LIVERPOOL go through with a wimper and some sore legs for a big game on Saturday. I really don’t know how to score most of them.
How do you score lads who don’t seem to know what they are being asked to do? Who are largely passing to their team-mates, but without anything resembling purpose? Who are working hard but with little end product?
It’s tough when you feel individual players aren’t so much to blame as the lack of direction and clear identity. But I’m asked to give scores, so scores I shall give.
ADAM BOGDAN 7
Looks woeful for the goal, whether he can do anything about it or not, and isn’t too clever in his positioning and decision making when they carve us open just before. But it’s nice seeing a goalie catching crosses and rolling it out without much fuss, and he saved three pens so it’s a seven from me.
EMRE CAN 7
Probably man of the match. Brought the ball out well, anticipated danger in front of him, and defended his back post in a manner that means you can’t believe he claims to not enjoy playing there. Could he do it in a four?
MARTIN SKRTEL 5
Loses a point for a ridiculous 40-yard shot into the Kop. Didn’t do a lot wrong otherwise, but needs to lead his back line more whether he likes it or not.
DEJAN LOVREN 4
Loses two points for two ridiculous 40-yard shots. Honestly, lads. Feel a bit sorry for him for the goal in that he’s trying to be proactive, but once he’s stepped out he needs to either win the ball or suplex the attacker or something that isn’t letting him do what he did. Still, hope he’s not dead.
NATHANIEL CLYNE 4
Feel a bit sorry for him in that he’s probably spent his whole career linking up well with right midfielders and now we are asking him to be a whole right side. His attacking contribution is zero though.
ALBERTO MORENO 5
Did a bit better than Clyne in that he at least got into dangerous attacking positions, even if he did absolutely nothing with them.
JAMES MILNER 5
Really hard to score in that I think he is being outnumbered every game since the formation change by quicker lads. Needs to be more alive for the goal though. Shout out for taking a corner that ended up with Bogdan two touches later.
JOE ALLEN 5
Nice to see him back on the pitch. Might have to run more if we are going to ask two lads to cover about 50 yards between them for the rest of the year.
ADAM LALLANA 5
Nice cross for the goal and at least looked like he was trying to think his way through the Carlisle defence. Terrible pen though.
ROBERTO FIRMINO 4
Got injured and ran around for a bit and then wisely swerved the whole thing.
DANNY INGS 6
A bright spark at the moment. A pretty average bright spark. Walk me to the sea.
SUBS
DIVOCK ORIGI 4
Has some obvious skills but needs to learn how to become a centre forward. Ideally away from me.
PHILIPPE COUTINHO 5
A mixture of being told to score more and thinking all his team mates are last has led to him running and shooting and running and shooting. Problem is they keep going wide. Might need a re-think.
JORDON IBE 5
After a shaky start he started terrorising the full back, but didn’t know what to do next. Possibly because all his team mates were just stood there looking at him.
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Pic: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
sadly, our team show little quality tonight. your lower than normal ratings might just reflect the reality of Liverpool at this moment.
Still, i’d like to highlight some positive points~ Cotinuo and Can did not hide when no one else seem to take responsibility to get the result. They tried their best to influence the outcome by taking variois shots instead of jist passing the bucks. (there was no better option anyway for them). I also appreciate Lovren took the two 40 yarders …at least he was trying to take initiative instead of jist passing the easy option to Skertal, for example.
well, at least we are on the next round, and at least we can still hope that the next match would be better than this.
LOL, agree wif all the ratings, esp Firmino. I could actually see him think about it..” is this shiote of a game worth it to put my body on the line? NO.” Then he went off. Smart chap. FSG are still to blame. moneyball has no place in the unregulated “wild west” of european soccer. by now they know it as well, so persisting with these same strategies is going to ruin the club. Rome wasnt built in three days but unfortunately liverpool will have to be. REbuilt that is. Those are the time frames in the wild west EPL. Look at city, bought by moneybags and from having won ZERO, ZILCH, NADA in over 50 odd years they are now an elite level club whereas we are not. We haven’t been for 20 years. These are the realities. This is the EPL playing field. If this was ahighly regulated sport like baseball i would have every confidence in FSG delivering over time but this is is so very different. I like rodgers, i like fsg but short of these two entities LEAVING LFC are looking at a VERY mediocre future, short term and long term. :(
haha love the Firmino one :)
Lovren was supposed to die but the grim reaper got away from him for an easy tap-in at the Styx end.
Nice!
‘A mixture of being told to score more and thinking all his team mates are last has led to him running and shooting and running and shooting. Problem is they keep going wide. Might need a re-think.’
Couldn’t agree more. He’s a midfielder, not a winger or a false 9. Yet another player confused by the demands of the manager. There’s a real danger we’ll lose him or he’ll stagnate if things don’t change quickly.
I like alot of what you say .But stop making excuses for Milner there’s a reason he’s struggling in c m is he’s not a c mid just admit hes cant play there or else your are becoming the new B R
The positive to be drawn from last night is that this is shaping up to be the best League Cup I can remember.
If the top teams go through in the next round, we could have a last-8 made-up of the following clubs…
Manchester City
Manchester United
Everton
Southampton
Arsenal
Leicester City
Chelsea
Bournemouth
Obviously, there is a danger that the Cherries feel they have bigger fish to fry and don’t take their last-16 game seriously enough. If they use it just to blood a few youngsters, let’s hope they can step-up as I’m getting tired of clubs disrespecting this competition.
I doubt the cherries are that bothered about the league cup, they dropped half their first 11 against us last season. The league is their clear priority.
Bogdan: 7
Can: 7
Skrtel: 5
Lovren: 4
Clyne: 5
Moreno: 7
Milner: 5
Allen: 6
Lallana: 6
Firmino: ?
Ings: 8
Origi: 5
Coutinho: 5
Ibe: 4
Trying to take a positive practical view looking forward.
With Clyne not doing so well going forward they need to use Ibe (or other wingers which there aren’t) more to get down the flanks, not sure how it would work if they play 3-4-3 unless Ibe’s the wing-back (also a problem slightly less on the left side).
Perhaps they can allow Can (from a back 3 position) license to bomb up the wing and roam a bit more and then Clyne will cover for him as a regular right-back.
The conundrum with Milner is now that he is captain and has to play (which is a debate in itself), where can he be played best?
Maybe he should just play deeper more defensively with just the occasional forage forward (but not sure) he seems to get in the way of the other players sometimes. He reminds me of a rugby player playing football sometimes, with his build and that punting the ball over the top and chasing after it or bundling over/being bundled over.
I said Milner was bang average before we signed him. Then I foolishly changed my tune, because I saw him ‘get stuck in’ during the first couple of games.
Lee Cattermole would have been just as useful a signing, given the way we are set up. Better, probably.
I think he played better in a tandem with Henderson but we won’t know for a while!
Against league 2 opposition, at Anfield we had 6 defenders on (including keeper), 2 midfielders who rarely score leaving us with 3 players to find the creativity and goals. That’s simply bizarre!!!!!