Do we have to give this team a season to gel to bear the fruits of our labour.

Now I know we as fans are a demanding lot, we want to see results on the pitch immediately and at most times with no thought for the bigger picture and the circumstances surrounding the club.

Now Hicks and Gillett are fast becoming a distant memory and we appear to have owners and a management team intent on making us great again are we demanding too much to soon ?

Its not very often a team makes wholesale changes in the manner that we did over the summer, I can only recall Chelsea and Man City in recent years and to some degree Blackburn in the early 90's.

In all instances it took a couple of years for these teams to bear the fruits of their investments when making such wholesale changes.

Lets be honest most teams add two or three players in a transfer window and integrate them into the starting XI and some times it takes these signings a good 6 month to get up to steam and start putting in some consistent performances.

So with us fielding 6 players who are less than a year old into our starting XI, Suarez kind of being the exception as he would perform in any team in any continent as he's a special kind of player are we not demanding too much to soon ?

Lets be honest City invested a sh*t load of money in their squad and its took them a good few seasons of steady progression to get to where they are now and they are starting to look like a team and not so much a squad of players.

Maybe we need to look at ourselves as fans and give a little bit more understanding to the fact that all the new arrivals for all it can look good on paper can seriously affect the chemistry that the squad once had and that they will need time to form an understanding of how each other plays and with time that chemistry and fluidity in our play will come.

Do we need to give this team a season to gel just like Chelsea and City before us ?

I'd say we do, Rome wasn't built in a day but once it was built it became a marvel to all.

Hallelujah!

Blood the whole reason we bought premiership proven is because they would settle quickly. Im not sure if this team is ever going to be good enough to compete for the top 4 never mind the league. Take Suarez out and we are very ordinary. Did we give meireles a season. I think personally the problem is we bought some very ordinary players

Spot on mate, after the last few years patience is paramount.

I think most of us expect it to take time.  There will be hiccups along the way. 

League position, an improved points total, League cup quarter final place and 'overall' better football suggests we are heading the right way.

Look how long it took Spurs players to start performing, not to mention Man City.  Edin Dzeko and Balotelli are two prime examples of players who have taken time to settle in for them - not everyone hits the ground running like a Suarez or an Aguero have.

I'm convinced we will start putting more chances away.

While we didn't play well enough against Swansea and a point was the right result - I think most of us think we should definitely have got more out of the Stoke/Sunderland/Norwich games.

Looking back at the Blackpool defeat at Anfield a year ago you could argue that playing as badly as we did against Swansea, the fact we took a point suggests limited improvement to get a result when playing sh*t.

Swansea was disappointing precisely because we all know this season we have played well so far and should have give another good account of ourselves and beaten them.

If we continue to play well in 9 of every 11 Premier League games for the rest of the season then I'm sure this season will continue to be a huge improvement and step forward.

Did we give meireles a season.

Not sure how relevant that point is - but no we didn't because as you may remember he handed in a written transfer request asking to leave Liverpool.

We've recently been taken over by FSG and had over 100 million to spend since their arrival. That amount of money can do any team a whole good but the difference between us, Chelsea (2004-2008) and City (2008 to now) is that when Chelsea spent their money from their Russian billionaire, they pretty much only had to compete with Man United in terms of spending power. We were still under David Moores, Arsenal hardly spent, City wasn't owned by rich owners and Spurs weren't spending either.

In Man City's case, well, they arguably spent 5 times more what we have and much more than Chelsea did in 2004. No denying they are willing to throw their money to attact players - something we haven't done and I'm glad we aren't doing because it upsets the wages structures in the squad, IMO. (If we give a player what they want, everyone else on the current wage bill will want more, etc). Obviously, they do have to compete with more teams now but their spending power is far greater than anyone's but look what buying quality does - David Silva and Sergio Aguero.

Unfortunately for us, when we finally got our billionaire owners, we are competing with Man City, Man United, Chelsea, Spurs and maybe even Arsenal in terms of purchasing power and attracting players. Furthermore, we got our owners when we happen to not have Champions League football and though I know there are players willing to give that up for a club they adore, it's just not enough, IMO.

It's a right place, wrong time for us but it was right place and right time for them.

Anyways, back to the topic.

Perhaps the players need time to gel and perhaps fans (even myself) at times demand too much too soon. Maybe the players themselves are feeling the heat of having to live up to the expectations we have of them, especially at home are they are suffering from it but they are not being helped by the off and on dull atmosphere at Anfield in recent years but I think the fans' frustrations are understandable because season after season, we expect this and that only to come away with disappointment.

