The BigFooty Liverpool Army

[BlueBen]

i think i speak for everyone. this season has caused all kinds of melancholy for all concerned.

Pretty much nothing has gone right since Gerrard's slip against Chelsea in April.

From exhilaration to deflation.

 

[Ashton Agar]

How much roughly would Odegaard cost?

 

[peternorth]

Pretty much nothing has gone right since Gerrard's slip against Chelsea in April.

From exhilaration to deflation.

when i look at the XI i feel sad. honest plodders at the moment.

 

[ilikepotatoes]

How much roughly would Odegaard cost?

10 mil +

 

[thecatattack]

10 mil +

No way a 15yr old would cost over 10mil.

Alen Halilovic cost like 2mil euros.

 

[Milenko]

Pretty much nothing has gone right since Gerrard's slip against Chelsea in April.

From exhilaration to deflation.

The Tottenham game. That's about it. A long, dry spell of absolute crap.

Pretty brutal coming off the back of some of the most electric football the world - let alone the EPL - has ever seen.

We almost lost at home to Ludogorets FFS!

 

[ADL9798]

Just bizarre. What happened? Is it a lack of confidence? For me I think it comes down to communication. Watch this video and tell me if you can see him gesturing or yelling at his back 4 at any point:



This is something we've criticized him for but really it falls on the entire back 6, particularly the senior players. Watch Gerrard at the 2:17 mark of this video. Lovren was committed to pressing Oscar out wide, so it falls on both Gerrard and Moreno to recognize where the danger area is. Both are on their heels when Oscar pokes it through for Ramires and while we weren't punished for it, it was a situation that we've seen replicated week in week out this season. As a defender in particular you cannot just assume that your team mates are going to recognize danger, you defend as a unit and use all 4 pairs of eyes to analyse the situation and if you can see a team mate out of position you bloody well let him know about it. Lovren was fantastic at this while at Southampton (as you can see in that first video), he was always ensuring they were in position which is great because it's probably the most important part of his job. However, for whatever reason he seems to have lost his voice in a Liverpool shirt - I don't know if he feels like he should be deferring to Skrtel or something, but neither of them are vocal enough in commanding that back third.

The other thing you notice every week (and again it comes down to communication) is that he and Skrtel regularly get their roles mixed up when competing for 50/50 balls. Take Chelsea's first goal for example, he and Skrtel both compete for the same ball, why? That rarely happened when Agger was in the side because Agger recognized that when Skrtel was hunting the ball, his job was to sweep in behind and clear the 2nd ball if Skrtel was unable to clear it on the first attempt. This is a simple fix for a CB like Lovren who has demonstrated that he's perfectly capable in the past. I hope it's been pointed out to him, as all it requires is for him to be more aware. He's incredibly frustrating to watch because we've seen he's perfectly capable, all between the ears. Hopefully he can turn it around soon.

 

[Dylan8]

Lovren has been making proper stupid errors but I was talking about this last season - our problems lie with both coaching and Gerrard at DM.

 

[FAITH]

Lovren was a star last season all of a sudden we've turned him into Shiite

 

[Cooldude]

Suarez is good but he's no Rooney...

Cooldude pls.

Rooney is on 300k... Dylan was wondering if we were paying Suarez 300k, I said 200k, 300k is Rooney, we ain't as stupid as the Mancs, is the point

Lovren was a star last season all of a sudden we've turned him into Shiite

By the time he left Lyon their fans hated him, he had a good first 6 months at Soton but let's not forget they play two sitters in Schneiderlin and Wanyama at the time that helped him loads

Hopefully stating that doesn't mean it's a Lovren "hate fest"

Set piece defending is a farce but don't think our defense would ever do well until a proper midfield's sorted, they get no help from most of them. But even then they'll still make crazy errors that cost us goals

 

[Shoei]

I think Liverpool and Arsenal need to be investigated for professional collusion.

Clearly they are sharing information on how to coach and set up defensive units.

 

[Cooldude]

I think Liverpool and Arsenal need to be investigated for professional collusion.

Clearly they are sharing information on how to coach and set up defensive units.

You guys had the best defense in the league or something before Feb last season right? Not that bad!

 

[PAdman]

I think Liverpool and Arsenal need to be investigated for professional collusion.

Clearly they are sharing information on how to coach and set up defensive units.

Who's that chick and any n00dz?

 

[Korn]

We have a shit defensive system.
During gameplay we practically playing 3 backs with Gerrard in the middle and both Skrtel and Lovren playing wide. Johnson and Moreno playing as wingbacks and they are not that accountable for running back to defend. Their main role is to attack and defending is only a secondary role.
Both of our CBs are required to play as full backs, which involves a lot more running and I don't think Lovren have played this role before.

Too many times we have seen a huge gap between Lovren and Skrtel when Gerrard and other midfielders not running quick/hard enough to filled that gap between left full back and centre back.

 

[Shoei]

Who's that chick and any n00dz?

Kaya Scodelario

She plays Effie on the British TV show "Skins". No full noodz but she does get the D a lot on the show if you watch it.

 

[PAdman]

Kaya Scodelario

She plays Effie on the British TV show "Skins". No full noodz but she does get the D a lot on the show if you watch it.

Yeah I know effie, good show.

 

[Dylan8]

effaayy

Never could get into it after the first generation however.

 

[Cooldude]

Thought it was a coked up version of Kristen Stewart

 

[Shoei]

Thought it was a coked up version of Kristen Stewart

The character she plays isn't far off that!

