Flanagan....Very under-rated

Red Alert wrote:Yeah, the best full back in the league leaving the club would be easily replaced I agree. (Keep in mind he's the only decent player Suarez has played with in the final third since 2011 and has pretty much carried the right hand side since he's been at the club.

EDIT: Sorry 'very replaceable'  

Johnson is the best fullback in the league?  Doubts...

Robespierre wrote:

Red Alert wrote:Yeah, the best full back in the league leaving the club would be easily replaced I agree. (Keep in mind he's the only decent player Suarez has played with in the final third since 2011 and has pretty much carried the right hand side since he's been at the club.

EDIT: Sorry 'very replaceable'  

Johnson  is the best fullback in the league?  Doubts...

Who's better? Kyle Walker?

GJ is comfortably the best fullback in the league. Only Rafael comes close .

For me the best Right fullback is Zabaleta...
I like also Coleman

Zabaleta's a good shout. Completely slipped my mind, actually. Definitely one of the best, probably rivals Johnson more than Rafael.

Coleman is average but then again, I only watch Everton when they vs Liverpool.

Going forward Johnson is one of the best and especially dribbling is his forte. I like full-backs who can dribble past players. But he is so bad at defending high balls that I can't put him in top-5 full-backs in the league. Top 10, yes

Are we sure that Jose Enrique is better than Flanagan ?

Robespierre wrote:Are we sure that Jose Enrique is better than Flanagan ?

Flanagan has been a revelation tbh. We had no idea he would this well tbh.

Been showing Johnson up for the past few games.

There's NO WAY he's getting displaced from the team. He, for me, is ahead of both Enrique and Johnson at both LB and RB. So good to have a fullback who is not only quality defensively and very eager offensively, but who will also bust a gut and put his life on the line for this club.

Hopefully Robbo follows Flanno's footsteps and surprises us.

Stop comparing Flanagan to an injury riddled GJ. GJ is two times the player. lol

Johnson hasn't been the same player under Rodgers' tenure he was his first 3 years with us. But whatever floats your boat. I like him, but he hurts the team rather help it thus I want him as far away from the team as possible.

PLEASE don't waste your time responding to this, I really am not going to read it as it's futile to argue when neither of us will change our minds.

Fine by me, I stopped reading after the first line. lol

It's been delightful to see that Flanagan is able to step in and do a job for us. However, I don't know should we look at him as a long-term starter. Personally I'm left hoping for a technically better full-back who contributes more with the ball and in attack. Johnson is that when he is at his normal level, but it's a worry that he might be past his prime and is defensively prone to more mistakes than Flanagan. Enrique I like a lot, on his day he is excellent in defense, midfield and attack and should be first-choice LB when fit.

He's going to "this is Scouse" Gerrard ffs.

I think Flano has decent first touch for a full back and he can actually pick good passes, he might have had an OFF game yesterday but most of the times he has been solid defensively, we need to develop him along with other quality FB, not Johnson, I have lost confidence in him, I will see what he does when he comes back. What Flano needs little more confidence to attack, it is clear that he trying now to contribute to attack also, so it will take time for him to develop the balance between attack and defense. I think he would be a very good back up for another quality FB in the next season

Johnson will win you over...

Again, he was playing injured.

What I find impressive is the Flanagan / Robinson comparison from 2011.

Flanagan always looked better going forward out of the two but suspect defensively. He looked like an attacking full back when he emerged. It's the other way around nowadays.

Robinson looked solid defensively too, mainly because he could "fix" a positional mistake with his pace / acceleration but not too good going forward. Not too sure how he's going out on loan.

this gives me an idea about another thread and I hope you are right about Johnson, he was a massive massive player for us

getting a new contract

Well in lad, thoroughly deserved.

well deserved...I will not be surprised if he keeps his starting place in the start of the next season

Deserves it, but will be interesting to see how it works out next season.

We'll probably buy another LB to compete with Enrique.
GJ isn't going to get dropped, and even if he does, and you RAWK conspiracies are correct, we'll sign a top class full back to replace him.

Let's not forget Wisdom will be back next season. Andre has been playing as a full back at Derby, not CB and Rodgers has said he's progessingly nicely.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

He is a brilliant player to have in the squad. I am always scared when he tackles someone but he is becoming a boss in that fullback position. I am damn curious how he performs against Zabaleta and Navas that will be very interesting.

Johnson needs to learn from him

Johnson had a shocker of a game today, it needs to be said. Aside from one or two solid performances, he hasn't looked great since coming back.

Terrible today, terrible against Sunderland but hasn't looked great since coming back is just wrong. He's been solid to great in the other games.

Lucas was worse than Johnson yesterday. Lucas's immobility made it difficult for Johnson to play forward effectively. I cannot understand how Lucas played like that, I thought he was smarter than this.

When Coutinho, Henderson or Sterling or even Allen come receive a pass from our back four or Gerrard, they come in with some speed, which creates them enough space so that they have time to turn around with the ball and look to pass it forward or run with it. They look to put the opposition on the back foot, as they should when playing those advanced midfield roles.

Lucas yesterday did none of the sort. When he was making himself available for that first pass out of defence, he was always just casually jogging towards the ball, so that he always had a Norwich player right behind him. So he played a first time pass straight back to defence or at best sideways. This slowed us down and invited a lot of pressure on us, which resulted in us having trouble getting out of our half and gave Norwich the chance to have much more control of the game than what they're really good for.

Lucas played that higher CM position like he would play in his more familiar DM position and that's what damaged our game the most. He looked like he wasn't even trying to be a link between defence and attack. There was zero urgency, no sprinting runs to empty spaces in midfield (I don't remember once seeing him run full speed, can you play that CM role like that? Negative.), no attempts to take the game to Norwich. Yes, he worked hard when we didn't have possession, but I just couldn't believe how poorly he played that CM role when we had the possession. It also made it difficult for the full-back in his flank, Johnson, when the closest CM to him was offering so little in terms of going forward and was inviting so much pressure on us with his slow play. That's why, in my opinion, Lucas was our worst player. Just lacked understanding and effort to play his role right.


As for Flanagan, a pretty good performance.

Art, excellent description of why Lucas had a poor game yesterday. I agree, he was our worst player.

As for RA's comment above, I don't agree that he's only been poor in those two games, but agree to disagree on that point. It's the wrong thread for it anyway.