Current Squad

[Neil Young]

Kev, I don't agree it's a good squad.

Reiner - great, let's hope he stays and Rodgers gets him back to his best
A.N Other

Johnson - excellent
Kelly - young, inexperienced, should get better
Carra - on the wane but not as bad as some make out
Skittles - good, if he stays
Agger - good, if he stays fit
Coates - young, could be good but got a lot to learn
Enrique - hmm, patchy and unconvincing but might improve
Robinson - far too young to judge how good he might be but not ready yet
Flannigan - far too young to judge how good he might be but not ready yet

Henderson - young, could be good but needs to mature
Gerrard - of course he's great, but injury doubts and the passage of time etc.
Shelvey - young, looks good but lack of pace could limit his potential
Aquilani - probably off
Cole - let's hope he goes too
Allen
Lucas - boss, obv.
Speering - top 8 ok, top 4, I don't see it
Morgan - far too young to judge how good he might be but not ready yet
Adam - far too crap

Downing - very underwhelming, might be ok but I doubt it
Carrol - very, very underwhelming, probably off
Luis - great, let's hope he stays
Borinni - who knows but at least he's keen
Bellamy - good but injuries and age, etc.
Susso - young, could be good but got a lot to learn
Stirling - far too young to judge how good he might be but not ready yet
Pacheco - youngish, might thrive under Rodgers but has to develop soon

It looks to me like Rodgers has a lot of work to do, both on squad building and developing the players. Ok, it's long-term process so he should get some time but it's a big job. Like Gibbo says, very few would be of interest to the CL teams - I'd add Johnson and obviously Gerrard too, if he were younger and not Mr Liverpool.

What makes you think it's a good squad?

[Neil Young]

By the way, that is my regular, serious post about football done for another year.

[CJ]

that was a serious post?

[Pablo]

By the way, that is my regular, serious post about football done for another year.

It had a ring of a PTP post to it , I especially enjoyed the spelling of certain player names!

At a push I might even be up for reading two of them a year

[Neil Young]

that was a serious post?

Like Lecter's love interest, it's all relative.

It had a ring of a PTP post to it , I especially enjoyed the spelling of certain player names!

At a push I might even be up for reading two of them a year

Don't worry, it's unlikely to happen but thanks anyway.

[kev776]

Kev, I don't agree it's a good squad.

Reiner - great, let's hope he stays and Rodgers gets him back to his best
A.N Other

Johnson - excellent
Kelly - young, inexperienced, should get better
Carra - on the wane but not as bad as some make out
Skittles - good, if he stays
Agger - good, if he stays fit
Coates - young, could be good but got a lot to learn
Enrique - hmm, patchy and unconvincing but might improve
Robinson - far too young to judge how good he might be but not ready yet
Flannigan - far too young to judge how good he might be but not ready yet

Henderson - young, could be good but needs to mature
Gerrard - of course he's great, but injury doubts and the passage of time etc.
Shelvey - young, looks good but lack of pace could limit his potential
Aquilani - probably off
Cole - let's hope he goes too
Allen
Lucas - boss, obv.
Speering - top 8 ok, top 4, I don't see it
Morgan - far too young to judge how good he might be but not ready yet
Adam - far too crap

Downing - very underwhelming, might be ok but I doubt it
Carrol - very, very underwhelming, probably off
Luis - great, let's hope he stays
Borinni - who knows but at least he's keen
Bellamy - good but injuries and age, etc.
Susso - young, could be good but got a lot to learn
Stirling - far too young to judge how good he might be but not ready yet
Pacheco - youngish, might thrive under Rodgers but has to develop soon

It looks to me like Rodgers has a lot of work to do, both on squad building and developing the players. Ok, it's long-term process so he should get some time but it's a big job. Like Gibbo says, very few would be of interest to the CL teams - I'd add Johnson and obviously Gerrard too, if he were younger and not Mr Liverpool.

What makes you think it's a good squad?

I agree with all of your comments (shock) for a medium sized club with nothing but history to offer it is a good squad. If you asked an honest Manc or Spud or Arse fan to make a similar appraisal of their squads they would come up with something similar. The main differences between the clubs is the others have played to a set pattern and bought players to suit that pattern.

We bought players using the daft biometricgenetric system, nice to have "x "number of assists and "Y" number of side way passes but it doesn't bond you as a team.

If BR can install a decent system of play and have options when it doesn't work this team could do very well.

Reina, Johnson, Agger, Louis and Gerrard would walk into any CL squad, do Arse or Mancs have so many?

The best signing we made this summer is BR.

