English Football Thread 2012/2013

[ste_mc_efc]

Yep, has had a pretty poor start to the season, struggling to cope up with Rodgers' system. Awful against West Brom and Arsenal, average against Man City. Hopefully comes good sooner than later.

he isn't suited to how rogers likes to play.

For years he's carried an often otherwise average side. he demands the ball and is the one who does stuff when it's needed. He's said himself that there have been players he didn't like passing too because he didn't consider them good enough, so would try much more difficult passes to players he deemed worthy (paraphrased, probably badly)

A lot of the high variance things he has succeeded with in the past will be frowned upon in a side which aims to keep possession a lot more. That coupled with not being able to cover as much ground will see him struggle at times.

No doubt this will continue until the derby, with even liverpool fans starting to get right on his back and then he smashes in a 25 yard winner and he's a hero again.

 

[shravi]

Nah, I don't think that he isn't suited to this style of play. Not after 3 games, at least. I think the mistake Rodgers made was starting him against Hearts on Thursday. He had a fantastic game against them and ran his heart out, playing at his dynamic, attacking best. At his age, and with his injury record, it probably wasn't the wisest idea. He looked sloppy in the pass and just not as energetic. Rest him for PL games, I say.

 

[Bevab]

He does seem to be requiring a rest from a game like you say. But still, he isn't easily going to adapt to the Rodgers system anytime soon.


So, anybody wondering whether Rodgers is going to do another Hodgson?

 

[shravi]

Nah, it's been a bit of a tough baptism, and even if there isn't a positive result vs United, I think (or rather, would hope) that results and points are just around the corner. There simply haven't been enough games yet to start pointing fingers.

 

[ste_mc_efc]

Nah, I don't think that he isn't suited to this style of play. Not after 3 games, at least. I think the mistake Rodgers made was starting him against Hearts on Thursday. He had a fantastic game against them and ran his heart out, playing at his dynamic, attacking best. At his age, and with his injury record, it probably wasn't the wisest idea. He looked sloppy in the pass and just not as energetic. Rest him for PL games, I say.

he's talented enough to play in that style but it doesn't suit his best qualities and whether he can adjust his mentality is the key.

 

[thedon5]

He does seem to be requiring a rest from a game like you say. But still, he isn't easily going to adapt to the Rodgers system anytime soon.


So, anybody wondering whether Rodgers is going to do another Hodgson?

Hope not, he's a good guy and really deserves to succeed at Liverpool. He's young as well so could be a great long-term option for Liverpool. Plus his teams play really nice football.

The results will come, but he has screwed himself over with his squad. Business in January is a definite. This will be a rebuilding season (really tough as King Kenny really tweaked Liverpool up), but next season he could make a serious push for a CL spot.

 

[thedon5]

Arsenal now have as many wins as Liverpool at Anfield in 2012.

 

[Haarithan]

Haha nice one.

Liverpool v Arsenal at Anfield since '07-08 in the Premiership:

Played 6
Liverpool won 0
Arsenal won 3 (2-1 in '09-10, 2-1 in '11-12, 2-0 in '12-13)
Drawn 3 (1-1 in '07-08, 4-4 in '08-09, 1-1 in '10-11)

Will never forget that bolded match for obvious reasons.

 

[puddleduck]

Long gone are the days of Fowler scoring 5 minute hattricks

 

[Skater]

Ah, puddleduck, you're a Spurs fan. We were quite disappointed not to take all three points away from White Hart Lane on Saturday. What's going on?

 

[shravi]

Snodgrass doesn't look too shabby, does he?

 

[puddleduck]

Ah, puddleduck, you're a Spurs fan. We were quite disappointed not to take all three points away from White Hart Lane on Saturday. What's going on?

Everything I rather depressingly predicted about 4 years ago is happening If we didn't deliver Champions league football the star players like Modric would leave. Then, as clearly has happened this summer, many of the replacements haven't been too keen to come to a club without Champions league football. Then we start a new chapter, with new directions and new priorities. However in doing so, the fans have become so accustomed to a perceived relative success that slipping from that position leads to discontent and we end up in some kind of horrid limbo where we can't sign the players we want, the players we have all leave, and the money we need to breach the top 4 ceases to exist.

