The closing of the transfer window brought to a close the hope that Brendan Rodgers would be given the full backing of the owners to bring in the required reinforcements to assist Suarez and co to get the goals to enforce his plan to play an extensive passing/possession game.
With us now having no opportunity to improve the squad now until January the squad will have to work harder to provide goals from all over the pitch.
The first major test was against an Arsenal side who seemed to be more solid defensive since Steve Bould has been promoted to the assistant manager's role but lacked the killer instinct since losing Van Persie to Man Utd.
With us remembering the legendary work that Bill Shankly did to set the foundations down for our club on what would have been his 99th birthday today.
We started the game with our loan signing Nuri Sahin getting a first start for us and the impressive Sterling again getting another league start after his promising debut last week vs the champions Man City.
The majority of the first half was flooded with poor passing from our side where we struggled to match the crispier passing of the North London team who dominated midfield through Diaby and Cazorla and the equally impressive Arteta, it was one of those poor passes by our captain Stevie G (who again has looked off colour since the start of the season) which initiated the move for Arsenal's first goal where they broke away and with the lack of concentration of the ball watching Glen Johnson allowed Lucas Podolski to get off the mark for the season with a cool finish.
Arsenal should have gone in at half time 2-0 up but Giroud missed a gilt edged chance when we were again opened up at will by the counter attacking pace and power of the Arsenal midfield.
The only two bright spots for us in the first half were the performances of Sterling again who showed he is again ready for this level by hitting the outside of the post with a clever piece of trickery and Allen who was very tidy again throughout the whole game. Most of our attacking options broke down with either Gerrard, Suarez or Borini losing the ball through poor pass selection.
The real indictment of the first half was the fact that we had 56% of possession but no shots on target which contradicts the philosophy of Rodgers who states that when you control possession of the ball and are better with the ball you have a 79% chance of winning the game.
My reaction to that Rodgers philosophy today is that without a cutting edge we will not win the majority of games and partly that is down to the fact that we have only one way of playing and it is such a highly publicised way of playing sides have found a way to combat this tactic already.
The second half continued the way of the first half with Arsenal passing the ball better than us and eventually creating a second goal with Cazorla finishing the move with our keeper Reina at fault for the goal for getting beat at the near post.
Reina has been very poor so far this season and to me should not have had an extended break after the Euros because he never played at all - the only sweat he managed to raise in the summer was to be the master of ceremonies for Spain's celebration for winning the Euros and has come back a poorer keeper for the extra time off.
At 2-0 down the side's head went down but still had a chance for a consolation with Suarez again missing a great chance after a smart pass by Gerrard.
At the final whistle it became apparent that we are going to struggle until January unless we can bring in someone like Michael Owen who is available as a free transfer who despite his injury issues and fact he joined our hated rivals during his career is still a clinical finisher given chances.
This is now our worst league start for 50 years (1962-1963)so we need to pick ourselves up after the international break and just hope Suarez and Borini come back from the break fit and ready for the next league challenge.
Man of the Match -Sterling- the only bright spark in an otherwise disappointing performance from the whole team- what a bright future this player has!
Other disappointing aspects of our game - Borini has started his career with us under unfair pressure of now being our other main striker after Suarez and at the moment the job looks too big for his you 21 year old boots, he has a tendency like Suarez to play head down and make the incorrect decisions which hopefully will improve long-term.
Stevie G- our captain has been extremely poor especially his passing and with the lack of support in the transfer window we again are looking for him to inspire the troops, at the moment he has not performed to his normal high standards.
Suarez - as our main goal threat until reinforcements can be brought in to assist we are going to require him to be more clinical if that doesn't occur we could be struggling to hold onto him in the January transfer window- his goals will dictate whether he can push us on or whether we will struggle to cope with the pressure.
We were pretty much outplayed with the slick passing from Arsenal. BR talks about having possession of the ball is one thing, but you have to create chances and do something once we have the ball, until we don't get a prompt striker, teams will be taking points from us, left right and centre.
ReplyDeleteSurprised or not surprised with our past three leagues games performances, its just deja vu for me! I am now not going into games with an open mind, think we actually win the game home or away. Like Leaon said par with the West Broms for now!!! ( I hope not)
Also why is Rogers now coming out with If I knew Carroll was not going to get replaced I would have not let him go. Like Karl said Dempsey is an attacking midfielder, but he not the answer for replacing Carroll.
