The BigFooty Liverpool Army

[gaskin]

The amount of Downing hate on here is ridiculous. It's just like the Lucas bashers a couple of years ago.

How many saves has he made though that preserved leads or kept us level.

This. It amazes me that people can remember a howler from a keeper yet they seem to forget all the great saves they make.

 

[smiddy9]

If we got someone like Vorm id probably blow my load!! Thoroughly impressed me last year!!

 

[Robbo92]

The amount of Downing hate on here is ridiculous. It's just like the Lucas bashers a couple of years ago.



This. It amazes me that people can remember a howler from a keeper yet they seem to forget all the great saves they make.

Reina has been a terrific servant of the club over the years. But can you honestly give an example from the past two seasons where he has saved us points? Because there are many examples of his mistakes costing us points. I'm sure we all love Reina but pretending he's of the same standard he used to be is just wrong, because he certainly isn't.

 

[freshazimiz]

I think it's very unfair to criticise players like Hendo and Lucas was because they were very young which is abit premature judging them too early and expecting too much. Whereas Downing who is close to 30 now has a teenager showing more more balls than him, who came here which cost us 20mil to justify that price he was meant to deliver instantly as he ages he would not get any better. Hence why he is hated because he can only get worse from here.

 

[FAITH]

Tiote would be available since he's not french i'd imagine. Diame would be a cheap alternative as well or even Mulumbu and theres players like Wanyama and Matuidi who is currently playing in CL which will be hard to entice.

Dutch keepers like Stekelenburg and Vorm would suit our system and Vorm has played under Rodgers and most importantly he's dark so that's another positive.

Never heard of most of those black beasts.

Vorm would be a chance as rodgers liked him at swansea.

Attacking wise i reckon Sinclair who aint getting much game time at city, Lukaku from west brom to add to our attack and milner from city would be nice.

Never heard of Borussia Monch, are they a good side?

You know Borussia Mönchengladbach they have a good keeper apparently we are looking at.
I have no doubt reina will be out.

If we got someone like Vorm id probably blow my load!! Thoroughly impressed me last year!!

Has he been good this season?

 

[Robbo92]

Lukaku from west brom to add to our attack quote]
Lukaku is loaned by Chelsea. There is no way he'll be leaving.

 

[smiddy9]

Has he been good this season?

He has been injured half the season! Plus hes just signed a 4 year deal with Swansea!

 

[FAITH]

He's already said his preference is to stay with Brom. Obviously doesnt have a future with CFC.

 

[PAdman]

The amount of Downing hate on here is ridiculous.

Downing is 29, he cost £20m, he scored 0 goals and 0 assists last season including 3 missed penalties. This season he has scored, what, 2 goals? He's a winger who got relegated to LB for Christ sake. How is the hate not warranted? With a quality winger we would be pushing for top 4-6 now.

 

[Robbo92]

He's already said his preference is to stay with Brom. Obviously doesnt have a future with CFC.

He won't get much game time at Chelsea. He's still one for the future. Don't think Chelsea will let him leave permanently.

 

[ADL9798]

Interesting tactical look at the City game:

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=302767.80

Manchester City v Liverpool

Systems/formations/set up? It looked like 4 4 1 1 without the ball, and when we had the ball, it was so fluid, I couldn't tell.

See below

Sturridge was outstanding. Use all the different words you can think of to agree with me.

He is a complete forward, who is getting close to full fitness. By complete forward I mean he can move, he has a good first touch, he has speed (rather than pace – quickness is the thing), he holds the ball up, he plays off the shoulder, he moves forward, back, left and right and he can head the ball. And most importantly, he can complement whoever he is playing with up front. And more importantly – he will only get better.

Carragher did well. Again.

I’ve said this before, but Carragher is the surprise package of the Rodgers era, because I don’t think a player has bought into BR’s ideas so quickly, compared to where they were before. “Carra-hoof” is no longer an apt description. This is a clear example of the maturity of the man. He could have gone off the deep end – he could have played his own way, playing it long, dropping deep, shouting at players, etc.; but instead, he became a coach on the field – “This is the way the boss wants us to play, boys – this is the way to do it. Follow me”. In a way, it is the real essence of leadership. Not controlling the rest of the players, but guiding them by voice and by example. Physically, if he can accept his limitations and declining body, he can play a major part of any success we have with Rodgers. I hope he does that. Some fans cry out for us to buy a McAllister type, someone to put onto the field to give a calm and experienced head to the young players in times of frenzy. But we have one already here. And it is up to him whether or not he can accept this mantle, or whether the player’s ego of “one more season” gets the better of him.

