The Squad

much talk about our squad, and how it is a MON squad that the new manager will have trouble using to change our style of play, to which a certain extent i agree with, let`s have a look at it, goalkeeper, friedel and guzan, one getting on and another that doesn`t look good enough, so a new goal keeper required for next season, the back four, at last luke young is getting a chance and warnock without being outstanding, is reliable enough, the centre halfs, plenty of options, may need a new leader in that position, one centre half required, the midfield, put ashley young on the wing or sell him, not a centre mid IMO, ireland is supposed to be the creative one, if he can be arsed, and delph has potential, plenty of grafting centre mids that can do a job, one replacement required possibly, wingers, young downing and albrighton can do a decent job, albrighton needs to play, but not the full 90 minutes every game, he is young and fades or gets found out at the end of games, up front, heskey the fonz carew and gabby, heskey not good enough, carew, maybe time to move him on, the fonz unproven , needs time,and gabby, massive season for him, he needs to shine or be shipped out, so maybe two new strikers needed, so i think we need to let 5 or 6 players go and bring in the same, basically we are a decent team, just need some adjustments and direction, simples

I would get Shay Given in.. would get a good few seasons of solid displays out of him.. let Brad have this season then say thanks for the service..

In midfield i am sure Houllier will look to Europe to bring in a ball winner and a creative midfielder.. Petrovs days might be numbered unless we plan to play 3 in the middle..

Houllier will also look to bring in two strikers i think.. one being Owen and another from Europe.. all in all we dont need shit loads to spend really.. the Milner money plus a bit from Randy i.e 25M and we could do a lot with that..

Dont agree with you about centre half, got talent there, need centre midfielder, and another striker. Gabby is fine, has been excellent last season and done well last 2 games. Give Ireland a chance, he will be a good player IMO.

All I will say is that I was at Benfica - Villa and the gulf in technique was enormous

I was on the side of the stadium and saw Warnock and Downing continually under pressure due to their lack of basic first touch - whilst the Benfica defenders were playing one two's and flicking the ball around like it was a game on the beach

Totally embarrassing - and Houllier with I assume very little money has to try to put right four years of backward thinking and I do not think he is the man to do that

Lionheart wrote:All I will say is that I was at Benfica - Villa and the gulf in technique was enormous

I was on the side of the stadium and saw Warnock and Downing continually under pressure due to their lack of basic first touch - whilst the Benfica defenders were playing one two's and flicking the ball around like it was a game on the beach

Totally embarrassing - and Houllier with I assume very little money has to try to put right four years of backward thinking and I do not think he is the man to do that

Fceking pre season game,

we have lots of options at centre half, but do we have a leader? not in my opinion, a lot of midfield options again, but do we have a leader? not in my opinion, as for the centre forwards, this will be the most difficult to change, as good forwards cost a lot of money and are hard to find, i think gabby can step up if given the service, young downing and albrighton can do this, maybe even ireland, but a top class striker is required, smaller clubs than us find them, so lets hope the scouting system improves

spirit wrote:we have lots of options at centre half, but do we have a leader? not in my opinion, a lot of midfield options again, but do we have a leader? not in my opinion, as for the centre forwards, this will be the most difficult to change, as good forwards cost a lot of money and are hard to find, i think gabby can step up if given the service, young downing and albrighton can do this, maybe even ireland, but a top class striker is required, smaller clubs than us find them, so lets hope the scouting system improves

It cant get any worse!

shay given is a good shout, although i wouldn`t want to spend to much on him, although a keepers career is generally longer than an outfield player, he is 34 now, 5-8 million max

On his day Friedel is better.. his saves are still top drawer but he cant go on forever.. he is 39 i think.. so if we could get Given it might be worth it in the long run..

Get a grip on reality, Man City wont sell Given to us

They said he can leave in jan.. they wont sell him to Arsenal Man U etc but might let him come to us..

We have hardly got any money, and we have maxed out our wage budget, and you suggest getting in a keeper in January that would probably cost near on 8 million, and be our highest paid player. When Friedal has probably been our most consistant player all season

As for our squad, it's not that bad, set up to play 4-5-1. Give Ireland a run of 5 games or so at the point of that diamond and see how he does, with Petrov and NRC in behind, then Young back on the left and Downing on the right. Up front Gabby on his own. Then we have Carew, Albrighton on the bench to come on and change the game if we need.

We need a central midfielder and hopefully a striker, but if we are playing 4-5-1 most the season, it's not that essential as a good striker costs 10 million plus and don't think we have that kind of money at the moment.

For me i think we're just short of options up front.A natural penalty box player added to the squad and we're good enough for 6th spot

The squad was good enough for 6th last season and needed strengthening for this. We lost possibly the most capable player and didn't replace him. Ireland I think could be good but isn't a direct replacement and shouldn't have been chucked straight in. Sadly Mac hadn't got a forkin clue but that's all over now. Still, we have major problems in the middle of the park and up front that need sorting. I think GH has enough to work with from the MON era. It's a shame so much money was wasted and he decided to fork off when he did but with a couple of signings he can get this team playing well. He may not get them this winter so 8th - 10th for us this year. Just hope the nobheads can handle a below average season.

