We badly missed Lennon today against what is essentially a bang average Liverpool side. It is really the combination of him AND Bale that causes the problems for defences. Playing 2 defensive mids against a midfield with Gerrard of 5 years ago I would understand, but he is a shadow of the player he was. With no width whatsoever we are not the same team. I would have played with JD as the lone striker and Bale back on the left and shifted Siguardson inside to at least stretch the play a little as a winger. The guys not Superman and he can't save us from crap performances every week. Poor today, although Dawson and Vertonghen and Dembele were excellent. Two crazy moments away from a victory, I thought we were at least good for a point. All credit to Liverpool though. They took their chances.
All jdives aside (silent d)., Liverpool look to be a much improved side now and were quite impressive today, particularly with the tatics employed through middle of the park. They might yet be a force this season. Well played 'The Pool'. Now where's my rum.
Right I haven't seen any of the game today, had to do Mothering Sunday duties. I know the score and have read the comments here even the ones form the wums like astroturfnaut. I have recorded the game. Should I watch it or just delete it and move on? I'm thinking the latter! Before the match I was gutted to miss it but judging by the score and comments on here maybe it was a good thing! Going on the result alone lets not get too down hearted. There are still 9 games to go. This was always going to be a tough run for us. If someone had said we would get 6 points out of the last 3 games I would have probably taken it. It's only 1 point dropped from the same game last season. We were never going to get top 4 the easy way that's not what we do! Well done Liverpool you are looking like you are getting back to being top 4 challengers again with a squad that is improving all the time. To say we have peaked is a stupid comment though. Most of our players are younger than 30. We could say to you that Gerrard is reaching the end of his career and how will you replace him? Likewise Carragher. I think Spurs and Liverpool will be battling it out near the top end of the table for the next few seasons with not a lot to choose between the teams.
crackerman, go on the club site and look at the player profiles, then you'll see just how young our squad really is. As for Gerrard and Carra. Carra finishes this season and we'll have to try and replace him. We can probably do that technically but you're not going to find a heart as big as Carra's easily. Think we could be persuaded to take Vertongen off your hands though, Gerrard is another matter. He's probably got 2 more seasons in him but we do need to start the search for his replacement now.
I'm not saying you don't have a young squad just replying to the comment that we have peaked and you are improving. I haven't done the average age of the teams today but I bet they are fairly similar.
Knew you'd be replying about the Mount Gay rum Bajan! I have a bottle I brought back with me can't believe how cheap it was! I think it was about £7 for a litre!
Very surprised by your negativity Roo. We missed Lennon for sure, but the game stats don't suggest that we were not creative and we had substantial possession. Sigs should have squared for Defoe to make it 3 - 1 (and newly squeezed the ball in anyway). Bale made that chance and both of our goals - so hardly anonymous. And the most relevant comments are coming from the (reasonable) Pool fans, all of whom seem to be bigging up our performance. Real shame that we didn't hold on, but that was not a bad performance.
I am absolutely steaming after that and am amazed that others appear reasonably calm. This was the perfect example of what a dangerous tactic playing the high line can be. Liverpool caused our back line problems most of the afternoon and the number of times the gaps between the FB's and the CD's were exploited was scarey. We did have a good spell but then got far too casual and returned to the Spurs habit of yesteryear by shooting ourselves in the foot. Any manager who encourages massive over-use of the back pass to the keeper will always be vulnerable to the goal we conceded today from Walkers lapse of concentration. It didn't help that Lloris was having his poorest game so far, and showed yet again he is suspect on his near post. We need to bounce back from this, I am sure we will, but this really is a disappointment. P.S. Suarez is a complete ****head.
Just seen the goals, Walkers back pass was bad but Lloris should have just put his foot through it so I don't totally blame Walker for that one. That and the penalty were 2 stupid goals to give away. OS- that's probably why there is a calmness as we should have got something from the game. We didn't deserve to lose just some stupid errors.
I'm frustrated relayer. I didnt think we created much at all. We had a fair bit of possession, but what good is it when you don't do anything with it? We weren't set up right and that's my biggest issue with today. Liverpool played well, but we didnt help ourselves. Agger and carragher had a fairly easy day, and they shouldn't have.
Saying all that Roo we scored twice and the 2 goals we let in after were stupid and completely avoidable. On another day we could have sneaked a win whether it was deserved or not. We have had some luck over the last couple of months and his was the day it ran out.
15 shots - 9 on target according to the Beeb - and 56%!! Didnt think it was that one-sided to be honest, but most teams would be more than happy with those stats at Anfield, particularly against a decent enough outfit on a resurgent run themselves..... The mistakes cost us today - not the overall performance.
I'm with Relayer. At 1-2 I thought we were comfortable and there was only one winner (I also thought we might score again). Nothing wrong with the performance and we deserved at least a point, probably all three. I'll temper that (for any Pool fans still reading) by saying that in the corresponding match at the Lane I thought Pool were the better team. But football is quite hard to predict thank goodness and I hope nobody was getting complacent. I still think we're in with a great shout for the top 4 and maybe 3 (depending on our result against Chavski).
but again I watched Parker frequently give the ball away with hospital passes and lose the ball when in possession. Plus how many penalties has BAE given away? He is also similar to Parker as well in that he often seems to dither on the ball and then get rushed into playing a pass. I think I would get rid of BAE at the end of the season. We have run our luck for a while but we lack a creative midfielder and a forward. I would sell Bale for a shed load and go for Moutinuo, possibly Higuain and a replacement winger for Bale
We surrendered any advantage we had by playing two defensive mid-fielders . Livermore adds little to the team and this was a major tactical cock up. This was more of a loss than Lennon missing as central midfield offers nothing going forward. Defoe showed us once again that he aint a top 4 striker, but every body new that anyway. I hope AVB never goes back to such a weak central pairing as it always fails . Still ours to bulls up so lets play with a more positive approach for the remaining games. Chin up Sid
Yes NJ we HAVE ridden our luck a lot in fact. But I think we'll do a Chelsea and our luck will come back. We are not finished yet.
Agree. However we have a little lad on the bench (Tom Carroll) who should be getting more time on the pitch, especially over LIvermore who while is a top lad, offers nothing to the team other then running. I feel Carroll is being judged for his small frame, yet each time he is picked, he shows class and ability that no one else in the team has, in terms of being able to pick out a pass and show vision. Villas Boas should have gone with Parker, Dembele & Holtby Or Carroll. By taking the safe (easy option) of playing with two DM's, it was negative and we got a negative result as we didn't have the extra vision to kill the game off.
