Liverpool Banter Archive September 20 2013

20 Sep 2013 20:58:11
From what I can gather these are currently the main concerns of the fans.
1) Team playing too defensive.
2) Centre back pairing
3) Left back situation
4) Cover for Coutinho
5) Aspas

Below is my opinion on how to rectify these concerns.

1) To create a more attack minded team it may be better to play a 4-1-2-3 formation against Southampton.
Lucas would play in the holding midfield position allowing Gerrard and Henderson to operate further up the pitch. Gerrard seems to prefer playing deeper this season but I think we would all agree he is the best midfielder we have in terms of getting the ball forward and setting up the attacking players. Therefore, he needs to play a more attacking role. Henderson is the younger of the 2 and has the the legs to do most of the tracking back to allow Gerrard to maintain his forward position and conserve some of his energy. He can also get forward and join in with each attack. Our midfield is where we need to start controlling games and I feel this system would have a good effect.

2) The centre back duo which I would prefer is Toure and Agger. They have been our most impressive partnership so far this season. Toure uses his leadership skills excellently to organises the defence and he is a tank of a defender. For me he is vital to our chances of success this season. Meanwhile Skrtel looks like a man with a point to prove and could become a regular starter once again should he continue to impress when called upon. However, it has to be Toure and Agger for me this weekend.

3) The right back situation is easy. Having watched Kelly for the U21's earlier this week it is clear that he is ready for the step back up to the first team as he is currently the second best right back at the club (behind Johnson). I totally agree with Rodgers that a loan move would suit Wisdom in order for him to develop further as I feel he isn't quite ready yet. Also, I read several posts stating that Toure should play right back but I completely disagree. At his age he does not have the legs to be bombing up and down the flanks and chasing after wingers. For me Kelly should be the one to start this weekend.

4) As I have said in the first paragraph, I would move Henderson into the midfield alongside Gerrard in the absence of coutinho. Either Aspas or Sterling could play on the right wing instead of him.

5) I know many of you have not been impressed with Aspas as yet this season, but there is so much he does off the ball which dictates the flow in which the opposition play. He is very energetic and puts pressure on the opposition's defence allowing them very little time to think and get the game flowing. When our forwards play like this we force the opposition to make mistakes. We don't allow them to play the ball out. I would like to see more of this against southampton as it was missing from the Swansea game.

Having taken all this into consideration this would be my team to play against Southampton.

Mignolet
Kelly, Toure, Agger, Enrique
Lucas
Gerrard, Henderson
Aspas Sturridge, Moses

Red Rum

I specifically liked your opinion on aspas, good to know someone's sticking out for him

Good post, I think that we will see the best out of Aspas if he is allowed to play as a box striker. The problem is that We have to world class players who want to play there ahead of him. Hoping he works out.

Completely agree with every aspect
Nice

Pretty good post mate and I agree with most of what you say. Hope you are right about Gerrard being pushed further as whilst Hendo is improving I don't think he has Stevie's passing range (not many do). Wisdom clearly is not a right back so Kelly to start. Aspas to start ahead of Sterling as with Sturridge and Moses playing we need someone more tactically aware than Sterling.

Read a stat today that we have conceded the second most shots on target this season which is a bit scary so reckon tomorrow will be very tight.

For me, the outstanding thing about Aspas is his movement. Causes endless problems for the opposition. Fortunately, the coaching staff are not as ignorant as some supporters and are well aware of his qualities. Everyone else will have to wait until he scores a few goals before they get on the Iago train.

20 Sep 2013 18:17:02
is it just me, or is aspas playing rather poor? maybe a swing and a miss be rodgers by there, but still he adds depth to the squad which is good I suppose! YNWA

He has one more chance created and an assist more than Coutinho in 70 minutes less league time.

Guess it depends on how you define poor.

In that case, get in a load of league 2 players nice and cheap to add more depth of players who are "poor"

He's only played 4 league games, judge him (and the rest of the team) next May.

Stats are great, except if you watch the game Aspas looks like a 10 year old girl playing against men. He needs time to build up his strength, I wouldn't start him tomorrow.

I could care less what he looks like on the field. Creating chances, getting assists, scoring goals, completing passes- these are the sorts of things that matter to me, not how big he is or isn't. I suppose we could buy Huth and play him as a winger if that would be more to your liking?

He's played a grand total of 236 minutes for us in the league- can we at least let him get near 900 or so before we write him off?

Well said RDL!
Some fans will never learn and always need someone to complain about.

If I remember correctly, he played RW in the first game and really created lots of chances. In the subsequent games he has been played behind Sturridge where he is not as effective

Get a clue fella. There's more to playing up top than goalscoring.

20 Sep 2013 15:12:32
Hi Eds, Great work as always and love the site - glad to see its calmed down a bit after the mad transfer window!

Any news on how Yesil is progressing from his injury and when we can expect him back? Hoping he gets some minutes later in the season

Cheers {Ed019's Note - He's still recuperating and hopefully he'll be back soon. The club don't want to rush anybody in action to try and avoid long term issues}

20 Sep 2013 14:07:52
There's a good podcast with St John, Roy Evans and

20 Sep 2013 12:36:58
With firstrowsports being gone. do any fellow reds know of any other good streaming sites?

P.S Good Luck to the Lads tomorrow. believe {Ed002's Note - www.firstrowsports.bz}

Vipbox, Streamhunter or firstrowsports.org

Cheers Ed. U The Dude

Coolsportz is reliable.

