Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2014 - Mod Note in OP, 1/09

DVDM93

Victor Moses got an assist and assisted an assist today, if any thing gives me hope after this weekend it's that, in that form is temporary. Let's hope we kick on from next week onwards with Sturridge back (hopefully) and put these two games behind us (Villa & WHU)

Another thought; we lost to Villa and WHU, our two worst performances so far this season. Maybe it's a psychological thing against teams with a baby blue and burgundy? Think about it, sleep on it.

Iused2likebusts

DVDM93 wrote: »

Another thought; we lost to Villa and WHU, our two worst performances so far this season. Maybe it's a psychological thing against teams with a baby blue and burgundy? Think about it, sleep on it.

even burnley would score against our defence.

DVDM93

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

even burnley would score against our defence.

We don't play Burnley until late December. That would give us 3 months to allow for psychological help to rectify the issue, no excuse.

Agent Coulson

The Metro (I know ) are linking us to Joe Hart.

mosstin

Agent Coulson wrote: »

The Metro (I know ) are linking us to Joe Hart.

He'd be head and shoulders above Mignolet.

daRobot

mosstin wrote: »

He'd be head and shoulders above Mignolet.

Now that's sharp thinking for 12.20 am Monday morning.

Cartman78

Agent Coulson wrote: »

The Metro (I know ) are linking us to Joe Hart.

That would be a great scalp

Underpaid Mike

Hate jumping on the bandwagon but this is simply unacceptable.
How can you play a game in that position and not make a single tackle.
Gerrard having a truly appalling start to the season and needs to be benched.

Fescue

Underpaid Mike wrote: »

Hate jumping on the bandwagon but this is simply unacceptable.
How can you play a game in that position and not make a single tackle.
Gerrard having a truly appalling start to the season and needs to be benched.

Statsbomb, statsbomb, that's a statsbomb....

dogbert27

NukaCola wrote: »

Our squad needed depth, especially with more games in Europe....only the incredibly stupid can not see that.

T-K-O wrote: »

Spot on, we had 1 sometimes 2 viable subs last season.

Is this Rodgers first season learning how to use a large squad?

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

In fairness to Gerrard he has played every minute of the season so far. Hendo and Lovren are the only other outfield players to do so. No other CL aspiring team has a 34 year old playing every single game. I don't think any player should be expected to play three games in a week/8 days. Gerrard doesn't need to be dropped, he needs to be rotated and rested, the same as every other player should more or less.

Everton and Spurs suffered yesterday which you can partly blame on playing in Europe.

We bought a squad, it needs to be fully utilised and we need to hope some of them start firing sooner rather than later.

dogbert27

Do we have a defense coach?

Mike Marsh is listed as the first team coach so does he look after defensive drills?

What does Colin Pascoe do?

Someone said earlier about Agger having a renaissance under Dalglish but regressing under Rodgers.

Asked last week and will ask again, is Steve Clarke looking for work??

Also this guy needs to be shown the door and a new goal keeping coach installed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Achterberg

Now seeing the time line of his appointment, it coincides with Reina's regression and Mignolet not really up to much.

Underpaid Mike

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

In fairness to Gerrard he has played every minute of the season so far. Hendo and Lovren are the only other outfield players to do so. No other CL aspiring team has a 34 year old playing every single game. I don't think any player should be expected to play three games in a week/8 days. Gerrard doesn't need to be dropped, he needs to be rotated and rested, the same as every other player should more or less.

Everton and Spurs suffered yesterday which you can partly blame on playing in Europe.

We bought a squad, it needs to be fully utilised and we need to hope some of them start firing sooner rather than later.

In fairness to him? Its 5 games he is not being asked to run 5 back to back marathons here. In those 5 games he has been the worst player on the pitch in at least 2 of them. Thats appalling form by any standards

Oranage2

Liverpool are suffering from having no defensive cover, if Gerrard goes forward and pool are caught out then there's about 40 yards between the defense and midfield, having a one on one situation between a defender and attacker will have one out come if the attacker is anyway good.

The gung ho approach will steam roll poor opposition but faced with better teams or a well organised team then it will be tough just like arsenal a few seasons ago.


Defensive organisation is what pool need.

Vicxas

Oranage2 wrote: »

Liverpool are suffering from having no defensive cover, if Gerrard goes forward and pool are caught out then there's about 40 yards between the defense and midfield, having a one on one situation between a defender and attacker will have one out come if the attacker is anyway good.

