i couldnt help myself... manquillo is not my flavour of the month, nor was he before we got him. We have an ability to attract shιt full back after shιt full back...

"I am amazed Brendan went for quality instead of quantity"

Other way round

Ok I'll bite.

In a serious answer to the OPs question we have got these points from the games this season:

Saints (H) - 3
City (A) - 0
Spurs (A) - 3
Villa (H) - 0.

This gives us a total of 6 points. From the corresponding fixtures last season we achieved the following;

Saints (H) - 0
City (A) - 0
Spurs (A) - 3
Villa (H) - 1

This gives us a total of four points with Suarez playing every game (to the best of my recollection).

So while our performances haven't been great the results this season without Suarez have been better than the results last season with Suarez.

Interesting that this article should come on the back of a victory in Europe. Yes the performance was awful but 3 points was won - the epitome of what made Manchester United so successful in the past 20 years.

I can tell from looking that none are as good as Luis Suarez.
No $h!t sherlock.
You seem to now forgotten the point we were discussing.
Surely the point was, have we successfully struck a balance, by the overall strengthening of our squad, compared to the individual talent of Luis Suarez ?
The answer is, nobody knows yet.

Quantity not quality, my bad. Manquillo and Moreno were exposed time and time again against Villa who are not that great going forward.

Gerrard is on his last legs and is now a liability, you have no one prepared to press from the front, Suarez is not around to pull defenders all over the place allowing others to score and Sterling appears to be the only creative spark going forward. Balotelli is a lazy inconsistent player and you look behind and see Allen, Lucas and co.

The players you have signed with all due respect are not good enough for most teams in the top 7
===========================

i disagree with this to be honest.
Lovren would walk into the united team, and so too the spurs side, and everton, and possibly arsenal with their constant injuries.
Markovic is class (genuinely) and will need a little time to adapt, but after that he will be unstoppable.
Lambert just improved the bench.
Balotelli has won the premier league, so he is instantly good enough for any of the top 7 apart from perhaps chelsea.
Lallana suits us, if we can leave coutinho on the bench, and would suit arsenal if they didnt have a needless surplus in his position. Chelsea same.
Moreno, along with shaw, is possibly the top left back in the top 7, maybe only baines is better. Again, he needs to get use to the pace in defense.

comment by If anyone can, Emre Can... (U3979)
===========

Football does not work like that mate.

2 years ago we beat you and City, last year we lost to just about everyone including you and City 2ce.

You can however look at the players you have signed and postulate what impact they would make in the league.

Some of you are in for a shock this season

noone has said that we havent got more points, and we have strengthened the bench. However, we have looked very poor, and havent created any chances.
In the corresponding games you mention, apart from saints, in all we at least created chances that we should have scored.
Did we create anything vs villa? Yesterday i remember more chances being missed by ludogorets than we had.

Have we got a better bench? yes. have we got a better starting 11. no. worse still, the starting 11 is being wrongly handled, and that doesnt help.



why did i come back to football board

comment by Robben van Persie #20 - Rolls Reus (U1145)
posted 37 minutes ago
comment by kneerash-23 Cara Gold (U6876)
posted 5 minutes ago
Naturally we will miss Suarez, any team will, in the last 2 games missing Studge has been an issue too, add to the fact that yday was Mario's 3rd game for us then you can begin to see why we've started slowly.

Also we've got Moreno, Maquillo, Lallana, Markovic, Lovren also having only played a handful of games so it would be naive to expect it to be a smooth and awesome as we were last season.

So of course we miss Suarez as he was by far the best player on the PL last season and for me is the best striker in the world.

The next 2 months will be a bit tricky, we will drop some points over thsi period while we continue to develop as a team but look at our result away at Spurs, we played our favoured Diamond formation, had 2 proper strikers up top in Studge and Mario and we hopped off a top 4 contender, that alone gives me more then enough confidence that we can still be an excellent attacking side and will score goals, even last night once Borini came on and stayed centrally Mario instantly improved. He also had a far better game v Spurs when he played in a two with a proper striker.

So yes OP we are missing one of the worlds best players but we have shown by beating Spurs away 0-3 that we can still play fluid attacking football when we play our preferred system with the right personnel.

Last night we played allot of the game, as we did v Villa, with a lone striker in a 433, it's not our best formation and we'd so many new players that it was flat and lacked cohesion, but we will have to play this formation at times this season and it will only get better the more we play it so despite a poor result v Villa and a lucky win last night it's more time for the players in that system which will benefit us in the long run.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cheers Kneerash. I expect you to improve too - but I don;t think Rodgers is as much of a miracle worker as he's given credit for: the lack of Suarez, I feel, will affect you much more than many anticipated.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This season is Rodgers' biggest challenge with us to date and will show how good a manager he really is. It's his team now only a handful of players are still there who were at the club when he came in.

