WASN’T expecting that. Maybe a different approach was needed for a home game. Either way, it doesn’t help if you concede after a couple of minutes. Two weeks to have a think for Brendan. Need to figure out how we score goals.
Simon Mignolet 6
Didn’t do a lot wrong really. Let down by those in front.
Nathaniel Clyne 6
Think he was ok, too. I don’t know. I just want to get to Lovren to be honest.
Martin Skrtel 5
Backs off far too much for the third. And plenty of times before, too.
Dejan Lovren 3
Dejan, mate. Did well keeping things simple for three games and then seemed to believe his own hype. Ridiculous moment at 1-0 when he controlled the ball brilliantly and then tried to take on two midfielders. Then he had a bit of a moment for 2-0 as well. You might have heard. Did some decent stuff second half but it was a bit like tiling the roof of a condemned building.
Joe Gomez 4
Needs to do better for the first really, as he’s in the team to defend. Couldn’t contribute at all going forward, but that’s not really his fault. Surprised he lasted as long as he did.
Lucas Leiva 5
Didn’t do much wrong but just couldn’t give us a platform to build on. Maybe Arsenal was more of a last waltz than a new dawn.
James Milner 6
Baffling how he was so deep to give Emre Can a free role. Haven’t seen enough of the forward running we got in pre season.
Emre Can 5
Feels like Jonjo Shelvey without the laughs. Or goals. Obviously got talent but can we afford to play him until he turns into a footballer?
Philippe Coutinho 5
Whatever you thought of the ref it was a daft tackle on a yellow. Couldn’t get in the game anyway. Was coming far too deep.
Roberto Firmino 6
Great shot off the post and some lovely touches. Still getting his head round it all.
Christian Benteke 5
Felt sorry for him as the supply was awful but needs to figure out how he gets into games when that happens. Wasn’t helped by the anything goes defensive tactics mind.
SUBS
Alberto Moreno 6
Straight swap for Gomez surely made more sense. Not sure he is a wide midfielder at home against a packed defence. Won it back well.
Danny Ings 6
Some good touches and great running around. Didn’t really look to link up with Benteke though.
Jordon Ibe 5
Honestly don’t know. Did he actually come on?
Neil’s match review will be published tomorrow.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
a little like last year.
Over the summer, one and all were praising all for the quietness from lfc – especially rodgers.
During the week i was feeling pretty confident without being bullish – and this is where things
go awry with us.
After 3 decent results Rodgers got bullish in the pressie during the week –
“I thought that back four last week were exceptional.”
“I thought he (Lovren) was very, very good last week. I think it’s confidence. I felt – and I said it last year – in his second year he’ll be a better player here.”
“I spoke to Dejan on that last season and told him it would be a great learning year for him,” Rodgers said.
“It’s always difficult that first year coming in. There was a lack of stability in the overall group and it was a case of reassuring him that he was still a top quality player.
“Of course your confidence can be affected but he’s continued to work very hard and he listens and learns.
“I think he’s now much more patient in his game, he’s got the stability of playing. He’s in the team because he had a good pre-season so he’s in good condition.
We believe he can be a top class defender
“He’s focused but he’s also a bit more relaxed in his position. We brought him here because we believe he can be a top class defender and although it’s only the early stages, the partnership he’s had with Martin is proving that.”
Rodgers believes Lovren, who is the most expensive defender in the club’s history, has benefited from the presence of new full-backs Nathaniel Clyne and Joe Gomez in the side so far this season.
“I think what has really helped him is how quickly the full-backs on both sides close the game down when we lose the ball,” he said.
And look what happens. This is identical to times where he has put his foor in it.
Anyone remember the childish quip about ‘needing a defensive coach’
now we gotta beat utd w/o cout. feckbags.
Yep, the remarks about Lovren were all about praising his own man-management. Hubris.
Same shit,different season.McAllister and O’Driscoll might as well start putting the feelers out for next season.Lovren is dogshit but will always start ahead of Sahko,that’s what makes Rodgers an outstanding technician.
Nobody deserved above a 3. Piss poor throughout and they all need a kick up the arse. 3 more of them and Rodgers is toast. Home or away
It’s simply not true that nobody deserved more than a 3 or that they were “piss poor throughout”.
