Liverpool FC Forum

[Benny The Noon]

It was possibly down to lack of match practise as you could see he can defend. Prob not used to the pace and movement of the forwards. Need to sort out the RB situation until Johnson is fit again - Wisdom was poor , Toure was exposed out there as well. I would like to see McLaughlin given a go

[only me]

I thought he was poor today, but early days, hopefully it's down to nerves and match fitness because he really reminded me of Djimi Traore in some instances. I thought he was tidy in possession, kept the ball well and didn't waste it like his other teammates (Mignolet at it again), there was an instance when he was under pressure he did well and passed it forward.Also, he was also good in the air. However, he got caught ball watching in the second goal and his poor header put Henderson under pressure to give the ball away. He also attempted tackles that he completely missed and let Michu get the better of him.

Man have we been watching the same game? He was excellent for a first game in the EPL ,He was confident with the ball ,made some great tackles ,good in the Air ,overall responsible for Swansea barely getting any shots at goal. If that's your description of a poor game man do I wait for him to have a great game.

Well Done Sakho.

He was at fault for both goals - if that's excellent then I hope we don't ever see him have a poor game

Shelvey just waltzed around him for the first

And then he was dragged out of position and went to ground early and left a massive hole for the second

He was all over the place

Was strong in the air though

Rubbish. He wasn't at fault in any of the goals, If their was someone to blame for the first it was GERRARD who run/hid/turned like a little girl in front of Jonjo's kick ,which yes did pass Sakho going into the a difficult angle in the box just to get a friendly deflection from Skertel and score. On the 2nd you expected him to take Both Wilfried and Cutting Jonjo?? Where was Lucas Taking Jonjo? Or Martin covering from behind?

Sakho was very comfortable with the balls ,had a near perfect passing % and should good control in the Air. Don't get this "general" Consensus he was poor...Thought ,Wisdom Lucas and Gerrard were the weakest link on defense.

[Kenny Kan]

Actually KK the problem was that Wisdom wasn't tracking Michu, Skrtl was gesturing to Wisdom to pick up Michu before the ball even reached Shelvey for the knock down that Michu put away. Skrtl anticipated the danger where as Wisdom only reacted to it, when it was already too late.

On Sakho, thought he had worrying first half but he was probably our only player whose game improved in the second half, mainly because he stopped going to ground for every effin' tackle.

Yeah, pretty much agree with that Woof.

I saw Skertel pointing but I couldn't make out whether he was talking to either Lucas or Henderson (who were in front of him), or Wisdom (who was next to him).

[Octsky]

Although it wasn't the best of debuts for him, you could see that he could be a good player for us if instructed and managed well. I wouldn't partner him with Skrtel too often though, we'll have a very unorganized back 4 if we do.

Also, he looks like he might do well as a DM. He's good on the ball and he likes to close players down quickly rather than wait for them to arrive in the box or near it. I think we should try it out sometime.

i wont be too overly concern abt debuts as migolet nearly gifted a goal to stoke just 20 mins into his lfc career only for the bar to save him. now migolet looks an upgrade for us.

i saw the highlights, sakho positioning is poor, for the first goal, shevely knocked the ball away from him but he did not run to close him down. if he did, he will had stop shevely second attempt at goal after the first was blocked by skertel.

for the 2nd goal, sakho was drawn out of our penalty box, and wasnt there when shelvey heads the return ball to michu.

hope that sakho can show us more in future games.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

to be fair to sakho that was a real baptism of fire, that wasnt one of those cushy debut`s in a comfortable home fixture, he was thrown in right at the deep end there in a game that was always had the potential to be very tricky.
i thought he did okay, he won a lot of headers and for a big man i was amazed at how comfortable on the ball he was, he`s got tremendous feet and knocks the ball around like a central midfielder. he doesnt just knock it square or hoof it up the pitch like most CB`s, he threads balls through tight gaps into the feet of our CM`s and forwards. i also loved the way at times he pushed right up into their half to get involved in our passing moves.
he made one or two mistakes (mainly lunging into tackles he didnt make) but thats to be expected considering that was his first game in england and the first time he`s played with his team mates in a competitive fixture, but i think he has all the tools in his game to become a superb CB.
imo he is only going to get better and better and in a year or two`s time when he`s had about 100 games in this country i think he could be a colossus for us.

[stmichael]

tricky start for him but you can see that there's a player there. will be able to judge him properly after 6-8 games when he's had a decent run of games.

