NEIL ATKINSON, Gareth Roberts, John Gibbons and Phil Blundell are in the tower to reflect on Real Madrid’s absolute pasting of Liverpool Football Club before looking forward to the list of Hull.
Music this week from The Baltic States and Carl Moorcroft
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Was at the game & there now seems to be a general consensus that if we get a decent keeper, right back and centre forward we’ll be sorted.
To me if we can add Victor Valdes, Dani Alves for a season or 2, Sturridge once he’s back from injury and hope Origi continues to improve as he has done then we’ll definitely improve. Can looks a player every time I see him. Strong, confident and not afraid to get stuck in, I’d bet my salary he’s starting centre mid with Henderson for years to come.
Coutinho had that strike at the very end of the first half that, although it didn’t go in, shows his growing confidence/ ability in front of goal so I think he’ll continue to improve and Lallana looked very good when he came on.
Johnson, Enrique, Lucas, Borini & Balotelli all to go in January/ Summer. All players who I think would perform much better in the DIAMOND!
Final point; bit generous to Ronaldo. He didn’t look bothered, celebrated in front of our fans and walked straight down the tunnel at full time (The Madrid fans were magnificent) (Pepe getting Balotelli’s shirt was much less significant if it was any other player).
Final final point Di Maria was not deemed surplus; he had to be sold to fit with FFP after Madrid signed Rodriguez and Kroos.
Modric and Kroos are WORLD CLASS!
Lovren’s mistakes have cost us many many of our goals. Even ronny’s goal was a result of Lovren stepping out – for no reason. Rodriguez just chipped it over him as if he knew it was going to happen. Convinced RM studied our defence and picked out Lovren as a weak point.
Rather than ending up on his backside (cos he always thinks he can get to the ball) had he just kept running, he could have blocked Ronaldo’s run. such a poor defender.
Go back and look at our conceded goals, Lovren is either responsible or fails to do his job in so many of them. RM, Basel, Ludo, Citeh (x2), WHU – joint responsibility with Moreno, the list goes on and on.
if we had Agger and Sakho sharing that LCB role we would have conceded far less goals.
It’s so obvious but everyone is just ignoring it. BR is stuck with him now and trying to get rid of Sakho.
To buy Lovren and lose Suso is a sacking offence in my eyes.
Interesting as usual.
Rather disappointed at the casual dismissal of supporters who are concerned as those who simply don’t like Rodgers and don’t want to see Liverpool do well. To claim this, and a sentence or two later a contributor opines that he doesn’t know if Liverpool can play well, is astonishing. To not know if our team can play well is of huge concern. As Rogers was hired to make Liverpool play well,the rubbishing of those alarmed at the state we’re in is arrogant to say the least.
You are correct that a significant number of supporters have never warmed to Rodgers, but I feel that personal dislike of the manager feeding a desire for our team to falter is not widespread or even held by a small minority.
and there are very valid concerns.
the defence is as poor as I can remember since Houllier.
the midfield is NOT resilient enough for the PL.
the striker situation has gone from best in the league to probably the worst.
And this is 3 years in and a quarter of a billion pounds spent (near enough).
lack of training time is significant this season esp. with all the players brought in but key 1st team purchases (Lovren and Balotelli for example) are hurting us very badly – which is a golden rule.
Squad players/youngsters is one thing, failures are common, but 1st team players are like gold – that’s where you need the high success rate and we’ve failed badly. Only Lallana has been a success on that front so and the mistakes are costing us badly.
Did you not say that people are making the Hull game a ‘must win’ as part of this supposed ‘crisis’ and then say that we need the 3 points and it would be a big win?? Shewerly your also saying its a must win!
Hmmmmmm!!
Given that we do badly against Bruce’s sides and rarely look too clever after a midweek European game, 15/4 the draw and 15/2 away win seem pretty generous. Can’t bring myself to make the bets though.
I’m presuming that Liverpool Football Club will have no such reservations about gambling, when January comes around and they are looking for another striker. If we are not going to buy proven quality again, I would like to see us take a desperate punt on Galatasaray’s Armindo Tué Na Bangna (Bruma).
A rough young diamond still, but I think he’s the sort of player we need if we are going to recreate the sort of magical attacking madness of last season.
Worth watching his Youtube video, if only for the 1980s computer game music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM0LIlLDCuY
Every night on the way home from work my focus, religiously, is on getting home as quick as possible. It takes 40 mins if I can avoid the obligatory traffic jams which put an extra 25 minutes on my journey. I know every back road and country lane in Cheshire and use them to beat the congestion (I knew all that doggin would come in handy one day). Tonight, I was listening to this podcast on City Talk and it was so good I deliberately took the route with extra traffic. I left work at 5 I didn’t want to get home before 6 and miss any of it. I was so engrossed in the content that when I reached the jams I forgot to be aggressive to other drivers. Thoroughly enjoyable podcast.
