Did'nt hear he was injured, they said we had a fully fit squad so he must have got injured just before the game and for me it's Johnson that's unreliable and not Kelly.
He's been injured two or three times already this season, and we're only in October! He missed half of last season with an injury and half of the season before that with an injury aswell, how many more injuries does he need before he is classed as a liability? He wasn't even on the bench mate, Flanno was, therefore you have to assume there was an injury.
In my opinion a possible reason for his injuries over the last couple of seasons is because his trade is a CB and he's been a RB. Being played in a position like RB where he wasn't traditionally trained puts different strains on the body, especially as he loves to burst up the line. I'm no expert, so I'm probably wrong but the logic makes sense. I watched Kelly many times when he was younger playing at CB and he never seemed to get injured, and he was a fantastic CB. I say if we buy a reliable RB to fight it out with Glen and Flanno we could move Kelly back to CB and have a future CB pairing of Kelly and Coates. In a sense Kelly would become the next Carragher and really control our central defence for years to come.
You could be onto something there as he would be doing a lot more running at right back but he's also getting to that age where he's finished growing and many player's are injury prone at 21. I remember Gerrard was very injury prone at that age and Michael Owen too.
You are both right, his body literally isn't made to bomb forward, even GJ is having trouble and he has some size on him too. Body types do play a part and what your mass is, what your running type is ( are you loaded with more fast twitch fibers/slow twitch fibers) can you handle distance runs better or handle the suicides/shuttle sprints better? I think if he goes to CB he would have less injuries. Again, him and Coates could be awesome, in fact I want Coates in now ahead of Skrtel, would rather give him time, can't keep my faith in Skrtel back there, no chance. In a red shirt I will cheer him on but I will always have reservations if he is playing.
Kenny has a big problem, He knows that Carra has to make way and that younger CMs need to replace him but he cannot afford, at this stage to go with an untried young pairing such as Kelly/Coates. Normally you would introduce them one at a time alongside say Agger. But we all know that Agger is injury prone. We also know that whilst Skrtle has improved he is not able to take on the role of mentor - his decision making is often poor and he appears to lack that bit of self-belief.
All this talk of defence is making me dizzy!!! TBH Its clear that liverpools defence is top notch, shown by having the least shots on our goal of any PL team this season. We also have many options in defence including lots of good young players who should be able to replace the aging stock without to much of a problem. Liverpools midfield is also pretty strong now and they seem to be creating far more chances than in recent years. Adam has slotted into the team well and his passing and vision looks good, Downing is also doing well, ok hes no silva but he does his job which is to give us width. Maybe if we need to improve anything in midfield it would be getting a good right winger and possibly move kuyt back up front The issue as it has been IMO for many years is scoring goals, we always seem to over rely on one striker as we have done with owen, baros, torres, and now Suarez. If we are to mount a feasible title challenge in the years to come then we need 2 or 3 world class strikers. Just look at city they have been spending for a number of years now but its only this year when they have 3-4 settled world class strikers that they are really pushing on. I think if we get Carrol firing again (hopefully soon) then we still need another quality striker to give us more options upfront. Signings i would like to see in Jan: midfield: Johnson (man city) Eriksen (Ajax) forward: not sure who we can lure but i think a spend of 30m maybe soldado or Gomez
has it crossed anyone's mind that we have a manager problem? I think we have the right mix of players. It is all about right selection and right substitution at the right time - IMO.
I understand that logic mate, and it might contribute to his injury woes, but I just think mainly his body isn't tailored to be an athlete. He missed nearly 2 years of youth football with a back problem, which should send the alarm bells ringing in anyone's mind.
right its now match day so i can think rationally about it. 1. we have 7 new players and are still settling into a style of play. 2. we've older established players who are not doing it. 3. we've adressed a lot of issues but are not anywhere near the squad of the top 3. so all in all.... I feel the defensive crap thats going on is bad. too many soft goals and errors. Missing chances is not good....... finally on kelly... he needs to build musle and get in the middle of the park
anyone else think that Enrique and Downing just doesn't work that well? In recent matches they seem to be getting into the same forward positions, and often I feel Downing is being forced to cut in quite a lot because Enrique is already bombin down the line, which makes it harder for Downing to get many crosses in (one of his strengths). Enrique has been absolutely brilliant going forward, but I do feel that it makes it harder for Downing to get down the line and put crosses in.
i totally disagree! downing is starting out 10-15 yards infield and often its him playing the ball out to enrique. He is not in a good position imo and the evidence is in what bellamy did in the first few minutes he played v everton. he was wide allowed enrique to overlap him and played him in.. result we turn everton and carroll scored. Simply put i fail utterly to see why on earth adam played right side midfield v norwich, downing right side and then we are shocked we didn't get in behind them? downing simply needs to get wider and stay there and then both he and enrique can link up and cut opponents apart.... god utd do this so well with nani and young deliberately playing wide. btw v norwich downing played onthe right so bellamy and enrique did rather well i thought.
I agree with most of what you wrote, but what I meant is that sometimes I get the feeling that Downing is reluctant to go wide when Enrique is already there. (either that or he just drifts in way too much). Regarding Bellamy, he tends to play more forward than Downing so he gets into the wide positions without being in the same positions as Enrique (especially on counter attacks where Enrique is often at least level with Downing going forwards.
maybe that is true. maybe he's instructed to be that far in too. kuyt on the otherside is as guilty. It has to be said that enrique is doing the bst job of all the summer signings so something needs to changing how we use our wingers. A return to 4-2-3-1 for instance could allow for us to get working better... or a 4-3-3 or a 3-5-2. All i can see is wingers just not really functioning simply as we play in front of teams and don't get behind them enough,.
I reckon a good shout would be to try the 3-5-2 that we played towards the end of last season. It looked so effective, although we have a different squad now I still think it would suit. The only issue is Enrique would be in a sense an advanced LB/LM so fitting Downing in may be problematic. Something Like - ---------------Kelly---Carra----Agger------------------ Johnson---Gerrad--Lucas---Adam/Downing---Enrique -----------Carrol/Bellamy---Suarez------------------- Looks like an odd formation but we destroyed teams with a similar set-up to this last season. Obviously, a slight shuffle about of the players that I've put might be more ideal. That's simply an example.
st john red posted this earlier and i thought it was a good idea. Coates could be brought in in this formation and TBH it means downing could end up as the free man or on the bench It will be interesting to see where kenny goes with it.
Manager problem? No, certainly not. But Dalglish has made mistakes towards some of our poor results. Also the fact that many Liverpool fans are starting to question the quality of Carroll and Downing will only bode badly on him. You just need to look at the way we play to understand how much better we are under Kenny, it's just baffling how we don't put these games to bed. Kenny is right...if we keep playing this way they will start to go in. But so far it has been just rotten luck that some of the chances have gone missing.
well conversely one might say that ok we've a better squad now but we've got kenny playing 4-4-2 and roy played 4-4-2 as well and got lampooned for it. So you see while kenny is a legend, the results have to speak for themselves and so right now things are not as good as the should be. they're not far off but defensively we're making too many blunders asnd carroll is a disaster. Right... comolli is there to take that fall but kenny needs to play the guy and get him right or dump him. or or the other.
