KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Season review more or less

I know it's more or less a failure season but I don't know why but I'm hopeful for next season for no reason at all.

The one thing we at least know is Carroll when he's played with the right frame of mind and in the right full strength team and right fitness is without doubt a 25+mil player.

Again Downing when in the right frame of mind and in a full strenght team can beat his full back and deliver cross after cross and become a 20mil player.

In those final 30mins of the game yesturday we learnt that those 2 players do have quality and can be worth their fees easily but it's about getting the best out of them every week.

We have a brilliant back 4 for most games although prone to the odd mistake can kill off most matches with the right dm player shielding.

Lucas will be back which is 10 points gained on his own

There's no doubts we've stopped looking for high fee english players for the future and are now looking abroad for good value players of good quality now.

We're easily signing a new striker to poach the goals for next season and a new cm either creative or dm.

The high wage players who are currently fringe players of maxi, kuyt, aqua, cole will be allowed to leave if they can be sold freeing loads of money for new players.

We've been sh1t this season mainly because lucas got injured, lack of a poacher, and lack of quality cover in cm in adam gerrard lucas all being injured at 1 point or another this season.

We're in the Europa League meaning more lfc matches on tv to watch

With the europa league that means that in 2 out of the 3 cups were very likely to play youth/fringe players with the main focus being the league and the Europa or Fa cup.
In addition we're starting early for the europa league which means we'll be fit for the beginning of the league for the first time in years.

With Euro 2012 we'll only lose agger for 3 games, gerrard johnson, downing and reina who wont even play. Whilst our main rivals will lose loads more players for longer periods of time than us, with arsenal missing 8 players, utd 8, city 11, chelsea 10.

And with the olympics were looking at losing hendo, and coates, utd 7 players, arsenal 6, city 2, chelsea 5 players

I know it's a cliche but am very hopeful that if all goes well and players stay injury free this summer and we sign the players for the right positions we'll be in a very very healthy position by the start of next season with us knowing our best starting 11 and best formation for the players we have.

This is a great, optimistic thread. Dalglish's problem has been that LFC fans have spent all of their 'patience'. This is because both Houllier and Bentiez had '5-yr-plans' and when there is some serious sign of progress (winning 3 cups in the treble season or finishing 2nd and winning the Champions League) we're entitled to dream of the premiership. When Roy Hodgson turned up our patience had been spent. He wasn't going to get any time. And neither is Dalglish. Our patience is spent.

Personally I would like to see what Dalglish does in the summer, but if we're all going to get behind another '5-yr-plan' it needs to be behind one of the up and coming stars of management. Chelsea wouldn't let AVB do 'his thing'. We just might. And if we stick by him for 3 years we might just win the league. We just might.

And if Benitez ever returned and was actually allowed to buy the players he wants (a bit like Dalglish now) I have ABSOLUTELY no doubt he would in the first instance get us back into Europe and ultimately the premiership (and I admit I was one of those that wanted him gone).

(The one thing we at least know is Carroll when he's played with the right frame of mind and in the right full strength team and right fitness is without doubt a 25+mil player.)

The problem is KD don even know this after 36 league games and how many cup games??

And we knew it? Are we talking about the same KD here?

Season review
Signings
IN: Henderson, Enrique, Doni, Adam, Downing, Bellamy, Coates
OUT: Meireles, N'Gog, +Dross (times many)
LOAN: Cole, Aquilani, Pacheco, Shelvey, Amoo, +others

In general this activity was good, though the English players cost too much due to the homegrown "tax" of roughly 50% of the player's true worth. The only sour notes for me were the loan of Aquilani (considering he was our top pre-season player), and the signing of Charlie Adam in his stead (a player I did not personally believe was worth the fuss).

Our purchase "strategy" was based around signing many players who could create chances or take dead ball kicks, leaving it to those already signed to finish these chances off. Throughout the season we have witnessed chance after chance be created and go begging. We have also amassed a staggering corner count. Yet the vast percentage of these chances have been squandered by poor finishing, excellent goal keeping, or striking the woodwork.

Bellamy picked up several crucial goals and assists when we struggled without Suarez, Enrique was for a long period one of the best left backs in the league this season, and Coates has shown enough to suggest he will be an able replacement for Carragher as our 3rd choice CB. As such, on the whole our summer transfers can only be said to have been a success.

Many people will point at individual players as a counter-argument, but managers never succeed with every signing. We wanted people who could create chances, and we needed a solid left back and a young CB who could play. We got all that - we probably could not get much more given our low wage requirements and position outside European qualification.

Formation and tactics
With this side once being primarily a 4-2-3-1 side, it was always going to be difficult to return to 4-4-2 to suit our strike partnership of Carroll and Suarez. Carroll struggled with fitness and form, and as such was rightly benched in the early part of the season. Our results were not too terrible, and did not appear to suffer, but in truth the struggles of our rivals should have been something to capitalize on to put ourselves in the driving seat for the CL by Christmas. Instead we languished in 6th, not far off the pace (2-3 points) but never favourites to finish top of the heap. The Suarez ban thrust Carroll into the spotlight, and despite negativity from the fans he began to establish himself as a useful primary rather than bit-part player. Since the turn of the year, only the game at Newcastle strikes me as a poor one from him (even though he was the dominant figure on the pitch for the 15 minutes until his dive), and since then he's gone from strength to strength (despite regularly being dropped without cause) to the powerful performance in the FA Cup final where many a critic lost the ability to speak.

