The main problem I encounter in this scenario is trying to understand where Meireles would fit within a 4-4-2 system with a defensive midfield partner – paired with Lucas, for example. I envisage this as being the system Liverpool will use next season.
In a 4-4-2, it is safe to assume that Gerrard will be first choice next season alongside Lucas in the centre of the park. Meireles simply cannot play in a 4-4-2 alongside Gerrard. The idea is nonsensical, as neither player has the defensive discipline to play in such a system. Furthermore, to use Gerrard as the defensive partner in such a double act would be a waste of his talents, the idea of Meireles in the defensive role is ludicrous. This is also why I feel that the acquisition of Henderson, and now the reported move for Adam both make a lot of sense.
It is notable that Dalglish often played two holding midfield players last season when incorporating Meireles in the side. This suggests that Dalglish recognises Meireles is lacking defensively and also recognises that he needs covering.
Meireles is not a ball winning, ball playing dynamo such as Steven Gerrard, there are few that are. A player needs a terrific engine in such a role, which is why it is interesting to hear both Comolli and Dalglish refer to Henderson’s exceptional stamina and athleticism. Doubts have been raised over the ability of Meireles in this regard – as he was the most frequently subbed player at Liverpool last season.
For these reasons that I propose that perhaps Kenny does not think that Meireles is a viable option as a box-to-box central midfielder in a flexible 4-4-2 style line-up. In my view, such a system will be utilised by Liverpool in 11/12 in order to get the best from Andy Carroll.
This view is reinforced by the moves for first Henderson and now Charlie Adam, whose swifter passing style and range, and his superior set-piece prowess would surely offer a better option than Meireles to the side if he were to arrive. Adam’s delivery to Carroll, from both central and wide areas could become a big factor in our play next season – and I would also expect him to exploit Suarez’ movement superbly. There are question marks over his Adam’s fitness perhaps, but not his commitment, and his willingness to get stuck in. In theory the superior facilities and medical/fitness teams at Anfield should do him no harm either, not to mention being surrounded by better players.
As a result of his defensive shortcomings (which I will discuss further in a moment) Meireles got a lot of his first-team action last season playing up front, or more accurately, playing off a striker. He was deployed in this role at various stages of the campaign, such as when playing off either Torres, Kuyt or even Ngog earlier in the season under Roy Hodgson – who also chose to deploy the Portuguese on both the left and right midfield on various occasions. Decisions which irked many Reds fans at the time.
Upon the arrival of Dalglish, Raul found yet more game-time up-front. In part however, this was due to the lack of striking options at Anfield. As a result of the departures of Torres and Babel and with injuries to both new signing Andy Carroll and Dutch International Dirk Kuyt – Meireles often found himself playing off a partner up front. However, as Kuyt and Suarez gradually became established as an effective pairing – and as Carroll began to return to fitness, Meireles was once more shunted wide.
His performances out wide, whilst better than Kuyt’s efforts on the flanks, were still not good enough to support a claim for a starting place there. It is clear to see that Meireles is simply not a wide-man – and that he was forced wide out of necessity. By the time next season begins, I do not see him being our Liverpool’s right midfielder – do you?
It is hard to envisage Meireles finding many more opportunities to play in a supporting role up front next year. With Dirk Kuyt finally being deployed as a striker and (fingers crossed) destined never to go near a touchline again, and with Carroll and Suarez as our first-choice options and talk of additional signings in the pipeline – both up front and on the flanks – it appears that Meireles’ potential starting positions at Anfield are being gradually squeezed out.
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Exellent article..true 100 percent..we need fighter like gerrard ,suarez ,kuyt,carrager,caroll,..all over the pitch.liverpool need fighters all around the pitch.maxi ,jcole and mereles are players who plas good when the whole team plays good..Adam is a fighter and can control the midfield better than raul mereles..but i prefer fernando gago more than adam due to his technical ability.
same here m8 ferando gogo better player
No thx. Adam is lazy, quite the opposite of a fighter. Meireles can tackle and run, Adam can’t do neither. Meireles > Adam > Henderson. We MUST keep Meireles. Top player.
A well written article, but some of the statements don’t really tie in with reality. I don’t think many people would agree that Meireles played a wide role better than Kuyt. While many people don’t like Kuyt on the wing, he has proven to be one of our most effective players over the last few years. Meireles on the other hand, rarely looked comfortable when playing out wide. He was more effective when pushing forward in a free role.
I don’t think he is as bad defensively as the author suggests, he plays the central midfield role for Portugal. He was out-muscled on occasion but once he is more used to the premier league, he’d adapt.
I hope we keep him, and get Adam. Adam could provide balance in a 4-3-3 as we don’t have any other central midfielders that are left footed. Aurelio was often deployed as the 3rd midfielder om 4-3-3 (when fit).
If u want unexciting predictable football support another team. Miereles is unpredicatable but exciting. Like Suarez who often looses the ball and wayward passes. A whole team like these would be a mess. A whole team of predictable SOLID players would be boring. A mixture if the 2 is good. Yes sign the Britsh boring solid players but sign some unpredictable exciting foreigners too. YNWA
To be honest he won’t make into the midfield of the other top 4 sides. He is good but shy in the tackle, Adam is an obvious upgrade, he can put in a tackle and is great on set pieces.
“umer …u fool! Adam an upgrade…Meireles is twice the footballer of Adam…Also had the brains to clear a good few goals off the goal line.
get gago insted
The only reason Kenny is thinking of selling Meireles is because he does not fit his ridiculous policy of being young and British. Without Meireles last season the team would not have finished 6th and some so called fans have no idea of how much he contributed to the team’s cause. Apart from Gerrard, who was injured most of the time, Meireles was the only midfielder who possessed the creativity, vision and range of passing. It would make no sense to sell a Portuguese international who made such a large contribution to the team.
