Benitaur

I believe he has been carrying this injury since last year. When was a last time we saw a Gerrard cannonball? All his goals and attempts on goals is him trying to pass the ball into the net.

I believe Insua was 2nd in assists last season, behind only Gerrard.

I think people confuse timidness with tactical maturity. Lucas is certainly not timid in the tackle as he has way more challenges than anyone else. You cannot have a team with 11 alpha males. Each player has a role to fill. Lucas is the glue of the team.

 

Look what happened with England at the World Cup. Too many inflated ego's. Too many players wanting to be the man. At the end of the Germany match you had idiots like Terry and Lampard bombing forward like idiots trying to be a hero and completely exposing the defence.

 

People will only miss Lucas when he's gone.

Totally agree. Lucas isn't the attacking bulldog the way Masch was for us.

If anything, his style is more like Hamann. Calm, interceptor who sticks his foot in when necessary, draws fouls, calms the game down when necessary, but yet has the ability to spot a through ball when appropriate

Good player who will only get better IMO. Already first choice for Brasil

I understand what you're saying' date=' but in this context I don't see your point.

 

It's not Roy's fault that whoever approached him, offered him the job and subsequently agreed to such a clause in his contract, so much so that should he be be relieved of his duties mid contract that he would be awarded such a big payoff. That's just part and parcel of being a football manager.

 

If you think Roy was 'taking the club for a ride' for accepting his severance then fine, but I think you, me and just about everybody else would have done the same.[/quote']

 

Well, Rafa was entitled to 20 million, but he settled for 6

 

Roy took it all didn't he?

I don't know if you guys have realised this, but under Kenny, Lucas is the main outlet the defence passes to, the way Alonso used to be.

This type of player was missing last season when Alonso left, and it was glaring as Mascherano could not play this role effectively

You remove Lucas, you get Carra hoofing the ball, or Agger or Skrtel trying to dribble out of defense (which is ok once in a while, but not all the time)

BTW, a young, talented midfielder who cut his teeth playing next to Gerrard, Alonso, Mascherano and Meireles? Thats quite some training there.

An Analysis of Joe Cole’s Performance This Season | Holding Midfield

Sums it right up.

Maxi is a better player, and even them it is doubtful he will be first choice when we get more players in

Thats because you are comparing Houllier's buys and Rafa's buys

No doubt there were some players we lost money on, like Keane, Morientes or Garcia, but by and large we made a profit with most of Rafa's buys. Hence the net spend argument

Over the next few games, Chelsea are going to find out they paid 50 mil for a player who cannot play with other strikers

Thats shown in Spain where even Villa has to play second striker further back, and us, and Atletico.

So they might as well bin Drogba and Anelka now, or have an ineffective Torres doing fuck all with the occasional goal.

Shevchenko II, well done Roman, you can't help yourself can you?

What, no one is giving credit for Woy's training and coaching that is only now coming to fruition?

/sarcasm

If we are seriously going to revamp our squad, unfortunately quite a few favourites will leave too, or be prepared to sit on the bench more.

Players like Gerrard and Carra, who are on high wages but arguably not as key or can be replaced with younger.

I think Agger and Skrtel have done better with Kenny here, and we are keeping clean sheets now with them. Carra and Soto are getting on, so either we bring in more established 20-25 year old CBs, or we give Wilson, Ayala etc a shot if they are good enough

Even Gerrard is not as essential now. Meireles IMO plays better when Gerrard isn't playing, and TBH his legs look gone now. I wouldn't reject a 30+ mil bid from Madrid if the special one wants him. Juve apparently won't pay for Aquilani, so a axis of Meireles, Aquilani and Lucas looks like a fine pass and move attacking trio in the middle, or we could also go out for another fine passer like Adam.

For that money generated from a Gerrard sale we could buy 3 or 4 from the up and coming young talents in world football ie Turan, Mata, Marin, Hazard, Adam Johnson etc to play on the wings replacing Kuyt, Maxi and Cole. That leaves our midfield and attacking force with an average age of 22-24. All potentially world class too.

Again, I wouldn't mind keeping Gerrard, Carra etc to ease the new players in, but they are on the highest wages in the club, and they are expected to perform week in and week out, which I doubt they are able to anymore.

IMO they can fuck off. Would like to see what Kenny can do with him anyway

Juventus Want Alberto Aquilani On A Permanent Deal But Only If Liverpool Lower The Asking Price - Report

Juventus are hoping to capture Liverpool's Alberto Aquilani for a discount price in the summer...

By Andrew McLean

Feb 2, 2011 9:12:00 AM

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Juventus are reportedly concerned by the price tag which has been set upon impressive midfielder Alberto Aquilani, who is currently on loan for the season from Liverpool.

La Gazzetta dello Sport have reported that the Bianconeri are eager to make the former Roma star's switch to Turin a permanent one, however they are not willing to meet the €12 million asking price for the midfielder.

Juve are hoping to solve the issue of players on loan, Aquilani not being the only player to be temporarily stationed with the Old Lady. They want Liverpool to agree to hand them a "discount card" as Gazzetta puts it, after paying his wages for the season.

