Closing in

[Guest stigb]

2 (semi)interesting pieces of facts:

 

8 games into the season we were 14p behind Chelski, 27 games later we are 15p behind.....

Even with our abysmal start to the season we would only be 3p behind them if we had beaten them twice instead of the other way around (may sound far fetched, but still it shows that our record against the rest of the premiership is on par with theirs)

Of course these statistics doesn't tell the whole truth about how close we are to winning the premier league; Chelski basicly won it by Christmas and I expect they

 

would have had more points by now if they really needed them. But still we've come a long way, and next season we can win it, or at least we'll be very close.

The key in my (and most other peoples) opinion is adding a couple of prolific strikers to our squad. A lot of different names have been suggested to replace Morientes and Cisse who most fans want to get rid of. Most of these players I'm in no position to make any sort of qualified assesment of as I haven't seen them play enough, but I've tried to check how efficient the premiership strikers have been this season by dividing their playing time by goals to find average minutes pr goal

(penalty goals not included);

 

Owen 107 min !!

Henry 115

RVN 130

Hasselbaink 133 !

Crespo 157

Drogba 159

C.John 181

Keane 181

Bellamy 183

Saha 183

Rooney 187

L. Moore 196

Bent 201

Fowler 217 (incl M.C.)

Mido 217

Harewood 233

Lampard 247

Defoe 255

Ameobi 267

Cisse 268

Yakubu 277

Gamst Pedersen 292

Crouch 342

Morientes 412

Gerrard 435

 

A suprise top spot to Owen! But of course you can hardly compare him to the rest having played so few minutes due to his injury. Interesting to se Hasselbaink so far up the list, but he's also played way under average minutes.

 

Of the strikers we're supposedly interested in C.John, Keane and Bellamy is having good seasons. John is scoring at a decent ratio while playing for a below average side

Notice Moore not doing too bad considering his age....

 

Defoe is, and this has always been my main objection about him coming to LFC, not really scoring a lot of goals (more or less the same strike rate as Cisse) He's a very exciting player to watch.... but so can Baros be....

 

BTW notice Gamst Pedersen who's a midfielder, he's not that far behind Lampard's goal ratio, and definetely one to keep an eye out for

 

Our main strikers have a strike rate way below most of the other big teams strikers

Fowler is the best of our stikers, and he might have been even further up the list if he had been fully fit in all the games he's played...

 

Morientes record speaks for itself.....

 

Of course there's a lot more to being a striker than just scoring (general play, holding the ball up, creating space, defensive work etc), and some players also tribute to their teams with many Assists; Here Drogba, Lampard, Rooney and Mido stand out from the crowd.

 

and then theres the question of Cisse..........

The history of My thoughts about Cisse and his Liverpool career is a lot like meeting a girl in an internet chatroom;

You start chatting, and exchange some pictures and everything about her seems perfect. Then after it seems like you been waiting forever she finally agree to meet you in real life, you're almost besides yourself with excitement preparing for your first date with your very own Angela Jolie/Halle Berry/Scarlett Johansson/ (take your pick.. ) You're sitting in a nice restaurant wearing your best outfit waiting, there's people coming and going all the time, she's running late and your getting nervous. Suddenly theres a tap on your shoulder, you turn around looking straight at...................Roseanne Barr......

 

He could have been the missing link, our Henry, and if he'd been anywhere near as good as his reputation we would have been in the race for the premiership now. Unfortunately he'll never, in my opinion, be a world class striker

 

But to be fair to guy, his min/goals ratio is not that bad especially for someone who's regulary playing in midfield. Very few midfieldes score this much goals, and I also think that his crossing from the right side are quite good. One might even argue that this is his first real season in England after the horrible leg break last season.

 

So should he stay or should he go?

Well, I'm not sure, one the one hand he might still come good (at least as a valuable squad player, chipping in with a decent amount of goals, and giving Rafa a lot of different options with his pace and flexibility). on the other hand he'll never compete with the likes of Henry, RVN and Rooney in goals or importance, and we need to be as good as the other top teams in this aerea.

 

Finally there's the question of what the alternative to Cisse would be.... None of the linked premiership strikers seem to me to be an obvious solution to our striker "problem". I'm not convinced any of them would have a big impact if they were to tranfer to us.

Hopefully we'll get the investment we sorely need and buy some world class strikers, the names of Kuyt and Torres keeps popping up.

Myself I know nothing about Kuyt except from what I've read, on that "evidence" he might be the new

Nistelrooy, but then again so could Kezman or even Dahl Thommasen have been - there's no guarantees he'll make the transition.

