Liverpool goalscoring legend John Aldridge has admitted that he's 'in despair' over his old club's inability to finish teams off, and he's warned that if things don't improve, the club could struggle to finish in the top 4.
In his column for the Liverpool Echo, Aldo was typically forthright in his assessment of Liverpool's current situation. He argued:
"It’s no laughing matter any more. It’s now become a serious problem because any hopes we had of claiming a top four place look like being compromised by our inability to finish off chances.
"Speaking as a goalscorer I’ve been pulling my hair out in despair. We just can’t keep on blaming missed chances or inspired goalkeeping, we need to sort it out quickly.
"We are giving ourselves a mountain to climb, and we shouldn’t be saying that against visitors like, with respect, bottom of the league Blackburn."
Aldo is a huge fan of Luis Suarez, but he admitted that the Uruguayan needs to start scoring more goals:
"The strange thing is that we have forward players capable of providing a goalscoring solution, but they are not doing it often enough – and that includes Luis Suarez.
"He’s had a tough couple of matches after the FA ban was announced, but he had six efforts at goal against Blackburn – and every one was off target".
Most fans would surely agree that Liverpool's style of football has improved exponentially under Kenny Dalglish, and for Aldridge, that's a major positive:
"Every supporter is happy with the style of football we’re producing. It’s light years ahead of what we were producing under Roy Hodgson and all credit to Kenny Dalglish for that.
"The need to find that goalscoring blend is now acute, and if there is one man capable of finding that blend, though, it’s Kenny".
Let's hope he's right...
Jaimie Kanwar
In his column for the Liverpool Echo, Aldo was typically forthright in his assessment of Liverpool's current situation. He argued:
"It’s no laughing matter any more. It’s now become a serious problem because any hopes we had of claiming a top four place look like being compromised by our inability to finish off chances.
"Speaking as a goalscorer I’ve been pulling my hair out in despair. We just can’t keep on blaming missed chances or inspired goalkeeping, we need to sort it out quickly.
"We are giving ourselves a mountain to climb, and we shouldn’t be saying that against visitors like, with respect, bottom of the league Blackburn."
Aldo is a huge fan of Luis Suarez, but he admitted that the Uruguayan needs to start scoring more goals:
"The strange thing is that we have forward players capable of providing a goalscoring solution, but they are not doing it often enough – and that includes Luis Suarez.
"He’s had a tough couple of matches after the FA ban was announced, but he had six efforts at goal against Blackburn – and every one was off target".
Most fans would surely agree that Liverpool's style of football has improved exponentially under Kenny Dalglish, and for Aldridge, that's a major positive:
"Every supporter is happy with the style of football we’re producing. It’s light years ahead of what we were producing under Roy Hodgson and all credit to Kenny Dalglish for that.
"The need to find that goalscoring blend is now acute, and if there is one man capable of finding that blend, though, it’s Kenny".
Let's hope he's right...
Jaimie Kanwar
100 % CORRECT
ReplyDeleteThree points behind the team in fourth place and we are already pushing the panic button. The time to really worry is when the team is not creating chances.
ReplyDeleteCan't disagree with any of that from the "emotional" Aldo. Top 4 is a pipe dream in my opinion unless Dalglish moves up a level on his eye for talent in the market. What's lt liverpool down for 21 years give or take the gillet/hicks era is ineffective management in the transfer market and in my opinion it's reared it's ugly head again under Dalglish with the Carroll,Downing and Adam signings.All bought from relgation/mid tier premier league clubs. All lacking the mentality and requisite quality to play for LFC. Be interested in your views Jaimie on that. Cheers
ReplyDeleteAldo's observation is correct. There is work to be done by the coaching staff. The strikers are snatching at chances instead of quickly weighing options and scoring calmly. The pass-and-move approach also should not be done on auto-pilot. Sometimes, the players should take advantage of the space afforded them by their opponents and make better use of balls. LFC's pass-and-move approach seems to have become predicatable and opposition players are getting better at limiting goal scoring opportunities. Having said this, LFC still requires a DM and a creative player in the mould of Silva, Mata, Modric and Dembele. Sort that out and opposition defences will not be able to close down Luis, Gerard and Andy!
