Liverpool FC Forum

[Kharhaz]

Aside from the result there are many positives. Rafa fielded a strong team, I expected 1 or 2 changes but nope it was a good line up. We were constantly pressing and as the match went on the players started closing down the defenders to panic them into mistakes or just to get the ball. If we play against everton in the same manner, as in constantly attacking, then there will be goals. All the panic before the match about delaps long throw proved pointless because we were camped in there half. Stoke put everyone behind the ball and had there run of luck. Will Hull have the same luck when they come to Anfield? I doubt it.

[rafa09]

BIGMICK. I have opinions,of course i do. But am not going to come on here and post kneejerk reactions. Am to long in the tooth for that,but seems to me ppl don,t think. We are LFC i love the club whatever happens,i will always SUPPORT this club.And i take offence to ppl slagging us off.We have enough of that off the media,so don,t like reading it here.I would rather sit in the pub and disscus these things face to face

[maypaxvobiscum]

BIGMICK. I have opinions,of course i do. But am not going to come on here and post kneejerk reactions. Am to long in the tooth for that,but seems to me ppl don,t think. We are LFC i love the club whatever happens,i will always SUPPORT this club.And i take offence to ppl slagging us off.We have enough of that off the media,so don,t like reading it here.I would rather sit in the pub and disscus these things face to face

i think he's asking you out BigMick 

[Bad Bob]

BIGMICK. I have opinions,of course i do. But am not going to come on here and post kneejerk reactions. Am to long in the tooth for that,but seems to me ppl don,t think. We are LFC i love the club whatever happens,i will always SUPPORT this club.And i take offence to ppl slagging us off.We have enough of that off the media,so don,t like reading it here.I would rather sit in the pub and disscus these things face to face

Look, mate, it's a discussion forum and so you're going to get all kinds of views on here.  After a disappointing result, however, you are most certainly going to see people come on here to vent.  It's just human nature.  So, you really have two choices:

1) Offer a calmer, more analytical alternative, like Mick has tried to do with his thread opener

OR

2) Avoid this place like the plague until the dust settles

Option 2 keeps you out of barneys and keeps the blood pressure down, while option number 1 helps bring balance to the forum and reintroduces the proper diversity of views that any healthy discussion needs.  Only you can decide what's best for you but I think Mick's got a point: if you are intent on coming on here after a disappointing result and don't like what you read, offer an alternative perspective that might advance the discussion.

[Number 9]

Im afraid to look in the match thread..I was in it earlier today and some of the talk by fellow "fans" and I use that term very lightly was embarrassing to say the least.
It used to be on this forum people were realistic.Now its full of hypersenstive nancy boys that seem to lurk in the dark waiting for a opportunity to come on and give off sh'it.Some of the comments by "fans" about the team and players are nothing short of hatred at times,more to the point its unjustified(if it were ever possible).
Same again today.Kuyt had a decent game and to me played as well as anyone.But the same fools are coming off with"Kuyt should be taken out the back and shot like an old horse","hes embarrassing","hes shi'te"
The guys no world beater but he done well today and seemed to be the only player on the pitch that figured out that high balls were never gonna be successful.He took the ball to the by line and got it in hard and low a few times were the strikers failed to finish.
I wonder has anyone mentioned that Gerrard seemed more interested in making his 100th goal one for the DVD collection?Umpteen times today he was selfish and let the team down IMO,players were around him in great positions and onside and he chose to go for personal glory!
As for Dossena?He really dissapointed me today he was so frustrating,getting into good positions but repeatedly putting high balls in that were uneffective.
It was obvious after 15 minutes of play that we should have stopped putting high balls in and tried a different approach...it was hard to watch them keep doing it.
Rafa should have spotted this and changed tactics early in the game!

All in all though we cant really blame any individual,we played some good football and if Keane would actually relax and be himself and stop panicking everytime he gets a chance.If Torres would have been at his sharpest we would have won easily.It just was'nt our day.
Also Gerrards goal was a goal all day long but was robbed from us by a poor decision.No point dwelling on that now though as it happens,we have to take the rough with the smooth!

Stoke got what they came for and credit to their defence

[bigmick]

BIGMICK. I have opinions,of course i do. But am not going to come on here and post kneejerk reactions. Am to long in the tooth for that,but seems to me ppl don,t think. We are LFC i love the club whatever happens,i will always SUPPORT this club.And i take offence to ppl slagging us off.We have enough of that off the media,so don,t like reading it here.I would rather sit in the pub and disscus these things face to face

i think he's asking you out BigMick 

Hey nothing would give me greater pleasure than to sit down and have a pint with the fella (well probably a few things would but you get my drift). Unfortunately however I am currently esconsed on the other side of the World so such things are currently impossible.

See its alright for you feckers who can just go down the pub and talk about football with your mates, when some of us mention football you get some fecker tryiong to educate tou on the ELV's (don't ask) or some other nonsense. When you explain to them that you're actually talking about football not egg chasing, they invariably try and engage you in conversation about blokes diving and kissing each other. Either that or tractors anyway.

That's why some of us come on here.

[Zi-Dan Agger]

Could have been 5 or 6 today.  We dominated possession and had chances galore! Just wasnt our day, Arsenal slipped up at Fulham and I am confident Chelsea and United will have these off days too.  It is ridiculous that some people are incinuating that we are out of the race already.... If thats true then united are fecked!

