STEVEN Gerrard recently gave an interview during his charity golf day where he reiterated his belief that Liverpool FC could and should challenge for the Top 4 places next season.
“The final five or six months of the season were fantastic, we showed fantastic form – I think it was top-four form,” Gerrard told LFC TV.
“We certainly finished the season really strong, but we were very inconsistent from August to Christmas – that’s the reason why we never managed to achieve what we set out to do, which was a top-four finish.”
Buoyed by the instant impacts of Sturridge and Countinho, Liverpool lost only one of our last 13 games. Even without Suarez we did play some scintillating football, the type that we wished we had played more regularly at the start of the season.
We have, so far, made four new signings, but none of them are big names with big reputations. While we certainly hope they settle quickly, a la Daniel and Philippe, it wouldn’t be too surprising if none of them were instant starters in the first team and were instead gradually introduced to see how they did.
Kolo Toure knows what the Premier League is all about, but Martin Skrtel was player of the season the year before last and, if we don’t buy another top centre-half before the start of the season, I hope Martin is given a chance to show what he’s capable of. He’ll certainly be motivated after losing his place to Carra last season, the signing of Toure and the return to fitness of Martin Kelly.
Iago Aspas is a tricky, skilful and intelligent winger. But coming from the Spanish League to the Premier League is a big change. And coming from a struggling Celta Vigo side to one of the greatest ever football clubs is an even bigger step. Iago hasn’t been prolific in his career so far, partly as he’s played in a weak team and at times out wide, and it may take him a little time to adapt. Hopefully his tenacious hard working spirit will help.
Luis Alberto is just a talented youngster from Sevilla, who played recently played with Barcelona B, so he is going to experience an even bigger step up, and while Mignolet won’t have too many qualms about the Premier League, he may find it difficult to displace Pepe Reina if the popular Spaniard stays.
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In many ways the signings so far have strengthened the squad rather than the 1st team. It would be brave to say that just because we showed Top 4 form for the second half of the season we will do it from the start of next season, particularly since we’ll be without Luis for the first 6 games (or potentially without him forever).
Other teams have strengthened and will continue to do so. Players of the quality of Paulinho joining Spurs for £17m, Schurrle joining Chelsea for £18m and Fernandinho joining Man City for £30m. While there has been managerial changes at the top clubs, the arrivals of quality managers like Mourinho and Pellegrino are likely to reinvigorate their respective teams.
Perhaps the biggest improvement that needs to be made for Liverpool to improve lies within Brendan Rodgers himself. He is still a young and very inexperienced manager, but he has already spent more money net than Rafa Benitez did in his entire time at LFC. He has had a year of bedding in and this is his time to show that he’s learnt from the mistakes he made during his first season.
Not merely the signings in the summer that made no discernible impact on the first team, or the silly comments to the media like claiming a 0-0 at Swansea City was always a good result, but in the key areas of team selections and tactics.
Last season we were often flat track bullies, playing very good football against weaker teams but getting things wrong against the better teams. Sometimes the players let the club down in these big games, but so often the team selection was clearly wrong and Brendan Rodgers continually lost the tactical battle against the more experienced opposition manager. This is where Brendan needs to show improvement.
And if he does, and the new players gel quickly, and we get a couple more players in, and we are able to recapture the form we had at the end of the season from the first kick-off against Stoke, then perhaps we have a better chance than most suspect.
If we don’t make top 4 this season, or at least don’t get very, very close, Brendan will be looking for a new job this time next season. The stakes are high. But they should be. We are Liverpool FC and finishing 7th last season, below Everton, wasn’t anywhere near good enough.
You can catch more from me on my own blog: http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/
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Not a hope in hell. Unless some quality players are signed. No
Totally agree but with comments by suarez today we might see a shake up in our transfer policy coz i think he has crossd the line beyond tolerance…
No not if we lose Suarez. We’re back in the Torres era again, the club brings in talented players and the star striker has a hissy fit and decides to do one. I’d make him park his backside on the bench for the season as that would hurt him more than anything, he hates not being able to play. But if the club decide to let him go £60M is the minimum they should accept. Clubs need to stand up to players when they sign a contract, it is just that a contract that has to be honoured, as LFC have honoured their side of the bargain even after his shenanigans.
Rodgers and LFC have not managed this well. Luis did this at Groningen and at Ajax. I can’t blame him too much for wanting champs league, but I can for giving fake reasons like Press and incessantly blabbering to the media. Very disrespectful.
