alias75

Thats how i feel, the lack of any sort of balance in the team is like nothing ive seen before, hopefully those areas get addressed and the knock on effect will go throughout the team. We're not going to see the best of Carroll or Suarez until we get at least 1 proper wide player and fullbacks that can get forward, Meireles has been one of our best players this season but once again hes being forced to play out of position. Obviously having to play our 4th choice CB isn't ideal either or having 1 fit fullback for most of the season. These things are all very frustrating but hopefully the summer will see 3 or 4 top players come in especially in those problem positions.

Knew it was going to be one of those days when we had to make 2 changes at left back before half an hour. The team lacks any balance at the moment, even before the changes we're playing CBs at fullbacks and right backs at left back and central midfielders out wide. Sods law that we get 2 injuries to our problem position and after that it was always going to be difficult. The balance of the midfield just isn't there, Carroll needs wingers and fullbacks pushing on and at the moment we have neither. WBA dominated most of the game and deserved at least a draw, thought the 2nd pen was a soft one, he definitely was going down before there was any contact but you felt something like that might happen. Figure maybe 5 of that team will be considered in our strongest 11 next season so while its frustrating it has little bearing on where we're heading except to confirm what we already knew, we need better quality and we need a proper left back and at least 1 proper wide player.

Notice he said how he had scouted Suarez too, which kind of contradicts what he said before. Almost trying to claim credit for his signing. How the hell did we end up with him in charge of our team for 6 months??

I agree the biggest problem he had when he first got in the team was confidence, you never felt his team mates trusted him and obviously that affected his confidence. When you play in the position he does you should see a lot of the ball and if your team mates don't want to pass it to you thats a problem. I don't think it was a coincidence that in those early years his better games usually came when Gerrard wasn't in the team. Obviously thats changed now, hes earnt the trust of the players and thats helped his confidence. He usually does very well in the big games and tactically he's very disciplined which is why Rafa loved him so much and im sure its part of the reason why Kenny and the new Brazil manager have him in their starting teams.

Brazil don't pick half decent players in the key position of their midfield. Hes got better and better every season hes been here and last year when things were tough he was one of not many players that was consistent. People forget hes still only 24 years old, and for someone so young to get so much uncalled for stick so early into his time here in the UK hes shown a lot of heart and spirit to stick with it and come through it. Think he'll only get better, he's confident in the team now is a key player in our midfield.

Im sure theres a few Serie A teams that would be interested, hes back in the national setup and is seen as a bit of a golden boy over there. If not we'll take him back its not as if we're flush with central midfielders.

agree you can't play 4-4-2 without proper width be it from traditional wingers or full backs that will get forward. We have central midfielder's or forwards playing out wide and 1 centre back in the fullback position, until we sort out the balance of the team so we have players in their proper positions its going to look scrappy which is how it looked today. To get the best out of Carroll we need fullbacks that get forward and can deliver good quality and wide men that can get to the byeline, Newcastle basically played with 4 wide players to get the best out of him and we need to do something similar.

mentioning no Rooney's!!

he needs better service too, if you watched him at Newcastle, Barton used to deliver him top quality service, we need to be better in that area.

think we just have to grin and bear it until next season, we just don' have the personnel at the moment and the balance of the team is awful. No width centre backs playing full back, our best attacking midfielder out of position. Roll on next season!

Hopefully this... ..............................Reina............................. Carra..........Skrtel........Greek.........Johnson ....................Lucas......Spearing.................. Kuyt.....................Meirles......................Suarez ............................Carroll............................. But if we play that way theres a big emphasis on the fullbacks getting forward which i don't think Carragher can do.

We need a proper left back Johnson is fine as 2nd or 3rd choice but for the balance of the team we need a left footer there. We have been linked with some players who are coming into the final 18months of their contracts so its possible we could add the required quality without spending a fortune. Jose Enrique at left back is someone we've been linked with before and someone running down his contract Ashley Young is another that would be available on the cheap and would be an asset to our attacking play. Cahill is starting to look like a top player, he has pace which we need at the back and despite only being around 6ft hes very strong in the air alongside Agger i think thats potentially a very good partnership. 1 more top quality attacking player (Hazard, Sanchis, etc..) and 1 defensive type midfielder and things are looking a lot better.

