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A red card, a Carroll and Suarez goal; a seemingly accomplished performance by the reds, but was it?

I predicted Novak Djokovic to win Wimbledon on day 2, predicted Andy Carroll to score today, have I got some sort of power? haha. I joke, but BBC Football used my tweet earlier about the bigman! Find it at 14:25 on the live football feed on the BBC website.

Chris BBC sport tweet

Anyway, back to the game. We were pinned back until the crazy red card for Rodwell. Although i celebrated it like it was my 18th Birthday, it wasn’t a red card and ultimately I feel, that is what has won us the game.

My last post was about how Carroll would fit in, and whether he could step up. There were flashes of brilliance that deserved that £35million price tag, but there was also touches and things that I wouldn’t expect to see from a pub league team player. Only time will tell, but he has my support for this season, and we can judge him this time next season.

It was Suarez’s worst performance this season, although he scored for me, he didn’t do a lot but we love him, even if the EFC fans were throwing coins and bottles at him.

Downing was no where to be seen, and it was good to see him come off and Bellamy come on, he added the pace we needed and I look forward to seeing more of him this season.

All in all, a decent performance but it could have been a lot better, and for once we got the luck with the red card & we’re back in the top 4…. for the time being.

Once again, give me your views and I will get back to you.

YNWA

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to talk briefly about our record signing Andy Carroll, obviously a great prospect for the future, but does he really fit into the way of football that Kenny is trying to play? I don’t think so. The formation? Judging on what we’ve seen already this season, I can’t see it being anything other than a 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or a 4-4-2 and the only system I can see him fitting into there would be the 4-4-2 partnering Suarez up top.

I also feel as soon as he comes on we try and hit far too many diagonal balls up to him and don’t play the way we can, and it slows our whole play down, I know his attributes and skills need to be played to, but if we constantly lump it up to him, it’s not only going to be boring to watch but we wont get the results we want. If we are going to play him, we need to play the nice football, then get it to Downing/Bellamy/Suarez/Gerrard to then whip those dangerous crosses in that the big man can be so lethal from.

I also heard today that the Russian club- Anzhi Makhachkala – who are paying Eto’o £344,000 per week, offered us £41million for him during the summer transfer window. I would have taken it. We paid triple what he should have been worth in January, and he is injury prone; a £6million profit would have been tidy after only 6 months for a player who only scored 2 goals.

However he needs time to grow as a player and individual at the club, and it will take time, and he has my full backing for this season;  I’m just wondering, will he be the right man long term?

Once again, Thanks for reading, leave your comments and I will get back to you.

YNWA

That was the ins, but what about the outs?

15 players departed Anfield during the window, either on loan or on a permanent basis, the most noticeable Meireles, Cole, Poulsen, N’gog, Jovanovic and Aqua man.

Meireles to Chelsea. I just don’t see the logic in this move. In my mind LFC and CFC will be fighting for 3rd place this season, so why would he want to move there? The link with AVB? surley not enough. The only thing i can think of is that Kenny has told him he doesn’t feature in his plans, which is crazy. for a player, bar Lucas and Kuyt was our best player last season, and he’s only going to improve. But what outraged me more than anything was the £12million we let him go for, he’s worth £20million at least! Oh well, as they say… S!*t happens. So we’ve just got to get on with it.

Cole never settled at Anfield after his opening day red card against the Gunners, and although his chosen destination is odd some may say, he was always going to leave, albeit only on a loan. But if you read the papers, as part of Cole moving to Lille, we now have first option to buy Hazard come this time next Summer, which would be superb if true.

Poulsen, N’gog and Milan have been fringe players for a while now, and it’s no surprise they left, just glad to get them off the wage bill! Best of luck to them in their future careers.

If only Aqua man could have settled into English football, a great player but not suited to Liverpool. Not surprised he went back to Italy, but I am surprised it wasn’t on a permanent basis. I can see him coming back next year with the same problems as this year.

All in all a good transfer window for LFC, and i hope we can push on for 3rd place, although 4th is more realistic; with the new additions to the squad, we are no longer a 2 man team, and we are now capable of getting back where we belong- in the Champions League.

Once again, get back to me with your thoughts and I’ll get back to you.

Chris.

