Cole is a great player, without a doubt. Unfortunately we're playing him as an attacking midfielder just behind Torres which is usually were Gerrard would play. Gerrard ends up playing behind Cole along-side another defensive midfielder where he is able to roam about and create play.
Unfortunately, this causes some problems.
Even though its his preferred position, Cole hasn't played as an attacking midfielder for about seven years. Hes still incredibly rusty. He cannot receive and play the ball with his back to the goal and has to run with it. Unfortunately, he always seems to have his back to the goal. In the ideal situation where he's played forward with the ball ahead of him, hes pretty prolific. A lot of fans consider him a winger but I think his talents are completely wasted there. Unfortunately, Liverpool is a club lacking any natural wide players and we've too many 'makeshift' wingers as is. In my opinion, having Cole as a left (!) winger is cringe-worthy. The ball sticks to his feet, he's relatively quick and he has great control in small spaces so he should ease himself into this position over the course of the season.
The other problem is that with Gerrard playing in a more defensive or central midfield role he tends to roam about too much and goes missing. He can end up leaving Lucas horribly exposed at times. Whilst being a great attacking player, he simply does not like to defend. I've my own opinion of Lucas but I can tell you he is not a defensive midfielder and I'm still baffled as to why both Benitez and now Hodgson play him in that role.
Ever since Alonso left Liverpool's midfield has lacked creativity and someone who can play accurate long balls that a 4-2-3-1 formation requires. Lucas isn't Alonso's replacement nor was he ever meant to be. Mascherano was a great defensive player but he lacked any skill moving forward. A Lucas-Poulsen partnership in midfield is awful to watch - absolutely no creativity and there's no connection between them and the forwards. The reason I'm so optimistic about Meireles - he's providing that creativity that's been missing from our midfield for ages. He's great at going forward, can dribble with the ball well and isn't afraid to take a few shots at distance. If we can finally get this midfield problem sorted this season, once Torres is fully fit and firing all cylinders again we can start getting back to our 08/09 performance.
So yeah. I can go on about football all day. Don't even get me started on the whole Aquilani thing.
