But isn't that the problem. We knew Sturridge was injury prone so we had to invest in at least 2 other strikers (especially if we continued to play 2 upfront) once we lost Suarez. City - Aguero, Jovetic, Dzeko Chelsea - Costa, Remy Drogba Arsenal - Giroud, Welbeck, Sanchez United - RVP, Rooney, Falcao Those are the teams competing for top 4, and all 3 have 3 good options for a forward position if one gets injured.
A pheelosophee I live by but I'm not saying play dire football with ten men behind the ball... It is somewhat if you're conceding that many. Don't forget you scored 100+ goals in the league. That is unsustainable season in season out. You could be quite comfortable scoring 60+ so I'm not making a simple case here. The emphasis on goals, in terms of Suarez is slightly unrealistic in that respect. I think a better manager (one who realises the workings of achieving top 4) would have looked at reducing those 51 goals conceded first.
the signing of Moreno, Manquillo & Lovren would suggest that we did... If we still had the same forward line and were playing the same football as lat year I think our defence would be better because they'd be tested less because we'd be attacking more, but it's coming under even more pressure this year because our forwards aren't firing. There is much more pressure on them this year. Last year, it sounds bad but they could relax a bit more, knowing if they conceded 1, the forwards would likely score 3 so it wouldn't matter. This year, that isn't the case so they know they need clean sheets and that's leading to more nervousness and panic in my opinion.
Aguero has gone and the whole Man City side have shat themselves over the thought of him gone. Chelsea have a solid options. Giroud is terrible, don't rate Welbeck and Sanchez isn't a striker no matter how much Arsenal want him to be. Falcoa is currently injuired and doesn't look like he's getting close any time soon. We have Strurridge, Balotelli and Lambert. No one expected Sturridge to be out for as long as he is, he was meant to be back for the Palace game but whatever. Balotelli is struggling to come to terms with the team but if people actually give him some slack he will perform, no doubt about that. Lambert was always seen as a last option. Kinda like Drogba but his form lately has been so good he's got ahead of Remy. People here never see the whole picture. The Remy deal collapsed due to a failed medical, I wanted him here but if theres something wrong with him then it's best to stay away, quite strange how no one has come out and supported Remy over our accusations, something is up with him. We have one of the top scorers in the league and bought a young striker to partner up with him, they played one game and we couldn't bed Balotelli in, we had to just throw him in and hope he swam. Lambert had time to compose himself and is now looking alright. We need to understand that these players were the best we had on the table. Bony would of cost too much and I don't think him and a Sturridge could play with each other. People have suggested other players but in the summer most of us were happy with the signings at hand. Only player which has really disappointed has been Lovren and not many would of predicted that.
E He tried to - buy spending £20m on an average centre back to replace the one centre back at the club who is half decent. Then he brings in 2 new full bscks but persists with the worst Footballer I've seen. then he continues to persist with Gerrard as a DM only to revert to a DM who is average at best and will not recover from his big injuries.
Aguero is probably the best CF in World football, it's like us losing Suarez for a large chunk of the season. But your point was no other team has a good 3rd striker option, well Dzeko and Jovetic would walk into our team, as would Giroud and Welbeck, Drogba would be a better option than Lambert and Falcao as well. Falcao being injured is like Sturridge being injured for us... but United have 2 other quality players who can score when we don't. That's the point. I agree about Balotelli as per my post a few down from that saying how he needs to play with someone. No one expected Sturridge to be our thi long? Really?? Go back to the start of the season and a lot of people were concerned... 9 thigh injuries in his career prove that the guy has an issue and canot be trusted to play a whole season so not factoring that into your season is crazy from a management perspective! Forecast and planning.. we do it in our day jobs and managers should be doing the same thing!
They would walk into our team atm but that's because we currently only have Lambert. If all three are fully fit I only want RVP/Rooney/Dzeko/Costa and two of them wouldn't start ahead of Sturidge anyways. I knew he would get injured but he missed the whole Champions league campaign and the most of the new season, I certainly didn't expect it to be this long.
Is it true Liverpool's U19s got a dramatic win against Basel earlier today to go through UEFA youth league. Needed to win by 2 goals and they won 3-0 with 2 goals in stoppage time. A scouse mate of mine earlier was gutted when Jerome Sinclair got picked for the match meaning he wouldn't be featuring in the CL tonight. Unlikely he would have anyway I suppose.
The thought of Balotelli ever pulling on our shirt again makes me throw up in my mouth. Especially after seeing the prick pre-game tonight in his prick's hat and prick's ****ing earrings. Prick.
Totally agree with this ^^^...lack of passion and too much apathy in our players.Both , players and manager have to take the blame for the dross we're seeing this season.Whilst any team would miss losing the likes of Suarez, it looks like he was papering over Brenda's cracks of poor management.As for Johnson...."!£$%(*&&*%^^^%£*&^(*%£(*%$&^%*&&^^^*(^*(^*( ....bring back Wisdom.I'd rather see him at rb than that total waste of oxygen.
Could I just say one thing Martin Skertl up front.... Hilarious. Why? Well the man stood up there and then he did the one thing I was begging our so called attackers to do. He made a positive run, stuck his hand out and pointed where he wanted it and the ball actually was delivered The amount of times that game alone I saw sterling half make a run, check back, not sure what's going on or worse a player play a ball into a channel were no run was made What Skertl did was basic but it shows the depths of stupidity that is going on at anfield. We are constantly chopping and changing the line up and now markovic is the latest flavour of the month.... What's needed is leadership and players to say I want it here, play it in front of me here etc etc I'd say to all to go back to early in the season and see the likes of Costa doing the same as Skertl, he pointed where he wanted it and it was delivered. This is all about leadership and courage.
I don't think it's anything to do with passion. It's the fact we had a bang average starting line up, in the wrong formation.
Its also due to the fact that we have signed playrrs that, when all is said and done, dont fit with our style of play. Iv never been a Borini fan but he fits our style of play a lot more than Lambert or Balotelli, and yes i know Lambert did well at saints under a similar system but he had plenty of bang average performances for them that went unnoticed because it was only southampton, and you can't get away with that at Liverpool
You could be right but fans will be more forgiving to an average player if they can see them running their tripe off and at least having a go in a game .
Different mindset for me - I want quality players at the club. Give me a Berbatov over a Lambert or Borini any day of the week. You look at the likes of Kroos and Modric - do they play with passion? Do they shout and scream at players and fans to gee them up? No - they concentrate on playing football at a high level. Rodgers sent out a sh*t line up and in an even worse formation. It stifles the players and makes them look sh*t (or sh*tter than what they already are lol).
Disregarding the change in the game dynamic, as soon as we pushed Sterling forward, put Markovic on and took Lambert off - we looked quicker and more threatening. I'm pretty confident we would have created more chances had Marko stayed on the pitch but never mind. Speed is so crucial and with the likes of Lambert, Henderson, Gerrard playing in advanced positions, we look painfully slow.
Agreed. It was painful watching the first half with absolutely no movement and no-one on the right wavelength. The movement of Markovic and Sterling started making Basel actually work, as did Johnson and Moreno creating options and being in places to receive and make decent passes. We started seeing a different side to Basel with Markovic on the pitch; they looked rattled (hence the overreaction with the red card). We ere actually building up some pressure and could have had some chances. We still looked like we were missing a striker though. P.S. You said yesterday that Markovic should start, I disagreed. I was probably wrong (albeit I'd rather we played 30 minutes with 10 men than 75...)
