OVER the years a few tidy teams have turned up to Anfield. You think “how are these 10th, they look really good”. Then they don’t score, and someone like Fernando Torres knocks a couple in and we all go home.
Liverpool have become that team. Often the better side, but not often enough the winning one. Liverpool played pretty well today, very well at moments, but so what? The team from Manchester go home with the points.
Getting three goals on Wednesday is the exception. You look at the attacking players picked today and they are one in five at best, and one in 12 or 13 at worst. Very few look like they even know how to strike a ball. But we carry on with what we’ve got.
Simon Mignolet: 6
Very little to do. Not sure how he ends up on the floor after watching one on to the bar, but unlikely he saves the rebound anyway. Because kicking the ball dead hard into the roof of the net has its benefits.
Nathaniel Clyne: 5
Flies past their full back first half, and generally chose his moments to get forward well, but on more than one occasion he got caught out at the back which could have been costly. Touch too casual at times.
Alberto Moreno: 6
Hard to fault him. Solid enough.
Kolo Toure: 8
Terrific stuff. Give him a contract. Give him two.
Mamadou Sakho: 7
The hardest one to rate as he goes from one extreme to another. Some of his passing first half was suicidal, but then he rescued us on more than one occasion.
Lucas Leiva 7.5
Dealt well enough with Fellaini and passed it well throughout. Extra half a point for the headbutt.
Emre Can: 7
His refusal to play at anything other than his own pace has to be admired. He’ll play at his own tempo, thank you very much. But for all the times he gets it taken off his toes there are loads where he looks terrific. Had our best attacking moments. Some shot, some save.
Jordan Henderson: 5
Can’t help but think of the best chances of the game falling to him and him fluffing his lines. He’ll be the most disappointed tonight.
James Milner: 5
Struggled to get into it. Not able to influence the game enough. Don’t think you can play him front three.
Adam Lallana: 5
Part of the problem not the solution. Just very 7th to 10th in the league.
Roberto Firmino: 7.5
All things considered I thought he was terrific. Just needed a bit more help.
SUBS
Jordon Ibe: 5
Seemed too deep. Would set him on Exeter.
Christian Benteke: 5
Thought it was great how the crowd were shouting for him to come on and then got on his back straightaway. Maybe they just needed someone to take it out on.
Steven Caulker: n/a
Let’s swerve that now, lads
Henderson let the occasion get to him somewhat, think he wanted his big moment. Apart from that he wasn’t too bad.
I like Can but he was at sixes and sevens today.
Fair rating. Apart from that one defending of corner which lead to the MU goal, I won’t fault the team.for the fighting spirit and effort.
A bit depress, to be honest, because I expected us to win. But looking at the bigger picture, I guess the same.team can finish higher up the table once the injured players are back.
Btw, our keeper didn’t make any mistake. (feeling a bit unusual :).
Nice commentary but I’d make all the 5’s a 6. Big issue is that we needed more upfront – the elusive Sturridge would have had a field day. Frustrated as fuck as the mancs were poor and you could tell if they got one that’d be it – the fuckers defended well. A decent striker and we would have won today – so much space upfront and no-one to play it to.
Very generous of you giving Lallana a 5/10 (as is always the case here a Wrap) who seem to find every bit of excuse to cover up the complete and utter calamity of a player that is Adam Lallana. Whom for instance, despite being 28 in 3 months is weaker than most 10 year olds I see out and about on the streets, and that’s not his only flaw mind you, a 2/10 would be a more apt a rating for the insipid performance he put out today. The same 2/10 would be his overall rating here since he signed. Awful player.
I think we have a height issue which needs addressing in the summer,because you can bet your bottom dollar FSG won’t buy unless we are on our bare bones in January.
Also Lallana offers nothing in terms of goals or assists,needs moving on in the summer.Milner is a terrible corner taker,and has zero creativity in his game,replace in the summer.Mignolet isn’t even a number 2 let alone a number 1,we need a commanding keeper ASAP.Benteke should never have been bought at £32.5 million pounds,lazy injury prone and doesn’t score enough to warrant his price tag,get well rid if someone is crazy enough to offer £20 million pounds.
Yep. One of the few Premier League players I would fancy myself against in a fist fight and I’ve never won one ever.
