Liverpool FC Forum

Benny The Noon » Sat Sep 21, 2013 11:30 pm wrote:Do you think you two can take your flirting elsewhere

Benny do one.

I think people need to relax a little. Yes it was a disappointing to lose but it is only one game. We have played well this season and fully deserved our victories over Stoke, Villa and Manure. We were good against Swansea in the first half and yes they bossed it second and a draw was fair. Today was poor no doubt about it, but it is one result and Southampton will cause a lot of teams problems this season. Let's see how we bounce back.

This league is tough and there are no easy games and I maintain the 5 teams who finished above us have better quality squads and are better equipped to cope with injuries and suspensions. When we have everyone fit, we are a match for anyone in the league but when we lose people in key positions, we look vulnerable and I'm not convinced the players who come in to cover are of the required standard. I'm not saying we need someone on the bench or squad who can match the quality of a Suarez or Coutinho but the gap in quality between them and who comes in to cover is too great at the moment and that needs to be be bridged moving forward so as fans we need a touch of realism and show some patience.

Doeboy » Sat Sep 21, 2013 10:56 pm wrote:We have played well this season and fully deserved our victories over Stoke, Villa and Manure.

Explain yourself lad.

eds » Sun Sep 22, 2013 12:00 am wrote:

Doeboy » Sat Sep 21, 2013 10:56 pm wrote:We have played well this season and fully deserved our victories over Stoke, Villa and Manure.

Explain yourself lad.

At least you have a rare gift called....common sense.

eds » Sat Sep 21, 2013 11:00 pm wrote:

Doeboy » Sat Sep 21, 2013 10:56 pm wrote:We have played well this season and fully deserved our victories over Stoke, Villa and Manure.

Explain yourself lad.

Did Stoke, Villa and Manure do enough to win the games? I don't think so. Yes Stoke could have grabbed a draw at the end but we were better than them. Against Villa we were the better team. Yes they came back into it 2nd half but not like they were creating chance after chance. Same goes or the Manure, not like they had loads of chances and we defended very well.

This league is difficult and the half decent teams will not make it easy for the top teams and will nick points of them. Man City have already found that by losing to Cardiff and struggling to a draw against Stoke. Chelsea also had to dig hard against Villa to beat them and struggled last week against the bitters. Villa did a job on Arsenal to. The likes of Swansea and Southampton are good teams and will nick points of the top teams, make no mistake.

Doeboy » Sat Sep 21, 2013 11:22 pm wrote:

eds » Sat Sep 21, 2013 11:00 pm wrote:

Doeboy » Sat Sep 21, 2013 10:56 pm wrote:We have played well this season and fully deserved our victories over Stoke, Villa and Manure.

Explain yourself lad.

Did Stoke, Villa and Manure do enough to win the games? I don't think so. Yes Stoke could have grabbed a draw at the end but we were better than them. Against Villa we were the better team. Yes they came back into it 2nd half but not like they were creating chance after chance. Same goes or the Manure, not like they had loads of chances and we defended very well.

This league is difficult and the half decent teams will not make it easy for the top teams and will nick points of them. Man City have already found that by losing to Cardiff and struggling to a draw against Stoke. Chelsea also had to dig hard against Villa to beat them and struggled last week against the bitters. Villa did a job on Arsenal to. The likes of Swansea and Southampton are good teams and will nick points of the top teams, make no mistake.

Some good points. We did enough in the first three games to win and deserved to win those games over the ninety minutes. If losing to a mid-table side from last season is a disaster how does City's defeat at Cardiff, a promoted side, compare in context given their £100 million spending this summer? The league is a difficult league and even sides in the top half will struggle sometimes against mid-table sides.

That said a response is now required as these kind of slip ups can't become a regular feature of the season if we are to push on.

we`ve won games but we havent been convincing in any of them, we`ve ended all the games on the back foot defending for our lives.
we havent scored many goals either, 5 goals in 5 games isnt a fantastic return by any means.
saying that i dont think injuries have helped, we havent got the deepest squad in the country and for various reasons we are without our 2 best players (suarez and coutinho) and our 3rd best player had no pre season to speak of and is clearly half fit.
the other players really need to step up to the plate though, we have collected just 1 point from our last 2 games against teams that a club with top 4 aspirations should really be beating, and to be fair we were lucky to get that point as well, swansea played us off the park in the second half.
we all know how high the stakes are this season, if we dont finish in the CL places we will lose our best player so to accrue 1 point out of a possible 6 against swansea and southampton is dissappointing to say the least.
after those 2 games the feel good factor is well and truly gone so the club needs to show a bit of character now.

Let's face facts, we rode our luck and now we're found out. We all knew it. A few sang and danced about it, seeing what we all see but hammering their point home so they can now bask in the filthy glory of their excellent football knowledge.

There's many things wrong, but over the last few weeks, I've been worried about BR's arrogance. He is far too young and far to inexperienced to turn this team into an all attacking unit that will plow through all before us. There are teams, much more firmly established and settled who adopt a variety of tactics in order to meet the challenges ahead.