For me anyway Rodgers is by far the most important person at the club, I've obviously watched him closley since he joined havign being alittle hesitant when we got him in (at the time I'd have preferred Martinez to be honest), but from what I've seen of Brendan I'm confident he is the perfect man for the job.

Each season, like many teams, we have started slowly unde Brendan, first season we were not getting the results in the first few months, last season we did get the results which set us up to challenge for the title when we went on the 12 game winning streak, this season has been a mixed bag far but still early so have to wait and see how we get on.

But I', confident that as the season progresses we will imporve and see the consistency of high performance we saw in the second half of last season, but with several teams capeable of a top 4 finish we need to stay in and around the top 4 over the next few months to ensure we are well placed in the second half of the season to mount a challenge for top 4 or maybe even higher (I hope )

But yeah we certainly miss Luis and replacing him is impossible, there are only a handful of players who could replace him and we wont be signing them at present.

OP is correct, Suarez is irreproachable, unless you can sign Ronaldo, Bale, Messi or, of course, Di Maria

irreplaceable

comment by Robben van Persie #20 - Rolls Reus (U1145)
posted 37 seconds ago
comment by FatJanMolby *I'm a boogie monster* (U4297)
posted 36 seconds ago
Rather than you guys get so defensive and hurl insults at the OP, why not address the valid points he has raised. The only game you looked decent in this season was against Spurs and but for clownish finishing, they should have been a couple of goals up before you scored against the run of play.

------------------------

Why should we give you a sensible answer when you come up with shiite like this. We dominated the first 15 minutes against Spurs. We had 2 very good chances within the first 5 minutes to go 2-0. We then scored in the 8th minute. The goals didn't come against the run of play.

So tell me why should we give you a sensible answer when you've written such drivel?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Look to Phoenix's comment bud. An objective (as opposed to defensive) view from one of your own
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I've read it Robben. You only like his post because it agrees with your point. Yet anyone who disagrees with you point is accused of being defensive or not being able to have a sensible discussion.

Isn't the point of a debate to have a variety of opinions, or do you just want everyone to agree with, and say well done Robben how clever of you. Its not defensive to have a differing opinion to your own.

As for your original post, did you actually read the comments in those articles that you've linked? If you did you'll find that the majority of Liverpool fans were of the opinion that Suarez was a massive loss. A player like Suarez isn't just replaced. He is a genuine world class player, up there with the very best in the world. He wasn't just a good player, he as an awesome player who is irreplaceable. Name me one striker in the world today who is an adequate, like for like replacement for Suarez?

How can you judge a team after 4 games? If we go by the league table at the moment then Swansea and Villa are going to finish top 4. Man Utd midtable and Newcastle are going to get relegated. Are any of those things likely to happen? No. Why? Because we are only 4 games into the season and it'd be stupid to make judgements based on that.

I've read it Robben. You only like his post because it agrees with your point. Yet anyone who disagrees with you point is accused of being defensive or not being able to have a sensible discussion.

Isn't the point of a debate to have a variety of opinions, or do you just want everyone to agree with

----------------------------------------------

so you think the players you have added are an adequate substitute for Suarez?

I don't really think any judgements can be made until the end of November/early December. The new players will need time to adjust, especially those who have never played in the PL before.

Moreno already looks class. Probably one of the best LB in the league. Certainly better than City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs LB's.

Manquillo has done very well for someone so young. He has been caught out a few times, but generally solid. I expect Flanno to become first choice when fit. Flanno was fantastic last season.

Lallana is a good player, one I don't think we needed and over priced, but a good player all the same. He has also had no pre-season due to injury.

Markovic is fantastic. However, like lamella, we probably won't see the best of him until next season.

Lambert will be a great signing. He probably should have started last night and against Villa. The results would probably have been very different. He might be slow, but like Carra, he has a very quick and clever footballing brain.

Can will be a phenomenon this season when fit. I expect him to be part of the three with Gerrard and Henderson. So many top ex professionals have said how good he is. His style of play is perfect for the PL. Strong, combative and quick.

The jury is still out on Lovren for me. He seems too like Skrtel. Not a bad thing, but he is a little to grabby like Skrtel so far.

Losing Suarez would hurt any team (except barca and Real), anyone who says otherwise is an idiot. The trick is to make the new players gel quickly and each contribute to the goals he scored. If Sterling continues the way he is, in a couple of years it might well be "Suarez who". Plus there is Harry Wilson coming through who looks just as good as Sterling at the same age.