The ‘Crisis’ section was superb as was the article in the new TAWMAG. For me, it was completely timely. I don’t watch TV so when It’s time to relax I usually end up writing comments on here. I enjoy it. Recently, I wanted to avoid the comments section for a bit (but failed) because they’d started doing my head in too much. Over the last few weeks I’ve read so much shite and negativity on here (the comments) that it got me questioning why a grown man feels the need to contribute towards it. Some will think my comments are shit and I accept that because I’m not bothered. Some will read them, some will skip them. I’ve no issue with shit comments per se though. In one comment I might be very upbeat and in another very downbeat. Sometimes in the middle – passion does that. Having an opinion based on what I see does that. It’s the agenda’s that wind me up. As said in TAWMAG, the box waiting to be opened as soon as they think there’s a chance they can do it up without sounding too bitter. I totally agree with the article that there are issues. It’s deluded to say our defence aren’t playing shit or that our strikers are doing ok. Yes, that leads to other questions. But ask them with the possibility there are 2 answers and not just the one that suits the agenda. There’s loads of them. Mario, FSG, Rodgers, Henderson, Gerrard, Mignolet, Dalglish. People want the narrative to fit their agenda so they can say I told you so. It’s that pathetic. The worst of it for me is that I have a compulsion to challenge agenda driven comments. It infuriates me. We (as a collective of LFC fans) are knocking the players confidence and Increasing the pressure. I’m livid with Balotelli being the scapegoat in all this. I can’t feel this anger towards him. Frustration yes, anger no. The lad has tried. It’s not his role. That’s clear.
On the way home from the game my mate told me about the shirt swapping. We laughed and said no more. By the next morning my line had become ‘He shouldn’t be doing that because it shows where his priorities are’. Point being, my head had been turned. I felt that as a loyal LFC fan I should be criticising him over it. Yet, I didn’t feel it. My initial reaction was to laugh. I was surprised by James Pearce. He epitomises what I think a journalist should be. I don’t want to see stories like ‘Balotelli has 10 weeks to prove himself or he’ll be sold in January’. Are we assuming Brendan has phoned the press to tell them that. No, it’s nothing more than a thought that’s popped into a journalists head the same way thoughts pop into mine. James Pearce is different to them though. He regularly speaks to people at the club who trust him and he reports back to us. Simple. It was largely my respect for him that turned my head a bit and I joined in.
And that’s the problem. Again, it was mentioned in the Crisis article of TAWMAG but the negativity is perpetuating. It eventually goes all through the club. Anyone who doesn’t know the consequence of it should read the excellent Brian Reade’s ’44 Months With a Bunch of Cowboys’. An brilliant insight into how LFC functions when the club is a vipers nest. Very different circumstances but negativity can only lead you downhill. There’s nothing to gain from it. I often see people giving their reasons why we didn’t capitalise on our 2008/2009 position. Read that book and never again will you talk about our failure to build on it in footballing terms. It was the insidious atmosphere that led to disintegration. Everyone had an agenda. Rafa tried to fight our corner but couldn’t tell us exactly what the battle was. He tried to tell us but it nearly broke him. Rodgers tone has changed. We’ve put added pressure on him. He’s becoming distracted. People will say, I don’t have an agenda but I don’t think he’s doing well. That’s fine but it’s clear to see the ones who have. They just don’t recognise it because they don’t want to. It’s just black and white for them. Polarised views. We need to be careful what we wish for.
If we sent Mario out on loan, to the right club, we might actually turn a profit when he is inevitably sold.
Or, at least, lose very little money.
Lady. Who are you really?
your 1st team purchases will determine your success and needs to be high to counteract young and squad player failures. BR’s record is spotty bit it’s interesting reading to see what he might well have done.
Dempsey, Vorm, Ashley Williams (before Lovren), Borini, Allen, Bertrand, Lallana. The Sturridge situation isn’t clear but I’m going to assume he wanted him.
So not great but I would say our defence would be better with anyone other than Lovren in it. that guy is a total disaster of a defender. Ashley williams I’d take with open arms right now and drop kick Lovren out of there.
Soton had the Wanyama – schneiderlin midfield barrier and they still conceded near our total last season which screams crap defence to anyone with a pulse. except BR it seems. And that is why they only finished 8th. I’m not surprised they’ve improved this year.
Then take players like Coutinho, still needs 2 seasons to really develop so why not rotate him with Suso to bring them both along?
no, we’ve bought lovren and we’re going to lose Suso – the next David Silva. that’s a sacking offence to me and just plain dumb, all because he doesn’t run around enough. Do Modric, Kroos, Isco run around like Henderson? no.
Allen may be industrious but he doesn’t make our midfield resilient and offers nothing else.
Suso or Allen? I’d lose 3 Allens before I lost Suso.
Quality is everything in 1st team footy and if our striker / defence situation isn’t indicative of that nothing is.
The other big change this season is going to 1 striker system. Now our players and the ball stays in midfield longer because with 2 forwards we had to get it up to them as fast as possible. Now play is in midfield where oppositions concentrate their players so they are much more effective in closing us down. It’s not rocket science.
But it exposes our midfield weaknesses and lack of resilience. Bar a couple of passes from Henderson it’s also rather an impotent midfield.
That tactical change is on BR and it plays to our weaknesses much more than to our strengths (which is only Sterling and couts sometimes). Is he trying to create a Swansea? I can’t tell.
Maybe he thinks he needs bodies in midfield and wants the AMs to carry and attack together, that’s all it can be really. But it’s a million miles away from being effective.
Sam Allardyce did that with Andy Carroll. They now have two quick forwards and don’t do it like that. BR has turned his back on his own methods that gave him success. That’s just plain weird.
totally agree with your point re: suso. When Dani Pacheco had to go last year I wrote on his twitter that I hoped LFC doesnt squander Suso’s talent too. To me its seems they have done exactly that. When Rossiter was preferred over Suso that speaks volumes. No disrespect to Rossiter of course. His time will come.
Suso had a chance now to fight his way into the team , but then the injury came. and I fear thats the last we’ve seen of him in red.