Official Match Thread: Premier League: Liverpool v Everton

Quite why we persevered with him out on the right and continually hitting those predictable diagonals to him, I've no idea.

Had we had Barkley with his pace and power in place of Naismith today, I reckon we'd have been a totally different proposition

 

Increasing the popularity of the bottom half!

 

Everton lucky to get a point with. Lukaku so ineffective

 

With the kind of money we've spent, you'd kind of expect an impact of some sort. Hardly like we've paid bargain prices (like £8m for coutinho)

 

That's football. Can't do much against a strike like that unfortunately, have to take your hat off to Jagielka. Still, happy with that performance, have to kick on from it now!

 

With the heights we want to hit you can't expect Coutinho deals often - that was a crazy deal.

Waiting until Sturridge is back before I judge. He completely changes how we play.

 

Gutted, but we didn't finish it off - well done B/S.

My ratings:

Mignolet: 5 Never came off his line once.

Manquillo: 6 Solid defensively, but never got forward once.

Skrtel: 7 Better of the two centre-backs.

Lovren: 6 Just can't see any improvement, if that, on Agger.

Moreno: 6 Same old story - good going forward; weak defensively.

Gerrard: 7 Everton chose not to mark him as Villa had done. As always, special at dead balls.

Henderson:7 Played deeper than normal to shield Gerrard, but still barely put a foot wrong.

Lallana: 7 Superb in the first half, faded slightly in the second, but we're beginning to see the player we bought.

Markovic: 4 Really don't want to be on his back, but ffs. Dreadful, totally dreadful. Why would anyone pick him over Coutinho?

Balotelli; 6 Strong as an ox - and just as mobile. Slows all our counter-attacks and breaks down, and missed a sitter that would have wrapped it up.

Sterling: 6 Not his best game, but still scared the **** out of Everton.

Subs: Coutinho: 6 Should have been on from the start.

Lambert: 5 Not on long enough to mis-control and slow play down in his usual manner.

Brendan: 5 Markovic over Coutinho? He's a LC filler at best, regardless how much you paid for him.

Team: 6 Slightly deserved to win, but never really earned it. Whole team is a yard slower without Studge and Suarez. Make that two yards. Everton were there for the taking, as they really don't look as solid as a couple of years ago defensively, and their attacking prowess, at least on today's showing, is to lump a diagonal at Lukaku. But they're a decent side and they needed to be seen off, and Balotelli just doesn't look the guy to do that, to be honest.

Fourth place looks a long way off from here.

 

Conversely, Coutinho made an immediate impact on his arrival. We cannot give players 10 starts, turning in bad performances and thus the team getting bad results, before they start performing. We simply don't have the time for that and we are already way off the pace as a result.

 

I agree about Sturridge, does that mean we're still a one man team then? Seems he's our only creative force at the moment with his runs

 

Manquilo is getting better as the games go by. Lallana looks good but we seriously miss Allen and Sturridge. We could have done with Emre Can to help close out the game but we need to pick up results very fast.

 

Having players like sturridge would have prevented Everton playing a high line. That is the difference.

 

Markovic - what the **** is he doing?

Lallana - not commanding enough in the 10 role. Little link between him and Balotelli.

Balotelli - is winging it. Yet to forge any meaningful understanding with his midfielders, bar Sterling maybe.

Coutinho - sharp!

Sterling, Henderson: excellent, hardworking. These two are carrying out the role of two players!

 

The first two yards are in the head

 

This is what we're badly missing, that almost telepathic understanding we had between our S trio last season. Right now I'm seeing barely any connection, understanding or reading each other between our forwards and it's costing us. We're nowhere near as fluid or interchangeable as we were last year, hell, some of our players barely understand what they're supposed to be doing in one role, never mind swapping around. What we had is gone sadly, but the problem has changed. We need to find another solution for it.

 

And Balotelli has no brain, unfortunately

 

a bumblebee brain maybe?


University of East Anglia researchers chart rapid spread of Balotebee

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-29387628

 

Everton looked hopeless today and walked away with the point. Ignoring how flukey it was, that just isn't good enough. They were more there for the taking today than last years thrashing.

Balotelli is a good player, but just can't see it being with us, he would be much better at the chavs I think.
Markovic, well, I would rather have Ibe here still and spent that £20m towards a world class player (striker)
Sterling just is a class above the rest, it will soon be time we struggle to keep him.

 

Couldn't watch the game but followed it on bbc live text. Couldn't believe it when Jagielka pops up with what was described as a 25 yard half volley into top corner

Sounds like performance wise we deserved 3 points so gutted we missed out but hopefully a decent result midweek and we can go into next weeks game on the back of a couple of unbeaten games.

 

The Spurs game still makes me optimistic for when Sturridge and Allen return.

 

Wouldn't get too hopeful, Bisc. We were marginally the less worst team, and while Gerrard (as always in this fixture), lalana, Hendo, Sterling (to some degree), Moreno and Manquillo offered some cheer, the rest were mediocre at best, and the least said about Markovic - well, I'll not say anymore because it is bordering on persecution now. Everton will be ecstatic to get a point out of that - they played better during the 4-0 hammering! - but good luck to them. Top four is a mile off unless we go on an unbelievable run and buy a QUALITY forward in January.