Liverpool Thread: Road to thinking we might get top 4, only to feel stupid at the end of the season

[Crimey]

First topic message reminder :

Transfer ins:
Kolo Toure (free transfer from Manchester City)

Transfers out:
Danny Wilson (free to Hearts)
Jamie Carragher (free to Sky)
Peter Gulacsi (free to Salzburg)

[nasisillmatic]

Can you keep hold of Suarez in the window lads?

Easily in my opinion. Big business will be done after the WC.

Yeah the World Cup being held next summer is another reason for him not moving in January.

[lfc91]

Agree with the above, he wont leave for those reasons. Next summer will be when he leaves. Only way we could even remotely have a shot at holding on to him is if we grab top 4 (even then its not likely IMO). Only plus side is that the way transfers have been going the past few years you would be looking at somewhere in the range of 60/70 million for him.

[lfc91]

Sturridge misses hull game with ankle injury, suarez still in the squad but a doubt with a knock. No other strikers in the squad so could we potentially be playing with no recognised striker! Of the rest of the players the only 2 i could imagine playing up top are moses or maybe alberto?

[Guest]

Moses would do it surely..

[Kenny]

Just to let everyone know from the Hull City squad , Paul McShane is out injured Curtis Davies will have a late fitness test .....so City could be without both their cb's from last few games , if Davies fails his test City's cb's should be Alex Bruce and Abdoulye Faye ( spelling )

[lfc91]

Wont be to bad for them if the dont actually have a striker to mark!!

[lfc91]

Seems i may have been slightly mis-informed about sturridge, no mention of the ankle turn on lfc or bbc.

[Crimey]

I've seen that Sturridge is a doubt but not that Suarez is.

[lfc91]

Would rather see sturridge rested the next 2/3 games if hes picked up a knock, they are games we should be able to win without him. Just make sure hes fully fit for the likes of tottenham, chelsea and city!

[Crimey]

Yeah, Sturridge and Coutinho out. 

Moses and Sterling in. 

Agger seems to have been rested with Toure coming in and Flanagan keeps his place.

[hampo17]

Sturridge is out for 6 to 8 weeks!

[lfc91]

Our movement has been non existant today! Amount of times a player has had no real attacking pass on is ridiculous.

[Crimey]

I'd move Moses up top where Sturridge normally plays, the issue that there is now only Suarez up top with Sterling and Moses not offering enough on the wings. They're clearly still a little off because of the lack of football.

[lfc91]

My gut says sterling off alberto on. Need creativity and i think coutinhos carrying a knock? No doubt rodgers will think allen is the man to change the game, bring him on, and we will be lucky to get a draw. Its genuinely frightening how little creativity we have without coutinho! Players are picking up the ball, running forward, no man available, turning back and passing to a centre back, repeating this process once or twice then back to mignolet for a long ball!

[Crimey]

Yeah, should have stuck with the same system and just replaced the players like-for-like, hence Moses up top and a more creative player instead of Coutinho.

[lfc91]

This is brutal!! Why is no one moving? Toure having to try and beat players from the back because he has no options at all.

[lfc91]

What is BR waiting for an invitation?! Change something you idiot we are getting outplayed by hull!

[Crimey]

Rodgers just doesn't seem to ever like making substitutions. 

I'd throw on Aspas as well since he's on the bench.

[Crimey]

This is embarrassing.

[lfc91]

Pathetic, cant wait to see how rodgers trys to justify this disaster. Man is a joke

[lfc91]

Dont know whether to laugh or cry. That was a joke of a performance. Get rodgers out of this club.

[Crimey]

Ridiculous. 

Poor team selection, lack of quality on the ball.

Skrtel didn't deserve to score an own goal as he was the only player who can walk away from this game with any kind of happiness in his performance. 

Toure showed that he cannot be a starting centre back, too slow, spends far too long on the ball and doesn't even compete well with the stronger players.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Don't worry too much boys. We play you on Wednesday

[lfc91]

Great time to play us olly, the wheels are coming off our season. Fully expect to see us about 8th come middle of january. If hull can outplay us like this i am genuinely afraid to think what city will do in a few weeks time!

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

It'll be 3-0 and that's me being optimistic

[lfc91]

Hull never beaten us before and only scored 9 all season....hammer us 3-1. Says it all really! The games coming up we are in some serious trouble.

[Kenny]

We were at the game today and i can honestly say it was the worst Liverpool performance i have seen in a long time . Take nothing away from Hull as they were well organised and nullified our every move practically , but we had one game plan that didn't work and no plan b . Suarez had a shocker and just got more and more frustrated everytime Davies stopped him .

with Sturridge out for 6-8 weeks we could really start to struggle unless we come up with alternative game plans and can implement them

[lfc91]

Feel bad for the real fans like you kenny, that make the effort to go to away games only to watch a group of millionaire average players embarrass the club like that. Just once i would love to see BR admitt he made a mistake in selection/gameplan etc instead of feeding us the usual crap..

