Liverpool FC Forum

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

Beating Swansea today now becomes massive.

It will be interesting to see what Brendan does now that Johnson is back, does he leave the side as it is? Does he play Johnson at left back and leave Flanno at right back? Does he play Johnson at right back and move Flanno back over to left back or does he leave Cissokho on the left to shore up the defence and give Johnson free reign to get forward from right back?

[andy_g]

its a really exciting season, and it feels good to be still in the mix at this stage of the season. but i don't think we are as good as we think we are. i don't want to piss on our collective bonfire but i want to look at it with more realism. we've had some excellent performances; the 4-0 v everton, the 0-5 v spurs and the 5-1 v arsenal really stand out. but despite these impressive looking scores, i'm yet to see us properly control a game from start to finish, to put in a performance that makes us look like a solid, consistently performing side with serious credentials.

even against arsenal, despite the breathtaking scoreline after 20 minutes, i thought it was more chaotic than devastatingly planned. there was some excellent and obviously effective counter attacking interspersed with some quite careless passages of play. arsenal on another day would have been tighter at the back and sharper up front. spurs also had one of those dodgy days, and martinez got his player selection all wrong in the derby.

we've seen the usual struggles and dips in performance against quite ordinary sides, and i expect there to be more before the season is out. its all very tight still at the top and we will surely drop more points. if spurs, man u or everton hit a patch of consistent form and we hit a slump than it will change very quickly. we won't win the title this season and i think its crazy to think we might. but after all thats gone on 4th is stil ours to lose and i'll be massively disappointed if we don't make it after al that we've managed so far despite our inconsistensies.

[metalhead]

We will never win the league with this type of defense, it's frightening that they will face Van Persie and Rooney 2 weeks time!

[maguskwt]

We need to improve our defense... otherwise we won't stand a chance... all the hard and good work done by the front 4 goes to waste if the defense is leaking goals...

I don't get that argument.

I understand we have a defensive problem, however it is nothing new this season - it's been here since day 1 and we are still only 4 points off the league.

Considering our hardest games are behind us and our run in is significantly easier than the games we've had before, it makes our defensive frailties less of a problem. If we had our hardest games to go coming off the back of conceding goals like we had, I'd be more worried. But we don't.

Finally it's about winning that counts, even if we ship goals, as long as we score more (which we are certainly capable of) we win.

We have a great chance if winning the league but if you expect our defence to shape up overnight at the risk of changing our style, that's got us here in the first place, you barking up the wrong tree.

Today's game demonstrates my point exactly. We can't be relying our forwards to score 3-4 goals every other game to keep winning. We almost lost it today. If Henderson wasn't at the right place at the right time for the last goal we would've lost 2 points at home. We are living on a knife's edge and we can't expect to win the leak with that kind of defence.

[SouthCoastShankly]

We need to improve our defense... otherwise we won't stand a chance... all the hard and good work done by the front 4 goes to waste if the defense is leaking goals...

I don't get that argument.

I understand we have a defensive problem, however it is nothing new this season - it's been here since day 1 and we are still only 4 points off the league.

Considering our hardest games are behind us and our run in is significantly easier than the games we've had before, it makes our defensive frailties less of a problem. If we had our hardest games to go coming off the back of conceding goals like we had, I'd be more worried. But we don't.

Finally it's about winning that counts, even if we ship goals, as long as we score more (which we are certainly capable of) we win.

We have a great chance if winning the league but if you expect our defence to shape up overnight at the risk of changing our style, that's got us here in the first place, you barking up the wrong tree.

Today's game demonstrates my point exactly. We can't be relying our forwards to score 3-4 goals every other game to keep winning. We almost lost it today. If Henderson wasn't at the right place at the right time for the last goal we would've lost 2 points at home. We are living on a knife's edge and we can't expect to win the leak with that kind of defence.

I never denied our defensive problems aren't an issue, in fact accept our defensive frailties exist in my last post. My point is our playing philosophy is to score more than our opposition and for the best part this season it has worked.

Today was one if the poorer defensive displays we've seen.

Rodgers will obviously want to plug the holes in our leaky defence but he won't do anything drastic that could upset our playing style that is so effective when we attack.

I thought the Agger sub was odd today, I can only presume he wasn't following instructions. He didn't look injured.

[7_Kewell]

Agger was poor today and was getting rattled towards the end. In fact, he was lucky not to get booked.  Bringing on Allen and Toure helped settle things a bit, with Joe really injecting some cover in the middle of the park.

However, I think the time has come for us to accept that neither of our central defenders are up to it anymore. Come the summer, I would let both go to the highest bidder and build our defence around Sakho.

