Yesterday’s performance was nothing short of embarrassing. I have never seen Liverpool play like that ever. Total negativity going forward, no creativity in midfield. Alonso trying to score from his own half with the goalie standing on his line which unbelievably was technically our only shot on target in 90mins of gut renching, vile and horrible nothingness. The only people I felt more sorry for than us in the pub watching was those who actaully had to pay in to the ground to watch it.
Rafa’s tactics from the start showed what was in store. Playing Alonso, Masher and Lucas together with Keane pulling back on a left hand side position meant practically a 5 man midfield with Torres playing up front on his own. Liverpool started very brightly and kept the ball for the first few minutes of the match and I thought ok, not bad maybe this is going to work after all then slowly but surely that passing got worse, starved for width AGAIN and when the full backs do get forward the delivery is crap.
I do not know what is wrong behind the scenes and how we are still unbeaten is beyond me but it needs sorted and quick before the wheels really come off against Utd on the 13th Sep.
The defensive side of our team is great and is hard to break down and score against but a great defense is only the launching platform for the rest of the side. No sense keeping clean sheets if nothing is being put in the other net and with Torres injured that doesn’t look too promising.
For a side contending for the title we shouldn’t have to push forward excessively looking for scoring opportunities. We should be relying on our skill and physicality to impose ourselves regardless of formation. We simply don’t have anyone with any ideas outside of Keane, Dossena, and at times Alonso/Mascherano.
Arbeloa, Aurelio, Kuyt, Carragher and Lucas all wanted rid of the ball as soon as keep it and never even dream of taking the ball past anyone. That can be excused from a central half, but for wide players and a central midfielder that is shameful. Rafa expects better I’m sure and so should we.
In the end, we needed a point from a match such as Villa away. Three would have been terrific but when you come down to it not many sides will take anything away from Villa at home.
I consider this to be two points dropped in Villa’s push for the top 4 spots as opposed to 2 points dropped on our behalf. My opinions may change on these sorts of things as the season goes on, but the important thing is to improve going forward as we’re still in fine shape.
Ok, So I have heard everyone and their mothers cursing our performance today. What I think people are failing to realize is that we played a very good opposition without our two best players in an AWAY match. Ya, we didnt get shots on goal and ya our passing is unbearable to watch but we could have easily pulled this out if it were not for a missed penalty call on Keane when Rio tackled him. Honestly, I think we played better offensively than in the Standard games and in the Boro game (minus the last 5 minutes). We didnt have our two best attacking option yet we still managed to control some tempo against a good team. I could be wrong. But, I do believe Ron, that you are exaggerating our performance a little bit.
I’d have to agree with Ben. As far as i’m concerned, we only going to get better. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Also Dossena would definitely get my MOTM vote. I’m liking what the Italian has shown us so far. Hopefully Riera pulls through and we can become dominant on that left side of ours.
Well well well the most frustrating thing about last night’s game wasn’t our players or their ability. even though i am and hopefully will be rafa’s fan, i was simply flabbergasted at he tactics he was employing and the way he asked the players to play!!! lucas didnt deserve the start yesterday! babel did. and did you see what dossena and arbeloa were doing? both can go forward and cause problems but it seemed they didnt dare to go too far beyond the half line. anyone remember what dossena said when he was signed on. rafa wants a back four and there should be balance. rafa has already scared the shit out of the attack minded players!!! yesterday we lacked attacking intent completely!! ntn can be more frustrating than that especially for a team like LIVERPOOL!
0-0 was not a bad result for us. Not many teams are going to go to Villa Park and get three points this season. We can not always go out and attack every game especially away from home. I liked the look of Dossena during the game, he may not be too great defensively but going forward he was not too bad and hopefully Deggen could do the same down the right as I do not recall a single cross coming in from the right.
Ron the days of not attcking away from died out in 80s mate. If we are still talking about putting in a challenge for the title this year then sorry but wins away to teams like Villa are required and that cannot be completed without attacking. I wonder how far we have to go back to fins out when ManU,Chelsea and Arsenal went away from home and never had one shot on target in 90mins. OK as some people have quickly jumped to defend the performance by saying that Gerrard and Torres were missing but i am afriad thats simply stating that Liverpool are a 2 man team. We had six or seven internationals still on the pitch not playing the way that I feel the way they want to play nor comfortable in what is being asked of them with regards to tactics and style of play.
I hear you Dave and yes we have to win as many games as we can to win the league even if they are away games. Out of all the games we have played so far this season, there is not a single game any of us can be happy about and say we have played well thus we can only get better from here on out. Yesterdays game was bad so lets just chalk it down as a bad day at the office and hope that we get better. What is encouraging is that we have played badly but we still second on the table and if we take 3 points away from Man U next up, this would be one of our best starts in a while.
We’re undefeated. Let that sink in for a moment. We have yet to lose a match, so keep your pants on and let’s just see where things take us.
Dossena would have been my MOTM also, but as it seems so often I’d have to give it to Mascherano. You simply cannot pass through midfield without him being right in your hip pocket. He is an amazing player, and perhaps Rafa’s best signing to date, Fernando Torres included.