Ok, the first thing I have to say before this rant is that Liverpool were truly excellent today, I don't know why but they are a very inconsistent team but we always seem to bring the best out of them. All 11 of their players can come out of that game with their heads held high and they fully deserved to thrash us, and luckily they decided to sit back after 5 goals else it would have been worse. Liverpool pressed us very high up the pitch all match and it paid dividends. We gave them the ball back very quickly every time and did not create a single chance in open play, in fact only a solitary chance of any note all game when it was still 0 - 0. Liverpool on the other hand were never pressured at all - which I thought was disappointing especially after it worked so well for Manchester United last week, but even so I hardly recall a missed pass from Liverpool all afternoon which is especially impressive considering they must of had 2/3rds of the possession. I have no doubt that both of their best performances of the season were against us, and today they looked a different team to the one in the first 60 mins against Man Utd. Their second goal really epitomised for me how good they were today, hell even Jordan Henderson looked class! Now to us. I would say Michael Turner was average today, the only person who could claim to have done his job at all. Garrido, Bunn and Rusty weren't great, but all in all it wasn't their fault either that we shipped five. Ryan Bennett maybe should have scored... well actually, he did score but was by no means the worst occasion. Today Tettey, and Johnson were absolutely dire; no protection for the defence at all and gave the ball away far too often. Elliott Bennett and Snodgrass were, as is the nicest way to put it, anonymous although that isn't actually their fault. Howson and Holt were both beyond terrible in my opinion. Both gave the ball away more often than completing a pass and achieved absolutely nothing all game. As I alluded to earlier, we definatley should have put some pressure on Liverpool. We put on none whatsoever and were run ragged for ninety minutes. Gary Hooper or Danny Graham, or **** it, Ronaldo would have made no difference today. The important thing to remember is that whilst we are wretched form at the moment, until now every defeat has been by the odd goal. The performance against Tottenham MUST improve!
"Elliott Bennett and Snodgrass were, as is the nicest way to put it, anonymous although that isn't actually their fault." Who's fault was it then? Elliott Bennett needs shipping out
Tettey and Johnson repeatedly giving the ball away kind of ruins the point of having DM's. Sure they may try and break up the play, but if they're going to give the ball away that easily, then there's little point them being there. Once again, we were crying out for someone to put their foot on the ball and try to steady the ship a bit, and just get some basic possession going. Once again Fox was missing, what does he have to do to get a chance? For Tottenham, I'd drop Tettey because I think Johnson has been slightly better recently, bring Fox in. Hoolahan back for Howson, who's completely failing to live up to his early promise. Bassong and hopefully Whittaker back too would be ideal.
Who's fault was it? I think it was pretty clear in my post that I am laying the blame mainly the 3 central midfielders for simply failing to involve the rest of the team. But now is not the time for knee jerk reactions, and as far as I am concerned if we had Ronaldo on the wing he wouldn't of done any better than Benno did and saying he needs shipping is a stupid statement when the guy has hardly had a chance.
Bennett doesn't need shipping out he needs to be played on the right running at players at pace and getting the ball in the box, not playing on the left where he was always going to be ineffective!
Johnson and Tettey were the most shocking players I swear they were playing for Liverpool, the amount of times we lost possession. I also thought we looked like we'd ran out of ideas we just passed the ball with no direction no thought or purpose for that matter.
Don't blame Bennett, it was a problem with the entire team. The midfield was totally outrun, for whatever reason.
has anyone else picked up just how terrible we are at our own throw ins? we hardly ever retain possession for some reason. another bugbear i have. why do players back away from the ball when it is passed to them? quite often an opposing player nips in and steals the ball before it ever reaches the retreating player. is it that the player is not confident of controlling the ball when he receives it and by backing away is decreasing the arrival impact? rant over.
Normally I find your posts too negative or at least overly critical of our players but I think that one is being nice to us!
They are never meant to be. When someone does well I'll pat them on the back and give them credit but when they're absolutely dire I can be a bit harsh I'll admit that, but it's only because I want what's best for our club, which is survival in this league at all costs, but don't think for a minute that I don't see us as being extremely fortunate and privileged as we are.
It wasn't our defence today. I thought Garrido, Turner and Russell Martin had reasonable games, and certainly better than the rest of the players. It was our midfield. Howson is a huge disappointment and just isn't up to Premiership standard. Tettey and Johnson are working hard but have trouble with even basic control of the ball. CH doesn't like players like Fox and Hoolahan who have ball skills (people say how brilliant he was to use Hoolahan, but let's look at how long it took him to actually play the guy in the first place). We are pedestrian and that is the limit of CH's imagination and ambition. It may be enough to ensure we have another season in the Prem, but also it may not.
He's had plenty of chances, he was completely berift of ideas or skill to get himself involved, terrible movement. I'm not to concerned about him, I feel confident he'll be on his way at the end of the season to be replaced with better.
Plenty of chances? Other than today, when to be honest he was by no means the worst player on the pitch and Peterborough in which he turned in a terrific shift, what other chances has he had?!?
He had a few chances last year and never neally settled into a rythym, this year less so but for me thats justified because I think he's not good enough. I barely ever notice him on the pitch he's so dull and uninspiring.