The signing of Henderson and possibly Adam should not signal the departure of Meireles. Henderson has potential to be a fantastic box to box midfielder but at this stage he is nowhere near as good as Meireles in terms of technical ability and range of passing. I do not expect Henderson to come in and walk straight into the side and replace Meireles. Adam is clearly inferior to Meireles. The only reason he has shined is because he has been the big fish in the small pond in a rubbish Blackpool team filled with League One standard players. Adam is not cut for Liverpool and it would be ludicrous if Kenny was to sell Meireles just to make way for Adam.
Kenny should seriously forget about the overrated Adam. Meireles is a much better player who offers more quality in midfield than Adam. Kenny should be looking to sell the likes of Poulsen, Spearing and Aquilani instead. It would make no sense whatsoever to sell Meireles.
The every first thing I thought when I heard about that £14m bid, was his age and his defensive incapacities – take the cash. He sure is an exciting talent, but sometimes financially, it may not necessarily be the best option. If we remember, we are still in a transition period which last for 2 to 3 years. We must not be impatient. In King Kenny we trust. JFT96 & YNWA!
Agreed.
British midfielders are not very good at keeping a football; it would be wise to remember that before getting rid of Meireles.
I do not agree. I think the teams that finished top four all had british midfielders.
Mereiles was Liverpools best attacking midfielder last season.. he was crucial in Liverpool’s turn of fortune with brilliant goals vs Everton and Chelsea. And sell a player that has contributed so much for one that possibly doesn’t suit a top tier team? Yes Adams is good, but is he made for Liverpool? I mean, Roy was a top coach, but did not suit Liverpool, top for the lower class teams like WB, Fulham. Same goes for Adams. Mereiles has international experience. And who says he is weak defensively? He has prevented many goals going in last season (atleast as far as i remember) by saving on the goal line.
Best attacking midfielder out of how many attacking midfielders??? The goals he scored for us against Everton and Chelsea were made possible because of the position he played in. Kenny’s wisdom. We sold Torres after he did so much for us and I, for one, am glad we did. And he is weak defensively which is why he was never left in the middle on his own, always had a player behind him to watch his back. I Like Mereiles but I agree with the writer, say thanks for your contribution but times are changing and you don’t want to spend the majority of next season on the bench. That would not be fair to him.
Kenny Dalglish will not win Premier League if he is going to replace a top talent like Meireles with overrated British players like Adam. If Liverpool are to stand any chance of getting back into the top four they need to forget about this ridiculous transfer policy of targeting young but clearly overrated British players. Kenny needs to keep Meireles, a top midfielder, and look to bring in world class foreign talent like Mata. Forget about overrated and overpriced British players like Adam and Downing, these guys are not the sort of quality that will get the team back into the top four.
we need to keep meireless for next season.there is no need to sign adam we can use that money to sign juan mata.adams is overrated if he good why didnt he help his team blackpool to escaped relegation.we need to use some of that money to increase his wage.
chris, i would have loved to give a reply to ur childish comment but u’ll need to learn ur tenses first.
Hmm. I think you should re-read your own comment and decide whether or not it was wise to criticise someone else’s grammar or punctuation, pal. “ur”? What are you, 12?
The reason we have this discussion is because Inter “allegedly” has a £14m for him. Perhaps they did (or did not) so seeing that we would have a surplus in midfield according to our transfer activities this summer. Nothing really indicates that we wanted to sell him.
Quality player – We certainly need another defensive player like him to compete with Lucas & Spearing. A shame about the homesickness though, Unfortunately it doesn’t look too promising.
hehe – If you’re confused – the above comment was intended for the Gago article.
14m for Mereiles. The kitty still has another 40 odd mil.
Sell only on the proviso that you’re bringing in someone clearly better.
Makes sense to sell given fair play next year. He’d be 29
Thanks for the comments folks. Personally I do admire Meireles’ attacking qualities – and like many of you, Adam is not exactly my dream signing either – but I’m not in charge at the club and the Adam move is looking increasingly likely. I was just trying to see the positives Adam could bring to the side – he could turn out be a great player for us, and it does seem Meireles will have a lot of competition next year.
I didn’t mean to be so hard on Kuyt either Chris,sorry – but I’m pretty sure most of us would agree that neither Kuyt or Meireles is the answer on the right. It’s difficult to predict how we’ll line-up next year – Kenny is full of surprises after all, but I strongly feel that the Carroll factor will mean a 4-4-2 next year. Under Dalglish however, a 4-4-2 will anything but ‘rigid’ – I have high hopes, but we’ll see!
Cheers again for the responses and opinions folks. Funny stuff this football writing – the first story I write and some guy on another site has accused me of being “a hack who is out to destroy Liverpool….” lol. It’s a cut-throat world out there – I meant no harm! If he only knew how much I love the ‘Pool!!!
EVER BANEGA
dont need to say anything more
do any of you remember the times where he played alongside Lucas in central midfield? Raul was never a (good) attacking midfielder. the times that he played alongside Lucas was probably the most effective role that he was given, so i think, if he were to stay, he would be paired with Lucas in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Gerrard in front him. One of his better attributes is his distribution so it would make sense if he were to play that role instead of a more attacking one (We have Gerrard for that). That is his role in Porto and Portugal, so why change what is already comfortable to him?