Liverpool FC Forum

I never had any problems with him !

Then maybe I didn't incur his wrath by talking Bollox all the time ! 

If BR is going to use this tactic of getting a one goal lead by Sturridge by half time and then sit back and defend that slim lead, sooner or later he's going to meet his Waterloo and get hammered every game from then on. Regardless of how good your keeper or defence is,  sooner or later you'll leak in the goals for sure. Parking a bus in front of your goal is only for mid table sides playing against top teams hoping to steal a win or a draw. But for a side with CL aspirations, this kind of tactic is absolutely SUICIDAL!!!!!!! If he's going to stubbornly dig deep to defend a slim lead in every 2nd half, forget about top 4 finish, I guarantee it. Because you're making yourself so predictable.

Satisfied with the point.

Didn't really want the first half to end, any momentum we had was all but lost. It's like a different side came out for the second half, I believe this is purposeful to an extent. Thing is, had we have carried on in the same vein as the first half we could have been out of sight by the 60th minute. I don't think Coutinho's exit helped us in this regard but it looks as though we're trying to shut up shop from the 46th minute on wards, as we look very Houllier-esq in the second half. However, you still have to counter attack well which we' never looked like doing - we're ultimately a possession team but tend to retreat into our shell.

Sahko had a work out, bit of a mixed game for him. I thought Skertel was quick to go to ground and sell himself but this lad had me frightened, he needs to stay on his feet more (reminiscent of Djimi Traore on the deck), especially in those central positions. Shelvey also rounded him with ease for their first goal. Looks decent on the ball and fairly strong in the air too - hopefully he'll settle in more and curb that enthusiasm to slide, and take the decision to stay on his feet.

Never understood the s.hit Johnson gets thrown, Wisdom was very poor again and we missed Glen big time. Going forward we offered nothing down the right flank apart from a glimpse of Henderson's engine which isn't enough on it's own. And defensively Wisdom failed to track Michu for their equaliser.

Moses will do well, he's already beaten Downing's stats in his first season  I like the fact he's direct and strong as we have our fair share of midgets and lightweights in the final third. Nicely taken goal indeed, faded a little in the second half when we reverted to a defensive  4-4-2 to close out the game. When we concede that much territory and sit that deep we'll never control the game like we did in the first half. To me, it looked like we had no intention of doing so and we're content just to try and ride it out especially after Coutinho went off.

Still, plenty to be positive about, top of the league and all that, unbeaten, hopefully this result/performance will just make Rodgers reassess how we approach the second half. I can understand this approach in certain games but we really need to go and boss at least 25mins of the second half in order to kill teams off by 2 or 3 goals, then shut up shop.

On wards and upwards. 

To be honest I actually think our shut up shop and hold on to dear life approach is a tactic that BR is implementing on purpose. This is now the fifth game in a row we have been effective in the 1st half taking the lead and then trying to defend the result.

Let's not forget that Chelsea were able to grind out a title a few years ago under Maureen this way and guess who was an assistant coach learning his trade back then at the same club?

I have a sneaky suspicion that due to our inept owners, being left with a much depleted attacking force has forced Rodgers to re-think his tactics on the field. With the advent of Suarez being suspended for so many games, Sturridge carrying an injury and Gerrard's "captain fantastic" powers on the wane, it has literally meant we know need to go out and try to grind out victories and results.

With most of money being spent bringing in defensive players, until Suarez comes back we should not expect any less of what we have seen so far. This is compounded by the fact that Coutinho has now picked up an injury, Alberto doesn't even look like a player yet and mostly everyone has agreed that Aspas is f**king useless. If we see the same thing against Southampton on the weekend and come away with another 1-0 victory, I actually won't care too much, because a lot of that has to do with Suarez not being in the side.

At the end of the day we can shout till we are blue in the face that his tactics won't work over the course of the season BUT until that happens I think we should all be grateful with the results so far. Put it this way if we can beat Southampton at home and then get Suarez back against Sunderland there is no reason why we still can't be on top by the end of the month. This is nothing to sneeze at, as the only time this has been done in the last 20 years was under Rafa in season 08-09, anyone remember where we finished up that season?

I honestly think Rodgers is doing a good job grinding out results and I couldn't care any less if it's s.h.it. football. If we acutally had owners that backed him, he would have more options, but right now the reality is relying on Moses, Aspas, an out of form Coutinho, an injured Sturridge and aging Gerrard to get us goals.

What other option does he have if we actually don't have a squad that can score 4 or 5 goals each game? 

Strange game for me.  I considered Hendo MOM but also wanted a lot more out of him.  If that makes sense.  Gerrard and Lucas were pretty much abysmal.  Gerrard started trying to do too much too soon. The addition of Aspas was...well. let's face it , it was pretty freaking awful.  did he have a decent touch on the ball?  Can't even begin to describe how bad we were at the back.  Skrtel was simply awful.  So poor I can't even describe it.  When we needed a rock at the back, he wasn't the second goal conceded was completely on him.  he couldn't get the ball out of his feet the entire game.

For me we lost the two points because we couldn't get hold of the midfield. at all,   Hendo did a job with his work rate.  But so much of his work was wasted by Gerrard and Lucas. We really missed Johnson today.

