Liverpool FC Forum

We'll agree to disagree then. From what I saw it was clearly planned to sit back. Maybe not as much as to have them right at the edge of our box, but packing our own half was clearly all part of the tactic. Rodgers said so himself too.

damjan193 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:11 pm wrote:

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Sat Aug 24, 2013 9:18 pm wrote:i thought we looked great in the first half but in the second we ran out of steam alarmingly.
as gerrard and lucas tired they dropped deeper and deeper until they were practically sat on the toes of our back 4, at that point even when we cleared the ball there was no one in midfield to fight for the dropdowns because as i said lucas and gerrard were playing almost as auxillary CB`s. for the second week in succession late on in the game we have totally lost the territorial battle and invited tons of pressure on ourselves mainly because our CM`s have nothing left in the tank.
at one point lucas (who was outstanding first half) overran and lost the ball in a dangerous position near our box but didnt even have the energy to run back.
in the first half we kept the ball like barca but in the second we were hoofing it aimlessly and struggled to string five passes together.
if we are not comfortably ahead i think brendan needs to go to the bench around the 70/75 minute mark and if needs be he`s got to replace both gerrard and lucas and let allen and hendo close the games out. that lack of athleticism is going to cost us against the better sides.

I think you're looking at it wrong mate. Unlike last week when we were pushed back, this time it was Rodgers' decision to sit back. You could see that we weren't interested in attacking at all in the second half.
I don't think we ran out of steam or energy at all. The midfield, especially Lucas, was totally in control of the situation. The particular situation with Lucas that you're mentioning, Lucas stopped because he though it was a foul (and rightly so).
The chances Villa had were all by accident and none of them were planned, so that's why I believe the players did a great job defensively and controlled most of the game even though we didn't have the ball. I must say though, I don't approve of this kind of approach (especially not with just one goal lead) because on another day those accidental chances might be goals.

i thought we did run out of steam in the 2nd half and we looked tired. maybe the preparations were a little tough and in fairness villa got off to a bright start by beating arsenal and followed it up with making chelsea sweat so we were right to be cautious. it was also important to follow up lasts weeks result with another win as consistency is our biggest achilles heel. it wasnt pretty to watch and yes against better opposition we could have been seriously punished but thats the first time we have seen him deploy that tactic and its not something he will think he can get away with all the time. it worked for us today, just about.
im happy to see that rodgers  isnt afraid to do what it takes to get the points, i always thought with swansea he was gung ho and needed to learn how to just shut up shop and leave with 3 points.
looking at the bench today and there was nothing there that could have come on and grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and change it. allen got bullied in a few challenges when he did come on. we really need a diame type player that can power his way through the midfield and support the front line. maybe henderson can be honed into that role but it would mean at the expense of lucas.
defensively our header's are so poor, half just about make it out of the box. they just lob up in the air and drop and its heart in the mouth time. its an area that needs drastic improvement.
we have united next and then an international break so anything other than a loss will have been as good a start as we could have hoped for. with the home advantage id say we have a good chance of a win. they havent a great midfield and with the pace of our front 3 we will cause them problems on the ground and stretch ferdinand and vidic.

To sit back and park a bus to defend a slim 1-0 lead was a huge risk to take and it paid off. Brendan must have taken some advice from Tony Pulis before the game.

Good win. It turned out to be a gritty performance in the end and I didn't know we really had this kind of performance in us which is great confidence in producing resilience.

Even though he had a couple of dodgy moments Lucas was my MOTM just over Toure and a defensively sound Gerrard, he broke everything up with some crunching tackles and simple passes, him and Gerrard totally bossed the first 35 mins of that game beautifully.

Coutinho was very disappointing, gave away possession cheaply and Aspas didn't really have much of an impact.

Sturridge continues to impress, a well taken goal with good all round work rate working for the team.

Toure was very good again (best free signing since Gary Mac) and did a good job marshaling the "inform" Benteke, he's also making Agger look pretty average atm too IMO.

Another fine save from Mignolet again - good signing that by Rodgers.

Great start to the campaign, 2 wins from 2 

damjan193 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 10:33 pm wrote:

Benny The Noon » Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:22 pm wrote:

damjan193 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:13 pm wrote:Nobody was "frightened" Benny. What we did was planned and it turned out great.

Planning to sit deep on the CB's conceding possession giving Villa the chance to pile on the pressure That's not very good planning - the players were frightened of the pace and invited the pressure on to us - carry on doing that and it won't be great every game.

I completely agree that it wasn't a good plan at all. That's why I was angry at first because I thought it wouldn't work. But Villa's main strength is fast movement and counterattacking and the best way to stop that is to not give them any space in our half. That's why we sat back and packed our own half.

It's a risky plan because it doesn't always work (opposition might score by accident, almost did) but who's to say that if we kept pressing them like we always do, they wouldn't have scored on the counter? Conceding like that would have been even worse because we didn't stop them from doing what they do best.

