Have Liverpool ever had more than one great player at once?

Have Liverpool ever had more than one great player at once?

Enjoy your Friday evening, wait patiently for 16 Conclusions from either Sunderland v Southampton or Liverpool v Tottenham, then send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com for a Sunday Mailbox.

Why didn’t something say something?
Has anyone else noticed that Gabriel Jesus shares part of his name with the biblical Jesus Christ? I’m surprised the media don’t make more of this.
SC, Belfast

Sharks v sheeps
I really really hope the might white sheep bleat the great red(?) Sharks this weekend just to see Brian LFC’s follow up analyse of how this was actually a good result for the sharks.
Jamie MUFC Belfast

 

Three at the back for Liverpool
Further thoughts on Duck’s great mail and expanding on Steve, Realistic Gooner’s solution to Liverpool’s woes – mine is switching to Chelsea’s formation.

Reasons for this:

– Chelsea have shown that a back-3 (or back-5? Jury’s out) works. But making this formation switch is likely to give Liverpool more stability in defence and plug the holes from our leaky boat.

– Can proved under BR that he is adept at playing in defence, and perhaps he may actually be more suited to that than in midfield where his lapses in concentration and slow reactions put us in danger. Stick him on the right side of a back three with Clyne for intermittent protection and the calming influence of Matip next to him. Also means that him/Matip can step out occasionally to move the ball forward

– Milner and Clyne wing backs. Milner will undoubtedly be ousted from Left-back in the summer (and quite rightly) but will then offer more competition in midfield. I’d like to see someone like Charlie Taylor from Leeds in at LWB.

– You have a midfield two of Henderson/Lallana. It means Wijnaldum likely drops to the bench but it offers greater scope for rotation – much needed considering our obvious fatigue in recent weeks

– Mane/Coutinho behind Firmino puts the deadly trifecta back together.

Genuinely think this would work. It means Liverpool can still play their possession football, but slightly deeper as they have more players there. This invites opposition teams further up the field, creating the space in their half for a quick transition to the forward three without taking away too much of our identity. With the front three the Gegenpress still works when we lose the ball, and the back three/five protects from the counter that has proved to be our undoing in the last month. Although the formation is the same as Chelsea’s, the playing style is completely different.
Lee (Note Varane is nowhere to be seen, we’re never getting him. Sakho could slot in if he behaves himself at Palace though), LFC

Have Liverpool ever had more than one great player at a time?
I think the problem for Liverpool is one that has always been the case.  For every top/world class player they have/buy – the likes of City, Utd and Chelsea have/buy 3 or 4.  Liverpools supposedly best and most valuable player is Coutinho but there are plenty of players I rate higher than him in the other teams mentioned.  Liverpool have him, City have Aguero, Silva, and De Bruyne, Utd have Zlatan, Mkhitaryan and De Gea, Chelsea have Costa, Hazard and Willian to name a few.

Liverpool never seem to have or have had more than one top player at one time. Until that changes they are up always going to be up against it.

Regards
Steven Hunt – Draughtsman

Darren Fletcher is the point of a captain
When the Albion brought in Darren Fletcher from United I was severely underwhelmed. I had never particularly rated him as a footballer and following his lengthy illness I assumed we had a guy who was past it and turning up for one last pay day in much the same way as Andy Townsend and Mike Phelan did in the 90s. I certainly did not see him inspiring the team to safety.

His leadership in that first half season helped Pulis pull together a fractured and disruptive dressing room. He also had a nice bit of quality on the pitch and he is a true competitor in the tackle. Since that first half season he has led by example and inspiration.

It takes a brave man to shout into Jonas Olssons face but I have seen Fletcher do it. He keeps the Albion team in shape throughout matches and drives the team forward. He also mirrors and repeats his managers views off the pitch. His fitness is also an inspiration. He has barely missed a game since joining us.

When Fletcher plays well the Albion play well and even when he doesn’t his leadership helps others to perform. The Baggies have been brilliant so far this season and Fletcher as captain has played a crucial role in that.

Despite all his he won with United he is desperate to bring European nights to the Hawthorns. We will probably fall short but such desire is the true mentality of a winner. So I would argue if your captain is a born winner and can inspire others then he makes a huge difference.

He’s won more than you. Darren Fletcher he’s won more than you.
Ben the Baggie

I personally think the role of captain is a very important one. On pitch: not just ensuring tactical directives are being followed, but also to encourage and raise everyone’s performances – even at my level (perhaps more so, in fairness), having one player taking responsibility for driving the performance of the whole team makes a massive difference; also to calm everyone down after a difficult start or if adrenaline is running too high, for instance. There have been occasions this season when I felt Spurs would really have benefited from an outfield captain to help get things working properly.

