There is a certain myth around Liverpool FC that needs to be broken, a lie that we tell ourselves as Liverpool fans that we need to stop pervading, and it is that some senior players can do no wrong. When Liverpool perform well these players are lauded; praised for their awesome influence on ordinary mortals that made these secondary players perform above their usual level. They may have provided no goals, assists or even any defence-splitting passes, or match-winning tackles, and they may, themselves, have performed decidedly averagely but it will have been them that instigated the win, nonetheless. However, when the result goes badly or the team performs badly, they are exonerated of all blame and it’s as if they weren’t even on the field when the game took place; Lucas, Skrtel, Ngog or another ‘lesser’ player will be the fall guys instead. At the moment, there are three players that are performing well, well below par on a regular basis and have so far – mostly – avoided criticism, or been dropped.
For so long, Liverpool FC fans have dreamed of a team of Carraghers. Now, sadly, seeing even one Jamie Carragher in a Liverpool side is an indication that errors may be made and the defence may be shaky. That is not to say that the defensive fragility Liverpool have shown this season is entirely Carragher’s fault; it isn’t, but he has become a shadow of himself in the past 2 months. Whether or not our vice-Captains performances are just a symptom of wider problems or not, the simple fact remains: he needs to be dropped, if not least of all for the good of the team but also for the good of his own confidence. A spell out of the first team – however much he might resent it – can only be good for Carragher’s mental state of mind. For so long he has been un-droppable, and not for a moment is that to suggest that Jamie has let his performance drop through laziness, or feeling overly secure in his position but he has become stale, irritable and when Liverpool come under pressure he is beginning to resemble a wild man; screaming at officials and blaming his team-mates for his own mistakes. He is making more mistakes than usual; showing uncharacteristic lapses in concentration and needs to be taken out of the fray, at least for a few weeks. Give Agger his place back and see what Skrtel and Agger can do together to shore up a leaking defensive line. At the age Carragher is at now, any serious drop in form could be permanent if left to deteriorate further, and if Agger is not given games soon, we could risk losing them both.
Secondly, Steven Gerrard needs to take a moment to address what is happening with his performances and his inconsistent form. One minute, he’s scoring two goals in 10 minutes against Man Utd, the next; he’s going missing for entire games at a time. I’m well aware of Gerrard’s match winning attributes, and if it hadn’t been for his goals in the past 2 league games, the results would’ve looked much worse than they did by the end but had the Captain been performing, marshalling his troops and just generally putting in a good shift himself, then it’s likely that the results would never have needed ‘saving’ in the first place. Now, this is not a slight on Gerrard’s abilities, his value to the team or his status as a genuine, rock-solid world class midfielder but at times last season was perhaps his worst in recent memory and this season has started similarly. If his goals contributions of the past couple of weeks are not to be a wasted catalyst, then our Captain needs to be the man to stand up and be counted, and give the rest of the side – lost, disillusioned and seemingly bereft of guidance as they are at the moment – an example (and one that has, all too often, not been there lately) to follow. An alternative to this would be to take the Captaincy away from Gerrard, pass it to another well-respected team-mate; who is capable of leading from the front (or back) – Reina. The freedom Gerrard would be given could enable him to concentrate solely on getting his own game back in order. As big and as hard as he may be Gerrard is one of our most mentally fragile players. Whatever the reason may be, something is affecting his form, in terms of game-to-game consistency and cannot be allowed to influence the rest of the side by proxy. Gerrard is our best player that much is fact but he cannot be allowed to escape criticism; not if we are all to remain in our belief that no man is bigger than the club.
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Every player has their ups and downs. Not a single player can be on song forever. The real problem is Hodgson isn’t playing the right players in their right position. Liverpool did A LOT better once N’gog came in for Poulsen against Sunderland. Which means Liverpool play better with a 4-4-2 formation. As for Carragher, he never had the speed but is still a great defender. He gives a 110% to get the ball cleared but sometimes against strikers like Tevez and Rooney he may just lose out because he lacks speed. And Johnson is caught off position on quite a few occasions already. As for the left-back, we lack speed and quality.
Therefore, I would say this is the best team Hodgson can fork up at least until the January transfer window re-opens…
Reina
Johnson – Skrtel – Agger – Aurelio
Kuyt – Gerrard – Mereiles – Cole
Torres – N’gog
Shopping list for January transfer window :
Fabio Coentrao for 8M – He is a superb left-back, full of pace and is capable of running pass defenders. He’s like a left-footed Glen Johnson who loves going forward with the ball and getting shots on goal as well as supplying good balls into the box. We can get Mereiles to persuade him to sign for Liverpool.
