Skrtel isnt good full stop. i do hope he is gone in the summer and somehow he helped us to get top 4. normally i would have been excited about the line up as well, but not against a team we knew was counter attacking and had pace, silly Brendan, and not sure if its 2 pts dropped or 1pt gained to be honest. like to see the idea of that attacking lineup more, just against a team that will play football as well, not one setup to counter.
We should try and Rival United's bit for Coentrao in my opinion, while I think he would probably opt for United. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
MOTD made me laugh. Murphy said we'd switched to three at the back but we only ever had two CBs on and Johnson stayed on the right. Basically, he thought Cissokho wasn't playing LB
He wasn't wrong - everyone thinks Cissokho was out of the position but Rodgers did change it so Aly was further up the pitch. Yes - was poor but there were worse performers on the day..
So we played with a RB and two CBs but no LB? That's insane even for you Jimmy Cissokho was meant to be part of a back four but preferred to be LW/CM!
I thought Johnson shifted back as part of the 3?? .... Either way - it was a shambles. Everything below SAS, Coutinho and Henderson could easily be replaced.
Lol I'm not entirely sure but Cissokho was a lot higher up as the first half went on than his starting position, so he was playing as a wing back.
The defence was a shambles. Cissokho needs to be sent back to his parent club immediately. He's a complete and utter liability and has never performed for us. I truly don't know what is happening with Johnson. I could forgive his defensive shortcomings when he offered so much in support of the attack but I can't remember 1 overlap in support of Sterling yesterday. The Skerts/Toure partnership does not work. We know Skerts's deficiencies but at least he was trying and appeared to know what he was trying to do. Nobody appears to mention it but where the hell was Henderson when we were under so much pressure in midfield - waiting to make himself available for a ball that we didn't have? Gerrard looked like King Canute. As an 18 yo he would have loved it - got sent off mark you! It wasn't until Lucas came on that he could get any influence on the game. Now JS will say that is Gerrard's fault but 1 man has no chance against 2 forwards and 3 midfielders!!! As for the attack for the majority of the first half it was hopelessly misfiring! It's looking more and more as though Ford needs a rest. Sterling showed spirit but cannot supply the ammunition. That left SAS stranded. They dropped deeper and deeper to find the ball only to be met by an aggressive defence. There were some very naughty things happening on that pitch that the Ref either didn't see or just ignored. So all in all I'm plased that we got away with a draw - we would have lost it last year. However we do need to answer some questions very quickly.
I've never rated Enrique as bad. He's not the best, but it's rare to come across a top top quality fullback. Enrique is good enough for us for sure.
You may be surprised but I agree that Gerrard was completely overpowered. Playing him in the 'Pirlo' role requires 2 strong midfielders in front of him - he only had Henderson. Having said that, Gerrard didn't do himself any favours in the first half - lost the ball a number of times, his touch and control were off as well. Credit to him becasuse he had the balls to admit that in the post match interview.
I thought we went to 3 at the back in the first half with Sterling & Cissokho as the wing backs and Coutinho behind the 2 strikers.. It looked like a 4-4-2 in the 2nd half when Lucas came on. And I agree we miss Enrique. I think when he's back we should go with Kelly & Enrique as full backs with Skrtel & Sakho as centre backs and stick with it for the rest of the season. All this chopping and changing of defenders makes us nervous at the back and is also effecting Mignolet's confidence and decision making.
Johnson was ****ing awful then, he didn't move from RB. Least he explains Cissokho's wondering but he still didn't put any effort in the get back and help out.
