Liverpool FC Forum

The more I see Mignolet, the more he reminds me of Grobbelaar. Fowler tonight on MOTD picked out a number of passages of play, where the keeper just gloriously fooked up pretty straightforward clearances. Trying to be a bit too clever dribbling instead of just lashing the ball up the pitch. Or kicking the ball straight into touch.
There's no doubt he's making some decent saves, but so did Grobbelaar. It's the other normal stuff he's making a pig's ar$e of....

I don't know if BR's hand was forced due to injuries, but Toure and Sakho at full backs was a ***** up to say the least. Playing 4-3-3, the fullbacks are so important in providing width and an outlet. Toure and Sakho's games are not about bombing on and provide attacking outlets and so that forced the game narrow and so we were never really able to stretch Southampton and also allowed them to press more efficiently in the middle. I'm hoping today really was a case of BR's hand being forced to play them at RB and LB respectively rather than it being out of choise

The reality is lads that with Sturridge carrying a knock, Gerrard not showing up and Coutinho and Suarez being out of the side our creativity is rubbish.

Watched the full 90 and I didn't expect us to score unless it was going to be a bulls**t deflection or penalty. But we rode our luck for the first 4 premiership games and that's as far as we can push it.

Gerrard's age is really starting to catch-up with him now, I remember he got off to a poor start last season and only started to gain "that presence" about 8 to 10 games into the season, he really needs to start firing on all v12 cylinders very soon or we are well and truly f**ked even with Suarez back.

Aspas should never play in a red shirt again, I thought Borini was rubbish, f**k me Rodgers really knows how to make me look foolish, absolutely poor player that is completely out of his depth.

The only positive is Mignolet being solid yet again keeping us in the game, but he really needs to concentrate on his distribution, must pass it off quicker and not put himself under so much pressure.

I also thought Moses had a positive game, if the team was playing a more attacking brand of football he would have got the ball further up the field and causing their fullbacks more concern.

Let's hope Suarez can inspire this lot now, because at this stage the whole team needs a rocket up their a**

I can't put into words what happened in this game. 

Instead of showing how resilient we are without Suarez we have done the exact opposite, back on our knees hoping he shows us mercy & lifts the whole team without getting suspended.

Mosses was the only hope of getting anything out of this game. A loanee from Chelsea, fook LFC where were our superstars!!!! Gerrard? Sturridge? Agger?

I seriously don't think playing 4 CB's was the problem here. We have played CB's as full backs before if you people didn't have such a short memory. Carragher as RB and LB and Agger as LB. Toure was quite often played as RB at Arsenal and Sakho also as LB at PSG. Besides, if you think of the alternative would Wisdom have done better than Toure? Toure played quite well in this game. Would Enrique have done much better than Sakho? Enrique was actually quite terrible when he came on and this is coming from an Enrique's fan.

No, the problem was not 4 CB's. The problem was a general lack in quality in certain areas within the team which was not addressed during the summer. First off is the CM pairing Lucas and Gerrard. Us fans are so afraid of criticizing Gerrard, but he is at this moment with his current form, the weakest link. Gerrard's game was never about positioning, keeping it neat like Alonso's. It is about speed, strength, stamina and power, storming foward, attacking the goal, quick passes to the strikers and long hollywood passes that bypasses the defence. Now that he has lost his stamina, his performance has severely dropped. The equalizer against Swansea, he was guilty of ball watching Shelvey storm pass him. In this position, we need someone like Alonso more. Someone who can dictate the flow of the game from deeper, someone who is perfect at positioning and someone who can disrupt the flow of the opponent as well. Then there is Lucas. Lucas has improved tremendously and he is now a very decent DM. But he is also no Makelele, Hamann, Yaya Toure, or Mascherano. He is very slow and again his positioning is also not his strong suit. He couldn't read a game the way better DM's can. If his partner, Gerrard, is doing well, as in the early part of the game, he can play very well as well. But once Gerrard's performance drops, he can't plug the gaps anymore. It's like seeing someone trying to block bullets with a big leaf.

Then the so called number 10 position, which is the key to BR's formation. With Coutinho, we can keep the ball and be creative. Without Coutinho, we were never gonna apply pressure to the opponent on a consistent basis. (And to think that some posters on here thinks Coutinho doesnt do anything  ). Henderson has also improved tremendously, but when you look at him, he plays very stiff. He has tactical ability alright, but he doesn't have the smoothness and speed of thinking as Coutinho. He has the capability to chase down balls, run  with the ball, and score the occassional goal. But his creativity is lacking and his final pass is also lacking in quality.

