Wow, you're older than I am and unlike myself you've actually seen title winning Liverpool sides. That just makes it worse. Whatever you want to call it, it was a similar post to any number of ones about how Lucas isn't good enough, it's how far we've fallen etc and it's now the same with Henderson. It's a stone's throw away from Trevor 'Bill Shankly will be turning in his grave' Brooking which is sad, particularly as it's come from someone, as you've pointed out, whose been supporting the club for over 40 years.
My post said that Lucas was the BEST of a bad bunch which is the truth. It does indicate we have fallen from a team that had countless great players and especially midfielders. Looked at the table lately? We have missed him, sure - but I'd have any number of other midfielders from the last forty years instead of him, which is why I said there were better potential yardsticks. It may be "damning with faint praise" but then compared to better players that have come before him it is simply true. Is Suarez the best yardstick this club can offer for a number seven, for example?
That is all I was trying to say, albeit clumsily.
Benitle was right though, as I didn't read the "improvement" aspect of the point being made which is stoopid of me and I apologise. I didn't mean to cause a kerfuffle or derail the thread.
At the end of the day, the table doesn't lie and hasn't done since '89-'90. We simply haven't had good enough players to sustain consistently high levels of performance over 38 games. We currently have five or six players good enough to win a title - we need at least fourteen! That's why we're almost forty points off the top.
Henderson will improve, for sure, but has light years to go before he gets to a place where Gerrard was even at the age of 21 and so talk of him replacing the captain in the future is premature and naive at best. I'm not wholly convinced by him myself so far but he has plenty of time on his side and needs a run in the middle but, as with most of our recent signings, there was far better value and talent to be had in the marketplace. It seems to me that, regardless of circumstances, we replaced far better players with worse ones. But that isn't a discussion for this thread.
As you say, I and countless others have seen us win titles home and abroad. We are so far from doing that again it is pretty heartbreaking. Sadder still that so many of the loudest voices in our supporter base don't have a clue what it means to support our club. Liverpool FC and its fans don't settle for second best and aren't afraid to say so. If there is a better player for a position who will improve us we do not have room for sentiment. Often I read here and see posters apparently loyal to players or managers over and above the club. If we want to get back to winning titles we need to be realistic and ruthless. We need to stop making excuses and stop deluding ourselves about the calibre of most of our playing staff. Forty points behind the mancs says everything that needs to be said about it really.
