Futility in Victory

Someone in this web once suggested to replace Adam with Gerrard who has better vision and gets a pass off  quicker.  Actually this is a very good idea. Gerrard plays with two legs and gets a pass off at least 1.5 seconds quicker. Putting him at holding midfield might just prolong his playing career. I think an injury-free Gerrad still has 3-4 good years. With Lucas back next season, he can romp freely upfront. It is much easier to cover the captain than Adam for obvious reasons. Captain Fantastic is simply faster and has a lower dispossession rate. 

wow.  this can't be down to luck anymore.  It's just too much of a problem.  

There needs to be someone doing the business that everyone takes a lead from.  That's part of leadership.  Spurs suffered from this last season and it cost them the ECL place, as it is costing us right now.  

It might be an idea to analyse what they've done this year to change that as they seem capable of over turning any deficit this year - I think they will beat united this season.

Unfortunately, the conclusion might be
a) it takes a few seasons to settle everyone down.  
b) you have to buy proven talent.  Neither is good for us.

Gerrard coming back is a must.

Well, everyone is jealous since Spurs have the best midfield in England -- blistering pace on the wings, quickness, guile, experience, and steel in the center -- and (usually) two poaching strikers. They have two starters legitimately valued at 40m-plus(!).

The most glaring difference between them and us is the pace. If you want their ability to score freely, you have to have players faster than Maxi, Kuyt, and Downing to play on the wing. Bale and Lennon have truly exceptional pace, and there's no substitute for aggressive players wide who can unsettle the opposition fullbacks. Having the pace to beat them to the byline also opens up the middle for cutbacks (like Nani, Robben, etc.). 

Bale was signed for 7m and Lennon for 1m, and that's the model Comolli has sold the owners on for Liverpool -- grab enough players when they are young and cheap to mix with a few expensive signings and have it add up to greatness. We have Sterling and a few others in the pipeline, so if you want to copy Spurs you can take heart that we are already doing it, all the way down the actual former Spurs scouting director.

I think Dalglish has sold the new owners already. He might have one or two years window to do whatever he likes. That might explain his stubborness in sticking British. The Redknapp formula has worked beautifully for Spurs and envious to every one, on the cheap. The Lennon/Modric/Parker/Bale midfield cost 30M. Well, Lennon and Bale were hit and miss but you have to make your best guess with youth and hope they pan out. I think we have the youth core in place. It's a matter of searching a VDV & Adebayor for us. Copy Harry and grab a reject from the likes of Real Madrid etc.

Everyone in that Spurs lineup is pretty damn quick & fast. Add on accurate passing, and you have some terrifying team speed that is darn pretty to watch. Can we say we have that? 

No need to analyse - This year they have Adebayor, a true finisher.
-so b,  buy proven talent

We have a crazy number of corners almost every game and that's because of the way we set up our attack. Suarez is good for at least 5 corners a game, Downing wins 3, Enrique 2-3 and so on - A corner is supposed to be a scoring chance, but not for us - it's more likely to give the other team a chance for a counter-attack.

Consider this: Both Manu and City scored on us with corners this season - I don't think it's a coincidence that they lead the league - Remember Manu coming back to beat Bayern in the UCL finals? - How did Greece win the Euros with perhaps the worst team in the tournament? - yeah, that's right, CORNERS

I don't know if there are any statistics out there, but I would estimate a top team scores with about every 7th or 8th corner.

Somebody please forward this information to the coaching staff
Thank you

I get your point about corner creation and have one name for you - Carroll. However your comment on Greece is out of line. Making the most of what you've got is a mark of brilliance and in 2004 Greece exploited the hubris of the entire competition. A highwater mark in the pantheon of victorious sporting underdogs. Stop drinking your own bathwater.

Didn't intend to play down what Greece achieved - that was a truly admireable feat - but you remember that 7ft guy Dellas and his headers, right?

The problem is Carroll, so far at least, means creating less in the attacking third which means fewer corners. And he hasn't exactly been converting when given the chance. As others have pointed out, the bigger problem seems to be really shit delivery, with Adam especially doing his best to out-crap-corner Gerrard. Not that I'd want "£10M corners Charlie" in place of the otherwise good Adam we seem to have gotten of late, but that doesn't change the reality of his corners being atrocious. Also like a few others, I think the biggest positive change would come from playing it short more often.

