Neil was joined by John Gibbons, Jim Boardman and Juliet Jacques as they discuss Liverpool’s capitulation against Hull City and the upcoming game against Norwich
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It’s clear that the team looked tired and jaded, but this is standard form for the weekend-after-the-weekend of an international break isn’t it? We always look good after international breaks and then it catches up with us and we’re crap the week after.
Haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but this result or one like it has been coming…as was the (lack of) performance.
We’re 4th so I’m not for throwing baby out with the bathwater, but since we scrunged a win against the Mancs on September 1st, we only have wins against Sunderland, Palace, Fulham and West Brom. Or in other words, the three teams currently occupying the relegation spots plus WBA. You can only beat the teams in front of you, but we’ve only managed that against the teams that we ought to be beating with our reserves. When we’ve been asked to step up against the better/form teams who can actually play some football: Swansea, Southampton, Newcastle, Arsenal – we’ve been found wanting to various degrees. So I’m pissed off, but not entirely surprised by Sunday’s debacle.
Unless something drastic changes in terms of tactics and/or player movement in January, 6th or 7th beckons once more.
I’ll listen to the podcast before going on (and on…)
The side has been suspect all season when you compare it to the post Jan 2012 side. The difference has been Sturridge and Suarez putting the ball into the net with a lot less chances.
All season the side has not looked as fit as the opposition, and generally struggles to put in a solid second half performance, and is even more lethargic in the middle.
The captain is relying on dead balls for his brilliance. I.e.has all the time in the world with no opposition anywhere near him. That shower on Sunday didn’t get anything from Gerrard as a captain. Where was the captain encouraging his team mates and driving them on?
Rodgers doesn’t have the balls to remove the band from him, let alone not play him all of the time. I’ll wager Gerrard outlasts Rodgers at LFC. Rodgers has already spent almost £100m and doesn’t even play his own signings, other than the super-stopper.
Yes I think the fact that the Emporor actually isn’t wearing any clothes must be obvious to all .
I’m absolutely deflated and as a result I wanna stress the points I make here are light hearted. They’ll change after we beat Norwich and by Saturday evening I’ll be in the pub claiming we’re gonna win the league.
Over the past few weeks I’ve secretly thought we’re gonna piss top 4 and I’ve even been aiming higher. Now I’m worried. It’s probable we are where we are for 2 reasons. We’ve got 2 brilliant strikers and the ‘other teams’ have been unexpectedly poor. I made a spreadsheet last night of goals and assists to see where they were coming from. 2 goals from open play from the midfield, Moses and Coutinho and 2 assists from open play by midfielders, Gerrard and Henderson against Fulham. Looking at Gerrards assists from free kicks (3), corners (3) and his goals from free kicks (1) and pens (2) though, made me realise the threat he still poses. I think swapping him and Henderson could be the difference between failing and succeeding this season. It’s not working as it is. Now Sturridge is out we’ll see it even clearer. I know it’s hardly a revelation but I believe our season could depend on it.
There was a point on a past podcast about the bench v West Brom looking strong. I looked at it and thought the same thing. Now I’m left thinking the squad is weak. If we take that bench as it is today, forget the past and future potential and judge it only on the last game then it’s a pub teams bench. I saw the stat last night that we’ve spent £63m on players who can’t get a game despite the wankness we had to start with yesterday. For the record, that bench was Agger, Alberto, Moses, Allen, Sterling and Kelly. I think Alberto looks promising (though not as good as Suso looks at the minute ?!?!?!)
I thought the defense looked strong and deep (as in depth). I’ve spent the last month saying how important Glen Johnson is to us, yet the last 2 games has reminded me that a few months ago I was slating him on the comments on here for his lack of effort. I can’t stand this lack of fight from him. It’s made me start questioning him again. Although Skrtel looks good in certain scenario’s I feel he’s a liability (at times). Our defending looks shocking.
I’ve been made up with the transfer committee since last January but now I’m disillusioned with them. One or 2 injuries and we’re very average again. The driven, determined and astute Rodgers seems a little bit clueless.
Most frighteningly, is the question – are we 3 points behind 2nd place or 3 points above 9th place. Well obviously we’re both but I know how I see us. I see the ‘others’ gathering pace now as well. As has been mentioned numerous times on the podcasts, if we get 6 points from the next 2 home games we’ll be right up there. Especially given some the other fixtures.
I don’t know what to believe anymore. I might just try and stop analysing it till the end of the season and then have a look where we finished.
The midfield is certainly lacking balance – something needs to change there regardless of whether we’re good enough to beat Norwich and West Ham at home in the next 5 days. We’re going to have to do more than win our home games against bottom-half teams to be challenging for the top 4 come April. There is no dynamism, no vibrancy.
Henderson, Lucas and Gerrard is too much of a muchness. Where does one end and the other begin? It *could* be different with Gerrard deployed higher up the park, but in his current role there is way too much overlap with those three. If I’m an opposition manager facing that midfield I’m resigning myself to not having too much of the ball but not worried about any sort of open-field threat from that area. Liverpool have been playing like a team that is waiting for a set-piece or for one of Suarez/Sturridge to do something stunning. Whilst the latter two have obliged the cracks are duly papered over, but with one out and the other not on his game you get a display like we saw at Hull.
