A One, Two, Three, Four, Five Man Team
Whilst the lack of depth in the side it a moot point, time and again certain player absences have been pointed too as the absolute reason for our dip in form. ...
I'd argue that what happened immediately following those injuries is the key to our recent drop in form. It was not an isolated cause but rather the culmination of three factors.
1. A squad tired from covering key injured personnel, adapting to changing personnel.
2. The reintroduction of those key injured personnel too early, both to try and arrest a dip in form and to prepare for Mane's departure to the ACON.
3. Mane's departure to the ACON.
I think with the above analysis you've hit the nail on the head for our mediocre middle 13 league games and failure in the cups
Filler in his prematch mentioned our season being split into three parts. Part I, sensational, Part II, shite and Part III is unfolding.
Come in. Sit down. Shut up. ...
Part I 9/13 league wins
Part II 5/13 league wins (and knocked out the cups)
Part III So far so good - 1 out of 1
We are always going to have periods in the season when we have key players out, especially the front 4, injured or knackered from too many games (there is an international break coming up before the Derby on April 1st). Particularly having two of those four that have to travel to South America.
I'd argue we never recovered from Lallana getting injured for England and the Brazilians coming back knackered from SA, and then Coutinho got injured and then Mané went to ACON.
What's the solution? More good players I guess. And for the rest of the season, like you suggest, bring in Origi and others when the opportunity arises. Obviously if that does happen and we don't win we'll all be fuming because we changed a winning team
and from wiki, a bit of Burnley - Liverpool - bonhomie:
Boff Whalley, recorded a song called Stud Marks on the Summits, which was inspired by a chance meeting with Bill Smith [Liverpudlian-fell running pioneer].
Whalley took up fell running as a result. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bill-smith-lonely-death-of-a-modest-giant-of-fell-running-2366786.html