Torres? We replaced him instantly . The trick was to sign anyone but Carrol and we would ha doubled his contribution
nice article! ……
Thanks!
Not with Rodgers as boss . He just doesn’t have the managerial ability or tactical awareness
Ei tommy shut up. Why re u guys blaming rodgers when the fsg’s are not giving out the money. All u know is to critiscise. Which manager in ur opinion will b gud 4 us? Let everybody hear u now
Yeah . You need to wise up. Rodgers spent 55 million plus last season. The 3rd highest net spend in the league. Do you even know what ‘net’ spend is ?
Rodgers is a failure and not suited to managing big clubs
Not a chance of top 4 ,
lol lol lol I don’t know where some pple will hide after spending the whole pre season slagging a manager they dont even have power to sack(thanks God) he is bussy sharpening his charges .Where will you run to when he is on a winnig streak no bodey will know if you are a fool if don’t open your mouth.
Your a fool twice over . 1, you can’t spell – it’s hard to take someone serious whom is obviously a child.
2, your stupid concerning football. Totally dumb !
thank uou maddam andry I’ll take spelling lessons so I can properly congratulate sir brendan at the end of the season see you then dumb.
Char you must be what , 5 or 6 years old ? Please. Try and learn about football b4 ignorant comment. Everyone with a brain can see Rodgers is poor
At least we now know where this rabid, blind support of Rodgers is coming from……………its the bloody kids.
Tottenham spending, Arsenal having a strong squad and wenger being a manager, chelsea having abromvic, man city having mansour, man utd having a strong squad and still wanna spend to quality players.. no top for us if fsg wont spend enough… but BR is a good manager…
fsg rodgers need money….if spur can buy pualinho witout ucl then we can sign any player if there is money…ucl next season ijn…ynwa.
Well,if we all who read what steven G said,u will know that he actually hit d nail hard on both players & managers mistakes & approach to some matches.
In my own judgement,our great club will surprise many people this season. We may not ve signed big names but if we remember well,big names don’t guarantee u medals or win but decent commitment from players & management along side team work assures those. If we can form a strong unit,we can challenge for cups not just a 4th place. We will not walk alone!!!
Anyone thinking Rodgers will get us top 4 can sign themselves up now for the lunatic asylum
Good article. Your just about the only author on this site Gabriel who writes a fair unbiased article . The rest are away with the fairies…..and no , not a prayer of top 4 under Rodgers . You know that too I think
Thanks stevieG.
For the past few yrs we av just been craving for top 4 not titles, is it that we ar not equal to task? I mean wat is hapnin to lfc? This players can not compete for top four cos the likes of totham,evertn and others ar workind harder to get there while teams like arsnal,chlsea and others will not want to compromise that position either. So we av got to wake up and face reality get competent players that can challange for title(epl) and not top four. We either wake up and face it or we keep crashing down to religation. Get ambitious defencive mildfielde and central mldfielders to make the team more competative.
The owners need to back B Rodgers properly with £30-£40M on top of whatever money B Rodgers can bring into club on player sales out wards: And then hopefully club can get back amongst top 4 as we have now not been in the champions league for five years/seasons and we have become a top 6-10 side in the last five years/season as at the moment there are 6 clubs with alot better equipped squads than us that have finished above us in last two seasons: Both Manchester Clubs, Arsenal, Chelsea , Everton and Tottenham and all those clubs are strengthening this year.
So owners need to back B Rodgers well as even the likes of Norwich, Swansea are spending more on players than us nowadays:
Rodgers has sold Shelvey for £5-£6m and Carroll for £15.5M-£16M, when T Ince is sold to either Cardiff or Swansea the club will receive £2-£4M of the fee.
That in itself should cover the 3 buys brought to club Alberto, Aspas and Mignolet.
