Current Squad vs 2010 Squad

[Jesal]

Let's compare the squad right now to what we had around 18 months ago. How do you think our present squad compares?

It's 2010 vs 2012, and the better player is in that position bold.

GK:
Reina vs Reina
Jones vs Doni

RB:
Johnson vs Johnson
Degen vs Kelly
Darby vs Flanagan

CB:
Skrtel vs Skrtel
Agger vs Agger
Carragher vs Carragher
Kyrgiakos vs Coates
Ayala vs Wilson

LB:
Konchesky vs Enrique
Aurelio vs Aurelio
Insua vs Robinson

MID:
Lucas vs Lucas
Poulsen vs Spearing
Gerrard vs Gerrard
Meireles vs Henderson
Jovanovic vs Downing
Maxi vs Maxi
Aquilani vs Adam
Shelvey vs Shelvey

FOR:
Torres vs Carroll
Cole vs Suarez
Babel vs Bellamy
Kuyt vs Kuyt
Pacheco vs Sterling
Ngog vs Eccleston

Now obviously some of the match-ups aren't precise. But just talking generally, in terms of squad depth, it looks like the score is:

"2010" 11 vs 16 "2012"

There are some that you can argue about, but those are mostly squad players or reserves or players that barely got a chance.

How about just the first teamers? Out of the 16 players that made up the regular 1st team squad:

"2010" 7 vs 9 "2012"

There can be no doubt that in most respects, our current squad is better now. But, to be perfectly honest, I thought the 2012 lot would be much further ahead of the 2010 squad, and they actually aren't in some respects (particularly midfield/attack). It's pretty clear what we need to do this summer, and hopefully when we compare the 2012 (Winter vintage) to the 2010, it will be a much more different case. Striker and creative midfielders are paramount!

YNWA

[gingeZizou82]

How is Robinson in any way better than Insua? And you have judged this on what 3 appearences?

I think we've made a single improvement to our starting eleven despite the money spent and sheer amount of players arriving/departing.

[-JTR-]

The only one I would disagree with is:

Aquilani vs Henderson

Aquilani for me just never had the heart or drive to make it in the premier league, I posted a long thread about him a good while ago, his drive in preseason a time when we were lacking key players for qualifiers just wasnt there and he looked like he couldnt care less. I think Henderson has had much more of an impact thus far than Aquilani had.

But apart from that I agree with everything else.

[SouthernRob]

How is Robinson in any way better than Insua? And you have judged this on what 3 appearences?

And I don't think 2012 Reina is better than 2010 record clean sheet Reina

[Panic-Button]

Maxi did nothing to show he was better two years ago that he has been since Kenny has come in. I know by logic, age should be a factor, but I cant see it.

[Jesal]

How is Robinson in any way better than Insua? And you have judged this on what 3 appearences?

That's a fair one, but my reasoning is that 18 months ago Insua was simply awful. Last season, when Robinson played, he was exceptional for his age and didn't look out of place.

Insua at his best is obviously better than the handful of Robinson's appearances but that wasn't the case, in my eyes. Tough decision though, your point of view is equally valid.

[gingeZizou82]

The only one I would disagree with is:

Aquilani vs Henderson

Aquilani for me just never had the heart or drive to make it in the premier league, I posted a long thread about him a good while ago, his drive in preseason a time when we were lacking key players for qualifiers just wasnt there and he looked like he couldnt care less. I think Henderson has had much more of an impact thus far than Aquilani had.

But apart from that I agree with everything else.

Did you make a thread about the other 20 players who who's attitude and performances were even worse though? Some of which are still here?

[Jesal]

The only one I would disagree with is:

Aquilani vs Henderson

Aquilani for me just never had the heart or drive to make it in the premier league, I posted a long thread about him a good while ago, his drive in preseason a time when we were lacking key players for qualifiers just wasnt there and he looked like he couldnt care less. I think Henderson has had much more of an impact thus far than Aquilani had.

