They've got pace and goals all over the pitch, Suarez, Sturridge & Sterling give them great pace and a lot of cutting edge in the final third. Behind them players like Gerrard & Coutinho have the passing range to pick them out and the likes of Henderson help a lot with their pressing game. Having so many goals in them though helps mask over a lot of other flaws in their game, defensively they are average and once you get past the initial pressing stage they do leave a lot of gaps. Having players like Suarez & Sturridge in ruthless form at the moment though gets them out of all sorts of trouble.
With them playing a game a week (or a game after 15 days like against Man Utd) it allows them to play at a higher intensity and recover for the next game. Also gives them much more chance to prepare more thoroughly for their next game. Fair play to them it has worked well and they have done better than I would of thought but next season unless they bring a few more players in and not lose anyone they won't find things as easy. I think the likes of us and City have played almost 15 games more than them this season and that makes a big difference.
Burnwinter wrote:
They haven't spent as much money as us over time on wages.
They've pissed away a fair bit in the transfer market on bad buys, but their current first XI probably only cost about as much as or less than ours did right?
They're running at over £50m loss a season and that is with very lucrative sponsorship deals in place. Their owner allows them to swallow these losses and reject big money bids. Our wages are only higher because we have CL football so players will expect to be paid more.
Their squad isn't that cheap either, Suarez £23m, Allen £15m, Henderson £18m, Johnson £18m, Sturridge £12m, Sakho £16.5m. All have worked out ok for them I suppose, they took some Man City scouts in last year I think and they have found them some very good players at good prices.
Rohit wrote:
Moreover, they are the same team as last season really who have shown immense improvement. A lot down to Sturridge settling in and forming a potent partnership with arguably the League's best player.
To be fair, we are more or less the same and have shown tremendous improvement too but the lack of a quality striker eventually has cost us points we could have won.
The only reason why the top 4 are so close and all in with a chance is because all of us having glaring holes in our squad. This time last season Man Utd had 74 points. I really do believe if we had kept Ramsey & Theo fit we'd be well clear at the moment but that with our lack of striker has held us back big time.
