Liverpool FC Forum

[Kenny Kan]

I cannot fault the manager. The setup was correct, however the execution by the players was so poor. I have never seen so many stray passes, no one played well. Lucas, Enrique, Johnson and Shelvey were the worst of the lot. At a push I could absolve Carragher and Suarez.

The set-up was wrong.
The team's performance was even worse.

Whether the two coincide I don't know but I know that both the statements I just made were right.

Whilst I agree that Shelvey looked out of position and that element of the setup was wrong, the remaining setup was correct. That change should not have failed so badly - on a different day in which the players weren't so off form we would have won that game and there'd be no claims the setup was wrong.

  rodgers has done okay recently but that line up of his last night was a mistake.
by moving hendo out to the wing (thus breaking up the gerrard/lucas/hendo central midfield axis) he was basically fixing something that wasnt broke.
he should have kept that basic shape that has done so well in recent weeks and just swapped like for like for sturridge, in other words just put borini up top with suarez.
okay borini isnt in the same class as sturridge but at least the basic shape of the team would have been there.
last night rodgers only made 1 change to the starting line up but managed to totally disrupt the balance of the team.
his substitutions were a disaster too, he took off probably our best two players on the night and at the end we had no shape at all, it looked like organised chaos out there.

source: yycsysdncyucnlcydslfyluchbycnsdunycluvnulhcsdhncggbdckaweuf ^^^^

[heimdall]

i thought Brendan got it worng with the starting lineup, he shold have started with Borini behind luis, and then subbed him 15 minutes later when he realsied he is a spineless, useless Italian footballer. he should also have taken off Gerrard who had another shocking game. He should never have put Sterling on the pitch, who just ssems to get worse game by game, really what is the point of Raheem, apart from having endless numbers of children before he hits puberty.

That result just confirmed to me that Brendan is out of his depth and does not have the respect of the dressing room, he certainly seems incapabla of firing up the lads, it was West Brom who came out brighter in the second half for feck sake.

I'm seriously depressed by that result as it's a clear indication that we are miles and miles form challenging for 4th let alone the league.

[friendlyguy33]

The first half was ok but the tactics were wrong with Shelvey off Suarez. Everything went down the right but Johnson and Downing were just running into cul-de-sacs most of the time with little end product or decent link up play. The lack of variation and movement without Sturridge was alarming.

The second half wasn't great they just improved in confidence. Ultimately you can talk about Shelvey's disallowed goal early on for offside but still you need to do more to open up the opposition. The performance puts into perspective how far the team has come if we can't manage to overcome West Brom who were on a bad run themselves and one place below us in 9th before the game. The lack of consistency with this group of players has uncanny similarities with the squad of players we had in 98-99.

Brendan's interview after the game also worried me. I can't believe he seriously couldn't fault the effort of the players. I'm sorry but I don't think the effort was sufficient. The pressing wasn't as good as in other recent games. While I understand the reasons for starting Coutinho on the bench and obviously Sturridge was injured it was revealing that none of Brendan's other signings started the game. Allen and Borini were on the bench, no sign again of Assaidi and Sahin has left.

Brendan was never going to turn it around in seven months but the defensive issues coupled with the inconsistency don't look good. I'm sure he'll get a second season to continue to progress things but there are various unanswered questions at the moment.

[JC_81]

i thought Brendan got it worng with the starting lineup, he shold have started with Borini behind luis, and then subbed him 15 minutes later when he realsied he is a spineless, useless Italian footballer. he should also have taken off Gerrard who had another shocking game. He should never have put Sterling on the pitch, who just ssems to get worse game by game, really what is the point of Raheem, apart from having endless numbers of children before he hits puberty.

That result just confirmed to me that Brendan is out of his depth and does not have the respect of the dressing room, he certainly seems incapabla of firing up the lads, it was West Brom who came out brighter in the second half for feck sake.

I'm seriously depressed by that result as it's a clear indication that we are miles and miles form challenging for 4th let alone the league.

Stop being an attention seeker.  The only part of your post I definitely agree with is the 'I'm seriously depressed' part

[Thommo's perm]

Interesting comments. Kenny Kan, I am starting to come round to your way of thinking re: Shelvey. The lad looks as if he has no cares in the world and seems to strut round as if hes cracked it. He needs a reality check and quick
People blaming Rodgers for the performance and setting up the team mentally should ask themselves does he force them to play so sh'ite and do they really need to be motivated to beat west brom at home?
Enrique, Johnson, Lucas, Henderson, Downing and Shelvey were all cack. Suarez was wasteful, Gerrard looked like he didnt want to be there and Agger looked like he was on crack. Every single one of those players is or has been an international and should be putting teams like west brom to the sword without breaking into a sweat. The only two "decent" performances were from Reina and Carra. Steve Clarke beat us on and off the pitch with his tactics and statements in the press. He knew that packing the box on our attacks would frustrate and nullify us and that eventually we would concede from a set piece. We badly missed Sturridge and to have 13 corners without a goal speaks volumes for how useless we are from that position.
We are static and predictable and the tippy tappy approach gives teams plenty of time to get behind the ball and frustrate us. Even when we got to the by line and put it across there was no-one there!
Our expectations were in pieces last night and we came down to earth with a bump, again. But we have to be positive even though it seems pointless, and I would implore anyone who has Brendans attention to tell him to shut the fu'ck up about finishing 4th. Every time he says something we get tw@tted!