I have to be honest and say that I'm still very disappointed and frustrated because I feel, regardless of who gets put out on the field and regardless of who we face at Anfield, we still SHOULD/MUST come away with 3 points especially if we are always talking about titles, honours and a European spot.

To happen once in 6 Anfield matches is acceptable but to happen four times in 6 Anfield matches is just beyond unacceptable and is an issue we need addressing.

If it's going to take 6 months for the team to work out, I'm afraid that will be too late.

Blood the whole reason we bought premiership proven is because they would settle quickly. Im not sure if this team is ever going to be good enough to compete for the top 4 never mind the league. Take Suarez out and we are very ordinary. Did we give meireles a season. I think personally the problem is we bought some very ordinary players

I disagree mate premiership proven or not we are playing like a squad of players not a team, there is no chemistry or understanding and that will only come with time and minutes on the pitch.

It doesnt matter if the players are premiership proven or not, the majority of these players had never played with each other on a consistent basis before arriving at Anfield.

Did City tear up the league after their first season of investment ?, no they progressed and got Europa qualification and then added two or three more players into their exsisting squad and then progressed further.

I believe the players we bought are good enough for us to progress on last season and with two or three new additions, they will further progress, but we need to be patient mate.

No team has made an immediate impact in their first year of investment when wholesale changes have been made.

A good discussion point.

Patience is key, and we are not losing games, which is vastly different to the previous two seasons. I can only type this 48 hours after another incredibly frustrating draw at home to Swansea, as posting immediatley after a game you get very irrational views, including my own!

The question is, do we have the right owners, fans, managers and a large % of players to be top 4 - I think the answer is Yes, others will differ and blame individual players, but I think we have the correct infrastructure and foundations for real success. This is not the same as 2008/09 when Rafa performed absolute miracles with a paper think squad and world class starting 11, the signs were there that he wasn't being supported and we had very little backup plans in critical areas. Kenny has a great team around and above him, the fans all on his side - we need to be patient and support our club as we have had enough upheaval to ruin most other clubs.

We still need a partner for Suarez a top class creative midfielder to partner Lucas a top class right midfielder. We need to forget buying over inflated British players mentioned. We need to spend about 60million net to compete. Patience is grand but in the cold light of day we have to be honest player wise we are a long way off.
According to tony Evans tony barrett rory smith and Raul himself we were looking to sell him all summer. So i wouldn't look much into the transfer request to be honest

We still need a partner for Suarez a top class creative midfielder to partner Lucas a top class right midfielder. We need to forget buying over inflated British players mentioned. We need to spend about 60million net to compete. Patience is grand but in the cold light of day we have to be honest player wise we are a long way off.

No ones doubting we are a few players short mate, every one is more than aware of that, but we can't do anything about that right now, not until January at the earliest, so we need to show some patience to the lot we have got.

They need time to gel and build up a understanding of how each other players, that only come with time, sometimes on a football pitch you'll see a player play the ball into an area without even looking and he does that because he just knows where his team mate will be as he's familiar with his game.

Patience is grand but in the cold light of day we have to be honest player wise we are a long way off.

If I'm being honest Everton are a long way off.  We are a bit off.

We've got a great keeper, a great selection of defenders with different attributes.  One of the best holding midfielders in the league now, one of the best attacking midfielders in the league in Gerrard and a fine playmaker in Suarez.

'A long way off' indeed!

Blood the whole reason we bought premiership proven is because they would settle quickly. Im not sure if this team is ever going to be good enough to compete for the top 4 never mind the league. Take Suarez out and we are very ordinary. Did we give meireles a season. I think personally the problem is we bought some very ordinary players

They may be proven but even the best of them need time.

Your declared 'best striker in the league' was sh*te for 6 months before he even looked remotely like the player City bought.

Point is, even the best of them need time and demanding instant results is nigh on impossible. All you have to look at is have we improved since Hodgson and by how much? The answer is yes, and a long bloody way.

Give it time. No one wants any egg on one's face.

 I see what your saying jd but with Gerrard problems and age can we really think we can rely on him. Another big question will Suarez remain patient.id like to believe he would but im not sure this is a lad that went to court to force through a move to ajax and has pep guardiola brother as his agent. I think Suarez would be the perfect replacement for villa who is not getting younger.  While my opinion is Adam Carroll downing and Henderson at right midfield are no where near good enough to be regulars in title winning sides. No matter how long you wait that wont change
I said Dzeko was quality when city bought him said he was quality when he was struggling and his quality isn't showing now.  Dzeko was coming from a different league Carroll wasn't. Carroll will be here 12 months in 2 months time. Will we give him another year.