Javi Martinez for 15M – Young, has a great eye, really fast, good in the air(excellent for set-pieces), could be the next Xabi Alonso(a void that couldn’t be filled since Xabi left) and at 21 he is a heck load better than Lucas.
Juan Mata for 14M – He’d be the solution to the lack of depth on the left-wing(something that has been missing for quite sometime now). He has the pace, the ability and a great mind . He is one talented young man. Plus he will cope well with Torres. It’d be fantastic to see him play for Liverpool.
Patrick Helmes for 17M – Forget Carlton Cole, N’gog is almost as good as him. If we want a quality striker, I would say Helmes is what we’re looking for. Torres and Helmes would be unstoppable. No defence can destruct the partnership of this two huge talents(considering he can adapt to the PL and that they can work together).
You mean fantasy football shopping list for January…?
I agree with you emphatically. For me Gerrard has been the furthest below par, by a very long way, the whole of last season and most of this season so far. The quality of his first touch and passing have been shocking for over a year now. Torres in the middle, I think he’s been below par but also in and out with injury. When you look at his statistics per appearance he has been ok; although far below his par. Carragher has been inconsistent on his feet and poor in the air for the last year too. I find it distressing to watch football players of such clear and obviously high quality perform so far below their abilities when wearing a LFC shirt.
Well said Rusty
Agger and Skrtel deserve a mention for the number of clear cut scoring opportunities they have missed between them in the last 2 years. Every corner or free kick at least one of them trots up to the opposition goal. They run about, they beat their markers, they get in the air, they get to the ball and the miss consistently, from point blank range. They are supposed to be world class defenders. In my book they will never find me calling them world class until they can convert those chances. I feel that we really have lost our edge in dead ball situations since Hyppia departed. Kyrgiakos poses some real aerial threat but Agger and Skrtel are supposed to be extremely high quality football players. Perhaps they are overrated. They need to think about what it takes to be first choice at a club like LFC. They need to stop missing from 3 yards.
Move Johnson further up the pitch & give Kelly a game in defence Johnson defends like a headless chook chook. Kelly is solid and would learn a great deal from Carra Agger n Skirtel.
I CAN’T BELIEVE we shelled out 17m for Johnson at the moment. Christ, I mean even Finnan was doing a better job at the back. As someone said above his positional sense is really NILL. He needs to be dropped and let Kelly have a run out, can it get much worse?
I don’t think the answer is to take away Gerrards captaincy or sell Torres but I do agree Carragher has been below par for one or two seasons now. I’ve been calling for Agger-Skrtel for quite some time. Let Carragher jump in the big games, Maldini-style. On another note, is it just me or have you forgot the last time you saw SG blast one in? I seriously can’t remember when and I don’t think he is anywhere near the player he was 2 years ago. And I can’t get over the damn fact that Hodgson insists on playing him that deep. Meireles is supposed to be a good box to box player and clean up infront of the back 4 and at the same time give the occasional pass ot SG to strive forward. But playing Gerrard that deep does not unleash his full potential, its blasemphy tbh.
Agree with giving Carra some time on the bench and try Agger / Skrtel in the central defence but other than, I would characterise this article as rubbish. One you have completely overlooked is Johnson who has been less than good to put it diplomatically and I would like to see him benched for a game or two with Kelly stepping. For your information, Torres has been involved in 5 of our 6 goals, while not firing on all cylinders. Imagine when he gets more game time and Roy shows some guts and try a 4-4-2 formation from time to time. Taking the captaincy from SG must be the joke of a football fan completely in the dark!
I had a disagreement with a chap in the Annie rd on Saturday.
As soon as Konchesky went off, I said good.
I thought it was an ideal opportunity to play 3-5-2 and really go for it.
The lad said “watch match are you watching ?” (trying to be clever in front of his mates)
I simply said, because we have no wingers, everytime Konchesky or Johnson go down the wing, they have to come inside because they have no-one to pass to down the flanks.
He was having none of it.
I said look how deep Gerrard is playing, we’re nearly playing with 3 holding midfielders at the minute.
The score was 1-1 at the time.
