Two Cup Finals, One Trophy and European Football Secured

[kris90210]

Gary Shaw @GaryMerseybox
Reina Johnson agger skrtel Enrique gerrard Lucas Suarez. A decent 8 from 11?? No of times they've played together this season? NONE

Speaks volumes that that Carroll, Henderson, Adam and Downing are absent from that list of 8 - that's not far off £80 million right there. I'm sorry, but I can't back a manager who advocated spending THAT much on THOSE players, especially when you take into account this seasons league form. Doesn't matter who he is. Nowhere near good enough.

[kris90210]

How do you build a team around an unpredictable player?

If you think we lack an identity or strategy now, how are we going to implement a game plan around a player that does the unexpected?

I'm all for keeping Suarez, but the only thing we can build around him is a formation and hope some players can second guess him.

Are you kidding? Teams are often built around creative number 10 type players.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

Speaks volumes that that Carroll, Henderson, Adam and Downing are absent from that list of 8 - that's not far off £80 million right there. I'm sorry, but I can't back a manager who advocated spending THAT much on THOSE players, especially when you take into account this seasons league form. Doesn't matter who he is. Nowhere near good enough.

I think our first signing needs to be one of intent, to get the fans believing in what the plan is.. Seems last season, not only did we buy plays not good enough, we just randomly bought them! Henderson, as much potential as he has. IS NOT A RIGHT WINGER.. if you want a right winger, BUY ONE.

We need a formation, a game plan and players of good ability that fit into them.

[Muddled]

Are you kidding? Teams are often built around creative number 10 type players.

Teams are set up around a sound foundation to not concede and an attacking unit - usually a quartet - not an individual. And definitely not an unpredictable individual. Design that quartet to get the best out of the focal point - usually a number nine - but, in my opinion, not a number ten; they're there to provide those moments when the original 'Plan A' is not working.

Using recent examples, Rafa and Garcia and Mourinho and Cole. On the flip side, there are teams that are set up to incorporate their number ten, Wenger and Bergkamp, Ferguson and Sheringham, but their teams weren't built around them, they accomodated them, which is what we should be doing.

All in my humble opinion of course.

[danperkins]

He is not the player we should build the team around. Suarez is by far and away the player we should build around.

[danperkins]

Teams are set up around a sound foundation to not concede and an attacking unit - usually a quartet - not an individual. And definitely not an unpredictable individual. Design that quartet to get the best out of the focal point - usually a number nine - but, in my opinion, not a number ten; they're there to provide those moments when the original 'Plan A' is not working.

Using recent examples, Rafa and Garcia and Mourinho and Cole. On the flip side, there are teams that are set up to incorporate their number ten, Wenger and Bergkamp, Ferguson and Sheringham, but their teams weren't built around them, they accomodated them, which is what we should be doing.

All in my humble opinion of course.

Suarez is our best player, teams are often built around their best player. Carroll was superb against Chelsea and has shown improvement, but dear jesus he has a long long way to go. And in no way,shape or form is he even in the same league as Suarez at the moment & certainly overall hasn't been good enough to even consider building a team around.

[Icon]

Anfield is no longer a fortress - nobody fears stepping onto our pitch anymore. Us maybe, but not the opposition.
8th currently in the league and a chance of slipping further.
Millions spent on players who should be bedded in by now if they were worth their salt.
A penalty win against a minnow for our only trophy.

Europa League secured? Okay...

We need a min of 5/6 players of some quality to consider any kind of run.
A striker to compliment Suarez, wingers to compliment Carroll, central midfielder to inherit SG's role and work with Shelvey and Lucas, a left back and centre half - and these need to have a good CV.

Anything less and we'll be floating about next season too...

[Muddled]

Speaks volumes that that Carroll, Henderson, Adam and Downing are absent from that list of 8 - that's not far off £80 million right there. I'm sorry, but I can't back a manager who advocated spending THAT much on THOSE players, especially when you take into account this seasons league form. Doesn't matter who he is. Nowhere near good enough.

I think Carroll and Henderson will be part of that spine in a few years time, Adam a good squad player and Downing hopefully cashed in on; building a strong squad does take time and building an instant world-class starting XI doesn't happen in 18 months. If anything, these players will bulk out those eight names mentioned earlier.

[danperkins]

Anfield is no longer a fortress - nobody fears stepping onto our pitch anymore. Us maybe, but not the opposition.
8th currently in the league and a chance of slipping further.
Millions spent on players who should be bedded in by now if they were worth their salt.
A penalty win against a minnow for our only trophy.

Europa League secured? Okay...

We need a min of 5/6 players of some quality to consider any kind of run.
A striker to compliment Suarez, wingers to compliment Carroll, central midfielder to inherit SG's role and work with Shelvey and Lucas, a left back and centre half - and these need to have a good CV.