The gung ho approach will steam roll poor opposition but faced with better teams or a well organised team then it will be tough just like arsenal a few seasons ago.


Defensive organisation is what pool need.

No having Gerrard so far forward will help too

BenEadir

Oranage2 wrote: »

The gung ho approach will steam roll poor opposition

There is less and less "poor" opposition in the PL. The so called "weaker" teams are now stuffed full of solid young players who are not intimidated by the "big" teams, quite the opposite, they look forward to testing their mettle against them. They have no fear and show no respect and rightly so. Combine that with good organisation and you have a hard battle every week where your formation and personnel weaknesses will be tested and found out.

Souness said it last night about United but it applies equally to us. You have to assert your physical dominance and win all the individual battles first and then and only then have you earned the right to play your football. We are not dominating teams physically especially in the last third of the pitch.

Fescue

Oranage2 wrote: »

Liverpool are suffering from having no defensive cover, if Gerrard goes forward and pool are caught out then there's about 40 yards between the defense and midfield, having a one on one situation between a defender and attacker will have one out come if the attacker is anyway good.

The gung ho approach will steam roll poor opposition but faced with better teams or a well organised team then it will be tough just like arsenal a few seasons ago.


Defensive organisation is what pool need.

Eh, have you forgotten about Arsenal's performances against the top teams last season? A second string Dortmund could have beaten Arsenal by 6 or 7.

viper006

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

In fairness to Gerrard he has played every minute of the season so far. Hendo and Lovren are the only other outfield players to do so. No other CL aspiring team has a 34 year old playing every single game. I don't think any player should be expected to play three games in a week/8 days. Gerrard doesn't need to be dropped, he needs to be rotated and rested, the same as every other player should more or less.

Everton and Spurs suffered yesterday which you can partly blame on playing in Europe.

We bought a squad, it needs to be fully utilised and we need to hope some of them start firing sooner rather than later.

Fully agree with you here. After a summer where we went off buying 6-7 players its hard to fathom how we are ina position where stevie is playing every game, borini and lucas are starting or coming on when we trying to save a point. On paper our defence should be one of the best in terms of quality and depth but its just so poor at the minute it’s a real problem. I would go as far as to say our midfield has been even worse, absolutely overrun and non existant, no bite, no link to the forward line. Sterling is only player playing to the level we know these guys can play to. Glimpses of lallana however are encouraging once he gets fit
I certainly not writing off balotelli, markovic, louvren and co. but to be fair to these players as well it could be a season or so to gel and reach the level we all know they can reach. I believe our season will hang on sturridge staying fit.. we are simply terrible without him. Both he and suarez saved us so many times last season when we were poor , we need him back vs everton bigtime.

Vicxas

viper006 wrote: »

Fully agree with you here. After a summer where we went off buying 6-7 players its hard to fathom how we are ina position where stevie is playing every game, borini and lucas are starting or coming on when we trying to save a point. On paper our defence should be one of the best in terms of quality and depth but its just so poor at the minute it’s a real problem. I would go as far as to say our midfield has been even worse, absolutely overrun and non existant, no bite, no link to the forward line. Sterling is only player playing to the level we know these guys can play to. Glimpses of lallana however are encouraging once he gets fit
I certainly not writing off balotelli, markovic, louvren and co. but to be fair to these players as well it could be a season or so to gel and reach the level we all know they can reach. I believe our season will hang on sturridge staying fit.. we are simply terrible without him. Both he and suarez saved us so many times last season when we were poor , we need him back vs everton bigtime.

Agree to an extent, but our back 4 is literally brand new (Minus Skrtel) theres no leadership, no one shouting. Sktrel should technically fill that role but he isnt.

Case and point is the match on saturday where both Lovren and Sakho went for the same ball, Lovren came off the worst as they didnt bother to call for it.

Our midfield is shocking at the minute, no bite and no link up play. Its literally at the minute:

• Run 5 yards
• Stop, look for somone
• Run out of ideas
• Play it back to defence

Its a very nervous time for us. Im hoping that we gel quicker than we are and that our injuries wont hamper us as it is.

Harry Palmr

The collective back line is suffering a nervous breakdown - once fear and uncertainty grip even one player it spreads - no one trusts the keeper, (including the keeper I suspect), no trusts Gerrard to offer protection, neither CB (regardless of which pair is picked) trusts the other or talks, while the full backs are just trying to stay well out of it.