Top four and the last 8 of the CL would be a good transitional season for me. It is another transitional season due to losing Suarez.

so you think the players you have added are an adequate substitute for Suarez?

----------------------

Regardless of whether Suarez stayed or went we were going to buy more players because our squad needed more players. The only player you could call a Suarez substitute is Balotelli. He's probably the only player we wouldn't have bought if Suarez wasn't sold. And he's a good footballer. He's not in the same league as Suarez, but who else other than Messi and Ronaldo are at the moment?

Markovic, Can and Lalnana are midfielders so aren't Suarez replacements. We needed more depth to our team so they were bought, and they would have been bought regardless of Suarez staying or leaving.

Manquillo, Moreno and Lovren are defenders. They're not Suarez replacements either.

So the only Suarez "replacement" is Balotelli and he's not a bad striker to bring in.

Let me ask you this - when Ronaldo left Man Utd, who was his substitute?

comment by FatJanMolby *I'm a boogie monster* (U4297)
posted 14 seconds ago
so you think the players you have added are an adequate substitute for Suarez?

----------------------

Regardless of whether Suarez stayed or went we were going to buy more players because our squad needed more players. The only player you could call a Suarez substitute is Balotelli. He's probably the only player we wouldn't have bought if Suarez wasn't sold. And he's a good footballer. He's not in the same league as Suarez, but who else other than Messi and Ronaldo are at the moment?

Markovic, Can and Lalnana are midfielders so aren't Suarez replacements. We needed more depth to our team so they were bought, and they would have been bought regardless of Suarez staying or leaving.

Manquillo, Moreno and Lovren are defenders. They're not Suarez replacements either.

So the only Suarez "replacement" is Balotelli and he's not a bad striker to bring in.

Let me ask you this - when Ronaldo left Man Utd, who was his substitute?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Valencia

This thread isn't about proving people wrong on Suarez - most predicted anywhere between 3rd and 6th and I include myself in that.

This thread is about us strating the season slowly (as we did last year) and losing against Villa.

LFC will be fine and if we then come 6th then what exactly? Do I have to stop supporting them? No.

Daft article that is fundamentally flawed in it's ascertion that LFC fans disagreed with the OP originally.

comment by Robbing_Hoody - Here, have some goals. You don't have to work for them. They're a gift. That's what we do now. (U6374)
posted 2 minutes ago
This thread isn't about proving people wrong on Suarez - most predicted anywhere between 3rd and 6th and I include myself in that.

This thread is about us strating the season slowly (as we did last year) and losing against Villa.

LFC will be fine and if we then come 6th then what exactly? Do I have to stop supporting them? No.

Daft article that is fundamentally flawed in it's ascertion that LFC fans disagreed with the OP originally.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a genuine article, but if you think differently then fair enough.

Good luck for the season, and I hope we have a good couple of matches

So the only Suarez "replacement" is Balotelli and he's not a bad striker to bring in.
===========

Sturridge is miles better than Balotelli, do not know why he was signed, he is hit or miss, no inbetween and mostly miss

Absolutely MUDD, don't know why they let a trouble maker leave and brought another in.

This by far one of the worst articles I have seen for quite a while!

Does it WUM - no cos its unintelligent.

Does it make sense - Not particularly..

Is it just a bitter typing words on a screen -

Regardless of whether Suarez stayed or went we were going to buy more players because our squad needed more players.
_________________________________________

You wouldn't have signed 6/7 players though.

comment by M.U.D.D - Luke Shaw makes me throb with desire (U9612)
posted 27 seconds ago
So the only Suarez "replacement" is Balotelli and he's not a bad striker to bring in.
===========

Sturridge is miles better than Balotelli, do not know why he was signed, he is hit or miss, no inbetween and mostly miss
---------------------------------------------------------------------

What's Sturridge got to do with anything?

I thought we were talking about Suarez leaving

Did you expect us to go into a season with just Sturridge and Lambert. Balotelli is probably the best striker available for our budget. We're not in a position to pay the sort of exorbitant wages you're paying Falcao.

comment by 1manontherun (U4291)
posted 1 minute ago
This by far one of the worst articles I have seen for quite a while!

Does it WUM - no cos its unintelligent.

Does it make sense - Not particularly..

Is it just a bitter typing words on a screen -
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Good for you. Thanks for contribution.

comment by M.U.D.D - Luke Shaw makes me throb with desire (U9612)
posted 1 minute ago
So the only Suarez "replacement" is Balotelli and he's not a bad striker to bring in.
===========

Sturridge is miles better than Balotelli, do not know why he was signed, he is hit or miss, no inbetween and mostly miss
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Mostly miss..

That explains his better than 1 in 2 strikerate for a poor Milan side.