Hi Guys,

This is my first ever blog post, and I aim to regularly post on here and make videos related to Liverpool Football Club on my youtube channel which can be found here:  http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperSubDickinson?feature=mhee

& you can also find me on Twitter at: SuperSubDicko

Right, now onto what this blog post is actually about – LFC’s transfer dealings this Summer, the ins in part 1 and the outs in part 2, and what impact it will have on the squad.

Now to the 7 players brought into the club since 1st July 2011 -

• Jordan Henderson, £16million
• Charlie Adam, £8.5million
• Alexander Doni, free
• Stewart Downing, £20million
• Jose Enrique, £6million
• Seb Coates,  £7million
• Craig Bellamy on a free.

Thats a total spend of £57.5million, if you add that to the £52million spent in January that takes our total spend to £112.5million over the past 8 months. But what the press are forgetting is that we’ve also sold £82million worth of players over the same period, and by this time next year we’ll have saved £30million on wages for the forthcoming season, which if you add both figures together you get almost the total spend over the last 8 months. Not a bad bit of business by Damien and Kenny if you ask me.

But now onto the players themselves.

Jordan Henderson looked like a lost sheep in his first 3 matches against Sunderland, Arsenal and Exeter but he put in a solid shift against Bolton at the weekend, and it will only be a matter of time to see whether he will be worth the £16million spent on him, however us as the fans need to cut him some slack and back him even when he has his off days. It’ll take time for a young lad to settle in, no disrespect to SAFC fans, but it’s a big step up. It also depends where Kenny plays him. He can be played as a rm, and where he has played his first 4 games, but he can also play in the middle of the park. I think his best postion would be cm, but that area is already overloaded with the likes of Stevie G and the ever impressive Lucas along with local boy Spearing and Adam. We will just have to wait and see.

Charlie Adam. At first I was a bit sceptical of this move, as paying £8.5million  for a player who was sold to Blackpool for £250,o0o because he couldn’t get into the Rangers team seemed a bit of a risk. Although he had a fantastic season in the tangerine orange of the seasiders, i wasn’t sure that he could make the step up. Although he has had a solid start to the season I can’t see him starting when Gerrard is back fit again, they are too similar to play in the same team, and you can’t take Lucas out as he has improved year on year and provides the balance to the team.

Alexander Doni. Not alot to say from my view, don’t know alot about him just know he has been signed as back up to Reina from Roma. Seems decent enough, better than Brad Jones anyway. But Reina is an ever present and unless he gets injured it’ll be hard to see when Doni will play, but on a free, you can never complain.

Stewart Downing is one of the more interesting ones. Priced at £20million- £4million more than his ex-villa team mate – Ashley Young. Is he worth it? Personally I’d rather have signed Young, but he had has sights set on MUFC from the start, so Downing will have to do. Priced at £20million, probably double what he’s worth he has a lot to live up at Liverpool, but he could be the missing link in the team that we have been missing for so long. Relatively quick, made the most successful crosses last year and can beat players, could he be the key to our push for Champions League football? I was impressed with him against SAFC, but not so much against AFC. Once again time will tell how much of a good buy he will be for LFC.

Jose Enrique. Probably our best buy of the Summer transfer window. Athletic, strong, both offensive and defensive, looks like he may have just solved our LB problems. Very impressive in all of his displays so far this season, if his form continues he could be the buy of the season at only £6million.

Now onto Seb Coates, the 20 year-old Uruguayan from Nacional. Voted best player at the Copa America ahead of the likes of Ganso/Neymar (who was nailed on favourite for it before the tournament started). Standing at 6ft6, LFC’s 2nd tallest player only beaten by none other than big man crouchy! A long term replacement for Carra, and maybe a future partnership with Danny Wilson? Never seen this guy play before so can’t tell you how good he will be, but from all the reviews he seems like a good buy, & having Suarez in the team will help in settle in, and also keep him on his toes in training!

Finally onto Craig Bellamy. Signed on a free at the 11th hour. At 32 years old, has he still got that pace that ripped defences to shreds two seasons ago at City? If so looks a very tidy buy on a free transfer, and he also agreed to slash his wages from £80,000 a week to £40,000. Well done Damien!

Cheers for reading guys, part 2 – the departures coming soon! :)

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject, please leave a comment and let me know and i’ll try my very best to get back to you!

Stay red, YNWA!