The Fact is that this team has not got a Fowler, Rush, Torres, type of striker, who could pounce on the ball and score week in week out !
(BR - Luis Suarez is not a striker)
We may have to settle for less then 4th place!
The inadequacies of the club to select a striker to join the club, perhaps not only impacted on the fans but the players too. I cant help but wonder how Carroll would have fared against Arsenal's defence, led by their 6ft 7 defender. The attempts from the owners to appease the fans seems to have been quite effective, reminding them what the club was like when they arrived.
DeleteI hate saying it but Gerrard had a stinker, hopefully he's got that one out of rhe way! Too big a game for Sahin to turn up in central midfield on debut. Shelvey seemed to make a difference when he came on, but not forgetting his tender years.
Im not sure it helped playing our key players in the UEFA cup on Rmthursday, but I guess needs must!
Borini is going to have to grow up quickly. The pressure is really on for him to deliver, but he is effectively being deployed on the right hand side. Can he not lead the line instead of Torres. I'd now like to see Morgan at least on the bench in every game.
Sent from my iPhone
What was that? Deadline day came and went, we trimmed something like 25 million off the wage bill, sold Aqua, Adam, and Dirk for around 10 million combined and we still don’t have a goalscorer in the squad. Somebody should be shot.
DeleteProblem – A football team endures one of the worst league campaigns in recent memory netting on 47 times, half the total goals of the eventual league winners who score 93.
FSG Solution – Sell, release or loan out 4 strikers (Carroll, Dirk, Bellers, Maxi) and replace them with one unproven 21 year old italian international.
Who really thinks that this is going to make things better?????
I know that we have undoubtedly improved our midfield but the failure to sign a couple of decent strikers is just insane. I feel sorry for our manager because he’s got no chance of success now. LFC will be lucky to finish 8th this season and I’m not being melodramatic. If you look at the teams above us they have all strengthened significantly in key areas, Champions league football is definitely not a realistic target. Teams like Everton and Sunderland have also bought good players in key positions so it’s going to be really competitive around the top 10.
Rodgers wanted Dempsey, FSG didn’t back him. Not backing your new manager in his first season in charge on what would have been a reasonable £6million transfer is suicide. Immediately the manager is undermined and the squad has no cutting edge. Most damaging of all though is the familiar feeling of boardroom chaos at Liverpool fc. Was I the only one who started having flashbacks to the bad old days of Hicks and Gillette? FSG have in one fell swoop crushed any pre-season optimism around the club, even the players looked like they were on a downer on Sunday, they know full well that the squad can’t be competitive this year, it’s hard enough to come to that realisation as we customarily do around Christmas time but this is the first time I can ever remember where the season is over before it has begun.
I just can’t believe that this has been allowed to happen. Henry and Co will be in town for the United match, If I were them I wouldn’t be popping into the Sandon for a beer.
Baz
Never have I ever seen Arsenal beat Liverpool with such ease as yesterday who couldn't beat Sunderland and Stoke. I suspect we may be turning on the likes of IBE, Susso and possibly Owen who is a freelance for help. I do not see this Borini guy thing working out. He looks like a failure before he even get started. The question, is it not the same team that gave Man City a game last Sunday that put we out but for Nuri? Why is our defend so vulnerable, conceding goals at will. Can the last person to leave Anfield turn off the light please. See you in January when we may be fighting "relegation". All my optimism for this season had been swept away in one clean spin.
DeleteI was at the game and there was sucha sh*t atmosphere around the ground before-hand with everyone discussing the complete farce of going into the season with two strikers - one of whom is brilliant but ridiculously wasteful and the other who has had 6 good months in seria A.....
DeleteThe atmsophere during the game was the worst I've ever experience at a big game at anfield and it was so demoralising watching our players chasing shadows with the knowledge that downing was our best option to come off the bench. Equally the fact that sterling looked our most likely source of inspiration and players were giving him the ball at any opportunity in the first half was pretty damning inditement of danger we were posing.....Borini is definitely no winger, hopefully he can come good as a striker but playing on the right he offers very little....
Seriously worrying times....
Watching West Ham and seeing Carroll virtually unplayable and then see Stewart Downing come on and whip balls in for a non-existent striker is plainly laughable and that's for the second game running. As I said below on Friday Carroll going to West Ham was going to look fool hardy if we didn't get in anyone and as I said in the beginning it made sense bringing in another option, but why not go into the season with a new striker and Carroll...
