You’re spot on about Carroll, in the formation we play with him on the pitch, it always leaves him isolated and pretty much useless. Even the balls into his chest and crosses have been poor, so that could be why he’s been so poor at Liverpool. Not sure whether the constant through balls thing was really the main reason for his success, but Newcastle definitely used him in a variety of ways, and the service to him was far better than it is from Liverpool, which is disappointing, considering Downing’s crossing ability, and Adam’s passing skill.
Sorry to plug my own articles, but every view helps :) http://peaktimesonline.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/can-carroll-fill-suarezs-boots/

Now however, I’m happy to see them persevere with him in that position and gain that experience at the club.

This should be a season of rebuilding, and at the end we can look at what we need to bring in to strengthen the squad. If after a season in the first team, Shelvey proves to be inadequate we can always sell him on.

With the issue of captaincy, Charlie Adam has produced some very good performances in the past few matches and has experience with his captaincy at Blackpool. And yes, Liverpool did control both matches, but their lack of goals could prove a problem. In the QPR match, Liverpool could not keep up their intense pressure for the last 20 minutes or so. This could come back to haunt them against stronger squads.

I also outlined the need for a good attacking midfielder. Jonjo Shelvey was placed in this role at the weekend, but he still lacks experience that I think is needed for the role. Gerrard could fulfill this role for at least the short term future. A powerful attacking midfielder could provide better service to Suarez and/or Carroll, which would hopefully result in more goals.

A non existent question over who should be captain then starts to be delved into, with the answer apparently being Charlie Adam, despite no evidence for or against why he should be captain apart from the fact that he plays in the middle of the park and is busier than Reina?

Liverpool strolled to wins against Villa and QPR, controlling both games but apparently they needed some inspiration from a captain on the field?

And apparently half way through the article the conclusion is that Liverpool is no longer in trouble and they’re now fine to see out December.

I’m still a little perplexed at your conclusions on the make up of the midfield. In a team that features Adam, Spearing, Gerrard, Henderson and Shelvey able to play in either a midfield 2 or 3 and remembering of course that any one time we can only play 2 or 3 of these players at any one time. Additionally, the likes of Auerlio did play as a deep lying midfielder for Benitez plus Maxi and Kuyt can both play off a No.9 positioned further up the pitch.

Carroll has struggled because of the type of passes being made to him, he’s either been asked to play back to goal and hold up possession or get on the end of a cross, whereas his success at Newcastle saw him use his movement off the ball and strength running onto through balls to score. Unfortunately as Kenny prefers Suarez, who plays in similar areas to Carroll, they’re not compatible playing next to each other.

They don’t need an overhaul of the team, nor do they need drastic changes of formation or even the return of the apparent “talisman” Steven Gerrard. Kenny and Clarke have been great at seeing where we’re going wrong and working on it and we’ve improved many areas of our game over the course of the season. You only need to look at the improvement of Adams positioning when after the first few games, he seemed to be getting caught out of position after every attack, now he’s more measured in his approach and it’s showing dividends. Let the manager get the team playing his game plan, this is a rebuilding year and I don’t expect to see the team at their best until the end of the season.