Liverpool FC Forum

I honestly thought we played very well for the first 60mins but Glen Johnson was a liability. It was around the 30th minute that I thought this guy needs subbing off. Constantly broke down our attacks and doesn't seem to have a clue what to do with the ball. He was solid defensively though. We had some amazing play and Allen and Coutinho were outstanding. Our Scouse Cafu needs to be more aware of who he's marking at set pieces. Second game in a row he lost his man that led to a goal if I'm not wrong.

Sunderland came about only when Ki and Adam came on and I dread to think what the scoreline would have been had they both started. Not sure why GP started with both Wickham and Altidore when they are both generally useless, but I liked how Wickham made full use of his physicality when holding up the ball.

The referee was a complete swine though. Numerous dodgy decisions though the Coutinho penalty was not given perhaps because he was already slipping before the contact was made. Felt that their Argentine defender should have seen red in the first half. Overall, just glad we won. We really played well and we should have sealed the win before the second half started but showing grit to win games ugly, even if it means going to the corner flag to waste time, is a sign that this team is mature and ready to win the title

BR had an impressive comment in post match interview ,he actually admitted that both Luis and Daniel aren't partnering but rather playing Solo ,which is a courageous thing to say and even enhance my admiration for our manager. He knows he has 2 incredible strikers but at the same time he sees the disconnected between them.

Thought Mingolet looked nervous with the ball at his feet again, at one point I thought he was actually going to get tackled he was dawdling on the ball so long. Mind you the back 4 weren't much better, every time we were playing the ball about at the back my heart was in my mouth, I wish we'd get it into the midfield a bit quicker.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:49 am wrote:Thought Mingolet looked nervous with the ball at his feet again, at one point I thought he was actually going to get tackled he was dawdling on the ball so long. Mind you the back 4 weren't much better, every time we were playing the ball about at the back my heart was in my mouth, I wish we'd get it into the midfield a bit quicker.

His distribution is cr@p, my little girl can kick the ball further than him

After the second went in and we were all over them I was expecting a couple more goals but as the game went on and it was still 2-0 I had a bad feeling we would fook up again in defence and gift them a goal, ia think a year or so ago we would have drawn that match so i was really pleased we held on to the win. The nerves will be starting to get to some of the players and we will see a few more squeaky bum time games before the end of the season, probably with the lower down teams that we are expected to beat rather than City/Chelsea as I reckon the players would be more focused for those games.

Boocity » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:57 am wrote:

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:49 am wrote:Thought Mingolet looked nervous with the ball at his feet again, at one point I thought he was actually going to get tackled he was dawdling on the ball so long. Mind you the back 4 weren't much better, every time we were playing the ball about at the back my heart was in my mouth, I wish we'd get it into the midfield a bit quicker.

His distribution is cr@p, my little girl can kick the ball further than him

He can kick the ball as far as he wants i assume BR wants him to try and find the open man and not lose the ball right away. (if he does it good is another question..answer is no.)

Boocity » Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:05 am wrote:After the second went in and we were all over them I was expecting a couple more goals but as the game went on and it was still 2-0 I had a bad feeling we would fook up again in defence and gift them a goal, ia think a year or so ago we would have drawn that match so i was really pleased we held on to the win. The nerves will be starting to get to some of the players and we will see a few more squeaky bum time games before the end of the season, probably with the lower down teams that we are expected to beat rather than City/Chelsea as I reckon the players would be more focused for those games.

I think Brendan may have to revert back to the 433 formation, it looked to me like Poyet had done his homework on our diamond shape and he made the pitch big by utilising the flanks which meant that Allen and Hendo were constantly having to leg it out to the wings to back up our fullbacks, then Sunderland would use their loafs and play it central which meant they'd have to get back into the centre again. Infact I thought the pair of them got the runaround a bit last night, the last 15 minutes they looked shattered and didn't get close to Sunderland at all, we were chasing shadows at the end and they are a bottom 3 team.
I'm sure the likes of Sherwood, Pellegrini and Mourinho took note of that, time to mix it up again I think.
If we stick with this diamond then the other players are going to have to help Hendo and Allen out, you can't expect them to run a half marathon every game.

