Soccer The Liverpool FC Super Thread

[Moey999]

A bit knee jerk to be honest.

I thought we were slow in the first half (shocked that Diame didn’t boss us as we rested Henderson).

Let’s not forget we were denied a stone wall penalty with that challenge on Lallana, to which our players didn’t even protest (ridiculous).

Clean sheet kept so can’t complain there. The second half was much better where realistically, there was only one team in it.

Brendan has to decide on his best line-up. I’m certain he’s still unsure of it. I personally think Sterling, Lallana and Coutinho need to be on the pitch at the same time.

Ballotelli’s form is very worrying but the fact he hasn’t got a strike partner is the biggest problem for him. No surprise he had a couple of chance when Lambert came on.

Agree 120%. Great post mate.

 

[LFC Bulldogs]

A bit knee jerk to be honest.

I thought we were slow in the first half (shocked that Diame didn’t boss us as we rested Henderson).

Let’s not forget we were denied a stone wall penalty with that challenge on Lallana, to which our players didn’t even protest (ridiculous).

Clean sheet kept so can’t complain there. The second half was much better where realistically, there was only one team in it.

Brendan has to decide on his best line-up. I’m certain he’s still unsure of it. I personally think Sterling, Lallana and Coutinho need to be on the pitch at the same time.

Ballotelli’s form is very worrying but the fact he hasn’t got a strike partner is the biggest problem for him. No surprise he had a couple of chance when Lambert came on.

Maybe I overacted but we must be in trouble as a team if we are pointing to a non awarded penalty in not beating Hull why had players missing .
Sure the penalty should have been given but we are going nowhere if we cant beat teams like Hull at Anfield .I agree about Coutinho, Lallana and Sterling playing together but we are still crap at the back. Last season our attack with Suarez was so good won gams by scoring more than we conceded.

 

[trailie]

I think the fact that we sold the best player in the league [Suarez] has hindered us, no doubt. A platitude, but given the widespread criticism, I believe that some need reminding of the fact. Coupled with that is that our now best player (in my opinion) is injured.


Our defence is very shaky, but guess what? We’re not alone here. Arsenal and United are very ropey. Everton and Spurs, very much the same. Apart from Chelsea and maybe City (I say maybe for City because Mangala looks extremely scratchy) , it appears that everyone is trying to outdo each other in terms of looking lacklustre.

Once Coutinho spends time in the starting line-up and Sturridge returns I think we’ll be okay. Make no mistake about it, Rodgers knows how good little Phil is and given the form he’s displayed in the last 3 games, he’ll be a mainstay soon enough. Our defence has gone 120 minutes without conceding, which is a good base. The five goals we’ve conceded in the last 3 games have come in the space of approximately. 20 minutes total. To me that’s a confidence thing. Pure and simple.



We’ll be fine.

 

[Moey999]

The main thing that gives me confidence is the performance of all the other teams. With Arsenal, ManU, Spurs, Everton going the way they are, plus ManC losing to West Ham the other night, it shows we're not alone in this boat. Basically all the top teams bar Chelsea are going through some troubles.
The Sturridge injury is very frustrating and as soon as it happened I knew this was going to happen. He and Sterling are our best players and Sterling can't provide all the attacking spark himself, and with Rodgers bringing Coutinho off the bench we're very understrength attacking-wise especially during the first half.
We've seen only three games in the Prem with Sturridge playing this year and we won two of them, and lost to Man City.

The Tottenham game saw Balotelli partnering Sturridge up the front and they looked very, very dangerous. Balotelli looked a bit rusty and nervous but worked really hard, tracking back to defend and roaming the pitch. That's his style of play - the bloke roams around for a chance and plays off his strike-partner.

I'm really looking forward for the day Sturridge comes back. We'll definitely see a difference that day.

