Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 11/12 - Mod Note 4153

I think the praise of Enrique goes a bit overboard, for me he takes too much out of the ball and a lot of the time his end product is lacking. Beating a couple of players at the halfway line is grand but what you do after that is more important. I think Johnson is much more threatening going forward as he gets into much better positions unfortunately his defening is muck, something which i can't fault Enrique on.

Was at work last night so didnt see the game, have it recorded so going to try and watch it tonight. Gutted about the result but apparently it was more of the same in regards we couldnt put the chances away.

Its such a shame Demba Ba plays for Newcastle. Any other team outside of the top 4/5 and Id say we would have a chance of buying him in January.

We seriously need a goalscorer and if the Suarez ban is upheld we seriously need a top striker. But who? Cavani and Llorente are out of our league (unless Cavani loves suarez and really wants to play with him!)

Aside from the striker issue, Royston Drenthe is only on loan at Everton and is out of contract at the end of the season. Every time ive seen him play he looks good. Would be a nice addition to the team in the summer.

Bowlardo wrote: »

Hindsight is a great thing but would it not have made sense to sign Demba ba and Seb Larrson last summer...were they not both Free transfers?Both are solid premier league performers.

I can imagine the comments that would have been made if we were in for them.

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

I can imagine the comments that would have been made if we were in for them.

True but if we had also made big money signings it would have quenched the fans thirst. Buy the tow lads under the radar

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Demba Ba to be honest, i'd have been very happy with on a free last summer. Looked very good in an awful west ham team (much better than Keane or Carlton Cole did). He wouldn't have been as exciting a signing as he looks now, but he had certainly shown enough to warrant a chance.
Seb Larsson alright, I would have been bemused by last summer, particularly since for most of the summer it looked like we'd have a midfield of Gerrard, Aquilani, Mereiles, Lucas, Henderson, Adam, Spearing and Shelvey.

But larson is versatile and a wide player. we payed 20 million on henderson and started playing him on the wing .

rarnes1 wrote: »

In fairness, last year Andy Carroll was having the sort of season Ba is having this year.

ba seems a better all rounder ,better feet, better awarenss for goal and a lot cheaper.

Although I have a blind optimism that andy is going to get us a few goals while suarez is out

Isn't there huge concerns over Demba Ba's knees? He's a clinical finished no doubt, but give Carroll a run in the team and I'd be confident he'd do the same.

The manner in which the entire Carroll situation has been dealt is a joke on Daglish's part. There is no doubt in my mind he was Kenny's signing and he's barely been given a chance. That said, I'm not privy to the conversations that go on behind the scenes, nor Carroll's performances in training. I do know that Reina said in an interview that Carroll was the worst trainer at the club - Not that I'd place my emphasis on that.

If we're going to buy someone from Newcastle, we should get Haris Vuckic, he had a stormer last night!

Mr Alan wrote: »

His defending is not muck.

Sorry to jump in here but yes it is. Not consistently muck but his defending as a whole is poor. He played ok last night but our last few games he has been very dodgy with the defensive side of his duties.

He is caught out of position way too often and his ability to defend 1v1 situations is a serious problem as players get around him far too easily. Personally I would much rather see Kelly getting game time, he is already clearly the better defender of the two and with more game time he will improve getting forward.

That should be a fullbacks natural progression not the other way around...

Big Knox wrote: »

Sorry to jump in here but yes it is. Not consistently muck but his defending as a whole is poor. He played ok last night but our last few games he has been very dodgy with the defensive side of his duties.

He is caught out of position way too often and his ability to defend 1v1 situations is a serious problem as players get around him far too easily. Personally I would much rather see Kelly getting game time, he is already clearly the better defender of the two and with more game time he will improve getting forward.

That should be a fullbacks natural progression not the other way around...

Kelly is good and is undoubtedly one for the future, but Johnson is definitely the better full back and will start ahead of him every time and rightly so.

I think that, like Skrtel, Johnson has looked a better more confident defender since Carragher was injured/dropped.

I don't think he is excellent on the defensive side of things (and I do think that Kelly is a better defender) but his defending certainly is not muck.

Iang87 wrote: »

no i phrased that wrong sorry. His defending hasn't been terrible,its just not been great all year although it was never going to be.

He is much better with skrtel, maybe he feels he has to do a bit of covering when carra plays to allow for carras loss of pace. (thinking out loud here)

But he was playing very well alongside Carragher this season too. And he probably played the best football he's shown at Liverpool after last Christmas when he moved to left back.

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I'd just like to note something with respect to the season so far. We have 30 points from 17 games. We're essentially 4 points short of where we want to be (34 points to be trading at 2 pts per game). That 4 point shortfall can be traced back to any of a few games where we were the better side but couldn't convert clear chances. I do think there are tactical / personnel deficiencies in how Kenny has managed things so far, but on the whole we aren't a million miles off where we want to be.

There is also no doubt whatsoever in my mind that we are vastly improved relative to where we were this time last season - and all without the services of a still very good player at this level.

It's frustrating, but it could be an awful lot worse.

You sound like you have changed your tune anyway. Weren't you predicting blue murder in pre season. I believe you may have also predicted the end of the world, I can't remember fully.