Then we slip back into the mid table mediocrity mire that Spurs have existed within for most of my conscious lifespan.

Bottom line, Sigursson is almost certainly not good enough and looks massively out of his depth. Dembele is a good player, but he does most of his good work quite high up the pitch so we'll struggle to feed him the right sort of possession without Modric. Bale and Lennon thrive on natural width and both look lost when they drift infield. Oh, and our strikeforce isn't actually good enough. I could go into the whole Gallas apparently being our first choice centre back and vice-captain as evidence that our manager may well be clueless, but for now I'll hope to whichever sadistic God of football loves to taunt Spurs, that maybe this year won't quite be the disaster I anticipate.

If only we'd have had a squad that was good enough to keep pace with the top 2 for half of last year and eventually finish 4th at the start of this summer... Hmm, wait a minute...

 

[thedon5]

I wouldn't worry about Sigurdsson, you have Dempsey now and he is a big upgrade. Dembele is bloody amazing, he looks even better than he was last season. Modric was never staying as well.

Decent last minute deals but the sooner you get rid of AVB, the better. The guy is clueless, and seems to be pissing off a lot of the players.

Adebayor will be worse than last season as well, he has his money guaranteed now and isn't going to really bother doing much.

Welcome to Liverpool's world though.

 

[puddleduck]

Liverpool's world? So they've had 40 years of mid-table nothingness then? Yeah, didn't think so

Yeah Adebayor wasn't actually that great last year, an actual World Class striker would have got 30 goals for Spurs. The chances he missed were ridiculous. Modric was always off, unless we'd given him Champs league football like he wanted. Just a shame we didn't finish top 4...

I'm prepared to back AVB, I've said on this forum he could well be the right man for the right club, but I thought the players we had were already pretty good for his system. Even Dempsey is more of a forward, the problem at the moment comes from the fact Modric is actually better than most people realise. The guy has run our team for the last couple of seasons, and we haven't replaced him. There's few better at finding a winger in space, and his ability in the middle of the pitch where it's often most crowded is staggering. Things like MoTD don't even come close to highlighting quite how good he is. Spurs needed someone like Cazorla to come in, but obviously without Champs League we're exactly where we were before Modric arrived, which is to say hoping someone on the cheap (relatively) provides the same quality.

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To add. As much as Sigurdsson is probably fitter and more mobile, I really struggle to see how VDV isn't a far more accomplished player. With Modric off, I'd have looked to get Rafa playing in the hole a lot more and linking play. He genuinely put in a lot of work for Spurs, and whenever we needed some fight and drive, it was always Rafa who started pressing higher up the pitch and got everyone going.

Big blow losing Kaboul for 4 months mind. Why is it when King was star man he was constantly injured. Then when Dawson came of age and looked the part, he spent 2 years constantly injured... now Kaboul has had a good year and looked the man to build around, he's gonna miss half the season! What on earth do we feed our centre backs

 

[thedon5]

Liverpool's world = Exactly the things you described, where you can't sign the players you want and you find it incredibly tough to break back into the top 4.

Even if you gave Modric CL football, I don't think he would've stayed. He must have had some sort of agreement with Levy to leave at the end of the season, that's why he shut his mouth and played. There was no way he was staying with Real knocking.

A lot of people underrate Modric since he doesn't play hollywood balls all the time or make hollywood tackles. I agree his departure was really bad for you. There are very few replacements in the world who could've done the same job. That is why I really like the signing of Dembele and feel he can make you forget about Modric. The guy will be world class I'm sure of it, and although he isn't exactly the same as Modric, he can offer things Modric was never able to, such as insanely good dribbling and a lot more physicality. If he adds end product to his game (which he may have done already...), the team will be in similar shape to before though perhaps Bale and Lennon won't flourish as much as previously.