Liverpool FC Forum

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

Gerard used to have a thunderbolt of a right foot but ever since that groin injury that nearly ended his career he hasn't been able to generate the type of power that he used to.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

Tremendous gesture by gerrard, he has done the same as rafa and donated £96000 to the hilsborough campaign.

[stmichael]

That was the Gerrard of 2005 last night. Immense.

[woof woof !]

That was the Gerrard of 2005 last night. Immense.

And yet some will still label him a liability

[Boocity]

That was the Gerrard of 2005 last night. Immense.

And yet some will still label him a liability

Wouldn't say he is liability he still has it in him but he can't do it week in week out, maybe the derby motivated him to up his game

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

That was the Gerrard of 2005 last night. Immense.

And yet some will still label him a liability

That was his best game of the season by a country mile but even so Everton pretty much dominated the midfield and the ball, 39% possession at home is a shocking stat, in Rodgers grand master plan it us that should be passing the opposition to death not the other way round.
We were just ruthlessly clinical on the counter, in fact that's as ruthless as I have ever seen a Liverpool team in a derby match and the first derby I went to was in 1975! In that famous game in 82 at goodison when rush scored 4 people forget that evertons CB glen Keeley was sent off halfway through the first half, last night our forwards were playing against 11 men all game and we could have easily scored 8.
Every time we attacked we looked like scoring.
We looked a lot better last night than in recent performances but for some reason our midfield still isn't quite functioning properly. We aren't dominating the ball against the better sides.

[damjan193]

I think that this was a one off because he was extra motivated, but credit where credit is due, he was absolutely immense yesterday. A real captain like performance that reminded of the 2005 CL final.

[stmichael]

The possession stat means absolutely nothing if you do nothing with it. For me it was a masterstroke putting Coutinho central allowing us to spring on the counter. We were never going to control the game when we essentially had two midfield players playing. Tactically it is the way we should be playing. Trying to dominate possession in the attacking third is more difficult to break down defenses and leaves us vulnerable to the counter with our slow defenders.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

The possession stat means absolutely nothing if you do nothing with it. For me it was a masterstroke putting Coutinho central allowing us to spring on the counter. We were never going to control the game when we essentially had two midfield players playing. Tactically it is the way we should be playing. Trying to dominate possession in the attacking third is more difficult to break down defenses and leaves us vulnerable to the counter with our slow defenders.

I disagree, Rodgers has often spoke about 'death by football' and wanting to make opposition teams defend for long periods of the game, infact Rodgers master-plan/blueprint involves us 'resting' when in possession and grafting our @rses off when we are trying to get the ball back.
if we ourselves have to spend most weekends chasing the ball for over an hour then our players will be out on their feet by March.
I thought the performance at white hart lane where we not only scored plenty of goals but controlled the game was more convincing but I'm not complaining about a convincing derby win either.
I just think for this team to go on to the next level we really need to have the ability to control possession against the better sides in the division. If you give the likes of Arsenal or dare I say it even bayern or barca that much possession then they will eventually break you down, not only that but run you off your feet too.
Then again we are quite early into Rodgers rebuilding project, sometimes it's easy to forget that he has only been in charge for18 months because so much has happened, if we start picking up players like konoplyanka it won't be long before we start to assert ourselves more.
P.S -to be fair to Everton I think they edged arsenal in the possession stakes at the emirates so they are not an easy midfield to play against.

[woof woof !]

The possession stat means absolutely nothing if you do nothing with it. For me it was a masterstroke putting Coutinho central allowing us to spring on the counter. We were never going to control the game when we essentially had two midfield players playing. Tactically it is the way we should be playing. Trying to dominate possession in the attacking third is more difficult to break down defenses and leaves us vulnerable to the counter with our slow defenders.

I disagree, Rodgers has often spoke about 'death by football' and wanting to make opposition teams defend for long periods of the game, infact Rodgers master-plan/blueprint involves us 'resting' when in possession

Everton are no mugs and given the conditions last night I think BR was happy to depart from his "philosophy".

