'The Importance of the 'Spine Team'

Kenny is here this summer a year and a half. Im looking forward to two and a half yeartime  when we have as good a team and are hammering all before us in the champions league again.

That is the strongest team we had since 91 and was a joy to watch. Rafa deserves great credit for building as strong a team with hicks and gillette there.

He certainly does but then he also must shoulder some of the blame for the fact that it started to come apart the following summer. Alonso was the big one but Sami and Arbeloa were big losses as well.

Rafa was used by the owners as a scapegoat. The press ran with this willingly. He was set up by Hicks and Gillette. They pulled back and let Rafa try to compete without money. Everyone started debating his transfer policy.. it was a total sham. They even got Hodgson Why! to go back to traditional LFC values NO!!. TO MAKE THEM LOOK GOOD or at least focus the blame elsewhere.

Reina
Enrique
Agger
Skrtel
Gerrard
Lucas
Suarez

They are our spine when fit. If we could add two players to that in the summer it would be great.

The problem with our current "spine" is that two of them (Gerrard and Agger), whilst tremendous on their day, are injury prone.

Agger has shown the difference he can make to our defence when fit this season, our defence was carrying us pretty much, early on, and helped cover our attacking weaknesses.

Gerrard has been on and off for a couple of seasons now, and to be regularly recovering match fitness and form has, IMO, led to a significant drop in his consistency and overall influence on games.

I didn't mention Lucas, as this is his first long lay off, and should hopefully not be a recurring problem.

The point being, is it healthy for a team to build on these foundations? The spine should be playing most matches, which is clearly not the case for some of them.

I like Court's idea about our youth players that came into the first team being some of the most important, I hope that eventually Kelly will fill one of those roles, and perhaps the likes of Suso and Sterling could make it one day, but next season would be too soon IMO.

The summer signings will be crucial (obviously) in seeing which players Kenny sees as essential parts of our best eleven.

This is the problem these players were not replaced,(Alonso and Torres) were never replaced thats the main problem for me !!!

But to be fair, how often do you get to have players like Alonso and Torres?

I don't think we can exactly replicate the same spine we had in 2008/2009 but we certainly have to have a new one with the players we currently have and we could potentially have.

I hope Kenny starts playing some of the youngsters like Suso and Sterling more often so we know whether they'd be able to do a job for us next season, rather than having to spend money on other more established players to do the same job in the summer.

Our current spine probably consists of Reina, Skrtel, Agger, Lucas, Gerrard and Suarez but Reina has been having an off season, Agger is injured half a season and so was Gerrard, Lucas missed more than half of the campaign, Suarez, while brilliant will not get us the goals Torres did and Skrtel is the only left who has been what a spine player should be but has his form dipped a little ever since Carra came back beside him.

I think Aquilania was a direct replacement for Alonso or maybe Javi Martinez was after being linked with us  but Rafa could only work on installments for player purchases and Roma owed us for Riise i think?

Torres has never been replaced and will be hard to for some while as strikers come at a premium ask city but that does not mean we cannot unearth a gem somewhere and take a gamble on a rookie.

Arbeloa was also a hard act to follow who was very versatile and good at his job and Mascherano too is missed but we have Lucas who compensates loosing Mascherano but it also stops Lucas being an Attacking midfielder we know he can be.

Impossible to comment without the discussion descending into a Rafa love in, so I won't bother. I will only say that it is telling that a team shot pre one of our best performances in the last 20 years is posted up as an example of what a great team we were. Where's the team shot before we drew 0-0 at Hull the following season?

I actually wished Aquilani was given a chance. From some of his games in 2009/2010, I actually felt he did quite okay. I know many feel he can't tackle and neither he is positionally spot on like Alonso (who compensates his lack of tackling ability with positional awareness) but Aquilani has flair when going forward, something we've been lacking in the last couple of years and especially this season.

Torres was one of a kind when he was here as he fitted so well with the club but I agree, we could still find a finisher. Wouldn't mind someone like Llorente or Villa here!

