Gerrard

[PTP]

well right now I disagree! - if we were good enough or had good enough players to allow gerrard to rest then it wouldn't be an issue.

At the start of last season we had a fully fit xabi alonso and robbie keane in the squad.

This season, with an injured gerrard and torres - we have had nothing to cover them. - Ngog has done well, but is still a lot short of what we need. We don't even know if aquilani can kick a ball yet, and the players that are on the fringe of the squad (babel/voronin/riera) are nowhere near good enough.

So that too me says we either aren't good enough or don't have good enough players to allow gerrard to rest.

[dww]

Hmmmmmmmm. I can see what you are saying Pete but there are a number of important differences between then and now:
We had an otherwise fit squad, who were used to playing together as a unit
Confidence was high
Hyypia and Alonso were in the squad to provide leadership and calm heads when things went against us
There was less pressure on each game as we had points in the bag

[Guest]

well right now I disagree! - if we were good enough or had good enough players to allow gerrard to rest then it wouldn't be an issue.

At the start of last season we had a fully fit xabi alonso and robbie keane in the squad.

This season, with an injured gerrard and torres - we have had nothing to cover them. - Ngog has done well, but is still a lot short of what we need. We don't even know if aquilani can kick a ball yet, and the players that are on the fringe of the squad (babel/voronin/riera) are nowhere near good enough.

So that too me says we either aren't good enough or don't have good enough players to allow gerrard to rest.

Remove Keane out of the equation as he was a complete flop and didn't bring anything to the side. Was quickly dispatched back to Spurs and rightly so.

We've had too many injuries this season which deprived us of a good chunk of our spine. Plus some of our players started way off form this season.

We've basically got the same squad (minus the experience of Sami and Xabi) so it's been tougher this season. I don't think we're that bad. I mean we should be better than Spurs and Arsenal.

I was never confident we would have been better than Chelsea and United this season, despite United losing Ronaldo and Tevez. Always thought we would be the 3rd best team of that lot and we'd have needed a bit of luck (which we never had).

[PTP]

don't want to get into the keane thing too much - but imo, he wasn't given as much time as he i'd have liked and he was signed in ****ty circumstances due to the saga of the transfer, which made it virtually impossible for him to settle - i really believe if the transfer had been less high profile - ie his name was roberto keanio and we paid say £10m for him and he was from colombia and there wasn't abig hooha about who signed him and why etc etc - he would still be here.

I for one, given the current injuries and lack of quality cover on the squad for the first half of this season - would have prefered to have had a robbie keane in our squad than not

[dww]

I can see that point but he was awful in combination with Torres and Gerrard and is not a line leader on his own. He was about as good as Voronin was in his first season for us which was a/ better than people given either man credit for and b/ not good enough for what we want going forward.

I think in general though that we did need to get a new attacking player into the squad (ideally someone to replace Voronin but add creativity too). Given Rafa's faith in Ngog and willingness to give Babel another chance at the start of the season I would have liked to have seen us make a move for a more athletic and physical version of Benayoun (not saying I have any candidates in mind for this).

[PTP]

don't get me wrong - i'm not aying that robbie keane was/is the best or only answer - i am saying though - that Sine he left the squad, i have felt that we have seriously lacked the options up front - we coped witht he second half of last season as gerrard and torres were fully fit. But i really felt something needed to be done - we had no money, rafa had to make do and hope that one of voronin/babel stepped up to the plate and plugged the gap between torres and ngog - both are a waste of space imo and as a result me personally(though hindsight is a wonderful thing) would have much preferred to have kept keane and see how he fitted in given a full season, maybe two.

With gerrard/torres struggling for the first half of the season - which imo was on the cards to happen cause they were both playing so much. I'd have much prefered to of had the option of keane, than the option of no-one.

I don't know who we should sign - but we need someone desperatley - somone who can score goals, take some fo the burden off torres and gerrard, which would give the opposition something extra to worry about, and give us more options for sure. And also to cost anything up to say £15m - I think once we get past £15m it gets more difficult for Liverpool to make a 'successful' signing - ie, the press jump all over liverpool at the moment, we are easy targets - we are broke, and if we somehow managed to spend say £18m on a striker, then he would have to be an instant success as it would be viewed as a major signing that would have to feature in every game or he is a flop(where as united/chelsea can buy players and never play them and noone says anything) this also means that once we spend a lot, the player himself won't want to be in and out the squad.

What we need to do is somehow found a player good enough for what we need, and kinda sign him under the radar.