Critique our squad

Glenn Hoddle made the point at HT on Sunday and he was correct - Liverpool DO NOT have a squad. Tottenham have four strikers all vying for a place on the team sheet, Scum have numerous midfield options as well as decent goalkeeping back-up, Abu Dhabi FC at Eastlands have strength in depth...I could go on. So, here's the current Liverpool squad; http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/team/squad/

Share your thoughts, opinions and grievances

I think it just highlights just how many gaps we have in our current set up

Would that be the squad that almost won the league last term ,and will win it this time.

I think Glen Hoddle was spot on , our squad seems to have got weaker and weaker over the last 12 months players have been sold and replacements that have come in arn't much better   Xavi was a massive loss  , Keane ( 2nd striker) gone and not replaced  , Johnson for arbeloa is just like for like  , drossena   Why  we already had insua here could have saved about 8 m, sami has moved on any sign of a commanding centre half NO, Rafa must have spent 10 m on youngsters over the last few years , do any of them look like making the step up ?  I don't think so . The first eleven can beat anyone onthere day but the bench always looks weak , when we are struggling and need to make a change the options are very limited .

I'm not liking all of these negative topics lately.

For F**k's sake - we've lost ONE game!

You mention that Spurs have 4 strikers vying for a place on the team sheet. One of them Crouch wasn't happy on our bench, and he won't be happy on their's. Especially in World cup year
Do Man UTD have strength in depth . Their back 4 with the exception of Evra looked P**s poor against Birmingham once Ferdinand and Vidic were out, and their mid-field is nothing to write home about you wont' get 90 minutes out of Giggs or Scholes, and forget about playing the 2 of them together.
ManCity may be building a strong squad but they have the cash to spend. and a couple of ropey results and the in fighting there i bet will soon begin.

 

I'm not liking all of these negative topics lately.

For f**k's sake - we've lost ONE game!

   Agree 100%, We had the toughest game by far in the weekend from the top four ,  we could have easily had a draw( not merited to be honest)
 other teams had a game at home , against relegation zone teams , excluding arsenal who smashed the bitters  6-1, ok we lost and they won , I'm sure it will be tough for them  too at WHL
   Be Positive , trust in Rafa , , we will hit  top form soon enough to catch up and make for this defeat YNWA

RB - Johnson, Degen

CB - Carra, Skrtel, Agger

LB - Insua, Aurelio, Dossena

CM - Masch, Lucas, Gerrard, Aqulani

RM - Kuyt, Yossi

LM - Reira, Babel, Yossi

FWD - Nando, Gerrard, Kuyt, Voronin, Babel

Haven't included Spearing, Martin, Ngog etc, I'd say maybe another experienced centre back is needed but apart from that we got cover in every posistion. OK ..the quality of that cover is up for question in some cases but anyway Hoddle's a clown, great player but crap manager and pundit

The squad is thin on absoloute proven Premiership quality. An injury here or there to anybody of the starting XI there's not much proven quality coming in.

Reina gets injured we're bringing in Cav
Johnson goes down we're looking at Darby or Degen
Carra/Agger/Skrtel and it's Ayala or Kelly
Aurelio and as we've seen in comes Insua
Kuyt gets injured we're relying on Babel or El Zhar
Lucas or Masch go down we're expecting Spearing or Plessis or moving Stevie back or Aquilani to be a revelation in his first year
Riera goes down we've got Benayoun, probably the only place we have proven quality although Benayoun still isn't a natural left winger
Torres takes a knock we're relying on Voronin/Ngog/Nemeth/Pacheco

Now don't get me wrong I'm all for the kids coming through, but we don't have that proven Premiership player to come off the bench for almost every position.

Take the forward line as the perfect example, we're trusting a young kid or the sh*t Voronin to replace Torres whereas Spurs do have Crouch, Chelsea have Anelka, United have Owen, City have Tevez/Bellamy/Adebyeor/Santa Cruz (depending on who they start with). Even Everton have Saha, not that he's world class, far from it, but it's somebody who knows the Premiership and has proven he can score in this division, same goes with Villa and Heskey/Carew again depending on who they start with. Stoke have an option of either Beattie or Fuller, again neither world class but proven Premiership players who've scored a decent amount of goals in this division.