Then there is the other weaker position which is Aspas. Aspas is not useless but I don't think he is the right personnel to play a wide forward role, not in the premier league anyway. With goals only coming from Sturridge, Sturridge needs to play central and this leaves Aspas having to play out of position most of the time, and this leaves him in an awkward position. I actually do like his play. Sturridge is often found guilty of not finding Aspas, who had ran into good positions. To me he is more a fox in the box, but with Sturridge playing as the main striker, the partnership between him and Sturridge is not working.

To me, Moses is actually a very good fit to the team and I hope we make his transfer permanent. We are really lacking a wide right foward and a more athletic and strong DM in the center if we want to play Gerrard. Right now I would probably play Henderson where Gerrard is playing now and stick Gerrard out right. When Suarez comes back he can play in the hole. I see BR's system more of a 4-5-1 than the pure 4-3-3 than chelsea used to play under Mourinho.

                        Mignolet

Johnson    Skrtle        Agger/Sakho   Sakho/ Enrique

            Henderson        Lucas

   Gerrard          Suarez           Moses

                        Sturridge

Where's Coutinho in your team, you have Jonno in there but he will be out longer than coutinho.

Answer: Bring Suso back from loan.

Hustler 2 » Sat Sep 21, 2013 6:03 pm wrote:
I was having fun winding others up a bit on here.

If you think "winding others up a bit" after we've suffered defeat at home is "having fun" let me assure you it's not "fun" for the rest of us.

You've taken your  wummery to far.

You're out of here.

Was in the Kop for the game yesterday block 208 row 25 seat 26 and the only thing more dire then the crows was the players of the field.

I like rodgers but his team was awful.

point a) He plays a 4-3-3 formation with his two full backs being CBs = no width which showed for us going forward and defensively. Whenever Soton attacked down the wings they were in at goal and whenever Moses or Aspas/Sterling needed support down there flank it wasnt there.

point b) Gerrard was AGAIN poor - He has carried this team for years but last few games has been woeful should have come off yesterday.

Point C) Raheem needs to get in that f*cking gym. Lightweight as hell touch him and he loses the ball an on the floor.

Overall poor performace very awful with nobody really looking to shine.

Although Henderson again and moses looked okay

woof woof ! » Sun Sep 22, 2013 9:52 am wrote:

Hustler 2 » Sat Sep 21, 2013 6:03 pm wrote:
I was having fun winding others up a bit on here.

If you think "winding others up a bit" after we've suffered defeat at home is "having fun" let me assure you it's not "fun" for the rest of us.

You've taken your  wummery to far.

You're out of here.

Thanks. Never was one to call for a red card, but well deserved.

I think sometimes you can read too much into one game.  Yesterday was a poor result and an even worse performance, but it isn't time to be reaching for the razor blades just yet either.  We made 8 summer signings and you can't expect them to gel immediately, which will inevitably lead to some inconsistency and strange results in the early part of the season.  5 of those signings were in yesterday's starting 11 and in addition to that you have Sturridge playing with an injury, Coutinho injured, Johnson injured and Suarez banned.

I think the starting team and the squad is stronger than 12 months ago and those sticking the knife into Rodgers after we have 10 points from 5 games is ridiculous.  It looks like Aspas was a mistake, but other than that I think his signings this summer have been good.

The midfield does look a problem and I hope we try to address that in January, but we're still well in the mix for 4th.

A fair point JC and I'm not reaching for the razors just yet. However, in reference to consistency, we've been consistent. We're supposed to be an attacking side playing the beautiful game, but so far we've been consistently difficult to watch. I'm afraid that yesterday's match was expected sooner or later by all of us.

We will dust ourselves off and get back up. Always have, always will. At least now we don't have the pressure of being unbeaten. The results so far haven't really suited our overall performances, but it didn't matter as we were top.

Now we're justified in demanding more. And BR and the players must demand more from themselves, and hopefully yesterday gave them the kick up the jacka that they need.

Let's be realistic. Arsenal, Spurs, City and Chelsea performances are definitely better than Liverpool and very likely they'll finish above us. Plus with a thin squad and with Couthinho out, Gerrard over the hill, both full backs out, we're  sitting ducks. Yes, I know Suarez is back from next game onwards but can one player really turn the whole team around? Talks about CL football next season will have to be stalled for now. If we finish anything below 6th this season, it's time to consider whether to keep BR or not.

played 5 and we've 10 points. that's improvement. I vote we concentrate on right here and now than speculate what might or might not be at the end of the season just so you can drop the old 'get rid of BR' sentence into a post.

if ... but's...    and monkey nuts