How does our squad compare to Chavs/Mancs

[Gomez]

Interesting how Alves has not been slaughtered like Malouda for seemingly choosing Chelsea over us, albeit through his Agent.

 

There is no indication we are after him this summer.

 

Weird thing with Malouda was that he said he only spoke to Rafa and Rafa was the only one who "wanted" him - whereas at Chelsea he said he met others. Who was so important that he needed to meet Malouda to convince him? Parry? Gerrard?

 

I read that as Rafa spoke to him and tried to convince him to come to Liverpool, Parry (or whoever) spoke to his agent and said we don't want him enough to pay £100k p/w.

 

Malouda said early on he would sign for the team that offered him the most money. It's really not hard or bitter to work out why he chose chelski is it?

 

He may do well there, he may not. I personally couldn't care less, despite this being likely to be our biggest summer spend ever, I still expect chelski to outspend us, they have so much money and a 'not for profit' business model, it is not comparable.

 

They are going to have more top class players than us, and will always be able to out bid us for mercenaries. It does not make them a better club and it does not mean we can't finish above them in the league. We have the better manager after all, and he is not a mercenary.

[RedNik]

You really think our squad doesn't match up to chelseas now?

 

We're a bit thin in defense imo, but midfield and attack are up there with the best of them...on paper

Edited July 12, 2007 by RedNik

[fyds]

I don't think our defence is that thin. Wouldn't say no to a quality reinforcement or two, but thin? Nah.

[Benito7]

You really think our squad doesn't match up to chelseas now?

 

We're a bit thin in defense imo, but midfield and attack are up there with the best of them...on paper

 

 

From what I have seen and read I would say that for me whilst we have improved a bit we are still behind both United and Chelsea in the wide midfield areas.

[fyds]

From what I have seen and read I would say that for me whilst we have improved a bit we are still behind both United and Chelsea in the wide midfield areas.

maybe, but until this lot get out there and we see how they shape up we can't really say that.

[Mikey]

From what I have seen and read I would say that for me whilst we have improved a bit we are still behind both United and Chelsea in the wide midfield areas.

In Giggs and Ronaldo United have the best 2 wide player combination in the league, regardless of who we and Chelsea have signed.

 

The bright spot on the radar is that Giggs is getting very old for a winger and unlikely to have a full season left in him, and Ronaldo is going to struggle to play any better then he did last season.

 

We will be better than last season because Pennant is a season more settled and will improve again over the course of the season, and both Babel and Yossi are better than anyone we had at LM last season.

[Stevie H]

Neither's a winger in the "chalk on the boots" sense, are they?

 

That said, Rafa may not have meant wingers in that sense either.

can't think of too many of them in the modern game though really. stewart downing, and he's s**** awful.

[Raj]

Well, our keeper and defence are amongst the best in the league.

 

We have the best central midfield in the world.

 

We have Kewell and Pennant, who operate as out and out wingers. We have Gerrard and Babel, who will offer a different threat. Pace, power and a direct attacking threat. Its nice to have 4 different good quality options at our disposal.

 

We now have 4 strikers with differing qualities. Crouch is unique, Torres is fast and skilful, Kuyt is hardworking and a goal threat (when in the box) and then we have Voronin and Benayoun, who can cover a variety of positions and play with intelligence.

 

I am made up with the squad we have now. I think we have a squad to challenge for the title (although I don't think we will win it this year).

[Rimbeux]

Defence starting as god as Chelsea, ahead of Utd. Depth on a par with Chelslea, Utd have more capable defenders on the books right now in terms of numbers, if not stadard.

 

Central midfield, stonger than Utd, on a par with Chelsea.

 

Wide midfield, remains to be seen how we shape up, but behind Utd, Chelsea look weaker swapping Robben (their one true creative player) for another functional athlete in Malouda, but do they use wide players.

 

Up front, does Torres put us on a par with Drogba and Rooney? Not sure, I'd still put them both ahead in terms of starting, Chelsea having more depth than us and anyone.

 

In short, level most areas with Chelsea, perhaps behind in one. Toss up with Utd, but their first XI and squad attitude transcends the sum of parts, something we need to achieve to compete.

Edited July 12, 2007 by Rimbeux

[Cobs]

every pre-season it's the same.......

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

in wide areas and up front, it's still to be proven that we can match Man Utd and Chelsea

 

last year, many assumed that Pennant, Gonzalez and Bellamy would give us the extra bit we needed. They didn't.

[David Hodgson]

Defence starting as god as Chelsea, ahead of Utd. Depth on a par with Chelslea, Utd have more capable defenders on the books right now in terms of numbers, if not stadard.

 

Central midfield, stonger than Utd, on a par with Chelsea.

 

Wide midfield, remains to be seen how we shape up, but behind Utd, Chelsea look weaker swapping Robben (their one true creative player) for another functional athlete in Malouda, but do they use wide players.

 

Up front, does Torres put us on a par with Drogba and Rooney? Not sure, I'd still put them both ahead in terms of starting, Chelsea having more depth than us and anyone.

 

In short, level most areas with Chelsea, perhaps behind in one. Toss up with Utd, but their first XI and squad attitude transcends the sum of parts, something we need to achieve to compete.