Just having somebody who has proven they can score in this division would be a massive boost for us.

Midfield wise we're relying on El Zhar, Spearing, Plessis, Babel. It's not a midfield to fear, no matter how blind people wanna be, even they can see that midfield is short of quality. And the same with defence, Degen, Kelly, Ayala, Insua. Although Insua has a few games under his belt, he's not had a full season in the first team. It's a squad desperately short on experienced quality in reserve.

What I will say though is there's a lot of youngsters with quality. Most of those I've mentioned (Spearing, Insua, Kelly, Ayala) have quality, it's just a case of getting it out of them. But experience, especially when going for trophies, is invaluable. If you need to run down the clock to take three points to take the league, I'd rather see an experienced head than a young lad getting excited.

Our success in 2001 was built around Gary Mc. Unable, because of his age, to play every single game but his experience was so important to the likes of Gerrard who was still only a kid at the time. Last year we had big Sami at the back to give his experience from the bench. This year, we don't have it.

Super Dan...the new Gary Mac then?

RB - Johnson, Degen

CB - Carra, Skrtel, Agger

LB - Insua, Aurelio, Dossena

CM - Masch, Lucas, Gerrard, Aqulani

RM - Kuyt, Yossi

LM - Reira, Babel, Yossi

FWD - Nando, Gerrard, Kuyt, Voronin, Babel

Haven't included Spearing, Martin, Ngog etc, I'd say maybe another experienced centre back is needed but apart from that we got cover in every posistion. OK ..the quality of that cover is up for question in some cases but anyway Hoddle's a clown, great player but crap manager and pundit

Agree 100%, but we still need to put a squad together. Not just 11 players as a team.

To be perfectly honest, I reckon people are right to be worried about our strength in depth.  Looking at the bench on Sunday, only Yossi was ever going to have any impact on the game if it wasn't going our way, which as it turned out, we got beat but when Yossi came on he did more than most of the starting XI did in 90 minutes.  And with Rafa having no money to spend we're gonna have to rely on our top players staying fit and being on form or else we are going to struggle as we did on Sunday against good opposition.

IMO we have to take a punt with the likes of Nemeth and Pacheco at some stage this season if no more players can be brought in.  To me I'd rather see one of these two come off the bench rather than Voronin, Babel or El Zhar, whom IMO are no more than deadwood.  People will go on about experience but how the hell are you meant to get experience if you're left in the reserves every week?  Starting XI though when everybody is fit, we're very good.

Btw to some people, a bit of criticism is needed sometimes, within reason of course.  Some people jump at the thought of something negative being said about the team and I find that quite funny because the team were anything but title challengers on Sunday.  I would never write us off unless it was 100% impossible but questions need to asked about the squad in general and some people need to get a grip and stop having a go at those that ask these questions.

sami has moved on any sign of a commanding centre half NO,

Jamie Carragher?

The squad did look bare on Sunday but injuries did contribute of course, remember that a full strength side would consist of a bench of names like Agger/Skrtel, Aurelio? Dossena, Lucas (Aquilani starting), Babel and possibly Benayoun and now we've signed Kyrgiakos.

When you look at it like that our squad looks alot better and I'm relatively comfortable with those players. The one place I think we need strengthening is upfront, I think we do lack a real replacement for Torres and I've felt this way since Keane left. I still consider Voronin to be a poor signing and one that is not capable of doing well here, Ngo'g has shown promise but I doubt he's going to offer us real backup upfront. That's why signing a striker would be the perfect option I think.

Totally agree DLS. The problem is even greater when today, once again a Liverpool yougster who we were told was a hot property a few years back, with the infamous tag of 'potential' has been released today.
Ryan Crowther joins the myriad of players we have bought up, who haven't developed and have been released, sold at little profit or loaned out because we can't rid of them. I know that obviously this doesn't apply to all our youth players but something was, or still is terribly wrong in our scouting and development policy in recent years. And please no one respond back with Gerrard, owen, fowler and so on. That was a decade ago at least that they came through.

Our squad is definately weaker than last season with less experienced, quality depth. Either buy or develop. If you are going to develop then sort out your scouting and trust the youngsters to push on.