Nearing halftime Johnson gave the ball away yet again, the chap stood up, shouted….F F S, get your sh*t together, we’re getting beat.
Perfect opportunity for me to say….”It’s 1-1 watch match are You watching!”
My point was simple.
Reina
Carra, Agger Skrtel
Johnson Meireles Cole Kuyt
Gerrard
Torres Ngog
With the subs we have the possibilities are mind are massive. we have so many players capable of playing in multiple positions, We should be going for teams by the jugular.
Flauvio – I thought Torres had scored one and one assist. other players were probably involved in the goals as well. don’t suppose taking the armband off Gerrard’s a good idea. I think a kick up the arse is a better idea!! the article is talking about the three who are thought to be our best players who arent performing.
If Johnson was not British the knives would be out. £17 million, that price is extremely high for the level of performance he turns in. Perhaps he is commercially valuable? I didn’t think that we were that sort of club.
@Jim – Finnan picked up a long term injury just after we sold him, there may have been something to that?
I can’t believe we sold Arbeloba. According to Wikipedia we paid £4 million for Alvaro Arbeloba, the Deportivo misfit we got £3.5 Million for Alvaro Arbeloba, the Spain international. He now plays his football for Real Madrid and recently picked up a World Cup winners medal. Is Johnson really more than 4 times more valuable than Arbeloba, I just can’t see it.
Rusty you are so right – pity some fans didn’t see how good Arbeloa was when he played for us – he used to get a lot of stick.
Johnson is excellent going forward and can strike the ball very well with both feet, score great goals and provide decent crosses. The only problem is he can’t defend (in my opinion). I think Roy should let him loose on the right wing, I mean if you can convert kuyt into a winger then Johnson should hit the ground running. This is a great article as no LIVERPOOL player should be above criticism, when they deserve it.
My left ball – been said on here before about Johnson – agreed then and agree with you now. None of the team are performing YET this season and the three mentioned have got to stand up and be counted and yes, good article.
Sammi Hyppia was a massive loss to Liverpool. He was the real leader at Anfield. Gerrard and Carragher have looked average since his Sami’s leadership on and off the field is gone. He was a better defender than Carra and a better voice than Stevie.
you cant blame the three mentioned in the article above as it is the whole team that are not playing well even though they should be the ones that lift the team,i hate doing this but my line-up would be
reina
kelly skrtel agger
johnson aurelio/konchesky
carra
stevie meireles/cole
ngog/cole
torres
yes carra has lost what pace he had but would make the perfect defensive midfielder as he has not lost his reading of the game and can stay ahead that way ,konchesky or aurelio(when fit)at left back but they both need to brush up on defensive duty,as does johnson at right wing.
this line up although unlikely to happen would give us the best of both worlds with attacking players and two of which (johnson and a left back)
can cover in defense (hopefully)when they are needed
YNWA
SORRY DID IT AGAIN COS IT MESSED UP WHAT THE TEAM WOULD LINE-UP LIKE
you cant blame the three mentioned in the article above as it is the whole team that are not playing well even though they should be the ones that lift the team,i hate doing this but my line-up would be
——————reina———————————-kelly——skrtel——agger—————johnson————————–aurelio/konchesky
——————carra———————————–stevie—————meireles/cole———————-ngog/cole————————————————torres———————–
yes carra has lost what pace he had but would make the perfect defensive midfielder as he has not lost his reading of the game and can stay ahead that way ,konchesky or aurelio(when fit)at left back but they both need to brush up on defensive duty,as does johnson at right wing.
this line up although unlikely to happen would give us the best of both worlds with attacking players and two of which (johnson and a left back)
can cover in defense (hopefully)when they are needed
YNWA
RE ROBS ARTICLE MESSED UP AGAIN BUT HEY-HO YOU GET THE IDEA
YNWA
REINA
KELLY -SKRTEL -AGGER
JOHNSON AURELIO/KONCHESKY
CARRA
STEVIE MEIRELES/COLE
NGOG/COLE
TORRES
3-5-1-1
REINA IN GOAL
KELLY SKRTEL AND AGGER BACK THREE
JOHNSON AND KONCH/AURELIO WING BACKS
CARRA DEFENSIVE MID
STEVIE AND MEIRELES/COLE ATTACKING MID
NGOG OR COLE STRIKER/SUPPLIERS
TORRES STRIKER
MAYBE THAT MAKES MORE SENSE
YNWA