ReplyDeletei just hope we dont sign darren bent, a headless one dimentional chicken wont be the answer.
ReplyDeleteBefore every team in europe was afraid to play against us because nobody thinks to take a draw in anfield but with how many goals they are going to loose. Today any team comes and win points against us!! Where are those times of when KK was a player, when we were called THE RED ARMY. Every team was afraid to play against us before because we had a super squadron not like today. KK brought players who do not cost all that money we paid for them. They were overpriced (Carrol, Henderson, Downing) and do not know how to score.To wear Liverpool gear you must be a super player. He let good players leave (Mereiles, Aquilani), leave good players on the bench who can score (Maxi, Bellamy) and that is why we arent scoring and taking points. We need during January invest in good players, repeat good players not like those 3 i mentioned before. Hope for the best for the team i really love.
ReplyDeleteIs this strange. ?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so we have spent too much on players that are not good enough and I am talking about. Adam, Henderson (who should never been allowed to put on a liverpool shirt), Downing, and the icing on the cake (Carrol) holly crap talking about wasted money 35 mil down the toilet). Liverpool needs quality players. And now when I thought we would get a player from south america or spain, italy so what are liverpool intrested in. Darren Bent!........... it is completely nuts.
Forget fourth place it will never happen
darren bent is one of thousands of players from europe and south america linked with us.
ReplyDeleteYou could say John Aldridge was bit like Darren Bent playing for Oxford United banging in the goals then gets his chance at a real big club, Bent knows how to score we need a goal scorer. Aldridge was nothing fancy but knew how to score! Bent could be the man to score the goals why not why should we turn our noses upto a goal scorer who has improved every season?
ReplyDeleteThis is why Aldridge was such a massive success as a manager!
ReplyDeleteBent is 28 next month,surely JH wont be happy if Dalglish spends another £25m on someone with no resale value.
ReplyDeleteIt's unfair to say that LFC is lightyears ahead of what if was when it was under Hodgson without qualifying it that Hodgson led a limping team with his eyes blindfolded and his arms tied behind his back. He simply didn't have that 100 million pounds to spend. It's about time to stop running down Adam, Carroll, Downing and Henderson the way we've done to Lucas before appreciating their true qualities. They are part and parcel of LFC's team. If you let them walk alone, LFC will forever be walking alone.
ReplyDeleteWell said Aldo. Kenny must come out with a rabbit from his hat what but I do not know how he is going to do it. Me. Ashfah loves Suarez.
ReplyDeleteYea...the style did improved but not the midfield,most of our games attack through wings,there's no creativity in the attacking midfield and i don't see Adam and Henderson can fit into that.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the patience? We are happy with the style of playing but not the results - this is in somewhat stark contrast to Rafa's reign where we usually got the results, sometimes in an unattractive manner.
ReplyDeleteThe reality of our situation is that our players need time to be able to utilise the way they currently play a little better. We now have the players we need to accomplish something big, but too many of us are expecting results now. I think we are progressing very steadily, and although I am as frustrated as the rest of you at the lack of chances being finished, it only bodes well when the team is able to relax a little and move the ball more patiently. Our boys now know how to zip the ball around the park and create things that look like chances. They now need to be able to do that abit further back. Our players just aren't creating enough spaces!
When City put 6 past United, they started the game parked in their own half and only really went for it after a successful counter when United had to play catchup. When Barca gave United a footballing lesson, they took their time - similarly against Real. In those instances, United lost by being too impatient when they had the ball. This season, where there aren't any crap teams left - ever since Bunn replaced Robinson in the Blackburn goal, the key to beating the smaller teams is indeed patience. Our boys can hog the ball well except against other big teams - that we have beaten because they tried attacking us too much. Smaller teams lack the quality to put one past us with any sort of ease, so we should capitalise on that and let them pour players forward before we strike.