[Crimey]

I think the key is to keep to the system that has been successful so far this season and the one that gets the best out of the players. That means replacing Sturridge with Moses for me, I know Moses is naturally a winger, but I think he can fulfil the Sturridge role competently and offers the similar strength and speed that was missing up top today, that will allow Suarez to drop deeper and affect the game from there. Playing two wide men today just didn't work, the team wasn't used to using them and so they kept coming central which only meant they got in the way.

[Guest]

Feel bad for the real fans like you kenny, that make the effort to go to away games only to watch a group of millionaire average players embarrass the club like that. Just once i would love to see BR admitt he made a mistake in selection/gameplan etc instead of feeding us the usual crap..

Well he did say we didn't do enough with or without the ball. Fair assessmant really. Take away the two lucky Hull goals (Mignolet saves the Livermore shot without that deflection) and it's a point however, the lack of effort from the team was disappointing when you consider the graft the put in against Everton when we were a goal down.

However, when you get commentators praising Tom Huddlestone for running the midfield, you know you've had a **** day at the office.

Still, move on and see what happens on Wednesday. Hopefully the boys will be sufficiently embarrassed that they put in a shift against Norwich. Suarez will be looking to knock in another three against his favourite team I'm sure.

[Kenny]

Feel bad for the real fans like you kenny, that make the effort to go to away games only to watch a group of millionaire average players embarrass the club like that. Just once i would love to see BR admitt he made a mistake in selection/gameplan etc instead of feeding us the usual crap..

To be fair we live in Hull now  so it was more a home game .

I know i live in a time capsule but i would like to see us go back to the old ways of all the teams from the youth through to the first team playing the same system then when we do have an injury the player coming in fits straight in and we don't have to play players out of position . That said we should also have plans b , c , d etc to change things up if needed

[Guest]

Feel bad for the real fans like you kenny, that make the effort to go to away games only to watch a group of millionaire average players embarrass the club like that. Just once i would love to see BR admitt he made a mistake in selection/gameplan etc instead of feeding us the usual crap..

To be fair we live in Hull now  so it was more a home game .

I know i live in a time capsule but i would like to see us go back to the old ways of all the teams from the youth through to the first team playing the same system then when we do have an injury the player coming in fits straight in and we don't have to play players out of position . That said we should also have plans b , c , d etc to change things up if needed  

Doesn't look like that will happen when they're letting the likes of Adam Morgan go.

Rock and hard place really. You need to spend money getting in established players to make that step up to CL and then you need to spend MORE money on established players to keep you in the CL. The youngsters must be wondering how they'll ever get a chance

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Don't worry too much boys. We play you on Wednesday

Told ya

[mystiroakey]

Not exactly prediction of the month olly???

[Kenny]

Rodgers needs to sit Suarez down in the dressing room before the game today and convince him that it's not West Ham but Norwich in different coloured shirts

[Crimey]

I can see him having another stormer, it's only been a few days so his confidence will be through the roof, he'll be trying all sorts.

[Crimey]

Agger out with illness. 

Sakho replaces him, the only change from the Norwich game.

[Kenny]

I hope it comes off then , he was pants versus Hull when the things he tried didn't work

[Crimey]

No idea why Allen is starting again, was anonymous against Norwich apart from that one shot and doesn't break the play up anywhere near as well as Lucas. If this is the start of Rodgers seeing Allen as the first choice defensive midfielder then we just have to pray for an injury.

[lfc91]

Good result and these past few days have been a great respone to the embattassment that was the hull result! Dont think any fan has ever doubted that we have these kinds of performances in the locker, just our consistency of performance we need to work on!

Also, i have a feeling it may just be one of those seasons where we occassionally slip up against a small team we really should be beating/performing far better against(hull/southampton). All in all though im a happy man!

[lfc91]

**embarrassment

[Crimey]

Puts in a good position for the next run of hard results, get a couple of wins or draws and we should still be in the top four, which is where we want to be.

[lfc91]

True, and in my opinion its a pretty good time for us to be going to tottenham! Any news on why stevie limped off???

[Crimey]

It was hamstring related I think.

[lfc91]

Not a tear surely??

[Kenny]

Rodgers said they will assess it over the weekend

[Fernando]

If it's anything like a usual Gerrard Hamstring Injury, He'll be gone until new year-ish

[Crimey]

I worry about that, Gerrard has been quietly doing a great job this year, and I don't think we have anybody at all who can do what he does for the side. 

I worry about a midfield two of Allen and Lucas, would rather Henderson was brought deeper alongside Lucas, and Gerrard was placed with somebody like Aspas, Moses or Alberto.

[Fernando]

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-steven-gerrard-out-6388688

[Crimey]

A midfield three of Allen, Lucas and Henderson doesn't fill me with joy.

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