Lack Of Depth In Central Midfield

Young Shelvey said he was hoping to play at least 20 games this season for the first team, maybe he will after all!!!

Why not, he looks like he can pass the ball with both feet...would rather take a gamble on him than some of the players we've been linked with.

Young Shelvey said he was hoping to play at least 20 games this season for the first team, maybe he will after all!!!

as this rate we will end up with a squad of 11 plus the manager.

Oh well, maybe we can add Raul Meireles to our ' lack of depth ' in central midfield.

I think one the reasons we finished 2nd was due to Masch and Alonso, it was the best centre midfield pairing in Europe, a midfield of Poulsen and Lucas is laughable beside it.

Ya and I believe don we are on our way to becoming a midtable team, signing a journeyman in Poulsen and targetting another journeyman like Konchesky. No money to spend our big players wanting to leave of course we are becoming a midtable team.

Raul Meireles ..... another journeyman then eh?

Oh well, maybe we can add Raul Meireles to our ' lack of depth ' in central midfield.

Raul Meireles ..... another journeyman then eh?

Relax young fella, you'll end up messing your trunks.

Raul Meireles will, most certainly, do more than replace Masch (in my opinion). It is debatable if one out one in constitutes adding to the depth tho'. Great news none the less.

Relax young fella, you'll end up messing your trunks.

Raul Meireles will, most certainly, do more than replace Masch (in my opinion). It is debatable if one out one in constitutes adding to the depth tho'. Great news none the less.

Was made up when I got in from work today mate! Was optimistic at the start of the season. I am an optimist . Looking forward to the season ahead!

Looking at the whole midfield, this years side is no worse than last years really, in fact it may even be stronger.
I'm not an optimist, just look at it objectively:

- Mascherano has gone, making us much significantly weaker defensively against good teams

= Cole has replaced Yossi, that is like for like (plus he is younger, English and we get £6 million)
= Aqualani is gone, but he was injured most of last season anyway so we are no weaker there
= Riera is gone, but he was crap and didn't play so no loss again

=/+ Gerrard is still there, if he stays fit, that is a bonus from last year.
=/+ We have Maxi, fitter and more adjusted to the PL for the whole season

+ Jovanovic
+ Meireles
+ Poulsen, he may be 30, but he could do a job for us, especially as cover
+ Masch being gone means we can have a more attacking line-up against weaker teams

To me the fact remains that getting Poulsen while we still had Masch and Lucas, and at the same time letting Aquilani go was very bad policy. In a way we could be lucky that Masch is going now because in return we're getting a more creative player in Meireles, which we need. Masch is the best defensive midfielder we have, but we don't need 3 defensive midfielders. So if Roy got Poulsen, and at the same time he wanted Masch to stay as he claims, we would've had serious creativity issues in our midfield. I'm very happy with Meireles, but it doesn't make me understand our transfer policy any more, or approve of it. Meireles should've came to replace Aquilani in the first place.

Meireles will be replacing Masch. Is Meireles a good player I'd say ya is he a very good player I'd say ya, is he better than Masch I'd say no to that. Poulsen in my opinion like Konchesky is a journeyman no need to take it personal.

 Jaysus Don you need to relax the way your going on you'd think we were signing Messi.

No reason in particular mate. I like Rafa, he did a good job for us. Remember were we were when he took over! 2 CL finals, 1 win, FA CUP, CL semi, and 2 x QF in CL. Bought Pepe, Alonso, Masch, Agger, Torres. Not bad when you look back is it? Was just saying with regard to Alonso thats all. Huge mistake in my eyes letting him go. Not many talented players like him about and Barry is nowhere near him!

I would have to agree with this tbh. Clearly, Rafa is already a legend and I hope someday he comes back to manage us again when the parasites have left the club. But that Barry saga wasn't one of Rafa's greatest moments

Meireles coming is very good news but for me he's Aquilani's replacement. Today I read somewhere we were interested in lass diarra and that is also very good news if true. My suggestion for our central midfield would be:
SELL Masch for 19M and Lucas for 8M and
BUY Meireles for 10M and L.Diarra for 9M. That leaves us with 8M free to spend in a striker and 4 good options in midfield: Stevie, Meireles, L.Diarra and Poulsen with youngsters Shelvey and Spearing also competing for a place. We could then play Meireles and Diarra in the middle, Stevie in the second striker role and Cole on the wing.

