I think in a world where all of our midfielders are healthy I'd try starting Gerrard at RB and then playing Allen, Lucas, and Henderson in the middle. This game made me think that'd be the best way to keep Gerrard in the squad without risking our quality. He didn't really impress today.
Jesus, really? He needs support, he's not a 4-4-2 CM, and yeah he wasn't great today. But man, right back... wow. In a 4-3-3, which is what they should be playing when healthy, I can't see any way to leave Gerrard out of this side. Taking him over Allen any day of the week.
Hey - 2-0 win...not really very impressive, but a clean sheet and a couple of goals...and (most importantly) no injuries! Next?
YES! I missed the match this morning and watched it on LFC Viet Nam while knowing the score. It did indeed seem like they played somewhat complacently and never got out of second gear. Of course, had I been at the pub, I would have bemoaned the amount of possession the Cherries had and the "lack" of goals.
Guess Rodgers didn't have much choice, but we really need to put to bed the Gerrard as DM experiment.
Just watched the game, we struggled the first 20 or so, then scored and kind of cruised and finished it in the second. Pretty boring game, horrible footing in the first half from every player in our team it seemed like.
It's our weakest position and he's had some of his best matches on the right side. And Allen, Lucas, and Henderson's been a pretty productive midfield when they've played.
This is all true, Allen had that good run when Gerrard was out and they were tearing teams to pieces... but still, don't you think Gerrard being at an advanced position in RM when he was still close to his peak in terms of athletic ability is different than putting him on the right defensive flank? Considering the player he is now, that seems to maximize his flaws and minimize his strengths. Why RB? If you're really accommodating the other CMs that much, I'd rather see Stevie at RM than RB. It's not even an issue considering Allen and Lucas are both out, obviously. I just think Gerrard's ability to set the table for the attack with one pass is something no one else in midfield can do consistently, and when he has defensive cover in the form of an active 3-man midfield he is more valuable than Allen. With Allen LFC is a better pressing midfield, but with Gerrard I think they are more dangerous overall.
Gerrard's passing ability is pretty important, although he doesn't have the legs he used to. Allen is quite a good player defensively both winning the ball and holding up play, but is also good going forwards. Henderson, brilliant workplace and has shown a better final product than allen and both press and compliment each other quite well. My way forwards for the rest of the season, If we can get Allen past his injuries would be. Stevie the deepest midfielder, henderson most advanced and allen in between. That way I think you could the best out of all those players, especially with the energy allen and henderson provide over lucas and much more so over stevie. If you ask me, he isn't half bad as a holding midfielder, granted we are playing with 3 midfielders instead of 2 as we have done against bournemouth and villa, he just doesn't have the legs to play that way anymore, and it also affects hendo negatively only having stevie beside him in the centre. Then of course, let sturridge, suarez,sterling and if they find their form moses and coutinho rotate around the front 3 positions.
UGH... I hate sticking up for Gerrard in a small time game... Today Gerrard had the most touches of a Liverpool(or Bournemouth) player, 16 more than Henderson(2nd) and 29 more than Kolo(4th). You want to pplay fluid football, it involves plenty of touches of the ball. Today Gerrard made the most passes, the most accurate passes, the most tackles, the most accurate long balls of a Liverpool player, compared to his CM partner Henderson he made more key passes, more interceptions and was disposed fewer times. For one of his highlights of the game, check where he passes to Suarez, who was onside and wrongly judged to not be. He had a good(not great) game, but any formation which is basically 4-2-4 is going to be hard for the CM's to look dominant. Seriously??? We got 6 points out of 12, mid table form. I like Allen, I really do, but he's a Cog with little impact on the results. The two times he has beeen praised for Liverpool was the 4 games before he got injured with 6/12 and the beginning of last season where we won 3 games from the first 14. An important part of the team, but whether he is playing fantastically or average has little bearing on the result of the game.
OK, you know what... touche, this is a good point. I was mostly thinking of when the team tore through Norwich, Spurs, West Ham, Cardiff, but then when it got tougher against City they were unlucky to not get something from and you could make the case for Chelsea as well. And my overall point would be that I really wonder how swapping in Gerrard for Allen changes that run of form you're talking about. I think it's just a tough run of form and more importantly fixtures. But Gerrard was in CM with Allen for those earlier matches, so fair point. And I must admit your comment made me actually look back at the run of games where I was remembering Allen playing well, and I realize that many of the matches I was thinking of are when Suarez absolutely dominated... so I don't know how much credit I can/should give a workmanlike performance from Allen.
My Gerrard at RB idea was complete video game thinking, I admit. Can't see him bombing up and down the wing any better than Glen Johnson - most likely worse. I'm just very worried about how shallow our squad is. Playing Sturridge, Suarez, Coutinho, and Sterling makes us very vulnerable no matter who of Allen, Henderson, Gerrard, and Lucas are selected.
He played RB early in his career as they tried to get him on the pitch and he played RB throughout extra time in Istanbul by choice as we needed help out there. But it's not where he should be today
Mid-table from a points perspective, but we also played two of the hardest games in the Premier League during that run - @ Citeh and @ Chelsea. We pretty much dominated Citeh and deserved at least a point, and honestly I think we deserved a point from the Chelsea game as well.