K Toure was free transfer
Rodgers needs to ship out the other 8 dead wood average hard working players and re couperate: £20-£27M
1: GK: B Jones 2: RB: Flanagan 3: CB: Coates 4: Spearing
5: AM: Pacheco 6: RW / RWF: Assaidi 7: LW / LWF: Borini 8: FD: Borini
Then Rodgers needs to find out if P Reina and L Suarez plan to be around and fully committed to the cause for next 2-4 years: If Not, then both should be shipped out as soon as possible
Reina should be sold in swap deal with C Tello(21) Of Barcelona and £2M Cash Or he should be sold for £10-£14M with Arsenal and Napoli fans of his also
L Suarez should be sold for no less than £55M, he is currently the 3rd best player in the world behind Messi and Ronaldo. Neymar went to Barcelona for £61m including add ons and Real Madrid offered £65M+ in their opening bid for Bale, Cavani has buy out clause of £54M and Suarez is better than Bale, Cavani and Neymar so the owners and B Rodgers should stand firm and should not listen to no offers under £55M.
If anyone wants him, that is the minimum club should accept for Suarez, Suarez is and was a better player than Torres and club got £50M out of Torres sale, so club expect to get more from better player.
Then if the 8 dead wood players are sold and the two world class players we have are sold: 10 players in total:
Along with C Tello(21) in swap deal with P Reina.
Then 9 other players need to be brought to club: Five Defensive players and 4 Attacking Players: To bring more class, quality, quality competition for places and DEPTH to SQUAD:
And then we could have squad capable of competing with one another on all fronts all over the course of season:
Five/5: Defensive players: That should be brought in to bring more stability, competition, mobilty, power and Strength to Squad: Cost =£30-£50M
1: GK: A Mccarthy(23) Of Reading for £4-£7M to compete with Mignolet(25) for the next 3-8 years at club
2:CB: K Papadopolous(21) Of Schalke for £10-£16M to compete with Skrtel(28) for next 2 years. And then to take over from Skrtel
3:CB: Toby Alderweireld(24) Of Ajax for £7-£10M to compete with Agger(28) and Toure(32) for next 2-4 years and then to take over the mantle with K Papadopolous
4: LB: A Cissoko(25) Of Valencia for £2-£6M to compete with Enrique(26) For next two to three seasons.
5: DM: E Capoue(23) Of Toulouse for £7-£11M to compete with LUCAS(26) for the next 3- 5 years.
Four/4 Attacking players: Cost= £42-£62M
1: AM: I Munian(20) Of A Bilbao for £10-£15M to compete with Alberto(20) and Coutinho(20) for the next 5-10 seasons at club
2: LW/ LWF: D Capel(25) Of Sporting Clube De Portugal / Lisbon or B Arfa(26) Of Newcastle for £4-£10M to compete with Aspas and IBE for next 3- 4 seasons
3: FD: C Benteke(21) Of A Villa for £18-£22M to compete with Sturridge for the next 5-8 years at club
4: FD: L Muriel(23) Of Udinese for £10-£15M to compete with Benteke and Sturridge for the next 5-8 years at club.
These players would all bring more class, quality, quality competition and depth to squad: Only one player would cost over £20M but Goalscorers are worth their money
Rodgers is assembling a good side, but what the club does need that we currently lack within Squad is power, size, steel, strength and pace and speed. And the players I have mentioned we should bring to club would rectify all that
In Mccarthy(23) You have young hungry Gk who will want to compete and become No1 at club competing with Mignolet week in week out and both keeping one another on their toes.
In K Papadopolous(21), T Alderwierld(24), A Cissokho(25) and E Capoue(23), You have class, quality, qulaity competiton for places mobility, pace, power, speed, strength brought to Defensive side in Squad.
In Munian(20), You have another classy, creative magician in the Cazorla, Coutinho, Iniesta, Mata, Oscar, Sliva Mould with pace and speed in his locker who will compete with Alberto(20) and Coutinho(20) for that AM Role, these players will unlock the best teams in world. But they need mobility, movement pace and speed in front of them for their passing skills to be regularly shown.
In Arfa(26) OR Cape(25)l and Tello(21), Club would have two classy quick pacey direct wingers who the likes of Alberto, Coutinho and Munian would look to find at will with their pace, speed on break. These wingers have the pace and speed to trouble any side in world football and when we played the teams competing with us: Man United, Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton and Tottenham: The likes of Raphael, Evra, Zabaleta, Clichy, Sagna, Gibbs, Coleman, Baines, Walker and Essou – Ekotto will not be galavanting forward at will if we had these wingers on either wing against them, they would be forced to do more defending than attacking. And no matter how quick those full backs are: They will no the pace, speed they are up against would cause them problems all game and would have to be very cautious coming forward. Rogers should bring Capel and Tello to Anfield, both would keep teams stretched with their directness, movement, pace and speed. And Ibe and Sterling would learn their trade from two very direct lively class quality spanish wingers
In Benteke(21) and Muriel(23), club would have two powerful, mobile strikers, one has pace and speed( Muriel) The other is average speed and runs channels well with good movement but is a bully, good in the air and is a handful for any defender in world football(Benteke) both competing with D Sturridge(23) for the next 5-8 years. And all the three strikers would offer the club something different in attack
Denis . All this is wishful thinking. FSG are not willing to spend money so none of these will happen. Sad …but true
@ stevieG.