The effort, the ‘needle’, the no-heads-dropping, the trying to score till the very last minute of added time in the 2nd half, were all there.
Some of the ratings here are, understandably, bizarre. It’s probably best not to do the player ratings right after a match, especially after a negative result. If any of you get to watch the match a 2nd time, you’ll probably be embarrassed (in retrospect).
Spot on regarding the two centre halves,
Skrtel constantly backing off and leaving people run at him/shoot from edge of box all day,
He is our most experienced defender and it’s a real worry he still plays like a kid learning at times,
Lovren just isn’t up to it, at no stage since he signed has he looked like a decent centre half (Dortmund friendly aside) Sahko also has a mistake in him but brings a lot more to the team than Dejan.
Skrtel is lucky to have Lovren around to make him look better. He’s backed off his whole time with us. They both have a mistake in them so together are always an accident waiting to happen. I’m not totally convinced about Sakho either but he has to play above Lovren. People continually say you can’t play young lads at centre half as they make mistakes but we’ve got a £20 million one that does that so let Gomez & Ilori have a go in the league cup or Europa.
‘Dejan, mate. Did well keeping things simple for three games and then seemed to believe his own hype.’
Or did he believe the manager’s hype which was, after all, hype for himself rather than the player. I do wish he’d stop doing this. I prefer the Kenny stance but he can’t seem to maintain it. Complacency sets in the moment we string a couple of decent results together. Poor set up, poor performance today. Let’s hope it was just a bad day at the office….
ps: it amazes me that this was the same 11 as last monday.
Worlds apart.
looks like we have to sit deep and play counter even at home
to the ‘dross’
I wonder do other teams consider us dross now?
At home the onus is on you to be more positive and I was hoping for an old style two up top close to each other myself,
Actually thought Ings looked good when introduced,
I know it’s easy to manage in hindsight but surely there has to be a different gameplan at home to West Ham compared to an Arsenal away fixture,
Actually thought he would do all 3 subs at half time and throw caution to the wind and just go for it.
i agree derek, we should be frontfoot at home.
but look what happened when we did that today
with a 60% fit lucas and two horror centrehalfs.
It’s only a few games in so I don’t want to be all doom & gloom just yet,
I think we all were secretly hoping Lovren would come good in season 2 and he looked ok in the first few games but today all the old frailties came back with bells on,
Apart from the horror of the second goal he was all over the shop in the first half and when you have half a dozen new/young lads settling in the last thing we can afford is him making bloopers volume 2 this season.
Liverpool 0 west ham 3. Imagine the reaction if that was a Hodge result.
4 games, only one legal goal, and that a worldwide.
Unfortunately today shows the hammerings handed out at the end of last season were not anomalies or aberrations.
Like last season, too much appears to have been read into game 3.
Should have been Coutinho top of the diamond. Ings and Benteke up front. Sakho for Lovren. Odd subs to make. Still think we’re gunna have a good season and make the top 4, but as of Tuesday I had much higher hopes. Two weeks to fix it. No Couts fit the Mancs, bring on Ings and put Firmino behind.
Talk talk talk. I’m sick of the talk. I’m not even angry about what LFC has become now, just indifferent. Spend a bucketload of money on players, don’t develop any. Bring in players and play them out of position. Atmosphere like a library but we’ll never have safe standing areas. Wanks hiring planes to get our manager sacked. Social media making Speakers corner look like book club, the Most Knowledgeable Fans In The World, once maybe. A blarney merchant who no one believes anymore, mismanaging the team but he does very well from time to time so benefit of the doubt must be given. About twenty centre backs and we still can’t find a Carragher. And where’s the scouse? Our history is too heavy for a team full of ring-ins to run with, but all our scouse boys for in the reserves and get shipped out. All the small clubs showing us up presently. We’re not top 4 no more, we’re a bunch of nowhere men trading on other better men’s work many years ago.
What is Liverpool now? We’ll never get our club back, its just a brand name now, being run into the ground because there’s no heart.
Like Man City and Chelsea, but run like Newcastle.
