Liverpool were held to a 0-0 draw on Saturday at home against Stoke in a highly frustrating game for the Reds.
It was expected before the game that Stoke would come and be the usual physical self and thus Dalglish opted not to take any chances and named three centre-backs in the starting lineup: Coates, Skrtel and Carragher. I can not blame Dalglish too much for this as he has played with three at the back before and against Stoke you need as many tall and physical players as you can.
Where I believe Dalglish got in wrong yesterday was when he could see that Stoke were only playing with Peter Crouch upfront, why did we continue to stick with three at the back marking one player? At half-time, I believe Dalglish should have pulled Carragher off and bought on an attacking option.
We failed to carve out too many clear chances against Stoke as they literary played with every one of their players behind the ball; as they say, “Stoke came and parked the bus infront of the Liverpool goal!”
It was not easy breaking Stoke down and what frustrated me even more was that we do not seem to have that Benayoun or Meireles type player who can break down the opposition in such situations. Gerrard was playing too deep for my liking and you could see he was getting tired in the second half which did not help our cause.
Dalglish should have started the game with Andy Carroll. I am not a huge fan of Carroll but in a game against Stoke, it only makes sense to start with the big striker simply due to his physical size. When he cam on in the second half, you could see that he was causing the Stoke defenders a couple of problems.
After the game Dalglish said, “They came here to go away with a point and they got a point. The responsibility was on us to be more imaginative to break them down, but we didn’t manage to do that.
“The couple of opportunities we did have we never took, and in a game like that you’ve got to take your opportunities.
“We looked pretty solid at the back and I think they had one shot in the first half and not much more after that, but as I said it was our responsibility to be able to break them down.
“There was nothing wrong with the players’ effort or determination, but on the day we just weren’t good enough to break them down.”
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You say ‘brought on an attacking option’. May I ask – what attacking option? He hasn’t got one. You surely can’t be referring to two goal Andy, a player about as limited as David N’gog but infinitely more costly. Look at the goals scored by yesterday’s players and weep. Johnson one. Enrique none. Carragher none. Henderson one. Adam two ( plus an own goal and a missed pen). Downing none. Carroll two. Kuyt none. Coates none. Skrtel two. Lamentable.
Firstly let me say I think Carroll has a big future but needs someone in close attendance to get the knockdowns, he has no future if left on his own up front he is just not that type of player. The attacing options for me would be to replace Kuyt with Maxi and Carroll with Bellamy, what we needed was mobillity (Bellamy) and a goal scorer (Maxi) they are currently the best we have but we do need to buy.
If you think that Carroll has a future, than you should concentrate on CRICKET!.
Carroll, Adam and Downing will never be other than average, at best!!!, and that’s there for all to see, except yourself, of course.
spoken like a true cricket player…
January 16, 2009 whahaaha, honga, paubos na wildlife kasi nasa government na halos lahatwaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy over the line nga. haha.
he could work as a bouncer
I think our squad are fine, we need new personnel yes but not players, just a manager. Yesterdays game just prove what we had been saying all along, KD is past his sell by date. He does not understands modern management, has no tactical capabilities, no man management, basically no skill. In short he is RH in disguise.
I am not surprise by yesterdays result. That is the one game where i think the donkey should start considering Stokes towering defenders and what does KD do? Put him on the bench.
Oh, and who sold Meireles? For a 500k profit? Guess he ould be usefull yesterday.
But i think we are in store for more misery as JH is too timid to do act decisively unlike his conterparts at Sunderland and QPR. We should not laugh at Everton too much. With KD around we would be what they are, mid table and relegation battlers real soon.
I suggest you go back to watching the garden bowls as you know nothing about football.
On and you know plenty? Judging from your counter devoid of and facts, you are a spitting image of your hero KD.
I think that Liverpool got it wrong by putting king Kenny as a coach in this season.
He probably had made the worst transfer decisions in the history of Liverpool, at least for the last 20 years.
Not to mention out casting both Aqui and Meireles.
What is happening now is Liverpool turning into a disfigured creature who is going to take a lot to be reconstructed by anyone to come.
YNWA
Agree 100%.
You have hit the nail on the head. Dalglish should have stepped aside as soon as the season was over. Retire as a hero. Instead, i feel sorry for him.
He has only himself and the blind supporters who wanted him back.
Our transfer dealings have been an absolute disaster. Carrol has no ability whatsoever. Downing was always an average player in a mid table team. Now he is just a below average player…Ok, Mata was never an option because of CL football etc but how about Navas?
Would Bilbao have accepted 35 million pounds for Llorente? Some of you will say its easy to speak with the benefit of hindsight……Not really, NO. Carrol played 4 months in the premiership and looked average. Not a world beater or top 4 but average. Attitude of the pitch? A party boy……
Whoever bought him and Downing should be shown the door.
Henderson, i think will be a success. He does have the ability and has shown it many times. He is young and will develop. Remember Lucas?
What makes me angry is that most LFC supporters dont realise that we missed a massive oportunity to close the gap. Over 100 million has been spent. Hands up who thinks the owners will fork out another 100 million? Hands up who thinks we didnt waste the majority of it?
One more thing. I hope we dont buy anyone in January. If we do, it will be Bent for 30 million or Defoe. That will be an even bigger disaster. A bad investment is worse than no investment.
Dig into the reserves and promote youngsters if we can. At least a glimmer of hope.
YNWA
Mata was available to us even without CL football. His father, his agent said so, and for only £20 million, 23 year old WC winner ( buy out clause in his contract). Much better option than Downing with a better resale value as well.
I admire Kenny as much as any LFC fan, but I have to be true to my beliefs. DC and KD have spent a fortune on mainly British players. At this moment J Henderson is the only one that seems to show any promise (a bit like Lucas). Suarez and Enrique are very good signings. Carroll, Adam and especially Downing have yet to give me that feeling that they will come good. Maybe they need some more time, but for the £63 million spent on those three players alone, and because they are British, I really expected better. I also thought they were signed because they were ready to go and didn’t need time to settle.
I’m prepared to be a little more patient though, but if Rafa had signed them he would have been ripped apart by former players, pundits and the media by now. I don’t here much criticism of Kenny about the players or the money spent, mind you he is British and so are the players. Ask yourselves a question, if Rafa was manager and he had spent £63 million on 3 foreign players that were not delivering. What would ex-players, pundits and the media be saying. I always believed that we will regret the loss of Rafa more and more as time goes by.
FULLY behind you mate cos i love liverpool more than legends,club is bigger than anyone and the transfer on carroll,hendo,downing and charlie is total disaster even though kenny argue they can and will improved the performance for. liverpool but everyone can see now on our upper half of our squad have no creativity and slow.
Before everyone say liverpool is a 2 men team (stevie and torres) and it still hasn’t change,now is stevie and suarez.From my perspective kenny spend and waste $$$ but still hasn’t improve the midfield and i know most of the fans out there don’t agreed with me but i don’t mean to disrespect kenny infact kenny is the reason i started to support liverpool since 1978 but i’m desperate to see our club go top to win everythings we can but i’m very disappointed and frustrated to see the players that kenny brought in.
The thing isn’t merely just about the current names, but it is about the mentality in picking the right type of abilities.
Which is even a deeper problem, since the chances of repeating the same mistakes in picking shockingly wrong players but with different names are still high enough.
Well said Erin. KD and his blind supporters does not realise that 100 mill con’t come along every transfer window. And with the UEFA FFP in mind, we just blew our chance.
Well done KD, you really screw LFC well.
Every Liverpool supporter is as dissappointed as you Chan and know that the club has spent a lot of money on players not worth the money.
There’s nothing we can do about it now apart from supporting the players the best we can as well as the manager and coaching staff.
Most of us are genuine supporters of this football club not blind!
I beg to differ Nivster. We can save ourselves,the season and our future by sacking KD now.
It’s all too clear he was a mistake to be given the job on a permanent basis.
Support the club definitely, but not stubborn and wayward individulas.
Kenny and comolli have bought crap players except,enrique and saurez,Adam henderson downing carroll my god! who sanctioned the carroll deal the man needs sacking,maybe thats why kenny
wont ask the yanks for more money because of course big questions will be asked,the simple reason we are drawing loads
of games at home because after the defence gerrard,bellamy and suarez the rest of the players are complete and utter useless!
yes it was plain in sight for those who have eyes to see. downing, omg. adam, bulky rigid player who makes 2 good passes every 90 min. carrol, no mobility, no skills , no pace. henderson, people say he is for the future. 2- 3 years away from developing into a ” steven gerrard” 4 that price. . why do we have the reserve team? these people will never win us anything. start playing suso sterling, morgan, coady so when its time to challenge for the league 2 -3 years from now they will be on the frontline
I dnt knw wat 2 say again, goaless winles draws. Dalglish is not the right man for modern foothball. He makes me fyl he z mad an crazy atimes. His team selection sometimes is unambitious, his substitution turns ma tummy. God will hold him responsible for our mess, his excuses is senseless and mad.
Rafa was right Gerrard should play more advance role even when everybody criticized him for putting Gerrard there. Sadly we are now a joke for paying that kind of money for average players. Rafa was a better manager with no money to spend, he manage to build a great team. Rafa’s problem was he has no money to build a big squad which make it difficult to win the league. Two finals in champions league proved the first 11 was strong.
You know RAFA turned down many offers after LFC. We should get him back. With 100 mill, he would do wonders, Unlike acertain plastic king that we knew off.
Anyone saying KK got it wrong is foolish, we look solid defensively again. If we get past City we can win the League Cup and we will be happy to win a trophy, yes we are frustrated by our attacker’s strike rates but we are playing well week in and week out. It is going fine in my opinion and the squad is a lot better than last season, KK knows the score as does Clarke!!!!
Is this how low Wev sunk the once mighty Liverpool creaming ourselves over a league cup. Even Bham city won that last season FFs and they are crap. The amount of money KD has spent we should be challenging for title at least. He has always been cheque book Kenny IMHO yes it worked at Blackburn where he could buy the best players and the team could run itself now he has spent a fortune on average players at best but has to actually manage them to play to the best of their abilities. If it wasn’t for Steve Clark (who I rate) we would be struggling to finish in top six. Iv got no sympathy for KD who was instrumental in woy going and arrogant enough to think he could do a better job. Dalglish out!!
Yes BFC won the cup and got relegated. Is this what is in store for us?
The only reason we look solid defensively most matches is because the teams we have come up against us in those matches didn’t come to play. Those teams didn’t take the game to our defence. Teams that have – ie Spurs, Man City, Fulham – made our defence look ordinary and even panicky at times.
I have watched all our games this season and I have to say that we were only going really well for the first 3 or 4 games. After that 4-0 thrashing at Spurs, we went back into a shell a bit. Sure we had a couple of good home draws against the Manchesters but for the most part we have been unimaginative and lacklustre.
In the last couple of months we have regressed even further – our last 3 or 4 league games reminding me very much of the darkest day with Hodgson at the helm.
I don’t buy into the argument that you can’t criticise KK. Some of the poor performances have been the result of poor tactics and team selections. The recent trend of players not getting into the box in numbers, I can only surmise is a tactic that KK (or Clarke) has introduced. Can’t see any other reason for it.
Further, KK’s stubborness in not changing tactics (or players) when things are obviously not working is another sign that he is not up to the job. Tony Pulis changed his tactics only minutes before kick-off to great success – why can’t KK do the same.
I think KK did a great job in the second half of last season to stop the rot at Liverpool. He made us believe we didn’t have to lose or draw all our games. But he is not the man to take the club forward.
KK’s only substititions in the game against Stoke were 1 for 1 subs for attackers. When it was clear that Stoke were only playing with Crouch up front, why didn’t he take off one of our centre backs for an attacker/midfielder instead?
Also, what’s the deal with not even putting Maxi on the bench for the last few games? As far as i can tell he’s not injured. Is KK trying to push him out or something?
Hit it on the spot. KD is “NOT THE MAN TO TAKE US FORWARD”.
You must be one of those delusional KD supporter that we are talking about, a mirror image of your hero.
Frankly, guys like you, are you a supporter of LFC or KD?. For us LFC is paramount not ONE individual, who takes delight in screwing the club. Please make up your mind. Say are you really a Manure fan…
I’ll be amazed if we get past City. Once they score we are finished and they are well capable of scoring at least once. Our one hope for a goal would be a penalty, provided Stevie is on the field to take it. Nobody else capable of even netting from the spot. I say City to win 0 – 2.
Im surprised KD played a defensive squad but expected to score. When u play defensive, you are only guaranteed a cleansheet. He should know better.
You cant plant a lemon tree and expect to reap oranges. You play defensive, u get draws. You attack you win. Maybe i should be coach.
” we failed to break them down ” of course we did , we played 3 centre halves and one forward ! ! ! Then again it’s all been said , but it just seems worse with every other result Newcastle go above us , Chelsea a further 2 points , and Arsenal lose and we stay below them , what’s the plan for this weekend ” Bolton have lost more games than anyone in the division ” let’s pack the defence it would look bad to lose to them or let’s go and batter them , sad but i think I know what our mind set will be , it’s all going Pete Tong .
A lot has been said already, but none of what has been said is providing solution at hand. Firstly, we should have a competent striker, who are the competent strikers that are available in the market now. Tevez, de jong, zarate, u can name the rezt. We need a goal scorer not a surveyor that can only survey the pitch witout impact. We should get a brilliant one and not a drunkard. To me i stil bliv kelly playing the defence midfield role is better n spearing playing ahead of adam wt chances given to jesus saez, conor coady, they can also be given the chance henderson is enjoying.
We need attacking midfielders that can ease the load of work on our strikers. Pls damien should do a better work this time.
Possibly, we would win the carling cup, and send the manures to the cleaners days after. But the depth of the team is tooooooo shallow. Can kenny please tell us whats happening between him and Maxi, kuyt cos their reactions to team spirit has equally dropped, kuyt lost is first penalty 4 liverpool this season, yet to have a league goal. All these things were not showing last season even with the problem, we had. Maxi had hatricks towards the end of last season. Kuyt can boast of his against the manures, the both showed a geniue reason of being in the red shirt but none of these has been seen this season wt maxi not on the bench most matches, kuyt watching from the stands in mostgames. Watch suarez’s action when playing alongside kuyt& maxi and compare to when playing wt long wt heavy legs carrol, hendersön and downing. You’l see what am looking at.
i believe kk will go at the end of the sesason its his own fault for some of the shit he has bought adams a fucking waste of space should of stayed at blackpool the donkeys on blackpool beach could play better then him. downing couldnt cross a road let alone a ball .dirk kuyt much use as a ? can think of loads need a fucking week 2 type it. carroll should be on blackpool beach with that stupid donkey tail haircut while he is there take that fucking adams and chuck him in the fucking sea all the way back 2 scotland . but sorry kk your time is up mate i think u should resign at the end of the season
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