Its only the start of the season and this isn't a response to a poor start but a long held concern over the squads progresion towards quality homegrown players who can push us forward.

RB - Johnson, Degen

CB - Carra, Skrtel, Agger

LB - Insua, Aurelio, Dossena

Left back is looking weak (I've never really had too much faith in Insua) and Aurelio's been injured. And Johnson's backup is Dossena? I would say put one of the center backs on the side, but we've hardly got any anymore.

We've lost Hyypia and Alonso. Two powerful figures in the dressing room and two great players.

Keane went and whilst he was poor - he was bought because we needed a second Premier League class striker. He hasn't been replaced.

No question in my mind that our squad is much weaker than last year.  

If Torres suffers a season ending injury then we have no chance of winning anything.  What competition has Torres got?  Look at United in comparison.

This summer, so far, has been an absolute disaster.  The Yanks will probably sell Torres and Gerrard next summer.

What's most worrying about this situation is the lack of activity that seems to be going on. OK that Kyrgiakos guy looks to be coming but thats a player bought for quantity and not quality. I'm worried that no moves appear to have been made for the positions we desperately need quality reinforcements, a winger and striker. I know papers are usually full of rubbish but we don't even seem to be linked with anyone half decent in these positions. How many times last season did we say, "If Torres was fit we would have won"? We missed out because of a lack of depth and without rectifying it we'll have to keep our fingers crossed regarding injuries if we stand a chance of winning the title.

We almost won it last season.

Our primary problem?

- Transfer funds unavailable. The owners are starving the club of funds and we shop from the bargain basement.

I wish the fans will stop trashing the players though.

I wish the fans will stop trashing the players though.

And I wish you'd stop posting utter bollocks like this, but it's not gonna happen so get over it.

I think with our full selection of players the bench does look a lot better than the one on the weekend but you would have to be a fool not to see our team isn't as good this year than last year. I think maybe this will be the year that some of these kids will have to show they can play at this level and hey maybe we get one or two who can do what Inusa did and show they can cut it at this level. All you have to do is look at Manure who unproven kids turn out to be major players in the league title when called upon.

People can argue that yes we have a squad and depth in it and that we were that squad was close to winning the premiership but the matter of the fact is we do not have a squad with quality we have a starting 11 of quality but not a 24man squad.

Look at previous winners of the premier league in the last 5 years, Chelsea and Man united they both have just as good starting line ups as ours most occasions are line ups perform better but they have better back up then us and that is a worry. If Vidic is injured Evans can cover if Evra is injured Fabio can cover if Carrick is injured they have Scholes as for Chelsea if Drogba is injured they have Anelka, Kalou. People may say oh but we have Darby and Ngog as back up but they are not as good as our competitors, so to win the premiership I think we need to get a stronger SQUAD together emphasizing the word squad as our starting 11 is as good as the next team look at the CB situation we had Hyppia as the calm experienced player to be the safe net say our 3 main CB get injured now it looks to me that we do not have a safe net and are bieng forced to play a youngster that is not ready (Ayala).

This year i feel the squad has weakened but i still believe we can win the title as long as we have some luck with a couple of injuries next season or even at the moment we need to buy some experienced defenders and midfielders to calm the team down and help the youngsters progress.

Yeh, lets not get carried away, alright? I've heard all over the place. " Man united will win the league". "Chelsea will win the league". "Arsenal will win the league". "Man City will win the league".

All this after just one game. Let's complain at the end of the season. We'll see how much complaining there is then.

Liverpool should play more confident attacking in the next match. Yossi should start the next match. Babel didn't play well last match. He cannot pass the ball and dribble past the defender. Lucas also cannot support Gerrard and Torres. His not creative enough in the midfield. Liverpool need some player that can play the ball and pass around to create a more chances to the striker to score goals. Hopefully next match Stoke City, Liverpool can win it.

What is with these negative topics. Im getting frustrated that everyone is jumping on our teams back we have only lost 1 game and it was not exactly to one of the easier teams. Lets look to the next 2 games if we get 6 points were back on track if not i will come back on here and start talking about about our so called weak squad.