6 months of last season he was really excellent in his work rate and to me if you add work rate to his skills he's got a big chance. I'd agree that chance is dictated by the preseason.
England requires you to have minimum numbers of quota players, the 3 maximum is a Spanish thing. Defour had a long term injury hence the lack of interest from clubs, then moved to Porto last summer. He is also more of a playmaker rather than the Alonso type. If anyone doesn't think losing Lucas was crucial to our results they need their head testing: http://www.anfieldindex.com/5586/importance-lucas-opta-stats-analysis.html please log in to view this image (note this was with a couple of games to go so those statistics don't get any better for the rest of the team)
Encouraging to see him tweet from Spanish international duty (Suso of course). But then, Pacheco blew the U19s away.
