Realistic starting XI and 7 man bench

[mark1975]

Realistic? Would you take it? I can't see Walcott joining us, I can see him going to Spurs, Jovetic sounds like pie in the sky stuff, the only solid link seems to be Ramirez, and I doubt Aquilani will be here, but anyway:

Offensive

----------------Reina----------------
--------Skrtel---^----Agger--------
Johnson----Lucas------Enrique
----v-----Jovetic--Gerrard---v-----
--Walcott----Suarez----Ramirez




Defensive


------------------Reina-----------------
Johnson--Skrtel--Agger--Enrique
-----------Lucas-Gerrard------------
----------------Jovetic----------------
--Walcott-----Suarez----Ramirez


Bench: Doni, Coates, Kelly, Aquilani, Carroll, Sterling, Henderson

 

[Buddha]

That'll do.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

I'd be over the moon with that team - though I'd rather suarez on the flank playing with Carroll in the middle on both.

 

[Pesam]

I'd be surprised if Lucas features heavily in Rodgers' plans. BR likes to play pass-and-move and IMO Lucas's passing is not up to the standard required.

 

[Mystic]

I'd be surprised if Lucas features heavily in Rodgers' plans. BR likes to play pass-and-move and IMO Lucas's passing is not up to the standard required.

*blinks*

 

[Gerry_A_Trick]

*blinks*

Yeah, it's his one blind spot. Everyone has one I suppose.

Although I do fear Rosco may be right, and Lucas may take longer to get back to his best than we hope.

 

[dmishra]

I think Rodgers will have a more elaborately constructed midfield - I expect him to play a three, or possibly even a Spain-style four man midfield.

Rodgers mentioned 3-4 signings, and if I were him, I'd go for a holding player, an attacking mid, a winger, and a striker. But those are my ideas on my assessment of our strengths and weaknesses. Rodgers been here only a month, and is probably still in the process of making this assessment. Which is also possibly why we've not really seen so many rumours floating around - not because we're doing things quietly, but because our targets haven't even been finalised yet.

Thus think it it's way too early right now to come up with any sort of accurate prediction. I am a bit concerned about this though as I don't think a month and a half is a lot of time to secure all our preferred targets.

 

[dmishra]

*blinks*

Pesam is right - Lucas has never been a great passer. He's improved considerably in his last couple of seasons, especially last season - where I thought it was quite good at times. But for the most part, he has been a poor-to-average passer.

 

[mark1975]

I'm still not convinced by Enrique, he's been great and shit.

 

[dmishra]

I'm still not convinced by Enrique, he's been great and shit.

True, and Rodgers will want his full-backs to be a bit more competent going forward than Enrique is.

 

[SummerOnions]

I'm quite happy to give Enrique another year but i'm convinced he needs competition for the spot. Robinson isn't ready yet, and so we need someone who isn't just cover but can take Enrique's spot on a permanent basis if good enough.

 

[mark1975]

What might be more interesting is the outgoingings. Realistically we should be looking at having a good solid 20 man, 17-18 of which are a good standard, but that includes implementing a couple of young players like Sterling, so you could argue that there's not place for three or four of our better paid, better established players, like Cole, Adam, Aquilani, Shelvey, Spearing, Maxi etc (and fwiw, I'm a big fan of Maxi and Shelvey).

That would leave us with money and the ability to perhaps trim the squad but up the quality in depth. On paper anyway.

 

[dmishra]

I think Shelvey will blossom under Rodgers. I'd be very happy fucking off Cole, Adam, Aquilani and Downing. I'd keep Maxi if he wants to stay.

 

[mark1975]

I think Shelvey will blossom under Rodgers. I'd be very happy fucking off Cole, Adam, Aquilani and Downing. I'd keep Maxi if he wants to stay.

I forgot Downing.. Add him too to the for sale list.

 

[irishred]

Yeah it's going to be difficult for any manager coming into any club were the majority of his most of his first team were away on international duty during the summer and are still away recuperating. Not forgetting about the boys at the Olympics too. So he won't be able to assess what they're like and whether or not they'll fit into the system or whether they will be shipped out.

 

[Pesam]

Yeah, it's his one blind spot. Everyone has one I suppose.

Although I do fear Rosco may be right, and Lucas may take longer to get back to his best than we hope.

It's true that I remain to be convinced that Lucas should be a regular starter for any team with top 4 ambitions. That said,he did improve last season and my suggestion that Spearing should start ahead of him has been proved wrong BUT I still don't want either of them starting regularly.

