Who are the attacking players we need?

[alias75]

I think most agree we have 85% of a very good team, thats whats so frustrating at the moment, i think if you took Ronaldo out of Utd and into our current team we'd be above them in the league, so we're not far off. Of course finding someone thats as good and as consistent as Ronaldo is easier said than done and its not going to be cheap but i think most agree any serious money thats spent on the team in the summer has to be spent on attacking players.

 

So who can we sign?

 

I think its pretty obvious we need a world class partner for Torres and an attacking midfielder / winger but who?

 

I know he divides opinion on here but Quarsema is the type of attacking midfielder id go for. Yes hes dives, and he comes across as a bit of a show pony, but i think thats exactly what we need. Someone with that arrogance and ability. He scores goals and gets assists. Of the possible wingers we could sign id put him high on the list. He takes on defenders and against weaker teams he'd cause havoc. At the moment we dont have wingers that can score or create he does both.

 

Torres needs a partner the other strikers we have are so far below his quality its embarrassing, we probably need someone thats comfortable dropping off a little and can link the midfield and attack, but we need someone that scores goals. Theres Berbatov? Keane? Maybe David Villa?

 

Its really frustrating cos i dont think we're as far away as the league suggests, but the bottom line is that attacking players win you games and we simply dont have enough top quality attacking players.

 

(Its not going to be cheap either)

Edited January 2, 2008 by alias75

[Benzo-13]

We need arrogance, a nasty streak and some unshakable belief..

 

Too many players are crawling into shells.

 

We do lack some quality upfront.. I'd want Dani Alves, Van der Vaart and Berbatov if thats the case.

[RafaShanks]

I think most agree we have 85% of a very good team

 

Either you're deluded or mistyped 8 instead of 6 or even possibly 5

[alias75]

I think we have 8 or 9 players that would make a very strong team..

 

Reina, Arbeloa, Agger, Carragher, Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Torres (maybe Babel)

 

so thats 8 out of 11 should have been 72.727272727272727272727273% to be precise.

[RafaShanks]

I think we have 8 or 9 players that would make a very strong team..

 

Reina, Arbeloa, Agger, Carragher, Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Torres (maybe Babel)

 

so thats 8 out of 11 should have been 72.727272727272727272727273% to be precise.

 

And what about the rest of our squad?

[Magic8Ball]

I think most agree we have 85% of a very good team, thats whats so frustrating at the moment, i think if you took Ronaldo out of Utd and into our current team we'd be above them in the league, so we're not far off. Of course finding someone thats as good and as consistent as Ronaldo is easier said than done and its not going to be cheap but i think most agree any serious money thats spent on the team in the summer has to be spent on attacking players.

 

So who can we sign?

 

I think its pretty obvious we need a world class partner for Torres and an attacking midfielder / winger but who?

 

I know he divides opinion on here but Quarsema is the type of attacking midfielder id go for. Yes hes dives, and he comes across as a bit of a show pony, but i think thats exactly what we need. Someone with that arrogance and ability. He scores goals and gets assists. Of the possible wingers we could sign id put him high on the list. He takes on defenders and against weaker teams he'd cause havoc. At the moment we dont have wingers that can score or create he does both.

 

Torres needs a partner the other strikers we have are so far below his quality its embarrassing, we probably need someone thats comfortable dropping off a little and can link the midfield and attack, but we need someone that scores goals. Theres Berbatov? Keane? Maybe David Villa?

 

Its really frustrating cos i dont think we're as far away as the league suggests, but the bottom line is that attacking players win you games and we simply dont have enough top quality attacking players.

 

(Its not going to be cheap either)

 

All this is true, but you need something else. Rafa has to let the attackers off the leash. Sign the best attackers you can get and let them do what they were born to do, ATTACK.

no more wingers tucking in and defending all the time - we want wingers who can KEEP the ball beat a man and CREATE AND SCORE - if the wingers are doing that, they wont need to defend

 

Playing Mash should mean the FB's can attack and give the team width.

[MFletcher]

Reina

Arbeloa

Agger

???

Aurelio

Gerrard

Mascherano

Alonso

???

Torres

???

 

I feel we need a confident ball playing centre back to partner Agger long term. We also need a proper left winger and a striker to partner Torres.

 

I feel Babel will be Torres' partner in time though.

Edited January 2, 2008 by MFletcher

[crisps]

one from each line:

 

Mancini, Silva, Quaresma, Joaquin, Robinho, Robben, Ribery

Van der Vaart, Diego, Ronaldinho

Villa, Keane, Anelka, Pandev, Huntelaar, Milito,

 

Agbonlahor would make a good 2nd/3rd choice younger option too

Edited January 2, 2008 by crisps

[meepins]

So who can we sign?

(Its not going to be cheap either)

It's nice and all having these fantasy picks but its not reality. If we actually had fantasy type money to spend, why wasn't it spent in the summer? There was a large windfall from TV and Champs league money but that went to Torres and Babel etc.

It's clear who was of an average level and needed to be replaced yet we stuck with the likes of Pennant , Kuyt, Riise etc - stop gap players. There is no fantasy money ,it's makedo time unless by some miracle 100 million falls from the sky into Rafas lap. I'd be doubtful if there ever has been big moves made in January.. just a few frees and Morientes being the exception.

Edited January 2, 2008 by meepins

[Guest Si]

If we had Villa tonight then there is no guarentee Rafa wouldnt have left him on the bench!

 

Tonight he had two strikers, both bought by him, that he chose not to start with.

 

Its all fine having players that can make the difference but if you dont play them then whats the point? Babel was a dead cert for a start tonight I though but he didnt even figure as a sub!