Stop talking sh*te. Liverpool are the third highest spenders over the last 4 seasons second only to Chelsea and Man City. Check the facts before spouting rubbish!!
Don’t be so stupid all the time. How much have we spent this summer ? Net ? 0.5m
You clown. You haven’t a clue
@ stevieG
Typical of a FOOL like you not to not to address the actual point! Your only retort being: ‘How much have we spent this summer?’ And this at a time when the transfer is only opened with just over a week!! They should really ban first class dopes like on any website!!
FSG need to back B Rodgers with at least £30-£40M of their own money and then he should be able to bring some money on players sold.
The 4 players he brought in : Alberto £6, Aspas £7.7M, Mignolet £9M and Toure on free Transfer should all be covered due to the sale of A Carroll. J Shelvey and J Spearing.
FSG now need to give Rodgers £30-£40M on transfers
And whatever he can bring in on the sales of the 7 dead wood average hard working now as Spearing has now been sold so the 7 dead wood players and the two world class players i mentioned. ( P Reina and L Suarez)
The 7 dead wood players should bring in £22-£25M
GK: Jones £1-£2M RB: Flanagan: £500,000 -£1M CB: Coates: £5-£7M
AM: Pacheco £1-£2M RW/ RWF: Assaidi £2-£3M LW /LWF: Downing £7-£9M
FD: Borini £7-£8M
BUT FSG Have to back B Rodgers with £30-£40M Transfer funds from their own pockets and the club would have £52/£55 – £62/65M to spend on players
And if owners and B Rodgers stand firm with L Suarez , he should not be sold for no less than £55M and P Reina should be sold for no less than £10M
Then our club would be able to bring in the class, quality and depth to get club back competing with the likes of United for the league again as being a top 6-10 team for last five seasons is simply not good enough and owners need to change that
I agree with all your sales, though I’d also sell Downing if there was an £8m offer (but as there won’t be we may as well keep him as a squad player) .i think I’d keep Borini for one more year as a squad player. Sturridge is a bit injury prone, if Suarez leaves late we may not get a replacement in time and we’ve no idea how Aspas will do. We need numbers for the cups and as Borini is fit now and still 21 I’d give him an opportunity to show he isn’t as bad as he showed last year. If he doesn’t improve then get rid.
Borini is pony and a headless chicken, he reminds me of some of the clowns we have had at the club during last decade Jovanovic and Voronin.
He is simply not good enough to be playing for Liverpool
If L Suarez is sold for £55M, Otherwise he should be kept at club.
Then £37M of the money should be spent on two forwards to replace him:
C Benteke(21) Of A Villa for £18-£22M And L Muriel(23) Of Udinese for £10-£15M
In Benteke, Muriel and Sturridge club would get 35-50 goals a season
Rodgers out!
Terrible transfer window work so far. One mistake after another. Signing Mignolet is an absolute joke, though the lad is a proper goalie Pepe is one of the best in the world! He also looks well after himself and rarely misses a game, so he doesn’t need such a back-up, should both be in the club on September, 1 there’ll be a trouble in the dressing room. Selling Reina is madness.
Toure as Carragher’s replacement? Really? A reserve player from Man City, never a consistent defender, why bother? Skrtel wants out, Coates isn’t given a chance (3-4 cup starts last season don’t count). Defence, which was nowhere near good enough in the first half of last season before Rodgers finally managed to understand that Carra was a must, still looks awful.
Attack. With Suarez as good as gone there’s one important question. Who the hell are Aspas and Luis Alberto? Aspas played just ONE season in Spanish top-flight for relegation favourites and scored a mind blowing total of 12 in 36. And he’s 26. He had spent his earlier career in Segunda, which is second tier in Spain, much worse than Championship, and had only one prolific year. Is he good enough for a club like Liverpool? I doubt it. Luis Alberto is Sevilla player playing in Barcelona. Definitely one for future, but is he so much better than players from academy? Or the ones that Ulsterman let go?
