Liverpool 2014/15 | WARNING: Contains strong amounts of Scouse nonsense

Very difficult to judge Liverpool ATM. They've got a lot of new players to settle in and there's also the huge loss of Suarez. Then there's the two extremely contrasting performances against Spurs and then Villa.
IMO, Chelsea and City will be comfortably first and second, and then it's a 3 way battle between us, Arsenal (who I think will get third) and Liverpool for 3rd and 4th. Everton to push but I don't think that their squad is quite there yet. Spurs, whilst having a very good manager, look like a very average side ATM.
 
I have no idea where we are at the moment.

Shame about Allen. Been playing well and would be starting on current form.
 
BarneyLFC said:
It won't matter if you get 4th as you'll just go and lose to Villareal again. ;)

I don't see you getting 4th or 5th. I can definitely see you finishing ahead of Spurs though (I think you will). I think you lot should try to win the Europa league.
Click to expand...


They've played better than either of us so far, and I doubt either of us will put 3 past Chelsea this season. Wide open, they've got as much chance as Liverpool or United for 4th spot.
 
Eboue said:
Spurs don't have much of a chance. Their goal differential was way off the pace and it's hard to really see them improving over the summer relative to their rivals.
Click to expand...
Spurs are easily the most unlikely to break top 4, I'd say every other team has a similar chance to each other of getting it, all will depends on form, injuries and new signings bedding in. Can't see Spurs higher than 7th.
 
STE586 said:
They've played better than either of us so far, and I doubt either of us will put 3 past Chelsea this season. Wide open, they've got as much chance as Liverpool or United for 4th spot.
Click to expand...
I doubt either will have 6 goals put past them either. Everton have been fairly shit so far.
 
PickledRed said:
Probably, just to get on the nerves of people on here. ;)
Click to expand...
Remember the same situation we had with Scholes, cost us a few freekicks and cards but his output was still better than anything we had, your on the same road it would seem. Gerrards gone from important goal machine to leaking important goals machine, the serious question is do you persist with him (as we did with Scholes) or do you try and phase him out asap.
 
gasmanc said:
Remember the same situation we had with Scholes, cost us a few freekicks and cards but his output was still better than anything we had, your on the same road it would seem. Gerrards gone from important goal machine to leaking important goals machine, the serious question is do you persist with him (as we did with Scholes) or do you try and phase him out asap.
Click to expand...
You can argue that is why Gary Nev will be looked on with a little more admiration. He knew he was a liability and quit, even though he may very well of been picked purely for loyalty reasons.
 
BarneyLFC said:
It's a good thing that Gerrard isn't a liability then!
Click to expand...
YET! He is making more mistakes, though.

Interestingly, I watched an old video replay of 1980s United Vs Liverpool game which ended 3-3 and had Brian Robson playing. Scored a beautiful goal and then as the game went on he got found out a few times by the younger Liverpool players. Seen that happening to Gerrard on a number of occasions, even last year when you were doing well. Just goes to show it happens to the best.
 
Gerrard has declined majorly. If you'd signed a proper deep lying playmaker to play instead of him this year, you'd of been better off.

Time catches up with everyone eventually.
 
DoubleDinhos said:
Shame about Allen.

In a similar vein to Henderson, I actually think he's improved a lot this past year and has started to become an important player in the middle for us. We seem unbalanced without him.

Also, I think it's a testament to some of the work we've done in the transfer window that we can have the amount of injuries we've had so far and it's gone pretty much unnoticed because we still have a solid squad on paper to put out each week.
Click to expand...

:wenger::wenger::wenger::D:D:D You boys come up with some shite. You say the injuries have gone unnoticed yet you've been bleating on about 'owl face' sabotaging your season with sturridge and sterling, Rodgers has been whinging and you've played like shite since the internationals yet we are suppose to believe your excellent summer masked it! Unreal

Edit. Sturridge aside, and now maybe Allen, the reason the other injuries haven't impacted is that you've loser dross or back up player, not first teamers, (ie you're better off without Johnson and skertl
 
Defensively he is getting closer to a liability but he is still one of the best midfielders in the league on the ball.
 
BigDunc9 said:
Defensively he is getting closer to a liability but he is still one of the best midfielders in the league on the ball.
Click to expand...


According to Squarka Gerrard is 14th best midfielder, 24th best attacking, 72nd for defence and 10th for possession, though 21st for passing accuracy. This would suggest he's a defensive liability but not one of the best in the league.

The bluster with Gerrard is always louder than the performance
 
I'd say he is still the best long range passer of the ball and the best crosser of a ball in the league though.
 