But apart from that I agree with everything else.

That was one of the difficult match ups. They are different players, to be honest. Maybe Aquilani vs Adam and Meireles vs Henderson would be better?

But either way, 2010 Aquilani is a better player than Henderson right now. Obviously he doesn't want to be here, but it just highlights that we are missing a creative and classy midfielder, with both him and Meireles gone.

[Jesal]

Maxi did nothing to show he was better two years ago that he has been since Kenny has come in. I know by logic, age should be a factor, but I cant see it.

Right now, Maxi's not even being considered for the first team, that's my sole reasoning. He's only appeared for us 10 times this season.

[AnfieldSouth41]

The Clear improvements look like The 2 Full back positions.

The obvious area we've weakend is Centre Mid with the loss of Aquilani & Miereles and the decline of Gerrard. This seriously needs looking at in the Summer. A quality centre mid & a quality right sided player is needed.

[-JTR-]

Did you make a thread about the other 20 players who who's attitude and performances were even worse though? Some of which are still here?

He was a "senior" player in a team of kids, playing against FC nobody and he way off the pace and showed little hunger at the time, he had his chance to really show some passion and fight and in my opinion didnt that was the time I gave up on him.

Other players that played those qualifiers were kids or fringe players and most of them improved or showed some spark, the ones that didnt are now gone.

[-JTR-]

That was one of the difficult match ups. They are different players, to be honest. Maybe Aquilani vs Adam and Meireles vs Henderson would be better?

But either way, 2010 Aquilani is a better player than Henderson right now. Obviously he doesn't want to be here, but it just highlights that we are missing a creative and classy midfielder, with both him and Meireles gone.

I thik Aquilani vs Adam and Meireles would have been a better match up mate.

And I think you'd see Adam has been slightly better for us that Aquilani but on the other hand Meireles was 100 times better than henderson, shame he wanted out really.

[Jesal]

The Clear improvements look like The 2 Full back positions.

The obvious area we've weakend is Centre Mid with the loss of Aquilani & Miereles and the decline of Gerrard. This seriously needs looking at in the Summer. A quality centre mid & a quality right sided player is needed.

Completely agree.

Think our whole defence is much more solid now. But midfield:

Gerrard, Aquilani, Lucas & Meireles vs Gerrard, Adam, Lucas & Henderson

Only Lucas has improved, and he's been knocked out for most of the season.

Up front we've added Suarez's creativity but lost Torres' finishing - and that's been the worst part of this season, poor finishing.

[rederman]

Let's compare the squad right now to what we had around 18 months ago. How do you think our present squad compares?

It's 2010 vs 2012, and the better player is in that position bold.

GK:
Reina vs Reina
Jones vs Doni

RB:
Johnson vs Johnson
Degen vs Kelly
Darby vs Flanagan

CB:
Skrtel vs Skrtel
Agger vs Agger
Carragher vs Carragher
Kyrgiakos vs Coates
Ayala vs Wilson

LB:
Konchesky vs Enrique
Aurelio vs Aurelio
Insua vs Robinson

MID:
Lucas vs Lucas
Poulsen vs Spearing
Gerrard vs Gerrard
Meireles vs Adam
Jovanovic vs Downing
Maxi vs Maxi
Aquilani vs Henderson
Shelvey vs Shelvey

FOR:
Torres vs Carroll
Cole vs Suarez
Babel vs Bellamy
Kuyt vs Kuyt
Pacheco vs Sterling
Ngog vs Eccleston

Now obviously some of the match-ups aren't precise. But just talking generally, in terms of squad depth, it looks like the score is:

"2010" 11 vs 16 "2012"

There are some that you can argue about, but those are mostly squad players or reserves or players that barely got a chance.

