Neil is joined by Phil Blundell, Paul Cope and Rob Gutmann to talk about Liverpool’s 4-1 win over West Bromwich Albion. Shock over Sturridge; awe over Suarez and even praise for the midfield. Who saw that coming…
THE FSF AWARDS ARE COMING, NOMINATE US!
Henderson has improved tremedously but he is essentially still a squad player of the destructot type where you play sub him in when we are leading and have 10 mins to go.
It’s true that most teams need a grafter but not a team that wants to play great. And definitely not at the AM tip where creativity and penetrative one twos is the key.
Henderson looks like a great cover of lucas and nothing more. He should never be considered in the same breadth and position as Coutinho.
Sometimes I feel we fans have been starved of great world class creative AM player like coutinho for years that we don’t know that they help us more than just penetration and goal conversion. A player like Coutinho helps maintain possession, create confidence and better passes, prevents 50/50 tackles which could results in our players getting injured. We don’t need to harry opposing teams more cos we don’t give it away more like what henderson always does, loose possession and hence loose our attacking formation.
Example: it was henderson lack of ablility to pass or tackle properly which resulted in johnson having to clash for the ball with evra.
The Coutinho attacking pressence will immensely elevate our play. And I hope he is ready for the arsenal game.
On the Suarez discussion: the big shift is we are creating better chances under Rodgers and there may be an element of psychology to it but to me you have to give credit to the coaching team. We all talk of Rodger’s tactical nous but nobody really talks about the fact that first and foremost he is a technical coach. It’s hard to improve someone’s technique (whether it be first touch, striking a ball etc.) significantly once they’ve left their mid-teens but what you can do is improve the mental aspect to it. And this is where the composure has come into Suarez’s game once he gets into goalscoring positions. Gradually over the course of last season and certainly his return in this he has the look of a man who is thinking about what he is doing rather than playing purely on gut instinct. Of course, because of his personality, we’ll never fully coach that gut instinct out of him but less and less do we see him snatch at chances and lack composure which was his biggest problem in his first 18 months here.
What Henderson does off the ball is very useful, but what Liverpool need is a player who can do those things off the ball, and also have great quality on the ball. Henderson is very limited with the ball at his feet; too limited to make the first 11 of a title winning team.
Squad player if our aims are above 4th.
That’s bollox. You’ve obvious never watched Henderson. His ball control is far better than Gerrard’s, he has amazing skill when it’s at his feet. What he can’t do is read the runners and deliver a killer ball. Try trolling elsewhere.
Henderson is amazing with the ball at his feet?
Perhaps you should tell the national press and assorted England fans; they don’t seem to be screaming for him to be in an England squad, let alone the England team. Strange that, considering how amazing he apparently is.
Beauty is in the eye if the beholder, I suppose.