Carroll needs better quality but he showed tonight even with poor service he could have scored a couple and created a couple. We have nothing down the left at the moment not helped by the lack of a proper left back, Wilson is there simply because he can use his left foot, once we have a proper left back in there the balance to the team will be much better. Obviously the wide areas need addressing too, its no good pumping long straight balls to Carroll even though he proved tonight even with that type of service he can make things happen but you have to get behind teams and get to the byeline none of our wide players can do that only Johnson does it occasionally and its not good enough. We were missing 2 of our more creative players tonight in Gerrard and Suarez but we need another 2 of that level to progress. Cole isn't good enough, Kuyt should be considered and nothing else apart from in an emergency and Maxi needs to be surrounded by players with pace to be effective.

the one positive is the noises from Kenny after the game about lacking creativity so at least the manager knows the areas we have to improve and hopefully the right players can be brought in. obviously your going to miss 2 creative players like Suarez and Gerrard but we need much more from those wide areas, and that also means left back, Wilson clearly isn't a fullback but the fact he can use hi left foot makes him our default left back at the moment but we got very little width from either fullback today. Carroll needs better service than he got today, but the encouraging thing was even living off scraps he could have scored a couple and created a few. Kenny is given chances to people like Cole to prove they deserve to be here and they just aren't making their case very strongly.

Bojan isn't good enough, has to be one of the most over rated players in Europe because of his goalscoring record for the Barcelona junior teams. Ive watched Barcelona a lot this season and he always looks out of his depth when he plays. If he can't look good in that team playing in a technical league i don't see how hes going to make it in the PL. Hes not quick and at the moment we need wide players with pace.

Is #40 Wisdom??

.......................Reina.................... ......Skrtel........Carra......Wilson...... Kelly...........Lucas..Gerrard.....Johnson ...................Meirles....Suarez............. ..........................Kuyt........................... Stronger than i thought we'd be...

Play the U18's against them!!

Hes obviously talented because there's no way a club like Man Utd would keep him on after doing that stuff if he wasn't. That's the hypocrisy in football if your a talented player someone will always be prepared to give you a chance and you'll be given far more leeway than a less talented player.

Apparently we've signed some highly rated kid from W.B.A 14 years old, don't know his name, but we do seem to be adding quality to the academy all the time now, hopefully it bears fruit and saves us some money!!

Ive seen Hulk a few times and while he is a good player hes also the most selfish player ive ever seen, he never passes it. He could play as a wide striker in a 4-2-3-1 or 3-2-4-1 but i think there are better players we could go for that aren't as selfish.

There are 2 or 3 players that would suit us that are running down their contracts so the possibility is there to add 3 players for not that much money (relatively) Jose Enrique Ashley Young Charlie Adam 3 players we've been linked with recently they are all in the final stages of their contracts so we could get them on the cheap, im still not sure about Adam although we do need another CM but the other 2 definitely strengthen us in areas we need to improve.

We have to look to move on, Cole, Jovanovic, Poulson, Konchesky but as the previous poster said because they're on massive contracts here that might be difficult, we've made this mistake so many times and i think it won't happen again under the new owners. Hopefully because we got Cole and Jovanovic on bosmans we can settle for less in terms of a transfer fee and that might attract clubs to them, hopefully they have ambition to still play and not sit doing nothing and pick up their wages, i get the feeling someone like Cole would move if he knew he didn't figure the same for Jovanovic. Then we have players like Skrtel, Maxi, Kuyt who id sell if we got decent offers for them but i also think they've proved they can offer the 1st team something if called upon, so if the offers don't come in for them id keep them and these should be our squad players not part of our strongest 11. There should be a concerted effort to reduce our wage bill this summer and if we do pay big wages make sure your getting value for money, we have too many players on big money that are offering very little return for that money. We need to start promoting players from within to fill the squad and add top quality that can come straight into the first team.

I think we have 2 groups of fringe players at the moment... Group 1 - Cole, Jovanovic, Poulson, Konchesky - high earners that aren't contributing to the 1st team they can all go Group 2 - Kuyt, Maxi - i think these 2 are worth keeping because when they play alongside our strongest team thay can give us something. They're not good enough to be guaranteed a place in our strongest 11 but they're good squad players with good attitudes that do offer something. Maxi is someone that plays better with better players around him, in a game like yesterdays he's never going to contribute but if you add Gerrard, Suarez, Carroll and he will improve, he covers a lot of positions and seems a good club man (like Kuyt) so for those reasons id keep them, but him and Kuyt should be our squad players instead of part of our strongest 11.

Carraghers gonna become our top assist man.