 

[LFC Bulldogs]

My concerns are not if Balotelli and Sturridge strike up a great partnership, they may very well do so .
We have not improved defending. We've been weak defending a while now and nothing was done in the off season to rectify the problem. We actually got rid of our best defender.
Maybe we should have looked at some decent defensive midfielders to help solve our defensive woes.
Weve dropped alot of point at home and would have been closer to Chelsea. We are away to Newcastle on the weekend and then face Chelsea. 2 difficult games especially on current form.
Will Sturridge be back for the Chelsea game?

 

[trailie]

Big win this morning. Only caught the first 60 minutes as I had to go to work. Apparently Boroni was instrumental late on. Good to hear Ballotelli got a goal too. Lord, did he need one!

 

[LFC Bulldogs]

hopefully a start of good things for Balloteli

 

[LFC Bulldogs]

We're falling behind big time. We face Chelsea next week after today's loss at Newcastle. The thing that's posses me off is Rodgers has come out and made excuses that we signed untested players who will take time.
Load of bullshit. He signed average players paying overs for them who don't make the difference .
With Suarez money all we needed ro do is spend it on 3 good signings. A central defender, a defensive midfielder and a striker.

 

[Moey999]

Rodgers is really pissing me off. His tactical decisions have been woeful to say the least.

 

[LFC Bulldogs]

He has got it all wrong lately tactically . We didn't look at all dangerous in attack.
What pissed me off more were his excuses about the players he signed.

 

[trailie]

The reality is the fact that we look inept with one up top and have done since Brendan employed this formation. The concern is he’s apparent stubbornness to change things. People ready to throw Balotelli under the bus; here's a thing to consider. The service to him has been nothing short of piss poor. Yes, piss poor. Glen Johnson probably touched the ball the most. He probably had 20 or so touches more than Gerrard, Skrtel and Lovren. We can't move the ball from the back with any conviction. It's called tempo. We lack it in abundance at the moment and to be fair, it’s beyond agonising to watch.

Some questions, which, quite frankly, are causing me sleepless nights.

Does Brendan actually know his best side? Why does he persist with a right back who won’t be offered a new contract and continues to regress as each minute passes while a perfectly able replacement in Javier Manquillo sits ponderously on the bench? This along with the decision to place Steven Gerrard on the team sheet week-in week-out are two decisions in which will stifle our ability to make the top four. That may sound dramatic, but sometimes the truth hurts. The former is simply not good enough for a top four team any longer, while the latter, while a true leader and legend of our great club, just shouldn’t be starting every match due to his own regressions. Trying to accommodate a player of his age into a style of play that requires a quick tempo is simply trying to put a square peg in a round hole. The worrying thing is that we have personnel to at least try to implement these things, yet are beyond apprehensive to put the practice into play.

Why does a player in Adam Lallana, our ‘marquee’ signing, sit on the bench? Surely we must find a way to accommodate both he and Coutinho in the same side? It worked against West Brom, that’s for sure. Why can’t Fabio Borini, Lucas Leiva, Kolo Toure, all of whom played their part in our preceding win in the Cup , fail to accumulate any decent game time? For me, Borini should’ve started in a 4-4-2 diamond formation. He might not be the most gifted of players to grace our team sheet, but what he lacks in ability, he makes up for in guile and determination, which are two admirable traits that just might help drag us out of the slump we’re currently in.

I love Brendan to bits and hope he manages us for the next 10 years, but he’s approaching the point where he needs to make some tough decisions. This was always going to be a tough exercise in the wake of losing Suarez, but it's evident that with the current formation and personnel he continues to select week-in week-out that things need tinkering. It's very worrying that Brendan seems so reluctant to do so.

 

[LFC Bulldogs]

Rodgers signed the wrong players and now is playing the wrong system. He shoulders a lot of the blame of how we are playing at the moment.
Winning the premier league is no longer a realistic target even though ere only in November. Chelsea and Man City are way ahead .

 

[trailie]

To be fair, mate, the title was never realistic. Top four and hopefully a cup final was the realistic target from the outset and both are still achievable. Not so sure Rodgers signed all of our players which is the biggest concern.

 

[Moey999]

To be fair, mate, the title was never realistic. Top four and hopefully a cup final was the realistic target from the outset and both are still achievable. Not so sure Rodgers signed all of our players which is the biggest concern.

