With only two assists and no goals in the last 17 games, Charlie Adam is going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment, and it was no surprise to see him drop to the bench for Tuesday's victory against Everton. Jay Spearing took Adam's place for that game, and he put in a performance that prompted effusive post-match praise from Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard. Should Spearing keep his place, or should Adam come back into the team for the next game?
I'm a big fan of Adam, but I'm also very much in favour of players being picked on merit, and over the last few weeks, Adam's form has dropped to the extent that he deserves to feel the pressure of someone challenging for his place in the team.
Spearing and Gerrard seem to compliment each other well, and Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson believes that having Adam in the team is actually detrimental to Gerrard's overall effectiveness. He told the Liverpool Daily Post:
"When Spearing is there, you know what he will do. Spearing knows exactly what his job is, he can patrol the midfield area, he gets around the pitch and he’s not afraid of doing the dirty work.
"Charlie Adam isn’t quite as mobile and is a different type of player, preferring like Gerrard to get forward more often, and sometimes that slightly negates the skipper’s threat".
When they play together, Gerrard has to spend more time defending, which - as Lawro suggests - can negate his attacking threat. Gerrard is most effective when he plays higher up the pitch, and the presence of Spearing allows him to do that.
Gerrard and Spearing worked well together against Everton, but we have to take the reality of that game into consideration: David Moyes rested his most dangerous players, and his team were clearly not as enthusiastic about the game as Liverpool, who were under extreme pressure to avoid a 4th league defeat in a row.
In some ways, it was a false-positive for Liverpool; One win does not define a partnership, and if Gerrard-Spearing really has the chops to succeed, we should hopefully see similar effective performances over the next two months.
Jaimie Kanwar
I'm a big fan of Adam, but I'm also very much in favour of players being picked on merit, and over the last few weeks, Adam's form has dropped to the extent that he deserves to feel the pressure of someone challenging for his place in the team.
Spearing and Gerrard seem to compliment each other well, and Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson believes that having Adam in the team is actually detrimental to Gerrard's overall effectiveness. He told the Liverpool Daily Post:
"When Spearing is there, you know what he will do. Spearing knows exactly what his job is, he can patrol the midfield area, he gets around the pitch and he’s not afraid of doing the dirty work.
"Charlie Adam isn’t quite as mobile and is a different type of player, preferring like Gerrard to get forward more often, and sometimes that slightly negates the skipper’s threat".
When they play together, Gerrard has to spend more time defending, which - as Lawro suggests - can negate his attacking threat. Gerrard is most effective when he plays higher up the pitch, and the presence of Spearing allows him to do that.
Gerrard and Spearing worked well together against Everton, but we have to take the reality of that game into consideration: David Moyes rested his most dangerous players, and his team were clearly not as enthusiastic about the game as Liverpool, who were under extreme pressure to avoid a 4th league defeat in a row.
In some ways, it was a false-positive for Liverpool; One win does not define a partnership, and if Gerrard-Spearing really has the chops to succeed, we should hopefully see similar effective performances over the next two months.
Jaimie Kanwar
I think we should play a 4-2-3-1 formation, Carroll up top, downing/bellers on left, SG right, Suarez down the middle, and either Spearing/ Lucas, Adam/ Henderson defence generally picks its self. that would give us the best balance with the players we have and put players in the position to best suit there attributes.
ReplyDeleteAdam has justified his price tag but i don't think he has been a hit. I have seen him having more bad games than good games, he is one of the most wasteful player in terms of possession and horrible tackler. He has the quality but I think Liverpool is too big for him and, a team like Villa or Newcastle would have been better fit for him. He is definitely not a player good enough to play in champions league.
ReplyDeleteOur team massively need a Searing or Lucas for us to realize the full potential of Captain Fantastic. How can i forget how My wife and i popped champagne in a wild celebration when we heard KK was already riding to Melwood with Charlie; our joy new no bound. But unfortunately it didn't take long for us to find out he is neither the Alonso nor the Masha we are looking for. He is has caused us a lot of problems: he is the only excuse KK had for sending Aqua, Meireless and lately Shelvey away, meanwhile he is nowhere close to these guys. Where is the fluidity that we enjoyed and wanted to build on towards the end of last season with Suarez, Kuyt, Meireless, Maxi Lucas and Spearing complementing each other? It's a shame
ReplyDeletei think Lawro has a very valid point, in regards to the Gerrard/Adam pairing.
ReplyDeleteimo though, the "damage" he does to Gerrards play, is nothing compared to the problems he creates for our build up play. he´s too slow mentally. I know that every now and then he gets a fantastic ball away. however far too often he simply gives the ball away, either by running in to a cluster of defenders, like a mid 20´s toddler, or going for that Alonso-esque pass.
