I think the main embarrassment is going to be that 'Pool get tonked by Real (over the two legs) far harder than any other side in the CL. For me, that's the kind of embarrassment I would find very hard to bear, if I were a Mouser.
Brenda has put out a strong side according to him and is resting some fringe also rans such as............ Gerrard, Ballotelli, Coutinho and Johnson (though could be a blessing in disguise as he is a woeful defender). The Wum is strong in that one.
I must admit that I was rather surprised that 'Pool managed to stop Real going on a goal-fest. Sure, they never really looked like causing the European Champions any serious threat, but I thought the battled valiantly. Brendan might have bought himself some breathing space.
Madrid never left first gear, they did not need to, if the Dippers had managed to fluke a goal we would probably have seen Real go through the gears and probably bag at least 4 goals, 4 attempts and 1 lame shot on target says it all about the Mousers` performance.
Rodgers must be very unpopular this morning in Liverpool. His team desperately needed points to qualify so he rested his best players. They may not have got the thrashing we all expected, but they still lost. They have 3 points from 4 games now. Perhaps, with their best players, they might have got an unlikely point and have a slightly better chance of qualifying?
If they'd played Gerrard and Balotelli from the start they wouldn't have even been in the game at half time, at least the way they set up last night meant that a moment of brilliance or a bit of luck would've got them a result.
Sterling and Coutinho yes but resting Balotelli and Gerrard probably gave them more chance of getting a result. One is rubbish 9 games in 10 and the other is over the hill. I'm just glad Gerrard will be playing for us this weekend, the 12th man won't be the Kop but Gerrard spraying those lovely slack back passes or falling over! Brendan obviously sees Chelsea as a more important game than Real Madrid which is ridiculous when they've been out the C.L for a while and ITS REAL MADRID!
Well yes probably but resting players for Europa league games against pub teams is one thing but against Madrid in a group where they are struggling to qualify? Odd. I know the fast Liverpool players apparently need more days rest than anyone else but come on....
After failing to score in the previous two games, maybe he thought that a change might improve their chances of getting a goal? It didn't, of course.
I quite like the Mousers, but in a way i'm quite glad to see them having EXACTLY the same problems we had after selling our world class player for a boat load of dollar and spraying the proceeds around Europe like crazy people
Sterling's probably the only one that you can claim definitely wasn't dropped and we all know how tired he gets From what I saw Rodgers was taking out players that don't work as hard for the team and putting in ones that will. They fielded their so called stronger players in the first game and Real could've beaten them by 5 or 6, yesterday they at least managed to keep themselves in the game. I thought it was the right idea, especially dropping Gerrard as you can't carry a player against a side like Real Madrid just because they're good at setpieces.
He replaced Suarez with the 30 odd year old ex-Rochdale and Bristol Rovers striker Lambert, then bought the potty Balotelli as well as laying out a fortune for players other would be title contenders wouldn't take a second look at such as Lallana, Lovren, Markovic, Moreno and Can. It was always asking too much for that lot to keep them up at the top of the PL as well as competing in the CL to the level required, despite costing £117M combined.
Rodgers did the right thing against Real Madrid- as painful as it is to say. We're not going to go far in the Champions League- and certainly weren't going to overtake Madrid to get top spot in the group. The challenge is beating Cluedo and Basil Brush (Pull that off and we're through to knock outs- other than beating Madrid- we'd need to beat Basil Brush and Cluedo anyway- so losing or drawing- same end goal)... our first XI isn't good enough at the moment to beat Madrid- and it's not worth trying to be honest. The Premier League we still have a good chance at top 4 (despite a terrible start- because everyone else has started bad too... besides Chelsea). Saturday is a much bigger game.
