Liverpool 2010/11 Season Thread

[hudson]

That's what I'd go for, but maybe Maxi or Johnson on left midfield.

[nakamura]

I was thinking Johnson but Kuyt is a workhorse and would be more likely to drop deeper to defend.

[hudson]

On the left though?

[nakamura]

Yeah, tough one. He is not pacey enough to cut inside perhaps.

[Adrock]

I think you'd need balance on the left, someone who was willing to sit deeper and work back when Gerrard goes missing from his position and pulls others out of their own areas of the pitch.

Kuyt is very good at that, Johnson being a defender could do a job too and Maxi has also shown he is willing to track back and help the team. All three could do the role with varying strengths brought to the team, with Gerrard on the right I'd like Maxi because he has the ability to play neat and tidy passing football. Kuyt gives the work rate, against more threatening teams that could be invaluable. Johnson on the right would be able to beat players but on the left I'm not entirely sure what he'd offer offensively.

Increasingly Johnson is beginning to look somewhat out of place at the club. For me, he makes too many small mistakes that lead to undue pressure on the defence. Whilst playing on the left he doesn't offer the same kind of outlet he does on the right. The problem for Johnson is Kelly has been superb when given his chance, he can get beyond players and has made less defensive errors than Johnson.

Regardless of the Suarez talk, look at the system yesterday against Wolves and where does Gerrard fill in? Lucas and Poulsen gave Meireles, Kuyt and Maxi the freedom to support Torres. Although I noticed whenever they showed the attacking quartet on Match Of The Day Lucas was in half of the freeze frames, but for some reason not highlighted. So, the team is playing a system with a pair of defensive type midfielders but one at a time has the freedom to get up and support the attack. Gerrard does not have the discipline to hold properly and his passing decisions can be tiresome when it doesn't come off, especially from a deeper starting position. Meireles looked immense playing as the further forward of the three central midfielders, so thats a place where Gerrard has good competition now.

I suppose the obvious answer is Meireles drops back to take Poulsen's place and Gerrard plays in behind Torres. My fear then is that Meireles is not defensive enough meaning Lucas gets pinned back into a more defensive role. What was so refreshing about yesterday was the attacking movement of the entire team and I include Lucas within that.

Well, at least the discussion is about a nice problem of fitting players in rather than bemoaning terrible performances.

edit : Sorry for the long post, just enjoying Liverpool's performance and the system Dalglish has employed.

[SharkSkin-Man]

Something similar to what Dunga was doing with Brazil might work, they played a kind of lopsided diamond type midfield, with an attacking 3 of Kaka behind Fabiano and Robinho starting out as a sort of wide forward.

Suarez looks a decent, fast ball carrier so I presume he can play that Robinho roll.

Narrow as hell down the middle though, so the fullbacks have got to do a fair bit of work going forward for it to work.


--------------------Torres-----------
--Suarez-----------------------------
-------------Gerrard-----------------

-----------------------------Maxi----
---------Meireles--------------------
--------------------Lucas------------

Aurelio----------------------Johnson
-------------Agger--Carra-----------

[Nu-Eclipse]

So Luis Suarez has been definitely confirmed as a Liverpool signing, then?

Personally, I feel that we need AT LEAST one new Central Defender (Carra fading, Agger too injury prone, Skrtel regressed, Wilson & Ayala not ready yet), one new Left Back (Fabio injury prone), one youthful, athletic & mobile Defensive Midfielder (an absolute MUST, imo - Mascherano has been BADLY missed) and suitable quality cover for Fernando.

Oh, and at least one genuine Winger/Wide-Forward with pace, dribbling and creativity would be nice. I mean, how can it be that we still have to go back to the likes of Barnes and McManaman to find the last time that we had any real wide quality? Unlikely to happen, but I'd kill to have either Alexis Sanchez (Udinese/Chile) or Eden Hazard (Lille/Belgium) here - EXACTLY the type of players that FSG and Comolli should be looking at...

[hudson]

Babel on his way to Hoffenheim. From official site.

[Hombre]

Babel on his way to Hoffenheim. From official site.

Hopefully this means we may be getting at least one new player in this transfer window.

[Supergoal]

What does everyone make of Charlie Adam? Blackpool are rating him at 8mil, but where would he even play in our team?

[hudson]

I'm not sure. He looked good against the mancs tonight. Where would he play? With Gerrard/Meireles in the middle replacing Lucas?

If we were really going to buy him, I reckon Blackpool would want up to 12mil.

In other news it's all gone quiet on the Suarez front. Anything can happen in these last several days though as we saw according to Kenny, Babel was going nowhere, then next day he's gone.

[Adrock]

I think Suarez is too expensive at the price Ajax want.

Adam is a strange one, if he replaced Lucas he'd have to get a lot fitter and more mobile. He doesn't have the legs of Lucas by the looks of it, but that could be down to conditioning and style of play at Blackpool.

I think he'd have to play with Lucas, as Lucas does the defensive side whilst Adam pings the ball about. That'd leave a conundrum on the Gerrard and Meireles choices, I'd go Meireles in the center and Gerrard out right probably. Mainly because Gerrard can be very effective out wide when he isn't pissing and moaning.

[hudson]

It seems Ajax are in for Gudjohnsen. A replacement for Suarez?

[Hombre]

Regarding Adam, does it matter if we have overlapping roles in the team?

After all, the modern game is a squad game and we really need squad depth at the moment.

[hudson]

That was not offside.