Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has praised several of Liverpool's squad players for their performances in the the Carling Cup victory against Stoke last night.
Luis Suarez will get most of the attention and plaudits for his goals, but Dalglish was keen to point out the contributions of other members of the squad.
"Daniel [Agger] was brilliant. He played really well. Seb [Sebastian Coates]' in the main, was fantastic, and Maxi had a couple of great headers at the end as well.
"Jordan Henderson hit a great cross for the secong goal. Big Andy did a great shift for us.
"Everybody had to hold their corner, and it's to their credit that we're in the next round. I think the reception they got at the end from our fans was well deserved
I have to agree about Agger - it was a joy to see a a quick and mobile Liverpool defender for a change. The Dane is such an elegant player, and he has the confidence to carry the ball forward at pace, which is something the defence lacks when he's not around.
Since arriving at Liverpool, Agger has spent 21.5 months out injured. It's a horrible record, but let's hope the injury hoodoo is now over, so the team can benefit from his Alan Hansen-esque abilities for the rest of the season.
Jaimie Kanwar
Luis Suarez will get most of the attention and plaudits for his goals, but Dalglish was keen to point out the contributions of other members of the squad.
"Daniel [Agger] was brilliant. He played really well. Seb [Sebastian Coates]' in the main, was fantastic, and Maxi had a couple of great headers at the end as well.
"Jordan Henderson hit a great cross for the secong goal. Big Andy did a great shift for us.
"Everybody had to hold their corner, and it's to their credit that we're in the next round. I think the reception they got at the end from our fans was well deserved
I have to agree about Agger - it was a joy to see a a quick and mobile Liverpool defender for a change. The Dane is such an elegant player, and he has the confidence to carry the ball forward at pace, which is something the defence lacks when he's not around.
Since arriving at Liverpool, Agger has spent 21.5 months out injured. It's a horrible record, but let's hope the injury hoodoo is now over, so the team can benefit from his Alan Hansen-esque abilities for the rest of the season.
Jaimie Kanwar
Hi Jaimie, didnt get to see the game, how did Coates & Carroll get on in your opinion?
ReplyDeleteAgger is vital to Liverpool, he stops the hoofing from other players. We play a lot better when he carries the ball, he is a top class defender!!!!
ReplyDeleteApart from his mistake for the goal, where he was muscled off the ball too easily, Coates did well. I think the game showed again that he's not the fastest defender out there, but he's good in the air, and positionally, he seemed to read the game well. 6.5/10
ReplyDeleteCarroll worked hard defensively but that's not what we paid 35m for. He had a couple of shots on goal but nothing that really threatened a goal. Liverpool play a fast game these days and whenever Carroll gets the ball, the pace of our attacks slow down. However, having him in the team means Suarez gets a bit more space, and that was definitely helped for the second goal, but we should be expecting more overall. 5/10
If you watch Coates yesterday you'd see he has a great long range passing ability (million times better on the ball than Carragher). When he's used to the pace of the game he wont get caught like he did last night. Agger in defence is great, but he must be a centreback alongside Coates/Skertel. I think Liverpool looked much better defensively with Carragher out of the team, in the second half.
ReplyDeleteI just hope Kenny accepts the face that he made a mistak with all his buys except Saurez and that Saurez is the only buy that was not British and has no Premier League experience Enrique looks good - but then he's not british).
Liverpool needed quality this summer, not nationality. £78m on Henderson, Downing, Carrol, Adam was a huge waste. none of thos players will get better - you cant improve skill if you dont have it. You cant improve pace if you dont have it. You cant improve vision if you dont have it. They all dont have any of thos attributes. Liverpool could have bought much better players for LESS money and been in the top 3 by now.
Good to see Dalglish give special mention to Coates as well, in spite of the one error. Foreigners typically fall prey to the very Englishness of what's his name from Stoke. But he'll acclimatise and be fine. For 20 years old, he's a real find.
ReplyDeleteAgger is an injury prone player otherwise he would contribute vastly to the team especially when he goes on the attack.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason LFC paid premiums for these English type players will come down to UEFA rules on having a certain number of national players in club teams. With Carra and Gerrard due to retire in the next 1-3 years it was important to get these players. Having said that, the other non-nationals we got were bargins. Overall, the amounts paid for Adam, Enrique, Coates and of course Suarez evens out the premiums paid on Carrol, Downing and Henderson. Even though none of the latter three are world class - in spite of their world class prices - they will improve, even if never move beyond the value of their transfer fees. But without making up the English numbers even if make it to the top 4, UEFA won't let you play due to the rule of having a number of nationals in your squad - especially after Carra and Gerrard retire. Now I still maintain, not upping Meireles' salary as promised by the club (albeit under different owners it was a small price to pay and it was deserved) was a big mistake and I we will rue that this year.