Agree with Daveyliver, have always used coolsportz and had 0 problems. If I am looking for a game to stream I generally just type (for example) 'Liverpool vs southampton live stream' and look for the ronaldo7 website in the google search results. ronaldo7 generally has 20+ links to the game from different channels with different commentators etc

Footballstreaming.info is the one I have used for a few seasons. it shows many available links for all games. Links to coolsports, digisport, dolcesport etc. Also has Sopcast stream links which give far superior quality and less chance of streams dying. Same with SportsLemon too.

20 Sep 2013 15:41:37
I usually use eplsite.com its pretty good and covers all games from the other leagues.

Have had problems with first row in the past- got a bad virus and had to wipe everything, anything but firstrow i'd say- I use cricfree, but the chat can be maddening(addictive though)

Streanhunter.eu seems to be the best one at the moment

Wiziwig site. Download Ace Player then click Bloodzeed's links. HD! Brilliant.

20 Sep 2013 08:00:00
What did you guys think about Sakho in the previous match? He's got good tackles but felt he need to position himself a bit better. But nothing he can't improve and would only get better with games.

I thought he was impressive. Did make mistakes but doubt we planned to play him straight away particularly with skertel. His ability is there for all to see

I thought he was pretty poor actually.

The 1st goal was a poor header, these things happen.

The 2nd was pretty shocking IMO, Stepping out for a ball he had no chance of winning, leaving a big hole for Shelvey to run into. He did this a number of times.

He was powerful in the air and his distribution was good, obviously it was his first game but he did look immense at times. The last ditch tackle on Michu at the end of the game saved us a point for me. He's a beast, imagine if we acquired Papa to play alongside him. They would make a formidable partnership at the heart of our defence IMO.

To be fair after playing just 1 game in the premiership, a league he has not played against a very good attacking side with players he probably knows little about I think he did well.

I am confident he will be an excellent signing but think he may need 15-20 games to really start understanding the movement and pace of this league

Poor IMO. He has however, all the attributes required for a top CB an will turn out to be one.

First thing he needs to do, stop diving into every challenge!

20 Sep 2013 13:18:16
He was very rash on 2 or 3 occasions, and was poor positionally. However in the air, in the tackle, and distribution wise, he was very strong. He gave away possession in a silly area towards the end of the game, but made up for it with a phenominal tackle on Michu just moments later to reclaim possession. I think the lack of communication hurt him. He got no help from Skrtel, didn't seem to know where to be or which runners to track and clearly didn't hear anybody call man on in the previously mentioned loss of possession. I think he needs to carry on training with the side, maybe make the odd substitute appearance against lesser teams, and go away and learn the language. Once he has that nailed down, he will walk into the starting line-up. He just looked a bit eager to impress and I'm sure next time we see him, he'll be far more calm and disciplined than the Sakho that played against Swansea. He showed enough in the game for me to believe he will be a top signing. Also take into consideration his lack of game time recently. He was bound to be rusty.

YNWAdam

As always adam, your analysis is spot on once again.I really like skrtel but he seems to only have an understanding with agger
For me sakho and toure would be immense together

Sakho seemed very eager to impress on his debut, his tackles came across as very extravagant and he got sucked into his man too quickly on a couple of occasions, however what he did to correctly he did well. Some of his passing was awesome and his speed and strength are major bonuses.

He will be considered one of the leagues best CB's once he is used to the league IMO.

20 Sep 2013 07:03:47
I am sure Suarez will destroy defence when he will return like when a lion is freed after a long time in a cage. We love him or hate him but I am sure each and every true Liverpool fan is desperate to see him in action. Even if we are at the top of the table, we have really missed him because he is so special. I think all the match we won by 1 - 0 could have been 3-0 or 4-0 with his presence. However, I believe he should skip the match against the mancs and start the next EPL match against Sunderland instead. Any views!

I didn't mis him at all. I still believe he makes our team as a unit worse

I wouldn't say worse lionred, I think its more a case that he changes the teams style of play as people want to pass to him. He creates his own chances and yes the team play suffers a little, but he puts the chances away.

Teams struggle to deal with sturridge as it is, with both of them up front it will be a defenders nightmare if he manages to play a season without ascting like a misbehaved child.

BR has to ensure we don't revert back to Luis Suarez FC, in other words pass every ball to Luis and let him go for goal. We have to ensure the balance remains positive for the group, like BR said, we are no longer about individuals and long may that remain.

20 Sep 2013 12:01:46
Yeah he creates his own chances and scores spectacular goals, but scoring the simple goals seems to evade him at times. and going for the spectacular when another player is in a better position than him happens a lot as well, good player no doubt, but his attitude stinks

As long as the lion has been well fed whilst kept in the cage he should be ok. ;-)

Hmm, after rubbing the club and supporters noses in dogs dirt! some people still hero worship him! spose its a case of personal pride and integrity

20 Sep 2013 00:03:02
Now I know you guys are good at what you do, so I'm just going to ask, is there any chance you can arrange for King Kenny to watch a game on the Kop. Almost lost a few tears when I read that.