Slow and easy doesn't mean you don't get to thrash other teams convincingly. Germany thumped both England and Argentina at the world cup by being patient and waiting for better opportunities than their players could create outright. Germany didn't lack creative players by any means, but they knew when they stood better chances of making their opportunities count. However, if we want to trust our players to play their natural games, then we must understand that they have to gel alot better than they currently have. This is not the first season City has a squad full of superstars, but it is the first one they're doing so well.
For musicians, it takes a few months to 2 years to be technically proficient, but maybe half a decade to even half a lifetime to express themselves effectively with those tools. There are lots of kids who can play alot of complex scales and tricks on their guitars, but not many can play with soul. Back to the football, our squad puts in lots of clever passes and have a great pass completion rate in addition to thrilling us with their play, but all this is not clever enough. Sure, they may have been briefed by Kenny on what to do on the pitch, but they aren't quite thinking enough yet!
Imagine if Carroll had better positioning, if Downing was a little more daring, if Henderson makes himself more available to the ball and if Adam understood the styles of everyone else a little better - only a little. These players clearly have the goods as they've proven it with their previous clubs, however, they're playing to complement Suarez at the moment, and it's only Kuyt, Maxi and Bellars who are well and truly on his wavelength and we'd need Lucas to play them in effectively. Hopefully with Gerrard and Shelvey back and Suarez banned, we'll see a slight shift in style that will give our English players some confidence back. Gerrard tends to do something adventurous from deeper, but we never really had enough players with pace to capitalise on it before. With Downing, Bellamy and Henderson, we do possess the players who can get on the end of Gerrard's passes like Torres did. However, until we get someone regularly putting in dangerous throughballs at a comfortable distance from goal, we will never be able to utilise our speedy players effectively and for this, we have to wait.
What makes us think we have money to spend...maybe kk has spent all we had and from now on will have to do a RAFA...where you have to sell to buy
ReplyDeleteGetting used to do the style is no excuse for the poor finishing or brilliant opposition goalkeeping. The current style of player has created chances but those chances have not been taken. That is down to finishing ability, composure and confidence.
ReplyDeleteThe style of play is there, the players have gotten used to it to a good degree, considering the chances created but just can't finish it off.
Had Kenny bought the right players(mata instead of downing, gomez instead of carroll, alonso's left leg instead of adam) we would be flying by now. enrique/luis aside, none of the other new additions have added anything to what we had before. a lot of people slagged off rafa for buying average players(for average prices in general), but kenny has taken the biscuit. its souness all over again.
ReplyDeleteBetween kenny, moneyball and damo, our transfer business has been a right royal f up. OK so Jones would have been a great buy , and we did bid higher than manure for him, but no one else stepped in for hendo, adam, carroll or downing..why? because none of them are top 4 material and most of them were over priced.
this transfer window is the last 'free' window before the new rules kick in. its time to spend and spend big, once again, if we are to have a good chance of 4th. lets face it, its a 3 way for 4th now with arse+chels, the other 3 places are out of our reach.
You might get your wish with Pardew saying he would have Carroll back! How about this Andriy Yarmolenko who is a year younger about the same size but has quick feet and pace?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=K3ckmrhJFB0
yes but wat he is saying is if we dont start finishing teams off that these 3 points missed will end up letting the top 4 places seem a mile away we should reali be in the top 4 now but we have messed up against silly sides.
ReplyDeletejOHN Henry get your cheque book out!! Weve only spent around £50 million net after Torres sale!
ReplyDeleteYou must be joking. Not a mension of that flop Andy Carol. If we want to be in the top 4, we need to rid Liverpool of flops like that.
ReplyDeleteAlthought Suarez is not scoring goals, he is creating ALOT of chances. in the benitez/hodgson time we rarely created 3 chances throughout 90 mins. the blame has to go on the purchase of Andy Carroll. A massive expensive english FLOP! bring in a classy foreign player OR put maxi or bellamy up front, theyre scoring more goals than him FFS
ReplyDeletewe had the chance to buy crouch back but we spent all that money carol,who is scoring all the goal at stokeb ? crouch,i just dont think andy works in team!!!
ReplyDelete