[red till i die!!]

to be fair to sakho that was a real baptism of fire, that wasnt one of those cushy debut`s in a comfortable home fixture, he was thrown in right at the deep end there in a game that was always had the potential to be very tricky.
i thought he did okay, he won a lot of headers and for a big man i was amazed at how comfortable on the ball he was, he`s got tremendous feet and knocks the ball around like a central midfielder. he doesnt just knock it square or hoof it up the pitch like most CB`s, he threads balls through tight gaps into the feet of our CM`s and forwards. i also loved the way at times he pushed right up into their half to get involved in our passing moves.
he made one or two mistakes (mainly lunging into tackles he didnt make) but thats to be expected considering that was his first game in england and the first time he`s played with his team mates in a competitive fixture, but i think he has all the tools in his game to become a superb CB.
imo he is only going to get better and better and in a year or two`s time when he`s had about 100 games in this country i think he could be a colossus for us.

agree with pretty much all of that but can we really afford to wait a year or two for him?  he is our most expensive defender ever and this summer's marquee signing so id hope after a run of games he will have adapted and be a starter.

[Kenny Kan]

A position like CB needs time to work on understanding and forming a partnership, really and ideally he should have been brought in the summer for pre-season.

It always worries me when you drop a CB straight into the mix like that.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

to be fair to sakho that was a real baptism of fire, that wasnt one of those cushy debut`s in a comfortable home fixture, he was thrown in right at the deep end there in a game that was always had the potential to be very tricky.
i thought he did okay, he won a lot of headers and for a big man i was amazed at how comfortable on the ball he was, he`s got tremendous feet and knocks the ball around like a central midfielder. he doesnt just knock it square or hoof it up the pitch like most CB`s, he threads balls through tight gaps into the feet of our CM`s and forwards. i also loved the way at times he pushed right up into their half to get involved in our passing moves.
he made one or two mistakes (mainly lunging into tackles he didnt make) but thats to be expected considering that was his first game in england and the first time he`s played with his team mates in a competitive fixture, but i think he has all the tools in his game to become a superb CB.
imo he is only going to get better and better and in a year or two`s time when he`s had about 100 games in this country i think he could be a colossus for us.

agree with pretty much all of that but can we really afford to wait a year or two for him?  he is our most expensive defender ever and this summer's marquee signing so id hope after a run of games he will have adapted and be a starter.

it wont take him long to get up to speed mate, when i mentioned 2 years i was talking about the time frame for him to potentially become one of, if not `the`  best CB in the country.
he`s got everything that you need to be a great CB - height, strength, pace etc plus the passing ability of a CM. it`s down to him (and rodgers) now, if he gets his head down and works hard the worlds his oyster.

[metalhead]

Well I really hope it was down to nerves and lack of match fitness (since he last played in May).

[bunglemark2]

Well I really hope it was down to nerves and lack of match fitness (since he last played in May).

At last some sense....

[metalhead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDXM2kUqUXs

bearing in mind they edited out his f*ck ups  , but he definitely looks steady at the ball and very strong in the air.

[Stu the Red]

And then he was dragged out of position and went to ground early and left a massive hole for the second

Rubbish, he never went to ground for their second goal. He was dragged out of position but Wisdom was equally culpable as he was tracking Michu.

They were both at fault.

The second goal came from three errors from three players.

Sahko was far to quickly out of the defensive line and far to slow back in. This mistake allowed Shelvey the space to run into and was quite frankly a shocking error of judgement for an international centre half (to be honest I wouldn't expect a 1st division centre half to leave that big a gap). This in my opinion was the mistake which lead to the other three. Once he's settled, I would expect him to drag Lucas across in these situations so as he doesn't have to move out.

Skrytel shown a lack of anticipation and reading of the game and left far to big a game (because of Sahko's original error) for Shelvey to plough into, because the gap was so big and Skrytel had to react rather than anticipate that left him with a difficult challenge on Shelvey who had momentum.

Shelvey's header, was quite honestly world class. It put Michu on a plate, Wisdom didn't anticipate (much like Skyrtel) the movement but imo this was the more forgivable mistake as the quality of the ball and movement from Michu was top draw.

Great players don't make many mistakes, usually when they do, a player around them is good enough to correct it. When you start making 2 or 3 or even 4 errors in a row as a team, thats when you develope problems.

For the first goal, Gerrard should never have turned his back, but it was unfortunate for us, that Shelvey had an air shot (or pulled off one of the best dummy's ever... you decide ) but again, Sahko was poor, he didn't anticipate and was beaten on the edge of his box far to easily.

On a slightly different note, Shelvey made the match interesting single handedly.

[metalhead]

second game, better than last, anyone has a video of him destroying osvaldo 

[RED BEERGOGGLES]

second game, better than last, anyone has a video of him destroying osvaldo 

Played well today Sakho,and that tackle on Osvaldo reminded me of one of Henchoz's no-nonsense interceptions.
I thought Sakho along with Mignolet were the only  bright spots today.