Traore can't play for Everloan, carrying an injury and not expected to play for another ten days.
Liverpool vs Everton. Tuesday, 28th January, 20.00
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I'm staying at your mums on Tuesday. Don't try and bum me again!
2 full back positions - kelly, flanno and cissokho to choose from!!!! what a horrible predicament. Flanno must start, but who else to choose? Kelly looks a shadow of his potential and cissokho is prob the worst leftback since konchesky.
Sorry pal. What will be will be. Oh and I will be going straight the game from work, but up for a little pint afterwards if you fancy??
Don't think he will be tbh.
DM or CM they're a variation on the same thing!
I'm sure there will be a bevvy or two afterwards.
Everton will score a couple so like every other match this one will be down to how well either Suarez or Sturridge plays.
Not optimistic.
Not optimistic.
Not to worry lads.
Can't see anything but a Liverpool win for this game.
Everton were muck against West Brom. If we have the energy and passion we will hump them bitter cunts.
Can't see anything but a Liverpool win for this game.
Everton were muck against West Brom. If we have the energy and passion we will hump them bitter cunts.
Not looking forward to this. As Gene says, Everton will score at least 2.
Let Gerrard and Allen sit tight at the back, only allowing one of them to roam a little forward to allow the ball to be passed through midfield. Then have Henderson, Sterling, Suarez and Sturridge stay up top and do what they do best.
Personally I'd be tempted to play Henderson on the left and ask him to cover Cissokho and the left centre, then play Suarez behind Sturridge with Sterling out right. That way we have plenty of energy down the wings, plus Henderson can provide some protection infield. Fuck, I don't know, this is a hard one to call, please, lets just fucking win.
Personally I'd be tempted to play Henderson on the left and ask him to cover Cissokho and the left centre, then play Suarez behind Sturridge with Sterling out right. That way we have plenty of energy down the wings, plus Henderson can provide some protection infield. Fuck, I don't know, this is a hard one to call, please, lets just fucking win.
gonna be an easy 3-0 stroll this one
New 4 yr deal confirmed for Baines, just ahead of this game. Well timed?
Yep. Even against Bournemouth he ended up facing our goal time & again, then had to turn around to get his bearings & locate the ball.
He usually does it when tracking a run, he does it like an attacking midfielder does, run hell for leather to get there ahead of them, Turn around, find them & get in front of them.
This worked well, but now he is so much closer to his goal that by the time he turns around the danger has already passed him by.
One of the Stoke goals show this clearly, but right on top of the goal when he spins around having lost his man & with no idea of where the ball is. It happens much more often near the edge of our area.
Everton will be able to exploit this easily by running a man past him who then stops, it'll effectively take him out of the play completely.
Exactly, I said this in the MOTM thread, he bailed us out a few times in our box, tracking runs, he's always been pretty good at this. Holding his position in the midfield and also his positioning from setpieces, is dire. I find it inexplicable that we're trying to shoehorn him into this role, when he's spent most of the last decade as an attacker. Just let him do what he does best and have a rethink, or better still, BUY SOMEONE!
Well, I mentioned one of the two would move forward, that one would be Gerrard. Allen is more than capable of covering the (hopefully few) times when Gerrard is not there.
Let me play Devils advocate here.
I think it's cos playing further up his lack of energy for 90 minutes exposes us, & if, IF, he can learn the role, he'll be arguably one of the best DM's in the world & be able to play convincingly at this level for another couple of seasons.
The only problem I have with it is dropping him in there mid season with so much on the line. Having said that though, if you do it in pre season & cups only it's extremely hard for him to learn the role (which will be against much pacier & technically gifted forwards in the league), so when can you do it?
Btw, I think it's gonna be a nail biting 4-3, with an unlikely winner coming from Allen or Henderson making a run into the box very late on.
I get the reasoning. But put it this way:
* his lack of energy exposing us in the final third of the pitch is less damaging than him doing the same in the middle of the park - This notion that he can just "sit" doesn't work when teams get onto how easy he is to expose and bypass. The other issue is that he takes his natural inkling to wander and look for the ball, which leaves holes anyway.
* He's played central midfield with a few classy players, I remember us going to Highbury with him and Alonso in the middle (which everyone was saying would work), it didn't, we got overran and battered by a midfield of lesser players. We did the same around the same time against Tugay and Savage against Blackburn (same outcome). He lacks the discipline and then resorts to playing Hollywood balls because he's so deep, which as we've seen, don't always come off.
Maybe I'm not being open minded enough about it, I just think it's a waste of his and our time, trying to retrain him into a foreign position. We might ultimately get him used to it, and we might drop a shit load of points and miss out on the CL as a consequence.
I half agree.
The one thing that makes me reconsider is that he seems to finally comprehend he can no be that player anymore (his lack of running everywhere & blasting shots from 40 yard when we're under the cosh proves it on the pitch, his words do off it) so maybe he can learn to sit.
That lack of energy isn't enough to stop him playing as a dm, it's his discipline in positioning & sticking to his man whilst tracking the ball that he needs to learn.
Like I said I'm playing Devils advocate. Ideal world I'd be playing Lucas, Allen, Henderson every match with stevie to make 20 minute cameos further up the pitch or dead in the centre making move destroying tackles across the width of the pitch whilst exposing tired legs with raking balls to Sterling & Sturridge/Suarez.
With he fact he isn't gonna be benched & Lucas being injured though, I'm trying to see the rationale behind it.
Against Villa, when Allen or Lucas were on, he pushed forward 10 yards and then sat, didn't try to do much, became more composed and just prodded balls down the right for Sterling and through the middle for Suarez, it worked, he just did the basics but not many players have that ability to play the first time ball through a few defenders with precision. I don't think giving him the extra defensive responsibility to cover the cracks at the back is helping him, he needs to just be left to do his thing. Whether that makes him a luxury is the big question, and whether us being the sum of our parts with a different midfield three, will be the ultimate question that Rodgers needs to answer. Right now it just seems like we're shoehorning him into the role to keep him in the team, that's never a good perspective to have, as soon as you start compensating yourself, it causes imbalance.
I think it may be the case that Brendan is unwilling to make the decision that Gerrard is no longer first choice. The only real role Gerrard could have, if he was going to stay in the team would be as a DM, from a energy/fitness point of view at least.
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