Caporegime
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Is that heavy?
The FA CUP Sixth Round Replay ** Spoilers ** [8th April 2015]
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
Is that heavy?
I think we can all agree that we're not playing well lately but Arsenal are great at finding ways not to win. Let's leave the argument there until at least after the semis.
As for today, not a great performance by any stretch of the imagination but we got by and that's what matters.
As for today, not a great performance by any stretch of the imagination but we got by and that's what matters.
Caporegime
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The 3 at the back experiment needs to end, we might be defending reasonably well (last two games aside) but our midfield and attack have been horrific. Now Sturridge is back we should be looking to hit on the counter like we did at our peak last season.
If we are to go back to a 4 at the back permanently then I think it's got to be with a 4-4-2 diamond more often than the 4-3-3. Sturridge isn't lazy but he's not got the relentless energy to constantly press CB's - sticking Sterling alongside him will give us that energy at the top of the pitch and allow us to play Coutinho where he's most effective, off the front.
So bad? Behave. Blackburn put everyone behind the ball, it's never easy playing against that. We didn't play that badly last week apart from in defence, we cut you open a number of times and should have gone a couple in front before you scored your first, goal keeping errors and Moreno being a tool got you the victory... Nothing particularly special from Arsenal.
Still got a semi to go and then we will see in the final.
We're not particularly good at the moment, we should have been 5-2 down at half time against Arsenal, 2nd half they had already won the game so didn't really try but we offered nothing at all going forward, shocking display. Once again when the chips are down Rodgers and the team bottle it.
The season has been a failure, the FA cup isnt enough to make it anything but. Regardless if Rodgers stays or not the squad imbalances need addressing.
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Nope, dont buy that co-efficient wages to league position ********. Losses to Newcastle, Palace, Villa, West Ham and draws against relegation favorite teams all contribute to a **** season.
Europe alone shows there has been no progress as a club.
Europe alone shows there has been no progress as a club.
beg's the question.. where do you think Liverpool should be in Europe?
Knocked out at ro16, or progressing further in Europa league
I do, bar the odd year.
Of course no progress has been made, we lost the third best player in the world and are not willing to pay the wages and fees for adequate replacements
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Neuer moved from Schalke iirc. Schalke.
we got the managers 1st choice targets though
Lallana and Lovren
And how many signings did we make? 2 players is hardly getting what the manager wanted.
Not that I'm defending Rodgers btw. I'd happily see him have next to no say in transfers.
It's weird to think how different their season could have been if they'd got Sanchez and Sturridge hadn't been injured for vast swathes of the season...
Sanchez was the big one. He was perfect for us both in terms of ability and position/style of play.
The way I see our transfers were that the club split the money in 2 and bought the likes of Can, Markovic and Moreno as long term signings but to also fill out the squad in the short term. They then went for Lallana + a striker to try to fill as much of the Suarez void as possible and hoped that whatever shortfall we were left with would be made up from a better defence with the signing of Lovren.
I think the first half of our transfers have achieved what we set out. Can looks class and despite some of the criticism they get, I've seen enough from Markovic and Moreno to think they'll be decent players for us in the future.
It's the second half of our transfers that's killed us. Lallana's done well is patches but seems to be constantly picking up little injuries that keep him out for a week or 2. The failure to get Sanchez and ending up with Balotelli couldn't have gone any further wrong and to further compound that we haven't just been missing Suarez's goals but Sturridge's too with him being out for half the season. And at least for the first half of the season our defence, with Lovren in the side, looked worse than it was last season.
The foundation of our squad is still there and it just needs a few changes. The problem is even with CL football we'd have struggled to go out and buy a Costa & Fabregas, like Chelsea did to complete their squad, without CL football makes it nigh on impossible. We're in a position now where for us to be able to challenge for the title again we're going to have to have that magic window again where we pick up another Sturridge and Coutinho.
Caporegime
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That's because Suarez played 
You can quite often tell the managers choice of player, he was talking Lallana and Lovren up way before we got them - from memory he was talking about both in the Liverpool Echo before they signed/just as they signed.
I don't think we were ever really in for Sanchez, we may have had him on the radar and thrown an offer to his agent once people at the club realized Saurez wanted out (how naive no planning was in place prior) but Arsenal pulled out all the stops to get him, Wenger talking to him in Brazil during the WC for example.
Lallana and Lovren have been titanic failures, Balotelli too (guys the scapegoat for our season), Moreno is going backwards at an astonishing pace and Markovic's confidence looks shot, all as a result of the manager and his square pegs / round holes approach to player management . Its not just the summer signings that have set us back though its the lack of a playing style. He has tried twice in his time to play how his Swansea team did, and both times have been unmitigated disasters, is he going to try a 3rd time at the start of next season? God help us if he does.
I haven't changed my mind on him since the mid season review.
Rodgers didn't want him at all. He said as much when the Balotelli talk first began. It got to a stage though where it was him or nothing though and he had little choice. We had missed out on Sanchez, weren't prepared to pay the fee for Bony and there was issues with Remy's medical.
I'm not doubting that Rodgers wanted Lallana and Lovren. The point I was making was that it's not all down to Rodgers - as above, he certainly didn't want Balotelli. He got a couple of his choices for certain positions but not others.
You're harsh on Lallana - he seems to have just been unlucky with a few injuries. Everytime he gets a few games and starts to look like the player we signed he gets injured again. And I wouldn't say Moreno's gone backwards. He's the same as he was at the start of the season - he's a threat breaking forward and recovers well defensively but has a mistake in him. Markovic is a tricky one - he really struggled to settle initially but I actually think the switch in formation and playing as a wingback helped him. It gave him a role in the side with less pressure and he seemed to be able to get into the game more from there than when he'd played further forward. He needs to be more ruthless in the final 3rd but that's been the case since the opening weeks of the season and hopefully he'll improve on as he gets older. Even recently though, I don't think he's played as bad as some people suggest and I think he's been unlucky to miss out or be subbed off in games because it's an easier decision to take him off than Sterling, Lallana or Coutinho. People forget he's only just turned 21 and playing in a new country.
Rodgers is far from perfect and I agree that he seems to make a mistake, learn from it only to make that same mistake a few months later. Like the team, he's young and is learning on the job and on the whole he's improving. As a coach and improving players he's second to none but tactically he lets himself down at times. He needs to be a bit more proactive - too often, like with the last few weeks and the 3-4-3, he waits for results to go wrong before he changes system/tactics. In the few games prior to the Utd game we hadn't been playing great and sides had started to find weaknesses in the system but we stuck with it.
I certainly wouldn't be in a hurry to replace Rodgers. Things weren't looking great for him in November/December and sacking him was beginning to look like the only outcome - he looked totally lost and we paid for it. I think he's done enough since then though to earn another season but we can't afford a start like this season and his first season.