After three away games in a row (and three wins), Liverpool make a welcome return to Anfield on Wednesday night to face Sunderland, who are currently languishing in the Premier League relegation zone. LFC loanee Fabio Borini will not take part in the game, but ahead of the game, Reds boss Brendan Rodgers has singled out one particular Sunderland player for special praise.
In his pre-match press conference on Monday, Rodgers enthused:
"I'm absolutely delighted for one of their young players, Liam Bridcutt, who I worked with at Chelsea. He's a really top young player, and a great young man"
Bridcutt - who cost Sunderland £3m - will be hoping to banish the negative memory of his last trip to Anfield in 2012, when Liverpool hammered Brighton 6-1 in the FA Cup. To add insult to injury, the midfielder weighed in with an own goal, one of *three* conceded by Brighton on the night (!)
Bridcutt is 25 in May, so he's not really that 'young' anymore, but given Rodgers' penchant for buying/attempting to buy players from his old team, could the Scotland international be a potential future target for Liverpool?
The Reds need some cover in the defensive-midfield position, and Bridcutt models himself after one of the greats in the role. In a recent interview, he noted:
"My role model is Claude Makelele, and I have tried to base my game on his. What he does really isn’t all that complicated — he just wins the ball and gives it. But that’s half of what makes him such a good player".
Despite Rodgers' admiration for Bridcutt, I can't see LFC being interested, but you never know; if the midfielder has a good game against Liverpool, expect a whole raft of transfer rumours to arise very quickly.
LFC's boss also confirmed that Fabio Borini - on loan at Sunderland - will definitely return to Anfield in the summer:
"He [Borini] went out to get games. He's shown the quality he has, and the goal in the Capital One Cup final was a fantastic. He's played in pressure games and done very well. He'll come back in the summer, and then we'll review it from then"
Borini will return, but that doesn't mean he won't be sold. Rodgers will 'review' his situation over the summer, so anything is possible, though according to the striker's Agent, a sale is unlikely. He told reporters recently:
"After the season returns Borini to Liverpool, where he is one of Brendan Rodgers favourites. You should talk to him about a possible sale, but I do not think that is the intention".
Given Liverpool's superb form so far this year, the Sunderland game is a home-banker...right?
Author: Jaimie K
In his pre-match press conference on Monday, Rodgers enthused:
"I'm absolutely delighted for one of their young players, Liam Bridcutt, who I worked with at Chelsea. He's a really top young player, and a great young man"
Bridcutt - who cost Sunderland £3m - will be hoping to banish the negative memory of his last trip to Anfield in 2012, when Liverpool hammered Brighton 6-1 in the FA Cup. To add insult to injury, the midfielder weighed in with an own goal, one of *three* conceded by Brighton on the night (!)
Bridcutt is 25 in May, so he's not really that 'young' anymore, but given Rodgers' penchant for buying/attempting to buy players from his old team, could the Scotland international be a potential future target for Liverpool?
The Reds need some cover in the defensive-midfield position, and Bridcutt models himself after one of the greats in the role. In a recent interview, he noted:
"My role model is Claude Makelele, and I have tried to base my game on his. What he does really isn’t all that complicated — he just wins the ball and gives it. But that’s half of what makes him such a good player".
Despite Rodgers' admiration for Bridcutt, I can't see LFC being interested, but you never know; if the midfielder has a good game against Liverpool, expect a whole raft of transfer rumours to arise very quickly.
LFC's boss also confirmed that Fabio Borini - on loan at Sunderland - will definitely return to Anfield in the summer:
"He [Borini] went out to get games. He's shown the quality he has, and the goal in the Capital One Cup final was a fantastic. He's played in pressure games and done very well. He'll come back in the summer, and then we'll review it from then"
Borini will return, but that doesn't mean he won't be sold. Rodgers will 'review' his situation over the summer, so anything is possible, though according to the striker's Agent, a sale is unlikely. He told reporters recently:
"After the season returns Borini to Liverpool, where he is one of Brendan Rodgers favourites. You should talk to him about a possible sale, but I do not think that is the intention".
Given Liverpool's superb form so far this year, the Sunderland game is a home-banker...right?
Author: Jaimie K
"Home Banker"?
ReplyDeleteOh! Jamie, get those lips sewn up!
We should keep waiting and quietly hoping.
4-0
ReplyDeleteNo such thing as a home banker, the right attitude and nothing less!!