Swansea rarely played with a DM last season and their preferred method of defence was ball retention i.e. the opposition can't hurt you when you have the ball. It wasn't a total success but given their resources, compared to ours, I would like to think that with better players at LFC the system could work well for us.

For the record, I am perfectly willing to accept that I could be wrong about Lucas but I doubt I am. I've been wrong before and will be wrong again but I'm not gonna be a pro-Lucas poster until I see him regularly dominate opposition midfielders and be an positive influence on results.

IMO he's had 2 dominant games in an LFC shirt ironically against 2 of the strongest teams, City and Chelsea. I want to see him dominate the midfields of Wigan, WBA, Tottenham etc.

I don't want to turn this into another Lucas debate but as it's ages since I posted about him I thought I would clarify my position as I'm one of the last anti-Lucas* posters around.

*By anti-Lucas I mean as a regular starter, I have no problem with him as a squad player.

 

[mark1975]

In that respect though Pesam, Lucas isn't an out and out defensive midfielder, he's just been moulded into one. I get the point then that if he isn't expected to be just that under Rodgers, he will then be expected to contribute more in an attacking sense, but anyway. I think on the back of last season he deserves a chance at it, and I don't think his passing is as bad as some have suggested, he's played it overly cautious at times and he's great at the hospital ball, but he's capable of good inventive stuff too. You'd think Rodgers will be looking to promote that in him a bit more, whether he's capable is the next step of his progress.

 

[Jürgen4PM]

When you look at the side/bench that Mark has named, it makes it all the more obvious how quickly we could turn it around next season if we just get our transfers right.

 

[hmmmmm1]

When we signed Lucas, we supposed to be getting a box to box midfielder, who had energy and goals in him.

Maybe BR can bring that out in him again.......

 

[Mystic]

Lucas' passing last season was outstanding, the best in the squad, and he'd fit perfectly into Rodgers system. Oh and he did boss games against lower opposition as well, we just remember the games against the bigger sides, because they were against the bigger sides.

 

[Pesam]

In that respect though Pesam, Lucas isn't an out and out defensive midfielder, he's just been moulded into one. I get the point then that if he isn't expected to be just that under Rodgers, he will then be expected to contribute more in an attacking sense, but anyway. I think on the back of last season he deserves a chance at it, and I don't think his passing is as bad as some have suggested, he's played it overly cautious at times and he's great at the hospital ball, but he's capable of good inventive stuff too. You'd think Rodgers will be looking to promote that in him a bit more, whether he's capable is the next step of his progress.

Mark there are some posters on here whose opinions I very much respect and are in the pro-Lucas camp. This makes be believe that there's a good chance I'm wrong BUT I still have big doubts about Lucas. You could be right about BR changing Lucas's role and maybe he could become a more rounded player, I really hope he does.....I want to be wrong about Lucas.

 

[the_khl]

I am not yet convinced by Lucas I have to admit, he did however look very good last Season.

Personally think Adam's still got a future especially with Rodgers wanting us to play a possession based game. By the same logic however I can't see how Walcott would exactly improve us, unless of course seen upon as an impact sub or 3rd choice striker. Perhaps I'm wrong, I'd be surprised if he is going to be a genuine big money signing though. Is he a free agent?

Jovetic on the other hands seems right down Brendans alley, would love that rumour to hold water.

Anyways I'd love to see someting like this:

..............................................Reina...................................................
Johnson.................Skrtel.................Agger............................Enrique
.......................Lucas..........................Martinez..................................
Jovetic..................................Gerrard......................................Suarez
............................................Carroll.....................................................

I firmly believe that team could hold the lions share of possession against any team. With a bench filled with players like Downing, Kelly, Coates, Adam, Cole, Shelvey, Henderson and perhaps one or two new signings like Walcott, Elia, Kuba (The Polish bloke) or perhaps even a striker, we'd be a very balanced team.

I know Martinez AND Jovetic probably doesn't fill the criterias of this thread, but on the other hand, we have money to spend, so who knows.

 

[Mystic]

Personally think Adam's still got a future especially with Rodgers wanting us to play a possession based game.

I think Adam will be least suited to Rodgers system out of all of our midfielders. He hogs the ball like nobodies business and loves to go on his little dead end runs and play Hollywood passes, quite the opposite of possession football.

 

[the_khl]

I think Adam will be least suited to Rodgers system out of all of our midfielders. He hogs the ball like nobodies business and loves to go on his little dead end runs and play Hollywood passes, quite the opposite of possession football.

He does have that part to his game as well, but I believe he's a good passer of the ball generally and obviously would be able to knock it around sideways and back and forth Lucas/Henderson style when needed be.