Liverpool’s form in the League continues to go amaze, as the Reds slumped to a one goal defeat at home, with West Brom finally picking up a win at Anfield. The Reds performance can be described in three words: Brilliant, Dominant but Frustrating!
Beautiful chances were created but they were always met in the end with a marvelous save, the woodwork or by being smashed into the crowd. I felt Carroll and Henderson did very well; they created chances and gave the West Brom defenders a hard time. So I think the time may have come where we, as proud LFC supporters, watch a possible transformation of form for Carroll and Henderson.
Dalglish did well by giving both of them another start, only this time gave Henderson a central position as Gerrard was granted the day off. But why was Downing left on the bench, when clearly he is finding some form? I felt that Downing should have started and if needed, Dalglish could have brought on Maxi later. The introduction of Bellamy was spot on as well as the return of Kuyt to the starting line-up.
Suarez was once again vital for the Reds as he created many chances, which would have bore fruit if not for the excellent display from Ben Foster.
Liverpool’s line-up is definitely much stronger with Johnson, Enrique, Agger and Skrtel, who all dealt with West Brom’s attacking front well. Johnson was excellent until the slip-up, which let the Baggies through to goal.
Now here is the question which is eating me from the inside; where does Liverpool’s problem lie? At first we easily used to pass off the comments “the problem lies in Carroll, Downing, Henderson and Adam” but a change in form for the three of them has improved our situation in the last two games before the West Brom outing (Blackburn and Everton).
Another suggestion may be that Kenny Dalglish ‘lacks strong tactics’. But the fact remains: Liverpool have dominated most of their games this season. It’s not that the Reds often find themselves outmatched – it’s more that circumstances often conspire against them.
So is our situation in the League the result of Bad Luck? Whether that’s the case or not, it’s important to look at where Kenny and co. go from now on is the real question:
a) Is investing in a new striker our only way to improve our position in front of goal?
b) Do we just get rid of players like Adam who have just been a liability or do we give them some more time and hope they become an integral part like we did with likes of Lucas?
These are real testing times at Anfield, let me know your thoughts regarding our situation and how you would go about providing a solution:
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I think the author is missing some key points!
Whoever was responsible for these signings needs shown the door if he hasn’t already,if it was Kenny that made the decisions there is no room for sentiment, he needs to go!
Downing has had nearly a full season to adjust but for me still nowhere near the sort of quality we need, I honestly feel young Sterling showed far more promise in around 10 minutes than Downing has in a season.
It should also be noted that we could have had Juan Mata for similar money, a player who wanted to sign for us.
Adam was a bad signing, he stood out in the Blackpool side but he is not the sort of quality we require and nowhere near the quality of players we sold or loaned out, Meireles and Aqualani are far superior players in every way.
We also have the likes of Pacheco, Suso and Shelvey who I feel could do a far better job and offer more to the team.
Henderson for me has been poor, many of the points I’ve made above about Adam, we sold or loaned out better and have better players in the reserves, on the bench and youth sides.
Some might say that he’s been played out of position but that surely is question of tactics and playing the best possible player in the given position, which Henderson is clearly not!
Carrol is a player who I can see good qualities in but I feel he is not suited to our style of play and also we paid far too much money for, I don’t buy into the Torres fee paying for him it just makes no sense whatsoever, for £35m we could have bought Juan Mata and a decent striker who would have scored 15 to 20 goals a season and probably would have been left with change!
Based on our form at the back end of last season we should have kept Meireles, played Maxi as his form was outstanding and would have pulled out all the stops to sign Juan Mata and a decent striker, when I say decent this is not a dig at Carrol, I mean that we should have gone for someone who is pacey and with a good footballing brain.
There were times in the second half of last season when we were a joy to watch and looked unplayable but for whatever reason we dismantled what looked to be a winning formula, we needed to lose some dead wood yes but we had the nucleus of a great squad, a few quality additions would have seen us challenging for the title.
Rafa has created a world class academy and we are producing some great players who are not been given the chance to further develop, Wenger would have Sterling and Pecheco starting games and Suso on the bench.