Please inform me what that is exactly? 2 weeks ago after we thrashed Spurs, everyone was raving, then 1 defeat after the team had 1 shot against us we are suddenly a mid table team... yawn.
1) Not to start as many new faces in 1 game 2) Coutinho still isn't ready to step up and be one of our main attacking threats 3) We miss Joe Allen when he's not available
Not sure if the 3rd one is a joke or not (with Allen I'm never sure who likes/dislikes him on this forum) but he would have made a bigger impact in the game than Gerrard. At least Allen has the mobility to move around and not be man marked by someone running a total of about 2km all game. I reckon Neil Razor Ruddock could have man marked Gerrard today even in his state, that's how much running Gerrard seems to do.
Nah he really would've made a difference. He's definitely a lot more important than people on this forum make out to our team.
Looks like it's you, Magic and I in the Allen camp so far then. I'll make a list of who else is on our side if I find any
Agreed with most of your points. It shows how much we are missing Suarez. More than I thought. It is going to be a long long season. Already it is apparent that we are going to rely on other CL challengers to be inconsistent for us to be top 4. Forget about the title as we have no chance unless we improve 100%.
How do you rate Markovic as the worst player on the pitch? I think he was good, just didn't get the ball enough. Gerrard was far worse. Borini wasn't the worst player to have stepped foot on that pitch today either.
Is that because he actually tricked us all and didn't get on Lovren was basically at fault for the goal. Gerrard was anonymous, marked out the game and offers nothing when not given time and space to pick a pass. Coutinho offered very little creativity but then you could say it was a lack of movement infront of him which caused that. Think it was just overall a poor day at the office but had Villa not got that early goal, could have been a very different game.
Thing with markovic is if you need the bAll delivered you won't do much so he needs to move more from here and not back pass 90% of possession then cos you are static and marked
Initial pre-match thoughts? Well it's important to see the game first off for what it actually is - 1 game. So let's not go overly knee-jerk. On to the actual game. FAR too easily out though by Villa, and credit to Lambert as that's the third consecutive time in a row. Secondly, we need to rethink Gerrard and his position as it's clear the role is only suitable for a handful of games. If we want Henderson to be box to box then we need a mobile sweeper who's soul thoughts are to be defensive. And yes even if it that me and playing Lucas as the lone DM. Thirdly and lastly - Joe Allen makes a massive difference to our midfield, we barely got the ball to out front line today, our midfield was far too narrow and immobile, Coutinho really needs to step up his game. In the grand scheme of things it's 3 points. Don't we still have more points now than we did with the same fixtures last season? Let the mancs have their laugh as its only right. But for us its important not to lose 2 on a row now. A bit of perspective needed.
At this moment I would say our defensive signings are probably better than yours...and you needed them as much as we did based on last season.
Agreed. Lovren is error prone and one paced. Moreno is great going forwards, hopeless at defending. Mantequilla is just woeful. Sakho is still crap. Bizarre that Agger couldn't get into the team and was allowed to leave.
The game was a stinker and not just cause we lost. Yes we were terrible and Villa weren't much better but they got the goal and played the rest of the game out defending for their lives. Fair play to Villa their defending was solid and did what it needed to do, despite the fact most of the pressure we were putting them under was pointless as it never really got anywhere partly down to the Villa defending but mostly down to how bad we played. Overall the game was just bad and frankly deserves to be near the end of MOTD, great points for Villa as they won without having to play spectacularly. Lambert really has our number and we need to have better tactics next time we meet them. It was typical of our first game back after midweek international games. (Game wasn't made easier with Studge missing as well).
Had a feeling villa would be difficult game for us, not clicking yet with new signings and obviously the international break has taken its toll. Still we only drew with villa last year so only a point dropped on last season, still 2 points up.