Anything less and we'll be floating about next season too...

[Mattshark]

I think Carroll and Henderson will be part of that spine in a few years time, Adam a good squad player and Downing hopefully cashed in on; building a strong squad does take time and building an instant world-class starting XI doesn't happen in 18 months. If anything, these players will bulk out those eight names mentioned earlier.

If that is the case we are absolutely ****ed.

[danperkins]

If that is the case we are absolutely ****ed.

[Muddled]

Suarez is our best player, teams are often built around their best player. Carroll was superb against Chelsea and has shown improvement, but dear jesus he has a long long way to go. And in no way,shape or form is he even in the same league as Suarez at the moment & certainly overall hasn't been good enough to even consider building a team around.

I agree, Suarez is our best player and to clear it up, I'm not advocating building the team around Carroll, regardless of how much I think he has a future here. I think we need to build a team that gets the best out of a number of players developing our attacking element, rather than being reliant on Suarez.

Suarez bursts in to the box, players are checking their runs because Suarez has decided to turn back inside, players rush near post and Suarez has gone for goal, players hold their runs and he smashes it across the six yard line. Yes, we need that unpredictability, but we also need to build a strategy that doesn't rely on that unpredicatbility ... if that makes any sense!

[danperkins]

I agree, Suarez is our best player and to clear it up, I'm not advocating building the team around Carroll, regardless of how much I think he has a future here. I think we need to build a team that gets the best out of a number of players developing our attacking element, rather than being reliant on Suarez.

Suarez bursts in to the box, players are checking their runs because Suarez has decided to turn back inside, players rush near post and Suarez has gone for goal, players hold their runs and he smashes it across the six yard line. Yes, we need that unpredictability, but we also need to build a strategy that doesn't rely on that unpredicatbility ... if that makes any sense!

i do get what you're saying mate.

Whether Kenny is in charge of LFC to make the summer transfers, IMO this is the most important transfer window in recent years & must be spot on, IN's & OUT's.

[Redspin]

Not bad from serious relegation candidates, a football club staring down the barrel of likely administration , from signing Christian Poulsen for 4.5 million to breaking the British Trasnfer Record Signing Andy Carrol.

Whilst our League form was atrocious, lets not forget we dominated many of the games we either lost or drawn and the football on show was bloody brilliant at times. Certain players were not good enough, others did not perform to there potential. Collectively whilst we pushed on from were we were, we could have achieved a lot more.
But lets get some perspective. We are a club now in rude financial health, putting our extraordinary operating expenses last year to one side. We still are I would say easily one the top 5 clubs in the world in terms of brand. Whilst we need to sign players and ship players out this summer for sure, we have the basis of a very strong squad here already.

Players like Gerrard, Suarez, Carroll, Lucas, Agger, Johnson, Pepe, Skirtel, players who have it in them to be a lot better Enrique, Kelly, Downing. Young players who have huge potential, Sterling, Henderson, Shevely

Obviously the bench mark we need to hit at a minimum is 4th next season, looking at the teams fighting for that spot at the moment, I dont think we are far off that and we definitely will be in the mix for that spot or better next season. Maybe 4 really strong signings this summer and we can maybe increase our chances from just being in the mix, but hey its a Journey.

Kenny has got us back in Europe, he has won us a Trophy and with all our bad luck for the next 20 years used up in one season, who knows what he can achieve next season. I for one and looking forward to it immensely

YNWA

I think you must be one of those shiny happy people I heard once in a song.

[kris90210]

Teams are set up around a sound foundation to not concede and an attacking unit - usually a quartet - not an individual. And definitely not an unpredictable individual. Design that quartet to get the best out of the focal point - usually a number nine - but, in my opinion, not a number ten; they're there to provide those moments when the original 'Plan A' is not working.

Using recent examples, Rafa and Garcia and Mourinho and Cole. On the flip side, there are teams that are set up to incorporate their number ten, Wenger and Bergkamp, Ferguson and Sheringham, but their teams weren't built around them, they accomodated them, which is what we should be doing.

All in my humble opinion of course.

Certainly that's one way to do it. But there's nothing unusual about building a team to compliment a player like Suarez. There are plenty of examples.

When you talk about unpredictability, I think you only see it as a negative. What's the point in a predictable attack? Suarez is operating on a different level to the rest of our attacking players (apart from Gerrard). They don't think on the same wavelength. You see Gerrard and him linking up superbly from time to time. It's players with the sort of understanding, movement and technique that we need. If you put players like this together so that they are spending hours every day training, the understanding becomes almost telepathic. Then it doesn't become unpredicable to his team mates, it's unpredictable to the opposition - and that is what we should be striving for.

Downing down the left, crosses in for Carroll to score. My god, yawn. ****ing playschool thinking in hindsight. We don't even play Downing on the left most of the time. Utterly baffling.