Liverpool FC Forum

I think with Spurs dropping points today, it gives us some leg room for making it to 4th at least. With that said, we should be looking to finish higher up. IT IS DEFINITELY ON!

The Liverpool manager conceded he substituted Daniel Agger, who was not injured, because he wanted Kolo Toure to provide greater physicality against Bony.

And Rodgers said: “We did not defend anywhere near well enough in any aspect.

“The problem is it is not coaching. Some of the things we concede goals in, you can’t coach that. There’s a feel when you are in the game of how to defend and you have to use your experience to defend properly.

“We concede poor goals. It isn’t so much structurally. It’s mistakes or decision making that cost us.”

Liverpool have taken 20 points from their last eight games, despite their defensive problems, and Rodgers admitted: “Up until now we have got away with it.

“I thought two of the goals were probably soft. I didn’t think it was a free kick and it was never a penalty. Bony is a big strong guy and goes over in the box but it’s not a penalty.”

The pen was very soft, if you consistently give them for that then ref's would be awarding 10 pens a game but Skrtels tendency to manhandle opponents was always going to come back and bite us on the @rse at some point. We've been lucky a few times this season and today we were unlucky, there was never enough contact to justify a pen but the law of averages suggested we were going to get a bad decision going against us one day.
The main thing is that it never cost us any points.
The 3 Swansea goals were a world class strike from Shelvey, a deflected header and a ropey pen so as bad as our defence was Swansea still needed a bit of luck on their side to put that many past us.

woof woof ! » Sun Feb 23, 2014 4:27 pm wrote:

SouthCoastShankly » Sun Feb 23, 2014 3:45 pm wrote:Rodgers will obviously want to plug the holes in our leaky defence but he won't do anything drastic that could upset our playing style that is so effective when we attack.

You say "Rodgers will obviously want to plug the holes in our leaky defence", and yet every target we went after in the last window was an attack minded player, no effort was made to address the glaring deficiencies in our defence.

As for "he won't do anything drastic that could upset our playing style that is so effective when we attack " . I'm at a loss to understand how the signing of a quality CB and a quality FB would upset our playing style ?.

If it wasn't for the quality of our attack we'd a mid table team. If our defence was anywhere near the quality of our strikers we'd be odds on for the title.

I guess I should have said eventually plug the holes in defence.

Interestingly his post-match interview echo's my thoughts that he would not change things that could potentially disrupt our style of play.

Rodgers accepts that the Merseysiders must learn to be tighter but pledged not to curb their free-flowing nature in the process.

"I think that's not our style," he said. "I worry always to play good football. I'm not totally satisfied with always grinding out results.

"Up to now we've got away with it. But at times we concede poor goals - it is mistakes or decision making that's costing us."

"It was an important win for us," he told Sky Sports. "We certainly weren't at our best today but the offensive part of our game, which is very strong, came out on top again

LINK

We need an absolute minimum of 3rd place. If United won the Champions League that would mean only the top 3 teams go through to the CL. I honestly don't think I could stand that !!!!!!!!!

The team will also be aware of that possibility and with a bit of luck on our side we can win this fkg thing after 24 years of downright frustration !!

devaney » Mon Feb 24, 2014 9:22 am wrote:We need an absolute minimum of 3rd place. If United won the Champions League that would mean only the top 3 teams go through to the CL. I honestly don't think I could stand that !!!!!!!!!

The team will also be aware of that possibility and with a bit of luck on our side we can win this fkg thing after 24 years of downright frustration !!

Worrying thought, but realistically United aren't going to get near the final.

devaney » Mon Feb 24, 2014 9:22 am wrote:We need an absolute minimum of 3rd place. If United won the Champions League that would mean only the top 3 teams go through to the CL. I honestly don't think I could stand that !!!!!!!!!

The team will also be aware of that possibility and with a bit of luck on our side we can win this fkg thing after 24 years of downright frustration !!