I watched the u21s last night and Teixeira looks better every time I see him. If he played for Man Utd he’d be on their bench. And with a striker shortage and the need to have something a bit different in your armoury I think we could do worse than bring Ngoo into the squad. He’s got a bigger ass than Aspas so he could do a better bench-warming stint than Iago. If you have pretensions of top 4 and go behind somewhere like Hull, your next move has to be to bring on another striker, right? If Aspas isn’t getting on in that game in those circumstances, then when? I watched the last 20 minutes of the Hull game and found myself wishing we had an Andy Carrol to bring on.
And yes, Johnson was anonymous for the second game running. Anonymous and seemingly uninterested. How does that happen?
Lastly, I don’t think there is a team that does a self-pity better. Even with a half-decent start to the season behind us we still look brittle as fuck when things start to go awry. I see no evidence of the team – individually or collectively – trying to take the game by the scruff of the neck and to fight to put right what is going wrong. I’ll no doubt cop it for saying it, but we could take a leaf out of the Mancs book. Man Utd lose games from time to time and and against the very best opposition might get steamrollered occasionally, but very rarely do they simply not turn up. This has nothing to do with the relative strengths – it’s mostly to do with self-belief. I get that it’s easier to have self-belief when you’ve won a gazillion titles in the last 20 years, but with a new manager and an unprecedented 3 losses in their first 8 games the opportunity to feel sorry for themselves was there if they wanted it. Conversely, we started the Hull game in second place yet we looked like a team that was hoping to stave off relegation. And I mean before we went behind. We might have still lost because football works like that sometimes, but why aren’t we starting a game like that at full throttle, trying to blow away a team that is inferior in every position on the park within the first 15, 20 minutes? Yes, i mean like those feckin’ Mancs do?
I’m with you on just about everything here Robin as you are always very level headed with your comments. I think Brendan needs to get his next signing very very right otherwise even his biggest followers will start questioning things. Aspas is the one that worries me most. I see nothing, nothing at all to suggest he could be anywhere near the standard required.
Keep the faith boys. Get Sakho in as well aka Djimi Toure
I’m not sure I know why Sakho was dropped. He looks a decent defender to me who has adapted to the EPL pretty quickly and always looks for a pass. And whilst Traore won 6 caps for Mail, Sakho has been capped by France at every age level since u16 and already has 16 full caps. Somebody somewhere reckons there’s a player in there.
Some of the discussion about Sakho reminds me of the stellar punditry around Mertesacker when he first arrived in England, when we had the likes of Robbie Savage and John Motson telling us that the 80 times capped and current captain of Germany wasn’t good enough for our league.
At a guess, he didn’t want Sakho at LCB with young Flannagan at LB. Language, new to the club whatever.
So he put Skrtel there who’s doing a good job but I don’t like firefighting.
That said, Toure lost his mind when Huddlestone strolled in to take his shot.
posted this on the wrong podcast.
organised midfields like Hull, packing their half of the pitch keeping you away from the penalty box and then pouncing on you with several players anywhere you go into their half is something we have to cope with.
Passing through the middle is congested so has to be very quick. So you use the wings but that only works if you support them so they don’t have to do it all themselves – ie the full backs need to play their part. Sterling was showing his lack of minutes but he made an effort.
Or you go over the top, and instead of leaving Luis to handle 3 centre backs on his own pretty much with Hendo running around a lot, we should have put Sakho up there alongside Luis.
Perfect target man, wins every header and difficult to dispossess.
Sounds crude but it nullifies most of these teams tactics of shutting us out and controlling the game, which was just humiliating coming from Steve Bruce.
So why not? Surely Sakho is purpose built for this.
chelsea, after being second best in the first half, changed to 442 putting Ba up with Torres and sending Terry up often too. They scored 3 goals. Didn’t worry about playing through the Soton midfield. Just bypassed it.
Can’t see Todger trying it. But we should, Sakho on the bench is kind of crazy, especially when he’s on a high from his French game.
Glad to see some people and the podcast have got onto the lazy professional Glen Johnson who has been hoodwinking people for years.
Giving the ball away cheaply, can’t create goals (has he ever created one?) , hardly scoring, no interest at corners, lazy tracking back.
He does look thrilling attacking sometimes but there is little end product. Essentially he is a poor defender and poor attacker. Not good enough as a defender to get into a decent team and not clever enough to play in midfield.
Let his contract run down and be rid.
ps. I have hated Glen Johnson for years and I’m quite the expert on his ineptitude.
If Aspas doesn’t get any minutes against Norwich at home tonight after that performance on Sunday he might be the most pointless signing ever (not worst signing or an indictment on the player’s ability – haven’t seen enough of him to judge). Like, an even more pointless signing than what Assaidi was. If he’s not going to be given a chance to contribute unless we’re playing a Notts County or Oldham in a cup he’s just £7m that could have been thrown at the Costa, Willian or Mkhitaryan to push one of those deals through.