GETTING away with murder takes balls. Getting away with murder means you have committed murder and fronted it. You’ve stared it down. You have the balls to go “And what?”
And what?
Well what is Liverpool need to improve. Liverpool need to get better at football. The first half was dreadful. So many individuals misused and under performing. So many issues around shape. What is great on paper may not be when dealing with actual aggressive footballers. Because QPR were for the first forty five actual aggressive footballers. They made Liverpudlian lives hell. They got about their task. They created endless doubt. Zamora, half fit Zamora, begged a million questions and didn’t get enough answers. He played on Lovren. Exposed Lovren. Can couldn’t get in it. Nor could Gerrard. Nor could Balo. Henderson, Lallana and Sterling left on the brink of being half decent without enough mates.
And what?
Question marks all over the pitch. Some answered, some not. Johnson splendid. His best performance since Cardiff away especially when surrounded by endless absences. Smart for the goal, smarter, braver off the line. There are loads of reasons to worry about Johnson. But he has the balls to get away with murder.
And what?
Balotelli missing at 0-1. A dreadful miss. An absentee performance after making all the right noises in the week. This isn’t about graft. It’s about decision making and composure and it has to improve urgently. This Liverpool side needs it like nobody’s business. Work smarter. Always smarter. Balotelli is a man who needs it too much. Don’t break the back of the net. Just hit it.
And what?
Bold Gerrard decisions aren’t easy. The shift helped. The Henderson energy higher helped. Joe Allen helped. Coutinho helped. Liverpool need boldness. We had boldness last season. The manager needs to be encouraged not discouraged. He can do anything. He shouldn’t do nothing.
And what?
Why not try not to give free kicks away lads? Because you sure as shit can’t defend them. This is a group issue. It’s about the group. One man is responsible for the group. Responsible for the group not being able to meet and deal with the high ball. One man.
But that man is also responsible for fronting it. For imbuing his team with this essence. We can always score. We always have one more go in us. What a gang of lads. What heroes. Heroes are pointless if they aren’t flawed. Liverpool are Batmen. They aren’t Supermen yet. Give them the reason and opportunity to be heroic. To go and go.
And what?
Well this. This. Fucking this. This is an adventure. 2-3. Injury time goals in abundance. Incompetence in abundance. Balls in abundance. Getting away with murder in abundance. I remember Benitez getting a 2-3 at Pompey. I remember listening to 606. I remember the first caller on 606. Wanted him sacked. I remember these people. We went top of the league. I remember these people.
And what?
The what is this: If you can’t enjoy that, glory in that, adore that. If you can’t take that display of balls away with you. If you can’t, for one night, dismiss a post mortem and wallow in watching these Reds, these ballsy Reds, these oh-so-flawed Reds, these fucking Reds, if you can’t do that. If you can’t do that.
Then your life is “and what”. Your life needs to ask if it needs the football. If you are better off doing something else.
Me and John Gibbons have been doing an event in Dublin. An event with fantastic people. The room was in excelsis deo when Liverpool went 1-2. It beat that into a cocked hat at 2-3. You could smell the hormones of relief. Of victory. Of joy. Imagine being in that end. Imagine getting away with murder.
John Gibbons said to me “Is it always like this in Ireland?” He laughed when I said I had to do a thousand words. These Reds. These Reds. A win is always a win. It should always be like this in Ireland. It should always be like this everywhere.
In excelsis deo. So and what, lad? And what?
Struggle to beat the worst side in the league, a draw would be about fair. That’s how poor this side it. Excuses excuses excuses. Real are in for a shock when they see this, expect them to be overconfident and lose 3-0!
[Insert comment about Glasses and his mates peddling debt and gambling on behalf of their masonic tax dodging paymasters here].
Balotelli is garbage. Garbage. What else is he?
Remember that lad in school? Every school/year had one. A grown man aged 12. Hardly ever spoke. Probably diagnosed as autistic today. But a genius with a football. The lunch time match had to be delayed because of the argument over whose side he was on. This always concluded with the opposing team having an extra man to compensate. Because he was a genius. Even, when often, surrounded by utter shite he’d still score loads. Because he was a genius (I shall refer to this important point later in this interesting ‘piece’).
Drunken Gutman stated to me on Twitter (@reallycrazybob) that he thought the gap between Lambert and Balotelli was a ‘chasm’. I disagreed. They’re both garbage. Just different types of garbage.
I don’t fall for the, ‘it’s not his style/lack if service’ bollocks (see my earlier point). He’s garbage.
you can’t polish a turd.. You’re doing a pretty good job!
There are games that come and go and there are glorious days like today. There are games you dominate and draw and even lose, but a team that is low on confidence and a goal keeper stuck to his goal line to snatch victory from the jaws of mediocrity with the last meaningful deflection of the match is the sweetest of victories and as the saying goes if you cant be good be lucky. Today we were lucky and it has made my weekend. We are still two pints clear of Arsenal
“And what?” was easy last year.
There were lots reasons to say it too. For our obvious weaknesses we had 5,6 players who knew exactly what each other was doing. And they had a plan. It was a mad plan, but it was a plan, and it worked, and it kept working.
We don’t have a plan this season, certainly not one that doesn’t involve Sturridge. And as a result those 5,6 players don’t know what eachother is doing. For instance, we all remember the Henderson/Countinho pressing combination last season and the attacks it set off. We’ve not seen that once this season.
This side needs confidence, sure. The fans can help with that, sure. But the foundation of “and what” is a plan that everyone is comfortable with. Without one we’ll stumble, and sometimes, like today, that won’t matter. But there will be just as many West Hams and Villas as Southamptons and West Broms.
We are struggling, seriously struggling yet only four points off second.
More positives than negatives in my opinion. We will (surely to god) click and if we still in touch when we do, as we currently are, then we are going to be okay.
In anycase based on today the tricky reds are back – tenfold!! A crazy heart attack inducing injury time!
What a result. Best game of the year because the madness is back. You can analyze it all you like but there are a core of players in this team that don’t believe they are beat and always think they can score again. This is priceless
I decided to meet a mate for a catch up and watched this in a ‘food’ pub with a small tv area and a lot of pensioners tucking into their Sunday lunch. Went mental when Coutinho scored. The whole pub stopped to stare at me to see what was happening. My mate was embarrassed. The landlord looked thinking I wish he wasn’t in here lowering the tone. When they made it 2-2 I had a brief thought about whether I should throw my pint on the floor in disgust. Livid isn’t the word. I had that brief thought about whether we could still win it but I knew it was forlorn. 93 mins 45 seconds on the clock of the 94 and a free kick to QPR. This is getting pumped into the box. I knew then it was a draw at best but probably a late winner for QPR. Seething. One part of me wanted that late winner just to compound my misery. Balotelli was gonna get it. Enrique was gonna get it. I was fucking angry. Then that. Delirium. Jesus fucking Christ we’re good. What a team. What a win. He’s going over the top a bit – keep your eye on him. Unbridled joy. Let’s have some fucking cliches. No away game is easy. It’s all about the 3 points. We showed character. Games like that can kick start a season. Fine lines. Fuckin get in there. Did we need that! Ecstasy.
Is this our turning point I wonder?
Well, it may or it may not be but one thing’s certain, if we’d drawn today then our season goes into free fall. We’ve tried to be positive and focus on the ‘new players’ and ‘missing Sturridge’ excuses but as the clock struck 94 minutes today there was nothing to even try to cling onto. We were wank and wouldn’t get top 4. Simple.
We’ve bought ourselves time now. I’d take ‘winning ugly’ (missed that cliche earlier) against Hull any day. One scrappy win and it’s 3 on the bounce and we’re right up there. I’m back to thinking Daniel Sturridge is our knight in shining armour. When he’s back everything will be alright. Let’s just try and get the points anyway we can until his return but it’s starting to look like it’s a bit more complex than that. But, if we can just win these next 2 league games, and wank or not, there’s no reason why we can’t, then we’re 2nd or 3rd, in very good shape with Sturridge only one league game away. So, without today’s last gasp winner, we can’t even fantasise like that. It’s just questions, inquests and fingers pointed. Yeah, today has definitely bought us time and if we go on a meaningful run now this has to be a defining moment of this half of the season. Less than 3 points was unthinkable for a team with our ambitions.
Classic!! I know that one, been there, done that. You forget you’re not at home when shouting totally inappropriate thing at the TV.
Why can’t Enrique & Balottelli just get injured for the season though.
Love that
Balotelli has been garbage. Surely Yesil is bound to be worth a run out. The jury may be out on his work ethic – he has worked hard for the team at times but note him switching off at the dunne own goal – I don’t believe he actually has the skills commensurate with a player at the top of the premier league. The ball bounces off him far too much. He has no trickery, no great pace. Patchy finishing. He can hold the ball up certainly but that’s not the main need or style this team plays. Surely there were pacey, tricky strikers out there. Look at the two lads West Ham signed – sakho and Valencia. Now we’re lumbered with this sulking, lumbering player with no cutting edge. Back up for sturridge is a must in the January window or even a loan deal if that can be done sooner
As much as I love liverpool & would even play fro them for nothing, I couldn’t abide playing on the same pitch as Balotelli in my team. I would kick him & kick him every chance I got. Those who enforced him upon Rodgers( Fallows & Co) have to admit that they got this one terribly wrong, bite the bullet & dump him, and fast.
Had a match this morning ,same time as the Reds played over here, so never saw the game. Weird assortment of text messages when I came off the pitch made me check the score. I was delighted especially when I looked at the table. Only found out we played poorly when I got home and it can’t take the shine off. Get in! YNWA
After a decade of seeing Liverpool teams batter sides only to not win (was thinking about the 3-2 at QPR w/ the Coates goal before the game as well as somehow getting beat by Redknapp’s Tottenham in 08/09) it’s nice for the shoe to be on the other foot for once. Feels like the first time since Houllier we’ve been total dogshit and won a game.
That said, can a great atmosphere accompanied by atrocious defending and little else overcome the European champions? I guess we’ll find out Wednesday night…
Any coincidence we go bonkers and win when 9 (Enrique was in the squad) players from last year are on the pitch? Me thinks not. Markovic, Can need time, Moreno is clearly an improvement and the others need to now Lallana better. Pint very much half full, this the result/ performance we needed to remember last year. Onwards and upwards, Madrid won’t know what hits them Wednesday.
Phew! First things first, lots of teams have done what LFC did today. Got away with murder. Man U made it an art form, scoring that jammy 95th minute winner/equaliser. So let’s not beat ourselves up about it – wallow in it.
But seriously, defending set pieces badly has become such a feature of Liverpool’s game it’s now almost expected that teams will score from dead-ball situations. Getting out-muscled by big strikers is another feature of Liverpool at the back. And no one defender is to blame here…look back over the last few years and it’s been a similar problem.
Leaking goals cost LFC the league last year, and will do for us again this season if we don’t address the problem and sharpish.
Good job there were two defensive howlers from the team in hoops today…
But we’re hanging on in there in the league, whilst not playing too well, and getting jammy wins into the bargain. Could be much worse…
Roll on Real Madrid…..
Can’t believe the positivity on these boards, both in the articles and these comments below.
Reckon we have either the most optimistic fans in the league, or the thickest. Combination of the two maybe. It’s as if a majority can’t see what’s going on with the first team and have the idea it can only get better. That it is a certainty to get better. No. It might actually stay like this. We’ve played 11 games this season. 11. And played well once.
Our signings have started poorly and got worse.
We don’t know how we want to play.
No one is sure who is doing the signings. The manager seems to be over ruled when money is being spent, meaning a disconnect between the style of player he wants to sign for the style of football he wants to play and what players are actually turning up at Melwood. Then again, he signed Ricky Lambert.
Things are not good and us putting our heads in the sand won’t help matters.
It’s not about putting our heads in the sand. I, for one, am aware we have issues but we’ve just won an incredible game (or incredible last 7 mins at least). At what point do you just enjoy a victory? I follow Liverpool. Liverpool winning makes me happy. Liverpool not winning makes me ridiculously angry. I often look at the bigger picture with Liverpool. It’s important to me though, that I don’t lose sight of what matters to me – Liverpool winning. We’ve won 2 on the bounce. I’m happy until kick off against Hull now. That’s how it works. If you can’t enjoy a victory without dissecting every aspect of it then what’s the point? I’ll probably do that in my head over the next few days but for now I feel happy.
There are always going to be the moaners, also what is the guarantee they genuine fans, could just be looking for the so called bite.
You got to be ecstatic with that result especially with the roller coaster of emotions the last 7-8 mins threw up.
I have to go to work tomorrow and pretend that’s important and it matters!! After that game!! – it’s eight hours later and I’m still buzzing. If players the same we laughing again!
