Liverpool FC Forum

[account deleted by request]

I have to say I think Steve Bruce took the whole of Anfield by surprise including Rafa and the lads. Wigan didnt come to sit back, on the contray they went for it and played the better football in the first half. Whether that took our lads by surprise I dont know, but I thought we were pretty poor today right up until their sending off.

Our defence was suspect in particular Agger and Dossena, five minutes before Wigans first goal I was screaming at the TV. Agger moments before the goal played the Wigan attack onside which opened up a decent opportunity for Reina to save. The Dane looked lost, then five minutes later it was even worse as he gifted Zaki the ball, too slot home. The pundits were blaming Reina also, but if you look at the replay Reina waved Agger to him, as if to say recieve the ball. Agger obliged, if he didnt want it he could of said so, as it was Aggers touch let him down for Zaki to steel and score.
Same with Dossena for Wigans second goal, there should of been no way their RM was aloud to turn him and Agger inside out, although Dossena was the closest of the two defenders, to allow him to get the cross in for Zaki's brilliantly taken goal. Also Alonso and Arbeloa were suspect in pick Zaki up, but IMO Dossena shouldnt of allowed the cross in, in the first place.

Agger redeemed himself 8 minutes later though, in typical Agger style he carried the ball a good 50 yards towards the left and played a nice 1-2 with Rieira then Agger turned Melchiot inside out and picked out Kuyt for our equaliser. Good finnish that from Dirky !

Riera who was my man of the match took his goal well and looked the most likely from an average midfield today to unlock something, or make something happen. Neither Gerrard nor Alonso were really at the races, and while Pennant provided the odd cross here and there he continued to run down blind alleys all day long which as usual had no real end product.

Keane had a decent opportunity in the first half after some lovely play by Riera and the Spainards through ball to Keane was top draw. Unfortunately that miss only went onto highlight his afternoon, good work rate like Kuyt, but was never really in the match, never imposed himself and never really got the service required from his teamates.
Kuyt, the same as Keane worked hard and found himself in two good positions on seperate occassions, and oddly enough scoring from both of them. He was also very unlucky Kirkland got finger tips to his cracking shot in the first half. Kuyt did well.

MoTM - Rieira, no doubt. The rest of the side were pretty average if truth be told.

We cannot carry on going behind in matches, and only show momentum when we go a goal done. Although I'm stoked at the win which is what basically matters at the end of the day. But the lads will need to up it against Chelsea.

Oh, and Brucie suck s.hit !

Top post mate. I would have said spot on but for disagreeing with you about Gerrard. I thought he drove Liverpool forward , made some great tackles and while not playing anywhere near his best level did enough to get my vote or at least a favourable mention.

My top three on the day :-Gerrard ,Kuyt and Riera not in any order.

Alonso I thought really only came into the game after the sending off but did well from then on.

Rest of your post spot on 

[tubby]

It was great to see Riera score. You could really see from his celebration how much it meant to him. I think he will turn out to be one of Rafas best signings.

[Bam]

Gerrard did make a couple of good tackles S@int, but I thought his passing was rather sloppy.

[account deleted by request]

Ok then you have convinced me ...... spot on post Bamaga

[Bam]

Ok then you have convinced me ...... spot on post Bamaga

No no no, its just my opinion mate. I think I maybe wrong.

[account deleted by request]

  You never think your wrong

[Bam]

:D  You never think your wrong

I'll happily admit I'm wrong, my names Bam not Stu. 

But your right, its not often I find myself thinking I'm wrong. 

[account deleted by request]

  One thing thats hardly been mentioned was the sending off..... maybe because it was'nt a dodgy one? Although his first booking was a little controversial, the tackle for the second was a late one, and deserved a yellow/red

TBH I think we would have still got a draw without it, but a win ?

[Number 9]

  One thing thats hardly been mentioned was the sending off..... maybe because it was'nt a dodgy one? Although his first booking was a little controversial, the tackle for the second was a late one, and deserved a yellow/red

TBH I think we would have still got a draw without it, but a win ?

I guess we will never know mate!

Rafa was asked(im sure ya saw it) after the game,did the Red card effect the game in our favour to which he gave the sternest NO i've ever heard pass his lips!

[account deleted by request]

:D  One thing thats hardly been mentioned was the sending off..... maybe because it was'nt a dodgy one? Although his first booking was a little controversial, the tackle for the second was a late one, and deserved a yellow/red

TBH I think we would have still got a draw without it, but a win ?

I guess we will never know mate!

Rafa was asked(im sure ya saw it) after the game,did the Red card effect the game in our favour to which he gave the sternest NO i've ever heard pass his lips!

Hmmmm, not so sure Barry, would we have made two attacking subs against 11 men ?

Still he was sent off and deservedly so. We got three points so who cares.

[zarababe]

And Alonso that tackel on ALONSO led to it again - ol slow cooach is worth keeping for this alone

Great result - really happy for Kuyt and Rafa.. sound like a singin duo ay

Have a good feeling about the game against Chelsea - boro were particularly poor .

[GOAT_2.0]

He's certainly perfected his ability to get tackled two footed hasn't he 

Lets hope he continues and we have to come back and win 3-2 against 10 men another 30 times this season

[Roger Red Hat]

what did i miss?

[LFC2007]

Ok.