But also off pitch: setting the tone and driving standards at training; making sure everyone is pushing themselves; encouraging and working with younger players or those out of form. The captain is always going to be someone that is universally respected (even if not liked), and humans tend to naturally need hierarchy and leadership in any group activity. Of course the best teams will have a number of leaders, but the role of the captain is, or at least should be, a very influential one.
Alex G, THFC

I’m bored of tea-cups; I want Space Mountain
I’m sick of people telling us Arsenal fans to be “careful what you wish for” and “look what happened to United” and that “Wenger should be lauded for getting you into the Champions League every season”. Well:

1 – United massively overachieved in Ferguson’s final season with a pretty dire squad. I’d argue Wenger is underachieving with a very good squad. With the right appointment there’s a very good chance we’d get better not worse.

2 – What’s the point of being in the Champions League if you’ve not got any chance of winning it? To be clear: we don’t.

3 – I’d rather have a few terrible seasons, assuming we wouldn’t get relegated, followed by winning the title or Champions League than continue with this groundhog season year after year. I’d swap our fourth place every year for Chelsea’s Champions League win, title wins and occasional mid table finish in a heartbeat.

Ultimately, I’m bored of this tea-cups ride. I want a go on Space Mountain, even if I have to queue for hours and throw up afterwards.
Tom

Conspiracy
Given Arsenal’s apparent club policy now of only recruiting youngsters with double-barrelled surnames (is it just me, or do they have loads??), I began to wonder if this was a cynical commercial ploy to increase revenue in their club shop by forcing fans to pay for the extra letters in the names on the back of the shirts.

You wouldn’t put it past them, would you?

What other explanation for giving continued employment to Coquelin, but dragging their feet on a new contract for Ozil?
Chris (Tin Hat wearer) Bridgeman, Kingston Upon Thames

Double target men for Leicester
If I was Ranieri and I needed a result I’d just go all hell for leather and become some relegation destroying Allardyce-Pulis Hybrid and play two target men.

Take the 5 at the back that’s in vogue, two sitters like Drinkwater/Ndidi, a free winger (Gray on form, Mahrez on talent, Albrighton on crossing ability) to play left or right as the space appears, and then two lumps up top. I wouldn’t be confident as a CB facing up against not only big Slimani but Ulloa/Okazaki too. Chuck balls in just like United vs Fulham under Moyes using the three wide players (wing backs & free winger) and win some of the 90 crosses. No fannying around, big men in the box, one occupies defenders, the other challenges for the ball.

I don’t see why big man/big man has never had a run before, when big/quick & quick/quick each have their uses.

Particularly think Belgium with Lukaku and Benteke could use this tactic as well, and just overcome teams through brute force. With 5/6 players back at all times it remains defensively solid, whilst using every attacking player at the same time.
KC (Andy Carroll & Kane for England)

Stat chat
Thanks to Peter G for that article on expected goals, its really nice to see two of my great passions (football and numbers) combined in a single article. Although I have a slight problem with how that stat is represented, namely as “the place to go if you’re looking for a single number which tells the story.” Firstly, is it possible that it tends to systematically underpredict the amount of goals a team will score? If you add up the expected goals and compare it to actual goals scored this season, expected is short by 26.

Secondly, I’m not convinced it provides a significantly better snapshot of overall performance than goal difference. Compare below the actual Premier League table with the expected goal difference table and the actual goal difference table. Qualitatively (I don’t have time to do a proper quantitative analysis), it looks like using plain old goal difference gives you just as good an indication of what’s actually going on.

I like these articles and it looks like a nice statistic, but at the same time I couldn’t find many examples of it doing a really good job of predicting actual performance, apart from maybe at the bottom of the table.
Peter, AFC

Griezmann and ambition
Now it’s probably utter horse-sh*t but I’ve just read somewhere that Griezmann might choose to turn down Man U if they don’t qualify for the Champions League.

Is this really something players still do? Sure, in Spain, Germany and France you can get a move that guarantees you Champions League football year-on-year, but in the Premier League it seems foolish to plan your career on what is essentially one season. The Premier League is now so competitive that I don’t think you can count on qualifying every year. Yes even you Arsenal. Maybe it is the Premier League that he is really turning down.

Also, do players REALLY care that much about the CL – surely at Man U you will get the global exposure and wages you desire regardless of which competitions they are in.

If I was Griezmann, I’d be more worried about potentially playing under a manager with a track record of selecting robust centre forwards and with a penchant for freezing out incredibly talented forward players.
Jamie, LCFC (really can’t see this one happening, it just doesn’t feel right)

The big question
Mark Irwin described Arsene as “Pricklier than a hedgehog in a cactus farm,”.

My question is this: Do hedgehogs get pricklier depending on their surroundings? The inference seems to be that they’d be less prickly outside of a prickly environment.

Crazy.
Dave (…) Allen, IOM