Suarez going did it for me, not really seen anything since, just talk talk talk blog blog blog blah blah blah nothing
all our scouse boys *rot in the reserves
Do you know what exacerbates the pain and frustration? Watching Raheem caress the ball into the net on MOTD after watching us bungle pretty much everything against west ham. The worrying thing is, while I firmly believe this team is capable of achieving great performances, I also KNOW we’re capable of absolutely dross, the type of formless dreck served up today. So we can actually lose to anybody, playing like this. I want to refrain from spitting the dummy after match 4 but let’s face it, we’re trying to blend half a new team, with youngsters playing in odd positions and with an enduringly warped, chimerical idea as to what we are: what the best 11 is, how we play, our actual identity. It’s confusing and unsettling. Basically, we’re a David Lynch movie. Just… Ah shite.
Lovren – truth be told he missed a sitter too. Bollocks to all that ‘he’s not a striker’ nonsense, just needed a dig in. Went miles wide. Liability.
We don’t have a Captain – capital ‘C’.
Early days, lets not panic but bear in mind that *strictly speaking* the last game should have been a 0-1 loss. Contentious but true.
Now limbo…..
4 years and 4th game in and the same out shitte under Rodgers !! Just get rid of the fraud and get klopp in sooner rather than later !!
I said I would look for the positives after every game.
So,here’s the positive…..Brendan continues his high wire act.And one day it will come off!
But not today! Maybe next week?
£40m pissed away on Lovren and Markovic. John Henry likes money. He won’t like that.
I left the ground today depressed, not just because we lost 0:3 to West Ham, but because I felt the same way after the 1:3 to Palace. There is a tactical vacuum at the heart of LFC’s management. The players looked like they had absolutely no idea what to do against a fairly average side.
United away, anything could happen. But Norwich at home now a massive game in the life and times of Brendan Rodgers.
This is the Liverpool that I know from recent years… all too capable of pissing away a winnable game. It seems like every time the team is given a chance to take that critical step forward they do something like this and instead take a gigantic step backwards. It is so hard to have any confidence or faith in the team when they do this so frequently. Liverpool will never get back into the CL until they win the games that good teams win. Cue up a heroic loss to Man U and it will be just like old times.
I know most are focusing on Lovren or the defence in general but I think, taking the first 4 games as a whole, the paucity of chances created is more worrying (Arsenal make-shift centre backs aside). I heard discussions on TAW before the season started that he might play different teams for the tricky aways and the easier homes in the first 14 games. I think he might have to go with that now – pull Coutinho into midfield and have three strikers in front of him or play him behind a front two in a diamond.
Anyhow, reasons to be cheerful (part of the promise to myself to be positive this year) …
1) As things stand, only Man City of the teams traditionally competing for top four have more points than us.
2) Two weeks now for the coaching staff to review & tweak plans
3) The pitch looked great in the sunshine
4) DS not too far off
COYR
Oh p.s.
5) Transfer window not shut yet, so still time to put in a cheeky offer for Messi
i said liverpool are replicating last season’s performance especially after second half of the season begun ,but this time we’ve been found out early
Still rodgersout .I have not seen any change yet
coutinho not available,32 M striker is still struggling and sturridge not fully fit
Unfortunately liverpool will lose against manchester united next…its sad but true.
I take it you’ll be sticking a couple of grand on Man U so with that foresight,
Just because we were poor yesterday doesn’t mean we go to Old Trafford with no hope.
We looked so unsure of our roles as players yesterday. I don’t get that,surly we have players set up to play in a manner in which everyone understands their position and job on the park? The defense continues as before, helpless at times. Brendan has a fight on his hands now and he will not get to Christmas if we have too many more of these days. Losing is not the problem for me, the manner in which we set up at times is starting to baffle me. I don’t get it.
Persisting with basketcases like Lovren gets managers sacked. Like Hodgson with Konchesky
it baffles me how we can select a team after researching “the last team 10 teams to win at Arsenal” but just assume because it’s West Ham we will just show up and win. Bilic said before game he was coming for a draw so they was going to have men behind the ball, plan for that and play 2 up top. Watching West Ham at Arsenal showed what tactics they were going to do. Even at half time Ings should have been brought on? And why bring Origi back from loan if we’re not going chance him? He looked proper pissed off when Ibe got the nod.
All teams will have these results at home, look at Chelsea. The sad part is that Chelsea will learn and probably not loose a game at home again this year, other teams will look at us and fancy taking all 3 points.
