SAS

They could become the first ever teammates to be the top 2 scorers in the league in the same season in PL.

Even across Europe this is very rare (top 7 leagues). Since 1980 only Hulk/Falcao for Porto in 2010-11, Grafite/Dzeko for Wolfsburg in 2008-09, DelPiero/Trezeguet for Juve in 2007-08, Kuyt/Kalou for Feyenoord in 2004-05, Bobic/Elber for Stuttgart in 1995-1996, Maradona/Careca for Napoli in 1987-88, and Hugo Sanchez/Valdano for Madrid in 1985-86 have done it.


PS. Also Ibra and Cavani will probably do it as well.

Art Morte wrote:Even if we lose Suarez, Sturridge is starting to look like he is the best (realistically available) replacement for him.

Maybe, maybe not.

Suarez is the complete player in the final third really. He can create, score and can pretty much do anything. He has the most goals AND assists this season, and would have A LOT more assists in his Liverpool career if he wasn't playing next to people like Downing. Let's not forget, this team itself has a poor goal return if you take SAS out of the picture.

Sturridge is a complete forward / poacher.

We'll probably build the team around Daniel, but I'm not sure if he's the best replacement for him.

If we look at strikers we could realistically get to replace Suarez, I don't know are there better options than Sturridge. Are there?

Diego Costa maybe?

I don't know. I'm struggling with names here. We need someone that can be creative, and playmake, as well be a reliable goal scorer if Suarez is to go.

It's our job from now, until the the end of the season to get Champions League football back at Anfield and hopefully keep onto Suarez in the summer.

From there, we actually HAVE TO make signings and push on. No more squad players / buying for the future bullshit*, we need guaranteed first team players, hopefully a marquee / world class signing in the number 10 position, and continue to improve the first team. Our defence will only get better next season, as the likes of Mignolet and Sakho will settle.



*We already have like 5-7 players "for the future" that can go on to make it but are currently lacking first team experience. We also have another 2-3 that under 18 that can, too. Enough is enough.

As for squad players, by improving the first team, we improve our bench at the same time, and we get a lot better as a result. We then have depth to push on for the title. The only "squad signing" we need, is cover for Lucas.

Went slightly off topic.   

Red Alert wrote:Diego Costa maybe?

I don't know. I'm struggling with names here. We need someone that can be creative, and playmake, as well be a reliable goal scorer if Suarez is to go.
 

No but that's the thing, I don't know should we even try to replace Suarez with a player with a similar skill set as Suarez. Because we obviously won't get anyone as good. Furthermore, I'm not sure should we splash £30m+ on any striker in the event of Suarez leaving, because we've got Sturridge who is looking really sharp. We might be better off making our biggest signings elsewhere than up front since we've already got Sturridge shining bright, in the case we lose Suarez.

Red Alert wrote:Diego Costa maybe?

I don't know. I'm struggling with names here. We need someone that can be creative, and playmake, as well be a reliable goal scorer if Suarez is to go.

I think Suarez has become/is a very unique player. In case we lose him, BR has to change the system a little bit but that is very important thing in bolds there, I think we will have to go for player like Konoplayanka again in the summer.

Red Alert wrote:
*We already have like 5-7 players "for the future" that can go on to make it but are currently lacking first team experience. We also have another 2-3 that under 18 that can, too. Enough is enough.

Will Hughes says 'Hi!!!' I agree that concentrating on first team is more important but if any great talent becomes available we should nab him.

Red Alert wrote:
As for squad players, by improving the first team, we improve our bench at the same time, and we get a lot better as a result. We then have depth to push on for the title. The only "squad signing" we need, is cover for Lucas.

Went slightly off topic.   

Lucas needs a first team competition, Lucas never looked the same to me. May be it is because when he played with Gerrard (I would describe it as running for both him and Gerrard)

Art Morte wrote:

Red Alert wrote:Diego Costa maybe?

I don't know. I'm struggling with names here. We need someone that can be creative, and playmake, as well be a reliable goal scorer if Suarez is to go.
 

No but that's the thing, I don't know should we even try to replace Suarez with a player with a similar skill set as Suarez. Because we obviously won't get anyone as good. Furthermore, I'm not sure should we splash £30m+ on any striker in the event of Suarez leaving, because we've got Sturridge who is looking really sharp. We might be better off making our biggest signings elsewhere than up front since we've already got Sturridge shining bright, in the case we lose Suarez.

We're going to have to replace him with a similiar skill set. We won't get anyone as good, obviously. But we're going to have to invest to bring someone in. You can't replace the best playmaker in your team, and most deadliest striker for peanuts. Again, he has the most assists and goals for us this season and he missed 6 games at the start of the season.