 

Good post, and you captured the true essence of this debate in your last sentence.

 

A few weeks back I think it was Knox who made the point that one of the famed '2 steps forward' needs to be taken by Rafa himself. As fans we get very obsessed with the 'on paper' merits of respective squads, but managers make all the difference. Man utd had no right to win the league last season, given their status back in the August. They'd been fortunate to finsih a point ahead of us, and looked a team in decline. They'd lost Van Nist and only brought in Carrick. No-one foresaw their revival.

 

We were full of ourselves, having been just a point behind them, and having clearly strengthened by adding Bellamy, Kuyt, Gonzalez, Aurelio and Pennant, whilst they'd merely brought in Carrick.

 

Squad improvement is key, but what we do with it is all about Rafa.

[RedNik]

I dont think it makes sense to compare player for player or organ for organ.

 

We have to look at the set up (or in our case setups) that we will use, given this squad, and compare them to what united and chelsea use.

 

With our current squad, we have tons of possibilities and seemingly have players who can carry the ball from midfield and link to attack. That was what we lacked last season, the ability to do this and to create and take opportunities. On paper, we have addressed this need.

[Guest Anders Honoré]

every pre-season it's the same.......

 

Give it a few weeks, Huyton will be in here proclaiming this the strongest squad since we last won it and this year we're gonna win the league.

[Gilps]

Give it a few weeks, Huyton will be in here proclaiming this the strongest squad since we last won it and this year we're gonna win the league.

 

Still banned isn't he?

[Gomez]

You really think our squad doesn't match up to chelseas now?

 

We're a bit thin in defense imo, but midfield and attack are up there with the best of them...on paper

 

I think Rafa would have won the league last year with their squad.

 

Looking at least year, the difference between the teams was minimal, of 5 matches, we won 3 and lost 2. But our squad was some way behind, we were behind in the league and out of the cups early.

 

I don't think Benayoun for Garcia is an improvement. Babell Vand Torres should be, but may not settle in the premiership, as Malouda might not. I've never seen Lucas even on youtube so I can't comment, except to say again, he might not adjust, nor is it an area we were weak in.

 

It is impossible to judge the relative strenghs of our squads until we know how the imports to both clubs will settle

[fred milne]

Still banned isn't he?

Why did he get banned?

[Ginu]

maybe, but until this lot get out there and we see how they shape up we can't really say that.

 

While I agree to some extent, Babel is a great signing and adding Benayoun is nice for the right wing, we aren't as strong in wide areas yet as Chelsea and Man Utd. You need a really top quality player on the right wing to match up with them. I'd say we have better wing depth at the moment though.

[hideNseek]

Don't think we we're that far behind either of them last season tbh. It was consistancy that let us down. WE out played virtually every team in Premiership at some point in the last 2 seasons, it's time we did it more consistantly.

[Stevie H]

While I agree to some extent, Babel is a great signing and adding Benayoun is nice for the right wing, we aren't as strong in wide areas yet as Chelsea and Man Utd. You need a really top quality player on the right wing to match up with them.

 

:confused:

 

gerrard.

[RedNik]

In terms of the premiership, its our start, away record and record against the top teams that we need to improve on.

[genghis]

In terms of the premiership, its our start, away record and record against the top teams that we need to improve on.

 

So you're saying we're only any good against sh*t teams, at home, in the middle of the season? Jesus, I'm worried now!

 

I think it's as much psychological as anything. We beat Barca away FFS, which I think means we could do it away at frigging Bolton or Villa - the players/Rafa just need to have the arrogance of the Manc players/Mourinho and go to these places with the sh*tty stick out, expecting to beat other teams at their place, rather than "hoping to build on a clean sheet", as it were.

[Flasher]

Our squad has more depth than any other in the Premier League IMO. Our squad also had more depth than ManUtd's last season too. People like O'shea, Fletcher and Richardson played many games for them last season and none of them are that hot.

 

We had a poor start last year and it cost us dearly.

 

Our midfield and forward line now seems to contain;

 

Alonso, Mascherano, Sissoko, Gerrard, Kewell, Babel, Benayoun, Pennant, Lucas, Crouch, Kuyt, Veronin, Torres, Gonzales.

 

That line up is easily as good (collectively) as anything Arsenal, Chelsea or ManUtd has to offer.

[beejay]

We definitely have the strength in depth now to sustain a challenge but the key still is the way we approach away games and overcoming deficits.

 

I can't see Rafa throwing caution to the wind so we will probably work on the same formula as Chelsea - don't concede, control the ball, score on the counter and shut up shop. Last season we were punchless in far too many away games and if we fell behind we rarely came back. We are far better equipped to create chances this season provided we adopt a positive approach.

 

Our appalling pre-season was dismissed by many last year as "so what" but having finished the previous season in fantastic winning style we then took our friendlies form and stumbled into the start of the season with our confidence draining away very quickly. I would really like us to take the pre-season games seriously, find some cohesion & winning spirit and then go into the Villa game with confidence & determined to win, not to accept a draw.

[McBain]

I think we have the players to challenge. Whether we have the tactics or mentality to yet i'm less sure

 

We're still too timid especially away from home