Liverpool FC Forum

by **ethanr** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:46 pm

I thought we should have played with the 3 CB's again, 2 guys on the wings in Kelly and Johnson, Lucas, Meireles, Auerlio, Kuyt and Suarez. It gave us more solidity, more width with Kelly and Johnson making those runs. Today they didn't get up enough. Our whole CM just wasn't good enough as a whole, Meireles played great but one of three isn't good enough. Maxi was garbage again. Kuyt looks like his tank is just on empty. Johnson created space for himself often but we weren't getting the ball to him enough.

Suarez was the obvious spark of the day.

Shocked that KK didn't bring in Soto, I thought it was quite obvious we needed him. We won almost none of the corner kicks we got and they were winning almost all the 50 50's in both boxes. Goes to show how much of an asset Carroll can be.

by **RED BEERGOGGLES** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:52 pm

No Agger ,no Gerrard and still we battled for 90 mins + , but all the credit in the world to the Boys for sticking relentlessly to the task in hand ....Suarez could have well had a brace earlier ,I mean the lad hit the woodwork twice .
However I think the main thrust of our attack was hampered by the fact Johnson was sluggish, after his performance for England .
I personally believe that Wigan play some delightful possession football ,and after their outstanding win v Blackburn their star is definitely on the rise ,and all credit to Martinez for sticking with an attacking style of play kudos to him ,and to add to that ,it seems they may be slowly becoming our bogey team ......... anyway its a point gained and we still retain our unbeaten run ,but lets not berate the team for not getting the 3 points ....Wigan played their hearts out and are desperate to avoid relegation ,I commend the Reds for playing for the win till the very last minute of stoppage time ..... and mark my words Anfield will soon be back to being a fortress before long, if we continue with the application the players showed earlier ....

by **Rockthekop** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:55 pm

Bit annoyed that we beat Chelsea and then drop points to Wigan at home. Poor result but that's all we deserved.

Not a good performance but 13pts from 15 is an excellent return...its not all bad but we needed to win to keep our CL hopes alive.

I hate the EL with a passion, can't bear the thought of watching more of that muck next season.

by **Penguins** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:04 pm

Well, 4th was a big ask before the game but now it is but a dream. Anyone thinking anything different is delusional.

Wigan played as well as they can, but we are just very thin. Gerrard out and Meireles off injured and there is no threat or creativity from midfield. Lucas is steady, but really creates nothing. Kuyt just break down so many attacking plays and Maxi is just doing it too rarely.

by **tubby** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:13 pm

alwayslfc wrote:Since KK took over, I am happy with the scorelines but I am disappointed with our style of play. This reminds me of the Houllier's era where we were very defensive and just play to winl. This is very Un-Kenny Dalglish kind of football. Hope this will change soon.

Are you serious? We have been playing decent football since Kenny arrived. Ok today we sat back a bit but we were without a few players and still sustained some more injuries.

by **DaMo** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:25 pm

ethanr wrote:I thought we should have played with the 3 CB's again, 2 guys on the wings in Kelly and Johnson, Lucas, Meireles, Auerlio, Kuyt and Suarez.

Would have to disagree with such a system being appropriate for this type of match. You dont play 5 defenders at home against a team battling relegation, at least not if you want to win. Playing a 4-4-2 from the onset was as positive and purposeful a line-up as it gets. The defence was under too much pressure, granted, but I'd say that was due to completely losing out in the midfield battle in the second half.

With Maxi, Kuyt and Aurelio arguably having bad days at the office, and Jova and N'Gog being woeful when brought on, it's no wonder we struggled. Add what seemed an offside goal and other dodgy decisions into the equation, as well as the fact we missed Gerrard, and it's not too difficult a result to digest all things considered.

by **cptrios** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:28 pm

I think a big lesson to take from today is that we are VERY thin in midfield. Without Gerrard, and then eventually without Meireles, our midfield looked utterly awful. Interestingly, I think that an injury worthy of noting today alongside Stevie, Meireles, and Agger, is Shelvey's. Sure he's young and has a long way to go, but he's at least confident and plays with ambition, and he would have made a much better sub today than %&$@ing Jovanovich. Here's hoping that he comes back healthy from this injury.

We could also seriously use a Joe Cole rebirth here...

by **Kenny Kan** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:31 pm

Dissapointed with the result and performance in all honesty, especially after the Chelsea win.

by **damjan193** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:40 pm

Well, we are still 6th, but 5th place (Chelsea) is now 6 points away with 2 games less and 4th place (Spurs) are 8 points away with a game less

.

by **aCe'** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:58 pm

I thought we should have kept the setup that worked well in the past few games tbh...