[killerp]

[quote="[url=http://www.liverpoolfc-newkit.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=1200146#p1200146]I would implore anyone who has Brendans attention to tell him to shut the fu'ck up about finishing 4th. Every time he says something we get tw@tted![/quote]

It's true Brendan shooting his mouth off after we have a good performance almost guarantee's we get embarrassed the next game. Finish in the top 2  ....I remember when we did with Rafa, maybe things would have been different had we won the title that year.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

friendlyguy33

Brendan was never going to turn it around in seven months but the defensive issues coupled with the inconsistency don't look good. I'm sure he'll get a second season to continue to progress things but there are various unanswered questions at the moment.

i think we`ve played well enough in certain games to give rodgers the benefit of the doubt. when everything click`s we do look a decent side but overall it has to be said that his tenure thus far hasnt been great.
we recorded our worst start since before the first world war, we accumulated our lowest points total at the halfway stage of the season in the 3 points for a win era (infact we spent the first half of the season in the lower reaches of the table) and now after 26 games we find ourselves 9th in the table and with our lowest points total at this stage in the premier league era.
thats without mentioning the other things like the transfer window farce, being reported to the F.A by fulham and driving andy carrolls price down etc
hand on heart i think if kenny and clarke would have stayed and the diame transfer would have happened i think we`d be far better off, we ended last season strongly and carroll in particular was starting to look the part, the way we destroyed chelsea at anfield at the end of last season was very impressive. getting to the two domestic cup finals was a fine achievement, especially when you consider the things that went wrong last season like the suarez/evra thing. even the signings kenny was lambasted for are starting to look half decent.
but that ship has sailed and we are where we are.
rodgers is an inexperienced manager and he is going to make mistakes but i`ve seen enough to convince me that there is a very good manager in there somewhere, he just needs time.

[Eagle]

I notice a lot of people bring up the 4-1 against Chelsea last season as some sort of sign that the tide was turning. It was a good result but they made 8 changes to the side that beat us in the FA Cup final a few days earlier. They even played the likes of Turnbull and Ferreira.

[The Raven]

O the abuse i was getting when i was pointing out that BR was sounding like a total loon in interviews the names i was being called.

I have no faith in being able to win games anymore. A plucky draw a moan about missed chances and a promise that it will get better only to lose to the likes of VIlla and WBA.

One word sums up our season. MEH

[Reg]

I bought a job lot of blades here, how many do you want?   

[Thommo's perm]

I bought a job lot of blades here, how many do you want?   :laugh:

Reginald, this is not the time for ice skating...

[SouthCoastShankly]

O the abuse i was getting when i was pointing out that BR was sounding like a total loon in interviews the names i was being called.

I have no faith in being able to win games anymore. A plucky draw a moan about missed chances and a promise that it will get better only to lose to the likes of VIlla and WBA.

One word sums up our season. MEH

You'll still get abuse, don't worry about that.

Mainly because the sensible ones on here have not indicted Rodgers for the situation we are in. He has inherited a messed up situation that will take time to resolve.

Despite the fact that we all want CL football back, the reality is the mountain we have to climb in terms of squad quality and consistent performances will not make this happen over night. Progress is happening - in terms of our ability to adopt to the new philosophy and not in a comparison to last season.

[Thommo's perm]

O the abuse i was getting when i was pointing out that BR was sounding like a total loon in interviews the names i was being called.

I have no faith in being able to win games anymore. A plucky draw a moan about missed chances and a promise that it will get better only to lose to the likes of VIlla and WBA.

One word sums up our season. MEH

You'll still get abuse, don't worry about that.

Mainly because the sensible ones on here have not indicted Rodgers for the situation we are in. He has inherited a messed up situation that will take time to resolve.

Despite the fact that we all want CL football back, the reality is the mountain we have to climb in terms of squad quality and consistent performances will not make this happen over night. Progress is happening - in terms of our ability to adopt to the new philosophy and not in a comparison to last season.

We are all guilty of having unreal expectations. The problem is that games like mondays seem to be winnable but the players dont believe they are.
We went back to the tried and trusted attitude of no-one in the box to get on the end of crosses and wasting corners and it cost us again.
Of course we can blame Rodgers for the result, but can we blame him for the performance of arguably our best team (minus Sturridge)?
A total flop from our players who should have done much better, and they know it

[The Raven]

O the abuse i was getting when i was pointing out that BR was sounding like a total loon in interviews the names i was being called.

I have no faith in being able to win games anymore. A plucky draw a moan about missed chances and a promise that it will get better only to lose to the likes of VIlla and WBA.

One word sums up our season. MEH

You'll still get abuse, don't worry about that.

Mainly because the sensible ones on here have not indicted Rodgers for the situation we are in. He has inherited a messed up situation that will take time to resolve.

Despite the fact that we all want CL football back, the reality is the mountain we have to climb in terms of squad quality and consistent performances will not make this happen over night. Progress is happening - in terms of our ability to adopt to the new philosophy and not in a comparison to last season.

He opens his mouth on his own nothing to do with the team

[SouthCoastShankly]

O the abuse i was getting when i was pointing out that BR was sounding like a total loon in interviews the names i was being called.

I have no faith in being able to win games anymore. A plucky draw a moan about missed chances and a promise that it will get better only to lose to the likes of VIlla and WBA.

One word sums up our season. MEH

You'll still get abuse, don't worry about that.

Mainly because the sensible ones on here have not indicted Rodgers for the situation we are in. He has inherited a messed up situation that will take time to resolve.

Despite the fact that we all want CL football back, the reality is the mountain we have to climb in terms of squad quality and consistent performances will not make this happen over night. Progress is happening - in terms of our ability to adopt to the new philosophy and not in a comparison to last season.

He opens his mouth on his own nothing to do with the team

Aside from his interview technique, you clearly blame him for our performances this season. That where we differ.