 

[FAITH]

Rooney is on 300k... Dylan was wondering if we were paying Suarez 300k, I said 200k, 300k is Rooney, we ain't as stupid as the Mancs, is the point



By the time he left Lyon their fans hated him, he had a good first 6 months at Soton but let's not forget they play two sitters in Schneiderlin and Wanyama at the time that helped him loads

Hopefully stating that doesn't mean it's a Lovren "hate fest"

Set piece defending is a farce but don't think our defense would ever do well until a proper midfield's sorted, they get no help from most of them. But even then they'll still make crazy errors that cost us goals

How can we spend 20m on him?

 

[jod23]

jordan ibe could surely do the same job that markovic is doing at present?

this rep BR has with blooding & bringing the best out of the kids, he's blooded one. flanno was blooded before hand. although you could argue BR brought the best out of him. suso is on his way out, peterson showed signs in america, sold. robinson, wisdom will most likely get sold at the end of the year. coady is gone. fail to see how suso could have been any different to the impact a 6.8mil luis alberto gave to us, who lets be honest will most likely be sold at the end of the season or (loaned for further experience again because we'll make nothing from him). wisdom or cissokho last season? im really hoping ilori's career doesn't end up that way. selling danny wilson, who's gone on and done pretty well for himself at hearts. perfect agger replacement, reminds of him so much.

Nah gotta stop you here. Danny Wilson, Peterson, Coady were all not good enough and rightfully sold.

 

[jod23]

Odegaard is a waste of money. We have more pressing needs.

The small price we can acquire him for him is easily worth the gamble. You'd be crazy not to.

 

[Lefti93]

Nah gotta stop you here. Danny Wilson, Peterson, Coady were all not good enough and rightfully sold.

i'm referring more to the point that we've had loads of talented kids coming through our ranks, & barely any of them have done anything with us. hence why i'm questioning his reputation as a coach who's done well with kids. the least he could do is give them a run in the domestic cups. there's plenty of football to be played between CL & PL for the coutinho's, can's, allens & borini's.

 

[jod23]

i'm referring more to the point that we've had loads of talented kids coming through our ranks, & barely any of them have done anything with us. hence why i'm questioning his reputation as a coach who's done well with kids. the least he could do is give them a run in the domestic cups. there's plenty of football to be played between CL & PL for the coutinho's, can's, allens & borini's.

The reason they havent done anything is simply because they are not good enough. The ones that are good enough will come through. Can you name any kid in our youth setup who we let go and has then gone on to be a genuinely good player who would play games for us now?

Not really anybody. All the kids that came through who were good enough played. Carra, Gerrard, Owen, Fowler, Redknapp etc we all know that after Carra and Gerrard, it all dried up. Our youth system just died and the owners and management failed hugely in this area. It wasnt until 04/05 when Rafa came in did we address this issue.

Nearly 10 years since a kid had come through and staked a claim. 10 years on we are seeing the fruits of Rafa's work and the work goes on through the owners, Kenny and now BR.

As for loads of talented kids that have done nothing. Well the sheer % numbers of kids coming through and making it big are quite slim. We probably have over 40 kids in the youth setup, maybe more. If you get even two to come through, that is not a huge %. But that's realistic.

Sterling has come through and Flanagan too. We have had a few players on the cusp like Kelly and now Wisdom Ibe and Suso. It's hard going to make it out of the youth system. You HAVE to be an exceptional talent.

Sure we have candidates like Ibe, Suso, Wisdom, Rossiter, Brannigan, Dunn, Wilson, Chrivella etc but none are guaranteed to make it out.

At the very least, we are back to having candidates. That 10 year black period since Stevie and Carra was dismal. Nothing was done on the youth front.

 

[Lefti93]

The reason they havent done anything is simply because they are not good enough. The ones that are good enough will come through. Can you name any kid in our youth setup who we let go and has then gone on to be a genuinely good player who would play games for us now?

Not really anybody. All the kids that came through who were good enough played. Carra, Gerrard, Owen, Fowler, Redknapp etc we all know that after Carra and Gerrard, it all dried up. Our youth system just died and the owners and management failed hugely in this area. It wasnt until 04/05 when Rafa came in did we address this issue.

Nearly 10 years since a kid had come through and staked a claim. 10 years on we are seeing the fruits of Rafa's work and the work goes on through the owners, Kenny and now BR.

As for loads of talented kids that have done nothing. Well the sheer % numbers of kids coming through and making it big are quite slim. We probably have over 40 kids in the youth setup, maybe more. If you get even two to come through, that is not a huge %. But that's realistic.

Sterling has come through and Flanagan too. We have had a few players on the cusp like Kelly and now Wisdom Ibe and Suso. It's hard going to make it out of the youth system. You HAVE to be an exceptional talent.

Sure we have candidates like Ibe, Suso, Wisdom, Rossiter, Brannigan, Dunn, Wilson, Chrivella etc but none are guaranteed to make it out.

At the very least, we are back to having candidates. That 10 year black period since Stevie and Carra was dismal. Nothing was done on the youth front.

good points & well clarified.. do you think they should be given more of an opportunity in the domestic cup games? exposed a little more. i'm stoked ilori, wisdom & ibe will be playing senior football, but i can't help but think we could actually use them ourselves. obviously texeira is an exception, and will hopefully benefit largely at brighton under sami. do you think there's ever a chance the likes of samed yesil will make it, obviously he's had his setbacks.