[Neil Young]

I agree it was vital to appoint a manager with a clear idea of how he wants to play plus the energy and commitment to make it work in the long run (ruling out many high profile 'big names'). Whether Rodgers can deliver remains to be seen but I'm hopeful.

Man City's squad is full of excellent players. Chelsea look to be rebuilding well enough. Man United need some new players but still have some excellent ones. Arsenal's players were somehow good enough to get them third, although I'd agree pattern of play is probably more important for them than for the others (but technically and physically they seem a lot better than us).

I agree about those five walking into any CL squad. But how many Man United or Arsenal players would walk into ours? More than five of each - a lot more.

[kev776]

I agree it was vital to appoint a manager with a clear idea of how he wants to play plus the energy and commitment to make it work in the long run (ruling out many high profile 'big names'). Whether Rodgers can deliver remains to be seen but I'm hopeful.

Man City's squad is full of excellent players. Chelsea look to be rebuilding well enough. Man United need some new players but still have some excellent ones. Arsenal's players were somehow good enough to get them third, although I'd agree pattern of play is probably more important for them than for the others (but technically and physically they seem a lot better than us).

I agree about those five walking into any CL squad. But how many Man United or Arsenal players would walk into ours? More than five of each - a lot more.

Who? I cant think of many but I don't know their squads well enough.

[James P]

Reiner - great, let's hope he stays and Rodgers gets him back to his best

I agree - I don't think that he's done anything quite as good as Spinal Tap in recent years.

[Pablo]

Who? I cant think of many but I don't know their squads well enough.

Your whole argument kind of falls apart here Kev

[kev776]

Your whole argument kind of falls apart here Kev

It was meant to be sarcastic, I don't know any I would replace with our first 11 and I know little of their fringe players. (RVP is the only one but he id off to City or Spain)

[Lee]

It's an okay squad.

In my opinion we have a spine that's good enough to compete for the top four - Reina, Johnson, Agger, Skrtel, Lucas, Gerrard and Suarez. However Reina's form hasn't been the same over the last few seasons, Agger and Gerrard have fitness issues, Lucas is just coming back from a long-term injury and Suarez missed a chunk of last season and was also suspended for quite some time at Ajax.

We've a couple of good squad players in Bellamy, Kelly and Coates. No better than some of the squad players that we had between 2007-2010 though.

Far too early to talk about the likes of Suso, Sterling, Robinson and Morgan. How many times have we bigged up the kids in recent years only for them to slip down the ladders?

Enrique was ****e in his first few seasons at Newcastle, then he had two good years there, had a good first half to the season with us and a poor end to the season so I'm not sure how good he really is. We don't even have a left back who is ready to compete with him.

Then we have the likes of Cole and Aquilani who will both probably leave but I'd be happy to have Aquilani as a squad player if he wanted to stay. Nobody knows how Borini will do. Carroll's future is also up in the air.

Then we have ****e like Spearing, Adam, Downing who are nowhere near good enough for top four teams. Carragher played a lot of games last season and if we're pushing for fourth then he shouldn't be playing.

Like I said, we've a decent spine and with a couple of top additions to our first team then we can push for fourth. I don't think our current squad isn't good enough though.

[Neil Young]

Who? I cant think of many but I don't know their squads well enough.

Off the top of my head:

Man United: Rooney, Cleverly, Vidic, Evra (despite his poor season and obviously ignoring the inevitable personality clashes), Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand (fitness permitting), Fletcher (ditto), Valencia, Park...

Arsenal: Sagna, Vermaelen, Wilshire, Van Persie, Giroud (maybe), Podolski (maybe), Song, Ramsey...

I'm not saying each of them would walk into the first 11 but they're a damn sight better than many of our squad.

As for Man City...

[kev776]

Off the top of my head:

Man United: Rooney, Cleverly, Vidic, Evra (despite his poor season and obviously ignoring the inevitable personality clashes), Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand (fitness permitting), Fletcher (ditto), Valencia, Park...

Arsenal: Sagna, Vermaelen, Wilshire, Van Persie, Giroud (maybe), Podolski (maybe), Song, Ramsey...

I'm not saying each of them would walk into the first 11 but they're a damn sight better than many of our squad.

As for Man City...

3 from that list I would take and sack Downing, Speering and Carrol.

[Neil Young]

You're letting your dislike of the others cloud your judgement. I'm not saying we'd need all of them but any of them would improve the squad, and I'm not suggesting as replacements for the youngsters.

You'd keep Cole rather than have Valencia or Park or Giggs? Adam instead of Scholes or Fletcher or Song? Crazy.

And I think Vermaelen would be an improvement on any of our centre backs.