Last night was like a training game ,it was like we were almost trying to walk the ball into the net,and then when Gerrard swept in our first and
Sturridge added the second, for some unfathomable reason we sat deeper and invited pressure onto our back four.

Sunderland are an Irksome little club but hardly solid at the back ,so its baffling how we never run up a cricket score against them because it
looked like we could score every time we pushed forward .....I hope its a one off and the belligerence we seen from our two strikers notably
Suarez is addressed by Rodgers asap, because if we want to successfully push for the title he needs to nip this attitude firmly in the bud.

Johnson was abysmal ,and watching him shuffle around with the ball at his feet showing Kolo like indecision was seriously painful to watch .
How he's favourite to make the plane for Rio ,I will never know ,because on this form he wouldn't make the bench for Millwall.

Hopefully ,we can put this performance to bed ,and concentrate on the importance of collecting 3 points instead of a slight blip in our gallop to glory.

It was Johnson that gave away a needless free kick right on the edge of our box with about 4 minutes left to play. That could've cost us and it was his fault completely - no excuses
I wasn't impressed with him at all.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Thu Mar 27, 2014 1:44 pm wrote:

Boocity » Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:05 am wrote:After the second went in and we were all over them I was expecting a couple more goals but as the game went on and it was still 2-0 I had a bad feeling we would fook up again in defence and gift them a goal, ia think a year or so ago we would have drawn that match so i was really pleased we held on to the win. The nerves will be starting to get to some of the players and we will see a few more squeaky bum time games before the end of the season, probably with the lower down teams that we are expected to beat rather than City/Chelsea as I reckon the players would be more focused for those games.

I think Brendan may have to revert back to the 433 formation, it looked to me like Poyet had done his homework on our diamond shape and he made the pitch big by utilising the flanks which meant that Allen and Hendo were constantly having to leg it out to the wings to back up our fullbacks, then Sunderland would use their loafs and play it central which meant they'd have to get back into the centre again. Infact I thought the pair of them got the runaround a bit last night, the last 15 minutes they looked shattered and didn't get close to Sunderland at all, we were chasing shadows at the end and they are a bottom 3 team.
I'm sure the likes of Sherwood, Pellegrini and Mourinho took note of that, time to mix it up again I think.
If we stick with this diamond then the other players are going to have to help Hendo and Allen out, you can't expect them to run a half marathon every game.

This is 100% true. Henderson and Allen were practically useless in this one. The good thing is that they tried to get through on Flanno's side for most of the game, who IMO, bar the goal, put a shift in. It was only later in the game that they tried to bypass on Johnson's side and they nearly succeeded. He was horrible yet again.

For me, Rodgers nearly ***** this one up. His starting line-up and tactics were fine, but he should have been better with his substitutions. The midfield was clearly struggling so Lucas should have been brought in. Sakho as well. We should have tried to assume more control of the ball but instead we tried to score a quick counter goal which usually ended with giving possession back to Sunderland which could have been costly.

Not so much about tactics at this point but bottle and we won, it will be very nervy from here on in.

We are in unknown territory now and just see how the lads react, ahead of schedule we find ourselves in a
race for the premiership title.

Rodgers and his team are trying to keep a lid on things with the one game at a time approach and our magnificent
fans are doing everything support wise to push these boys over the line.

Even if we fall short Liverpool are back in the big time and are getting attention again, been a fantastic season and
credit to everyone at the club.

The lads are human and nerves are definitely beginning to show.The level of expectation at Anfield before and during the match was something I haven't seen for a long time. The atmosphere was brilliant. The fans did a fantastic job. It would be very easy to criticise some players and some of their decisions but the most important thing for me was that we won against a team that made our lives difficult. We were not at our best but we won. Champions do that !!! I am having a defibrillator on stand by for the Chelsea and man City games. Sunday against Spurs is also going to be a big test.