Lionheart wrote:All I will say is that I was at Benfica - Villa and the gulf in technique was enormous

I was on the side of the stadium and saw Warnock and Downing continually under pressure due to their lack of basic first touch - whilst the Benfica defenders were playing one two's and flicking the ball around like it was a game on the beach

Totally embarrassing - and Houllier with I assume very little money has to try to put right four years of backward thinking and I do not think he is the man to do that

Agree.

Hope i'm wrong but i see months of turmoil which will end up with a manager stamping his foot, getting very frustrated and walking out, unless he gets massive funds, in order to get those funds players will be sold, it easy to see who those players will be.

Think Lion is right, Houllier will have to contend with a history of very narrow thinking, tunnel vision, but thats what MON is all about and its what he will do again at his next club (he's being touted to take over at Liverpool form Hodgeson).

Spirit: I agree with most of your points, probably where i would differ is the premise that certain players like Gabby should have this season to prove themselves, have to say the club has achieved hugely in terms of European qualification, finishing 6th, cup finals, Gabby without a shadow of a doubt played a massive part in that, as did Young and Milner, we have lost Milner, we will lose Gabby and Ash IMO, and Houllier won't give a crap in selling them and what the fans think, mate of mine is a Liverpool fan and he said it was unthinkable when Houllier took over and the world would end first, armageddon would happen before Liverpool ever got rid of Fowler and McManaman, the rest is history.

We will probably get our honeymoon period under Houllier, think it will be a long day before we see Europe again and i would be amazed if Houllier is the right man.

Malachite, your theory on Young and Gabby, comparing them to McManaman and Fowler seems a bit bizzare.

I thought that McManaman was always planning on leaving Liverpool on a bosman, he signed the deal as soon as he possibly could at the start of January, so obviously had been in talks with Madrid for some time and it was only 6 months into Houllier's rain as manager.

As for Fowler, did he really do anything after he left Liverpool? Not that much really and I think we can be pretty sure that he was fond of partying a bit to much.

roadoftrinity wrote:Malachite, your theory on Young and Gabby, comparing them to McManaman and Fowler seems a bit bizzare.

I thought that McManaman was always planning on leaving Liverpool on a bosman, he signed the deal as soon as he possibly could at the start of January, so obviously had been in talks with Madrid for some time and it was only 6 months into Houllier's rain as manager.

As for Fowler, did he really do anything after he left Liverpool? Not that much really and I think we can be pretty sure that he was fond of partying a bit to much.

RoT: Your missing my point yet, in the same breath you've answered it.

The point was Houllier will have no problem in getting rid of whoever he wants and has proven in the past he can wield the axe without any consideration to fan opinion.

Fowler was and is a god at Liverpool, ask any Liverpool fan out there, when Houlllier got rid of him he was at the very top of his game, he didn't just score for fun, if he fell over the ball would end up in the back of the net, he is still one of the highest goal scorers in the Premiership, Liverpool fans where stunned when he got rid of him. Stevie MCmanaman was also a god at Liverpool and without doubt never got on with Houllier right from the start, Houllier made no attempt to renew SM contract and the player went for free, at that time he was rated as one of the best attacking midfielders in the world.

Its not bizzare in any way, what it shows is, the point was made that fan power wouldn't allow Houllier to get rid of players like Young and Agbonlahor, believe me, Houllier will probably get rid of these players to break the player to fan link as a first step to moulding the, "this is my team" scenario, and it will get him the money he needs, question is what would Villa look like without the likes of Agbonlahor and Ash Young....

Malachite wrote:

Its not bizzare in any way, what it shows is, the point was made that fan power wouldn't allow Houllier to get rid of players like Young and Agbonlahor, believe me, Houllier will probably get rid of these players to break the player to fan link as a first step to moulding the, "this is my team" scenario, and it will get him the money he needs, question is what would Villa look like without the likes of Agbonlahor and Ash Young....

But surely that's the point, they are two of our best players, however at the time Fowler left, Owen and Heskey (no idea how) were both banging in the goals, Leed's came in with a big lump of cash for him and he did bugger all else when he left. McMananman went to Real Madrid for money and throphys, he was made one of the highest paid players in the World at the time so he wasn't going to stay around, same as most players would leave for money and trophys.

The only way Young will leave is if he wants to, which wouldn't suprise me to be honest, and I think it's ridiculous how the club have allowed him to get down into the last two years of his contract without any discussions of renewal. As for Gabby, I see absolutely no reason why Houllier would want rid of our best striker, doesn't make any sense unless we are getting in better players before hand.

RoT;

Obviously we will have to wait and see what and how Houllier runs the side, it could be that Lerner has said to him what you've got is what you,ve got for the foreseeable future and that includes any funds coming in form transfers. In which case Houllier will have to hold onto every player.

However, Houllier builds his own side, did it at Liverpool and did the same at Lyon, so it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to see big changes.