One more whine, yes Courtinho was unlucky but the first yellow card is more stupid than the second. It’s not the first time he’s got in trouble for blocking a nothing free kick on the half way line. Hopefully he now learns because we’re going miss him in 2 weeks.
I thought Skrtel deserved a six if other players did, if not only for cleaning up after two of his team-mates by coming all the way across to the left-back position to stop the opponent (forget who it was now).
Apart from that pretty much spot-on, why are we still persisting with Lovren? Rodgers seems to have recognised the other mistakes from last season but for some reason not this one – which for me was one of the biggest.
It was bad, but maybe the Arsenal game took a lot out of them. Arsenal were labouring at Newcastle for most of their game. The big worry for me is the continued lack of goals. Benteke needs to show more hunger to score. I want to see him in the ears of our midfield and full-backs, demanding the ball where he can do the most damage. The West Ham sending off was an absolute joke.
In the immediate aftermath of the defeat it was hard to take these factors into account but you may have a point there,
West Ham were also very good and the early goal start just added fuel to the adrenaline & they seemed a really big,physical outfit compared to us at times,
The West Ham sending off can be explained by the ref being out of the limelight for about 20 mins and Kevin Friend just can’t be having that ;)!
Why is the cliche “gotta be attacking at home” taken so seriously? Honestly, watching from across the pond, I find it so ridiculous. The same team that sat in against Arsenal away was asked to attack at home and were undone in the first 5 minutes. Surely if we’d approached this match the way we approached the Arsenal match, things would have been different? Why not park a bus in front of one’s own goal at home and force the visitors to be attacking? When West Ham comes to sit in and we get nowhere, why don’t we just sit in and kick the ball to their defense and say, “Right, you come at us, and WE’LL hit YOU on the counter. This is Anfield, and we boss the match”? I just heard that there have been something like 7 home wins from the 33 home fixtures so far this season; surely it’s because of this “gotta attack at home” nonsense. Why not create a team to be good, home and away? The idea of doing one thing at home and another away simply because one is in a different venue seems baffling to me. Am I stupid?
The onus is generally on the home team because the crowd demand it esp when you’re one down after a few mins,
There are times when the crowd will know it cannot be all guns blazing from the off but it’s usually against a top team or a European game,
Against the likes of West Ham at home you’re always expecting the lads to come flying out of the blocks even if the approach you recommend may indeed bring greater rewards at times.
Thanks, Derek. That makes sense, the expectation of home fans aspect. Appreciate you taking the time to respond to my question.
And, John, I always appreciate your commentary. Keep up the good work.
As my friend put it, we can never get the result we NEED. Let’s extend the rating for Can to Rodgers:
Feels like Jonjo Shelvey without the laughs. Or goals. Obviously got talent but can we afford to play him until he turns into a footballer (manager)?
Sounds harsh, and I exaggerate, but Rodgers is a manager that cannot get results when we need them, home, away, in cup competitions or in Europe. I too love the glittering attacking stuff, when served.
But he’s learning on the job.
It’s becoming more of a strain to watch it happen. Especially when he refuses to learn. I’m still behind him, but there can be no excusing his decision making process at times. Where does this nervous tic come from that you have to start the same (defensive) side no matter the situation or opponent if it worked in the previous match? It looks somewhat insecure. And by sticking with Lovren say, you see the basic hubris that will not allow him to discover he is authoring his own narrative for dismissal. It’s kind of maddening. His stubbornness has gotten tedious. We all see an answer is needed. I’m really hoping he finds it, and I hope his assistants step up and let him know he needs to take a step back or he’s going to lose his job.
And Marko is needed. Completely irresponsible to ship a 20 something off abroad that cost 20mil with the squad and comps on offer. End rant.
Also Dusty, West Ham would have been perfectly happy with a 90 minute stand-off. 0-0 would be a great result for them. 0-0 was a great result for us at Arsenal and a bad one for them.
Sitting back and hitting the stronger team on the break usually doesn’t prevent a defeat. The defending team will usually get punished for individual errors.
Even if they don’t really make any, one shot is likely to fly in (often because of a deflection, or because the keeper can’t see through the wall of bodies in front of him).
The first goal is absolutely crucial.
How you can rate Coutinho who got himself stupidly sent off, the same rating as Lucas, who was the ONLY player on the potch who held it together for the whole match, baffles me to be honest John