ReplyDeleteHoping to be a home banker but Im waiting for the day we will drop points, cuz I just cant see us winning all games until the end, even chelsea arsenal are losing points, but this surely cannot be the case, sunderland just lost to norwich, we should smash them. One concern is gerrard if booked again will miss two games, huge blow. Id say let him get that yellow tomorrow and he will miss spurs and west ham, rather than missing city and chelsea. Its impossible him not to get booked again with nine games to go, he plays dm where people get most yellows there cuz is a position you have to stop oppo attacks. If I was BR Id told him to get booked now and be free for the final games of the season plus lucas is back and we have enough firepower in attack to win games, gerrard isnt a big threat going forward anymore, unless he takes penalties!
ReplyDeleteSo does Rodgers tell Stevie to get his f**king act together, or does he tell Stevie to get a yellow card tommorow?
ReplyDeleteyou are right let hm get tactical booking so we can cover with lucas in those 2 games and the he can be available for city
ReplyDeleteThe next cut off is april 13th, so if he can stay yellow card free for the next 4 games he's safe, unfortunately I don't see that happening either. I wouldn't go so far as to tell him to be booked, let him play his game, and if it happens we will have to cope.
ReplyDeleteIf we consider ourselves genuine title winners, we will have to be able to cope with losing a player for two games.
Agree with Joe above, we need to be quietly going on with our business…"home banker"…we're gonna have to start calling it the Jamie K kiss of death next haha
ReplyDeleteOn a separate note, a mate of mine just brought up the fact that stevie is one yellow from a two game suspension and there's no way he goes through this difficult run without picking up one. Our fixture schedule is such that its big game, "smaller game", big game etc for the rest of the way. I think, near the end of the game tomorrow, stevie should try and get a yellow card. Imo, we can get through spurs and west ham much easier without him than chelsea and city. Especially with Ade potentially out for spurs, the goal threat will be coming from their mids and I think with Lucas back we will be able to nulify that. Im interested to hear what other people think
the only prob I have with that is BR will bring in Lucas and due to his injury he hasn't had enough game time plus he worries me cause he fouls a lot near the edge of the box.. however he might push allen into that role leaving room for coutinho to come in
ReplyDeleteHe may be a "top" player, but he's not a "top-top" player. Even Gerrard isn't in the eyes of Fergie.
ReplyDelete1-2.
ReplyDeleteEek!
Agree... I think he needs to pick up the yellow tomorrow near the end.
ReplyDeleteOr he might end up having to play a different role altogether. It's no coincidence that he's picked up more cards since his conversion to the holding role. In his first 21 appearances of the season he had only 1 or 2 yellows.
2013/2014Sun 10 NovSunderland1 - 0Man. CityPremier League 2012/2013Wed 26 DecSunderland1 - 0Man. CityPremier League
ReplyDeleteAt least 4-0. Poyet manages them, he loves little Luis so much he couldn't possibly bear to see him lose a game. And their defence must be the weakest in the league. If we play 4-3-3 we will rip them apart.
ReplyDeleteI doubt there is any team in the League that wants to come up against the Mighty Reds at the moment. We are going to rip Sunderland to shreds.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this guy play a few times and I think he'd be well worth £6mil. I'd hazard to guess that some of the people in the comments section who are so quick to write him off haven't seen a great deal of this guy because he is easily the best defender for one of the more effective defensive sides in the league.
ReplyDeleteIt all hinges on how well Sakho performs between now and the end of the season. If he doesn't improve or look to settle between now and the end of the season, I think an elite centre back will be a priority in the summer.
If Sakho shows sufficient promise then I think Reid would be a good signing. We'd have Skrtel, Sakho, Reid, Agger (if he doesn't leave), Illori (if he isn't loaned out, which hopefully he will be, in England though so he can get used to the physicality) and Wisdom. Perhaps not the best compliment of centre halves. Provided Sakho proves himself I think Reid and Wisdom could provide solid back-up to our main two.
Weakest defence? Tell that to Magath!
ReplyDeleteYeah, its clear him moving back means that he's had to make a lot more "rash" challenges to protect the back four and/or to prevent the counter
ReplyDeleteLucas does give some needless fould but I think we've really come along and are defending set peices a lot better than a month ago so I'm not entirely conserned about that. However, it could also be argued that we've defended better because less of those dangerous fouls have been given with lucas out....
ReplyDeleteOnly concern with Allen is that you never know when he's going to play bigger than his stature or not. Spurs have some big goys in that midfield (dembele, sandro, chadli) and he might find it hard to cope
Well said, a "home banker" attitude has been Liverpool's downfall over recent years, hopefully Sturridge's cup final mentality is shared with the rest of the team.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool vs Sunderland....must show killer instinct...otherwise
ReplyDeleteI just checked, they're only twelfth. They just don't score a lot of goals. Anyway, 4-0 :-)
ReplyDelete