…BUT pretty soon, we’re going to need to start seeing some return on that sentiment. Saturday was a massive disappointment but we’ll have to just put it down as ‘one of those days’.
It was a perfect summation of everything that went wrong last season; the effort was there, the approach play (for the most part), with Liverpool having almost 60% possession and creating 16 chances.
All this despite being down to 10 men for much of the second half, and being in complete disarray for the final 20 minutes, but things just wouldn’t go our way.
Giving your team the kind of support that we do though, the kind that involves us swallowing bitter pills like Saturday afternoon and continuing to support the manager and the players is all well and good but, eventually, needs to see some returns. The league season is only one game old, there are another 37 remaining and I’m still confident that we’ll see big improvements and I’m counting on the cup competitions to supplement and, eventually, assist in these improvements. Unlike last season when the cup competitions were merely a distraction from the previous weekends’ league disaster.
However, it’s hard not to be baffled at how Liverpool continue to lose to teams that should be much easier to beat than they make it seem.
Prior to last season, I wrote an article stating how I believed that Liverpool’s squad was – at that time – slightly better than United’s, man-for-man, in my opinion. It drew a lot of ire from United fans around the web and, in some ways, I could see where I’d maybe given some Liverpool players more credit than they deserved. Given the performances of some of our signings over the course of last season, I would probably change my ratings on at least a handful. Just goes to show what a wonderful thing hindsight is.
Though, I stand firm on my opinion that we have a much stronger spine than United and, apart from City, and possibly Chelsea, I don’t think there are many better than what would be considered our ‘spine’; Reina, Skrtel, Agger, Lucas, Gerrard and Suarez. Those are six top players; six of the very best in the league.
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Already this summer Manchester City have courted Agger and Skrtel, Barcelona too have been linked with the Dane. Juve were after Suarez all summer and any manager in their right mind – if they thought they had a chance – would take your hand off for Gerrard and Lucas. And despite having a shaky season (by his high standards) last year, Reina remains one of the best ‘keepers in the league.
So if you supplement those six with the likes of Johnson, Enrique, Allen, Borini, Downing and so on, the question still remains: why do we struggle so much, particularly against weaker opposition? Even with a new manager, with new ideas and a new ideology, the quality of such players should always see you through, provided those players are putting in the required effort. It’s one of those questions that can only be answered over the course of the season.
I have no doubt that Brendan Rodger’s Barca-esque philosophies will eventually turn us into Scouse-lona but in the meantime, it’s a process of hard work, learning and, more often than not, relying on the quality of the players at his disposal to see us through until then. Which is why I’m sure I’m not alone in being utterly baffled by Saturday’s result and hoping that it’s the first of very few major blips in what should otherwise be a season of steady progression.
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But we need to upgrade the squad with atleast two more signings from abroad
the fact i?????s????? We need 2 good sharp strikers , because that’s our problem because suarez i?????s????? never a striker but can always asist by creating chances
I often wonder how coaches see the game as we fans seethe ball moved from player to player ,they see patterns and phases and know how many passes it should take to create a chance . LFC have it mastered just need more selfish front players to take a shot and not shoot for perfection .It maybe a factor on the number of times LFC hit the woodwork last season.I would love to see stats on how many of the players take shots at goal.Bottom line take your chances you can beat any team on the day.