ReplyDeletethanks Jaimie.
ReplyDeleteso all the buys were bad were they enrique suarez bellamy coates doni- he played really well against rangers before getting injured and downing is quality - but you don't know about football so you wouldn't be able to tell that because his name is not david silva or juan mata or eden hazard - you really think that after the disaster of hicks gillette benitez and hodgson along with no champions league football add to that the wages they could get from man city or chelsea that they would join now who is the joke thats right its you if we get the top 4 this season then we may be able to get a marin or cavani or hamsik or subotic or a higuain but if we finish 5th which is what i expect due to our ability to seem to not be able to take our chances then maybe we can grab 2 or 3 upcoming talents and get lucky with them oh and adam is quality as well but you don't see that either the jury is out on hendersen i think the only disaster is carroll yet he could still come good i hope that we can fool a few top players in january by being a point or 3 behind 4th or 3rd place and then nab maybe adam johnson and higuain - its realistic as neither get regular games
ReplyDeleteOh my DEAR. did they NOT TEACH you about PUNCTUATION at school?????. That is, for your benefit - full stops, comma's, question marks. Oh yes, and starting a sentence with a CAPITAL Letter.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool didnt finish in the top 4 in 2010, and by january 2011 they looked like a top 10 team at best BUT they still got Suarez. So Liverpool CAN get good players. My point is there are soo many players who are available that would come to Liverpool who are better than Carrol, Downing, Adam and Henderson. They also would cost much less than what we've paid so far.
ReplyDeleteAnd if we have to go British then get GOOD British players with vision, skill. Get Adam Johnson - if Man City give Adebeyor to Tottenham than they'd definitely give us Adam Johnson. We could of gone for Adebeyor as well - easily a better player than Carrol and much cheaper.
We should be looking for players like Wilthsire, Ramsey, Chamberlain, Cleverly - not one paced one dimensional Henderson and Carrol. And Downing and Adam may be ok but they cost too much and they have too many weaknesses.
Or in other words we should support Arsenal or Utd .
ReplyDeleteLord - every single day we get people complaining about the players that we have bought and we could have, should have, would have done this or that. It is getting tiresome. "if Man City give Adebayor to Tottenham then they will definitley give us Adam Johnson" What planet did you get your footballing knowledge from or was it Championship Manager? I've never read anything so ludicrous in my life. Adebayor - fell out with Mancini - would never play (note he is on loan at Tottenham). Johnson - wanted by Mancini - gets a game. Why on earth would they "give" us Johnson. The only way Johnson will leave is if he submits a transfer request once he has a medal or two. And will you give Henderson and Carroll time - they are 21 - moved from their hometown clubs to Liverpool - club with high expectations. In times gone by they wouldn't have been anywhere near the first team for at least 6 months. Wiltshire - grew up at Arsenal. Cleverley - grew up at Utd. Ramsey - slowly introduced at Arsenal as Chamberlain will be. Listen to Steve Clarkes words on Henderson - a man who actually works in the game and knows a thing or two about football - unlike you.
ReplyDeleteRe the original post on Agger - he is a quality footballing centre half and would be my first choice every game. Struggled under the negative hoofing tactics of Hodgson but has come to the fore under Dalglish.
I'm not one of the guys convinced that Johnson would be the equivalent to Gareth Bale if switched to midfield, but I just don't understand how we continue to carry out all of these nonsensical experiments with players out of position but refuse to try Johnson in an advanced role.
ReplyDeleteOver the last couple of years we've seen the likes of Aurelio (LB), Degen (RB), Dossena (LB), Meireles (CM), Kuyt (ST) Henderson (CM), Benayoun (AM), Maxi (nothing) operating as our wide midfielders, and none of them are more suited to the position than Johnson imo.
We've also seen a bunch of CB's not blessed with too much pace or technical ability such as Carragher, Skrtel, Wilson & Agger playing at full back, and even Aurelio playing at centre mid, so obviously the club is not totally opposed to trying players out of position!
Surely experimenting with moves like Johnson at right mid, Kuyt as a ball winning central midfielder (in the role that Momo used to play), or Agger as a holding midfielder (to attempt to emulate Hamann) would make more sense than these decisions, as at least the players have some of the attributes necessary to be successful in such roles!
At the end of the day, I don't care if he has a decent game or two as contrary to popular belief any experienced pro will understand how to play more than just one single role. But just like with Skrtel at right back though, playing Agger at left back makes no sense and is not putting him in a position to succeed - I'd rather see us stick a reserve into the team than see us continuing to just chuck senior players all over the pitch irrespective of their fit for the roles
Great points, Jay. Totally agree. It seems that we're willing to try all sorts of outlandish square peg-round hole permutations except the ones that actually make some kind of sense. Johnson on the right surely has to be worth experimentation.
ReplyDelete