Torres might be anything from the new Schevshenko to another Morientes for all I know (and I suspect alot of posters confuse Football Manager '06 with the real world when it comes to player assessments hence the Saviola/aimar/d'allessandro/Van der vaart/Mexes/torres(?) excitement)

 

There is however one player about whom I have no doubt whatsoever that'll be way better than Cisse and who's capable of competing with the best of them; "The Incredible Sulk" Nic Anelka. Who'd be cheap, motivated and excellent.

 

But whatever the summer brings one thing I do know: Rafa will get it right, and we'll be right up there next year !

[Spike]

Good post that Stig. Reflects a lot of my own views with the exception of Anelka

 

Your first point about our first 8 games does indeed show the progress we have made. Almost matched the chavs stride for stride since then well.. with the exception of the FA cup match

[Magic8Ball]

But to be fair to guy, his min/goals ratio is not that bad especially for someone who's regulary playing in midfield. Very few midfieldes score this much goals, and I also think that his crossing from the right side are quite good. One might even argue that this is his first real season in England after the horrible leg break last season.

 

you have to compare Cisse ot a midfielder, he's not been played as a striker for any appreciable time

[Herbie von Smalls]

entertaining post stig. some good reasoning in there

[anny road]

"There is however one player about whom I have no doubt whatsoever that'll be way better than Cisse and who's capable of competing with the best of them; "The Incredible Sulk" Nic Anelka. Who'd be cheap, motivated and excellent."

 

of course he would

 

Anyway since when were we interested in Collins John and Robbie Keane?

[Guest stigb]

"There is however one player about whom I have no doubt whatsoever that'll be way better than Cisse and who's capable of competing with the best of them; "The Incredible Sulk" Nic Anelka. Who'd be cheap, motivated and excellent."

 

of course he would

 

Anyway since when were we interested in Collins John and Robbie Keane?

 

Well robbie Keane has been linked with us since his Wolves days, and it still pops up now and then.....

C.John has been vaguely linked on other sites by a fw posters during the season. But then again who hasn't (execpt from Heskey.....). Do I think we're after him? not really no. But I even thought the Fowler transfer were a joke right up until I saw him in red... Even though I had info saying it was on.

[Guest Anders Honoré]

Good post. Interesting to see that Hasselbaink is still doing it. Can't believe boro was the best club to be in for him.

 

Three of the best eleven strike ratios come from ManU strikers. If we had that kind of firepower, we'd be laughing.

 

I'm with you on Anelka as well.For the right price, he'd be worth the gamble, imo.

[anny road]

Good post. Interesting to see that Hasselbaink is still doing it. Can't believe boro was the best club to be in for him.

 

Three of the best eleven strike ratios come from ManU strikers. If we had that kind of firepower, we'd be laughing.

 

I'm with you on Anelka as well.For the right price, he'd be worth the gamble, imo.

 

 

no he wouldnt and not for any price

[meepins]

we've come a long way, and next season we can win it, or at least we'll be very close.

The key in my (and most other peoples) opinion is adding a couple of prolific strikers to our squad

Agree and I'd add a right midfielder to carry the ball and balance things out in midfield. I believe we will do the Premiership / Champions League double next season.

[Tones]

no he wouldnt and not for any price

 

Thought Anelka looked good when he was with us, and would have been a far far better option than Diouf. I think we should look elsewhere now though.

[Guest stigb]

The thing about Anelka is that he's NOT, in my opinion, a gamble. Certainly not in a footballing sense, we'd be getting a pacey, strong, technically gifted experienced player who's capable of 15-20 goals a season (not in total but in the league only) and who has matured into a good teamplayer as well.

On the mental/social side he settled well in at Anfield, at M.C. and also now as far as I now at Fenerbache. I find it a bit strange that people still get so worked up about him. After all it's 7 years since the whole Arsenal real saga and he was only 19 at the time, and he stayed at real as long as Owen did....... Most people change a lot from 19 to 26-27 and the evidence is there that Anelka has changed. (I know he had some issues at PSG also, but nothing since). I don't think it's fair to label a player for his entire career based on what he did as a teenager.

A lot of other players have switched clubs under controversial circumstances without them being branded as untouchables ; Ronaldo (twice) Figo

Quite a few players have behaved really badly weather it be due to arrogance (Zlatan anyone...?) or other things

Most of these players are coveted by the LFC supporters that don't want Anelka back (or they used to be before they got too fat or too old)

 

As far as I'm concerned the only players that are by definition untouchables are the likes of diCanio (fascists and racists).