[Igor Zidane]

Yes it was a poor result today , we should have won , we had enough chances . We had a perfectly good goal disallowed ,which imo would have opened the floodgates if allowed . We didn't score from our chances and we let a good chance to increase the pressure on our rivals go. What does rafa do now ,start dropping players left ,right and centre or let the same players get it out of there system by stuffing the bitters next week .

It's not the end of the world and it's definately not the end of our title challenge . The other teams will drop points against lower opposition ,but we've got to make sure we don't do what we did last year and draw to many games ,we've got to take our chances and kill these smaller clubs off ,starting next week.

[Bad Bob]

Yes it was a poor result today , we should have won , we had enough chances . We had a perfectly good goal disallowed ,which imo would have opened the floodgates if allowed . We didn't score from our chances and we let a good chance to increase the pressure on our rivals go. What does rafa do now ,start dropping players left ,right and centre or let the same players get it out of there system by stuffing the bitters next week .

It's not the end of the world and it's definately not the end of our title challenge . The other teams will drop points against lower opposition ,but we've got to make sure we don't do what we did last year and draw to many games ,we've got to take our chances and kill these smaller clubs off ,starting next week.

That last line made me smile, Igor!   I agree that the way forward next week is to field this exact same line-up and let them muller the Bitters.  In fact, it wouldn't be a bad policy to put out the same team against Crewe midweek and let them get it straight.

At the very least Keane must play...a goal will do this lad a world of good.

[metalhead]

I was angry when the ref blew the final whistle today, absolutely fuming with the way we missed our chances to score.

but Im calm now 

[bigmick]

I think if we look at last season as an example Igor, one bad result would quickly be followed by two more as a blip turned into a bliiiiiiiiiiiip. This for me is key this season, we simply can't afford that. We also musn't get carried away as we did last season with this "but we're unbeaten" nonsense. We're unbeaten this season, but is that two draws out of five now. We're by no means out of it, but we certainly won't win it by drawing 40% of our games either.

Another mistake we made last season was believing we were doing far better than we were given the relative match-ups which had taken place between the big four clubs. Should Man Utd get a result at Chelsea, (and I don't think they'll lose to be honest) then they won't be doing too bad relative to us considering they've played two of their three Away games at big four clubs already. I remember writing us off last season pre-christmas purely on the strength of the fact we had to play all three of our "big four club" away matches in the second half of the season. As it turns out, no sooner had I written us off than we went on a bit of a run but in the end it was too much. Equally, Chelsea came from a long way off the pace and the fact that they had all three "big four club" home games in the second half of the season was hugely significant in their surge.

Broadly speaking, people are correct when they say that all clubs will have poor results. Only Chelsea so far haven't really slipped up too much, with both Man Utd and Arsenal dropping a point or two where they shouldn't have. The key though to quote Iain Dowie (not often anyone does that) is bouncebackability. Interestingly (well I think it is anyway) I think the team with the best start so far is Arsenal. They've had 3 out of their first 5 away from home, and have bounced back from a really poor result at Fulham to win their next two on their travels very comfotably, at Bolton and Blackburn respectively.

No, we must bounce back with a good result next week. the unfortunate thing of course is, should Man Utd go to Stamford Bridge and win tomorrow, they will have come out best of the teams on the last couple of weeks fixtures. We kind of threw away what we'd previously gained today. Not quite one step forwards two steps back, but probably one forward and one back.

[Bad Bob]

If memory serves we have one goal between them in 8 matches (please allow a 200% tolerance on stats when I use them).

Meant to comment on this, Mick...you've remembered correctly.  Torres' strike against Sunderland has been it from our strikers all season in all comps.  All of our other goals have come from midfielders, from strikers playing as midfielders or from opposition OGs.

[Igor Zidane]

Well mick your right of course ,about getting results against our rivals . We've started well on that score ,so we must keep it up against the BS and then Chelsea , if we do well in them games and we stop these stupid draws against the lower teams ,then we'll be in the mix .

By the way Bob i think Crewe is the perfect oppotunity for some rotation. Give the younger members of the squad a go and throw a little bit of experience in there , yep by all means play keane to give him the chance to get a goal , but i'd throw N'gog up there with him.

[Bad Bob]

Well mick your right of course ,about getting results against our rivals . We've started well on that score ,so we must keep it up against the BS and then Chelsea , if we do well in them games and we stop these stupid draws against the lower teams ,then we'll be in the mix .

By the way Bob i think Crewe is the perfect oppotunity for some rotation. Give the younger members of the squad a go and throw a little bit of experience in there , yep by all means play keane to give him the chance to get a goal , but i'd throw N'gog up there with him.

Yeah, you're right Igor.  We don't need to play all the lads that played today against Crewe.  It's a great opportunity to blood some youngsters and to give some of our key players a breather ahead of the Derby.  If I'm Rafa, I deffo play Keane though and I think pairing him with Ngog makes sense.  Make him one of the most senior players in the team and just tell him to go out there and lead the line and do what he does naturally.  Make sure he doesn't have to worry about getting in Torres' or Stevie's way and just give him license to express himself.  Hopefully that will translate into that vital first goal and we'll see him settle.

[metalhead]

so is everyone calm now?