So basically what Rodgers considers a second team is actually better than what he considers out best team. Hmm. Borini, Manquillo and Can should be starting every game.
Well I was undecided, but now I'm 100% behind Brendan's strategy. Utterly ****ed if some ****-licking Clog-Sparker from the Mail and Gary Lineker will tell this club what to do. Rest them all for Saturday too Brendan, and kick the **** out of the Rent boys. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-round-Basle-pile-pressure-Liverpool-win.html
If we learned anything from last night: Lucas must be used more often in place of Gerrard. Toure for all his faults deserves to play ahead of Lovren If we are going to play with one striker then it has to be Borini ahead of Balotelli
This All the post match analysis should be tempered by the fact that Real didn't go full speed. I am still baffled by Rodgers thinking. When he announced the team sheet he was really saying "ok we've lost the match. We'll go through the motions with a reserve side and the outcome won't affect the Chelsea match psychologically or physically " By doing this and losing 1-0, I do not think Rodgers scored a moral victory. It was like in the old days of Hartlepool coming to Anfield and putting on a plucky performance getting beat 1-0 with us missing loads of chances. We patronise the plucky opponents and applaud their GK for making many saves but the reality is that they never had a chance of beating us. We are Liverpool FFS with 5 European champions trophies!!
but we have an inexperienced manager in Europe and i should imagine half the team are as well. i get your point, but we havent been in it for 5 yrs or so, we have to learn to walk before we can run. i did like the attitude shown from a few of the fringe players, but was obvious the gulf in class, i should imagine reals forward line cost more than our whole team, and its not like they are crap players as they are 2 of the best players in the world, and we only lost 1-0, take that. only thing that bothers me is half the players have given brendan a starting lineup headache for the chelsea game, but i should imagine we all know on here it will be back to the same old ****e that isnt working, and like others i would rather see Borini than ballo, because even though both are crap, ones less crap than the other, and at least tries.
Borini is quality off the ball whether we have possession or not, it is when he has possession himself that he's not so good. It seems to want too long to decide what to do. I've no idea what his shooting is really like because we rarely see it
See, I'm not baffled. I'm happy because most (Lovren, Johnson, Gerrard and Mario) of those that were dropped deserved it! Harsh on Sterling and Coutinho but the former needs resting anyway and the latter is better coming off the bench. What makes me laugh is the pundits. As I predicted last night, they are now claiming that we could have won had we played our strongest side. They are saying we looked solid so having Sterling and Coutinho in there would have given us more of a chance on the break. They are too stupid to realise that including those two players make it a different team and in all probability, a different performance where we wouldn't look so solid. Include all those that have dropped? Just look at the rest of the games this season!!! Its also quite disrespectful to Real Madrid who clearly were not firing on all cylinders. Maybe they took the game a little easier having seen our team sheet? Maybe if we'd kept with our so-called strongest side the true Real Madrid would have turned up? It is what it is. the lads played well and came out with pride, honour and respect IMO RE; "We are Liverpool FFS with 5 European champions trophies!!" The last win was ten years ago this season. The only player/coach/manager still at the club that was involved last time is Steven Gerrard. We've not been involved in Europe at all for a couple of season prior this too.
Shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we lost, which is always disappointing but it was very encouraging to see the team actually look solid and defend well as a unit for a change. Ronaldo has scored in his past 11 games, Real have scored at least 2 goals in their past x games but we managed to limit their chances (although they still could have a couple of more!). Find it funny how a lot of pundits feel we fielded a weakend side - bar Sterling and Coutinho, I was happy with the rest of the team. I've longed for Toure to start, mainly in place of Skrtel but that certainly paid off - the best performance by an LFC CB this season - commanded the line, vocal, leader, organised. Skrtel looked more relaxed alongside him and Migs looked more convincing. Lucas looked more assured in the middle and you can see the players around him, moving because they want the ball. It was so evident that we lost that as soon as Stevie came on and I'm not sure how some fans still cannot see that Stevie ruins the dynamic of the team. Allen was good defensively, but he looks off the pace technically since his injury. Can was another standout performer for me - he belongs at LFC, looked composed on the ball and didn't look out of place. Wasn't impressed with the attack but they were isolated so will cut them some slack. However, Lallana is all style and no substance, Borini is a workhorse and Markovic is afraid of his own shadow (although he made a couple of positive runs). Truly feel that if Coutinho and Sterling played, we could have made more of a go of it. But it annoys me how pundits think that our so called 'B' team managed to get a 1-0 loss, imagine how the first team would have done. The 'first' team with the likes of Johnson, Lovren and Gerrard would have been spanked but then again, pundits won't let the last 10-13 displays of mediocrity sway their minds. Rodgers says that players were dropped because of Newcastle, and not rested - I hope he means this (I don't think he does) because there is no way Johnson, Lovren and Gerrard deserve to be back in the first team for the Chelsea game.
'They played within themselves and Ronaldo just wasn't at it tonight for whatever reason.' Yeah, possibly due to the fact we defended well and Kolo had Ronaldo in his pocket all night?
I disagree, Rodgers needed to act and it just so happened to be the Real Madrid game that was up next, consider this you posted "We are Liverpool FFS with 5 European champions trophies" and I agree with the sentiment but also consider that the players who went through the motions against Newcastle didn't deserve to wear the shirt last night and were rightly dropped. On last nights performance Toure and Lucas showed that they deserve to be in the team as they were brilliant, if they are dropped v Chelsea then my overall opinion of what Rodgers did will change. I could actually forgive Toure not playing due to his age but to drop Lucas after that would not make any sense.
And this is where we will see just how full of **** BR is. All three of those deserve to stay benched for the Chelsea, but we all know at least 2, and probably all three of them will be straight back into the team and we'll go back to being awful again
Would also like to mention that Manquillo and Moreno are special talents. Both are raw at the moment but they have amazing potential and compliment the defence so well.
nah a CB can play. drop skertl who was loose in that game imo. in any event.... we cannot trade on 5 euro cups. we must trade on being on the up... so we need to get it sorted and build on being in this comp... no point feeling good about madrid loos when the real game to progress is LUDO. IMO LFC need to progress to knockouts in this comp to trade well in january. lets move on and up. we've got to not only build on this but sustain the ideas... if we can pass one touch v real.. why the F are players taking 5/6 touches v newcastle... come one rodgers sort it out. I'd rather a screamer on the line who rides lads backs for not doing the right thing than a guy sitting on the bench. anyway............ good game... real are a fabulous side and good to watch even if they were not giving it all. and we restored a bit of pride. SO F the punidts and mealey mouths. Lets go put some pride into the chelsea game. these f'rs are coming to our patch ffs. they shouldn't have it easy.