[alias75]

And what about the rest of our squad?

 

think players like Benayoun, Babel, even Kuyt, Aurellio, Riise, Lucas, Crouch are fine as squad players they're certainly no worse than some of the squad players at Man Utd for example. The problem is most of those ive mentioned are regular 1st team players for us instead of coming in now and again.

 

Of course the way Rafa rotates means those fringe players probably play more here than at other clubs, but hypothetically if a new manager came in that picked the strongest team more often i think theres a strong core of 8 players that are good enough.

[McBain]

An attacking philosophy wouldn't go amiss with all these new 'attacking players'

[Mike]

i don't think it would make that big a difference who we signed. its not about the man on the ball, its the men off the ball and options that are our problem.

there was a passage of play in the 2nd half when masch did amazingly well keeping hold of the ball and dribbling with it, and suddenly there was an enormous gaping hole in the middle of the pitch with no one between gerrard and possible alonso between them and the keeper. everyone was standing still. masch won a foul because it was the best option.

[alias75]

I think great attacking players can make the difference, in todays game our wide players saw a hell of a lot of the ball but did nothing with it. You get better players in with the same posession and the chances are they'll create more or chip in with the odd goal.

 

Its not as if our attacking players aren't seeing much of the ball the problem is the players arent good enough to do anything with it.

[RafaShanks]

An attacking philosophy wouldn't go amiss with all these new 'attacking players'

 

Look at the way Blackburn play for example.

 

They always play with two out and out wingers and two up front all of which are goal threats. Their two wingers provide an abundance of quality service for them. Bellamy scored a bagful for them, but only scored a handful of goals for us.

 

Torres has miraculously scored a s***load of goals without any relative service from the flanks.

Edited January 3, 2008 by RafaShanks

[crisps]

Its not as if our attacking players aren't seeing much of the ball the problem is the players arent good enough to do anything with it.

 

Yep, which summed up Pennants (legendary ) Athens performance.

[Guest spk]

its all there except in the attack. fair enough old kuyt and crouch aint good enough but at that point we had f***all budget - f*** not even enough for old bent.

 

altimately we need more up front so i reckon baptista is the way forward. not so good with the a*** like but we play a different game and i reckon he'd be mint. just imo of course but if you disagree ... well f*** off

[Guest Barcamania]

one from each line:

 

Mancini, Silva, Quaresma, Joaquin, Robinho, Robben, Ribery

Van der Vaart, Diego, Ronaldinho

Villa, Keane, Anelka, Pandev, Huntelaar, Milito,

 

Agbonlahor would make a good 2nd/3rd choice younger option too

Joaquin has to be the most overrated player in the world, just after... Kewell.

Kewell is VERY average(being polite in Liverpool forum), but rated by you guys. Joaquin, although much better than Kewell, is rated to be a superplayer by many, which he is NOT. If he was that good, he would've showed in Valencia.

 

Back to the topic. I really want to see Liverpool winning English League. I'm very sad to say, that although Rafa is a great coach/tactician, he's very bad manager, i.e. he can't buy good players. It seems he's very greedy, he counts each penny and you always hear from him something along the lines "we're working on that direction, but we are not going to pay more than he costs". Eh? If you do business that way, you get a lot of average players, just like in FM!

 

Liverpool has NO quality attacking players except Torres. I don't see Gerrard as an attacking player, he's a central midfielder, in my book. So Rafa has to buy wingers, attacking midfielders and a striker. There are not many availably out there, so he has to pay $$$ even if he does not want to overpay.

And even Liverpool fans might be tired of his math...

[Guest Barcamania]

By the way, like it or not, Rafa should introduce youngsters. Kewell, Pennant, Benayun etc PROVED that they're not good enough. At least, give talented kids a chance.

Cesc Fabregas is an arrogant c***, but he had to be one, in order to become world class central midfielder at the age of 19 in a world class team. He's more attacking player, than Gerrard.

I think Rafa can experiment with youngsters. They might become new Cesc

[Guest Themba]

Robbie Keane. Names aside we need a player who has won titles before. One the players can turn to in games like United at home. An experienced but very good player. This is not football manager though so we cannot just go get anyone but these would be the things I'd look for.

 

As a wildcard I'd like to throw Savage into the mix. I'm not saying he's a good enough player but he's the kind of player thta fights for you and helps lift team spirit. We need someone like him but who has the quality too match.

[Owen1978]

Its simple really buy quality, skillfull players

 

Get me these players and i will win you the league

 

Alves

Ribery

Quaresma

Diego

 

oops nearly forget also get me

 

Mr Hiddink

[Guest MB_talklfc]

We don't need new attacking p layers to win the league. We need a new manager who know the english game and someone who will give chance to the youngster to step up (ala Wenger or Oneil).

[meepins]

We don't need new attacking p layers to win the league. We need a new manager who know the english game and someone who will give chance to the youngster to step up (ala Wenger or Oneil).

Your posts are interesting and insightful. I looked forward to your next barely coherent one liner.

Keep up the good werks.

[Guest spk]

We don't need new attacking p layers to win the league. We need a new manager who know the english game and someone who will give chance to the youngster to step up (ala Wenger or Oneil).

 

because, excluding torres, our attcking players are well boss

[benno2]

Eidur Gudjonsson anybody? A relatively short-term option it's true and we know there's history between us and him. But he'd be cheap and would provide a good footballing partner for Torres. It's guile in this position that we lack and he could provide it. He's also won a title or two in his time. He ticks quite a few boxes.