Liverpool must give certain players the chop in order to progress
A strange thing happened during the international break. I kind of enjoyed it. Not for the games themselves, as I find most international friendlies and qualifiers boring to the extreme. It was nice because it gave me a break.
A break from the relentless misery that we’ve had to experience this season as Liverpool fans since the win over Spurs. Some might say it happened a long time ago, but I came to a realisation on Sunday; being a Liverpool supporter has stopped being fun. When last season I would look forward to the next game when we’d inevitably hand out beatings on a regular basis, this season has become a long slog that we haven’t experienced since the dark days of Roy Hodgson.
There are myriad of things that Brendan Rodgers must do to get things back on track, too many to list here. But there is one thing that he can do immediately to improve matters.
There are at least three players who played against Crystal Palace who absolutely need to be dropped if our form is to have any chance of improving.
The first is Steven Gerrard. It breaks my heart to say it, but our captain no longer merits a place in this team. Rodgers tried turning Captain Fantastic into our defensive midfielder when he realised he didn’t have the legs to play further forward anymore, no matter what system he played him in. A year later and he seems to have lost any bit of mobility he once had.
He’s slow on the ball, allowing the opposition to easily dispossess him and is always out of position. By the time Gerrard gets back to where he should have been, the opposition forwards are already one on one with our defenders. It was sad watching him against Chelsea; he was always two yards behind the Chelsea players whenever they approached goal.
He’s proved time and time again this year that he is utterly incapable of protecting our defence. It used to be that he provided some attacking worth with his “hollywood balls” and set piece abilities, but those have both gone as well. Honestly, I would rather have Lucas in front of our defence; he’s not much quicker but at least he’s positionally savvy.
Speaking of our defence, Dejan Lovren needs to be dropped. The only reason he’s playing ahead of Kolo Toure is because he cost £20m. He makes the same mistakes every single game and shows no signs of learning, whether it’s a poor clearance, a botched tackle or just simply giving the ball away in a dangerous position. There’s no sign of that commanding presence we expected; instead he just messes everything up. It’s come to the point when the rare occasion he does something right is considered a highlight.
I’d much rather have Sakho ahead of him, but for whatever reason Rodgers doesn’t seem to like him (he’d never have bought Lovren otherwise). Now that he’s back from injury, he needs to be given a look in. Surely he can’t do any worse?
Finally, we turn to Glen Johnson.
Glen fucking Johnson.
Why is he in this team? The man has produced only two decent performances since his form spiralled at the end of Rodgers’ first season. We now have three full-backs better than him: Moreno, Manquillo and Flanagan, though granted the latter is injured. I can only assume Moreno was being rested for Ludogorets, because I can’t think of a single reason that Johnson deserves to be in the team ahead of him.
Johnson has gone from just being incompetent to completely lacking effort as well. For Palace’s second goal, the attacker rushed past him with the ball and he just… gave up. Ambled back toward his goal. Didn’t even break into a light jog. No attempt at tracking back whatsoever. I assumed that Johnson had become lax due to a lack of competition since he signed. Now we have two new fullbacks capable of doing better than him, and still he cannot up his game.
He used to offer something going forward, but now even that threat has disappeared. The sooner he’s moved on, the better.
It’s not the sole answer to our problems. But you have to wonder, how much longer can these guys continue being awful before they pay the price?
Hopefully, not long now.
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His judgement rather than his courage is more worrying. Only Sturridge and Coutinho have been good signings under his management so far (transfer committee are also at fault).
yea. you are right,but you did not include raheem sterling.i think this lad is also underperforming.but rogers has failed to notice this,i think the major problem with BR is his inability to identify those players who are underperforming.sterling gerrad lovren johnson mignolet even henderson are all playing below expectation.yet these guys are all regular starters,he need a strong commanding 4 who can win the ball for coutinho who has the most eye for passes in the team more than any other player.but i get surprised at times when coutinho is benched in some matches.we would have had a better team if we ha another coutinho in the team.coutinho’s services is mostly needed in this team .he should also play emre chan regularly.atleast he is stronger and faster than gerrad.let him also give marcovic the chance to prove himself.he cannot improve on the bench.infact i love that team that played against madrid at benebeou.
Not only them 3,skrtel nd mignolet have been shocking,just not good enough
Johnson have to go and we need two more hot sitrika and one Diffensive midffid
I agree with chibyk on the issue of coutinho and steling.even when coutino is playing well and sterling underperforming you gt surprised to see coutunho being substituted.I think coutinho is far far better than sterling. Sterling on numerous occasions loses possession unnecessarily BT plays e whole 90mins.I think BR’s problem starts rightly from buying poor players and further extends to poor selection of the team.again sakho plays well and has good ability on passing the ball but u jus don’t see him playing.
Lovern and lallana are transfers pushed through by Brendan so he must play them last year sahko played well this year he could have been better but Lovern was brought in and given the starting job. I guess after 12 games and many errors that contributed to goals Lovern still plays but brendan tells the media that players earn there playing time if that’s the case glen johnson should not be allowed within 100 yards of the pitch.