I think they have more chance of getting relegated than winning CL

devaney » Mon Feb 24, 2014 9:22 am wrote:We need an absolute minimum of 3rd place. If United won the Champions League[ that would mean only the top 3 teams go through to the CL. I honestly don't think I could stand that !!!!!!!!!

The team will also be aware of that possibility and with a bit of luck on our side we can win this fkg thing after 24 years of downright frustration !!

ha ha ho ho tell us another! 

Kinell lads I remember a team in 2005 winning the CL that virtually nobody gave a cat in hell's chance. Strange things happen inn football. Some big teams are on the way out and United have got a reasonable draw. Mind you Olympiakos don't get beaten at home so my fingers are well and truly crossed that Moyseeeeeeeeee can continue to produce some of his magic 

devaney » Mon Feb 24, 2014 1:47 pm wrote:Kinell lads I remember a team in 2005 winning the CL that virtually nobody gave a cat in hell's chance. Strange things happen inn football. Some big teams are on the way out and United have got a reasonable draw. Mind you Olympiakos don't get beaten at home so my fingers are well and truly crossed that Moyseeeeeeeeee can continue to produce some of his magic 

As you say it's very, very unlikely that they will win the CL but they are not total no hopers, they still have the likes of Rooney, Van Persie and Mata who can produce a bit of magic. You just know the draw will be kind to them as well, it will probably be the semi's before they have to play anyone half decent.
Teams like Barcelona and Dortmund are not the sides they once were either.

And now we are second and the sites back up (been down for me).

Never mind United or other teams we are on for the Premiership title and even Gerrard is bullish in his interviews.

Enjoy it whilst we can, and believe, Christ a light 

In 1991/92 United were in the hunt for their first title in a quarter of a century, with just 2 games to go they were neck and neck with Leeds and had to come to anfield and win, it was a huge game.
We beat them 2-0 with goals from Rushie and Mark Walters and our fans mocked theirs by singing the Monty Python tune 'always look on the bright side of life'  which United fans had been singing all season.
We only delayed the inevitable by a year anyway because United were a great side back then but even so that game was one of the few highlights of Souness's reign, on the 16th of this month however the shoe will be on the other foot.
United fans would love nothing more than to see their misfiring side scupper our title chances and their players will be well aware of that, the much maligned United team are going to throw the kitchen sink at us in a fortnight.
This game at Old Trafford will be our biggest domestic game since we beat QPR on the 28th of April 1990 to win our 18th league title, I just hope our players play with that fact in mind.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:23 am wrote:In 1991/92 United were in the hunt for their first title in a quarter of a century, with just 2 games to go they were neck and neck with Leeds and had to come to anfield and win, it was a huge game.
We beat them 2-0 with goals from Rushie and Mark Walters and our fans mocked theirs by singing the Monty Python tune 'always look on the bright side of life'  which United fans had been singing all season.
We only delayed the inevitable by a year anyway because United were a great side back then but even so that game was one of the few highlights of Souness's reign, on the 16th of this month however the shoe will be on the other foot.
United fans would love nothing more than to see their misfiring side scupper our title chances and their players will be well aware of that, the much maligned United team are going to throw the kitchen sink at us in a fortnight.
This game at Old Trafford will be our biggest domestic game since we beat QPR on the 28th of April 1990 to win our 18th league title, I just hope our players play with that fact in mind.

I'm sure they will. With that said despite the importance of this game, I actually think the Chelsea home game at the end of April will be more important in the long run.

At this point, every game is important. We have very little room for error because Chelsea are 4 points ahead of us and have easier fixtures until the end of the season while City have 2 games in hand. To be honest, I'm more concerned about away games such as Cardiff and West Ham not to mention the must win games against City and Chelsea. United are the least of my concerns.

Some interesting stats here. Apparently, we are a point better now than we were in 2009, when we almost won the league, after the same amount of games played.

Comparison for the last 18 seasons after having played 28 games: