27 Jul 2015 08:57:59
I think a lot of fans here need to be more realistic about what to expect this season. Any talk about getting in to the top four this year is completely unrealistic. If you look at our team compared to the other top teams then we are I'm afraid no where near as strong as we need to be yo be competing for the champions league. If you look at our team this season I think the gap between us and the other top teams is the bigest I've seen it for years.
To start off the keeper, city, United, arsenal and Chelsea all have top quality keeps, keepers that will earn them points. We have a poor premier league keeper that may in fact in games lose us points. Already there's a difference of 10 plus points. Our center backs, well it looks BR likes the pairing of skittles and lovren, with our poor defencive tactics these will leak goals we all know this, it proved it last year and no change so it's not going to get any better. Our full backs, hit and miss, none of them are really proven at top flight football but fingers crossed moreno, clyne, work out if not could try Gomez and wisdom but again are they top four material yet? Then with our shaky keeper and poor defence and tactics then we cry out for a top class DCM. We have Lucas but unfortunately he can't stay fit, and is very injury prone leaving Can, but again he's still learning his trade and is more a Box to box player, so right now we are not looking to good! Our CM and attacking players are good enough so yes we compete on that level but then AGAIN we let our self down by not having a granteed top striker. We have sturridge with his glass legs who is great but can't count on him being ever fit, Ings and Origi both have potential but not the finished articles l
27 Jul 2015 09:51:02
Not sure if you haven't heard mate but you just signed Benteke for £33m.
Agree your lightweight at the back tho could be the same season panning out as the one before last. Score bucket loads and concede bucket loads. To win the premiership you have to have a solid keeper and defence. It's what every winning team is built on. Hence why Chelsea won it last year and will retain it this year
27 Jul 2015 09:52:36
I agree with conclusion. I don't think Mings is a big problem. He is not De Gea but second half of last season he played as good as the City and Arsenal GKs. If Sakkho will stay he is BRs first choice not Lovern. ButI agree our defence and midfield is not top 4 standard. Neither is our manager.
27 Jul 2015 09:55:26
On the other hand we were close last year and we were truly awful!
27 Jul 2015 10:09:54
I think we score plenty this season and has a good chance to conceed equally. It would be great for the neutrals to watch us play.
27 Jul 2015 10:16:16
I think to many people get concerned about how a team looks on paper.
We may not have the "superstar names" of other teams but we play well as a unit usually.
Last season we should have made top 4 comfortably but we didn't. Don't get me wrong it won't be easy getting top 4 but the squad we have is capable of doing it.
27 Jul 2015 10:33:10
Ok our defence hasn't looked good since Rodgers took over, but I will be very surprised to see our defence play as poorly as it did last season or the season before. We have a new coaching team who will hopefully bring in new ideas. Rodgers must listen to them, if he doesn't then he is dafter than he looks in his press conferences!
Personally think there is nothing much wrong with the personnel we have at the back, I think it's more of a coaching issue. Mignolet is a good keeper, true not as good as De Gea or Courtois, but how many are? RB we have Clyne who is a very good player, it will be nice to see someone play at RB who can be arsed and wants to be there! CB Skrtel is a solid CD as we have seen many times, if coached properly then he is great as we saw under Kenny and Clarke. Lovren is again a very good CD as we saw at Southampton and Lyon, just a case of poor coaching and lack of confidence. Sakho is an absolute beast of a CD, just a bit too relaxed at times and maybe over-confident in his own passing game, again I believe this is coaching. Moreno is again a very good player, he's better going forward than defending, but I feel his defending has got worse due to poor coaching.
The only team who actually have vastly better players than us in defence are Chelsea. Would you take any of Jones, Smalling, Rafael, Demichelis, Clichy, Mangala, Monreal, Mertersaker, Kocielny? They are all pretty average players in comparison to Chelsea's defenders (personally think this is a big reason why English teams have struggled so much in the last few year in Europe, go back 10-15 years ago and Man Utd, Arsenal and our defences were miles better than they are now). Only difference is that they are better coached at defending than ours.
27 Jul 2015 10:53:36
It's sad, that after the amount of money the Club has spent under Brendan over the 3 yrs in charge our fans still feel we are short of making top 4.I am not a fan of our Manager.Come on boys, make some noise." We are Liverpool tra la la la la." Get behind the team and the Liver bird upon their chest. New Season, It's going to be a bumpy ride, but I will be there every step of the way. "Come on you Reds!!"
