Who do we miss most from last year's squad?

Lallana. Remember that goal he scored at St Marys vs Hull? We don't have anyone who can do that kind of thing at the moment.

 

He can also make a total hash of one on ones vs the keeper. Lambert never failed in that regard. I think we miss Lambert and J Rod in so much as when Pelle isn't scoring, one of these guys could come on and maybe grab a goal.

 

Yep, Arthur certainly had times of madness, but I do think he installed more confidence in the defence. Both are good shot stoppers, both have distribution issues, but Frazer has yet to really impress me, his decision making at times is awful especially from crosses.

 

If only Dani wasn't bat-**** crazy!

 

Lovren! I miss that guy, our defence has been absolutley shocking since his departure, we have been leaking goals all over the place.

 

He may not have impressed you, but I get the sense the defence has massive confidence in him. Artur probably scared the **** out of the defence.

He reminds me of Shilton. His organisation is very good and Shilts was another keeper who didn't like crosses and tended to stay at home.

 

Ricky; he led the line and created chances for others; we cannot score goals at the moment; score, create or make space for others; LEGEND!

 

Lallana and Rodriguez

 

Rickie, 100% Rickie - goals, assists, creativity, and just miss seeing him play.

 

I love Rickie. I felt he was waning last season though. Do you really put his last seasons performances above JayRod and dare I say Lallana?

 

Lallana is by far the player missed most. Even if some die hards don't like to admit that or face up to it after how he acted

 

I still would have Jayrod first as most missed, then Lallana and Rickie.

 

Sorry I thought it was players that were sold.

 

Oh maybe; I included Jay because he hasn't played this year. If just sold then yes, that fella you mentioned and then Rickie.

 

Rodriguez by miles. It isn't even close

 

I will say it again. Our team is nearly exactly the same as last season. **** loads of possession, plenty of changes and can't score. Yes Rodriguez scored a lot last season, but we only scored 54 last season which is 16 more then us atm. We can't miss what we never had.

This is why we are basically in a league of our own just behind the big teams.

 

I agree Beefy, however can you picture how dangerous we'd be if Jay was playing too (I know he may have gone)?

 

I kind of agree with Beefy in that we had the same problems last year while all those players were here. At the same time I think Lambert is missed more than the others. Yes, there's more to life than just statistics but here are some from last season in the league:

Rodriguez: 15 goals, 3 assists
Lallana: 9 goals, 5 assists
Lambert: 13 goals, 10 assists

On that score you could argue Lambert's contribution was actually the greatest of the three (I'm not btw). He's certainly up there with the other two though.

On top of that the question isn't who was best for us last year it's who is missed the most.

For me Lallana isn't missed much at all because he's been replaced pretty effectively by Tadic who - despite his form dropping off - already has more assists than Lallana got last season even if he hasn't scored quite as many. Lambert has been replaced by Pelle, whose scoring record is pretty similar - again, despite the drop off in form - but isn't in the same league when it comes to assists.

I can see the argument for Rodriguez being missed most. Mane is the closest we have to a replacement but he's probably closer to 12/13 Rodriguez than 13/14 Rodriguez. But I'm not sure Rodriguez would be as effective in our current team because we don't have anyone to hold up the ball and play it in behind the defence like Lambert did (he assisted 5 of Rodriguez's 15 goals). Even allowing for his age-induced decline I think Lambert would be the one player from last season who would make most difference to our current squad.

 

Still wouldn't have made our midfield score more goals. Who knows if Jay would have hit the heights of last season. I agree he would have brought something different tho.

 

Lallana last season is comfortably better than Tadic this season, Dusan couldn't keep up his early season form. Need someone to unlock defences. We have more pace this year, but we need People to get in better positions for headers and a goal scoring midfielder.