The biggest problem is that Adam, Downing, Carroll and Henderson between them have contributed six League goals," - Mark Lawrenson
I know it's a hard pill to swallow, but I think we need to get rid of the british tosh that is dragging us down. Comes what comes, we need a strong signal from the coaching staff what is the plan with these players. Some or all might come good, but it might take years, and if so, do we have the patience to wait?
Imo, our best players have been Agger, Suarez, Skrtel, Lucas, Enrique.
If we want to be challenging for C.L places next season, we need to invest heavily on foreign internationals in their prime: striker, right wing, center mid, & defensive mid.
Have to add that I think Martin Kelly surely has what it takes and a bright future.
Thoughts?
Cold truth
posted on 2/4/12
Agree, but rather than put emphasis on british or foreign, lets just buy quality, if the wages are a tad higher so be it.
British player we missed out on last summer Alex Oxlade Chamberlain - so our policy is not flawed, just our scouts are.
posted on 2/4/12
i agree, but kenny will never admit he has made a mistake and will be stubborn and keep these guys until they either drag him down or force FSG to spend loads more money to at least force this rubbish onto the bench
posted on 2/4/12
Stubborness was Rafa's downfall to be fair.
Kenny or any other would never openly admit to a useless £35M donkey but im sure its on his mind 24-7
posted on 2/4/12
TruetoRed, while your point has merit, the chances of selling this year who we bought last year is a non-starter. Like it or not, I feel we are stuck with who we've got. Hopefully, like Lucas, in their second season, they begin to shine. These players don't become bad overnight; what they are lacking at the moment is confidence. As DDFP says, we missed out in signing other players like Oxlade-. Yes, thats right, and we will continue to miss out, just like every other team, thats part of the game. FSG won't spend loads of money. Kenny appeared to be shell-shocked yesterday, and quite rightly too. Here's hoping he's given the chance to put things right. JimmyTheRed
posted on 3/4/12
They do have 6 goals between them this season which is poor, but we've seen that these players can score goals. Last season at their respective teams Downing, Henderson and Adam scored 22 goals between them and Carroll scored 11 in 18 games for Newcastle before joining us. They do have the potential to score goals.
Its far to easy to say that because they are British they are rubbish. And it far to easy to blame the new players.
There are others who haven't played to our expectations. Last season Kuyt got 13 goals in 33 appearances. This season its 2 in 28. Its not good enough. But Kuyt isn't British.
Suarez has scored 6 goals in 8 games for Uruguay this season but only 7 goals in the PL all season. It isn't good enough. We know he can score goals, he's done it at Ajax.
As a team we're creating plenty of chances. Apparently we've created more clear cut chances than Man Utd this season. The difference is our conversion rate. Man Utd are far more clinical. This is clearly a problem, but it is not a problem that cannot be resolved. I'd be more worried if we weren't creating the chances to score.
I know it goals that matter, but the fact that we are creating good chances means that we're not far off in my opinion. Our current players need to improve their conversion rate, we need to become more clinical.
posted on 3/4/12
FJM
posted on 3/4/12
And I bet you were saying would should get rid of Lucas a few seasons ago! When will people learn?!!
posted on 3/4/12
You can not be just a grafter in todays game, you have to have ability
Lucas has always had it
Shelvey has it
Flannagan - Spearing - Carragher, there is no ability there what so ever, makes my blood boil, i dont care that they are local they are hopeless, clueless, especially when we need to get back into a game from a goal down
posted on 3/4/12
Sure the players mentioned are capable of scoring more goals but I would not say that they will ever score goals on mass. Sure Suarez scored loads for Ajax but the PL is several steps up, Kuyt scored loads there too but who is going to say despite all the good things which he offers us that Kuyt is a natrual goal scorer? Suarez seems play best as a SS where his skills and creativty easy brought into play and his conversition rate is less of an issue. Carroll scored many goals at Newcastle but the style of play was built around him this is never going to be the case at LFC. I think Shearer got it right when he said Carroll may well be an excellent player one day but he may never be a player who scores loads of goals. Likewise Downing has never got into double figures in a season he is more of a creator. Henderson is young while Gerrard can score a lot but he is much more than a goal scorer and is aeging. So like I said our team can score more but we do seem to lack goalscorers players who can always get you 20+ goals a season. We had this problem before Torres and it has become an even bigger one now in my opinion.