Exactly, title was never realistic when we lost our best player and focal point of attack. Its painfully obvious that Rodgers didn't choose to sign some of these players, but he is the manager of a top club and should be able to adapt tactics so that the players play to their full potential, not adapt the players. His persistence with 4-2-3-1 is giving me the shits, so is his persistence with Johnson. We saw so much success with the 4-4-2 diamond and i'm repeating myself but we won't see real form until Sturridge is back and back in the 4-4-2. In the meantime I think Rodgers should really start using Borini while he's here. His value may even rise.

 

[LFC Bulldogs]

Guys the title for me was realistic with 5 games to go last season. Hence it became a realistic goal for the 2014/15 season having come so close last seaso playing great team football.. We could and should have built on that. We lost Suarez and did nothing to replace him and there were good strikers on the market. we did get decent coin or Suarez
Look at the money that was splurged on mediocrity.
Markovic is our new Aspas only we paid 20 mllion for him so he can sit on the bench or stands and hope one day he becomes a star.
Emre Can whilst talented may or may not work out for us. Moreno has already cost us points but he should improve. You'd hope so anyway for the money he cost.. Lovren is the biggest rip off them all. 25million to bring him and we release our best defender in Agger so Lovren can play.
Poor decisions.
And the icing on the cake is Balloteli.

 

[S4Sonny]

What a f*cking weird game this morning against Real Madrid

Final score reads Real Madrid 1 - Liverpool 0 but the stats shows that Real Madrid absolutely dominated the game yet only had a single goal to show for it - heck, at one point in the game Real Madrid had 16 shots and Liverpool had 0

Kolo Toure had a great game by the way

Real Madrid - Liverpool stats

Shots: 27-4
Chances Created: 21-3
Pass Accuracy: 91%-87%
Crosses: 23-8

 

[LFC Bulldogs]

Real are on a different stratosphere at the moment. The form team in Europe .
The task ahead won't be easy . We must win our remaining 2 matches ( hopefully by 2 goals against Basel ) and we will progress.

 

[LFC Bulldogs]

Just couldn't match it with Chelsea. Lovren is a dud signing and the team has lost its lustre from last season, especially up front. Clear penalty not given to us in the 87 th minute. I guess when your down you're also down on your luck.
Lambett, Borini are not Liverpool quality, and Ballotelli is a disinterested basket case, get rid of them and bring in someone to lead the attack with Sturridge. That's a start.
Then figure out how to solve the mess at the back. How is it possible to spend close to 110 million dollars on 2 central defenders ( Lovren and Sakho) and be worse off than before having released your best defender ( Agger) for next to nothing.
There was a lot of energy up front last season with Suarez, Sturridge and Steeling, apart from terrorising defences they would also hustle the opposition and force them into mistakes.
In the january transfer period they will need to look at improving the squad .

 

[Moey999]

I watched the Barca game vs Almeria where Barca came back from 1-0 to win 2-1.. I underestimated how good Suarez is, he singlehandedly set up both goals and won Barca the game.

Honestly if we had Suarez we'd be killing it, the guy is an absolute freak.

Putting that aside, Emre Can showed promise in the Chelsea game, and it also showed how inept Rodgers is. F*ck. Sturridge is coming back next game, Lovren needs to pull his finger out, I want to see Sakho play as he hasn't been playing, Johnson needs to go even though he kept Hazard at bay, he's just a lost case. Sterling MUST be in the middle, not on the wing, Coutinho should always been starting, and not subbed off either. Not a fan of Lambert or Borini.

I really hope Balotelli pulls up.

 

[LFC Bulldogs]

Our goal should be to retain our sot in the top 4 . If we get out of the group stages of the CL that's a bonus as would be a good run in the FA cup.
Hopefully when Sturridge comes back we can settle on a formation and string some wins.
We definitely need to sign a couple of decent central defenders and a gun defensive midfielder
I have a feeling we will cut our losses with Sakho and offload him for a lot less than what we paid