Prince is suing Sterling over his hair plus five things learnt from the Boro penaltipalooza

1. Where was Enrique before the 109th minute? Didn't he start? It was almost if Rodgers held him back to protect the undisciplined Sakho.  Maybe he was afraid Old Man Kolo would get infected with catchus outofpositionus, the virus that deludes our centre backs to go forward at the worst of times, the Ivorian may try to roll his wheelchair into the opponent's box.  It was not only the inclusion of Suso and the realized ability of our players that they are capable of shooting the thing called a ball, but once Enrique started getting involved, the Boro defence really started to open up.

2. Rickie Lambert needs to go 'Syd Barret' on us all. Seriously, he should show up at the next match with all his shaved off: beard, scalp, eyebrows, legs, chest, the whole kitten kaboodle.  Then he should act like a man possessed, cussing himself and using crazy antics to baffle the opposition defense.  In the very least it'll make him faster, right? Eh.

3. Adam Lallana is a fantastic Championship player. He reminds me a lot of a young Adam Johnson, dancing around the pitch, making moves and breaking ankles reminiscent of Allen Iverson back in the day.  Of course, he is only a year younger than Johnson and though he did show some flash on the dribble, he did little else.  Twenty six million pounds! Don't think about it, I can see Del Boy's eyes popping out of his head before he almost dies of laughter.

4. What happened to the side that played Tottenham? The first thought is that we had Sturridge, but was he really that much of a factor?  He didn't really do much, he had one key pass, that's it.  Was starting he and Balotelli the secret?  Maybe, but doubtful.  One thing that is apparent is Moreno was more involved on attack versus Spurs than he was at Villa and West Ham.  The left back held the ball 10.9% of the time at White Hart Lane compared to 6.4% versus the Villans and 6.1% at Boleyn Ground.  Maybe the left back position is the biggest catalyst when it comes to Rodgers' tactics, let's why not find out.  Another factor was time spent on the ball, we whizzed that thing around the pitch like it was wasp nest in Sir Alec Ferguson's head.  Whatever we did pre-match to make us look that fresh and quick, Rodgers needs to repeat every match.

5. Raheem Sterling needs to work on his killer instinct. Is it just me or is Sterling's hair getting more and more Prince like with each match?  Let's have a comparison:

It's getting there, lad, but if he comes out full Purple Rain one match, I may lose the plot.  Anyhow, he has to learn to be selfish and shoot the ball more, it's the only way he'll ever get any better.  Plus, he just seems such a nice kid, he really needs to find his inner demon and unleash it on the ball at the proper time, his penalty yesterday and some of his better recent opportunities for a goal have fallen flat.

Jose Enrique deserves the right to win his spot back

Whether we bring in another left back or not (hopefully not Moreno though), Jose Enrique has the right to win his place back.  If he can return from knee injury and produce as he did the season prior, he should be our first choice with Flanagan being the 'defensive'/cup option.

year	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14
club	Newcastle	Liverpool	Liverpool	Liverpool
age	24	25	26	27
app(subs)	36	33(2)	25(4)	6(2)
mins	3123	2994	2257	604
p90	34.7	33.3	25.1	6.7
goals	0	0	2	0
assist	1	2	4	2
chances	30	36	26	8
npgp90	0	0	0.08	0
gcp90	0.03	0.06	0.24	0.3
ccp90	0.87	1.08	1.04	1.19
ap90	0.03	0.06	0.16	0.3
ccv	3.4	5.6	15.4	25.2
pass%	77	80.6	76.7	80.4
bp%	-	-	37	40.8
sacc%	21.1	23.1	36.4	50
shot%	0	0	9.1	0
TTI90	14	13.3	15.6	11.2
gap90	1	1.05	0.92	0.6
gsp90	1.04	1.2	1.91	1.64
gop90	0.04	0.15	0.99	1.04
tgop	-0.03	0.13	0.74	1.32
tp90	1.73	2.07	2.87	1.64
tack %	-	-	75.3	53.3
intp90	1.67	0.93	1.39	1.34
clrp90	1.76	1.41	1.95	2.99
dribpp90	0.26	0.36	0.36	0.3
bsp90	0.35	0.15	0.12	0.15

Even in the short time he saw the pitch last year, he impressed.  His 25.2 chance created value was ridiculously good and even 15.2 from the season before is solid.  His tackle success rate of  75.3% from his second year at LFC is phenomenal as well, basically he succeeded on three out of four tackles attempted.

