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Seemed to like the underdog status. Liverpool have the funds and resources to be better than they are.
Liverpool FC - what has happened?
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Need to be very very careful now that they are trying to expand the stadium and pay off a large debt.
No Champions league is going to bite hard next season (should they fail to make the 4)
- Aug 18, 2009
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Target at the start of the season would've been top 4 and some silverware. Semi finals of the 2 domestic cups and a few points off 4th at present, even if we miss out on that final CL place up for grabs, I don't think it'll be by enough to warrant a sacking despite how bitterly disappointed we might be as supporters at having fallen just short of our goals.
Big summer, we need to make a few top quality signings who come in and hit the ground running so we don't have the sort of stuttering start that killed our season before it even began this year. Our squad isn't far off our competitors, it's just missing 1 or 2 key players to elevate it to the next level.
Even having lost Suarez, a fit and firing Sturridge for the full season sees us finish in the top 4 in my opinion. Unfortunately he's shown that his body clearly can't be relied upon, and we made a big mistake expecting Balotelli to be an acceptable and appropriate back up. He just doesn't fit the way we play, end of, lesson learned. Mistakes were made in signing he and Lovren, though I don't think anyone predicted quite how poor those 2 would be this season based on what we'd seen of them in the past. They're the only 2 signings I was really disappointed with, unfortunately they were the 2 we really couldn't afford to utensil up!
We get that attacking signing right and make up even half of the 40 goals we lost this season, 1 or 2 defenders and a replacement for Gerrard in midfield (who in hindsight has definitely played 1 season too many, we carried him through much of this season), in addition to the natural improvement we can expect to see from our core group of U22 players like Sterling, Coutinho, Can, Ibe, Moreno, Markovic etc; and we'll play much closer to our potential in 2015/16.
Big summer, we need to make a few top quality signings who come in and hit the ground running so we don't have the sort of stuttering start that killed our season before it even began this year. Our squad isn't far off our competitors, it's just missing 1 or 2 key players to elevate it to the next level.
Even having lost Suarez, a fit and firing Sturridge for the full season sees us finish in the top 4 in my opinion. Unfortunately he's shown that his body clearly can't be relied upon, and we made a big mistake expecting Balotelli to be an acceptable and appropriate back up. He just doesn't fit the way we play, end of, lesson learned. Mistakes were made in signing he and Lovren, though I don't think anyone predicted quite how poor those 2 would be this season based on what we'd seen of them in the past. They're the only 2 signings I was really disappointed with, unfortunately they were the 2 we really couldn't afford to utensil up!
We get that attacking signing right and make up even half of the 40 goals we lost this season, 1 or 2 defenders and a replacement for Gerrard in midfield (who in hindsight has definitely played 1 season too many, we carried him through much of this season), in addition to the natural improvement we can expect to see from our core group of U22 players like Sterling, Coutinho, Can, Ibe, Moreno, Markovic etc; and we'll play much closer to our potential in 2015/16.
- Aug 18, 2009
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That's definitely a concern though our redevelopment obviously isn't going to cost anywhere near as much as the Emirates, so hopefully it doesn't impact us too greatly.
I think Liverpool should target Benteke. Big, strong, quick, tricky, great finisher. He can play in a 4-4-2 or in 4-2-3-1 and I think would work well with Sturridge.
Will cost upwards of £30m but at 24 he'd be worth it.
I'd really like him at Arsenal but I think we are looking continental for a forward.
Will cost upwards of £30m but at 24 he'd be worth it.
I'd really like him at Arsenal but I think we are looking continental for a forward.
pantskyle
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Klopp is a real chance to go to West Ham, he loves to build a side.
Depends what alternate universe you want to live in.
a) Only Liverpool's star striker remains injury free
b) The same logic applies to all clubs
I've mentioned it on this board previously. If Sturridge was fit all season, then why not Aguero/Toure, or Giroud/Ozil? Particularly our players who missed enormously large chunks of the season?
If a) you may have a point. In more logical universe b) you are still comfortably not in the top 4. Every side bar Chelsea has had a multitude of key player injuries this season.
Liverpool's issues, and thus their top 4 ambitions, have gone far, far beyond Sturridge's fitness this year.
Magma
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In fairness, he just left one
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Liverpool would be a better version of West Ham for that.
And he has said of his love for the place before. Could definitely see it.
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Costa and Remy have both missed a fair chunk of the season too. But elsewhere we've been sweet.
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Manchester United and Arsenal have had plenty of injuries to contend with this season too.
I blame injuries for holding us back for so long. Our inability to field a consistent lineup made adjusting to LVG's tactics much harder, the lack of understanding between team mates was painful at the start of the season.
It sucks for Liverpool that their most important player is made of glass but Balo was never the answer and we all knew Sturridge would go down at some point, BR has to take some blame for that IMO.
I blame injuries for holding us back for so long. Our inability to field a consistent lineup made adjusting to LVG's tactics much harder, the lack of understanding between team mates was painful at the start of the season.
It sucks for Liverpool that their most important player is made of glass but Balo was never the answer and we all knew Sturridge would go down at some point, BR has to take some blame for that IMO.
