Crystal Palace v Liverpool May 5 20.00hrs. Match Preview

[bluestevon]

....absolutely. I'm sure much of their summer spend will be centred around their defence. It'll be a huge challenge for the manager who hasn't exactly demonstrated his guile in that area with Toure and Sako (I presume he bought Sako).

The only 2 signings you could describe as anything but failiures have been Sturridge and Coutinho

Alberto 6.8m
Aspas 7.2m
Mignolet 9m
Sakho 18m
Ilori 7m
Toure - free
Teixeira - free
Borini 10.5m
Allen 15m
Assaidi 2.4m
Yesil 1m
Sturridge 12m
Coutinho 8.5m

97.4m for a mid table keeper (Mignolet), a quality striker (Sturridge), a decent cam (Coutinho), and a average mid table centre back and centre mid who are squad players (Sakho and Allen) and 8 players eating up wages who aren't good enough and never will be

 

[ste d' indica]

...I think this might be the case with the reds approach in general next season. They play back to front very quickly. I noted a while ago on here that Gerrard is like a quarterback, launching passes from deep directly to dangerous forwards who play on the shoulder of defenders and can create from one-on-one situations. I suggested it could be worth putting somebody on Gerrard to nullify the threat and Pullis clearly tried this yesterday with Chammack but came unstuck because they had no out ball themselves. I suspect the reds will need a plan B next season.

Exactly, for all the fawning over their 'electrifying', 'liquid' football, a long ball game, whether hoofing it to a big man or a trio of whippets is still a long ball game. Granted the skills those whippets have shown have been honestly impressive, but as a tactical approach it's definitely limited. The strategists of the game (like our Brown Shoed Togger Collusus) are working out the limitations of the Brown Trousered Hoof Charlatan as we speak.

 

[billycopper]

As I said in my post, regardless of that outcome Rodgers has shown his limitations.

I said pretty much the same as you in a thread that I started a while back. He has some very good players at his disposal (which he may or may not have had a hand in recruiting) and he's found a system that works to the strengths of all of them. He deserves credit for that. But there are quite glaring deficiencies too. For example, they have no pace at the back and they play Lucas and Allen in unfamiliar attacking roles to accommodate Gerrard as a quarterback. Their squad is horribly thin too.

 

[bizzaro]

Fair point.

Every time I see that I want to cheer, brilliant TV that. Simply brilliant.

 

[Fuleco]

So glad they let Kuyt go, he's the type of bellend who'd shin the winner home from 4yards out last night.

 

[billycopper]

It just underlines how desperate they are for a Messiah. It's in their genes that they swoon at the prospect of being led to the promised land by a leader, as in the past. This feller's just another fraud though.

For large parts of the season he has looked like a footballing mastermind but I can't help remembering how he came across like David Brent in 'Being Liverpool'. And leaving his matronly wife for a sporty blonde does make him look like he's gone a bit 'big time'.

If Liverpool finish second and a big offer comes in for Suarez the player might say 'I've taken us as far as I can and I need to move on'. And Gerrard must be getting very close to winding down himself. Without those two I think that Henderson, Sterling and Coutinho would start to look much more ordinary again. And they've demonstrated that they'd rather pay over the odds for promising players rather than bring in established internationals.

I can imagine it all going wrong for Brendan and the media recasting him as the lower league manager who struggled at Watford and Reading and got lucky rather than the progressive coach who brought Swansea to the Premier League.

 

[ste d' indica]

For large parts of the season he has looked like a footballing mastermind but I can't help remembering how he came across like David Brent in 'Being Liverpool'. And leaving his matronly wife for a sporty blonde does make him look like he's gone a bit 'big time'.

If Liverpool finish second and a big offer comes in for Suarez the player might say 'I've taken us as far as I can and I need to move on'. And Gerrard must be getting very close to winding down himself. Without those two I think that Henderson, Sterling and Coutinho would start to look much more ordinary again. And they've demonstrated that they'd rather pay over the odds for promising players rather than bring in established internationals.

I can imagine it all going wrong for Brendan and the media recasting him as the lower league manager who struggled at Watford and Reading and got lucky rather than the progressive coach who brought Swansea to the Premier League.

"progressive coach who brought Swansea to the Premier League" - Built largely on Roberto and Paulo Sousa's foundations as well.

 

[Allezfan]

Suarez signed a new contract in january and they're in the cl next year so I suspect he's staying.

I don't think a top tier, real madrid type club actually want him.

