KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum is EPL position not a motive???

With a team like Liverpool and the options we have in the squad, it's forgivable in this time of the season to play one bad game out of four. And would be great to be one bad game out of seven. But in my opinion, we are in a special situation these days and we have points to prove after Hudgson's time.
Have we really retired EPL??? Is a better position not a motive??? 5 points off Sunderland not a motive??? taking an advantage of possibly 6 dropped points by Chelsea and Tottenham not a motive???
Tactically, we're so much better than Hudgson's time. But, Can Raul, Kelly, Carra, specifically, can they play many games in a row??? How good is Ngog for the team???
I'm now relieved that our problem is not managerial, in my opinion. But is more in options we have in our squad. Still, 3-1 loss, and to be the worse team of such a game against West Ham, no offense, is a game we should look at carefully at all angles possible.

its hodgson ffs

Its not the best squad and for us there is really nothing to lose, and so for Kenny all these games are pre season friendlies to see how the team develops and any change cough (Kuyt, Poulsen, Ngog, Luca, Cole and Rodgruguez out) that could be made

For me Finishing top or in the top four should be priority, not just because of the CL money but because of the status and the marketability of the club globaly which has great financial rewards in it's self. Also when signing new players they need too feel that they are going to a club that is going to fulfill their ambitions in playing a the top level and playing in and winnining the biggest competitions football has to offer.

it was only great because it was chelsea tho emp. The wolves performance was on a whole was much better performance, altho against a poorer team

I felt we showed signs of improvement vs Everton, were good against Stoke, Wolves and Chelsea, but since then we've lost our edge. Our passing has been poor, matched only by our effort, two areas where Kenny had been most effective. I admit that we've had a long run of games, and fatigue is certainly counting against us, given that we have a small, weak squad. But yesterday's game saw us slipping into old habits; no one trying to find space, no urgency, too much hoofing, too many misplaced passes. Those things are not good enough for any EPL side, least of all Liverpool. The way we let them run at us I thought Hodgson was in charge again. Kenny's honeymoon is well and truly over; now we shall see whether he can fully deserve a contract.

It is frustrating to watch other teams losing points and Liverpool not taking advantage of it. We have too many average players. Agger was very much missed today...

Why oh why cant the players stand up and be counted for every game???

You used the word "injured" quite a bit there. That makes a difference to form and match fitness, which is part of my point. Some of those injuries stem from playing 4 games in a fortnight a week ago. Wasn't it was also Wilson's full debut? Doesn't excuse us from hoofing it all day though.



One would certainly have thought so. I'm accepting no excuses for the game - we were shocking and only Suarez and Kelly looked up for the game. 2 of ours against 11 of theirs who wanted to win? And one of ours limped off with an injury that will take time and will leave us with the power back 4 of Johnson-Carra-Skrtel-Wilson against the scum? If Meireles isn't fit and Carroll can't start I shudder to think how many we'll lose by (unless we park the bus of course).

thundyr, i think kenny will repeat the tactics against chelsea and apparently this is our best line up and formation until all the players are fit.

so it would be very interesting to see this best formation and starting 11 'if all players are fit'

Agger is starting to become something of another Aurelio; which is to say unreliable. Good player when fit. You know we had a striker a bit like that recently, someone who put the fear of international friendlies into us. We need to be much less hit-and-miss.

I think the cracks in the squad are being brutally exposed this season. Usually we would have someone in form, someone knocking them in all the time to keep the momentum while our personnel came and went with injury; be it Torres, Gerrard, Kuyt, even Benayoun. But now it's just Meireles, and he's hobbled off in both our last league games, and each time he did so we conceded within 5 minutes (question: is that partially Dalglish's fault?). We have also been fragile at the back for some time, though we've not really been focusing on the problems there because we were an effective attacking force. But now we get games like those against Blackpool or yesterday when the opposition have no hope but to attack, where in previous seasons these same sides would have put 10 men behind the ball and prayed for 0-0, and so we're now exposed for having error-prone center backs with no pace and no skill on the ball. I kept screaming at Carra to pass the ball, and every time he did not (which was the majority of the time) we lost possession within 20 seconds.

Some of this ties in with your other thread, Rafa. Gerrard is both hero and villain nowadays. This season in particular I've felt like we've played better without him, and then he has a storming game like he did against Napoli and you realize how indispensable he is. But the kind of performances where he raises everyone's game just by his presence alone are becoming fewer and fewer - the guys give him the ball and expect some magic, but instead he produces a wayward pass or a heavy first touch. Kenny probably wants to play 4-4-2, but if he does how does he deal with Gerrard and Meireles when both are fit? So he's made a compromise that suits them, and happily suits a side that lacks natural width, by playing 3-5-2. But in doing so we alienate players like Maxi, Jovanovic, and Cole (and Kuyt once Carroll is fit) who have no natural position in the formation, and force ourselves to play 3 of our 5 CBs, one of whom is injury-prone, and we only have 2 fullbacks (the best of whom is actually the 6th CB, and the other who is actually better when played out of position). House of cards waiting to collapse. Dalglish is now struggling with too many injuries to key players, and it's going to be a frustrating few months until everyone can take a step back and assess the cost of rebuilding this squad.