Arbeloa was almost reliable pretty much every game and he was consistent but I guess our right back position is the least of the problems at the moment when Kelly and Johnson are both fit.

Yep, Lucas looks better as a guy who actually bombs forward as well. I remember Mascherano did go forward a few times but he had Xabi who knew where to be (at the back) when Masch bombed forward. It was like, one go up, one stay back. Maybe getting someone to do the destroyer job at the back would help but of course, it leaves more competition between Gerrard, Lucas, Henderson, Adam, Shelvey and so on.

Impossible to comment without the discussion descending into a Rafa love in, so I won't bother.

 I will only say that it is telling that a team shot pre one of our best performances in the last 20 years is posted up as an example of what a great team we were. Where's the team shot before we drew 0-0 at Hull the following season?

You just did! 

Where's the team shot before we drew 0-0 at Hull the following season?

Probably the same place where our current footballing identity is.  Nowhere to be seen.

And that was at the end of our former manager's FIFTH season in charge.

It would seem the old adage "You win some, you lose some." is pretty universal when it comes to wheeler dealing in transfers. Who can forget...

Josemi
Nunez
González
Morientes
Babel
Pennant
Keane
Paletta
Riera
Degen
Dossena
Aquilani

There's about £85m quids worth of flop right there.

It would seem the old adage "You win some, you lose some." is pretty universal when it comes to wheeler dealing in transfers. Who can forget...

Josemi
Nunez
González
Morientes
Babel
Pennant
Keane
Paletta
Riera
Degen
Dossena
Aquilani

There's about £85m quids worth of flop right there.

Good point, it's all easier to judge upon with the benefit of hindsight.

Bridge players, not good enough for a top side but good enough to build on. Players good in one league but poor in another. Players with the potential to rip leagues apart but can't make the final step.

Every manager is made or broken on the development of his players, rare are the clubs where the finished article are bought and brought together. And even City are proving that this approach isn't infallible!

Poor players were bought and sold to create the 2009 "spine", and even worse ones came and went in an attempt to plug the debt-created holes afterwards.

No manager is flawless, but I trust Kenny to bring us back to the top. We'll see where we are in a few years, hopefully admiring some of our future line-ups in the same way we look at this one.

I personally feel that Henderson could indeed become a spine player, he for me would be the player who would make us tick in an attacking sense in future games, if he develops to his potential than him and Lucas in the center of midfield could be a great partnership.

Would like to think Carroll could become a spinal figure for the team but in all honesty i do not feel he will be given enough time by the club to develop, because of the price he was bought for. Logically the more you spend the more you expect of a player and the shorter time you give them, but he needs time in my opinion.

Coates i believe could become another player who is essential to the spine of our team, in two to three years time, i can see him taking over from Agger at center back maybe accompanied by Kelly or even Skrtel still, who knows, but for me he will become essential to our spine.

I would like to see Kenny bring in a proven goalscorer if Andy is not going to be given time, someone who will score goals, tap ins, headers, volleys anything, as long as they put the chances away. If we can gain a uprising or proven goal scorer to our team then i feel our spine in 3/5 years time will be just as strong as the one of Alonso & Co if not even stronger.

IKWT

I personally feel that Henderson could indeed become a spine player, he for me would be the player who would make us tick in an attacking sense in future games, if he develops to his potential than him and Lucas in the center of midfield could be a great partnership.

This is something I'd really like to see. We all know Henderson has a good skill set and great potential, he just hasn't shown his true ability yet. I said this in his player thread a few weeks ago, but I think he can develop into a deep-lying playmaker to partner Lucas. We know he isn't a RM, but we've also seen that he's not very good as a N0. 10, either. That throughball he played to Downing against City in the league got me thinking him playing deeper is his future.  But, he definitely needs to work on his aggression and tackling, though, and I would like to see him make the best of his full range of passing (it's not that he can't, it's that he just always plays it safe).