RED BEERGOGGLES » Sun Feb 28, 2016 1:44 pm wrote:When your captain shits out of taking the first penalty (if indeed he was prepared to take any) then it undermines the confidence of those with the stones to step up in his absence ,you would have had to physically restrain Gerrard to stop him going first. Henderson is a shitbag ,I doubt he would be captain in any other Premier League outfit.
Lucas was brilliant at CB and read the game like a favourite son used to ,and some of the blocks and last minute challenges were lifted straight from the Carra back catalogue. I thought Can was excellent in the middle ,and Toure played like a colossus when he was introduced.
Other than that I thought Sturridge and Coutinho were extremely wasteful ,as for Henderson I lost count of how many times he passed the ball back into his own half rather than inspire something a player charged with motivating the team would spark.
When we won the Champions League Benitez performed miracles with some players that shouldn't have been on the same pitch as a classy Milan team ,but one thing they had was heart and the belief that something so extraordinary could come from a team so ordinary.
I didn't see that in the players we fielded today ,City could have run up a cricket score if not for some gymnastics from Mignolet ,and Sterling proving once and for all his finishing is without a shadow of a doubt the weakest part of his game.
Klopp will bring what's missing to this team in terms of the personnel he recruits in the summer ,but for now he has to suffer players that just cant bring the football he wants to see played in this league ,let alone even raise their respective games for a special manager.
Did Hendo refuse to take the first pen?
I don't remember Gerrard always going first...? Could be wrong but I don't think there's any unwritten rule of Captain's taking the first pen. You've had CB's and Keepers as captains, so that obviously wouldn't make sense, and even when your midfielders and forwards are captain they don't always go first. It's also tactical in the order you set your penalty takers, so to go after him because he didn't take the first pen seems a bit off base.
I'm not saying his some great captain, but unless there was some indication that Hendo refused (I could've missed it if there was one), I don't see a problem with Can, who scored going first.