BigDunc9 said:
I'd say he is still the best long range passer of the ball and the best crosser of a ball in the league though.
Click to expand...
Fair play, when you say 'on the ball' I think of someone who has a range of talent in taking the ball forward at feet. Anderson if you had to describe him would say 'good on the ball' because he gets it and he attacks going forward on the dribble.

To me that wouldn't really describe Gerrard as 'good on the ball' using my terminology from above. Passing range - Sure, why not. I see as many hollywood 35 yarders going straight out of play as I do being taken down in a dangerous area but that is just a difference of opinion. In terms of 'crossing', is 47/169 a good ratio? Sounds poor to me, I supposed you have to be on the end of them to 'convert'.
 
BorisontheRock said:
According to Squarka Gerrard is 14th best midfielder, 24th best attacking, 72nd for defence and 10th for possession, though 21st for passing accuracy. This would suggest he's a defensive liability but not one of the best in the league.
The bluster with Gerrard is always louder than the performance
Click to expand...
Back after a week working 'on-the-road' in Asia. Know you've all missed me.

Gerrard is a very difficult case. I'd like to have seen us buy a dedicated DM last window but it seems to me that BR has a problem, not yet being ready to consign a legend to the bench or to rotate him, yet probably realising that his SG/DM experiment is of limited success. SG is still brilliant on the ball and therein lies the problem of how to best utilise him at his current levels. Generally I'd play him for no more than 65-70mins per match ... and further forward than DM. Hopefully Emre Can can take up some of that slack when he gets fit and begins his re-integration into the squad.

Those Squarka figures are a bit misleading. 14th best midfielder out of how many, 80/90 ? 24th best attacking (yet he's playing at DM), 72nd for defence is the one the jumps out but it's no surprise, 21st for passing accuracy out of maybe 300 players (and consider that CBs will always have higher completed % over a season and that SG also plays a lot of attacking forward passes) and 10th for possession is of course high but then on the ball he rarely gives it up.
 
BigDunc9 said:
Under Moyes there was a time when we finished 4th then a couple of seasons later finished back to back in 5th for 2 seasons. I doubt we finished above you many time in the 90s to be hones.
Click to expand...

I think during the 5 seasons prior to the seasons we were talking about above you finished above us 3/5. More of course but not a great deal in it.

The media don't particularly think imo, they just tend to look at who's spending more money and go along with that.

I think Man Utd really need to be finishing in the top 4 this season. Huge amount of money spent and already have a 2 competition advantage on all the other teams in the top 6. Until January, LVG has a whole week between games to work with his team. We'll have to see now whether Liverpool or Arsenal (or both) are the ones to drop out.

Far too early to be making definitive judgements on teams though, we've barely played any football or allowed players/ systems to settle.
 
africanspur said:
I think during the 5 seasons prior to the seasons we were talking about above you finished above us 3/5. More of course but not a great deal in it.

The media don't particularly think imo, they just tend to look at who's spending more money and go along with that.

I think Man Utd really need to be finishing in the top 4 this season. Huge amount of money spent and already have a 2 competition advantage on all the other teams in the top 6. Until January, LVG has a whole week between games to work with his team. We'll have to see now whether Liverpool or Arsenal (or both) are the ones to drop out.

Far too early to be making definitive judgements on teams though, we've barely played any football or allowed players/ systems to settle.
Click to expand...

United can't occupy two places in top four.
 
Rafateria said:
Back after a week working 'on-the-road' in Asia. Know you've all missed me.

Gerrard is a very difficult case. I'd like to have seen us buy a dedicated DM last window but it seems to me that BR has a problem, not yet being ready to consign a legend to the bench or to rotate him, yet probably realising that his SG/DM experiment is of limited success. SG is still brilliant on the ball and therein lies the problem of how to best utilise him at his current levels. Generally I'd play him for no more than 65-70mins per match ... and further forward than DM. Hopefully Emre Can can take up some of that slack when he gets fit and begins his re-integration into the squad.

Those Squarka figures are a bit misleading. 14th best midfielder out of how many, 80/90 ? 24th best attacking (yet he's playing at DM), 72nd for defence is the one the jumps out but it's no surprise, 21st for passing accuracy out of maybe 300 players (and consider that CBs will always have higher completed % over a season and that SG also plays a lot of attacking forward passes) and 10th for possession is of course high but then on the ball he rarely gives it up.
Click to expand...

But when he does it is special.
 
Rafateria said:
Back after a week working 'on-the-road' in Asia. Know you've all missed me.

Gerrard is a very difficult case. I'd like to have seen us buy a dedicated DM last window but it seems to me that BR has a problem, not yet being ready to consign a legend to the bench or to rotate him, yet probably realising that his SG/DM experiment is of limited success. SG is still brilliant on the ball and therein lies the problem of how to best utilise him at his current levels. Generally I'd play him for no more than 65-70mins per match ... and further forward than DM. Hopefully Emre Can can take up some of that slack when he gets fit and begins his re-integration into the squad.