I see what your saying jd but with Gerrard problems and age can we really think we can rely on him. Another big question will Suarez remain patient.

On Gerrard - who knows.  Maybe he will come back in a couple of weeks and be available all season.  Only time will tell on that and all we can do is hope he is fine.

As for Suarez - again fair point - but the fact remains he is on a long contract and if somebody does want him they will be paying us a hell of a lot more than what we splashed out.

As we learned from Torres - Liverpool fans are now far more aware that some players will not honour their contract.  If it happens it happens, but lets not start worrying about things that are outside our control.  For all we know, we may be bringing in another Suarez in January.

Carroll will be here 12 months in 2 months time. Will we give him another year.

I'll give Carroll time, he was never my ideal signing, but much in the same way as Aquilani he was injured when he was bought and barely featured in the first six months, now is the time he should be building his fitness and form, so January until next January providing he can stay pretty much injury free, should be a good evaluation period for Carroll in my opinion.

Took Dzeko a good a 6 month and a summer working with the team to find his form and he was playing regularly.

I hope your right blood because to me Carroll looks nothing more than a very average premiership striker.  Will age improve his pace and touch im not sure maybe it will his movement which is extremely poor at the moment. I d cut my losses in the summer if he didn't improve if we got a decent price and buy a partner to play with Suarez

I think this is an excellent point.

If we can forget our woes for a second, and remember if took Chelsea quite some time to gel, and City too. We all laughed at City spending all that money and not performing to the potential they should have. Now look at them.

I know we do not have the money they do, but even with those funds, it still took them at least a season to start to show the potential they are now showing. We have had many squad changes over the last few seasons, Rafa's good squad, Rafa's H&G squad, Woy's "Squad", and now Kenny's squad, one thing we have not had is consistency. Something we have to potential to have now.

Remember this time last year? That was something to moan about, on and off the pitch.

I hope your right blood because to me Carroll looks nothing more than a very average premiership striker.  Will age improve his pace and touch im not sure maybe it will his movement which is extremely poor at the moment. I d cut my losses in the summer if he didn't improve if we got a decent price and buy a partner to play with Suarez

I think games will improve his movement and touch mate, however he will never be a pace merchant as he is not a very mobile striker, I honestly think we need to play to his strengths to get the best out of him, now I know you'll say you'd much rather we play to Suarez's, but I honestly don't think we need to, Suarez is a very special player, he will adapt and make an impact on most games what ever system you employ, because he has something you can't teach, unpredictability, when he gets the ball at his feet you just don't know what he's going to do and that is a defenders worst nightmare.

Good opening post Redblood and of course this team will ned time to gel but I have seen enough from them so far to believe the players signed are good enough.

In most of our games this season we have created enough chances to win the games comfortably and I'd be much more worried if we weren't creating anything at all.

The difference with city though they bought real top quality players we didn't. I personally dont think Suarez and Carroll will  ever work no matter how much time they are given.  It takes a brave manager to admit to a mistake especially with a big name signing Rafa did it with Keane after six months time. If Carroll doesn't drastically improve by the summer id like Kenny to be willing to admit the mistake and off load him if we get the right offer

The difference with city though they bought real top quality players we didn't. I personally dont think Suarez and Carroll will  ever work no matter how much time they are given.  It takes a brave manager to admit to a mistake especially with a big name signing Rafa did it with Keane after six months time. If Carroll doesn't drastically improve by the summer id like Kenny to be willing to admit the mistake and off load him if we get the right offer

I wouldn't say they did mate, in their first year of investment they bought the kling-on and Gareth Barry, I wouldn't call that top quality players.

The majority of the players they bought in their first year of investment rarely feature and some are out on loan.

What they did do though was be patient and improved their squad and league position year up on year, which is something I hope we will do.

The difference with city though they bought real top quality players we didn't.

They have now bought quality players but have spent an absolute fortune in doing so and we do not have the same type of owner who can just splash millions of pounds on players.

Very good interesting points made here. I totally agree with "RedLFC", I think we need to be patient with this squad of players.

We're not patient enough, and as "Redpuppy's stated", we're still very inconsistent, reason being that we have a lot of new signings trying to find their feet.

We're not playing as a team yet, but with a couple of new signings maybe in Jan or over the summer, then I'd say we'll be ready to launch a massive title challenge.