Time and again we just banged the ball out of defence more often than not surrendering possession. It almost seemed we were happy to let Everton have it in the middle of the park, perhaps confident that the more they pushed onto us the more likely we would eventually get the telling balls through to Suarez, Sturridge or Sterling.

[leeroy74]

yeah Everton are no mugs to be honest. They play tidy football, it was just when we attacked we murdered them. Our front 3 are by far the best in the league.

[RED BEERGOGGLES]

Even though we conceded a huge amount of the ball to the Bitterz ,it has to be said Gerrard was quite brilliant last night ,and if he manages to put in similar performances with the same amount of zeal and passion for the rest of the season then he may just quieten the growing consternation.

Lets just allow him to enjoy the much merited plaudits for his 'turning back the years' display ,also have to add that some of his tackling yesterday was world class..... Long may it continue.

[woof woof !]

Even though we conceded a huge amount of the ball to the Bitterz ,it has to be said Gerrard was quite brilliant last night ,and if he manages to put in similar performances with the same amount of zeal and passion for the rest of the season then he may just quieten the growing consternation.

Lets just allow him to enjoy the much merited plaudits for his 'turning back the years' display ,also have to add that some of his tackling yesterday was world class..... Long may it continue.

Gerrard was quite brilliant last night ,and if he manages to put in similar performances with the same amount of zeal and passion for the rest of the season then he may just quieten the growing consternation.

Yeah Red but unfortunately if he doesn't turn in a 10/10 performance in every game they'll still be some ingrates quick to label him as a Liability.   

[JC_81]

We abandoned 'death by football' about half way through last season and from then we have played to our strengths - quick transitions, pressing in packs and at times sitting back to draw teams out before countering.  At times we will dominate the ball against inferior opposition but it doesn't seem to be our focus.  When was the last time you heard Rodgers wax lyrical about our 'possession football'?  It's been a while.  He realises we don't have the players for it, but what we do have are players like Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling who are lethal on the break or with any balls into channels, and players like Gerrard, Coutinho and Henderson who can spot a long pass.

I have no problem with this, nor do I have a problem with conceding possession in the middle of the park (any team playing two out and out strikers like we do will struggle to dominate the centre).  But what we have to do is learn to contain teams better when we are conceding territory and possession and that doesn't necessarily mean Gerrard is at fault playing as our DM or that the full backs are at fault - it is a team thing in terms of our shape when we lose the ball and decisions like when and how many players to bomb forward at times in a game.  It's Rodgers' job to make sure that the players understand what they are meant to be doing.

Gerrard was great against Everton, awful against Villa and ok against Stoke in the 'holding role'.  He might adapt, he might not, I am reserving judgement for now but given our injuries he's likely to get a few more games there at least.

As much as I don't like the comparison, we're starting to look like one of Ferguson's United teams - we don't always dominate play or look convincing at the back, but we're clinical up front, lethal on the counter and teams hate playing against us because we don't know when we're beaten.

[RED BEERGOGGLES]

Even though we conceded a huge amount of the ball to the Bitterz ,it has to be said Gerrard was quite brilliant last night ,and if he manages to put in similar performances with the same amount of zeal and passion for the rest of the season then he may just quieten the growing consternation.

Lets just allow him to enjoy the much merited plaudits for his 'turning back the years' display ,also have to add that some of his tackling yesterday was world class..... Long may it continue.

Gerrard was quite brilliant last night ,and if he manages to put in similar performances with the same amount of zeal and passion for the rest of the season then he may just quieten the growing consternation.

Yeah Red but unfortunately if he doesn't turn in a 10/10 performance in every game they'll still be some ingrates quick to label him as a Liability.   :kungfu:

One swallow does not a summer make ,but when any player has a good game I'd like to think he should be as equal to praise as he is to castigation
Like I said let him enjoy the approbation he thoroughly deserves for his game last night ..... West Brom next ,lets hope his application and general
appetite show no sign of waning for that one.