So, What do you really think of our Squad?

[Fernandinho]

I think he was referring to people Rafa had signed...

[Alex]

I think he was referring to people Rafa had signed...

Ahh fair enough. I could give a long list of ****e Rafa signed. But I could give another of good signings.

[Fredo]

The ****e squad argument is getting really tedious. Are you all Sky sports converts?

[Exiled_red]

Reina - Class keeper need to keep hold of him
Jones - Backup keeper, not seen much of him, hope we don't need to call on him

Johnson - OK, I'd be tempted to give him a try on the wing
Kelly - promising youngster, has a bright future, but I'm unsure he's ready to play regularly
Agger - Class but injury prone
Skrtel - Worries me, I'm not comfortable when he plays would be ok as back up
Carragher - Time is catching up with him, but is still first choice possibly because of a lack of decent competition
Kyriakos - Good as a 4th choice, but doesn't inspire confidence
Wilson - Seems promising, but I've not seen enough of him
Ayala - Seems promising, but I've not seen enough of him probably 3rd in young CB pecking order
Aurelio - Good player but injury prone
Konchesky - Not good enough
Insua - I thought alot of the critisism he took was harsh, not ready to be first choice but could improve

Lucas - Much improved this season, looking a good player
Meireles - Still undecided, he showed some promise early on (in CM) but has regressed since
Poulsen - Not good enough, puts in the occasional half where he looks ok, but mostly the game passes him by.
Spearing - I don't think he's going to make it
Gerrard - Class but moody, gets too easily frustrated and tried to do too much himself
Cole - I've not seen enough of him to judge yet
Kuyt - Not at his best maybe suffering a World Cup hangover?
Maxi - One of our better players this season
Babel - Pacy but a headless chicken and lacks game intelligence, I think he should perhaps be in the team at the moment though
Jovanovic - Again I've not really seen much of him, he seems to be a left sided Kuyt, and is playing about as well as Kuyt this season, but where we know Kuyt can do better we don't know about him

Torres - Class showed signs of his old self more recently, but has been badly let down by the service and is becoming frustrated.
Ngog - Promising youngster who is improving but shouldn't IMO be 2nd choice, again I think he will do better when the service improves


Of the players listed we need to keep Reina, Lucas, Gerrard, Torres and Agger (if he can stay fit) they are the regulars and Kelly, Wilson and Ngog as players who show promise and will improve. I can't honestly say I'd be too bothered if any of the others left. There are a few that would be useful squad players, but if decent offers came in I think I'd let them go.

Having said that there are a number of 'passive' players in there that could do a job if we had more active players with drive/determination/skill to do something, this IMO needs to be added in the wide areas.

A team of

Reina
Johnson Carragher Agger Aurelio
Lucas Meireles
---??--- Gerrard ---??---
Torres

with the wide ---??--- players being creative and chipping in with goals that team should make the top 4

[Glenn Hysen]

Who are those '****e' players? I really mean '****e' not average or squad players.

Maybe not ****e but not good enough. Some are ok but not compared to what we paid.

Glen Johnson, Jovanovic, Kyrgiakos, Skrtel, Babel, Aquilani, Degen and Insua. There are more I think who have already been sold on.

[Kenneth]

The prevailing wisdom of Agger being potentially world class but hampered by injuries; well it's looking a bit strained at the moment.

[Exiled_red]

The ****e squad argument is getting really tedious. Are you all Sky sports converts?

I don't think we have alot of '****e' players, I think we have too many 'passive' or 'fair weather' players i.e. players who look good when the team is playing well but have little impact on the game when things aren't going well. I think most teams have them to some extent but we seem to have more than most. Essentially our drive, determination, desire to win and moments of brilliance come probably 90% of the time from Gerrard and Torres, beyond those two it is rare that anyone else steps up to win us the game. We need more players who can contribute something tangible to the game, in place of some of these 'passive' players.

[Chris]

The prevailing wisdom of Agger being potentially world class but hampered by injuries; well it's looking a bit strained at the moment.

He clearly was potentially world class, he was absolutely outstanding at one point and him/Carra were looking brilliant, but that was like 3-4 years ago now, so long ago I cant even remember it accurately. He's never really been the same after getting that massive injury that left him out for the whole season pretty much, that was when he was on his way to being one of the best around.

Since then though he's either decent or ****e when he plays.

[saj]

I said it from the second we signed him that he wasn't good enough and he isn't. Terrible signing. He's gutless, can't tackle, no pace and his passing is awful.

[dww]

I tend to think the main problem with our squad is not individual quality but a lack of players who get the best out of one another and a complete absence of intelligent leaders.

It looks like an exaggerated form of what it has been since the summer before last - a squad in transition but without the means to complete the job.

[Pablo]

I said it from the second we signed him that he wasn't good enough and he isn't. Terrible signing. He's gutless, can't tackle, no pace and his passing is awful.

Who?

[Kinell]

We need pace and width, until we get that sorted we can expect more **** like blackburn and blackpool away.

[Kinell]

Who?

Referring to Agger I think.

[Vermilion]

I tend to think the main problem with our squad is not individual quality but a lack of players who get the best out of one another and a complete absence of intelligent leaders.

It looks like an exaggerated form of what it has been since the summer before last - a squad in transition but without the means to complete the job.

[Daniel 7]

Man for man we have a better squad than most of the sides above us in the league, but we have no cohesion. There's no vision and there's no sum of parts. We don't know how to play. We've been forced Roy's style following a clear strategy after Benitez, and now we have our 3rd manager in 6/7 months. It started off looking better last night, but we regressed when they equalised, same happened in the second half, we looked ok and the confidence issue struck.

Its clear that Jova is brainless, Kuyt has no form, Johnson is no left back (and arguably no right back either) and Skrtel isn't good enough.