But regardless this is their only chance at a title for a while cos next year everyone else isn't going to be as bad as they were this. Man U, Man City & Chelsea were all very much below par.

We've seen them come close before under Benitez and then the next year the big boys got their house in order and they came no where close. I imagine we'll see a repeat of that.

I suspect Sturridge is going to struggle next year, too. He seems pretty brittle.

 

[LeeRab]

He will be off this summer mate, he's been playing this season like a man desperate to get that BIG move

I've been having this feeling for a while too now. It was most likely agreed between the player and the club to put in place a contract that would allow a clause to be added for considerable compensation. Especially after the way he started off the season, they were always likely to get a huge sum and makes perfect sense why it was signed mid season. I won't be surprised to see leaked info regarding this clause in the next few weeks. Its all one big master plan. He was always going to go but the big chiefs at Analfield saw an opportunity from the way he started the season and dangled the 200K a week carrot until the season end, for his end of the bargain.

He has literally been playing out of his skin all season long and its still not going to be enough. The moment he realized that was last night and it shattered him.

He's off

 

[Muzumbu]

 

[Brennan]

Suarez signed a new contract in january and they're in the cl next year so I suspect he's staying.

I don't think a top tier, real madrid type club actually want him.

But regardless this is their only chance at a title for a while cos next year everyone else isn't going to be as bad as they were this. Man U, Man City & Chelsea were all very much below par.

We've seen them come close before under Benitez and then the next year the big boys got their house in order and they came no where close. I imagine we'll see a repeat of that.

I suspect Sturridge is going to struggle next year, too. He seems pretty brittle.

City are likely to finish 3 points lower than they did when they last won the title, i'd hardly say that's very much below par.

 

[Eggs]

The only 2 signings you could describe as anything but failiures have been Sturridge and Coutinho

Alberto 6.8m
Aspas 7.2m
Mignolet 9m
Sakho 18m
Ilori 7m
Toure - free
Teixeira - free
Borini 10.5m
Allen 15m
Assaidi 2.4m
Yesil 1m
Sturridge 12m
Coutinho 8.5m

97.4m for a mid table keeper (Mignolet), a quality striker (Sturridge), a decent cam (Coutinho), and a average mid table centre back and centre mid who are squad players (Sakho and Allen) and 8 players eating up wages who aren't good enough and never will be

...Sakho cost £18m? That's staggering. Can hardly believe that. They could do worst than getting Lescott. If Assaidi is the boy at Stoke, he's not too bad for £2.4m, certainly a better option than Moses.

 

[West]

Not worried really no plAn B. and as long as Stevie me gets shoe horned in they won't win as title a new pair of full backs Right sided centre back and a couple of class midfielders is needed for them to be a proper team

 

[toffeejack]

Suarez signed a new contract in january and they're in the cl next year so I suspect he's staying.

I don't think a top tier, real madrid type club actually want him.

But regardless this is their only chance at a title for a while cos next year everyone else isn't going to be as bad as they were this. Man U, Man City & Chelsea were all very much below par.

We've seen them come close before under Benitez and then the next year the big boys got their house in order and they came no where close. I imagine we'll see a repeat of that.

I suspect Sturridge is going to struggle next year, too. He seems pretty brittle.

i'm not sure they have the right mentalities to recover from last night tbh. it will definitely get to gerrard anyway, seeing suarez' reaction makes you wonder whether he has a strong mentality, a lot of the rest are young and weak minded imo. sturridge will not have a season as good as this for the rest of his career as well. everything has gone right for them and they still may not have won the league.

not sure rodgers is good enough to attract the top quality players the fans are expecting now they're back in champions league and i can't think of too many of the current crop who are of that level either. we'll see i suppose, personally think they'll struggle, a lot of people would have thought that the start of this season though.

 

[davek]

I said pretty much the same as you in a thread that I started a while back. He has some very good players at his disposal (which he may or may not have had a hand in recruiting) and he's found a system that works to the strengths of all of them. He deserves credit for that. But there are quite glaring deficiencies too. For example, they have no pace at the back and they play Lucas and Allen in unfamiliar attacking roles to accommodate Gerrard as a quarterback. Their squad is horribly thin too.

You have that spot on: defence a shambles; midfield usually bypassed by a QB sending it long downfield for his wide receivers.

How that's prospered for a season is an indictment of the PL 'master tacticians'. They'd have been had off in Spain or Italy by Christmas with that.

I just hope City get the points needed this season for that title, because I'm almost certain this feller Rodgers is heading for an almighty fall from grace very, very soon.