Bojan KantKick
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Why wouldn't Benitez come back to Pool. Would make more sense than a lot of others.
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rafa isnt exactly a guy to get anyone rocketing back up the table. his record at napoli, cups aside, is horrible. likely going to miss champions league after having a side that had 100 million spent on, including 30 mil on higuain. 5 points off 3rd, the playoff spot.
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'Comfortably' not in the top 4 with him in the side? Haha win our game in hand against Hull and we're only a game outside (with 5 to go) without him!
The difference between us losing Sturridge and our rivals losing their star striker for almost the entire season is that they have the quality to cover for it; Balotelli, Lambert & Borini don't even come close. That was a massive failing on our part, and one we definitely need to rectify in the summer.
We have other issues of course, every side has areas they can improve, but short of conceding 3 goals a game for the rest of the season our defence has actually shown improvement. It's up front where we've been hit the hardest. We essentially lost 50 goals at the start of the season and the players we've brought in haven't even come close to replacing that.
I guess what I'm arguing is that outside of Chelsea who were far and away the best side in the league this year, the margin between the following 4-5 teams isn't all that great, and thus keeping our best player and #1 striker fit and on the park could have easily been the boost we needed to push into the CL spots.
As it is we didn't have adequate quality in our reserve striker stocks to play our normal diamond formation and it took us too long to adapt our system to compensate for the loss of Suarez & Sturridge, hence why we are where we are.
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elhadjihenry
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You are one game outside the a top 4 containing teams who have also had their top players injured for large chunks of the season. This is the point you seem to be missing.
If you want to put Sturridge back into your hypothetical equation, then you also have to add in all the injured players the rest of the top 4 have had to play without. Everything being equal and all the top teams have no injuries, Liverpool still don't make top 4 for me.
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Absolutely. Abject performance. Only 2 or 3 players can hold their heads up after that display, as usual Gerrard & Lovren were particularly disappointing on the day, Markovic too. Honestly those 3 in particular might as well have not shown up.
Looking at the season in general, as I said there are other areas we can improve but up front is the key issue for me. Even when we were playing well and going 3 months without defeat we struggled to consistently put the ball in the back of the net.
Yes, quite comfortably.
United and Arsenal were decimated beyond belief by injury, particularly early in the season. We had 3 CMs out for 6 months (Wilshere), 5 months (Arteta) and 1-2 months (Ramsey). Our starting striker missed 4 months straight. Our record signing missed more than 3 months straight. Our starting RB has missed all season bar 5 or so games. And that doesn't even include our first choice CB missing chunks early, or the collective injury issues to Walcott/Oxlade-Chamberlain throughout the season.
It got so bad for us at one point that we had to recall a loanee (who couldn't even get a game at Charlton at the time) just to have an option in the middle of the park!
From United's perspective, they had key players missing for similar chunks as our players did. A Utd supporter can elaborate further if required.
What you're failing to grasp is that United and Arsenal (theoretically - which is the basis of this discussion) would have a whole lot more to gain with completely fit lists than Liverpool with Sturridge returning and the several other injuries you had (which I'm aware of, by the way, but your injuries come nowhere near United or Arsenal's). Manchester City similarly would also. Their two best players in Toure and Aguero have been hampered all season, and even with their managerial crisis now will still easily finish top 4 ahead of Liverpool.
This I agree with, and is what has reemed you this season. A better squad would be able to cover the loss of Sturridge better. But you don't have a better squad. And by not having a better squad you would not come top 4 in universe b) mentioned above.
edit: elhadjihenry summed this up in a lot less words haha
Overachieved last season for what they had and their best player left. Since then they have signed no one of note. Pretty simple
pantskyle
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Liverpool can still finish in the top four. I don't think any of the sides just below Chelsea are guarantees.
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They'd be pretty close though. Arsenal is on a 10 game winning streak (or close to). United has been putting it together. The only one you'd think they might possibly pass is City but even that seems highly unlikely.
Mathematically they're obviously not out of it but it's a tough ask.
pantskyle
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Very tough but no one besides Chelsea fans should be 100% convinced of CL next season at this point. As a United fan I'm very worried we could drop out.
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I don't think I'm missing it.. I answered it in my previous post by saying that those teams have quality options in reserve to at least partly make up for those players being out, we don't. That was our utensil up last summer and one we need to rectify in the off season.
Sturridge has missed pretty much the entire season, he hasn't just missed a few weeks here and there. Our backup options up front have been woeful and as a result even when we've been playing well in the 2nd half of the season we've been fairly impotent in the final third (I'm pretty sure we have the lowest goal tally of any of the top 6?).
We also need a top quality replacement for Gerrard in midfield and 1 or 2 quality defenders but given the strong correlation between goals scored and league finishing position, for me this is by far the biggest issue we have to fix in the summer and the change that will generate the biggest improvement in league position.
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We're probably the fifth richest side in the league and therefore the fifth best. We'll probably finish where we should.
Last year was great but never sustainable no matter how much we liked to believe it was. Top managers like Klopp and Simeone have shown it can be sustained for 2-3 years but generally the bigger (i.e. richer) sides will kill them off eventually.
Bit depressing but that's just the way football is these days.
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