A lot of those forward runs are well timed, but more often than not, he fails to get the the pass right, and ends up giving away a foul instead.
I think the reason Adam did fairly well at the start of the season was Lucas´ calm play and superb tackling. I think Adam will do fine as a fringe player, picking up odds and ends. But a starter for Liverpool Football Club... Surely not..
perhaps we should have looked at Scott Parker instead, twice the player(albeit older), for less money. Oh well...
i could have told you that adam was nowhere near alonso or masch.
ReplyDeleteSpearing is a direct replacement for Lucas but much less effective.Same as Adam direct replacement for Gerrard and much less effective.Lucas can read the game better than Spearing and covers the ground more quickly than Spearing spotting any danger and stopping it,Spearing is slower hence the late clattering tackles,Adam is a slow coach who is very selfish when he gets near the penalty area always preferring to shoot rather than seeing a team mate in a better position.Its KKs job to see these things and act accordingly in his team selections.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Adam is nothing more than a liability - absolutely average and that is being kind. Being realistic i woul say he is utter sh!te, not deserving of the Red shirt; same applies to Downing and henderson.
ReplyDeleteKD shoudl hang his head in shame
Yeah and how much did jones cost UTD?
ReplyDeleteHe has started the 5th most league games in their squad this season and they are top of the table, possibly beating their best points total in PL by the end of the season. He hasn't exactly had it bad has he, even though he is overrated and has been dodgy at times. Oh, embarassingly, got 1 assist and 1 goal in PL for them, which is more than we can say for Downing, in less starts and less shots taken. Urgh. Get your act together, Downing.
ReplyDeleteWell said.. I can only agree totally. Adam doesn't deserve a place on the Liverpool team.In fact I would be very happy for him to leave in the summer. We played much better football on Tuesday night against Everton & that was due to his absence. If we are to progress it has to be without Adam & Dalglish has to SEE this. As you can guess I would not be a fan of his.
ReplyDeleteKennys most productive run of results came last season with Lucas and Spearing in the middle of the park. We played well and looked almost unbeatable until Jay Spearing got injured and was replaced by Shelvey. The likes of spearing and Lucas earn us the right to play, the likes of Gerrard, Shelvey and Adam are like leeches (in a positive way) who feed of their ingenuity.
ReplyDeleteTwo players in the middle who earn earn us the right to play we can get away with. Two players in Gerrard and Adam who wait for others to earn us the right to play leads to performances not to dissimilar to Cardiff.
That first paragraph is rarely seen written by a Liverpool supporter. Good to see fans viewing games with their eyes as apposed to their hearts.
ReplyDeleteIs Adams a football player or a thug? If he concentrated on being a football player then he may, just may, prove to be of some use. Otherwise he's a walking red card and could at anytime cost the team a game when the team has to play 10 vs 11. Get him off.
ReplyDeleteChi Bai lu, Lawro could be right, only time will tell.
ReplyDeleteAha! My favourite subject - Adam! A useless waste of footballing space. Always was, is and will be! Said he should never have been bought.He should be pensioned out ASAP for ANY amount of money. As long as he plays then he is worth at least 1 goal - and that to the opposition!!!
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see someone agrees with what I commented on before he was bought. Ferguson was chortling away as HE talked up Adam just to get us to waste money buying the prat! He must still laugh every time he sees the moron waddle onto the field week after week. With Adam we will get nowhere and fast!
ReplyDeleteCharlie Adam was a pointless/unnecessary signing, and when you consider we shuffled Aquilani and Meireles out the back door to accommodate him, it became totally ill-advised almost to the point of negligence. The £7m Adam transfer fee plus his and wages would have been better employed giving Meireles his pay rise and keeping Aquilani, who was easily our best player in pre-season...
ReplyDeleteAll of which begs the uncomfortable question though, why get rid of archetypal pass-and-move players for a hoof-and-shuffle one?
Adam, doesn't have a pass and move game, takes an age to pass the ball, plays blind passes, is slow as treacle and can't tackle, infact his infuriating barge into the back of opponents would be better employed in the NHL...He should be sold in the summer.
I'm not a fan of Adams...... Or Henderson, Downing and Carrol either. As a lifelong LFC fan they are not up to our standard - SELL them before we rot away from the top teams.
ReplyDeleteThere u go. J Spearing a world class midfielder. Play him every game and we'll definitely win the premiership next year. If we don't buy anybody in summer than rest assured mate that next season will b exactly the same.ynwa
ReplyDeleteAdams was touted as a 'dead-ball specialist'. Surely LFC should therefore be able to sue under the Trades Description Act and get their money back.He has not offered anything positive at all, indeed he has become something of a liability with all the free kicks he gives away. The forward and even the midfield are far more fluid without him in the side. Off load !