Think Lallana and Benteke get higher ratings than they deserved. Lallana should be a 2, he adds nothing to this team apart from the odd spin further blunting our attack. I was indifferent to the Benteke buy in the summer — hoping for some plan — I remain mostly indifferent, but he must pick it up over the next month. Jurgen needs to clear house this summer, hopefully the owners will back him. As it is, we simply aren’t a top four team.
Giving players a two is harsh in a team that pretty much dominated, if we’d have won he wouldn’t have got a two and he wasnt at fault for the goal so a bit harsh in my view.
I agree he wasn’t at fault for the goal. I stand by my 2 though, he is bang average on his “great days” and a passenger the remainder of the time. If Ryan Babel had a spin move, he’s be a pacier version of Lallana.
or Ngog…
Will you ever give Lucas mom couldn’t get any clearer than today
Agree, great performance on the whole. Lucas dealt with their game plan very well, can count on one hand the number of times he lost 50/50 headers. Also did well keeping them penned in winning their clearance.
Then theres the headbutt!
Totally agree , never been lucas biggestfan but MOM by a mile today
Have to disagree with the firmino rating, held on to the ball too much in my opinion and was dispossessed. Should’ve got a shot away when clean through but wanted too many touches. Lucas man of match for me.
Would’ve given Hendo a 6 but understood why you’ve docked him for the poor shooting.
Lallana being part of the problem – and your assessment of the sheer mediocrity in the final third in terms of chronic lack of conviction in front of goal – are absolutely spot on. £100m-odd spunked on Lallana, Balo, BigBen and Markovic (am not including Lambo as he was cheap and bought to be 4th striker) – instead of buying two top goal-getters with the same cash would have seemed to be the simple, sensible solution.
To everyone apart from our committee.
At least Firmino is beginning to look like the real deal.
10 for Lucas for putting the head on Fellaini early doors.
Could call how that match was going as soon as Henderson snatched at his first half bits and pieces (even down to knowing they’d get the break off a corner). Same as it ever was.
ha…that’s the most enjoyable part of the game, I think. Lucas was faultless today…just that our goal scorers left the shooting boots behind.
Awful result for Pool. Really disappointed. Controlled the game, didn’t take our chances and then give away another goal to a corner. Let’s be realistic though. We’ve got to go with what we have presently and we still have a great chance of silverware in the cups. Let’s not forget Europa Win gives us CL. Hendo rating here is very harsh. Most of our best plays came from him today. He’s obviously got to finish but knocking him to 5 is harsh.
Funny how opinions differ so much, for me Sakho was m.o.m he was immense. Thought mignolet would have saved the goal if he wasn’t on the floor for no reason and leaning back he got a hand to it to as well.
Typical Mignolet, he’s a calamity keeper.
Lets not forget the poor kick from mignolet led to the corner which led to the goal, people are exonerating mignolet for the goal. Sunday league keepers can kick better than him!
He is on the floor because he thinks the header has beaten him. He gave up before realising he gave up too soon. Hasn’t got the skills or the mentality. Why should he have? Everyone at the club keeps telling him how great he is.
Yep, can’t fault the effort, not enough quality. Still feel we’re 3-4 players short having singularly failed to replace our best players.
What does Joe Allen have to do to get a game?
sure glad you put a “-” between 3 and 4… :).
one 20+ goal striker (or is sturridge’s pre season ever going to end?)
a keeper who’s good at few other things in addition to being a good shot stopper
a centre half who knows how to organize and defend.
a box to box midfielder (Klopp type )..
Lacked quality throughout, not sure how Can deserves 7, he was very poor first half, improved a bit later but rating that standard as acceptable shows how far we’ve slipped.
Thought Firmino showed the most quality in a pretty dour team performance.
Deservedly mid table.
This is right.
Thought Milner wasn’t as bad as everyone seems to think. Remember him making a few good runs but nobody seemed to want to pick him out. And he moves the ball along quicker. Think the younger players could learn from him in regards to being more decisive when it comes to passing. As we only concede from set pieces they shouldn’t be worried so much at losing possession. You only have a moment to make that great pass before the opportunity is gone so you should just go for it.
What game were you watching? Overly positive ratings, a side devoid of quality, not effort, but quality. I’m not blaming Jurgen, we can’t dispose of the worst Utd team in 20 years, what made it worse was watching Phil Jones in a seat in the away end pissing himself laughing at us and who can blame him.