Selling Shelvey and Big Andy is just madness. Shelvey seemed to be the only man apart from Steven in midfield. Others lack balls to put a foot in. Football is a game of men, and sometimes physical strength gives you extra 10% opponents lack. Andy Carroll seemed to divide opinions among Liverpool fans. But BR never gave him a chance. People say that he didn’t deserve it due to not good enough first full season. Though they seem to forget that he helped the Club to win first title in six years and would have been a Man of the Match in the FA Cup Final but for referee’s failure to spot his second goal. Even King Kenny admitted in his Mirror column that he made a mistake by not using Big Andy enough, especially in the Cup Final. So Rodgers could have given him at least six months.
So far Rodgers succeeded in making Liverpool a Swansea level club, which I as a life-long fan find insulting. He has already spent MORE money in 12 months than King Kenny had in 18 and continues to blame the previous regime for lack of funds. He talks a very good game, media love him, and he has a good PR profile, I give him that, but all those facts have nothing to do with his job of winning for this great football club. The only history he made is the worst ever start to a season.
I hope he will be given P45 by Christmas, when there’s at least half a chance to get into Europe.
Totally totally agree with every word !
Fully agree also. It amazes me that anyone could rate Rodgers. I have never seen a more under qualified useless manager at a big club.
stupid argument crouch has better control than that lady one season wonder get your facts right. If all anti rodgers briggade could give us alternative coach in our situation there could be some sense in what ever they say.
Again , your babbling nonsense char. Who is the lady ? As for alternatives ,many many times have alternatives been mentioned by many many people on this site and others . It’s not anyone elses fault if u don’t know football enough to know the possibilities
Excellent comment Nicky
Agreed, strong but realistic, I am not convinced at all by our signings so far this pre season.
Top 4…
Possible? Of course it’s possible. We showed in the back half of last season that we are clearly in that mix.
Probable? If we lose Suarez and don’t replace him then no. With Suarez or a world class replacement along with another world class goal scoring mid then to say we are no chance is stupidity.
What people forget is the dynamic of the league. 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 for loss.
The top clubs as they are are pinching for tiny advantages to make tiny improvements in terms of their points tally.
We are the 1 club that still has huge scope to make small improvements that can result in 4 or 5 draws becoming wins and equally, scraping out a few draws where last year we lost.
The scope for us to be a 15 point better side than last year is clearly there. But some genuine quality must come in particularly if Suarez goes out.
Failing this, we’re relying purely on incremental improvement out of kids like Sterling, Henderson, Wisdom, Suso, Alberto etc. I can’t see that being enough to hold a top 4 spot if we lose Suarez and don’t replace him.
Look , we can all dream and hope , but let’s face facts , as long as Rodgers is manager we cant compete with the top clubs. The sooner fsg wake up and get rid of him , the sooner we can get back to the top where we belong
6th place for us this season
Philosophically speaking. Brendan will win the league at a canter. Realistically? With BR , we finish above Swansea
Not sure we will finish above Swansea
Karl, we have two goalkeepers now, so definitely above Swansea :).
Instead of dealing with the elephant in the room (Suarez), we are strengthening in areas , only BR can explain. A quick glance at the stats shows Reina is a top keeper. A chat with him wouldn’t have gone amiss. The guy has lived in the area for 8 years. Don’t think he is in a hurry to leave. With Valdes doing the same with barca!
Money would be better spend to replace Suarez’s contribution . Aspas is not going to provide 23 goals next season. Never has done in the past and won’t do in this league . We need striker/mf ASAP.
Lets be tight with the money. If we get a 15 plus goals corer. A mf that can create and score about 7-10 goals I’d be happy.
The owners need to spend 40 million on replacing the Suarez contribution and the play hardball over his sale. Liverpool then is in a position of strength . Will get the money back anyway….even if we wait till the last minute to do so! If we don’t and sell him last min, NO lessons have been learned.
Common BR, show that you are progressing from the average manager you are. Make the next step.
Whatever have happened to the once Mighty Reds! Chasing a top four finish when we should be challenging for the top. We are not blaming anyone but one thing BR and FSG should remember, they are no longer at either Swansea or an american football club. This is Liverpool, EPL crown and CL games are the priorities.Other than that considered failures.
Raam Well said