So how does his season before compare to Flanagan and Moreno from last season?

	Enrique	Flanagan	Moreno
npgp90	0.08	0.05	0.11
gcp90	0.24	0.1	0.11
ccp90	1.04	0.62	0.71
ap90	0.16	0.05	0
ccv	15.4	8.1	0
pass%	76.7	83.7	78.9
bp%	37	42.6	36.5
sacc%	36.4	42.9	17
shot%	9.1	14.3	13
TTI90	15.6	9.2	8.5
gap90	0.92	1.81	1.6
gsp90	1.91	3	1.98
gop90	0.99	1.19	0.38
tgop	0.74	1.32	0.45
tp90	2.87	3.8	1.94
tack %	75.3	45.7	39.6
intp90	1.39	1.9	2.72
clrp90	1.95	3.6	1.64
dribpp90	0.36	1.9	0.82
bsp90	0.12	0.2	0.3

Enrique is the only one above who had a goals on pitch average higher than his team and his chance created value is unparalleled.  The damning stat is Enrique's TTI90, 15.7 is dreadful, but in the handful of matches he participated in last season, he had a TTI90 of 11.2.  That's not good, but hopefully it's at least a sign of progress.  Other than that, neither Flanagan nor Moreno offer more than Enrique other than potential and years left of service and that doesn't make the latter worth £20m.

Gerrard & Sturridge are more important than Suarez

Again and again I'm trying to convince myself that the loss of Suarez won't be that great, well, this may be the straw that breaks the camel's back.  I went through each match last year and broke down goal importance according to whether a point was salvaged or gained (crucial goal) or gave us an advantage (important goal).  I did the same for assists as well.  Then I applied a points system: 3 points for crucial goal or assist and 1 point for important goal or assist.  Here are the results:

	crucial goal	imp goal	crucial asst	imp assist	value
Gerrard	5	4	4	4	35
Sturridge	7	6	1	2	32
Suarez	0	11	1	4	18
Coutinho	2	1	0	2	9
Agger	1	1	1	1	8
Henderson	1	0	0	3	6
Enrique	0	0	1	1	4
Sterling	0	2	0	2	4
Aspas	0	0	1	0	3
Skrtel	0	3	0	0	3
Toure	0	0	0	1	1
Sakho	0	1	0	0	1
Johnson	0	0	0	1	1
Allen	0	1	0	0	1

Not a single goal and only one assist from Suarez was 'crucial' to our title chase last year.  He did score 11 'important' goals though, unfortunately that also means he essentially scored 20 'meaningless' goals or goals that wouldn't have mattered had he scored them or not.

We will be fine if Suarez leaves as long as we improve defensively.  Yes, he's fun to watch and I wish he would play the rest of his days in a Liverpool shirt, but in the end, we go on.

Agger was our best defender last season, Sakho was worst

Last season Brendan Rodgers utlilized 16 different line-ups on the back line.  I remember back in the day when Benitez used to change the line-up that often, he was ridiculed as a 'tinkerer'.  The truth is, he was ahead of his time and most successful managers started to do the same including Mourinho and Ferguson. Nowadays it's the status quo for clubs involved in multiple competitions, especially Europe (Sorry Man U).

 Rodgers, though, had a ton of injury issues to deal with last season.  Sakho, Enrique, Johnson, Toure, and Agger all had injury spells, some multiple.  Here are those line-ups along with their stats:

				M	GA	GAPM	CS
Johnson	Toure	Agger	Enrique	2	0	0.00	2
Johnson	Skrtel	Agger	Enrique	1	0	0.00	1
Johnson	Skrtel	Agger	Cissohko	2	0	0.00	2
Johnson	Skrtel	Sakho	Flanagan	3	2	0.67	1
Toure	Skrtel	Agger	Sakho	1	1	1.00	0
Flanagan	Skrtel	Toure	Cissohko	4	4	1.00	1
Johnson	Skrtel	Agger	Flanagan	5	5	1.00	2
Toure	Skrtel	Sakho		5	7	1.40	0
Flanagan	Skrtel	Agger	Johnson	2	3	1.50	1
Wisdom	Skrtel	Sakho	Enrique	1	2	2.00	0
Johnson	Skrtel	Agger	Flanagan	2	4	2.00	0
Johnson	Skrtel	Sakho	Cissohko	1	2	2.00	0
Johnson	Skrtel	Sakho	Agger	1	2	2.00	0
Johnson	Skrtel	Sakho	Flanagan	5	10	2.00	0
Johnson	Skrtel	Toure	Cissohko	2	5	2.50	0
Johnson	Skrtel	Toure	Flanagan	1	3	3.00	0

Those are sorted by goals allowed per match and if we break it down per player:

	ms	ga	gapm	cs	cs%
Agger	16	15	0.94	8	0.50
Cissohko	9	11	1.22	3	0.33
Johnson	27	36	1.33	9	0.33
Toure	15	20	1.33	3	0.20
Skrtel	36	50	1.39	8	0.22
Flanagan	22	31	1.41	5	0.23
Sakho	17	26	1.53	1	0.06

It's pretty clear our most valuable player on the back line is Agger.  It's not even close.  In fact, we only had 2 clean sheets without him.  What's disappointing is Sakho appears to be the biggest liability.  One clean sheet in 17 starts and the highest goal allowed per match average at 1.53.

I'm not sure what Rodgers plans on doing since it was pretty clear by the end of last season that Skrtel and Sakho were his first choice centre backs.  If they continue last year's form, that's not acceptable.  Agger is our best defensive back and I don't know what else proof the gaffer needs.  We will not win the league next year unless we shore up our defense, no matter what hard decisions need to be made.  I like Sakho, but if that means sitting him, so be it.

Daley Blind is the epitome of World Cup sensationalism

There are reports that Daley Blind may be one of the left backs on Rodgers' transfer wish list, especially after his two solid World Cup performances for the Dutch, but is really that good?  Let's take a look at his output last season for Ajax and compare it to last season for Flanagan and the previous campaign of Jose Enrique.

	Blind	Flanagan	Enrique
age	24	21	28
app(subs)	29	23	25(4)
mins	2503	1890	2257
goals	1	1	2
assist	1	1	4
chances	37	13	26
gcp90	0.07	0.1	0.24
ccp90	1.33	0.62	1.04
pass%	88.1	83.7	80.4
bp%	38.7	42.6	37
sacc%	28.6	42.9	36.4
shot%	3.6	14.3	9.1
tack pm	2.7	3.4	2.5
tack %	50.4	45.7	75.3
int pm	2.6	1.7	1.2
clear pm	2	3.3	2.5
dribb past pm	1.3	1.7	0.3
bs pm	0.2	0.2	0.1
adwon pm	1.5	1.3	0.4
adwon%	65.7	46.8	38.2
own goals	0	0	0
TTI90	10.9	9.2	15.6

Overall, I would have to agree Blind is a slightly better player than Flanagan and Enrique.  He is clearly better at passing, chance creating, and aerial duels, but should work on his shot selection.  The problem I have with Blind is how much will he cost and is it worth bringing in a slightly better player, especially one who is currently riding the World Cup hype train though his club stats aren't anywhere near someone like Ricardo Rodriguez?

A couple of things that should be factored in is that he not only plays in the Eredivisie, but he plays for the best team in the league.  Ajax has won the league four straight years now, though only by an average of five points.  Ajax and PSV usually have the best talent in the league, so his stats, especially his passing are probably skewed by having the most talented teammates.

His age should be taken into account as well.  He is 24, three years Flanagan's senior.  Who is to say Flanagan won't be as good or better if he can get the playing time over the next few seasons?  Flanagan seems to improve slightly every match and his stats from the Prem last year are not too shabby considering his inexperience.

I'm not saying it would hurt to add another left back, we are gonna need at least three players at every position to get through next year's schedule congestiation if we want to be successful, but why bring in just another good player when there's a Rodriguez out there?  Blind is satisfactory, but Rodgers can't get caught up in all the World Cup ballyhoo.