27 Jul 2015 11:09:05
I totally agree we have replaced the players who have left or we hope are leaving Gerard/Milner Gomez/Coates firmino/sterling Ings,benteke,origi/lambert,borini,Balo
Jones/bogan
These have made us stronger but not addressed our problem areas.central defenders defensive midfielder or quality goalkeeper
Our best defender wants out and looking like markovic is also leaving what a total waste of money again
27 Jul 2015 11:25:23
Mignolet is not as bad as we make up.He is a good shot stopper and has great reflexes.Problem is that when we bought him he was defensive minded Goalkeeper,he is confident in that 6 yard box,but Rodgers wanted to shoehorn him into the Libero type of GK.So instead of those 6 yards,he should position himself between the post and Dbox,on top of that he is expected to start attacks from back not just sweeping.This change not only affected his original style also he failed to develope this new style,so we often found him making positional errors and taking too much time in making decisions,it also afected his confidence.But the way he performed in second half we can optimistically hope that he will improve now as he played 3 years under Rodgers.And except Cech no other GK commands their defence.
27 Jul 2015 11:28:51
I think to say the other squads are better than ours is a bit harsh, Arsenal maybe have a more complete starting 11 but their Squad overall has no depth at all, and one or two injuries to their players means they will do what arsenal do and fall apart mid season, Man utd have bought decent this season but they again have a frail squad out with the first 11, Man city and Chelsea have the best squads but Man city are by no means guaranteed second place, i am more than optomistic about our Top 4 chances, we have a new coaching team, and Rogers is on his last legs and final warning and knows he must deliver, maybe with some decent coaches round him he can perform a lot better as he might have someone whos not a yes man and tells him how it is to make him realise that his ideas are often not correct. We may have strengthed in areas not really needed but that's life and you have to get on with it, we can't use Transision or hard luck etc as an Excuse, we have a tough fixture list, but good results early on against the big teams who we usually play out of our skin against means the smaller teams should be easier to beat as confidence will be high.
Lets stop with the our squad isn't as good as there school ground rubbish and just support the team that's on the pitch.
At the end of the day if Rogers screws up he goes and another coach will take over a very good squad, in which Top 3 is more than Achievable, so stop the moaning, bitching and slagging and just support the TEAM!
27 Jul 2015 11:45:36
jmc123 - If Liverpool do not break into the top four this coming season, Rodgers will be toast. His entire future at the club now lies at the feet and head of Benteke.
27 Jul 2015 12:08:06
It's top 4 or pack your bags for Rodgers. He has been as lucky as it gets to keep his job, and then get to spend even more money, and I cannot imagine even the most thickest of football fans cannot be giving him any more excuses.
27 Jul 2015 12:39:00
The buys we have made this summer are a damn sight better than last summer.
If sturridge was fit last season would we have made top 4? i'd imagine the answer is yes.
We have made some cracking signings this summer, benteke may not be ideal to suit our play but he will score goals.
27 Jul 2015 12:56:49
We need to sell a few but our squad is a decent one , get behind them and hopefully we gel quickly.
27 Jul 2015 13:30:41
the new signings have improved the team , but i have to agree with you on our defence its not good enough , when they come under pressure we usually let goals in , is it the players or tactics or the coaching i don't know but it has not been dealt with , and with Mings he is a up and down keeper , i don't know what the problem is with him if its the coaching or tactics , but last season he was in the running for the golden gloves so he must have done something right ,player for player with the other teams at the top of the prem ours don't look that great but i have a feeling we will easily get into the top 4 , how many players are still in the team that finished 2nd when we had suarez , so if they finished 2nd then the players are good enough so don't knock the players until they have done something to knock them for you never know they might all click and suprise you, Milner , clyne and bentekke have improved the team there's no doubt about it , and we all know bentekke is a handfull for any defender , and with players running off him we will score goals , if BR gets the pairing right at the back we can then be solid
27 Jul 2015 14:16:42
We may have made good signings in certain areas BUT or recurrent probs within the first team from two years ago still remain. That will ALWAYS be the issue and my concern as it seems BR is the only coach on earth who does the same things all the time and expecting diff results. Sahko is our best CB and head and both Lovren (who BR bought to replace sahko who he is trying to be rid of since last season and heaven knows why) and especially Skrtel (IMO, our poorest CB) are not in his class. YET, BR wants him sold so these two can play together. If I were him, i`ll be raving mad that a coach plays players inferior to me just to fill some misplaced ego or thinking that the reality of the pitch does not support. He may have forgoten how dreadful they were as a pairing starting last season BUT many of us have not and he is doing the exact same thing now for the warning signs we are now seeing from the last friendly game. Trust me, if BR keeps those two in there, we will struggle to keep clean sheets especially w/o Lucas (another one he wants rid of) who for some reason, he can`t stand. I will remain cautiosly optimistic because I`m a fan and don`t really care for the coach any more BUT the signs I`m seeing don`t bode well.