Ps genuinely worried about mario now. That was first game were hand on heart he was crap. Indefensible tbh (as we as a team seem to treat the ball this last while!).
Emmmmmmm,……… actually that could be a test – defend ballotelli and we shall defend our goal. Going to give it a go tomorrow as ill not be short of opportunities!
So…..who still wouldn’t take 84 points? 64?
We are a mess.
We’ve been a shambles defending set pieces for 2 years now. The manager has seen this. He’s bound to. Every time the ball goes in the box we hold our collective breath & think it’s only a matter of time before we concede another. So why hasn’t it been addressed? Maybe at this stage it can’t be. Doesn’t matter who we have back there. Agger, Skrtel, Flanno, Moreno, Toure, Manquillo, Johnson, Sakho, Lovren. Maybe the manager is incapable?
I mean, defending set pieces well is just about the easiest thing any team can get right. Go zonal, go man to man or go a combination of both. And fucking drill it time and again. It’s what Mourinho, Martin O’Neill and all Italian managers do as soon as they become manager of a team. And funny enough their teams rarely concede from corners & free kicks into the box.
Amazingly though, and if you’d have said it 6 months ago you’d be carted off to the funny farm, I am more worried about us going forward. Ahead of the ball (apart from when Raheem doesn’t have it) we have no shape, no movement, no pace, no dynamism, no threat, no nothing.
Replacing QPR for Cardiff from the same fixtures last season, we are 3 points worse off (a minor miracle giving the standard of performances so far) but a massive 13 goals worse off. 13 goals worse. From 8 games.
Last year the confidence and demeanor of the team wasn’t effected as badly as it should have been when we were conceding so many sloppy goals because we knew how capable we were at the other end. Not so this season. We either go back to the way it was, balls to the wall attacking, or we completely change & look to defend properly as a unit. This half and half bollocks won’t do. We don’t have an identity. We don’t know who we are anymore.
Smaller teams like QPR know this. Last year they’d be shitting themselves. Today they played 2 up top. They see Liverpool as the vulnerable one among the big teams who they have a genuine chance of beating. With this rise in belief comes a rise in performance.
Mignolet. Not sure what to say anymore. Stays when he should come. Goes when he should stay. Defenders have no faith in him & no respect for him. Hilariously bad on two separate occasions today. Complete overhaul of goalkeeping personnel is required, like the one Houllier had. Only we need to buy in proven talent, not potentials. Don’t care how much it costs us. £30m and big wages if need be. Salvatore Sirigu maybe. But someone whose been there, done it and inspires confidence in his defence.
Johnson. Much more like it from Glen today. Said to brother before the game I bet he has a good game and has a good run of form due to his contract situation. That of course reflects badly on him but if he has a good 6/7 months for us then at least there is a silver lining. Past his best & won’t regain form of 2010/11 say but I’d be happy with not producing his form of the last 3 months.
Skrtel. Poor. His attempted “tackle” when allowing Austin in during the first half was comical. Going at it with his left foot with his body going to the non goal side of the attacker? Beaten too often in the air. Never takes ownership or responsibility. Happy to just do enough.
Lovren. We paid £20m for Lovren. Let that sink in. Twenty million pounds. For Lovren. He got bullied by Bobby Zamora. Zamora. Bobby fucking Zamora. At least when Agger or Carra got bullied it was by Drogba. Zamora made our new £20m centre back his bitch for an hour. He got out in front a few times. Against Bobby Zamora. In the first half QPR hacked the ball down field to Lovren. He had acres of room & eons of time. He swiped his left foot at the ball and it went straight to their right back. Gerrard looked away & threw his right hand in the air in disgust. One time I couldn’t blame the captain for such body language. Overall, just not up to scratch.
With the vast majority of signings you can tell how well they will turn out from their first 8-12 games, so this is hugely disconcerting. What’s worse though is we have bought CB after CB for years now and at best they have turned out to be average. When we got Sakho he was the business for France. Started ahead of Mangala, who City bought for £32m. Now look at him. Rodgers can’t wait to get rid. I still think Sakho is the best CB at the club.
It can’t all be systemic. There are too many individual mistakes when we have numbers behind the ball for it to be that. I hear fans calling for a defensive coach. Steve Clarke is the name shouted loudest. But this isn’t the NFL. You are supposed to defend and attack as a team. Its the managers job to get the balance right. If the balance means regularly winning 4-3, 3-2 or constant 1-0s, it doesn’t matter.