HEIL MEIN REDS wrote:
Will Hughes says 'Hi!!!' I agree that concentrating on first team is more important but if any great talent becomes available we should nab him.

Lucas needs a first team competition, Lucas never looked the same to me. May be it is because when he played with Gerrard (I would describe it as running for both him and Gerrard)

Red Alert says "No thanks!!!"

There's no doubt Will Hughes is talented, but how many times have you seen him play? Is he worth such a high fee? Will he have an affect on our first team? I mean, what's the point of signing great talents if we're never going to play them? Especially at the fee we're buying young players. They don't develop sitting on the bench.

We already have Henderson and Allen who are still developing in midfield. Yes, they're a mature age, but they're still getting better and better and need games to get better. We also have Suso and Coutinho... looking further, you have Borini, Ilori, Wisdom, Sterling, Ibe, Luis Alberto, and if you really want to go even more further, there's the likes of Rossiter and the Spanish lad, Chivrella? It's gone up to point where we have to say enough is enough and focus on actually looking at the first team, and JUST the first team. And that's leaving the likes of Coates and other talents such as Yesil out. We spent over 60M on these players. We need to back our academy / players we've previously bought "for the future".

Lucas may need competition, but he WAS getting back to his best. He wasn't at the level he was pre-injury, but he was doing a role for us week in week out and was improving every game to get back onto that level. I think the one thing that affected him this season was he was rushed back. Well not necessary rushed back, but played too many games in quick succession because we have no one to let him have rest/breather. I've stated I'd like to see Schneiderlin from Soton in. I've mentioned him in the ideal thread. Think he'll be perfect. He'd challenge Lucas, and is already "ready". And he'll only get better. If we make CL, they'll be a lot of games to play, so both players will get a fair amount of games.

As I said, if there is an opportunity to sign a player like Will Hughes, ..., ..., I mean any other talent which is highly rated, we should invest in it. The one thing which I agree is 'sitting on the bench doesnt help' but if we do get Europe next season we will have enough games to give game time to many. So if we sign someone, we have to manage the player properly and we can sign someone until and unless it doesnt affect the first team plan.

Just because we have a lot more games does not mean every youth player is going to feature...

We need to be strictly buying for the first team now.

you are really frutrating do discuss anything with. I am not saying players like Hughes are going to OR should feature, I am saying sign for the first team should be the first priority but if talent is available, we have to invest, doesnt matter if we have to loan them, again the condition being 'it shouldnt affect the first team investment'

Well, I couldn't care less if you think I'm frustrating or not.

We don't need to invest in anyone for the "future" first team.

If Viktor Fischer suddenly came available, and believe me I am his biggest fan, I'd be the first one to say no right now.

Stop wasting money on youth players. We don't need him, they're not going to improve us at all, and it restricts us from spending 1 or 2m extra for a player like Salah / Kono.

Red Alert wrote:
Stop wasting money on youth players. We don't need him, they're not going to improve us at all, and it restricts us from spending 1 or 2m extra for a player like Salah / Kono.

if you think spending 7m on Illori would have held back Ayre from spending 1-2 m on Kono or Salaha, you are fooling yourself, that just comes down to our problems like the shitty strict policy of not overpaying at all OR Ayre, FSG and the stuff

This whole "strict policy" of not wanting to overspend is simply because we're following the financial fair rules sh*t that FIFA is trying to implement.

For example, if we don't spend 7m on an Alberto, we have 7m extra to spend on a Mkhitaryan and his third party crap and he actually improves Liverpool's first team. He also helps Liverpool future, as he's still at a mature age and has years at hte top. He'd also guarantee CL meaning we have extra funds to go out and purchase another player.

And to get back on topic, what's happened to Suarez in the last few games? He hasn't been himself since Bournemouth in the FA cup. Seem's to be indecisive when normally he plays on instinct and his body language hasn't been the best, either. Probably harsh considering he was one of the few decent players today, but he's not been playing at the high level he was earlier this season in the last few games.

For the millionth time, BR laughed at the possibility we paid 7m for Ilori. Just saying.

I never mentioned we paid 7m for Ilori.

I stated we've so far, spent 60m+ for the future of this club and they're (the players purchased) not going to get better if they don't get first team experience. So I'd much rather us focus on signing people for the first team. This thread has really gone off topic though, so I'll stop derailing it even more.

This thing has been bugging me for a while now. Have we become overly dependent on Suarez and Sturridge! Their share of goals is way ahead than any leading pair of scorers in EPL (possibly among any major leagues as well). Suarez is 50% more likely to create a goal than Henderson while Sturridge stands a better chance of creating a goal than Raheem or Coutinho. Then there is the presence, movement or shots that will make you a threat for the opponent.

Raheem has done incredibly since his debut and it will take another two seasons to judge where he will end up. But couldn’t he have done even better already! There are at least three occasions where he messed up a scoring chance in one2one situation. Most often than not, he takes some extra time or movement that results in lost time or space to deliver a ball and his shooting are almost speculative.

Coutinho delivers some quality passes. Even if those don’t lead to goals, they put the opposition under pressure. But his shooting has been abysmal. More importantly, he (unlike Raheem) rarely ventures into scoring/threatening positions. In fact, in only handful occasions he was inside the box.

There was a time when Henderson would regularly run into scoring or threatening positions. He used to play balls that set players into scoring or threatening spaces. His shooting from around the box has also ceased. While he works his socks off, he is engaged in retaining or recycling possessions than making himself a bigger threat.

While this trio works really hard, they have the potential of becoming bigger threats. They lack the hunger/poise/instinct to stretch the opposition even further.

Red Alert wrote:This whole "strict policy" of not wanting to overspend is simply because we're following the financial fair rules sh*t that FIFA is trying to implement.

For example, if we don't spend 7m on an Alberto, we have 7m extra to spend on a Mkhitaryan and his third party crap and he actually improves Liverpool's first team. He also helps Liverpool future, as he's still at a mature age and has years at hte top. He'd also guarantee CL meaning we have extra funds to go out and purchase another player.  

the fact that we had spent so much money on all our other transfers but we still managed to match the asking price for Mkhitaryan, it means that we were not really worried about FFP rules from FIFA when we wanted to spend 10-20m on Kono or Salah, it was more about not 'value for money'. There is a thing called 'sustainable business model', according to which we need a balanced approach between first team spending and spending for future.

They are the deadly double act who are providing the inspiration in Liverpool FC’s pursuit of a Champions League spot.

When Daniel Sturridge tucked away Luis Suarez’s cross-shot at West Brom last weekend it was the 37th Premier League goal the duo have shared this season. Remarkably, they have made just 35 league appearances between them.

Not since Robbie Fowler and Stan Collymore were operating in tandem have Liverpool boasted such a prolific front two.

With 14 games still to play, Suarez and Sturridge look set to shatter the combined tally of 42 league goals Fowler (28) and Collymore (14) bagged in 1995/96.

They are also within sight of out-scoring some of Anfield’s most famous pairings.

John Barnes (22) and Ian Rush (18) got 40 in the league between them in the club’s last title-winning campaign of 1989/90.

When the championship was also clinched two years prior to that John Aldridge (26) and Peter Beardsley (15) netted on 41 occasions. Rush (24) and Kenny Dalglish (18) went one better than that in the triumphant 1982/83 season.

If Suarez and Sturridge maintain their sky-high standards until May they could even break the tally of 52 league goals the cherished duo of Roger Hunt (31) and Ian St John (21) plundered under Bill Shankly in 1963/64.

I think they can do it, too.

52 means, just 15 goals more...few of them will come at home so why not that should be possible

HEIL MEIN REDS wrote:52 means, just 15 goals more...few of them will come at home so why not that should be possible

15 from 14...however that will come as dessert as those goals will most certainly mean CL next season. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SAS.

39 goals between them. We as a team have scored 66. They're responsible for 59% of our goals this season and that's not including assists.

Add assists to that, and they're responsible for 77% of our goals this season.

I always knew this would come once sturridge came back, suarez aint going to 'smash' that PL record   

Just hope that his confidence doesn't erode just because he isn't getting on that score sheet, he still plays a massive part.

Confidence won't be an issue. He's always thrived as playing as the second striker, as more of the playmaker type, and he was one of our best players on the pitch yesterday. He had poor body language in 2-3 games in the last few weeks, but look's like he's overcame it.

frrrack they are proving to be deadly, I think Suarez might have had poor body language, because it seems clear that he is spending more of his time on the flank these days...but as soon as he gets in the box, he can be deadly
the one yday, when he cam from left hand side and beating their three defenders, somehoe he managed to shoot, he is just unbelievable

Don't think it was because he was on the flank tbh.

He relishes that role, and he played the same role in the last couple of games now and has played at a great level.

Must of been something at a personal thing. He just did have another kid, maybe a lack of sleep? I don't know. All speculation of course. Doesn't really matter now, it's all in the past and he's got his head back into the cause.