well i still believe the diamond is our best formation,

the strikers do split wide naturally so maybe this salvio bloke is seen as a suarez replacement, suarez did play wide left of a front three at ajax.

if he can play wide left, and cut in on the attack, presses and has pace and trickery he could work as a striker, and this might also be the longer term plan for the likes of ibe and marko, they are certainley wasted in those defensive positions.

marko before he came to us had always been wide left of a front three also, and his best prem performances for us have been from that side of the pitch, he has been criminally misused this season

strikers who drift wide work in two ways, they split the centre backs a bit, creating space for the AMC, but suarez was the master of running at the gap between the fullback and centreback, its a dodgy area where they generally dont know who is responsible for marking, and having a striker making those movements either side is why the SaS worked well.. especially with raheem nipping around in to the space.

i believe coutinhos best position is at the side of the diamond like last season, he has more of the game ahead of him and better dictates the game, he has great ball recovery skills and presses well, lallana might function similarly there, but in my opinion transitions the ball too slowly, in our current formation he just doesnt work..

Suarez played wide right in a 4-2-3-1 at Ajax

I do want to go back to 2 strikers and the diamond again though.

khedira is on a free this season, he announced on instagram hes leaving madrid!

Robust midfielder, no fee.. no brainer?

No comey here either.

ah, apparently hes already having a medical at juve!

That's fine, leaves us free to sign Pogba then

Don't panic,theres 3 other english divisions to plunder.

I think we should actually enslave players. Use the Old Testament as a defence. Then claim religious freedom on appeal.

Guaranteed 8-9 years before we lose

The simple fact is that Rodgers seems to be quite happy to play players totally out of position and persevere with it if it's working or not.

We've had midfielders played in central defence.

Wingers played as strikers.

Wingers played as fullbacks.

Centre mid played at right back.

Rightback played at left back, despite having two left backs fit.

It's baffling!

comment by The Kaiser's Trainers (U5676)
posted 9 minutes ago
Suarez played wide right in a 4-2-3-1 at Ajax

I do want to go back to 2 strikers and the diamond again though.
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wide left, wide right, it still serves to illustrate the fact that the two "strikers" who did so well for us last season had been "wingers"/"Inside forwards" for their career to date.

maybe thats why we keep buying wingers.. hoping to hit oil again

we've had Wookies on Endor FFS

Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Rodgers has him living on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!

sorry IRU, I was being too pedantic

But I agree, something strange about Rodgers and out and out centreforwards. He doesn't use them.

i hate rodgers hating..

No one complained when he stuck suarez and studge up front despite them being wide men before..

No one complained when he converted sterling from a wide man, to an AMC

nor when he converted him to a striker and it worked..

when ibe was playing well at rwb it was fine, and can was turning in top class performances at rcb everything was rosy..

but lets just pick on the things hes been forced to try, and havent worked spectacularly

Rodgers is reinventing football,where have ya been?
He's goin to graduate playing 11 goalkeepers across the park,but keep it quiet,softly,softly.ssshhh
One bit at a time.

comment by The Kaiser's Trainers (U5676)
posted about a minute ago
sorry IRU, I was being too pedantic

But I agree, something strange about Rodgers and out and out centreforwards. He doesn't use them.
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Out and out strikers are predictable, they generally try to move between the CB's and are one dimensional.

our attack worked last year because suarez and studge drifted so well, thats thanks to the way they had been used before, drifting in off the wings. teams couldnt defend against us because they were not sure who what or where they were meant to be

this season with sterling ploughing a furrow up the middle of the pitch we havent looked like scoring at all, its been predictable, hes done a decent job for a while though, and deserves kudos for that.. but with a partner i think he would take it up a notch.

its funny also that the lone straight attacks he had been making were markedly similar to how he played last season when studge and suarez split the centre backs with their movement, it just allowed sterling straight through

Sturridge has never been a wide player.

Chelsea might have played him there sometimes, but he's always been a striker.

Since he was about 8.

chelsea played him there, city did, even at wba he played off the wing.

Your being pedantic, its like walcott, clearly better through the middle, is shifted wide to accomodate others

Studge played a whole season as a wide player for Chelsea

But I agree, he's been a striker mainly and it's his favoured position. For us he does both, dropping deep a lot, picking up the ball out wide.

More traditional strikers don't seem to endear themselves to Rodgers.

Problem is, there aren't many goalscoring forwards who aren't strikers. He had two in Suarez and Studge (and tried it out with Sterling) but if you can't get one of those you might as well just play a striker or 2 with 2 up front.

I think he's being stubborn trying to make more versitile players work up front, but it's failing.

Or something along those lines

problem is sterling did an okay job up there.. on his own.

sturridge and suarez did a fantastic just up there, together.

while studge was back from injury it would have been nice to see the two up front together, just to see if their movement and subsequent space would have a similar effect to the SaS partnership, although sterling would have been an inferior replacement for suarez its all about creating space in the attack

When did Sturridge play for westbrom?????

He didn't.

Insert.

You were talking like Rodgers turned Sturridge into a striker.

He didn't.

He's been a striker all his life.

He means Bolton

We need a striker in the summer who can ideally perform both on his own up front and also alongside Sturridge/Sterling as part of a two. I have personally liked quite a lot of Rodgers ideas but we haven't had the players to do so (most of them have been with that waster Balotelli).

And at Bolton he played as a lone striker so not sure what insert is talking about to be honest.

I'm sticking with him being stubborn and preferring versatile forwards over strikers even if it's not working

it's a theory that makes sense to me