A poor performance first half brought about by excellent pressing by Wigan, poor defending on our part and an inability to hold the ball up and win the midfield battle. I very much doubt they would've adopted such a high line had Torres been playing and that was the platform they used to force us deep into our own half. They hustled us and won the vast majority of second balls, pinning us back. Whenever our midfielders gained control of the ball, more often than not there wasn't a viable option on. Keane, Kuyt and Pennant especially couldn't hold the ball up or find the right movement to retain the ball, but credit must also go to Wigan as they pressed and pressed and made it very hard for us to find that outlet, esp Cattermole.

Agger 100% at fault for the first goal, aside the poor control, he should've been more alert and glanced over his shoulder before moving to receive it. Zaki was over 10yds away when Reina decided to pass the ball.

He was also at fault for Kapo's chance on 22', he should've anticipated that Carra might've missed the challenge on Palacios and that Kapo was moving beyond him and into space. His distribution early on was poor too, but I'll put theses errors down to nerves after being out for so long. He looked a bit skinnier as well I thought.

He redeemed himself with our goal, Wigan stood off him because they didn't anticipate the threat and from there it was good link up play with Dossena, skill to evade the defender, and awareness to pick out Kuyt. Man City didn't anticipate the threat from Arbeloa in our last match, so it's niceto see we can pose a direct threat with our defenders a times, I just hope it continues.

Dossena was mainly at fault for their second, but also Agger for not covering properly. Dossena looked unfit and played as if he couldn't be arsed.

Second half, Wigan parked the bus in the main, but it took us til 55-60' to put on real pressure, then it subsided again for 10' and then the sending off and the subs helped change the game - which was again pretty similar to the City game.

I thought Pennant did a good job second half after a poor display first half, Keane never really established himself in the game, but did have a good chance first half and set up Kuyt with an excellent cross second. His workrate was excellent but he was generally quite ineffective overall. Kuyt was our most consistent threat, getting in good positions and having our most potent chances. Riera put in a pretty good performance and was fairly consistent throughout, he got in threatening positions but his delivery wasn't there on at least three occasions and he had two headers go wide, esp the first which he should've at least hit the target. He also lost the ball cheaply outside our area on 55' to give Wigan a great chance to create - Kapo hit the post. Alonso and Gerrard were pinned back massively in the first half and did OK defensive work but not great, they could've done a lot better. Second half they really pushed on, both creating - especially Alonso who had much more space to do damage - space he was deprived of first half because he was boxed in alongside with Gerrard. If I was to pick MOM for us, I'm not completely certain who I'd pick. Carragher was our most consistent player and but for him it could've been a lot worse. Kuyt was at the forefront of most of our threatening passages of play and got the winner, so I'd probably favour him slightly.

On Wigan's side, Zaki was excellent throughout, his hold up play was top notch and gave us a real handful.

[Bam]

Ok.

A poor performance first half brought about by excellent pressing by Wigan, poor defending on our part and an inability to hold the ball up and win the midfield battle. I very much doubt they would've adopted such a high line had Torres been playing and that was the platform they used to force us deep into our own half. They hustled us and won the vast majority of second balls, pinning us back. Whenever our midfielders gained control of the ball, more often than not there wasn't a viable option on. Keane, Kuyt and Pennant especially couldn't hold the ball up or find the right movement to retain the ball, but credit must also go to Wigan as they pressed and pressed and made it very hard for us to find that outlet, esp Cattermole.

Agger 100% at fault for the first goal, aside the poor control, he should've been more alert and glanced over his shoulder before moving to receive it. Zaki was over 10yds away when Reina decided to pass the ball.

He was also at fault for Kapo's chance on 22', he should've anticipated that Carra might've missed the challenge on Palacios and that Kapo was moving beyond him and into space. His distribution early on was poor too, but I'll put theses errors down to nerves after being out for so long. He looked a bit skinnier as well I thought.

He redeemed himself with our goal, Wigan stood off him because they didn't anticipate the threat and from there it was good link up play with Dossena, skill to evade the defender, and awareness to pick out Kuyt. Man City didn't anticipate the threat from Arbeloa in our last match, so it's niceto see we can pose a direct threat with our defenders a times, I just hope it continues.

Dossena was mainly at fault for their second, but also Agger for not covering properly. Dossena looked unfit and played as if he couldn't be arsed.

Second half, Wigan parked the bus in the main, but it took us til 55-60' to put on real pressure, then it subsided again for 10' and then the sending off and the subs helped change the game - which was again pretty similar to the City game.

I thought Pennant did a good job second half after a poor display first half, Keane never really established himself in the game, but did have a good chance first half and set up Kuyt with an excellent cross second. His workrate was excellent but he was generally quite ineffective overall. Kuyt was our most consistent threat, getting in good positions and having our most potent chances. Riera put in a pretty good performance and was fairly consistent throughout, he got in threatening positions but his delivery wasn't there on at least three occasions and he had two headers go wide, esp the first which he should've at least hit the target. He also lost the ball cheaply outside our area on 55' to give Wigan a great chance to create - Kapo hit the post. Alonso and Gerrard were pinned back massively in the first half and did OK defensive work but not great, they could've done a lot better. Second half they really pushed on, both creating - especially Alonso who had much more space to do damage - space he was deprived of first half because he was boxed in alongside with Gerrard. If I was to pick MOM for us, I'm not completely certain who I'd pick. Carragher was our most consistent player and but for him it could've been a lot worse. Kuyt was at the forefront of most of our threatening passages of play and got the winner, so I'd probably favour him slightly.

On Wigan's side, Zaki was excellent throughout, his hold up play was top notch and gave us a real handful.

Good post.