The lack of creativity from our engine room.

I'd flog everyone of our midfielders barring Gerrard and Raul and start again but that ain't going to happen.

Our current engine room is about as much use as a asthmatic robin reliant.

Midfielders we've used this season, stats are only for the league.

Steven Gerrard

21 games 4 goals 5 assists.

Lucas Leiva

26 games 0 goals 1 assists

Christian Poulsen

12 games 0 goals 0 assists

Raul Meireles

27 games 5 goals 4 assists

Joe Cole

14 Games 1 goals 1 assists

Dirk Kuyt

26 games 8 goals 5 assists

Milan Jovanovic

10 games 0 goals 0 assists

Maxi Rodriguez

24 games 3 goals 0 assists

Ryan Babel

9 games 1 goals 0 assists

Jay Spearing

4 games 0 goals 0 assists.

For me that paints the picture that a Kuyt   Gerrard   Meireles   Maxi combination is our most productive and contributory midfield.

The lack of quality wide players only emphasises the problem we have with the lack of quality in midfield.  We need someone who can see AND make a pass that is not blindly obvious. There were times today when I was predicting correctly 3 and 4 passes ahead where the ball was going to...... If I can do that I am bloody sure a profession footballer can do it.

Too many times both Spearing and Lucas would pass the ball and then just stand there admiring their 5 yard pass rather than running into space. Neither player is on my hit list, I am just saying it as I see it.   

we need someone like Schweinsteiger IMO, you can't create if you can't hold the ball ! a ball playing midfielder will give the other midfielders chance to move up and attack, yes we need a winger to go out wide and give full backs a hard time ,the situation we have at the moment is poor and unfortunately someone or two have to leave this summer

We can't accurately judge our creativity based on today's performances.  We clearly need wingers and support from the fullbacks as there was no outlet at all today. 

No we can on the season though and in general it has been sh*t. Mascherano was the most defensive midfielder I've ever seen and even he managed a couple of goals in the league last season

The one thing that disturbs me is our inability to control the midfield. We've always been overran in the centre for the majority of the time.

Completely agree Ad we seem incapable of controlling the game especially at times away from home

Completely agree Ad we seem incapable of controlling the game especially at times away from home

And I have no idea how to overcome that problem.

I only have one idea but that one involves buying Alonso and Mascherano

 If we continually have too many average players in important positions, we will continue to have too many average results. Lucas, for all the "well in lah"s when he got his new contract last week, isn't good enough as anything other than a bloke to mind the back door while good players go and make things happen. He isn't even THAT good at that, but that is the ONLY thing we should ever ask him to do. Even playing alongside Spearing he is still unable to raise his performance above perpetual mundanity.

 I don't care that he has played in some friendlies for Brazil, Michael Rickets played in a firendly or two for England. He isn't good enough, and if he continues to be a regular feature in our first team, bafflingly average performances will continue to regularly feature in our results.

There are really 2 problems when talking about creativity from midfield.

The first would be the obvious in that is the players in midfield who should be getting on the ball and spraying the ball around.

The second would be the other players not in possession making space, looking for the ball. Trying to make themselves available for players to pass to.

Both really need to work in harmony before you can criticise any particular section of the team. That said our control of games is terrible away from home and probably the reason why we can't create much. We need a nasty f**ker in the midfield, someone not afraid to throw a kick in alá Masch or Joey Barton.

Also one reason why our midfield seems to not do anything is because they never get a touch of the ball because it's always being hoofed.

You were going well there till luis till you said Masch or JOEY BARTON

It is beyond a joke can't believe some people can't see it, we had two lads in midfield today that dunno the meaning of the word creativity

spot on, but it was made much worse today because we had no outlets out wide especially once we lost Johnson.   

You were going well there till luis till you said Masch or JOEY BARTON

ha! sorry, now I am gonna get stick for this, but as a midfielder, not a person, I actually kinda rate him.

What I meant is that he imposes himself in games. The opposition are scared of him, a proper hardman who will take the game by the scruff of the neck, not shy away. They were the first names that come to mind.

Been looking at the assist leaders in the league, the majority are wide men or strikers (including in the hole players, who supposedly don't count as part of the engine room) and all have offered more creativity than our wide men this season.  The lack of creativity on the flanks is, for me, far more worrying than the lack of creativity from a midfield that, especially today with Spearing and Lucas, is not meant to be an expansive attacking midfield partnership.  

It's the wingers where we're lacking to the top teams. Most teams have far stronger wingers. Until we get that sorted we'll always be lacking IMO.

I've said it many times but we badly need a winger.

I truly believe to be successful again we will need two attacking wingers. It's all very well having great passers in the centre, but if we are playing against a team using blanket defence tatics, wing play is the only way to penetrate them.
We haven't had a world class winger since McManaman IMO

I truly believe to be successful again we will need two attacking wingers. It's all very well having great passers in the centre, but if we are playing against a team using blanket defence tatics, wing play is the only way to penetrate them.

Which is correct its so glaringly obvious that we need wingers, however we still need a midfield that can get hold of a game by the scruff of the neck and control the tempo of the game, too many times this season our midfield has been bossed around by so called inferior teams.

With or with out wingers if your midfield battles hard to win the game in the middle of the park the result tends to take care of itself as we seen in the Chelsea and Man United games, both games where we had no wingers but we battled hard and won the game in midfield and that's exactly what the so called inferior teams are doing to us.

They know we have no natural wide players so if they take the game to our central midfield and try and win that battle they have every chance of winning the game, now its alright our midfielders getting themselves up for a game with UTD or Chelsea but they have to get themselves up for the games against the so called lesser teams too.

Its of no coincidence when our midfield plays well that we tend to play good football and create plenty of chances and more often than not get 3 points on the board, but when our midfield goes into hiding, we create very little and teams plays through us at will and we get nothing from the game.

Players like Lucas and Spearing (Just as an Example as they played against West Brom), have no place to hide at a club like Liverpool F.C, they should be dropping deep to our central defenders and demanding the ball and assuming some responsibility from bringing the ball out from back and launching us from defense mode into attack, something both players never done nearly enough of today.

Which is correct its so glaringly obvious that we need wingers, however we still need a midfield that can get hold of a game by the scruff of the neck and control the tempo of the game, too many times this season our midfield has been bossed around by so called inferior teams.

Agree mate and it's not on that certain teams this season have controlled the midfield when playing against us. Too many times this season our midfield expect things to happen rather than stepping up and dominating midfield.

Someone raised a good point earlier, think it was thereds13, and that is the lack of movement from the team. It has been evident even when Rafa was here that too many times our players seem to stand static and not move into postition to receive the ball. It's no good our midfield players getting the ball and look up to see all our players standing still marked by the opposition.

This one thing I expect Kenny to rectify as his teams were built on movement and passing the ball.

We need to get back to playing the Liverpool way, where all the players are good passers of the ball, just like team managed by Kenny in 1990. I'm sure Kenny knows the type of players he needs.
Pass and move, it's the Liverpool groove. (Well, it used to be )

Still stunned how unimportant people think the centre of midfield is. We had lucas and spearing in there the last two games and people dont think the centre midfield should be a priority in the summer baffling stuff