F**k me the sooner we get in any midfielder  the better, reports are saying that Lucas and Poulsen are starting tom, they are as bad a midfield pairing as I've seen together in my 25 years supporting the club, neither of them has an attacking bone in there body and against West Brom at home that is just not good enough.

F**k me the sooner we get in any midfielder  the better, reports are saying that Lucas and Poulsen are starting tom, they are as bad a midfield pairing as I've seen together in my 25 years supporting the club, neither of them has an attacking bone in there body and against West Brom at home that is just not good enough.

You obviously did not see Stewart and Kozma then as well as Lucas and Aurelio.

Don't worry I saw Lucas and Aurelio and if you check on the Fiorentina thread for last season you'll see I said it was the worst midfield performance I've ever seen from a Liverpool midfield.

Kozma and Stewart never started a league match together you keep using them as an example I don't know why. I think Kozma only played 3 or 4 times for the club. By the way Your not Hodgson agent are you.

Don't worry I saw Lucas and Aurelio and if you check on the Fiorentina thread for last season you'll see I said it was the worst midfield performance I've ever seen from a Liverpool midfield.

Kozma and Stewart never started a league match together you keep using them as an example I don't know why. I think Kozma only played 3 or 4 times for the club. By the way Your not Hodgson agent are you.

Hodgson's agent? Nahhh mate Im his cheerleader on here, supporting him. Someone has to be. Fair play with Stewart and Kozma. Was stating that our midfield 'depth ' could be alot worse. I remember watching Kozma in a cup game...my god he was bad. As for the 'enforcer' Stewart. I think he was eating his wage packet. Fat, slow and totally useless would be being flattering to him!

Stewart was one of Souness biggest mistakes I think we paid £2.3 million for him from Spurs, a massive amount at the time for a midfielder and he flopped massively and especially when you think Souness let Beardsley and Houghton go at the time.

I just think there is no balance in a midfield of Lucas and Poulsen, they are extremely similar players and offer very little going forward. I agree with a lot of posters it is all sideways and backwards with them. That is my opinion.

Stewart was one of Souness biggest mistakes I think we paid £2.3 million for him from Spurs, a massive amount at the time for a midfielder and he flopped massively and especially when you think Souness let Beardsley and Houghton go at the time.

I just think there is no balance in a midfield of Lucas and Poulsen, they are extremely similar players and offer very little going forward. I agree with a lot of posters it is all sideways and backwards with them. That is my opinion.

Fair enough mate. I know that Lucas and Poulsen is not going to be that productive. My point is that it was the same last season really. Hopefully when Joe is back we can put Stevie back in there and maybe even pair him up with Raul M at some point? Then we would still have Joe, babel, Maxi, Jov, Pacheco etc to play behind Torres.

Ever the optimist here and reason for that is that i got really tired of the negativity last season.

Looking forward to it tomorrow!

Apparently, Mascherano's shoes are too big; We have acquired Poulsen, and Meireles with Diarra on the plate. Lucas, Cole & Gerrard will have to do for attacking midfielders.

Meireles has more creativity than Lucas solodee, Meireles is more an Alonso type player than a Masch type DM, he's a box to box midfielder.

Dunno much about Meireles. Never seen him play.
But I'd rather prefer him in midfield than the pair of Lucas and Poulsen.

Meireles has more creativity than Lucas solodee, Meireles is more an Alonso type player than a Masch type DM, he's a box to box midfielder.

Yes he is a good ball distributor.

That is why we are not lacking in depth in the midfield. Imagine a Gerrard/Meireles midfield with Ola and Torres upfront? What we need badly is Ola Tolvonen.

maybe we could ask Juventus to loan us Aquilani, that might be a possible solution to the attacking midfield question.

maybe we could ask Juventus to loan us Aquilani, that might be a possible solution to the attacking midfield question.

It was a good decision to send him on a loan before selling him because when he makes regular first team appearances, he will raise his worth and also if he proves to be good enough he can come back to the club.