If Dr Steve Peters would like to earn his crust he needs to stage some intensive sessions with this lot and Liverpool need to employ an actual defence coach.

Boom_Bap

I don't think that Gerrard was supposed to play the full 90, after about 60 minutes you could see Rodgers checking on him to see if he was OK to play on. The early sub may have had an impact there.
I believe if Can and Allen were not injured then there would be alot more rotation.

greendom

Fescue wrote: »

Eh, have you forgotten about Arsenal's performances against the top teams last season? A second string Dortmund could have beaten Arsenal by 6 or 7.

And how will that improve Liverpool's defence ? Pure whataboutery

Grayditch

greendom wrote: »

whataboutery

The word that would not die.

gafferino

"The boys are disappointed but we'll get back to the training field and go again on Tuesday night against Middlesbrough in the League Cup.

"We have definitely got the quality to make the top four. It's down to us to get things right and get back to playing the way we all know we can.

"It's concerning but we have got to put it behind us and go again. Our focus has to turn to the next game now. We need to bounce back."

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/171160-sterling-it-s-up-to-us-to-put-it-right

greendom

Grayditch wrote: »

The word that would not die.

Fair enough, to rephrase, I think Fescue's answer avoided the question. The fact that Arsenal had problems against the top sides last season and against Dortmund on Tuesday is completely immaterial when discussing Liverpool's defensive abilities.

Saying nobody trusts Gerrard is wrong.

The manager does for a start.

He's far from perfect in that position but put the correct players in beside him and he'll be fine. Didn't see anyone moaning after Christmas last season, or the season before.

Rodgers is defensively naive. Nothing has changed in that respect since he arrived. He has Suarez and Sturridge last season banging them in. This season the goals aren't flowing, but we are still leaking them.

Strongbow10

rarnes1 wrote: »

Saying nobody trusts Gerrard is wrong.

The manager does for a start.

He's far from perfect in that position but put the correct players in beside him and he'll be fine. Didn't see anyone moaning after Christmas last season, or the season before.

Rodgers is defensively naive. Nothing has changed in that respect since he arrived. He has Suarez and Sturridge last season banging them in. This season the goals aren't flowing, but we are still leaking them.

So is Gerrard and also lacks discipline tactically.

Theres a montage waiting to be made of Gerrard ambling along until hes caught ball watching and allowing a runner in behind him. Hes a player with very poor spatial awareness in defensive areas, and is culpable of ball watching on occasion too.

There was another occasion on Saturday, when the ball was played wide from a central area and he just stood on the edge of the box and allowed his man (Mark Noble) to just make an unmarked run into the box and if he was picked out then it was a free shot on goal. Luckily he wasn't, but good teams will bury us.

Theres an unwritten rule, anyone who criticises Gerrard gets slaughtered for being disrespectful. He's the only man in England (along with Rooney) where the critique of their performance is never fully carried out. Pundits alike have the script written down beforehand in terms of how to evaluate him. And its based on reputation rather than form.

Carragher in fairness has highlighted a few flaws recently and fair play I say.

Harry Palmr

rarnes1 wrote: »

Saying nobody trusts Gerrard is wrong.

The manager does for a start.

He's far from perfect in that position but put the correct players in beside him and he'll be fine. Didn't see anyone moaning after Christmas last season, or the season before.

Rodgers is defensively naive. Nothing has changed in that respect since he arrived. He has Suarez and Sturridge last season banging them in. This season the goals aren't flowing, but we are still leaking them.

I've been moaning for years!

Last season Liverpool mainly got away with it, hence most of us hoping that Rodgers would invest in a M'Villa/Fernando/Medal type midfield ink-blotter who could range across that area between the 18 yard and halfway line letting nothing pass him.

gafferino

Is there a presser today for tomorrows game?

Bad week for a midweek game imo. No time to work on whats going wrong.

Harry Palmr

My team for tomorrow

---

Mignolet
Manquillo---Lovren-Sakho--Enrique

---

Lucas---Rossiter

---

Lallana----

---

Markovic

---

Borini--Lambert

Jones, Stewart, Toure, Gerrard, Hendo, Ojo, Balotelli.

Agent Coulson

gafferino wrote: »

Is there a presser today for tomorrows game?

Bad week for a midweek game imo. No time to work on whats going wrong.

5pm this evening.