How about just the first teamers? Out of the 16 players that made up the regular 1st team squad:

"2010" 7 vs 9 "2012"

There can be no doubt that in most respects, our current squad is better now. But, to be perfectly honest, I thought the 2012 lot would be much further ahead of the 2010 squad, and they actually aren't in some respects (particularly midfield/attack). It's pretty clear what we need to do this summer, and hopefully when we compare the 2012 (Winter vintage) to the 2010, it will be a much more different case. Striker and creative midfielders are paramount!

YNWA

Its all irelevant.
City are now going no-wherr for the next decade
Utd have improved since 2010.
Spurs have improved drastically since 2010,
Chelsea have stagnated since 2010 however are still a level above us with a fresh manager to join with serious funds available,
and arsenal inspite of having world-class players and their captain taken away from them are right up there fighting for 4th..
Weve slipped further behind no matter what way we compare both squads above,

[rederman]

Let's compare the squad right now to what we had around 18 months ago. How do you think our present squad compares?

It's 2010 vs 2012, and the better player is in that position bold.

GK:
Reina vs Reina
Jones vs Doni

RB:
Johnson vs Johnson
Degen vs Kelly
Darby vs Flanagan

CB:
Skrtel vs Skrtel
Agger vs Agger
Carragher vs Carragher
Kyrgiakos vs Coates
Ayala vs Wilson

LB:
Konchesky vs Enrique
Aurelio vs Aurelio
Insua vs Robinson

MID:
Lucas vs Lucas
Poulsen vs Spearing
Gerrard vs Gerrard
Meireles vs Adam
Jovanovic vs Downing
Maxi vs Maxi
Aquilani vs Henderson
Shelvey vs Shelvey

FOR:
Torres vs Carroll
Cole vs Suarez
Babel vs Bellamy
Kuyt vs Kuyt
Pacheco vs Sterling
Ngog vs Eccleston

Now obviously some of the match-ups aren't precise. But just talking generally, in terms of squad depth, it looks like the score is:

"2010" 11 vs 16 "2012"

There are some that you can argue about, but those are mostly squad players or reserves or players that barely got a chance.

How about just the first teamers? Out of the 16 players that made up the regular 1st team squad:

"2010" 7 vs 9 "2012"

There can be no doubt that in most respects, our current squad is better now. But, to be perfectly honest, I thought the 2012 lot would be much further ahead of the 2010 squad, and they actually aren't in some respects (particularly midfield/attack). It's pretty clear what we need to do this summer, and hopefully when we compare the 2012 (Winter vintage) to the 2010, it will be a much more different case. Striker and creative midfielders are paramount!

YNWA

Its all irelevant.
City are now going no-where for the next decade
Utd have improved since 2010.
Spurs have improved drastically since 2010,
Chelsea have stagnated since 2010 however are still a level above us with a fresh manager to join with serious funds available,
and arsenal inspite of having world-class players and their captain taken away from them are right up there fighting for 4th..
Weve slipped further behind no matter what way we compare both squads above,

[-JTR-]

Completely agree.

Think our whole defence is much more solid now. But midfield:

Gerrard, Aquilani, Lucas & Meireles vs Gerrard, Adam, Lucas & Henderson

Only Lucas has improved, and he's been knocked out for most of the season.

Up front we've added Suarez's creativity but lost Torres' finishing - and that's been the worst part of this season, poor finishing.

I think as I think you pointed out earlier we need a player that will break late into the box and for Gerrard to sit deeper.

A Hamsik type player would be ideal in my opinion.

[SouthernRob]

Its all irelevant.
City are now going no-where for the next decade
Utd have improved since 2010.
Spurs have improved drastically since 2010,
Chelsea have stagnated since 2010 however are still a level above us with a fresh manager to join with serious funds available,
and arsenal inspite of having world-class players and their captain taken away from them are right up there fighting for 4th..
Weve slipped further behind no matter what way we compare both squads above,

Hard to argue with - then what's the answer?

