FC Gomel vs Liverpool

[Muddled]

Sorry mate not as I remember it - I thought we were lucky not to lose that game

I agree with Tee, it took a while to get in the game, but Vorm had a blinder and we rattled the woodwork (obv).

[Yozza]

I agree with Tee, it took a while to get in the game, but Vorm had a blinder and we rattled the woodwork (obv).

Fair enough, I just remember Gower (?sp) missing a sitter in the dying minutes

[DannyMan2006]

To play like Barca you need world class players. Any system in football can work if you have the right players.

For all of the lovely football Barca play, more often than not its down to Lionel Messi to pull something out of a hat to break a team down.

Barca at their best had a solid CB partnership in Piqué & Puyol. I'd argue in Skrtel & Agger we have that. And in Glen Johnson we have as good a comparison to Dani Alves as any.

Sadly, that's where the comparisons end. Suarez is our genius, but he's no Lionel Messi. Whilst Borini is of course no David Villa. And comparing Downing to Alexis Sanchez? Laughable.

Gerrard is our all time great (arguably). But he can't dictate a game like Xavi. I'll give it that Lucas is a better reader of the game than Busquets, but who compares to Iniesta in our team? No one.

For all of Swanseas lovely play they came below us last year. Despite us being ****e. Yes they had a nice system whilst we were according to most, clueless. But they still came below us.

And I think that little bit there explains why we won't be ripping up trees next season just yet. The players we have simply aren't good enough. There's a reason we've finished 6,7 & 8.

[Rich]

This is a simplistic viewpoint but the point is valid IMO.

If we'd had a better striker on the pitch last season we'd have converted far more of our chances, we'd have drawn and won more games.

We still haven't improved this in the squad. God knows where the goals are going to come from.

[JohnDoe]

Players > System

System is overrated and mostly matters when teams of equal ability face each other. The most important thing in football is ability, and a system can only succeed on solid foundations of ability. We don't have a solid foundation of ability, not to get where we want to be anyway.

[PTP]

didn't watch the game so can't really comment on that tho it sounds dire but **** it, we won, move on...

however our squad is very very poor i feel....and i have major concerns that every day i see players like agger, skrtel, carroll, bellamy and now our 'rising star' sterling being linked with moves away and the only players we seemed to be linked with, all due respect to them are joe allen and clint dempsey

jesus wept - i know it's only rumours and paper talk etc etc but it's still ****ing worrying and depressing to see this **** every day.

we need to ensure we keep skrtel, agger, bellamy and sterling, we need to make a decision on carroll and if he is to go we need to make sure we sign a good ****ing striker in his place

And once the above is done we need to shift the deadwood....Adam, Spearing, Cole, Aquilani just for starters and go out and sign a top pacy/creative winger and a top centre mid who is mobile, can tackle and can pass the ball to feet


And for me - the above is just the bare minimum required for us to improve from last season and move on.

Anything less than that, and well it'll just be another long and frustrating season

[Lecter]

To play like Barca you need world class players. Any system in football can work if you have the right players.

For all of the lovely football Barca play, more often than not its down to Lionel Messi to pull something out of a hat to break a team down.

Barca at their best had a solid CB partnership in Piqué & Puyol. I'd argue in Skrtel & Agger we have that. And in Glen Johnson we have as good a comparison to Dani Alves as any.

Sadly, that's where the comparisons end. Suarez is our genius, but he's no Lionel Messi. Whilst Borini is of course no David Villa. And comparing Downing to Alexis Sanchez? Laughable.

Gerrard is our all time great (arguably). But he can't dictate a game like Xavi. I'll give it that Lucas is a better reader of the game than Busquets, but who compares to Iniesta in our team? No one.

For all of Swanseas lovely play they came below us last year. Despite us being ****e. Yes they had a nice system whilst we were according to most, clueless. But they still came below us.

And I think that little bit there explains why we won't be ripping up trees next season just yet. The players we have simply aren't good enough. There's a reason we've finished 6,7 & 8.

Agreed

To get to a level of free flowing passing is going to take time and more importantly patience and compromise

Its the one worry I have about Rodgers, I worry he is going to try to go too quickly from one style to the other and its clear we dont have the players to implement his passing game right now. I think it will take a couple of years myself and a high turnover of staff to gradually evolve to where he thinks we should be

That said I would expect to see some improvements this year namely pressing harder and higher up the pitch

That is much easier to implement

[dww]

I don't really think it is possible to utterly decouple system and ability, or that there is a single property of a player that you could call 'ability' in the first place.

I'm not sure we have enough players suitable to our system, but on the other hand I think we do have several players who have a lot of potential to adapt and improve.

[Lecter]

I don't really think it is possible to utterly decouple system and ability, or that there is a single property of a player that you could call 'ability' in the first place.

I'm not sure we have enough players suitable to our system, but on the other hand I think we do have several players who have a lot of potential to adapt and improve.

Agreed this is why I think Rodgers will have to change his tact slightly

Adjust his tactics to suit the players he does have with a view to gradually moving towards his goal of total possession football

[DannyMan2006]

Agreed this is why I think Rodgers will have to change his tact slightly

Adjust his tactics to suit the players he does have with a view to gradually moving towards his goal of total possession football

The quotes I've seen from Rodgers indicates he is aware of this. He knows it's not gonna happen overnight and I've seem him say it depends on the players available.

I actually wondered if this was a veiled dig at people higher up & him asking for deals to get done. But who knows.

[Vermilion]

It's hard not think that whatever we do, and whoever we buy, it has to be weighed against what our rivals are doing, on that basis success seems a long way off just now.

But, we've got to start somewhere, and we've got to do it this way, throwing money at it is not an option.

[Lecter]

The quotes I've seen from Rodgers indicates he is aware of this. He knows it's not gonna happen overnight and I've seem him say it depends on the players available.

I actually wondered if this was a veiled dig at people higher up & him asking for deals to get done. But who knows.

Could be

Will be interesting to see in the next few weeks whether a system settles down

[Muddled]

I actually LOL'd at our 'pressing' yesterday. Sprinting towards the Gomel player who had the ball, the Gomel player had to only put his foot on the ball whilst the Liverpool's player momentum took him out of the equation.

It's going to be a massive learning curve this season. But not quite as bad as Nige makes it out to be.

[Muddled]

The quotes I've seen from Rodgers indicates he is aware of this. He knows it's not gonna happen overnight and I've seem him say it depends on the players available.

I actually wondered if this was a veiled dig at people higher up & him asking for deals to get done. But who knows.

It's hard to sift through the bits that differ from the usual 'new manager' spiel about time and patience, but he does refer a lot to a players mentality.

There's a lot of talk about players going out, but not a lot going on and completely stripping a squad back to bare bones is a risky one - just look at our frontline yesterday.

[Lecter]

I actually LOL'd at our 'pressing' yesterday. Sprinting towards the Gomel player who had the ball, the Gomel player had to only put his foot on the ball whilst the Liverpool's player momentum took him out of the equation.

It's going to be a massive learning curve this season. But not quite as bad as Nige makes it out to be.

The pressing and defensive side of thing is the easiest thing to organise and put into place quickly

I would expect to see progress on this in the next few weeks