AS my nose is to the grindstone in the proverbial 9-5 that good old Dolly told us about, so to distract myself I ‘tumble outta bed and stumble to Twitter for a daily dose of light heartedness, WTF moments and good old fashioned footie chat.
It was during one of my numerous daily flicks (behave) I drew inspiration for my article this week.
I must credit Dave Hendrick (@DaveHendrickTLW) with this, who is a must follow for any LFC fan as he is a veritable font of footballing knowledge!
You think you know a lot about world football? He knows more! The subject he was discussing that caught my attention was that of footballing hardmen, and the apparent lack of, at Liverpool FC.
At Anfield down the years we have been spoiled with the type of chap you want on your side in a rumble, in fact the type of chap who would make Hulk Hogan quake in his yellow and red boots brother!
The likes of Tommy Smith, Jimmy Case, Graeme Souness, Steve McMahon, Paul Ince, Didi Hamann and Javier Mascherano have delighted us with an inherent knack of winning those 30-70 tackles, crunching into the opposition and just walking round the pitch for 90 minutes like king of the hill.
It was their turf and you ruffle the feathers of one of their flock you would know about it. Personally speaking one of my guilty footballing pleasures, alongside the big physical centre-forward, is a good hard tackle (seriously behave yourself).
During my playing days I perfected the art of delaying a tackle long enough so I had to slide and take both ball and man…oooooooooooh that felt good! Goosebumps just talking about it!
As I have mentioned we have had a plethora of tough guys down the years but if you were to peruse the current squad the first thing that jumps out at you is the absence of a Leonidas shouting ‘THIS IS ANFIELD’ at opposing players, especially as we tearfully waved goodbye to Carragher last season.
Yes Stevie is still here and I would like to be the recipient of one of his tackles as much as I would want an Everton season ticket, but his natural game is not that of an enforcer, relying on him to bring this to the table takes away from his natural game.
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You would suggest that the natural fit in this role would be Lucas, and whilst I like the Brazilian if I think I would actually get stuck into a 50-50 tackle with him, whereas if I was involved in an 80-20 tackle with Mascherano I would probably disgrace myself ending up in the foetal position, sobbing and wanting my Mum!
The same goes in the back 4 too, while we have Agger, and certain blonde centre-forwards are well acquainted with his elbow, but again, he is too much of a ‘footballer’ to fulfil the role. Skrtel should be that guy, and if we are honest he looks the part, like a Slovakian Mitchell brother, but he has never ‘brought it’, more often being the milkyway in our Kop Candy Store rather than the fridge stored Double Decker we need! (probably the best football/chocolate analogy you will read today!).
Is this an important factor in today’s game I hear you ask? In a team where possession is king, why bother? I will tell you why we should bother, by having that person performing what in modern football has been known as the ‘Makelele role’ allows those frees up those around them to do what they do best.
One look at our Spanish/Catalonian friends and a love him or loathe him figure of Busquets performs the dirty work freeing up Xavi and Iniesta (they are quite good you know). Our squad is shaping up quite nicely; we have some wonderful ball players in Allen and Countinho, hot youth prospects in Ibe and Sterling; and incoming talent such as Aspas and Luis Alberto who in the world of Bioshock would be accompanied by a Big Daddy to watch over them as they went about their business.
I am pleased we have been linked with Papadopoulos as he would absolutely boss our backline, no nonsense, and these recent links to bids for Diego Costa would bring more of a figurative bite to our attack than the literal one we saw last year.
Yet I haven’t seen any links to that Mascherano player I think we need, even if not to replace Lucas then at least to cover him following two serious injuries and give him competition.
Saying this I have a lot of faith in our new talent recruitment system, we have an excellently gather scouting setup who are trusted and are unearthing apparent gems.
Thanks for getting this far if you did, and equally I hope you were impressed that I referenced Country and Western, Chocolate and PS3 games in a football article!
I would love to hear your opinions and comments on whether you liked or disliked my piece and more importantly whether you agree or not! Do we need more steel in our system? If so, then who?
Reply here and come find me on twitter @timdibs
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I have been saying this for a few years now, Yes Lucas has improved but sadly he has never been that man. We need some steel, I agree on Papadopulous, and surely Costa has to be a better option than Borini!
If we can’t get the ‘next’ Mascherano, or being very deluded, a ‘Souness’, then I would like someone like Diame from West Ham. He puts himself about, has more pace and power than Lucas and can actually play a bit, and I don’t believe he would cost silly money?
The usual tripe nonsense and delusion
They are called opinions !!
WOOHOO I HAVE A FAN!!!
Speaking about Twitter, I wrote this piece about how Liverpool is using Twitter to rule the world, they may not have an enforcer on the field, but in the social media realm I think Liverpool does it better than anyone else.
http://socialgrumpycat.com/2013/07/liverpool-fc-online-and-social/
tim fan
You sound like a Bluenose troll who has to have the one and only opinion that matters. If you have something worthwhile to say then do so, not a sweeping 6 word/37 character twitteresque statement which actually says nothing at all.
I think Papadopulos/Alderwield at cb… Diame/Capoue midfield. And if we sell Suarez get 55mil then sell borini for about 7mil. Buy Costa (20mil), Alexis Sanchez(15mil),Luis Murial(15mil), iKer Munian(12mil). I think our attack would be better than with Suarez at the club! And Erriksen would just finish things off… A team with those players I mentioned along with Stevie G, Countinho, Lucas, Sturridge, Aspas, Alberto, Agger…. Omg!!! Goosebumps lol YNWA…
What an absolute trash…go do something better dude
Sorry forgot our wonderkids Sterling and iBE !!!
Sorry forgot our wonderkids Sterling and iBE !!! Was really impressed with them especially Sterling in preseason. He seems a lot stronger on the ball and he just 18. He will be a world class player I have no doubt! And he will become an anfield legend in the future.. He has the right attitude!
Like the article, Tim, thanks. I agree, and this has been my concern this transfer window too. Lucas is good, and would do as a back up to the main enforcer, or even to play further forward. But a player like Diame would boost the whole team, or possibly Wanyama from Celtic.
What about our youth system when it comes CDM. Lucas is not a natural CDM as he was originally a ATM Why don’t we give Cody a chance like we did with Lucas
Good article. I agree Lucas is good a d effective. But a man of steel in CDM position is needed.
on the whole Lucas will suffice, but against the Man U and Chelsea I agree we need more strength to bully their forwards
we need some one with big balls. lucas is poo allan too !
It’s time we sign Díame. We need someone who can recover the ball from the likes of Hulk and Rooney in 50-50 tackle… Yes, without necessarily conceding a freekick in the process.
Very good read!
We were bullied by teams with more physical presense than us last season, Oldham for example, Papadopoulos and Diame would be two good signings
very nice article.agree with you about a tackling player.costa is gonna be a great signing.
Agree mate, been saying it for a while now, if not to actually replace Lucas, then at least to put pressure on him, and even use that bite in the games where we aren’t going to dominate possession as much and will use the counter attacking system
Decent write up & yes it’s something we need but clearly BR doesn’t see it as a priority.
Anybody that says diame is wasting their breath not because of his abiltity as I am a fan also but because BR scrapped the deal for him to join us when he took over..