These games are custom made for Carroll. We we would have done our GD a good deal of help if anyone of those 15+ corners were converted. Even if Carroll doesnt score in them, he provides cover for Agger and Skrtel as we have seen so many times. 

this game was crying out for carroll... im not a huge fan of his, but gosh 17 corners and qpr packed in as tight as they were. how about chuckles adam though? he seems to be coming good.

Check out the corners.  17 of them, and I can't even remember any of them resulting in anything of note.  

I'd imagine if we conceded 17 corners in a given match, we can expect 2-3 goals to result from that.  Big contrast between our defending of set pieces and attacking them.

And this isn't just about putting big Andy up there to try and head some in.  Any team can fashion a decent chance from a corner, with big men or small.  We should at least be average in that department and we're not.  With us it's just wasted - Adam floats one in, defender heads out or keeper collects, and it's back to open play again.  We don't capitalize on any advantage gained by winning that corner.  

Of course we're just about doing enough from open play to cover for the wastefulness from set pieces.  But there's plenty of room for improvement, and I reckon if we can do that it'll push us up a couple places into 3rd, 2nd.

To be honest I'd much rather Liverpool play the short ball during corners and play it in, they seem to do so much better at that then at crossing it in

We're more likely to score from goal kicks than corners.

Spot on re. corners and spectacular wastefulness Red2death. It is also fair to say that some of the 47,000 draws we've had this year might have been converted to 3-pointers with a goal or 5 from the corner. When u think about the aeriel prowess of Sk-Agger, Andy and until recently, Lucas, it's hard to fathom how more scoring has not occurred. As a relevant aside, there are few things that wind me up more than a corner which fails to beat the first man at the near post. I have grown to love the new positionally-astute and tough-tackling Chaz, but i swear to whatever deity you revere....if he or Stew-pot fail to clear the first man at a corner-kick just once more, well....TREV WILL SMASH!!

Downing will score against Villa or perhaps he won't even play

Those are our only two possible choices? Hm, this one's a toughy...

Buy Tevez!

2 insane South American strikers on one team? Can't....handle....the controversy!!!

because it's so much closer to Argentina, no wait....

How about trying to get Podolski or Gomez in January?

Both would be nice, but Podolski doesn't quite give us something we don't have, and Gomez I don't think is a possibility. It seems highly unlikely that any big cash player will come in to compete with 2 other big cash players. And the 35 million for Carroll should limit our spending at least until the summer, and I support that. 

I'm one of those who thinks we have the personnel to turn things around as it is. I would give Kuyt more time up top with Suarez like we did last season. The only player from our awesome end of season form that we don't have anymore is Meireles. I say we should use the same formation of last season with Henderson and Adam instead of Meireles and Lucas. 

But if Kuyt somehow lost his touch on his way to see his "large doctor with a large hammer" up north, then I'd like to see some cheap poacher with a reliable history to come in. Don't care what age. Anybody who knows how to tap in the damn ball, that is all. No big money names needed.

Definitely need a fox in the box! What I wouldn't give to have a Robbie Fowler type player in the team at the moment.....

I think we should have a go at Podolski..he will come cheap as he is at Koln and although his spell at Bayern was not a great one..I still believe that he will want to prove himself at higher level especially the BPL..he will provide some needed pace for us

At the moment those ITK's are saying that we are going for Chile striker Eduardo Vargas in January. Young, relatively inexpensive at £8.5 million. Could be worth a gamble...

I don't really want to buy Podilski, but I really want to hear the 'lu lu lu Lucas Podilski' song on a regular basis.

The only difference is one striker has a history of infuriating his club's supporters and the other has a history of infuriating everybody else. Pass.

I quite liked the lineup yesterday(with one obviously exception). If we could buy a decent winger who scores goals and creates chances as a replacement for Downing (no goals, no assists) we could really have the makings of a decent team.

Encouraged to see King Kenny has stuck with Skrtel and Agger and hasn't just brought Carra straight back. Good and tough management.

I think Downing has actually created some great chances, others have just failed to put them away. And he has to start missing the woodwork at some point, then the goal(s) will come.

I think it's a bit of an easy excuse saying others have missed the chances!