[Dirny]

The only one I would disagree with is:

Aquilani vs Henderson

Aquilani for me just never had the heart or drive to make it in the premier league, I posted a long thread about him a good while ago, his drive in preseason a time when we were lacking key players for qualifiers just wasnt there and he looked like he couldnt care less. I think Henderson has had much more of an impact thus far than Aquilani had.

But apart from that I agree with everything else.

He was quality in the games he played under Benitez, but seemed to lose his desire under Roy. Against Atletico in the Europa League at Anfield he looked genuinely happy to be playing for us.

[Shed]

Let's compare the squad right now to what we had around 18 months ago. How do you think our present squad compares?

It's 2010 vs 2012, and the better player is in that position bold.

GK:
Reina vs Reina
Jones vs Doni

RB:
Johnson vs Johnson
Degen vs Kelly
Darby vs Flanagan

CB:
Skrtel vs Skrtel
Agger vs Agger
Carragher vs Carragher
Kyrgiakos vs Coates
Ayala vs Wilson

LB:
Konchesky vs Enrique
Aurelio vs Aurelio
Insua vs Robinson

MID:
Lucas vs Lucas
Poulsen vs Spearing
Gerrard vs Gerrard
Meireles vs Henderson
Jovanovic vs Downing
Maxi vs Maxi
Aquilani vs Adam
Shelvey vs Shelvey

FOR:
Torres vs Carroll
Cole vs Suarez
Babel vs Bellamy
Kuyt vs Kuyt
Pacheco vs Sterling
Ngog vs Eccleston

Now obviously some of the match-ups aren't precise. But just talking generally, in terms of squad depth, it looks like the score is:

"2010" 11 vs 16 "2012"

There are some that you can argue about, but those are mostly squad players or reserves or players that barely got a chance.

How about just the first teamers? Out of the 16 players that made up the regular 1st team squad:

"2010" 7 vs 9 "2012"

There can be no doubt that in most respects, our current squad is better now. But, to be perfectly honest, I thought the 2012 lot would be much further ahead of the 2010 squad, and they actually aren't in some respects (particularly midfield/attack). It's pretty clear what we need to do this summer, and hopefully when we compare the 2012 (Winter vintage) to the 2010, it will be a much more different case. Striker and creative midfielders are paramount!

YNWA

Downing has been good the last couple of weeks, but if you look over the course of a season, it's tough to say that he was any better than Janovich

[Jesal]

And I don't think 2012 Reina is better than 2010 record clean sheet Reina

I'd argue that once Benitez left, Reina definitely dipped for a while. 18 months ago we were under Roy, and Reina wasn't playing well then.

[gingeZizou82]

He was a "senior" player in a team of kids, playing against FC nobody and he way off the pace and showed little hunger at the time, he had his chance to really show some passion and fight and in my opinion didnt that was the time I gave up on him.

Other players that played those qualifiers were kids or fringe players and most of them improved or showed some spark, the ones that didnt are now gone.

He had some very productive games on that Asia tour and probably already knew he was on his way out toward the end of pre season considering his 3rd manager in as many years had just bought two more players that played in central midfield. Steve Clarke and Kenny both praised him during that pre-season as well even though he was on the way out.

For Hodgson even our best senior players had developed awful attitudes. Aquilani was one of many. Alot of them are still here.

[Dirny]

I'd argue that once Benitez left, Reina definitely dipped for a while. 18 months ago we were under Roy, and Reina wasn't playing well then.

When Rafa left Xavi Valero, (his goalkeeping coach) left too. I'd say that had more to do with it. Reina was immense in 2010, I can't imagine him winning games on his own anymore like he did vs Everton.

He's still brilliant though.

[Jesal]

He had some very productive games on that Asia tour and probably already knew he was on his way out toward the end of pre season considering his 3rd manager in as many years had just bought two more players that played in central midfield. Steve Clarke and Kenny both praised him during that pre-season as well even though he was on the way out.