Enrique. Abysmal. Look at him for QPR’s first. Urgh.
Can. Done ok I thought, especially given full debut in a disgusting team effort.
Henderson. Another who done ok.
Gerrard. Please make it stop. To say he was anonymous it to understate his achievements today. Previously moved him from CAM as his legs have gone. Can’t play him CDM as opponents have worked out how to play him so that he offers nothing with the ball, in the knowledge his positioning there exposes our CB’s anyway as he is brutal off the ball. So we try him at CAM again and guess what? He still doesnt have the fucking legs! Watch him immediately after the kick off when we go 2-1 up. Allows QPR player to waltz by him to get to a 2nd ball, which results in the corner that makes it 2-2. He can’t play CAM. He can’t play CDM. HE NEEDS DROPPED. It’s that simple. He offers far too little. Everyone’s time comes. His has come. Show some balls Brendan.
Lallana. Like Manquillo, received too much praise for mediocre efforts early doors. Clearly has ability, got great feet but as I said after West Brom game his lack of athleticism hurts him and us. Little endurance, no pace. Poor today.
Sterling. Average for a while. Spectacular for a while. When game broke up in second half he was electric. A team playing this poorly doesn’t deserve his presence. Thought he should have shot in last seconds instead of trying to pass to….
Balotelli. Defended him somewhat til now. Argued he was good, that his work-rate is fine and that despite appearances, his attitude is fine, it’s just that he’s at the wrong club/team for the skills he brings to the table. Might need to revise these thoughts after today. His lack of of a football brain is now apparent. His greed and decision making an obvious detriment. Oh dear. Who fucking signed him?
Allen. His usual understated self. Done ok.
Coutinho. Never been a favourite of mine owing to his inconsistency but he brought a much needed drive and intensity to us today. First 5 to 10 minutes he tried some things that, as usual, didn’t come off. But he got himself into threatening positions and deserved the luck of the deflection for his goal, while the weight on his pass for Sterling was superb.
Toure. On for 20 seconds. Didnt make a cock up which is surely a positive.
Keep hearing Madrid will smash us home and away. I don’t think so. We’re in for two defeats. Im sure about that. But people saying Madrid will beat us 4 or 5 are mistaken. I do fear being, what is called in the tennis fraternity, being “routined” though. This occurs when a top player beats an average player 6-3 6-2 6-3 without breaking much sweat. That would be soul destroying.
The manager now has some questions to answer regarding the direction of the team, how he really wants us to play etc. And only then can we start to have a proper transfer policy. Because both seem so muddled at the moment. The lack of clarity in both is hurting us a lot.
“When we got Sakho he was the business for France. Started ahead of Mangala, who City bought for £32m. Now look at him. Rodgers can’t wait to get rid. I still think Sakho is the best CB at the club.
It can’t all be systemic. There are too many individual mistakes when we have numbers behind the ball for it to be that. I hear fans calling for a defensive coach. Steve Clarke is the name shouted loudest. But this isn’t the NFL. You are supposed to defend and attack as a team. Its the managers job to get the balance right.”
This is spot on – all of this. The abdication of any managerial responsibility is now getting preposterous. I’m not advocating sacking, that would be bonkers, but questions have to be asked, but then people are afraid of asking the question because they know they might not like the answer!
Spot on. All of it.
Sakho was great for France, had Varane next to him and Cabaye in front of him. Sign the latter in January and play him in the holding role.
Sakho knocks Lovren out, Mignolet knocks Skrtl out. Says it all. Keystone fucking Cops.
We know Sakho’s a good player and a leader. We’ve seen him play for France – then again he does have Lloris behind him, Varane alongside him and Cabaye in front of him – three players we should have tried to sign in the summer, one of whom, Cabaye, we should sign as Gerrard’s replacement in January.
We know Skrtl’s a leader, he captains Slovakia, Agger captained Denmark. The question is: what the fuck’s going on at Melwood? These guys aren’t bad players. The jury’s still out on Mignolet and Lovren. Moreno’s clearly a good player and Manquillo looks fine to me.
“We are a mess.”
We are fifth.