We have scored 18 League goals this season and our £20 million winger Downing (no goals, no assists) has not contributed towards any of them!

It's not like anyone is finishing their chances. The ball just isn't going in the back of the net for anyone, not just Downing. He is giving us width which gives a lot of room for Suarez to work. His contribution is not always seen statistically. Eventually he will come around.

He's giving us width?

I could stand on the touchline doing nothing and 'give us width'

The stats are against Downing. But stats are often misleading. The truth is watch him. He's never in a million years could enough to be a Liverpool player.

We have had a couple of bad seasons but we should never let our standards drop.

'we had bad times too. One year we came second' - Bob Paisley.

Stewie QPR stats:

22/23 passes in final third

5 chances created

2 shots, 1 on goal

8 crosses

The cross he put into Suarez 7 yards in front of goal at 9 minutes is one of the easiest chances Luis will have all year. Luis obviously didn't know where the keeper was and headed it right to him.

The cross he put inyo Kuyt late in the United game should have won that game for us.

Truth is watch him a little closer. You'll learn to appreciate him. And stay out of the pubs!

I have been watching him all b##### season! That's what depresses me!

Yep he put in a good cross that Luis should have scored from and also one against manure. The problem is that I just don't buy the hard luck story.

He has been mediocre at Liverpool and mediocre his entire career.

I have a mate who is an Arsenal fan, and when we brought Downing he said that makes Arsenal stronger cos they didn't buy him!

Sadly he's right.

I said to stay out of the pubs. I understand. I can't avoid them either.

This. LSD you are definitely being blinded by your hate for Downing. You asked people to watch him, yes we did, and he's obviously giving services to the team. Yes he did have a couple of bad performance in a couple of matches, but he did have some good one too. It's not like other players are not giving bad performances once in a while.

Jermaine Pennant, Harry Kewell, Mark Gonzalez, Marc Walters, Joe Cole.

All of these wide players had 1-2 good games for us. Truth is that none of them made the grade. Downing (no goals, no assists) is sadly following in their footsteps.

I wish we had a Barnes or McManaman in this team.

With you on this LSD. If he was skinning oppo defenders and whipping in killer crosses week in week out, then we could point at Luis and the rest for being profligate. But he isn't. Everytime he gets the ball and goes on a run we should be on the edge of our seats. But we aren't. Sorry but the guy just doesn't cut it.

lol "Note the third: At least they won."

The reason why we're all losing our wits here.  We need reassurance that it's going to happen.  I wouldn't mind a 1-0 win every game; if it actually happened.

The problems for Liverpool are shifting from an ineffective midfield, that was unable to control and dictate the game at the start of the season, to an ineffective attack. Normally we should be writing about a 3:0 and not a 1:0 with a frantic ending. Suarez needs way to many opportunities to score, Carroll is a disappointment - for now, Maxi today had 5 shots on goal( 3 of them  clear 100% opportunities )but just cant score.

If we buy in January we should concentrate  on attack, because Adam and Hendo did a good job today.

Carroll hasn't been given a run of games.  All those corners....

one of my favorite brazilian mottos is, 'Ele que nao faz, leva' which is just a more lyrical way of saying you have to take your chances when they present themselves.  we gotta get ruthless as a unit.  CL qualification depends on it. 

No one will be surprised by these stats, will they? A familiar story. I'd like to keep playing the same lineup as yesterday to give them a chance to click and develop some chemistry.

P.S. Vertical lines make headache. Ow.

The performance was dominating in every aspect. All the guys showed very good composure on the ball and really good movement off the ball. Charlie was especially good at receiving the ball and immediately moving away from pressure all in one motion. If we can dominate "lesser" teams the way we did QPR, they will all be W's, and I'll be happy. If I have a choice of having 2 shots on goal and scoring 1 like against Chelsea or having 8 shots on goal, scoring 1, only allowing 1 shot on our goal and never look like conceding as against QPR, I'll take the dominating performance every time. Maxi could have had a hat trick and usually does in games like these.

Maxi always shoots in the same way.  Side footed.  Sometimes it needs a little bit more, or a chip or something.  A bit lazy?  Disappointed he didn't get at least one.

Meh, if we squeeze out 1-0s every game, I'll be happy.