ReplyDeleteSpot on, Adam is so one dimensional it's a bad joke. A head down merchant like Babel, Adam doesn't see better placed players to pass to like Shelvey at Villa Park or Henderson at Anfield vs Arsenal.
ReplyDeleteHis corners are consistently over hit by 3-5 yards. He's a podgy, bulbous centre circle spud. The sooner we get a properly mobile playmaker who has a short passing game the better.
Incredibly we are actually selling Aquilani for less than it cost to buy Charlie Adam. The gulf in talent between them is as wide as the Pacific Ocean...
agree with lawro and jk
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with you on a point. He doesn't consistently over-hit corners because often they never get above chest height and are easily cleared by defenders. On all other points, I totally agree. I'd also like to add that he prefers to shoot from 35 yards out than pass the ball on along the floor into the feet of Suarez or Carroll in the box.
ReplyDeleteAdam is a clueless central mid who likes to think he can carry the team - much like a second class Gerrard, same approach minus the brain and abilities. There is no balance between them. They can only play together with either Spearing or Lucas in support, but never as a pair. I'm not against box to box midfielders, but I view a holding mid as imperative to any side with aspirations.
ReplyDeleteJones and Henderson would be a fairer comparison, being in the same age group. Henderson has also gotten 1 league goal for us. Jones may be a defender and we've played Henderson largely as a winger, but both have been used in central midfield.
ReplyDeleteGerrard, Shelvey and Adam are all about getting forward and playing Hollywood passes - difference is Gerrard has the experience and Adam doesn't have the intelligence. I'd play Shelvey ahead of Adam any given day though.
ReplyDeleteLucas and Spearing is a nice combination because although they're both played as holding mids, Lucas started his career as a box to box player and Spearing as a centreback. Their approaches are very different. Spearing is more about winning the ball back and Lucas is about distribution - these traits together allow our wide players and flair players to concentrate on what they do best.
mind you... Kenny Dalglish has a social responsibility to groom Scottish player in his team. Same as what Alex ferguson has in M.U. Adam falls in this capacity. That is why Kenny has to sacrifice Aqua n Maireless for that purpose. Did u never realize it? Better check properly the list of players under SAF, David Moyes n other Scottish manager. There must be a Scottish player that under well protection from the manager. KD included.
ReplyDeleteI am a scouse born and bred but Jay isnt good enough,I would really love for another scouse lad to get in the team before we lose Jamie and Steve,which wont be long.I expect backlash for this but he just isnt good enough.
ReplyDeleteBang on mate! they're why we're are mid table. NOT Liverpool class.
ReplyDeleteNo, you're right, i'd love to see that to, and i'm not a scouser!
ReplyDeleteAdam is awful. No wonder Rangers fans used to boo him. Send him back to Blackpool and the league he belongs in.
ReplyDeleteAdam is to quote a phrase a poor mans Gerrard, very poor at times for us this season but to be fair has had a few decent games also, doesn't have the necessary shooting range of a player in that position though and seems to be a bit limited in his awareness of others and quick passing ability.
ReplyDeleteI personally think KD bought him to cover for Gerrard knowing he would be out with his injury etc, more of a squad player, someone who can help carry the piano, i think he's lost his confidence tbh, and in this respect i think our lack of goals and dip in striker form hasn't helped his cause much.....
I don't subscribe to this typical knee jerk reaction of a lot of our fans that he's just shite.....he's not, he's definitely finding it tough to settle in though, but then again we have seen some pretty poor performances this season from many players in the team, Reina Lucas Kuyt Johnson Enrique Suarez etc have also put in some stinkers IMO, hence why we are where we are in the league......
No point in trying to scapegoat or go on a witch hunt, looks like he's been benched for the minute and who knows Kenny might decide to move him on in the summer along with some others...
Needs to improve IF he is played i agree with that, should be a squad player at best BUT we didn't pay that much for him.....and he has covered Gerrards absence whilst injured....
Not the first time, either. Remember Glen Hysen? We only bought him cos United were 'interested'.
ReplyDeletehave u seen his corners. What damage can you do when 90 percent of them are sent to the far post, almost out of play. How many corners have you seen that have goals scored from there? Then take your mind back to preseason, when Aquilani came on and see his corners, curled dangerously in the center of the box. Enough said.
ReplyDeletewhat marks a good player from a bad one, is when you notice that he puts in few bad performances that are hidden and dusted under the good ones. Adam's good performances I can count on half a hand, same with Henderson but hes young, Carroll is in the same boat but I don't see how he can improve to be honest since hes just a ball-in-the-air player, and Downing has only played well in 5-6 games the whole season in total. But Bellamy, Enrique, Suarez, Spearing, Lucas and even Kuyt have played well/ok in a majority of their games.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to read my post more carefully. It was a criticism of his delivery at corners - they are either too long or too low.
ReplyDelete