Who Will Step Up Against West Ham United?
WELL, it was some quite refreshing television on Saturday at 3:43 pm to see somebody other than our talisman – Luis Suarez – scoring against the opposing team. For far too long this season, we’ve relied on Suarez’s ability and, perhaps slightly more importantly, goals to see us through.
So when Dan scored against the Saints on Saturday, I was hoping for something quite similar to the Wigan result when the first goal opened the floodgates.
It’s unsurprising that that didn’t happen against a pretty dull and probably destined for the bottom-3 Southampton side – but a win is a win, right?
With that in mind, somebody is really required to step up against West Ham next Sunday, at 16:00, because with January still a whole month away and no other proven striker currently fit (at the club), we really are in dire straits at the moment.
We’ve only managed 34 goals in 26 games so far this season. Of those, the striker has chipped in with 13, which is quite scary for the Reds, as it equates to just a few decimal points short of 39%. Take Suarez away for a prolonged period and we would figuratively (and perhaps, also literally) be screwed.
The really odd part about this is that we’re not short of alternate goal-scorers, in that, we’ve had 14 other players score this season. It’s just a depressing fact that only four of those have managed more than one.
It would be unfair to expect the likes of Skrtel, Agger, Allen, Lucas, etc to chip in regularly, as this isn’t what they’re there for. But it would be nice if players other than Gerrard, Suarez and Shelvey could contribute more often, when the chances are presented to them.
Somebody may be given the chance to audition to prove that they are worthwhile stand-ins for Luis when we pay a visit to the Italian city of Udine on Thursday however, given the make or break nature of the game and that he is banned for the Premier League fixture the following Sunday, it’s likely that Suarez will start and probably stay on until the game is secured.
We can only hope that a positive result will breed confidence in some other goal-scorer (or two!) and they will take that confidence into the West Ham game with them for Sunday away at West Ham United.
For me, the role should be Shelvey’s, as I pre-empted prior to him being chosen to ‘lead the line’ against Young Boys two weeks back at Anfield. He scored that night and is our second highest goal-scorer this season with four goals. Although, all of those have come in the Europa, he is still a goal threat and that’s exactly the sort of player that needs to play in the role of Suarez, while he is out.
Given that Jonjo is still a young lad (a fact that some still seem unable to get their heads around), I would push Gerrard out of midfield and put him on the right, drop Sterling – who looks quite tired at present – and Enrique on the left to give him some more experienced support at the opposite end of the field and to give our attack some real punch with two powerful players in support, in the absence of Luis Suarez’s trickery.
Who’s your choice to ‘lead the line’ in the absence of Suarez?
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December 3rd, 2012
Morgan . He is a real talent
December 3rd, 2012
Susie as a false ’9′?
December 3rd, 2012
Suso not Susie lol
December 3rd, 2012
will u stop dreaming and being an idiot ? ‘who has played better only arsenal ? ‘ . what a dope u are . virtually everyone has been better than us , its not about short passing in our own half , its about goals thats all
and this made me laugh – ‘ he cant put the ball in the net ‘ , what a dipsh!t u are . Rodgers can pick a formation , can pick the players and could have bought the players to put ball in net , but he didnt – he is 100% to blame
what age are u david ? 12
December 3rd, 2012
pachenco should be use to prove himself for the last time and morgan second striker on bench.line up renia agger sktel wisdom enrique lucas allen jonjo gerrard sterling pachenco sub morgan suso assidi henderson carr sinclair yesil
December 3rd, 2012
I think Shelvey will be used as a false nine/loose striker. Pacheco, Morgan and Yesil haven’t even made the bench so I don’t think they’ll suddenly make the jump to starting eleven.
Rodgers needs time and hasn’t been in the job long. There’s a great piece on why we need to give Rodgers some time
http://footballneutral.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/165-days-159-days.html
December 3rd, 2012
bo!!ocks to that ! Kop on man , Rodgers has fked up big time . The guy is a small club manager . the only people who want him to stay are mancs n everton fans
December 4th, 2012
which fool started this false 9 bull ? let me guess bull$hit Rodgers ?
December 4th, 2012
why waste MORE time on Rodgers – He is obviously rubbish . Isnt half a season being midtable , a laughing stock , and totally boring enough ?
Who wants more of this cr@p ?
December 4th, 2012
Simon, del and wesker…should we rip up plans every 6 months? Is 6 months really enough time to build something?
Come on guys, we’re Liverpool FC and need a bit of stability right now.
December 4th, 2012
Stability is great when u have a decent manager , we have a mug ! Sack now and the season might not be total disaster
December 4th, 2012
Give Morgan a go , but please drop Allen , play Gerrard ,Lucas n Shelvey in midfield
December 4th, 2012
Perfect
December 4th, 2012
We can win the game, we need to use Our youth, Morgan, Pacheco, Yesnil and even The Morocan Alssaidy, Suso, these can score goals, so why not try with them. You can even try Ngoo as well
December 4th, 2012
Assaidi, sterling and shelvy or suso should stay forward, lucas G8 and allen mid field
December 4th, 2012
Look there’s no point arguing over Rodgers. I wasn’t too happy with his appointment at all but it happened so lets all give him a chance (at least 18 months).
For the striker role I think we’ll see a front three of Assaidi, Suarez and Cole for Udinese. Then Sterling, Shelvey and Suso for West Ham.
Out of all the young strikers I’d like to see Ngoo given a chance. I like the look of him, he’s unorthadox but can be a real handful. Even at a young age he’s got enough strength for the first team. I’d at least like to see him on the bench for most games, he’s a different option to come on late in games, he could be really useful. It’s better than no striker on the bench
December 4th, 2012
18 months ? You serious ? Look what he has done in just 5 months . Squandered 30m on rubbish players , turned us from top 4 contender to midtable muppets , left the squad threadbare , got us dumped out of 1 cup and will be out of another on thur by picking crap teams , and bored the pants off us with his negative football
He doesn’t deserve 18 minutes more
December 4th, 2012
I agrre steve . We cant let him put us further away from top clubs
December 4th, 2012
At least until the end of the season.
Ok if we were looking like relegation fodder.
I know we are mid table but we are only 7 points behind 3rd.
Yes I know we are only 7 points above relagation as well but it doesn’t look like we’ll get dragged into that.
A little more patience I think
December 4th, 2012
That would be ok if it wasn’t for the transfer window . Look what he bought in the summer , 30m down the toilet .
I dont trust him not to spend our money on rubbish again , so i say go now BR
December 5th, 2012
this is liverpool fc not swansea ! more patience ? are you for real ? rodgers has made us a joke
December 6th, 2012
We weren’t top four contenders to begin with, thanks to the “keeping up with the Jones’s” mentality of past regimes. Feel free to name any manager you think would do a better job right now. By that I mean a manager that actually wants to come to a club with as much pressure as we have without the budget to match.
December 4th, 2012
Adam Morgan Or Samid Yesil , Or Maybe Dani Pacheco