Liverpool FC Forum

[SouthCoastShankly]

Great win.

Disappointing displays from Sturridge and Johnson, however Coutinho, Suarez, Gerrard, Carra, Lucas, Enrique and Downing were outstanding.

[ethanr]

I thought Downing was one of the top players today.  Aware for his goal, sure, but down the wing he was causing all sorts of problems throughout, and he was consistent.  I thought we were making a lot of poor decisions, especially Enrique down his side lost a lot of passes, Allen wasn't great, Lucas had a few bad choices while sitting back, but we got the 3 points and that's all that matters.  For once luck went our way although I don't think they should have had a free kick on either of their goals.  It's shocking how protected Bale is when their game plan is to give it to him and draw the foul so they can get their big men in the box on the resulting free kick.  Very cheap, but whatever. 

Huge, huge victory for us today.  I think we probably have the easiest schedule left out of spurs, arsenal, chelsea and everton, so if we can take advantage of that we could easily finish 5th and get Europe.  4th is still asking a lot, I just don't want to get my hopes up at this point.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

i thought we got lucky tbh, from the off i thought it was a big call by rodgers to only play gerrard and lucas in midfield against a side who keep the ball so well.
gerrard is great when we are on the front foot but at 30 odd years of age he`s not ideally suited to be chasing shadows for 90 minutes.
as for lucas he worked hard but his distribution was abysmal, johnsons was even worse.
until allen came on they always seemed to have the extra man in space and i cant believe rodgers didnt change it earlier.
as for their goals they were just far too easy, spurs didnt have to do much just 2 bog standard crosses was enough and our defence did the rest. skrtel and coates carried the can for their inability to cope in the air against oldham but at least they were playing against a 6 foot 7 monster.
at the end of the day though today was one of those days when the result was more important than the performance, those 3 points mean the race for 4th is still on.

[crim cram]

Agree with ethanr on Downing, I thought it was his best performance to date.  Played some delightful stuff to Sturridge. It's a nice feeling to have your centerforward have and off day, get two weak calls against that lead to two goals and still have enough to beat a top four side.   

[The Good Yank]

Ethan, I actually thought Allen did pretty well when he came on.  Helped us get a foothold in the midfield battle.

[devaney]

Fantastic result today. That's the sort of result that breeds a winning mentality. We wern't the best team. We had fewer, attempts on goal, fewer attempts on target, fewer corners but most importantly we scored more goals which is the only stat that really matters !! WINNING UGLY IS IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS WINNING PRETTY !! Having said that our first goal was a technical masterpiece.

Have the BS stopped talking about us being relegated yet 

[ethanr]

Ethan, I actually thought Allen did pretty well when he came on.  Helped us get a foothold in the midfield battle.

I have high expectations for Allen because of his ability to hold on to the ball and make good passes.  That one straight to Sig when he first came on almost gave me a heart attack.  Felt he was a bit indecisive a couple times and was crowded out because of it. His aggression was good, but I feel I'm one of Allen's biggest fans, so when he doesn't perform to the standard I've come to expect I don't fail to point it out.

[RedHands]

The refereeing was absolutely abysmal in this game. It is ridiculous how protected Gareth Bale is. They got a cheap free kick and scored for their second while Dawson was all over Carra. Should have been disallowed. The penalty we got was soft as well. I'd be upset if that was given against us.

Not the best performance. But a win is a win. I didn't think we played very well. Lucas was giving the ball away and diving in all over the place. We got overrun in midfield in the first half and its imperative we bring someone in to help in this area over the summer. We were also weak in the air again which is worrying for their two headed goals.

[Doeboy]

The refereeing was absolutely abysmal in this game. It is ridiculous how protected Gareth Bale is. They got a cheap free kick and scored for their second while Dawson was all over Carra. Should have been disallowed. The penalty we got was soft as well. I'd be upset if that was given against us.

Not the best performance. But a win is a win. I didn't think we played very well. Lucas was giving the ball away and diving in all over the place. We got overrun in midfield in the first half and its imperative we bring someone in to help in this area over the summer. We were also weak in the air again which is worrying for their two headed goals.

Agree with most of that although I don't  think it was easy for Lucas today with us playing 4 attackers. Dembele, who I thought was very impressive, was tucking in from the right making meaning they were outnumbering us in midfield and it got even harder when Bale dropped deeper to.  I was impressed with spurs. Not many teams will come to Anfield and control large sections of the game like they did and I can see why they are up there. If it weren't for their two mistakes, it could have been a different story.

[sgs]

i thought we got lucky tbh, from the off i thought it was a big call by rodgers to only play gerrard and lucas in midfield against a side who keep the ball so well.
gerrard is great when we are on the front foot but at 30 odd years of age he`s not ideally suited to be chasing shadows for 90 minutes.
as for lucas he worked hard but his distribution was abysmal, johnsons was even worse.
until allen came on they always seemed to have the extra man in space and i cant believe rodgers didnt change it earlier.
as for their goals they were just far too easy, spurs didnt have to do much just 2 bog standard crosses was enough and our defence did the rest. skrtel and coates carried the can for their inability to cope in the air against oldham but at least they were playing against a 6 foot 7 monster.
at the end of the day though today was one of those days when the result was more important than the performance, those 3 points mean the race for 4th is still on.

Domination of possession was never an issue in this game as long as we controlled where they had the ball. Our game was based more on speed of transition of play than controlled possession...

And it had little to do with SG's age, but more with the timing of the pressing, esp when we channeled them to the center. Also handicapped by the fact Sturridge was returning from injury and could not be expected to press the ball...

But I do think we need a CM of the class of Cabaye...

[Kenny Kan]

Great result!

Defense is a real worry still. Lack of physical presence is a worry, see Dembele & co knock our 'smaller' players about a bit too much today. They have physical athleticism in abundance compared to us, I hope Rodgers sees this and addresses this along with our defensive frailties come the summer.

Lucas and Gerrard were immense. And that Coutinho looks something else.

Great win! 

[stmichael]

showed a lot of character today i thought. were dominated in terms of possession for a lot of the game but always looked capable on the break. fair play to rodgers for his subs. allen coming on proved to be a success. downing, suarez, gerrard and lucas were all excellent.

we still lack leaders at the back but that can be addressed in the summer. this should give us confidence now to finish the season well. i honestly think we can go unbeaten from now until the end of the season.

[laza]

Well made up and amused somewhat of a contrast to early in the season where we were playing well and not getting the points or the penalty decisions

[Reg]

Fantastic result but the number of incomplete passes and times we gave the ball away!! We have ti tighten up and keep possession, dominate the game and not play ping pong.

Some great performances, the lads are slowly building up confidence. Interesting possibilities of how many points we can pick up between now and the end of the season> The lads could be really humming by then.

[killerp]

Well done now we can finally say we have beaten a top team !

Everyone dug deep even though we gave away a lot of the possession.

If I were to be honest I thought it was game over at 2-1...thinking oh no hear we go imminent collapse coming but no... a classic comeback Liverpool style