Adam Lallana - Second chance?

A squad player is good enough start the odd game when you're FIRST starter is injured or needs resting.

Squads need to be managed but there is a core group of players who start most matches.

So yes, Lallana is good enough to start the odd but not every week.

 

It would be if we had a squad of 25 good players. We don't.

We have a handful of players who are good enough for a top 4 team.

 

So your "squad player" is actually a "back-up player"

 

When that happens you get killed in the second half of the season when teams work you out.

 

Unless you have eleven players that are better than anyone else's eleven; aka Mourinho and Chelsea last year.

 

Not really, most of the top teams in the world have a core 11 with a couple who rotate in and out of the squad.

Chelsea played mostly a settle 11, as did Real, Bayern (when they weren't hit with injuries) and Barca

 

FFS...

 

Lallana did not actually get much time in his best position last season.

Out wide in a 433 or 451 he is not quick enough. His best run of form came in our 3421 faze when he was allowed to play more narrow. I quite liked him and Coutinho as an attacking midfield duo and if they had had the chance to pear up behind Sturridge they could have bossed it.

 

No disrespect to Liverpool, but when you are paying into the 20+ millions on players, you should be expecting them to start unless they majorly flop. The only people who really get away with this behaviour are the money clubs who are throwing obscene money around like City, Chelsea and United recently.

Everyone else doesn't get away with spending this money to be padding out their squad.

Agree with IBWT with whats done with Lallana is done and he still has a useful role to play as a sub. He will still be remembered as a flop for 25m though unless he starts pulling up trees but that doesn't look like it will happen with all your new signings (he was struggling for a first team spot last season when injury free, no chance now with firmino and co)

 

The best teams have a set spine. World class teams need a world class spine. GK, CB pair, CM pair or trio, Striker(s). Usually a flair player out wide often becomes part of that spine to.

 

Posted at same time .

Anyway, the point is Lallana wasn't the first choice and if the big clubs who are keeping a core 11 when in theory should have much larger squads with loads of WC players, then you would think the idea of rotating players in and out constantly like Ranieri the tinker man is a bad idea

 

Chelsea fell off the cliff massively and only the fact the league was done by then saved them

The other examples are the established league champions in fake leagues with no opposition

 

While the two players we have gone over thirty million quid on aren't the ones I'd want to spend that on; List the thirty million pound plus foreign players bought by PL teams that wanted to come to us? at least one in Jimmys list gave a clear no thanks.

Reality is we either gamble on all these 15-20 hopefuls with the resulting calls that we wasted money on every one that doesn't pan out in glorious hindsight.

Or we pay 20+ on overpriced English squad players.

We really do have to become a good sum of all parts team from now on. So when we by luck or design grab that world class player we have a tebdancy to get regularly we can challenge immediately. Too often we've hoped the one w/c player will somehow drag us up long enough to attract others..result lots of bouncing from 2nd at best to 7/8th at worst as they get fed up and leave.

Whether it's ultimately BR that sees it I think we have a much better squad to add w/c to than we did three years ago.

 

This is a decent response. Do you think having that set 11 in the first place allowed us to grab that initial lead in the league. I Agree Mourinho should have rotated more though.

 

Sure, paying £25m for a player comes with certain expectations but the amount paid as nothing to do with the player. If they player is performing to a level that their sum suggests then then club or recruiting staff are the ones that should get the stick, not the player.

 

rodgers has a huge squad that has no excuses... ok CM might be one player shy of where you'd want but he's a tonne of players

When you beat the lower half home and away as mourinho says you get 20 x 3 = 60 points... LFc have good enough players in all positions to get a good haul of points and try and be solid against the top 4.... do that and 5th and 6th is easy. any lower = abject failure.

 

It was pretty unclear what plan Rodgers had going into last season. Sturridge got injured, he wanted Bony, he went all out for Lallana (who also had injury trouble straight away). He also wanted Coutinho in CM but it did not work.

Did we ever actually ever see Rodgers big plan?

Surely he had all of Sturridge, Bony, Lallana, Coutinho and Sterling in his mind for the starting 11.Along with Henderson and Gerrard.

 

The point I was leading to was that we should be aiming to have options. IMO, each player that is an option is a squad player and each one should be good enough to be classed as a first team player. Jimmy was saying 'squad player' in a more negative manner, as if being a squad player isn't good enough for the first team. IMO, that would be a back-up player, something I strongly disagree with when talking about Lallana.


PS...there was a full minute between our comments

 

That's a bit of a red herring though isn't it? The player you get nowadays for £30m is equivalent to a £18m to £20m (guesstimate) just two or three years ago. We signed Suarez for £23m (ish).

 

well.. as a timeline view.

First he went for lambert, then lovern, then lallana all pre WC. then suzrez bit.... then it all went crazy. We got lallana pre world cup and lovern after (i think...) then it was bony and then when they compromised it ended up balotelli

I think the "big" plan imploded the moment suarez bit. I also think we never saw what formation he was thinking of with these players and i think he bought lallana to replace coutinho in the side not play with him... remember sterling would be in before coutinho no 2013/14 teams picked. he put coutinho on the bench a lot. It really was only 2014/15 that coutinho prove he could play 90mins.