And he had a fullback to support him. Sterling had no fullback to support him. He had to cover both end of the pitch. That's a lot to ask for an 18 year flair winger.
Judge too quickly?Even days before the game I was curious to see how we would cope without lucas and it seems we did well.Our midfield wasn't playing too deep with henderson yesterday compared to lucas.However we cant control the tempo and that's down to gerrard.
Yes he did well. But it's Crystal Palace. They're sitting 2nd last in the league. A team that has failed to score in the last 3 of their matches yet somehow managed to scored 1 against us. Are you suggesting that we should sell Lucas ?
Here's Carra and Neville take on BR's 352 and SaS partnership. Neville was a great fullback and even he admits that it's hard to play as a wingback. BR must be a sadist to put an 18 year old winger as a wingback But it's a very insightful vid.
I tend to agree, that this season, we have a good squad with solid standby in the bench...just to begin with, our strike force is one of the deadliest...comparable to what Arses, Chelski, Mnure, City...defensively, i felt they could only get better...eventho Agger is amongst the subs -still we have one of the top defensive stats...and we still have Johnson, Kelly to come back....the midfield is looking good with Moses...and coutinho still to come back..altho some did highlight the deficiency in midfield - specifically a DM, but the adaptability of henderson actually made it less acute the need for a CM/DM. Moving on, really wish we can reinforce attacking personnel, would be good to add some ball-players, specifically, those who are comfortable holding the ball and probe for opening, as right now we have only Moses, Coutinho..Suarez and Sturridge, all who are comfortable and in-control of the ball, wish i could add Sterling into the category, but still he is unconvincing when on the ball...still i felt that we are just 1-2 good players away from being a serious contender...
That's always had been the case hasn't it ? From Houllier to Rafa to BR. Always missing that one particular ingredient. With Houllier we were missing that crafty central midfielder. During Rafa, we assembled a near perfect team but missing one or two wingers that could really hurt teams down the flank.
BR has amazing strikers, promising no 10s in Countinho, Alberto and Suso, and plethora of centralbacks at his disposal. Just missing the central midfielders. If we can get a solid player or two to keep the midfield together, i think it can a long way to solidify the team. I'm not talking about winning the title, just a team that will have good balance in terms of skillsets.
I watched and I couldnt understand a single thing they were singing about except when they say Mascherano and Sissoko.
Dude how can you not know the chant lol. Was sang after we lost to Milan in 07. Everyone was in good spirit despite the loss and the people from the streets joined in regardless if they were italians, scousers or neutrals. Good times.
Oh oh oh We've got the best midfield in the world We've got Xabi Alonso, Momo Sissoko, Gerrard and Mescharanooooo!
in epl maybe. But city might edge us..agueoro, dzeko, negredo...scary lol
On paper yes. Aquero, Dzeko, Negredo and Jovetic are all exceptional players. But at the moment, performance wise SaS represents great value. The chemistry between them seems natural and electrifying. I suppose that's what happens when you only have few strikers that can't be rotated out. So in a way, our weakness is our strength and vice versa. But City do have tremendous depth.
This post has been edited by hfi: Oct 9 2013, 03:09 PM
but seriously, look at southampton's defence... 2 goals allowed so far...that is a team that is winning ugly. cant wait to see their next game against moyes.
They're a good team. Probably this year's darkhorse like Swansea few years back. They don't concede that many goals because the midfield shield their defense quite well. Wanyama and Schenderlin are formidable duo and takes a lot to get past them. But i haven't seen Gaston Ramirez played for them. No idea what's going on with that guy.
You know i've been playing fm13 a lot lately and i notice the 352, while a solid formation, is not very friendly to wide players. You can still somewhat cheat by man marking players but in reality, some players like wingers can't be tasked to play as wingbacks.
Once we have Countinho and the wingbacks up and running, what's going to happen to the likes of Sterling, Ibe and Moses ? I think the 352 is a great formation for clubs operating under strict budget as you have only 2 wide players instead of 4, giving your more room to expand other areas on the pitch. Perhaps it's one of the reasons why it's not a popular formation among top tiered clubs.
LOL. I simply couldnt understand why Chelsea didnt give him much chance.
Even the fans knew they let go of a gem and was furious with getting only 12mil for him. what a steal. I bet now they must be knocking their head against the mirror each time they think about it.
But then again, every signing is always a gamble. I am just glad it paid off well for us.
And then Couts, the Director of Inter couldnt wait to get rid of him and fund the move for Paulinho which eventually didnt materialise for them.
Goodness. What were they thinking? They shouldnt read too much of C28's post-match comments or else they will let go of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, etc soon. LOL
Wow you must really hate C28 or something haha. Poor fella haven't posted lately and his name still gets mentioned lol. Anyway i think Abramovich pretty much run the show at Chelsea. Pretty sure the managers he signed has a clause in their contract; Must play striker y for x amount of games with min z number of goals. Failure will result to us sacking your asssss. They only ever had one prolific striker and that was the monstrous Drogba - lord of the jungle
Hate? NO! We always have this banter of teasing each other
If you analyse the millions he spent out of 10 years (billions or millions? I lost count), and getting only 3 EPL, 1 UCL with no Arabs back then until 2008, that's pretty poor ROI. Football fan like Roman should never make decision because it's always emotional.
Haha yeah. He used to envy Liverpool. I remember reading an article few years back where he wasn't happy with just winning things. Chelsea won few cups but that wasn't enough. He wanted his team to have an identity and he even compared his team to Rafa's Liverpool and how he wanted that kind of character in his team. Unfortunately, money can't buy passion and history.
Well FSG and BR are quite consistent in that they don't sign 'old' players with high salaries. But i think perhaps someone like Alonso may bring some revenues in merchandise as i still believe he's a huge brand among Liverpool supporters. No signing fee but he will command a huge salary especially if Chelsea come knocking. And if Chelsea do want him then i seriously doubt we will sign him. Alonso always strikes me as an intelligent person, he knows he's on the last phase of his career and will most likely want to get the best contract he can possibly get before he retires and i don't really blame him. He has earned that.
Personally, i prefer that we invest in potentials than in Xabi despite my great admiration of the player. With Lucas losing his pace and Gerrard edging closer to the end of his career, we need vigorous youthful players more than anything else.