In the “real” league we are third, behind Chelsea and City but points ahead of Arsenal, United, Spurs and Everton despite our rocky start. Southampton and West Ham will inevitably fall away. We have also played three of our rivals in this top section. We just need to keep calm and wait for Brendan to pull it all together.
Point above says we are 3 points worse off, it’s true. But get this, Arsenal are 5 worse, Utd 5 and the might Eve 7 (Seven). City and Spurs are 1 better and Chelsea despite their great start only 4. It’s early season, you great freak results, but we will be fine, esp with the best manager in the league.
You’ve got it the wrong way round, you have to get to Superman’s level before you get to Batman’s and we are not even close to Superman’s level.
Good read though.
Anyone else see sense in starting Sterling as a false 9 for the Madrid game? Could load the midfield with Gerrard, Hendo, Allen, Coutinho and Lallana.
Totally agree!
— Migs —
Johnson — Lovran —Skkrtel—Moreno
— Gerrard—
—-Hendo—Allen—Coutinho
—–Lallana—–
—Sterling—
Yep, being thinking that for a while. Raheem can play pretty much anywhere. We need pace up top in Sturridge’s absence. Worth a try.
MADNESS IS BACK.
Mario is desperate to be a success at Liverpool.
I’m not sure he is desperate for Liverpool to be successful, though.
I think he is smart enough to understand that he is a striker and smart enough to understand that the striker’s job is to score goals. That would appear to be the limit of his mental-capacity. He waits for someone to give him the ball, takes a first touch which is usually pretty decent. Then he shoots for goal. It doesn’t matter where he is on the pitch, or where any of his team-mates are, or where any of the opposition players are.
The result is 1 goal in the last 60+ shots. His record from open play over the last few years is shocking. He scores penalties very well, so what we need to be doing is to create moves that end with one of our players trapping the ball on the penalty spot with the opposition players floundering around the ‘D’. We can tell Mario to just spend the game standing 2 yards behind the penalty spot. If he isn’t going to move anyway, he may as well stay there and wait for the sort of service that he needs.
Sorry, but I’m already bored of him – a bit like I was by about noon, with the Tin Can Alley set I was disappointed to receive as my main present one Christmas morning.
I gave it a go, but it soon became clear that it was a limited bit of kit that was nowhere near as exciting as it looked on the front of the box. I was left to lament the loss of the shiny new bike that was given to me a year earlier and which was the envy of my peers, at least for the short time that I had kept hold of the thing.
If only I could have found the strength or guile to fight off that bigger kid who stole it.
I think Balotelli will get at least one against Real Madrid. Without the two touches by QPR defenders that led to two own-goals, he has two tap-ins. Add in his glaring miss and attempted flick, and he could easily have scored 4 today. If nothing else – and I admit it is pretty much ‘nothing else’ right now – this indicates he is getting in the right positions. He is making bad decisions right now – it would be stupid to pretend otherwise – but I think he’s not getting a whole load of luck, too. The couple of times he caught hold of speculative shots today, both were blocked by last-ditch defending.
The dumb-ass shots when others are in better positions are borne of a desperation to make his mark. It’s a flaw, but one I can forgive. When/if he opens his goal-scoring account in a meaningful way, those shots become passes, and indeed assists.
I’m not giving up on him just yet.
He wasn’t even looking for the first goal and ballooned a tap in when he had the chance. Good positions though, I’ll give you that.
Yup. Good strikers are very selfish; seem to recall Fowler at the end of the 2001 Cup Final taking a speculative shot with Owen and Berger inside him with tap-ins, had he squared it.
I’d be more worried if he wasn’t having any chances at all – like Lambert.
He does need to learn to pass, though, when his chance of scoring is next to nil.
The positions he was in weren’t a factor in either of the own goals. Both Dunne and Caulker were entirely focused on what was coming at them and made instinctive attempts to clear the ball. Could have been Balo at the far post, could have been Aspas…didn’t matter…routine defending gone horribly wrong.
Why is it people feel the need to praise Balotelli for being in good positions when he’s a seasoned veteran who has played for some of the top clubs in Europe? The fact that some praise him for only now understanding that as a lone striker he should sometimes move into the penalty area terrifies me. What else does he have to be taught? I’ve seen U16’s with more tactical awareness than him.
