BACK down to earth with an almighty bump. It’s rather worrying that we didn’t seem to have any answers to a team working quite hard. Concerning that the only shot on target was a limp Dejan Lovren header (Albie’s offside-not-offside worldie aside).
Or is it just a bad day at the office? It happens. Good teams lose games. Every football side has a bad day. The future will inform us. In the meantime, here are some numbers you won’t agree with.
Simon Mignolet: 6
Can’t do anything with either goal. Not a great deal to do aside from that. Which should probably be remembered.
Nathaniel Clyne: 5
Saw a fair bit of the ball but didn’t really happen for him. Touch seemed a bit heavy. Sky are currently trying to murder him but I’m not sure.
Alberto Moreno: 6
Really unlucky with the goal that wasn’t. Generally seemed to do OK.
Disappointing today, but #LFC record in all competitions under Jürgen Klopp still reads P12 W7 D3 L2 F21 A10.
— The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) December 6, 2015
Martin Skrtel: 5
He’s obviously unlucky with the goal, but he gets in that position by dragging us so deep. Did well to get in the way of Cisse earlier on.
Dejan Lovren: 5
Among all the Lovren madness it needs to be acknowledged that his attacking headers are absolutely dreadful. Might not seem the most important issue at the moment, but I wanted to raise it.
Lucas Leiva: 3
He’ll never play that badly again. Which is something to take from the day.
James Milner: 5
Was interesting to see in the week that he has won more tackles in the opposition half than any other player in the league. You saw a bit of that today, but not a huge amount else.
Joe Allen: 6
Did some good work. Honest.
Jordon Ibe: 6.5
Powerful running but needs to learn when to release the ball. Although that seems a harsh criticism with the nonsense around him. Good to see him playing with confidence.
Roberto Firmino: 4
I’m not sure we can play him with Benteke ever again. But it’s not all Benteke’s fault. Bobby could have a bit of a go at playing with him. Missed Coutinho. Again.
Christian Benteke: 4
Didn’t happen for him. BUT it’s mad how many balls he asks for and doesn’t get. If we’re struggling to figure him out, we could do a lot worse than kick it where he points. Just a thought.
Read: Newcastle United 0 Liverpool 2: Match Review
SUBS
Adam Lallana: 6
Might want to point out that all the goals come when he starts. Lays a gorgeous pass through to Sturridge who fluffs his lines.
Daniel Sturridge: 5
Needs to calm down a bit. Don’t need to change the world in a day, Daniel
Divock Origi: 5
Seemed unsure of what to do.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
Only thing I looked forward to at FT. thanks John.
Lovren, Allen, Ibe and Moreno quite good. Lallana and Origi did good things. Sturridge made good runs. The rest were somewhere between meh and terrible.
I actually thought the only thing to take it of that was that Lovren was actually pretty solid defensively. Obviously the attackig headers are cause for frustration stemming from the 428 free headers he fluffed in pre-season. Defensively though I actually thought he did was he was supposed to fairly effectively and would stretch as far as a 7 for me but being in the bad mood that I’m in I’ll meet you half way and say 6.
Fed up of the firmino missed his mate line already (no offense John), starting to think he’s just a bit shit
Presume you missed the City game then, Chris?
He simply doesn’t play well with a static lump in front of him. Play him up front, or when someone more mobile than Benteke starts. As we’ve found out with other big signings, buying immobile players never works out for us, as we’ll never set up the side to accommodate them.
Klopp fucked up. The entire country knew the toons would park the team bus, so what do we do? Pick a turgid bunch of zero creativity sloths – plus Lucas, who was clearly hung over after being out on the piss all night.
You think Newcastle parked the bus? That usually only applies when the other side are camped in the opposition half. This was not the way Sunday panned out.
Benteke, Firmino etc will be fine. Its still pretty early days in their time with us. Injuries, Klopp trying different stuff etc means it doesn’t always click immediately. Just a bit of patience is needed here. It’ll come good soon enough.
Classic Reds.
Thinking we’re great then falling on our arse. Coven-three still grates.
Benteke and the Reds are like a good looking couple who everyone says would be great together, then go on a date and discover they’ve nothing in common. Both need to work harder to find something to gel.
Ming: nothing to do whole match; and he could not have done anything to stop those two goals.
Clyne & Skert: disappointing.
Lovren: He was 7, defensively sound. Aggressive. If he gets a goal or two through the season, it would be a good bonus.
Moreno: Played ok attacking wise; but the first goal came through his flank when he could have prevented it by getting back to defensive position quicker (but I guess it is a trade off for having an attacking full back)
Lucas: worst performance in Red Shirt as long as I could remember
Milner: 5. The first corner was bad; and a few after too. WHEN WILL THE TEAM SEND HIGH HANGING CORNERS TO BENTEKE? Lallana did that once and Benteke scored from that corner.