I thought it was a good plan after hearing what Rodgers said - who apparently is found tactically wanting or doesn't have a plan B  . It was a great decision that paid off, with the intro of Cissoko you could see we were going to tighten up in midfield, and then with the removal of Countinho for Allen it was about containing Villa. Great work from the manager and good to see we have that kind of performance in us.    Had that been a Rafa team (which it looked like in the second half) there would be more plaudits than concerns.

@LFC: Our last 15 competitive matches: 10 wins, 4 draws, 1 loss and 9 clean sheets #LFC   

OptaJoe ‏@OptaJoe 2m
339 - Liverpool have completed more passes in the first half of this game than 17 teams have in a full 90 mins in the PL in 2013/14. 

I'm really "Stoked" by this performance

Apart from Apas the starting 11 looked really good, Coutinho was less than impressive but still played a part in the goal.

If we can continue this trend against all the mid table teams we are on our way.

damjan193 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 10:33 pm wrote:

Benny The Noon » Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:22 pm wrote:

damjan193 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:13 pm wrote:Nobody was "frightened" Benny. What we did was planned and it turned out great.

Planning to sit deep on the CB's conceding possession giving Villa the chance to pile on the pressure That's not very good planning - the players were frightened of the pace and invited the pressure on to us - carry on doing that and it won't be great every game.

I completely agree that it wasn't a good plan at all. That's why I was angry at first because I thought it wouldn't work. But Villa's main strength is fast movement and counterattacking and the best way to stop that is to not give them any space in our half. That's why we sat back and packed our own half.

It's a risky plan because it doesn't always work (opposition might score by accident, almost did) but who's to say that if we kept pressing them like we always do, they wouldn't have scored on the counter? Conceding like that would have been even worse because we didn't stop them from doing what they do best.

The second half was simply horrible to watch and I dread to think what would have been said on this forum if Villa had scored. Anybody that says they weren't on the edge of their seat for the last ten minutes is a liar  Good result but I don't want to watch us play like that too often. We don't do easy do we.....

I wasn't on the edge of my seat.







I always stand up while watching the match. :P

The Good Yank » Sun Aug 25, 2013 8:07 am wrote:I wasn't on the edge of my seat.







I always stand up while watching the match. :P

Get told off by the stewards

Superb first 35 to 40 minutes . The passing and movements of players were world-class , really amazing stuff , but the second half was not good and if
rodgers really planned to sit back at 1-0 ,  it is really pure stupidity and could have paid the price and lost some crucial points . Hopefully we can score more goals on games to come . Great to see our name among top of the table .

Benny The Noon » Sat Aug 24, 2013 10:22 pm wrote:

damjan193 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:13 pm wrote:Nobody was "frightened" Benny. What we did was planned and it turned out great.

Planning to sit deep on the CB's conceding possession giving Villa the chance to pile on the pressure That's not very good planning - the players were frightened of the pace and invited the pressure on to us - carry on doing that and it won't be great every game.

100% planned.

Rodgers confirmed it himself after the game, in his interview he stated they intention played a deep back line to neutralise Villa's counter attack.

Good call by BR then, showing some good form ,  let's go and batter the mancs now. It's going to be tough and we need to be well on top of our game.

SouthCoastShankly » Sun Aug 25, 2013 7:40 am wrote:

Benny The Noon » Sat Aug 24, 2013 10:22 pm wrote:

damjan193 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:13 pm wrote:Nobody was "frightened" Benny. What we did was planned and it turned out great.

Planning to sit deep on the CB's conceding possession giving Villa the chance to pile on the pressure That's not very good planning - the players were frightened of the pace and invited the pressure on to us - carry on doing that and it won't be great every game.

100% planned.

Rodgers confirmed it himself after the game, in his interview he stated they intention played a deep back line to neutralise Villa's counter attack.

Strange remark by BR...I think keeping 60-70% possession like we did in the first 30 minutes would have neutralized Villa even further and would have allowed us to score more goals...But he probably saw something which I haven't....Villa produced more chances when we allowed them to throw the ball into our box.

If BR thinks his current Squad is more sound in the back and better on defense then on offense then he has a big surprise coming. This team is capable of scoring a lot of goals in each game ,we should never settle for a tight result.

In past years we would have drawn that game or even loss. We dominated the first and sat back the second quite similar to the the Stoke game and we got 2 wins 6 points.

BR looked comfortable even if we didnt. Got to say Cissoko looked good even if i wasnt sure what position he was playing

LFC1990 » Sun Aug 25, 2013 9:55 am wrote:In past years we would have drawn that game or even loss. We dominated the first and sat back the second quite similar to the the Stoke game and we got 2 wins 6 points.

BR looked comfortable even if we didnt. Got to say Cissoko looked good even if i wasnt sure what position he was playing

Can't argue with results 

However can't rely on penalty saves or other keeper heroics as well for the next time.