Those Squarka figures are a bit misleading. 14th best midfielder out of how many, 80/90 ? 24th best attacking (yet he's playing at DM), 72nd for defence is the one the jumps out but it's no surprise, 21st for passing accuracy out of maybe 300 players (and consider that CBs will always have higher completed % over a season and that SG also plays a lot of attacking forward passes) and 10th for possession is of course high but then on the ball he rarely gives it up.
Click to expand...
And I used Sqwarka just for your benefit rafateria! Joking aside, as much as you say the stats are misleading, I wasn't saying that Gerrard wasn't in the top half of midfielders, bigdunc suggested Stevie me was "one of the best" I was saying on form this is not the case
 
According to the bib theory the line up will be: Mignolet, Manquillo, Skrtel, Lovren, Moreno, Gerrard, Lucas, Henderson, Sterling, Borini, Balotelli

On one hand the diamond would be back, but on the other hand Lucas and Gerrard would be starting together. If we could get Lallana in there instead of Lucas and Sakho in instead of Skrtel that would be perfect.
 
Rafateria said:
Gerrard is a very difficult case. I'd like to have seen us buy a dedicated DM last window but it seems to me that BR has a problem, not yet being ready to consign a legend to the bench or to rotate him, yet probably realising that his SG/DM experiment is of limited success. SG is still brilliant on the ball and therein lies the problem of how to best utilise him at his current levels. Generally I'd play him for no more than 65-70mins per match ... and further forward than DM
Click to expand...

It's not a difficult case at all. Gerrard should play as he's still our best midfielder in that position. How on Earth has it been to limited success? That is nonsense. He was one of our best performers last season and from the Villa debacle onwards, he was better than any midfielder excluding Toure. We don't need another defensive midfielder. No top quality midfielder will be happy rotating with Gerrard and we've already got two (and possibly very soon three) midfielders that can cover him (Lucas, Can and Rossiter). Lucas is more than capable to come in and play games when we want to rest Gerrard. If Gerrard was in the team for his defensive capabilities then he'd be lacking. He's not though, he's in there because he can pass as well as anyone except for Fabregas from a deep position and his passing is brilliant for cutting open tight defences. His set piece delivery is second to none too. He is adequate defensively, but on the ball he is still brilliant.
 
I can't get my head around why Rogers persists with Skrtel ahead of Sakho. The latter seems like a modern, quicker and more of a ball playing defender. One that would suit the way he seemingly wants to play football in the Dutch / Spanish way with a high line etc.
 
BarneyLFC said:
Gerrard should play as he's still our best midfielder in that position.
Click to expand...
And the very best part of this is ? It's quite fecking true :lol:

Edit: Oh and please, it has been to very very limited success Barn mate ;)

I think the key tomorrow is don't concede first, in other words don't let slippy near it at the back.

q8iVqEV.png

Courtesy of @Ole Gunner Scholes from the newbs :)
 
Last edited:
Iron Stove said:
I can't get my head around why Rogers persists with Skrtel ahead of Sakho. The latter seems like a modern, quicker and more of a ball playing defender. One that would suit the way he seemingly wants to play football in the Dutch / Spanish way with a high line etc.
Click to expand...

I think Sakho is better than Skrtel too but to be honest I don't think there's a massive difference between Sakho and Skrtel/Sakho and Lovren/Lovren and Skrtel. I do find two things annoying with the situation though:

1. Whenever Agger or Sakho were injured last season, Rodgers refused to throw them straight back into the team until the player currently partnering Skrtel made a mistake. How come when Skrtel is back from injury it looks like he's going to be thrown straight back in? It's not consistent, especially when it's not like Skrtel is some untouchable player.

2. The fact he doesn't appear to rate Sakho that highly is pretty worrying given he's Rodgers' own big money signing. To buy another big money defender just a year later and indicate that he'd prefer it if Lovren played as a left sided centre back (i.e. instead of Sakho) is strange, given the other centre back is Skrtel.

What is most important now for me is that he sticks with his first choice pair for a run of games, even if that means Skrtel starts. Obviously injuries may mean that's not possible but the constant chopping and changing isn't helping.
 
I looked very closely at Sahko when he was at PSG and decided just wasn't a very good defender.
 
peterstorey said:
I looked very closely at Sahko when he was at PSG and decided just wasn't a very good defender.
Click to expand...

Definitely one of those players that divides opinion. I haven't really made my mind up on him yet...Seen a lot of shaky moments so far but willing to give him the benefit of the doubt given his injury situation last season.

If Rodgers does bench him though it's hard to see him staying beyond the season.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.