But the latter half of the season has been marked by the manager sticking to 4-5-1 in the face of its continual failure. The injury to Lucas should have put paid to the system as he is probably the only player in the squad who is irreplaceable, and if not then once Carroll started coming to the party we should have gone back to 4-4-2 and stayed there. Henderson has improved at MCd (but been poor on the right except for one rather good showing at RB!), Downing has shown he's better on the left and Bellamy likewise on the right, Martin Kelly has staked a serious claim to the RB position as Johnson's performances have largely waned, Shelvey has shown he knows a bit about attacking football even if his talent is largely raw, and yet the manager somehow persistently avoids each and every one of these highlights. Henderson on the right, Downing on the right and NOT on the pitch at the same time as Carroll, Shelvey at DM, Bellamy on the left, 4-5-1! It is as though Dalglish and Clark never once reviewed a game we played. We should have been much better, but somehow never gave ourselves the opportunity to grow into the team we were supposedly building.

In the end I think the lessons are there for the learning. We did this season the hard way, picking up the League Cup to break our silverware drought, and playing just about as badly as this side possibly can. There is talent in this squad, but we simply never harnessed it or never looked in the right places for it because we stuck stubbornly to a round pegs in square holes system that was failing week after week. As such I do not believe the CL is out of reach next season with this same squad if boosted by a "proper" right winger/midfielder who can both cross and take set pieces. The players know each other, Lucas should be back, and we can reduce the wage bill further without weakening the squad.

The only revelations this season has been the emergence of Martin Skrtel as a right-sided CB, the generally superb performance of Martin Kelly, and Raheem Sterling put in two excellent substitute performances to whet the appetite for next season. Well done to them!

But if I'm honest, only Downing of the new signings should make the starting XI each week as best player in his position:
Reina
Kelly Skrtel Agger Johnson
NEW Gerrard Lucas Downing
Carroll Suarez

If we're not going to sign a right-sided wide man, then Gerrard must play there with Shelvey or Aquilani in the middle. Our summer activity saw a lot of money spent, but it was largely on players who have not demonstrated sufficient ability to be anything other than squad players - and that, coupled with some (mis)management madness, is why we have failed this season.

The future looks bright though - Henderson, Shelvey, Carroll, Kelly, and Sterling are players who could be forces to be reckoned with in 1-3 years as they mature, if not earlier, but only in a system that plays to their strengths. Some decry using Carroll as a battering ram saying such is beneath us, but if you've got it, flaunt it. It worked for Peter Crouch and Emile Heskey.

I somehow omitted Coates from the last paragraph.

Thundyr very well reasoned article you have produced there. I don't agree with all of it it but its hard not to concur with most of it. Its hard for me to see where Liverpool will make the "break out" to top 4. I could be wrong of course but I don't see it unless there are changes. For the the signings have been average and expensive and the team lacks pace and is too predictable. We also have issues with aging players or loss of form (Reina) and there are too few youngsters coming through. Contrast with Manchester United today why can't we do that?

The "break out" is mainly tactical, imo. Picking the right team, finding the balance between direct play to Carroll and pass-and-move through Suarez, finding Gerrard's best position, and so on. The answers are there.

The number of young players in the squad at United for me is just evidence of how bad their squad is generally - how is it that they can't replace Giggs and Scholes? Furthermore, the leading contenders on Merseyside mainly play where the incumbent is just about the best player in the league in that position. Look at our young guns - all are central midfielders or fullbacks, except for the lads like Sterling who are much younger than the guys taking the field at United. Our Academy was a disaster for many years - it will take a while yet before we have the same kind of choice as United have presently.

we need the right players in the summer imo. i'll see who we bring in and measure my optimism on who we sign.

i think we need a creative cm, natural winger and a natural finisher.

i'd take luuk de jong most probably, looks a good player who will be a regular for holland in the future.

not sure who on the wing. heard people raving on about younes belhanda but haven't seen enough of him to make up my mind. there are others i'd like as squad players in the side but don't think they are good enough for what we need in the squad right at this minute - moses/jarvis. i think we need players better than these if we're to improve our starting 11.

haven't seen much of rasmus elm who we've been linked. only youtube videos of him scoring free kicks, penalties and spraying 40 yard passes across the pitch. looks the part on youtube, but so does bruno cheyrou! also heard links with gaston ramirez who does look a good player. think he can play out wide but plays just behind the striker for bologna.

i think one big positive is being able to blood some of our younger players in the europa league again. the likes of martin kelly, spearing, henderson, carroll, flanaghan, robinson, sterling, coady, shelvey, suso and wilson will hopefully benefit from this and be ready for first team starts in the future, or at least create some interest for a loan deal to another premiership/championship club.

the return of lucas will be a massive plus for us, almost like a new signing. without him in the side we've really struggled. i think spearing showed the occasion was far too big for him in his performance in the fa cup final. he gave away the ball for the first goal and fell to floor allowing lampard to beat him very cheaply to play in drogba for the second. theres a handful of players in the same bracket as him, henderson is one of them and hopefully playing big games will help him learn from his mistakes.

i think this year we've looked very good in games but our league position doesn't do us justice. its makes us look very mediocre and average. we play some good football in most games but we need to be clinical in front of goal. kenny has to get it right this time around in the transfer market. with the right tweaks and changes he could turn this side from average to completely lethal

Waiting for lucas to return is one thing, but what if he does not return the same player, we must make plans in this happens.

once match fit he'll be back to his best. an under performing lucas is still better than jay spearing.

last thing we need is another player on £50k+ per week with splinters in his arse