Liverpool paid €20m for Aquilani in August 2009 when they signed him from Roma.

He Ngoes to some other team. He's not very good.

You meant not very Ngood, right?

I'll stick to

Kelly- Skrtel - Agger - Johnson

Clean sheets don't lie.

Ah fuck it. I'm in the mood too

We sold our Rush

We bought our Aldridge and Beardsley

Where's our new Barnes??

If we really want to hurt Chelsea back, I would take 40 mil + Essian.

Spend the money elsewhere for a striker and wingers

For example Lukaku to be the main striker, and Marin and Hazard for the wings. All young, under 22 and potentially world class.

I would of course preferred Aguero too but I think Suarez is the same type of player, and he would probably be too expensive.

A show of genuine intention by our owners:

Romelu Lukaku

Trophies, trophies, trophies......

 

2005: European Cup

2006: FA Cup

2007: -

2008: -

2009: -

2010: -

 

.....thank you for your efforts.

From wikipedia:

"Moores eventually sold the club to American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who acquired the club on 6 February 2007. The deal valued the club and its outstanding debts at £218.9 million. The pair paid £5,000 per share, or £174.1m for the total shareholding in the club, and £44.8m to cover the club's debts"

Hmm... thank you for YOUR efforts.

I agree with Nick

He's not particularly pacey, and second striker we could play Gerrard, Meireles or Cole there. Maybe even Jovanović or if we get back Aquilani.

I would rather we get pacey wingers, as though Kuyt and Maxi are doing admirably, they are getting older and going to have to be replaced soon.

So if we were going to spend big, might as well go for the Hazards and the Marins, who will hopefully not cost that much (less than 20 mil each hopefully) and yet are young enough to grow and last for many years to come.

Short answer, no to Robbie Keane.

Nor do I want SWP, Wayne Bridge, Downing, Bentley or any of these other losers who can't hack it in top teams playing in the Premier league we keep getting linked with every transfer window. The equivalents of M'ON (if we were looking for a manager), the press seem to love hacking these jokes off to us, trying to confirm that we are indeed a club going on a downward spiral and scraping at the bottom of the barrel.

GC= goals conceded

CS= clean sheets

2009-10 : 35 GC - 17 CS

2008-09 : 27 GC - 20 CS

2007-08 : 28 GC - 18 CS

2006-07 : 27 GC - 20 CS

2005-06 : 25 GC - 22 CS

So far this season:

31 goals conceded in only 22 games

6 clean sheets

Man marking proponents can fuck off as far as I am concerned. They haven't got a leg to stand on

I think each system depends on the quality of defenders you have playing it.

To a certain degree yes

Zonal marking by and large makes defenders look better than they are because it relies on teamwork and everybody doing their role

Man to man relies on the individual.

With zonal marking players like Carra, Agger and Skrtel look world class, while with man to man, their flaws become apparent

The whole point of great managers is to form systems where the collective is more important than the individual, and the team as a whole becomes more than the sum of their parts. And that is what Rafa did for us

When you have managers who play man to man marking, and let everyone just go out and play claiming that the tactics are restrictive, then you get what you get, and the complaints are that your players aren't good enough.

This is not a criticism of Kenny, but clearly is a criticism of Roy

They will stay depending on the transfers in showing the ambition of the owners, and the manager eventually hired

Its clear they both came to play for Rafa, as Rafa had an amazing record and reputation when they arrived (2 CL finals in 3 years and 2 La Liga titles)

They probably will stay playing for Kenny, as in the club and the league's history, Kenny is one of the legendary managers.

However, I have my doubts they would play for other lesser known managers like Deschamps, Halloway or Coyle unless they suddenly win the league or in Deschamp's case the Champions league. That goes for Villas-Boas or Rangnick too.

There's no way would they stay on for a new and unproven manager to build something that will take several years.

Very much so. Football is a very simple game as Harry Redknapp has shown at Spurs. I always viewed him as tactically naive and a very average manager when he was at West Ham and he probably still is, but he keeps things simple, buys and sells well and surrounds himself with football people who compensate for his flaws.

Yes, a blank cheque in so far as a English manager is able to spend, and usually leaves his clubs on the brink of bankruptcy is the way to go?

Harry Redknapp's strategy is CM football. Simple as. Thats why they have too many first team players in every possible position

They'll be rubbish next year, and near bankrupt in 2-3 seasons. Thats Harry's general pattern.

I don't envy them one bit for having Harry. But I do wish Kenny and our previous manager (Rafa, I don't count Roy) has that kind of backing financially in the market.

Watched the Spurs v Mancs game before and enjoyed seeing Spurs attacking.

Why the fuck dont we go at teams no more?

I thought we did. Of course we need better attacking players, but we did attack quite a bit in both halves

We scored more than either Spurs or the Mancs too unless I am mistaken

Hate how the press refers to Kenny as "caretaker" manager

While all along Roy was referred to as the (ex) Liverpool manager