Allen: 7; did his best; but he was alone.
Ibe: He will learn from this. But when no one else was making the runs, I could not blame Ibe for hanging on to the ball too long. I look forward to Ibe, Origi and Sturridge start the match together once
Benteke and Firmino: 4’s. benteke tried and tried, but there was no one else close enough to pick up the second balls from him. Firmino was disappointing; no control, not much runs into space for Ibe to pass to him…and so on.
Klopp: 5…(after 10s against City and Saints : -)
Klopp probably should get a 5 too if things are fair . Thought Lovren was more of a 6.5 his defending was pretty solid and his headers up front ,late in the game, more desperate than anything . Milner was awful in most things he did as he was against Chelsea early on hope this isn’t becoming a norm. The rest are as I would of marked. You even get an 8 Mr Gibbons.
Perhaps it’s too early to judge but there are some games (perhaps in part it depends on which type of opposition we’re playing) where Milner going forward is frustrating to watch. His touch and slow reactions and playing on the wing without being able to generally beat a man all suck out some of the speed and creativity of the attacks.
Not that it was all his fault but he’s one of those that sticks out.
Yeah, Milner is funny in a not very funny way. Does lots of excellent stuff in defence and in terms of off the ball movement, but what he does when he has the ball simply isn’t very good. Just takes too much time from the moment he receives the ball until he does something with it; either slow to control it or struggling to get it out of his feet. His legs always look really heavy, like his brain knows what to do but the legs are refusing to listen. Sort of how Lucas was today, only with Milner it’s pretty much all the time.
Ya that’s how Milner looks to me,
I’m willing him on like crazy because he’s a good pro who does a lot of donkey work but he seems constantly exhausted when he actually gets on the ball,
To much football ? He’s not used to playing a lot. Hard to know but he’s definitely struggling.
I think it’s either too much football over the years or just too much running within the 90 minutes. Don’t think he has it in him anymore to be all action for 90 minutes and still provide quality on the ball; not sure the speed and intensity of the game these days allows anyone to be it. He’s quite extreme in his style.
Think he would benefit from simplifying his game and using his energy more wisely. Less battling, more playing. And less running. Let those with younger legs and quicker acceleration run with the ball and take those extra runs in behind the defence. Maybe if he picks his moments better he’ll do better things when he has the ball. Fresher legs, clearer head.
Ibe was shite.
Really thought this was our chance to win the league, need to improve big time
Everything will remain the same until someone teach every single Liverpool player that the only thing that matters is the next game period. Until they learn that we will have a glorious past and a not so bright future. Who cares if beat Chelsea away if we can’t beat Newcastle. Who cares if we beat Man City if we can’t beat Norwich? So very disappointed. I know we all don’t want to realize this but here are the current facts: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2575520-epl-table-2015-week-8-top-scorers-after-sundays-premier-league-scores . When the self obsessed Brendan the Clown Rodgers got him self sacked we were 6 points on first place – now were are 9 points of very sad.
Bleacher report? Come on, that’s just a blog clickbait site for wankers that can’t find an echo chamber elsewhere.
We’re the Devon Loch of football clubs. Every time we wrest an opening at this “league title tilt” thing, sure enough comes The Choke.
interesting as always john see you couldnt wait to stick knife in Lucas I know your comment is right but if you think benteke was better your nuts you’ve got to look at players who didn’t play wed and there were all shit no excuses for them . pressing from front absolute joke that’s reason we were get pushed back not skertal . good effort though
Was the pitch difficult because they all look like Bambie on ice? Either the ball was passed way too hard or under hit, it reminded me of when LFC played on that plastic pitch at Luton in 80’s, we were the best team in the world at the time but looked like a bunch of hungover sunday leage lads that had never played together, Kenny would lob a ball to Rushie, the ball would bounce and either plug and stop dead or hit a stone and be catapulted into row Z, funny the things that you remember from nowhere.
What annoys me really is that we, as supporters reading all the pre-match this week, knew EXACTLY how Newcastle were gonna use this Big Game tie to make a show, scrap, and play for their lives. All WE had to do to win was match that energy.
It’s either the pressure I mentioned earlier, or complacency. I’d rather believe the former.
Everybody that passed the ball to Milner in a leading fashion gets a zero.
He clearly has no pace and needs the ball to feet.
Mind Boggling.
Klopp got the selection wrong with our two slowest players on the pitch at the same time in Milner and Bene.
