We lack organisation, we lack leaders. We've got some great attacking players - Sterling, Coutinho, Sturridge, Lallana, but we lack a cutting edge that we had with Suarez and Sturridge, any side would miss that level of player.
We've bought poorly in Balotelli, I don't think that's knee jerk, aside from the obvious concerns, he's the polar opposite everything Liverpool are aspiring to be - he's not particularly quick, unselfish, clever or hardworking. That's all of the attributes that served us well as a side last year. Markovic has time on his side, but he too looks lethargic, lacking in drive, determination and heart. I just don't see anything other than a massive struggle to incorporate him, put him and Mario together and we may aswell be playing with 9 men.
On the flip side, we now have Johnson (who looked reinvigorated today) and Enrique (who's rusty but a worthy squad member) back, to add to the two new lads at fullback who have largely impressed me from the word go.
As for Lovren, someone pointed out the "marks of a good, modern defender", in his willingness to go out and attack the ball and push up against opponents, to get tight and cut out the danger early. I've lost count of the amount of times he's done this and been left in no-mans land, by failing to intercept clearly.
That said, in fairness to him Skrtel today, when they both made hurried clearances (like the one that led to their first goal), NO ONE attacked the second ball. The ball was cleared past three Liverpool players who stood static, ball watching. That's criminal at any level and that IS a sign of poor organisation, a trait that stops with the manager. It's that sort of sloppy play, coupled with a complete inability to defend a setpiece, which is fucking us over time and time again.
Rodgers needs time, he deserves time, because the height of his game has shown us how excellent we can be, but he's got to earn his crust now. Losing Suarez was a blow, losing Sturridge too was unlucky, but buying Mario to back that up was a poor error of judgement. I don't even know if it's feasible for us to buy a striker in January, given we have Lambert, Borini, Mario, Sturridge and also young Origi on the way in next Summer (that can't come soon enough on current evidence).
Rafa and Houllier both struggled to find a balance between their conservative methods and reaching the attacking status of a top team, they both managed it fleetingly. Rodgers has to do the same from the opposite end of the spectrum, whilst overcoming the kind of stubbornness and inability to adapt, that dogged and ultimately ended their tenures. But they had alot more than two seasons to get it right, so even the slightest murmurings of "bring in manager X" is laughably premature. There's a long way to go yet.
I think a few of us said in the Summer that this might be a season of ups and downs and a large degree of tested patience, sometimes these testing times are part of the progress. We still have a strong squad, with a couple of the "right" players and the further emergence of others, we still have alot to be positive about. We just have to hope that he doesn't ignore the warning signs that everyone can blatantly see right now. We as fans have to live with the fact that there's no quick fix and we're stuck with what we've got for the time being. Tough, but what can yer do?