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/171134-free-at-5pm-bst-boss-boro-preview

Agent Coulson

Along with Dele Alli it looks like we are scouting Real Madrid's 18 year old Jack Harper.

http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/liverpool-man-city-scouting-real-madrid-striker-jack-harper-4041102?utm_source=main_feed#.VB_-yvldXK0

As much as I like seeing us linked to good young players I think now is the the time to be buying experienced players.

NyOmnishambles

This quote from the F365 winners and losers column pretty much sums things up from the weekend

"Liverpool's defensive ineptitude was horribly exposed, like a hideous creature born in a laboratory and brought into daylight for the first time, shrieking and soiling itself"

I know we have a few games before it but the thoughts of playing Real Madrid soon is horrifying

dogbert27

NyOmnishambles wrote: »

This quote from the F365 winners and losers column pretty much sums things up from the weekend

"Liverpool's defensive ineptitude was horribly exposed, like a hideous creature born in a laboratory and brought into daylight for the first time, shrieking and soiling itself"

I know we have a few games before it but the thoughts of playing Real Madrid soon is horrifying

Maybe we could go with the 11 men on the goal line tactic! :pac:

rob316

Expecting a big reaction against Everton, and to be honest there is probably no better game to go into next after the last 2 games. With Sturridge back hopefully our season can kick on with a convincing win.

gafferino

rob316 wrote: »

Expecting a big reaction against Everton, and to be honest there is probably no better game to go into next after the last 2 games. With Sturridge back hopefully our season can kick on with a convincing win.

Has there been anything more on Sturridge? Probably come up tonight in the presser im sure.

gafferino

Im not sure where the original interview was (cant find it in English anyway) or even if its all in this report so could have been more said:

Agger told Ekstra Bladet: “Let me put it this way, me and the manager were perhaps not on the same page last season. For most of the season at least.

The central defender continued: “He [Rodgers] and I maybe went wrong with each other because I am very direct. I say things as they are, so I expect people will be the same to me. Maybe it’s wrong to expect this sometimes. There was much (distance) between us, and for me it was just not enough. I felt that he didn’t appreciate the things I could do and contributed. When I feel that, then it’s time to move on.”

Agger continued: “When you are a part of the starting eleven for several games in a row and the team have performed well, and you feel that you have played well, then you are left out of the team and don’t feel appreciated, it starts to pray on your mind and you wonder. Then at the same time you see the statistics from your game – which are so important nowadays all around the world of football- and you don’t understand why you weren’t used more often.”

Despite all he said above, Agger did have some words of praise for Brendan Rodgers: “I think he is an incredibly talented manager. You can’t take that away from him. He’s good in the way he trains and he is clever in the way he sets the team up. He’s an extremely, extremely competent coach. The things that went wrong between us happened and I expect others to treat me directly. Maybe it is wrong to always expect this.”

http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/dan-agger-i-left-liverpool-due-to-breakdown-of-relations-with-brendan-rodgers-ekstra-bladet/?

Chucky the tree

rarnes1 wrote: »

Saying nobody trusts Gerrard is wrong.

The manager does for a start.

He's far from perfect in that position but put the correct players in beside him and he'll be fine. Didn't see anyone moaning after Christmas last season, or the season before.

Rodgers is defensively naive. Nothing has changed in that respect since he arrived. He has Suarez and Sturridge last season banging them in. This season the goals aren't flowing, but we are still leaking them.

That's because Suarez and Sturridge were banging them in last season so no cared.

Vicxas

NyOmnishambles wrote: »

This quote from the F365 winners and losers column pretty much sums things up from the weekend

"Liverpool's defensive ineptitude was horribly exposed, like a hideous creature born in a laboratory and brought into daylight for the first time, shrieking and soiling itself"

I know we have a few games before it but the thoughts of playing Real Madrid soon is horrifying

Unless we have an absolute renaissance with our defence, I think i will give the match a watch from behind my couch.

SlickRic

what is going wrong is very simple.

the defensive structure has not been fixed, but we're not scoring as many as last year. we have a goalkeeper who instills no confidence in his defence, and we have no organisation at set-pieces. nobody is leading, and nobody seems to know what they should be doing.

for the structure we have to work, we need 2 Hendersons. we also need a somewhat mobile Gerrard, who can cover when our full-backs bomb on.

our CBs are getting dragged all over the place because they are having to cover our full backs, because our midfield is providing little or nothing when our full-backs are gone. our CBs currently look terrible because they are having midfielders running at them constantly, with wingers who have a ton of space.

