Liverpool 2010/11 Season Thread

[mr_sockochris]

And sold Mascherano...?

Edit: Unless you mean he's come in to create things in the midfield? Always looked a good player when I've seen him, but not the sort to find the final pass to often.

Poulsen is the Mascherano replacement, Meireles has come in for Aquilani. He's an all round midfielder, certainly more creative than Lucas or Poulsen from the few times I have seen him play. I don't want to compare him to Xabi but he will be filling that role - getting the ball to Gerrard/Cole so they can create. That is what we were missing last year, that link between defence to attack that Alonso provided. If you look at the stats, Alonso was never high in the assists league, but he did get the ball to our best players in dangerous positions and I'm hoping Meireles can do that job significantly better than Lucas does

[Tetsuo]

If you look at the stats, Alonso was never high in the assists league, but he did get the ball to our best players in dangerous positions and I'm hoping Meireles can do that job significantly better than Lucas does

That's the big problem with Lucas. He came on leaps last season: learnt to control the ball, keep it and was generally much stronger and harder to dispossess. He also looked comfortable when moving forward on occasions, and these were all the things that Alonso's bread-and-butter game comprised of.

The only thing Lucas doesn't have (including Xabi's keen eye for an off-the-line goalkeeper) is any passing intelligence whatsoever. That harms our tempo and forces other players to make plays happen, when it should also be his job to do that. Like I say, he's young and improving, and still one of our best players when it comes to controlling the ball and passing it to other players, but if Meireles can actually become more involved in creating attacks and clever passes, we'll be all the more potent for it, as much as I appreciate what Lucas can do for the team. It's just not enough when we have the likes of Torres, Gerrard, Kuyt, all itching to be involved moving forward, at the end of the day.

[SharkSkin-Man]

I think the best team on paper, certainly against the weaker teams, would be Meireles and Lucas together in the middle with Gerrard playing ahead of them - with Poulsen coming in when you need a real sitter in front of the back four.

Doubt we'll see that too often though, especially if Gerrard and Cole have their way.

[paul]

Not being funny like, but does anyone is anyone on here taking an interest in the financial state of the club? There doesn't seem to be any talk about the deadline for the Americans to repay or find refinance of the 6th October. All these things have implications for the health of the club, and yet there's little or no discussion. There's a real possibility that we may be owned by the RBS on the 6th October, or perish the thought the Americans managage to refinance and ensure that any profits the club make are wholly swallowed up by servicing interest payments. Neither are palatable options, and the latter will almost certainly end in tears.

Genuine question. Are people not talking about this here, because they don't know what's going on? Or because they only care for what happens on the pitch? There's fight for the survival of the club, but from reading this thread you wouldn't think it.
Get involved.

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/david-maddock/David-Maddock-column-Why-there-s-a-very-real-chance-that-Liverpool-could-go-bust-on-October-6-unless-fans-act-now-to-prevent-Hicks-and-Gillett-ruining-club-article575201.html

[SharkSkin-Man]

The work SOS and some people on RAWK have done is pretty amazing, and I'm glad to be a member of SOS. Although I'll be honest, I think some of the stuff going on like internet petitions and facebook groups is rather naive.

From what I've read, I think (hope?) that the decision for RBS to refuse any refinancing and to take some kind of temp-control of the club has already been made internally at the bank and with the 3 non-yank members of the board.
Even if the Americans find a way to get another short-term loan to refinance, eventually they are going to default on the RBS loan, there just isn't enough money coming in to LFC to finish the leveraged buy out they started.

The dream of the club being sold in the next month is exactly that I would think, so whatever path we are headed down at this late stage is pretty close to inexorable.

[Scythe]

Well its nice the mainstream media has taken more of an interest of late but its been a long time coming if you ask me. I'm sure there are many who are worried but its difficult to make informed posts with so much misinformation out there.

I think last season was the culmination of poor management that it unfortunately took for a lot of fans to sit up and take notice of a potentially terminal situation.

All we can do is watch from the sidelines and highlight the plight at every opportunity and hope for the best.

Anyone got their Standards Corrupted T shirt yet?

[Supergoal]

A bad first half for us. Really struggling to complete with them in the middle and they give us no time to think. I don't think we've even made a chance yet whereas Reina has saved us several times already.

The teams needs changing at half time or we will lose this game.

[hudson]

The usual problem of having two holding midfielders who aren't the creative type. It doesn't help that two of our major threats are sitting up top and heavily marked. I think Gerrard should of been deployed in the centre again.

[mr_sockochris]

Dreadful first half, thank god for Reina! I've said it before and I'll say it again, Poulsen AND Lucas is too negative and simply doesn't work.

[mr_sockochris]

Jovanovic's reactions to a couple of tackles were pretty embarrassing

A bit of a crappy performance but I'll take a point from our bogey team away. Reina's saves were insane and proved why his recent mistakes aren't even worth worrying about in the long term. Meireles looked bright when he came on, Gerrard and Torres just weren't getting the ball until he did. Hopefully he'll get more game time sooner rather than later.

Man Utd away up next, that'll be fun

[SharkSkin-Man]

Really negative, deep shape. Two flat lines of 4 again. Maxi barely moved more than 10 yards past the half way line all game.

Gerrard very erratic again, must have given the ball away at least 20% of the time he had it. A product of trying to do too much I guess, I just wish he could control it.

Poulsen looks a bit bewildered by the pace of the game - didn't make a single tackle during the game.

Jovanovic is clearly not a midfield player. Looks lost that far from the goal.

Torres was playing a million miles further up the pitch than everyone else, including Gerrard at times. Looked like he had the right hump.


Konchesky was alright, which was quite a pleasant surprise.

Meireles looked quite sharp, although I was really quite shocked at how small he looks up close, he is very slight of build and he got knocked about a bit in the 10 mins he had.


Birmingham were excellent though, should've won by a couple really if it wasn't for Reina.

[Hombre]

10 games, I'm holding my judgement on Woy and his team until then, 10 premier league games.

[SharkSkin-Man]

Where do you expect to be, points wise, after 10 games?

[SharkSkin-Man]

Tomorrow's line up for the Cadbury's Caramel Wonder Cup or whatever it is.

Reina
Kelly Agger Kyrgiakos Konchesky
Maxi Spearing Meireles Babel
Cole
Ngog

Lucas and Poulsen rested for Yernited?

[Scythe]

I thought it was the Piston Cup?

Please god no as that means Poulsen & Lucas will partner up again and that won't work at OT (not like it did at St Andrews of course).