months.... Can we get a player appraisal from those who watched the match? From the little I heard and have seen it sounds like: Ruddy - did quite well, possibly could have done better for a couple of the long rangers but not really to blame (how often do we have to keep saying that???) Martin - turned inside out. Time to drop him to send a rocket up his arse R Bennett - best of our defenders which isn't saying much, suffered. Bassong - suffered big time Olsson - nothing particularly great, but also suffered Fer - anonymous and poor Johnson - seems like most papers are suggesting he was our best (in the same way that Mussolini is the "best" 20th Century dictator) player - who'da thunk it? Howson - workhorse, but couldn't offer anything Redmond - assist and some hard work Hoolahan - did he play? Elmander - who? Real shame about Hoolahan after his performance on Saturday. I think it's clear that we do not have a one-up-top striker as none of ours are good there. AS BEFORE THIS IS A CH FREE THREAD
Do you mean for us (Martin, Ruddy, Hoolahan), that our players played like they were taken from the championship, or talking about our ex-players at other clubs?
Same defensive approach not working, same dejected feeling after we lose, same lack of fight shown by the team. It's getting boring. Wish we'd at least show some fight.
What about the players - any standout bad performances that should result in being dropped? Did Johnson do himself about as proud in the circumstances as could be expected (that's the suggestion from other sources)
You could probably argue that perhaps half of them could be dropped but as there is no strength in depth, things could get much, much worse. With the exception of playing Elmander on his own. up front, that was perhaps our best current (and fit) XI.
I just think that all the players are suffering from a severe lack of confidence. They looked scared of Suarez today. A paradox really: had we closed him down and got in his face he'd probably only scored once. They've let him get to them.
Tough call but I would go with Whittaker, but that might be the more attack minded element coming in to play. I like Rusty, always have, but he could do with a gentle reminder that he has got competition for the RB slot, and making him fight to get it back may be no bad thing.
I think Hoolahan is better suited to home games against lower table sides when we are going to attack. The team selection baffled me to be honest. Elmander and Hoolahan? Away at Liverpool?
Mostly poor across the board. There did seem to be more fight and urgency for the first 15 minutes and Hoolahan was in the midst of things at least from my perspective at Anfield (at least I've seen 17 goals in my last three away games). Johnson lots of opportunities to pick a half decent pass, but just hoofed it and was so slow. Fer, really poor game, Hoolahan, just muscled off the ball, redmond, headless chicken, he and Olsson seem to have no idea how to play together. Bassong was slow and ponderous, but still made some good tackles,
I'll have a go at the OP. The game left me puzzled because the player performances weren't bad, but Suarez and Coutinho were on fire once the first goal went in, and what can you do about a 42 yard shot that is inch perfect in the top right-hand corner? Certainly the goal of the season so far. Up until then, city were giving as well as they got and had more shots and more on target. That goal changed things. As for the players, Johnson had his best match this season and was my MotM though he was pushed close by Howson. The game was played at a frenetic pace, and not surprisingly both sides lost the ball a lot, but generally speaking, the passing wasn't bad for much of the time. The big disappointment for me was Fer, who didn't impose himself at all in the way he has been doing. The other major deficiency was the lack of effective tracking back from the wide players, Redmond and Hoolahan, and that is where we are really missing Snods and Pilks. I was hoping that Olsson would move forward for that reason, with either Whittaker or Garrido at LB. For me, Elmander worked hard (much like Holt last season), but he is a second striker rather than a sole striker. It's going to sound strange, but I thought Bennett played Suarez as well as anyone could when the little rat is on fire like that, and I don't think any defensive pairing would have stood a chance against Suarez last night. I wouldn't particularly blame Ruddy for any of the goals except possibly Sterling's at the end.
Do people feel Redmond is much better on the right? Apart from his winner against Southampton, I don't think I've ever seen him really do much other than beat a man and lose the ball when on the left, whereas he seems to offer much more when in his natural position
Interesting you think Johnson was good, it was a good goal, but everytime he had the opportunity to play a basic attacking pass, it was simply ****e and that is unacceptable, all the good defensive work is undone immediately.
Oh come on, what have I done now?!? Thanks though RER, that makes a lot of sense and in a game of little encouragement, there were one or two things. I am still adamant that come mid-March, irrespective of who our manager is, we will look at this thrashing and shrug our shoulders accepting that we just never play well against Liverpool - it is a self-fulfilling prophecy this, because once you get this Indian sign, the Liverpool players will walk on the pitch against us always with confidence and our players will always have trepidations purely on past results, which is a terrible approach to a game and not one a manager can really deal with.
Martin is costing us goals per game, he has also put us in positions causing pressure and the result from that we are conceding, he allows crosses into the box and has a tendency to turn his back on players.
I suspect that Hughton didn't feel he could drop both Martin and Bassong - now Bassong seems to be back in, perhaps he'll feel comfortable dropping Martin again. Whittaker got a few minutes last night - how did he do? He can hardly play worse than Martin
I also think that Whittaker deserves a chance and yes, Rob, it was the post not the poster that I was referring to. I also think that things will improve as the season goes on and that confidence comes from results and that is still at the essence of everything. Even with the injuries, we have a squad capable of moving up the table and we now have a run of games that should produce points and confidence as well.
whittaker appeared to play left midfield (or at least somewhere near there) last night, after replacing Fer. He did ok