ReplyDeleteWe don't and haven't for a while possessed a striker that can lead the line in the shape which Rodgers would like obviously since Torres. I was disappointed on Saturday that Morgan or Pacheco weren't on the bench. Arsenal were quicker to the ball in the midfield and looked patently more threatening coming forward even though we had plenty of possession.
Not going through with the Dempsey deal made no business sense at all and the Sturridge deal the less said the better. FSG are saying they'll be ready to go into the transfer market in January... what when we are languishing mid-table or worse!!!!
Agree KP, What’s that old, well worn saying – “There’s no value in the January Market”. Buying clubs are generally buying because they are desperate (we’ll definitely fall into that bracket) and selling clubs don’t want to let decent players go. What’s the point of us bidding big money for a decent player when the season is already a write off?? We’d be better off waiting until next Summer.
DeleteIt’s a joke.
Part one
ReplyDeleteJohn Henry has come out and said that yesterday the window wasn’t a failure. Apparently his twitter was inundated with complaints from angry fans. Here’s what he had to say (from F365) –
Brendan Rodgers offloaded misfit Andy Carroll to West Ham on loan a day before the deadline in the belief he would bring in a replacement more suited to his style of play.
However, the window closed without any new arrival and that has led to criticism from fans, with Rodgers admitting he would not have allowed Carroll to leave had he not been very confident of bringing in someone else.
"I am as disappointed as anyone connected with Liverpool Football Club that we were unable to add further to our strikeforce in this summer transfer window," said principal owner Henry in an open letter published on Liverpool's website.
"But that was not through any lack of desire or effort on the part of all of those involved.
"They pushed hard in the final days of the transfer window on a number of forward targets and it is unfortunate that on this occasion we were unable to conclude acceptable deals to bring those targets in.
"But a summer window which brought in three young, but significantly talented starters in Joe Allen, Nuri Sahin and Fabio Borini as well as two exciting young potential stars of the future - Samed Yesil and Oussama Assaidi - could hardly be deemed a failure as we build for the future."
A lot of work, and cash, was expended on renewing the contracts of key players to ensure Rodgers retained solid foundations on which to build.
Henry also felt this was a significant move by the club.
"No-one should minimise the importance of keeping our best players during this window," he added.
"We successfully retained Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and Luis Suarez.
"We greatly appreciate their faith and belief in the club and we successfully negotiated new, long-term contracts with Luis and with Martin."
Ever since Fenway Sports Group, of which Henry is the leading figure, bought the Reds in October 2010 they have insisted it is a long-term investment.
And Henry stressed their approach to spending this summer reflects that and will continue to do so in subsequent transfer windows.
"No-one should doubt our commitment to the club. In Brendan Rodgers we have a talented young manager and we have valued highly his judgement about the make-up of the squad," he said.
"This is a work in progress. It will take time for Brendan to instil his philosophy into the squad and build exactly what he needs for the long term.
"The transfer policy was not about cutting costs. It was - and will be in the future - about getting maximum value for what is spent so that we can build quality and depth.
"Spending is not merely about buying talent. Our ambitions do not lie in cementing a mid-table place with expensive, short-term quick fixes that will only contribute for a couple of years.
"Our emphasis will be on developing our own players using the skills of an increasingly impressive coaching team.
"Much thought and investment already have gone into developing a self-sustaining pool of youngsters imbued in the club's traditions.
"That ethos is to win. We will invest to succeed. But we will not mortgage the future with risky spending."
To me this sounds like a man who really doesn’t understand the sport that he has bought into. What we need badly up front is a quick fix that can bang in the goals for one or two seasons while we figure out a long term strategy and at 6 million Dempsey represented pretty good value.
Part Two
DeleteYou can’t afford to stand still in this league, Liverpool now risk the prospect of becoming irrelevant in the EPL and lets face it we’re half way there already. We might have signed Suarez on a long term contract but that won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on if the player comes to the realisation that the club is going nowhere.
I’m pleased that we got Sahin and signed a couple of players for the future but the strike force was clearly the priority this window and someone dropped the ball. If Henry thinks his twitter account is hot now wait until we’ve been turned over by Sunderland and United, he might want to batten down the hatches.