Lovren, Sakho and Skrtel aren't bad players. our way of playing is killing them.

our attack is toothless because Balotelli is different to both Sturridge and Suarez. he doesn't pull defenders all over the place. he doesn't run constantly. he's a strong, technically gifted footballer who is a target man for others to work off. that's not what our game last season was about. Suarez and Sturridge pulled teams everywhere, and Coutinho, Sterling, etc had a field day.

we're more static in attack, are dispossessed a lot easier, and so the opposition has more opportunity to attack.

i've said it before, but we'll be a different team with Sturridge back. him and Sterling will provide a ton of problem for defences to think about, and much more room for our midfield to be on the front foot. this is only a temporary fix though, and until we sort out our midfield structure when we defend, we will get picked off by teams.

Henderson and Allen should play every important game IMO at the moment. it's our best chance of having some sort of shape.

locked 1

How long is emre can out for ???

locked 1

locked 1 wrote: »

How long is emre can out for ???

Another month I think ?

GavRedKing

dogbert27 wrote: »

Maybe we could go with the 11 men on the goal line tactic! :pac:

We've a bus that shouldnt see much mileage this year if ye want a loan of it? Does the job well actually.

Kerrigooney

dogbert27 wrote: »

Maybe we could go with the 11 men on the goal line tactic! :pac:

I believe that tactic is called a #masterclass

Fescue

Oranage2 wrote: »

Liverpool are suffering from having no defensive cover, if Gerrard goes forward and pool are caught out then there's about 40 yards between the defense and midfield, having a one on one situation between a defender and attacker will have one out come if the attacker is anyway good.

The gung ho approach will steam roll poor opposition but faced with better teams or a well organised team then it will be tough just like arsenal a few seasons ago.


Defensive organisation is what pool need.

greendom wrote: »

And how will that improve Liverpool's defence ? Pure whataboutery

I was just making the point that Arsenal are still as vulnerable now as they were a few seasons ago.

It's got nothing to do with Liverpool.

Fescue

Anyone think Liverpool might persist with the three at the back for the game against Everton?

We looked much better when we went to it.

The Centre backs aren't as exposed, the full backs can push forward and Gerrard doesn't need to worry as much about people running past him.

Francie Barrett

Harry Palmr wrote: »

My team for tomorrow

---

Mignolet
Manquillo---Lovren-Sakho--Enrique

---

Lucas---Rossiter

---

Lallana----

---

Markovic

---

Borini--Lambert

Jones, Stewart, Toure, Gerrard, Hendo, Ojo, Balotelli.

Sounds good to me. Give the central defence another run out, they desperately need it.

Boom_Bap

Fescue wrote: »

Anyone think Liverpool might persist with the three at the back for the game against Everton?

We looked much better when we went to it.

The Centre backs aren't as exposed, the full backs can push forward and Gerrard doesn't need to worry as much about people running past him.

I think that is Rodgers preferred line up. But last year we got into trouble with it a couple of times because of too much space behind the wing backs. We have faster wing backs now, but we are already seeing them being exposed from the forays forward.
If you heard Vardy's interview post Utd match, he basically said that he was intructed to get in behind the Utd full backs to cause damage, and it was pretty succesful for them.

The way we play now with Gerrard, we essentially are doing it, and I like the way it works. With the changes in personnel, I think it will just take some time to gel.

BoardsMember

Fescue wrote: »

Anyone think Liverpool might persist with the three at the back for the game against Everton?

We looked much better when we went to it.

The Centre backs aren't as exposed, the full backs can push forward and Gerrard doesn't need to worry as much about people running past him.

Is this really what the aim is? Surely a deep lying midfield player has to be responsible enough to worry about players running past him. What exactly is he doing there if he is not?

Harry Palmr

Boom_Bap wrote: »

I think that is Rodgers preferred line up. But last year we got into trouble with it a couple of times because of too much space behind the wing backs. We have faster wing backs now, but we are already seeing them being exposed from the forays forward.
If you heard Vardy's interview post Utd match, he basically said that he was intructed to get in behind the Utd full backs to cause damage, and it was pretty succesful for them.

The way we play now with Gerrard, we essentially are doing it, and I like the way it works. With the changes in personnel, I think it will just take some time to gel.

As discussed earlier here but only when Can is fit, though Allen could fit in there (Lucas at a push if leaving Gerrard out, though obviously not against Everton!)