We came second last season and very close to winning the league. Begining of the season we were very optimistic inspite of the fact that we lost Luis Suares to Barcelona. Currently. we in the second half of the table. Do you think losing Luis Suarez is a factor?, however, beginging of last season he was banned for some games, yet we pulled it off.
It is many faceted 1. Keeper is fairly poor and glued to line 2. Defence is very unsettled and lacks cohesion 3. Despite Gerrard's boast post Everton he has no legs 4. Injuries have knocked back players like Skertl, Allen, can and lallana 5. Sturridge 6. Coutinho poor 7. Badontelly and markovic don't fit, balotelli doesn't fit at all IMO so either we change or he does or we drop him. Markovic needs 6 months gentling..... So all in all I believe manquillo wasn't meant to play this much, Skertl injuries have unsettled things, lovern is working his way in.... Mingolet has seriously impacted us when we needed a body in there to calm them But most of all IMO we are running away from goal not towards it, back passing, so we don't threaten sides so they have time to go at us
i saw a bit of mnf with cara and neville on ssn(ie didn't watch programme) had a bit by neville on there about the way migs crouches for shots and not stood up properly, didnt even notice it before but i guess its their job too notice things like this not mine lol. i am becoming very worried by migs, and i think he makes our defence look nervous personally, not sure if this would be resolved by getting valdes, but can but hope i suppose. Marcovic is non existent most of the time, and ballo seems to be struggling to do the simple stuff.
The defence was a problem last season. What concerns me more is the attack because without it, we will continue to drop points. There is little to no movement in the final third - Balotelli is not that type of striker. He prefers to come in deep and have runners ahead of him. Even when Sturridge was out last season, Suarez would come deep also, but he had the likes of Sterling, Coutinho, Hendo running beyond him. We're simply not doing that. Markovic needs time to bed in and he will come good - probs next season at the earliest. At the moment - we're playing 4-2-3-1 which means we're playing Gerrard in a two man midfield (which doesn't work), alongside Hendo (which limits his runs into the box), Sterling and Markovic as the wingers (which means they remain fixed to the flanks which limits their ability) and Balotelli as the sole striker which is simply isn't. I think Rodgers deserves criticism for this set up because it's simply not suited to the players we have. Whether that's down to injuries or just personal preference - not sure. I would rather have Sterling playing as the second striker alongside Balotelli than stick him out on the wing. We lost Suarez which meant we lost his creativity - it was inevitable but our attack is simply not creating enough quality chances. We've created only 7 this season, compared to Chelsea and Arsenal who have 17. This is even more concerning considering we've had similar amount of shots. And when you lose our biggest source of creativity and quality chances, the last thing we should be doing is dropping Coutinho. Yes - he's been poor but his movement is exceptional, creates those triangles and tries to create. As good as Lallana looks, his attacking contribution/output hasn't set the world alight. There needs to be more diagonal runs which Coutinho, Gerrard and Hendo provide. I am confident that once Sturridge and Allen comes back, it will restore balance to our attack. Sturridge - for obvious reasons, and Allen will have an indirect impact in terms of providing support for Henderson and Gerrard to do what they do best.
Last minutes we pulled out from buying Loic Remy (due to medical reasons)...think it was because of Balotteli..
Don't understand why we couldn't get him as well. If only we could have sold Borini and not signed Lambert.
Tempo is the problem. If you listen to interviews with Rodgers and the lads last season it's tempo tempo tempo... we lack the speed we had now that we are a bunch of dawdlers.
Not true... Owls howling are a #realproblem Plus it was actually about small minor things being blown up as a real problem. Having no bacon is a problem... Bacon being cooked isn't a problem at all!
Balotelli, Lallana, Markovic slow down the tempo when they get the ball - it's a case of too many new players in this system. Once we get Coutinho, Allen and Sturridge back in the set up - we'll get the LFC of last season.