No creative spark in the midfield. (exactly where was Firmi supposed to be playing and what was his role?) serious question.
Offensive miscues aside, thought Lovren had a sneaky good game at the back.
Ibe and Clyne, all wheels and gusto, no joy in the final 3rd.
Moreno bullied off the ball for the 2nd goal like a rag doll. Unfair to be called offside for a brill touch and goal.
Whatever, these things happen. We go again.
He generally does me head in but Milner decided to not have a touch like a dildo bar one instance today. Fair play to him; boss off the ball and showing his uses outside of tucking penalties away.
Thought Firmino was absolutely shite today and was lucky not to get hooked at half time.
The lad has skill but seems too often to be a luxury player. When the going gets tough, he turns into a shithouse. Klopp even bollocked him at one point for pulling out of a tackle.
One good game against City is not enough, Bobby lad.
Hope today was the reality check these players needed as they seemed to be believing the hype during this match.
You’re absolutely right..according to his backers on here he was going to tear the place up post City instead he has reverted to his default setting of complete and utter gutless jellyfish and should have bee hauled off
Come on doom and gloomers, relax. We didn’t play well and got beat. It happens. Jurgen will analyse it and learn from it. Probably up all night tonight doing just that. It hasn’t changed how good he is and how good we can be. Believers, not doubters.
Spot On!!
no doubt upward trend will continue. This is just a minor ‘correction’ and it happens to any team on the up.
“Lucas Leiva: 3”
And you claimed he’s your “favorite player” recently.
A load of s.h.i.t.e (said as Gareth Roberts says it) that was.
Rrrrrreally (as you say, John).
What are you even on about?
Leave him, Tom.
Grkstav will calm down once his meds kick in.
Even you must have seen Lucas was shocking yesterday? The worst I’ve seen him play for years. Utter shite performance from Mr Reliable.
I didn’t see anything of the sort.
It’s why I watch each game again, carefully, knowing the score so I can analyze it.
Most of the rest of you just go off your emotionally-charged memories of the game, plus (maybe) some highlights and the odd statistics. And lots and lots of pundit commentary.
Only Gareth Roberts, from the TAWPlayer lads appears to have actually paid any attention to facts, to evidence re Lucas. The rest just repeated the same B.S., especially highlighting the two unexplained errant passes, one in the first half, one in the second half, and the one time Lucas got caught in possession (actually fouled) by De Jong. But let’s repeat “horrible”, “abject”, “really poor” and the rest of the bullshit ad nauseam. Let’s just keep repeating “we were horrible, we were shite” over and over again.
Because we lost. The usual lazy bullshit, working backwards from the result.
My “meds” must not have kicked in. I still think whoever says Lucas was “shocking” vs Newcastle United on Sunday is full of shit. That’s my considered opinion. If you don’t agree, I don’t give a flying fuck.
So what ??
John should temper his scores according to how much he likes players?
3 was generous and I like him also,
In fact I Fu*king love him.
Lose quite easily to one of the worst form side’s in the league and only 3 players get rated below the par 5? I know it’s subjective and not really meant to be taken seriously, but what exactly is the expectation John?
I would think we’d expect to win and based on your prediction on your last ever Friday show, you did too. There’s a glass three quarters full approach you guys take which is humorous but perhaps a little more of a measured approach in your ratings?
Not sure Firmino even rates a 4. I’m sick of hearing that he misses big Phil and that City game keeps looking more and more like a dog having its day…
I BELIEVE
my feet are firmly back on the ground
The thing when Benteke is pointing where he apparently wants the ball played, he rarely makes more than a half-arsed attempt to get there. Forget about talent, he doesn’t have the heart or intensity to be Liverpool player at the moment. Needs to pull his finger out.
Mignolet sells himself for the second goal massively. Makes the player’s mind up for him by sacking himself too early. Poor.
Allen a 7. Together with a strong performance against Bordeaux and a very, very strong performance against Saints (not to mention a MOTM for Wales against Holland), the little man may be working his way into Klopp’s thinking. Certainly ahead of Milner.
I’ve been curious about a return to an Allen-Lucas-Henderson midfield since the 5-0 against Spurs (still one of my favorite games to recall). With Coutinho-Sturridge-Firmino up top, it could be a nice balance of solidity, energy, tenacity, and creativity.
yeah. agreed. just would add Can to the mix.. in other words midfield 3 from Hendo/Lucas/Allen/Can (Milner as backup)
and attacking 3 from Sturridge/Phil/Firmino/Lallana/Ibe (Origi as backup)
Don’t shoot.me.for not including Benteke in the mix. it just that the team.play much better with nonstop movement and creating opportunities without him in the team…