He'd be in mine every week I thought this thread was about the season not just for the Stoke game as it says "Ok less than a week to go, thought it might be good to have a place to talk about the team and formation going forward" Either way out of our current squad Hendo has to start IMO. Stoke might not play quite the game we're used to but even so their squad has been set up around playing two banks of four and away from home they sit real deep. There is NO room in behind and having Allen sitting in the middle passing sideways won't help penetrate often. Hendo brings the kind of energy we need to drag their players around a bit and trying to create the space for others. I'd have him behind the front 3 and Coutinho starting left of that 3.
I really do think Henderson can grow to be like a Lampard kind of figure for us. Goals, assists, energy from box to box, super work rate, team player, through balls. Noyt identical to Lampard, but in the same mold. Remember that Lampard didn't start scoring much until he was 24.
This thread reminds me of virtually every thread on CaughtOffside, when they speculated that we would be signing Turan, every knob in the comments would draw a team like everyone above has done, but Turan would be on the left-hand side of midfield. Not calling you all knobs....well.....
utterly amazed guys are putting aspas left wing. he's so much a right sided player you know its his lost. For me we can only f things up if we mis use coutinho... allen is crucial in that. I expect rodgers to stubbornly try and try this Gerrard lucas allen Aspas sturridge coutinho and when we are 12th he'll give in and pick hendo Gerrard Lucas Couthino Aspas Sturridge hendo (running like an f'r) its simple... we lack quality, get used to it. aspas is decent but not that good and honestly ibe and sterling aint ready for prime time week in and week out.
Yep the idea was to have a thread to talk about the team going forward through the season. Obviously Stoke is going to be a starting point for the conversation, because I still think we would all pick Suarez when he is available? Also glad to see a few put Alberto in, think he has looked a class act in the little I have seen.
Watching United today was a bit refreshing. There team was not all that great on paper and they played very dull football. Lots of possession but no cutting edge, no creativity or muscle in midfield, no flair going forward and a complete reliance on Van Persie for goals. Zaha was brave and ambitious but ball hogged a lot, Welbeck was run around doing very little and the midfield was loving the sideways passes.
I have to at MITO.... saying Aspas is not that good, it flummery, anyone can see that Aspas has two great feet, and is better than Downing, Henderson, Allen and Alberto. As soon as he gets to grip with premiere defences, he will start banging them in at a nice rate. And why is Ibe not ready? He is quite a brick ****house, and should have more staying power than Sterling. How old was Owen when he started playing regularly? Was he too unready to play week in week out? You listen to too many thick as **** pundits. Yes Sterling faded, but he was/is a streak of piss, but he can last the season if used correctly. Yes stamina comes with age, but between them, Sterling/Ibe should be able to give us sustainable quality all season long. If not, we all still hope that Rodgers has not finished in the market, and maybe someone else will arrive that will give us other options. For me Hendo is still a bench warmer. I think too many people are desperate not to let the summer splurge of Dalgleish/Comolli to be an absolute failure, but I am happy to draw a line under that whole summer and sell both him and Downing and bring in some much more talented options for now, and not the future. If we don't get Champions league this year, what with the raft of new managers and a painful summer of transfer speculation for all bar Citeh and Chavski, we will have failed, and if Liverpool and Rodgers bottle it and don't get someone like Costa or Errikson, and we don't get 4th, then the club will only have themselves to blame.
I'd like to see Downing in any position but in a Liverpool shirt However, I understand where this comment is coming from, he played in the midfield three at Villa and got voted their player of the season from that role too.
downing would do well in the scott parker role... back and side passing... however having seen him flog a goal to celtic i think the further from our own goal the asshole is the better.... london would be fine.
Just a quick point on Toure - he's impressed me this pre-season. Of course he will face tougher tests when the season starts but I do have confidence in him. In addition, it's refreshing to have another player who actually attacks the ball at set pieces. He's always on the move and looking to connect with the ball with sheer power.
I have to say that i agree, as an improvement over carragher he looks to still have his pace. we'll see over the period however.