It was always going to be tough going out and scoring 3-4 goals to guarantee outscoring the opposition given our forwards and their form/capabilities.. Our best chance of winning the game imo was keeping a clean sheet and getting a goal and trying to maintain possession instead of going all out to try and win it late on...

I think Kenny got it wrong and hopefully a lesson is learned from today's game... We're thin on midfielders at present, but with Aurelio, Lucas, Poulsen, Maxi, and Meireles we had enough to maintain the general setup we've seemingly adopted in recent weeks...

by **zarababe** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:05 pm

Dissapointed we did not win .. but given all the sickness, injuries and inernational week.. on another day Suarez would ahve had a brace.

Keep going reds

by **ethanr** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:18 pm

DaMo wrote:
ethanr wrote:I thought we should have played with the 3 CB's again, 2 guys on the wings in Kelly and Johnson, Lucas, Meireles, Auerlio, Kuyt and Suarez.

Would have to disagree with such a system being appropriate for this type of match. You dont play 5 defenders at home against a team battling relegation, at least not if you want to win. Playing a 4-4-2 from the onset was as positive and purposeful a line-up as it gets. The defence was under too much pressure, granted, but I'd say that was due to completely losing out in the midfield battle in the second half.

With Maxi, Kuyt and Aurelio arguably having bad days at the office, and Jova and N'Gog being woeful when brought on, it's no wonder we struggled. Add what seemed an offside goal and other dodgy decisions into the equation, as well as the fact we missed Gerrard, and it's not too difficult a result to digest all things considered.

The difference is when we do this method, Kelly and Johnson basically change depending on how the game is going. If we are on are heels more, they are defenders. If we have the ball, they are attacking, they get up the wings and add width. They were adding some width today but then when we got caught on a counter we just had 2 CB's defending. If caught on a counter with the other system, we would have 3 CB's defending. Then when we attack, we get the wings up and even Soto from CB if need be.

I dunno, I just don't get why we changed the lineup that worked home to stoke and away to chelsea... It stopped those two from really getting any shots on target and caused a very firm back line.

by **parchpea** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:56 pm

We dont have enqough quality to rotate and give lads a rest and so on occasion these lacklustre performances are inevitable especially after internationals midweek. I am not condoning going back to the old epic rotation of the past but just tweaking it here and there is a necessity in the modern game. Wigan are capable of many things, the good, bad and ugly but clearly hit the right notes today. They have a couple that are very handy and if you are not at the races will cause you problems. We shouldnt be too disappointed, these things happen, even to the best sides in this league.

by **Zidane** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 11:32 pm

I was absolutely gutted that we had to settle for a draw, and that's a good feeling now that I think about it. We were piling on the pressure toward the end but just couldn't nick the winner. Tiredness and injuries cost us though, we will be ok. Everyone knows the squad is very thin but we still played some good stuff at times but we just weren't sharp enough in the final third.

by **alwayslfc** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 4:09 am

All is not well at Liverpool yet as yesterday's game has shown us that reality is setting in. Yes many of our players were tired from international duties but so were Man U players and yet they could still beat City.

We've had so many false dawns under Houllier, Rafa and now like KK said, we must not get carried away with the 4 wins on the trot before the Wigam game.

I hope this risky way of playing football right now of giving too much possession and room to opponents will change next season with a few more star midfield and wing signings and if this kind of football is the best Kenny can do continues on, then I am sad to say he is not the long term solution to get back to the glory days.

Yes I know he has won the title 3 times before more than 2 decades ago but maybe today because of his age, he has past his prime as a football manager. Now, I love KK like a brother and he will always be a legend to me, but I think many fans could be clouded by his legendary status and his past achivements. The four scorelines before Wigan were good but we didn't play attractive football and this kind of football is not good enough to win the title. It's only good enough to consolidate your 6th or 7th place.

I have to say KK has done a great job from getting us out of relegation battle to aiming for CL spot before Wigan game and anytime he's 1000 times better than Hodgson. Though I love to see him continue on next season and revitalise Livepool to be like what we were during his first stint, I think he may not have what it takes to become EPL champions. Time will tell whether I'm right or utterly wrong.

If I were JHenry I will have to start looking for a list of quality managers as a possible replacement. It hurts me to type this, but we have to agree with decisions that are best for Lvp and not be clouded and guided by past sentiments of KK's first stint as manager and continue on with this kind of risky football (not attacking enough).[B][B]

I'll probably get a lot stick and abuse from you lot but this is my personal opinion. I hope I'm wrong and that Livepool are just going through a difficult transition and still in the process of rebuilding and we've not reached KK's standards and expectations yet.

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LIVERPOOL VS WIGAN ATHLETIC - 12 february 2011, ko: 15:00

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