Brendan though seems intent on this technical attacking game which seems to lack any form of direction towards any specific, clear goal.

During yesterday's match the commentator pointed out the Saints gameplan on about 20 minutes:

'To force our GK and back line to play it long, down the throats of the towering defenders.'

I saw it. Most of us would have seen it. This begs the question, did our dugout see it? If so, we didnt respond to it.

Teams press us. We hate it. We have no physical presence on pitch or bench. We crumble under it, every single time. Every match so far!!

So why don't we address it? Simple. BR chucked all his eggs into this fancy cr*p we're being served and until January, we have no options.

My fear is that come January, BR will think its all going swell, as will the owners, we'll plod on.

Is BR a coach, or a manger? For me the jury is very much still out.

We start to look vulnerable when we get a few injuries and we have also introduced some new players into the
side recently and sometimes they don't hit the ground running.

Pinning hopes on Sterling and Alberto to turn a game from the bench is a lot to ask and some of those younger players
still look short of what's required to make a serious impact at this level despite good form in the reserve team.

With the squad still being thin on real quality the lads that are in the side cannot have an off day and yesterday they
did and you lose in the Premiership when that happens but we don't have a ton of options, especially in midfield.

There was something (or lack of something) in yesterday's match that made me realise just how far away we are. We were top of the league but not one player on the pitch believed we belong there. After the second half, there was no fight. No desire to stay top. No one was running. There was no urgency. Not even a crunching tackle to cheer.

I hope Brendan is learning, but I'm now seriously concerned that he's not. BR has us playing beautiful football in spells, so his coaching abilities look to be great. But he assumes the opposition will have no game plan, and that they won't change things during the match. For us, we just keep doing the same thing. BR has left himself very limited.

Attacking possession is a nice PART of football, a nice TACTIC when required. But that won't work without the ball, and it won't work every match. As teams adapt to play against us, we need to out think them. We need to change things, mix it up.

Alongside the onfield tactics (coach) a manager needs to be a good leader, a smart thinker, a clever talker. They need to keep morale up, appoint the right staff into the right positions. There's so much more to it than even that. What I'm seeing from BR thus far is that he's a good attacking coach. Nothing more.

I don't see my mind changing any time soon.

RedAnt » Sun Sep 22, 2013 10:53 am wrote:There was something (or lack of something) in yesterday's match that made me realise just how far away we are. We were top of the league but not one player on the pitch believed we belong there. After the second half, there was no fight. No desire to stay top. No one was running. There was no urgency. Not even a crunching tackle to cheer.

I hope Brendan is learning, but I'm now seriously concerned that he's not. BR has us playing beautiful football in spells, so his coaching abilities look to be great. But he assumes the opposition will have no game plan, and that they won't change things during the match. For us, we just keep doing the same thing. BR has left himself very limited.

Attacking possession is a nice PART of football, a nice TACTIC when required. But that won't work without the ball, and it won't work every match. As teams adapt to play against us, we need to out think them. We need to change things, mix it up.

Alongside the onfield tactics (coach) a manager needs to be a good leader, a smart thinker, a clever talker. They need to keep morale up, appoint the right staff into the right positions. There's so much more to it than even that. What I'm seeing from BR thus far is that he's a good attacking coach. Nothing more.

I don't see my mind changing any time soon.

but at the moment we`ve gone away from that possession based approach, we arent keeping the ball for the sake of it infact we arent keeping the ball period.
as for pressing we do that for about 20 minutes then throw the towel in.
i know the results were sh.1.te early on last season but we actually looked closer to that barcelona style (that rodgers talked about implementing when he first arrived) back then than we do now.
i`m just hoping that when we get everyone back and fit that we`ll start to click again because quite frankly atm we look a shambles, swansea and southampton played us off the park and we could of quite easily been on the end of two hidings if it wasnt for some desperate defending and excellent goalkeeping.

Yeah, that's just my point. Without possession, we have no idea what to do. Players wander around, lost and with no belief in themselves, each other, the manger, or anyone on the bench.

It's incredibly stupid of BR to sell Carroll and not replace him. Spearing too. Not a great player, but an option we sold and didn't replace. Already these naive, arrogant decisions have lost us points.

Red Ant in fairness I think BR bought Danny Sturridge back in January to replace Andy Carroll or have I got that wrong. As for everything else it is becoming increasingly difficult to remain positive. BR has made some schoolboy errors in the last two game and as a result we lose five points out of six against two very average teams. Some of the players certainly have to stand up and take responsibility for some pathetic performances. BR needs to get this sorted and very quickly.

Maybe Sturridge did replace Carroll. But we need a battler up there. Someone who specialises in making big defenders feel smaller.

Some work on corners wouldn't go amiss either. We had a lot yesterday, but not one had any threat. I'd say a top 4 side should be getting 10 or more goals a season from corners alone.