Frankly, it’s disheartening that Mario gets so much slack while Lambert actually WAS consistently moving into the right spots (albeit about as fast as a two-legged turtle at times) getting absolutely no acknowledgement at all, particularly from the TAW lads. And, no, Lambert isn’t a solution to Balotelli’s many shortcomings, but quite honestly in league competition I’d rather see him get the nod more often than the big Italian. At least he knows his job.
His position is a factor in both o.g.s as in both cases the defender could simply let the ball run across the goal without Balotelli at the far post. It’s not as if there was Balotelli plus one other – it was Balotelli on his own both times. His presence meant on both occasions the defender is stretching to make contact that they’d prefer not to have to make and the mistakes come as a result.
I’m not suggesting Balotelli deserves praise for this. A striker is occasionally supposed to turn up in the opposition box. I’m just saying that it’s fine margins. And the reason I’m prepared to cut Balotelli some slack and say we should persevere a little longer is because he has potential that Lambert simply does not. I like Lambert and he may still do a good job for us in some matches, but even at his very best he’ll maybe win us two or three games a year. Balotelli has a ‘best’ that’s on a different scale. Of course, having potential and not fulfilling it is no good to us, but this is why I’d still be turning to him right now than either Lambert or Borini. If nothing’s changed by the time Sturridge is back fit, then you look at things again, obviously.
Neil Atkinson should work for the club PR, if he doesn’t already.
That was our luckiest win in 13 years, since the cup final in 2001. We are an absolute shambles from keeper to striker and a good team will absolutely destroy us soon.
Probably in 48 hours actually.
So who’d take 84 points?
Can only agree with this.
You get the feeling that even if we played like that yesterday and deservedly got thumped 4-1 by the worst team in the league, Neil would still come up with a positive article, contained within praise for Gerrard no doubt.
It’s funny you should say that because I think that if we beat Real Madrid 4-1 and Gerrard got a hatrick you’d still be on here bitching and moaning about the one we conceded and how Gerrard fluked all three.
I just checked the league table after the West Brom result tonight and we’re fifth. Not fifteenth, but fifth. I’ve never been a great fan of this bollocks about the sign of a good team is one that plays badly and wins; I’m much more inclined to think the sign of a good team is one that plays well. But there’s something to be said for being fifth after 8 games, and that’s with only two teams ahead of us that we can expect to be in the mix come May. If you buy into the notion that Chelsea and Man City are out on their own – and I do – then we are currently the best of the rest (fighting for positions 3 to 6). Oh, and we’ve done it (mostly) without Sturridge. And until QPR, you could make a good case that every opponent we’ve faced so far is a possible/probable top 10 contender. We haven’t played the three promoted sides like United, for instance.
There is plenty still wrong and plenty for Rodgers to think about, but to read some of the stuff on here you would think we were hovering above the relegation zone. Some of you need to get a grip.
Bollocks. We call it as we see it regarding performances. If Gerrard plays well, or the team plays well, I’ll say so. Did at Spurs, although still pointing out awful mistakes by Lovren that were ignored by most of our supporters. His subsequent performances show I was right to have been worried.
What I won’t do is remain in a certain mindset REGARDLESS of performances, which is what a few TAW contributors do.
And I won’t be looking towards the awful efforts Utd and Arsenal have served up so far this season and somehow use it as evidence that everything will turn out ok. No. It won’t. Not if WE don’t improve drastically. Utd are clearly getting better. Arsenal will hit their usual very good mid season form – they’ve been doing it for 15 years.
What’s more likely by the way….us getting battered by QPR 4-1 or us battering Madrid 4-1. Answer it honestly and you’ll know we have problems that will take a lot more than a few months and return of Sturridge to sort out.
Whats most annoying is we have fucked this all up. We have fucked up the best opportunity to kick on in a quarter of a century. As usual, we can’t put in back to back title challenges and not only that, but we are unlikely to qualify for the Champions League next season. How far is that going to set us back do you reckon? But lets relax lads because we’re a point ahead of Utd in October? No thanks.
The madness is back but not in a positive way.
Could easily have been at least two down at halftime.
Balotelli just doesn’t get it or doesn’t want to, which is even more worrying.
When Zamora is everything you’re not then you really have a problem.
What on Earth do that LFC defense do every week in training?
Every game they look like a back four who met for the first time in the changing room.
No leadership front to back, everyone looking to Sterling to bale us out.
Coutinho came on for the last few minutes and wasn’t far off our MoTM
Still, being positive. We are fifth and playing complete rubbish.