Suarez: A world class player. The only real world class player in our team. Only problem is his finishing which is not always as clinical as it should be. This could improve if he were surrounded by better players as he would not have the burden of having to create everything himself and finish all the chances on his own. Hopefully assaidi and borini are going to be a step up on downing and caroll respectively and we would be able to witness the best of suarez…
Reina: Very poor last season. He cost us many points with his countless blunders and half assed attempts to save goals. If he does not recapture his form of long ago he should be replaced…
Agger and Skrtel: Awesome when the two play together. Maybe one of the best central defender partnership in the whole league. They even contributed in scoring vital goals for us last season when our attackers could not do crap…
Gerrard: Old player and past his best. Anonymous performance again in our opening match against west brom that we lost 3-0. We need another playmaker in the midfield 3. Gerrard is not up to the job anymore. He need to be benched like carragher and played only in carling cup…
Lucas: Overrated player undeserving of the exaggerated praise he gets from most LFC supporters. He is decent but nothing extraordinary. What he does in team is to be expected of any decent holding mifielder. His skills are very limited: he cant dribble, cant shoot, cant cross, cant score, cant assist…I never heard any manager enquiring about him. Nobody wants him except at liverpool. If he was as good as everyone seems to believe he is why does real madrid or barcelona not rush to sign him.
Shut up Death! You speak as your name! Gilberto Silva was at Arsenal; when he left arsenal crumbled! Could he cross; dribble blah; blah? NO but he was uniquely impt! Same with Makelele leaving Real Madrid!
You are obviously new to football role concept so pls learn before voicing ignorance!
Beyond having very good players – it’s all about belief, confidence and winning mentality.
I’m certain BR will be looking at the details and bigger picture with a view to addressing the root cause.
One of his ideas is to create better quality chances/goal scoring opportunities. This aspect cannot come to fruition soon enough for me ‘cos blasting 25 yarders in to row z is disheartening for all.
I’m confident we’ll improve over the course of the season, overall. The addition of Dempsey would help and hopefully Assaidi will transfer his youtubability(tm) to our benefit.
Lucas as one the 6 best? Are you smoking your kellogs??? Lucas is better off in the Greek league with some obscure team like Poke Selina.
If Roy Keane (I hate the mancunian scum team like mad) was playing Lucas’ place against WBA, we may have made a fist of the challenge and would have ended the game at 2-2.
Gerrad has been persistently under performing the last season and this season seems just as worse. I think he is better off playing deeper as age is a critically sobering factor.
I am optimistic that if we get Sahin and one extra winger, drop Lucas and Downing, play 2 wingers, Allen, Sahin Gerrard and Suarez. If Gerrard underperforms in the first 15 minutes, sub him and bring on Borrini, Suso or Sterling.
And please please dont play Carra at all this season unless we are 3-0 up with 2 mins 5 seconds on the clock.
Shut up Slave Templar!
You are drunk with delusion! The guy Lucas just came back from 8 MONTHS injury yet he played better than Gerrard who was fit all along!
The writer was talking abt a fit Lucas whose statistics thumps that of Busquet when they wr both fit!
2 minutes, 5 secconds. Emmmmm! and no extra time after that either!!!
Fedup of the bigger picture, we need results.
The problem with liverpool is that we have only one good enough player in the goal scoring portion of the team namely Suarez! Gerrard is a shadow of himself cos of age and injury history!
All big teams that demolish small teams easily always have 4 to 5 of the Suarez quality player with high tactical ability; confidence and personality! They win the match when its not working right because of their ego and ambition! Or/and players with extraordinary althletic speed or pace to burn!
Man city has them aplenty : Yaya; Aguero; Tevez; Silva; Nasir (half); Kompany!
Tothenham had them too: Adebayo; Bale; Modric; Lennon; Walker(half)
The scums have: Rooney; Nani; Valencia; Vidic;
Arsenal had RVP n Song; Theo; Ox(half); Arteta(half); Rosicky(half) Vermalen; Geovi(half); maybe now Podoski
Chelsea had Drogba; now maybe: Hazard; Mata; Marin; Ramirez; Ivanovic(half); Terry!
Newcastle has Ba; Cisse; Tiote; Ben alfa; Cabaye; Guttierez; all small but effective unit!
Liverpool has Suarez and Gerrard(half)! Mark them out and the team victor propensity becomes impotent!
These guys are game changers and match winners in their own right!
Liverpool needs 3 more of such players to beat smaller teams consistently!