For me the story of the game was the Pace and energy ,the whole game we settled for this composed ,slow calculated play ,we fed off nicely Jonjo's superb heroics but failed to create any other chances ourselves ,When Swansea started pressing the matter ,upped the tempo ,raised the intensity level ,we kept our apathy ,passive approach ,there is no way to win a game in the PL playing like this. (maybe if you are lucky ,in which we were in the first 3 games...).

BR failed to motivate the lads and if you lack the will to win then the rest is really not important.

Pretty much agree with what has been said by previous poster. A point isn't the end of the world but it is worrying how our second half performances have dropped off so far this season.

It is great to be top of the league at any stage of the season. Even greater to be there and feel a bit gutted that we could have more points.

The concerns from last night were -

Another poor 2nd half. Can't understand that.

Sakho was a bit "Bambi on Ice", but hopefully he just needs time

Our bench is poor.  We had no-one to bring on at 2-2 to win the game for us, no-one to grab the game by the throat or score that winner.  If Sturridge gets injured we are goosed.

Aspas looks awful.

The positives are -

We have 10 points from 12 and are top.

We have played badly and haven't lost

We have Suarez to come back

Our new players should only get better

We have a run of games we should be capable of winning now, to really establish the theme for the season.

What has happened to the crisp pass and move we saw in pre-season? I know first half performances have been quite good, however, I feel that the passing hasn't been crisp enough 2nd half. Second half performance, well, I know we have adopted a defend at all cost approach rather then actually play good football, but i've got to say, LFC seem to run out of energy, ideas etc as the passing and player movement has been awful  As a previous poster mentioned, it could be deliberate I suppose......

Hustler 2 » Sep 17th, '13, 01:02 wrote:

Dalglish » Tue Sep 17, 2013 12:35 am wrote:Feck me its Stu the Red ! 

How are you lad ? Still going the game ?

Went to Villa Away but you needed 19 Aways for Swansea !  Alas I'm a  part timer with just 11 aways from last season ! 

Watched the game and we were hanging on in the second half after they equalised !

Walk on .......

lets reminisce for old times sake!
We all know stu was the biggest whopper Wum to ever grace this forum.

      WUM, now now Chessecakery, now now,

The Good Yank » Tue Sep 17, 2013 5:01 am wrote:Strange game for me.  I considered Hendo MOM but also wanted a lot more out of him.  If that makes sense.  Gerrard and Lucas were pretty much abysmal.  Gerrard started trying to do too much too soon. The addition of Aspas was...well. let's face it , it was pretty freaking awful.  did he have a decent touch on the ball?  Can't even begin to describe how bad we were at the back.  Skrtel was simply awful.  So poor I can't even describe it.  When we needed a rock at the back, he wasn't the second goal conceded was completely on him.  he couldn't get the ball out of his feet the entire game.

For me we lost the two points because we couldn't get hold of the midfield. at all,   Hendo did a job with his work rate.  But so much of his work was wasted by Gerrard and Lucas. We really missed Johnson today.

For the first 30min our midfield dominated and then went missing, I agree about Skrtel, apart from the superb block he was pretty awful. I felt BR made a big mistake in making so many changes to defence. With Agger and Jonno out he should have at least played Toure and at the very least made the change at half time as it was pretty obvious end of 1st half and into the 2nd that we would struggle to keep them out.

Thought Skrtel had a very good game - made a number of timely interceptions - that one after Mignolet parried the ball forward was world class

Kash_Mountain » Tue Sep 17, 2013 11:56 am wrote:What has happened to the crisp pass and move we saw in pre-season? I know first half performances have been quite good, however, I feel that the passing hasn't been crisp enough 2nd half. Second half performance, well, I know we have adopted a defend at all cost approach rather then actually play good football, but i've got to say, LFC seem to run out of energy, ideas etc as the passing and player movement has been awful  As a previous poster mentioned, it could be deliberate I suppose......

thats a good point about our passing, to me we seem to be wanting to play the decisive ball too early, almost as soon as we win the ball back (especially in our own half) we hit it long over the top trying to utilize sturridge`s pace. enrique in particular does it all the time.
there`s nothing wrong with being aggressive and looking to turn defense into counter attack quickly but sometimes the flow of the game dictates that you need to put your foot on the ball and take the sting out of the game, especially if we have been under the cosh for a long time.
when rodgers first arrived i remember him doing an interview where he said all the hard work is done trying to win the ball back, when we had regained possession then we could take a breather. going by that it`s no wonder we look shattered after an hour, we are not keeping the ball long enough to recover.
another bugbear of mine is the amount of times we lose the ball trying to play hollywood crossfield balls, there is a time and a place for those passes but it`s usually when you are 2-0 up and comfortably in control, doing them when you are under sustained pressure is just giving the ball back cheaply to the opposition.
we need to get back to making the opposition chase the ball and tiring themselves out instead of us.

Benny The Noon » Tue Sep 17, 2013 12:15 pm wrote:Thought Skrtel had a very good game - made a number of timely interceptions - that one after Mignolet parried the ball forward was world class

skrtel was probably our MoM again.

this is why agger missed the game last night. he picked up some freak injury as he tried to avoid a dumbell falling on his foot   
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 21513.html

he might miss the southampton game along with coutinho