[Boocity]

we seem to pull it together against the top sides and get really nervous at the back against the teams we are expected to beat easily. If you look at our last half a dozen or so games, dodgy at the back against, Villa, WBA, Fulham and Swansea and thrash Everton and arsenal, even the FA cup game at Arsenal we played really well. Probably not too bad as we do have the firepower and will to get the results against the minows.

[woof woof !]

Rodgers will obviously want to plug the holes in our leaky defence but he won't do anything drastic that could upset our playing style that is so effective when we attack.

You say "Rodgers will obviously want to plug the holes in our leaky defence", and yet every target we went after in the last window was an attack minded player, no effort was made to address the glaring deficiencies in our defence.

As for "he won't do anything drastic that could upset our playing style that is so effective when we attack " . I'm at a loss to understand how the signing of a quality CB and a quality FB would upset our playing style ?.

If it wasn't for the quality of our attack we'd a mid table team. If our defence was anywhere near the quality of our strikers we'd be odds on for the title.

[maguskwt]

Rodgers will obviously want to plug the holes in our leaky defence but he won't do anything drastic that could upset our playing style that is so effective when we attack.

You say "Rodgers will obviously want to plug the holes in our leaky defence", and yet every target we went after in the last window was an attack minded player, no effort was made to address the glaring deficiencies in our defence.

As for "he won't do anything drastic that could upset our playing style that is so effective when we attack " . I'm at a loss to understand how the signing of a quality CB and a quality FB would upset our playing style ?.

If it wasn't for the quality of our attack we'd a mid table team. If our defence was anywhere near the quality of our strikers we'd be odds on for the title.

The way Rodgers set the defence out to play, we need defenders and a keeper who are extremely comfortable on the ball... Mignolet, as good as his shot stopping ability, is a bag of nerves when it comes to passing...

[woof woof !]

Teams have quickly learnt that closing down our midfield and pressing Gerrard and our CB's when they're in possession will pay dividends.

As for Mignolet, he needs a fking crowbar to move him off his line. A good shot stopper he may be, unfortunately he's lacking in all other departments.

[maypaxvobiscum]

Teams have quickly learnt that closing down our midfield and pressing Gerrard and our CB's when they're in possession will pay dividends.

As for Mignolet, he needs a fking crowbar to move him off his line. A good shot stopper he may be, unfortunately he's lacking in all other departments.

Agreed. Which makes it all the more baffling as to why the old fashioned Carra approach of hoofing the ball away from danger isn't taken at times.
The WBA goal for example, Mignolet should have just kicked up. We're playing so dangerously in our area of times and it's killing me. It's really stressful 

[RedAnt]

Well surely the coaching team should be advising Rodgers, not that it'd need a coach to point out the problems at the back.

But let's not forget, Rodgers only target this season is to get back into the top four and hence back into the CL. At this stage that's all that matters to the club in a business sense. One of the sub-targets this season is to attack and play nice football, but for now those targets are small in the wider scheme. So do it pretty. If not pretty, then do it ugly. Just get it done. Once that goal is met, we can expand the vision, invest more, upgrade the obsolete and all the rest if it. We'll have more money and more appeal.

At this stage, BR would be an idiot to break the focus and talk of winning the league. Even in the dressing room, the likes of Gerrard can think big, but to the younger players, he must remain calm and focused on the target. It's better if next season we have a psychology of had having been successful, maybe even achieved beyond, rather than a mindset of having failed.

We can win the league, sure. But that's not what we're playing for

[7_Kewell]

on a side note... Spurs LOST to Norwich today, which gives us a SIX POINT LEAD in 4th 

CL footie just got a lot, lot closer   

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

on a side note... Spurs LOST to Norwich today, which gives us a SIX POINT LEAD in 4th 

CL footie just got a lot, lot closer   

With our massively superior goal difference our lead is effectively 7 points, which is significant with just 11 games to go.
It's not in the bag by any means but it's in our own hands and that's all you can ask for at this stage of the season.

[7_Kewell]

on a side note... Spurs LOST to Norwich today, which gives us a SIX POINT LEAD in 4th 

CL footie just got a lot, lot closer   

With our massively superior goal difference our lead is effectively 7 points, which is significant with just 11 games to go.
It's not in the bag by any means but it's in our own hands and that's all you can ask for at this stage of the season.

As fun as the title race is, the top 4 finish is still the goal and it'll be a huge boost for the club (and coppers) to achieve. As you say, it's not nailed on, but we're in a commanding position.

The next step is to secure 3rd, because our awful ranking in Europe could leave us with a nasty qualifying tie.