Henderson as a left mid/false winger? The lad has such an engine that he can actually cover 1.5 positions quite easily.

I’m stealing the “1.5 positions” phrase, because it is a good description. Almost like a wide “trequartista”. Perhaps the “uno e mezzo”?

Seriously, though, he gives us a lot of options for changing the space that players can play in. He can occupy two opposition players defensively, and he can offer central options and wide options in the blink of an eye. He could become every bit as important to Rodgers as Gerrard was to Rafa and Owen was to Houllier. From what he’s shown, personally, I hope Rodgers already has it in his head to keep him. Our midfield works better with him in it than without him. And the more he grows dominant in his role I think, the more Allen will be afforded space to play when he eventually becomes a starter again, because just like now for Gerrard, Henderson’s work will create space for Allen that had been taken away from him by other teams and their pressing tactics.


The Lucas train gathers momentum, one stray pass out of defence notwithstanding.

Match fitness, and more importantly, mental strength. He is learning that he can play to full capacity without risk of injury. This is not to be underestimated by anyone – the impact of a career threatening injury is something that plays on any player’s mind. Slowly but surely he is getting that confidence back. We’ll know when it’s back to full capacity when he’s steaming into tackles like there is no such thing as a red card. When he gets to that stage, I think our midfield will be one of the best in England.

And finally, is Gerrard back to his "GEEERRRRRAAARRRRRDDDDD!" best?

I wouldn’t say “back to his best”. I’d say he’s found a new way to play that relies more on his brain than his physique. He doesn’t have the legs anymore, so he can’t cover for being out of position when a rampaging run breaks down (like, for example, against Arsenal at Anfield earlier in the season). Instead, he seems to be taken all of the collection of knowledge he has amassed since he became a first team regular, and is applying it sensibly and constructively. This is Steven Gerrard 2.0 – we CAN rebuild him, and we DO have the technology. But really, we didn’t need it - because he was always capable of rebuilding himself. He just needed someone to show him a new way.

Manchester City’s System –

City played their usual 4-2-3-1 (not the 4-4-2 that was on the team-sheet/BBC/Sky line=ups – never trust those, they are just shorthand for the media. Watch the shape on defence and whenever a long ball is played forward, and you will get a better sense of what shape a team is actually playing), and like a typical Italian-coached team, they played it fairly rigidly, positionally. There were no real surprises, with a solid defensive two in front of a back four, Zabaleta pushing on from the right-full position, a tight attacking midfield three, and a target player to play up to. What was interesting was that as structured as they were the fluidity of the Liverpool attack created a lot of gaps between City’s defence and their midfield.

Attack-wise, they played as typical as this City team could play, with width from the fullbacks, and a fluid attacking midfield. The fluidity might have been hampered just a little by Dzeko dropping in a bit more, in much the same way as Liverpool’s did when Carroll had a bad game. What’s interesting though is the delineation of work in the midfield – there was a clear separation between the two defensive mids and the three attacking mids and Aguero (who had more of a free attacking role). Barry got the most touches of the ball in their midfield, but Garcia wasn’t far behind him. Zabaleta also saw a lot of the ball, and it is a credit to the left side (Henderson and Enrique) that he didn’t have a large impact on the game despite seeing a lot of the ball. We can look at City’s system here:

WE can look at a “map” of touches per player for the main eleven for City here – players with the biggest circles got the most touches. It is interesting how much fewer touches Nastasic got compared to Lescott, and how relatively few Aguero and Dzeko got compared to Milner and Silva – testament, perhaps, to how well we contained their attack and how much more of the ball we had:

Liverpool’s System –

There is some conjecture about what formation Liverpool actually played, but rather than focus on the “formation”, if we look at the shape according to average positions and the roles the players took up, we can see that we played a shape we haven’t played before, but seems like a great compromise between solidity, possession, and getting the best out of Sturridge and Suarez:

The first thing we have to notice is the consistency (observable throughout the season for most games) of the “2-3” defence - two central defenders, two fullbacks and a defensive mid in front of them. What changes from time to time (and sometimes from game to game), is the attack. If we take Lucas as the anchor an part of the defensive unit, and Gerrard as a being a bit more forward and taking the “attacking” midfield role, then, coupled with Henderson’s and Downing’s positions, and with Suarez playing up front with Sturridge, it works out that we played a 2-3-3-2, or a 4-1-3-2 to give it more traditional shorthand:

Parsing out the formation according to lines, show’s some interesting patterns that you have to hope Rodgers took note of, because they played a part in a quite dominating performance for the whole team (at some point, some fans will have to recognise that our style of play when executed well makes teams look worse than they are – that wasn’t a game against “jut Norwich”, or “Just Sunderland”. It was the league champions, whose bench probably out-prices Wigan’s whole first team. Perhaps.) If we look at the key factors here:

Firstly, and thanks to Corkyboy, I think we have a new position for Henderson – the “1.5 midfielder”. His workrate probably feels at times for the opposition as if he is two players. His ability to get wide and forward from a mainly central position gives us solidity in midfield and variety in attack. Much like Borini, he may not always reap the rewards of his work, but his work creates space for others to do theirs, most notable Gerrard. Speaking of which, Gerrard and Lucas did a very good job of patrolling that central area in front of the defence. It helps to keep Dzeko quiet, and although Milner saw a lot of the ball, he wasn’t able to work as efficiently as he would have liked because of the partnership of Gerrard and Lucas (with Henderson dropping back too). Additionally, Agger and Carragher played a lot more like a traditional centreback pairing, playing probably 10 yards closer to the middle than a Rodgers back two normally would. This tightened up the back considerably, and more notably didn’t deny the possession game, as seen by Agger’s high number of touches (although Carragher had significantly lower touches than anyone on the field - see below). The last two key factors for Liverpool were the partnership of Suarez and Sturridge – a partnership that is as organic as it is potentially thrilling. Sturridge seems to recognise that Suarez is the “lead” forward, and without neglecting his own work, he dovetails quite nicely with the unpredictability of Suarez’ movement. Johnson, finally, played more like a traditional fullback rather than a wingback (aided by Downing maintaining width and being more creative than we’re used to – he had the most key passes of anyone on the team), and his willingness to drop back and pinch in helped keep Silva in check, and contributed to nullifying their attacks, for the most part.

The Rodgers Road to Fourth –

Time and again this season we have seen glimpses of the “future” – the template of what Rodgers is trying to achieve. We’ve seen tactical switches, different formations, different methods of attack, and a growth in the way the team plays that bodes very well for the future. Yet again, we can pinpoint our lack of maximum return to individual errors. The positive thing to take from these games, though, is that individual errors are a lot easier to fix than wholesale systematic revolution. We are rarely outplayed by teams – we could probably count those games on one hand this season, and not even get close to using all of our fingers. We dominate the ball, just as Rodgers said. We play entertaining football that people will pay to see, just as Rodgers said. And we would improve in steps rather than leaps, with good days and bad days, just as Rodgers said. There has to be a tipping point where recalcitrant fans will admit that he is a bona fide “Liverpool” manager. At some point, we will enter a period of belief that we will win the league – because Rodgers will say we will.

 

[FAITH]

For all the hendo haters

 

[FAITH]

Greatest LFC player of all time:

 

[ADL9798]

Greatest LFC player of all time:

#4 v Middlesbrough my personal favourite. Never seen a player defy the laws of physics with the ball as often as Gerrard did at his peak. It got to a point where it was almost expected of him to score a world class goal every week.

 

[FAITH]

no 4 was probably the best.
But the goals against WH, Olympiakos and CL win are just amazing.
How bout the commentary for no.1

 

[FAITH]

#4 v Middlesbrough my personal favourite. Never seen a player defy the laws of physics with the ball as often as Gerrard did at his peak. It got to a point where it was almost expected of him to score a world class goal every week.

Never seem a player with so much drive and determination.
For me surely his the best LFC player of all time, carried the club the past decade.

 

[kane249]

Never seem a player with so much drive and determination.
For me surely his the best LFC player of all time, carried the club the past decade.

Just a shame he came in an era where we weren't at our dominant best, deserved more trophies in his career

 

[PAdman]

 

[FAITH]

Just a shame he came in an era where we weren't at our dominant best, deserved more trophies in his career

Won everything cept league.
Hopefully we can get that for him before he retires

 

[Robbo92]

Some of Stevie's goals are just ridiculous. I love that bloke.

 

[smiddy9]

Will rewatch when i get home and have a bat over the video!!
Vintage Stevie G!

 

[ADL9798]

Maradona: "They proved that miracles do exist. I've made Liverpool my English team. Liverpool showed that football is the most beautiful sport of all."

 

[OzBomber]

http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/3aw-gen...ents-spark-twitter-furore/20130205-2dwbr.html

****ing hell, why would you even guess?

 

[PAdman]

Non story.

 

[jod23]

Greatest LFC player of all time:

He is just a freak of footballing nature. He's not just the greatest LFC player of all time, IMO he is one of the greatest midfielders to ever play the sport.