For Hodgson even our best senior players had developed awful attitudes. Aquilani was one of many. Alot of them are still here.

I'd agree with this.

But in the end, this Aquilani debate will rage on until we sign someone great to make us forget about him. Some people think he didn't get the chance, others think he blew his chance. We'll never really know.

My main point is that a midfield of Gerrard, Lucas, Meireles and Aquilani is better than a midfield of Gerrard, Lucas, Adam and Henderson. The only upgrade is Lucas, the other three options are worse right now.

[Coach791]

Did you make a thread about the other 20 players who who's attitude and performances were even worse though? Some of which are still here?

We have players still at the club with a bad attitude? Carroll, Bellamy, Kuyt, Suarez, Downing, Maxi, Lucas, Gerrard, Adam, Henderson, Spearing, Shelvey, Johnson, Enrique, Flannagan, Coates, Carragher, Agger, Skrtel, Reina...........struggling to see who are the ones with the bad attitude.

To a man each one puts in a shift, regardless of form. To a man not one sulks on the pitch, not one ever complains about being left out. I'm confused who are the guys with the bad attitude?

[gingeZizou82]

I'd agree with this.

But in the end, this Aquilani debate will rage on until we sign someone great to make us forget about him. Some people think he didn't get the chance, others think he blew his chance. We'll never really know.

My main point is that a midfield of Gerrard, Lucas, Meireles and Aquilani is better than a three of Gerrard, Lucas, Adam and Henderson. The only upgrade is Lucas, the other three options are worse right now.

Hard to argue with that TBH.

[Dirny]

In fairness Roy wasn't exactly the most inspiring manager. He (Aquilani) was dire under Roy, but great under Rafa and in the few pre-season games under Kenny.

[Coach791]

I'd agree with this.

But in the end, this Aquilani debate will rage on until we sign someone great to make us forget about him. Some people think he didn't get the chance, others think he blew his chance. We'll never really know.

My main point is that a midfield of Gerrard, Lucas, Meireles and Aquilani is better than a three of Gerrard, Lucas, Adam and Henderson. The only upgrade is Lucas, the other three options are worse right now.

Some people would agree, yet somehow it doesn't really stand up. Did we ever win a trophy with Mascherano, Gerrard, Lucas, Aquilani and Meireles? Correct me if i'm wrong but with 4 of them we finished 7th and then we were 12th when aquilani loaned out and Meireles came in.............explain?

[Marco9]

reina is the same probably.

[gingeZizou82]

We have players still at the club with a bad attitude? Carroll, Bellamy, Kuyt, Suarez, Downing, Maxi, Lucas, Gerrard, Adam, Henderson, Spearing, Shelvey, Johnson, Enrique, Flannagan, Coates, Carragher, Agger, Skrtel, Reina...........struggling to see who are the ones with the bad attitude.

To a man each one puts in a shift, regardless of form. To a man not one sulks on the pitch, not one ever complains about being left out. I'm confused who are the guys with the bad attitude?

Carroll has been held back by his attitude since he arrived and he has made Robbie Keane look positive. It took rumours we wanted rid to change that and Downing has been happy to coast along for months until recently.

Kuyt, Gerrard, Johnson, Lucas, Carragher, Agger, Skrtel and Reina all had their collective bottom lips out when Hodgson was here and their negative attitudes should of stayed behind closed doors, but they brought them on to the pitch all too often. They didn't work hard enough for that manager and very few people called them on it.

[Dirny]

Carroll has been held back by his attitude since he arrived and he has made Robbie Keane look positive. It took rumours we wanted rid to change that and Downing has been happy to coast along for months until recently.

Kuyt, Gerrard, Johnson, Lucas, Carragher, Agger, Skrtel and Reina all had their collective bottom lips out when Hodgson was here and their negative attitudes should of stayed behind closed doors, but they brought them on to the pitch all too often. They didn't work hard enough for that manager and very few people called them on it.

He was the only player who consistently worked hard!