I thought Kolo was to blame for the goal, he played a terrible ball forward into I can’t mind who but he’d two players on him, resulted in the ball coming back and going out for that corner albeit allowing that short corner to put it in side show bobs head and then not getting the second ball is unforgivable, we are so soft cebtered and easy to beat nowadays…
Would have liked to have seen Ibe come on along side Firmino. We had so many chances to break that just needed that could have used that extra bit of pace. Ibe up top is not a long term solution, but he could fit the style of play better than Benteke and Caulker. And please stop letting Milner take corners.
for corners (our corners), our players seem to attack the ball half heartedly…maybe we can learn from Plullis team (just this one good point :) to aggressively attack…
I’m an Emre fan but he gave the ball away too many times today, same as second half against Arsenal. I don’t mind that, rough with the smooth etc, but too a generous rating for me.
Agree with an earlier comment on Allen. What does he have to do to get a start in the league?
If you look back at the number of games Can has played in the past few weeks, it is hardly surprising that he has mental lapses and fades in games.
Of course, he has mental lapses when he is rested, too. But I don’t think that playing him so often is helping any.
Allen was excellent during the international break in November, putting in a MOTM performance against Holland. Since then, he’s been worthy of a MOTM shout for Southampton and Stoke, then scored the equalizer against Arsenal.
Not saying he is the answer to our goal scoring crisis, but he definitely deserves a start. Definitely the second leg against Stoke.
Disappointing result.
The fixtures continue to pile up in coming weeks. I expect a number to be rested on Wednesday vs.Exeter. Maybe a lineup of Ward, Randall, Caulker, Ilori, Smith, Lucas, Branigan, Allen, Teixera, Ibe and Benteke with more kids on the bench.
And when, WHEN?!?!? will we see Sturridge again?
I read somewhere that Ward hasn’t been registered in time for the Exeter match, so on that logic I expect Caulker probably isn’t available either.
Think we need to go with similar team to yesterday – these lads need to remember how to score goals.
Spot on with the ratings
Kolo Toure…Magnificent in defence, pity he’s at the end of his career but showed his class.
Sahko-love him, solid and a dependable passer, got caught out a few times but saves our bacon more times than not he and Toure played well
Henderson…great at running…crap at shooting
Lalana,,,crap at everything except advertising face cream…nonce!!
Milner..god help us if he’s there next season
Can’t understand why 4 players marking Fellani leaving Rooney free…stupidity.
Thought Jurgen should have brought Caulker on to stop Fellani, if he’d have been on 10 minutes earlier he’d have stopped that goal.
Its funny but when you see ratings you realise how individually subjective watching football ( or any sport for that matter) is:
Personally Lucas for me was a 9 and MOTM. Everywhere around the pitch, continually mops up and one of the only players who looks calm and collected on the ball and doesnt lose possession.
Thought Henderson was poor and more around the 4 mark. Being captain is more than just screaming at the officials for everything, throwing your arms around in disgust and running running running. Maybe its a legacy of the injury but he should have come off around the 55/60 mark.
Milner ebbed and flowed between a 3 and a 6. As did Can, he has some great traits but he just drifts out of games so often and gives the ball away so much, its getting to be a worrying trait.
Lallana’s purpose on the field baffles me, I honestly don’t know what he’s there to do and he looked beyond weak today. Just was not in the game and a 3 for me.
Firmino gets in great positions, there are times he plays great balls and has the touch you want from a high value player. He needs to cut out the dawdling and realise the time he had in the Bundesliga is not the same in the PL. A solid 7 though he does remind me of Luis Garcia in his tendency to give away possession with needless flicks and sloppy passing.
Sakho tremendous and Kolo was great too.
That we are reduced to bringing on an on-loan defender as our final 5-10 minute gamble, when I remember well us deriding the Blackburns and Stoke’s of this world for doing the same with CHris Samba or Robert Huth, shows something has gone terribly wrong recruitment wise. And from what I’ve read only Brendan reckons it was not Brendan’s fault. Sad to see.
This. Some of our players simply aren’t good enough. I suspect Jurgen’s reaching the same conclusion. We need goals in the team and we’re not going to get them from Lallana, Milner and Ibe. Hendo, Coutinho and Firmino need to work on their composure in front of goal: they have the potential to deliver.
Kolo was really good in a lot of moments, but the channel between him and Clyne was Utd’s only outlet and they took advantage – led to the decisive corner I think.