1. If we had a striker we'd have won that match tonight. 1a. Why did Brendan name 2 out of form strikers on the bench and not select/play Borini? (the only one with any hint of form) 2. Glen Johnson on for Sakho with a centre back on the bench. Our 3 "cbs" were a rb , cb, cm 2a. Is that the end of Lovren ? 3. We are afraid to shoot/ thread a ball into the box. 3a. Why do we insist on passing it across the oppositions 18yard box with no one intending on shooting ? 4. Balotelli's sloppy ball led to the foul which led to the goal scored by Balotelli's man. 4a. After Brendan's bullshit the other day why did he bring him on ? 5. Costa is a ***got and must surely get a retrospective ban. He has 2 stamps another 3 and he gets a free coffee. 5a. How the **** did it take til the 106th minute for the elephant man to be booked ?
Had we had someone who could stick it in the goal we could've had two or three yeah. How we've ended up with all three of Borini, Balotelli and Lambert I cannot fathom. Balotelli. Just leave. Now. All he did was fall over, misplace the ball and cause them to score. Glen Johnson looks like he's just started to play football for the first time. That 'clearance' attempt where he just skied it straight up vertically and the wind blew it a little bit left. That's class right there people. Should be nowhere, nowhere near the squad. What is Rodgers deal with this eejit?? Don't think we're scared of shooting tbh, more that we're trigger happy for stupid long range efforts or outside the box cos there's nothing on inside it. Ever. Which links back to us nay having no striker Costa would've been a brill signing for us but now he plays for Chelsea yeah he's a prime fudge packer at fudge packers bridge Can is a beast.
I think its a little naive to say we'd have won had we had a decent striker. Mourinho is well known for setting his teams up tactically to counter the opposition, do you not think he'd have made considerations for a striker if we had one? He let us attack in both games knowing full well we could hit a barn door from half yard away!
I think we should give a wee bit more credit to us than that but say it's ifs and buts all over the place as well If we won 2-1 at anfield itd really depend on when our second goal went in Same here... If we'd scored say sterling or coutinhos goals chelsea would have an hour to attack us... Really don't think we'd hold out However credit to us we showed Costa up... Not for a thug... No for a player with no pace who needs hazard and Oscar to make his goals Hazard was played well.... In general he wasn't given much space to turn and run in and so barring a couple moments of true class he didn't do much last night. Mostly he got it very wide and had can or markovic up his bum the second the ball arrived preventing him turning and getting up speed Have to give credit for that Anyway Anything would be better than badontelly who looked like he learned nothing from his droppings and lambert who's not even good enough to play bolton
The Balotelli substitution directly led to the free kick because he gave the ball away and then he completely lost Ivan for the goal. Johnson is piss poor, why is he still playing? Squad depth, they lost fab and were better thereafter, we lost Sahko and were worse, even if he did make that stupid pass he was still doing a good job last night. Moreno just does not do enough when he has the ball out wide We are far better without a striker than playing Bad.
Sakho had arguably his worst game for us but it's very telling how Chelsea attacked his side once he went off. Sakho's worst game > Johnson/Lovren's best game. I don't have a problem with bringing Mario on - bar a couple of poor shots, he linked well and beat his man a couple of times. It was a positive cameo. The problem I have is shifting Henderson out wide and keeping Lucas and Gerrard in CM for 120 mins. It's shocking in game management from Rodgers - does he think he's doing us and Gerrard a favour by keeping him on to try and get us to Wembley?
1. I can sort of understand Borini not playing. He has a tendancy to go missing against physical teams 2. I hope so, the guy looks like he's sleepwalking whenever he plays 3. Lack of confidence I think as we don't have a natural finisher in the team. That's why I like Sturridge's "selfishness" 4. Like the Balotelli transfer itself, it was a gamble that didn't pay off 5. Because it's Jose and Chelsea he'll get a minimal ban if any. If he was playing for us he'd get a 10 game ban
We need to understand thinking on this one. I do not know why he took markovic off... I really do not. If anyone can explain to me i'd like to know. 1. you have gerrard on pitch right... logic dictates rodgers will never take him off in a league cup semi where a goal is required. EVEr.. so park that 2. You have markovic doing fine on the right and henderson doing ok in the middle. 3. Lucas smashed oscar (rightly) to prevent a free run on goal. yellow card and egg shells. Why in the context of these 3 facts was the sub to take of markovic and put on balotelli... why? thee were IMO two choices dicated by no injuries... first lallana on for lucas and move gerrard back... second badontelly on again for lucas and move gerrard back I fail to see any logical tactical reason to shift a worked out wide who is on a yellow and expose him to hazrard's pace AND negate your right side attack as well... I can't see it. We saw 3/4 times where a jinking run cut cheslea open.. all from coutinho... we saw lallana do this only once but surely if you are putting anyone on you are putting lallana on and saving badontelly OR lambert for a last throw of the dice.
Now I'm beginning to think you're Balotelli's agent Seriously Jimmy? You big up Balotelli and his "cameo" and yet you slate our skipper who ran his ****ing legs off for 120 mins....mindblowing stuff. To answer the thread...I thought we played excellent over the two legs and yes our striking options are piss poor but lets not forget Chelsea are one of the best defensive teams in the world. We all know Jose's bus is tough to get through on that sort of form...and yet another world class keeping display across the two legs added to that made it incredibly difficult. We need better players up front and in all honesty we need three different strikers (and for Mario to never pull on a Red shirt again). Johnson = I'm not surprised we're afraid to shoot at times....have you seen what happens when we do shoot? Overall I'm pleased with the performances over the two legs, we showed a lot of grit, determination and passion along with creating a shed load of chances. If we carry on improving the way we have done over the last month we'll have a good second half of the season...however I still think we're mad not looking to improve the squad this window
Ha - his cameo was decent to be fair to him. I just don't think he abuse he's received is warranted. Gerrard huffed and puffed but didn't do much. And to keep him a 35 year old on the pitch for the full 120 mins was telling - we ran out of steam. That's not to say he played poorly but he wasn't good either. Rodgers simply needs to manage him better. MITO - Marko was struggling to get on the ball and do anything meaningful. So I can kinda understand taking him off, although I would never have done so. He still provides width and pace, and the ability to carry the ball 20-30 yards. It's more frustrating that we had to move Hendo out wide to allow us to keep Gerrard on.
And also - not bringing on our 'marquee' signing of the summer when looking for a goal is interesting. Not to mention that our centre back went off injured and our £20m leader was left on the bench.
His substitutions were very poor. Moreno and Markovic caused them problems and their width created space for others. Johnson on was a surprise and maybe shows how little confidence he has in Lovren....but the real surprise was how he brought on Mario and gave up that width when we needed to score. We needed a goal. Gerrard's legs were gone. Lallana for Gerrard should have been the call. Lallana started to find the back of the net before his injury, why he didn't get a run out is beyond me. Sure, throw one of the lumbering big lads on in desperation but don't blunt our attacking options!! BR is a good coach for setting up attacking teams and he receives plaudits for that, rightly so. But his game management needs to be questioned, as does his player acquisitions and also his ridiculously defensive frailties. He can't have his cake and eat it, surely? As for Costa. He's filth....I was screaming just as much at the tv as any of you. But we had a player who would do anything to win and we loved him. His will to win and fighting qualities are fantastic and I was glad to see our lot stand up to him. He'll be a marked man soon, ref's will be wise to him after seeing this (and several other incidents) and players will be looking to wind him up.......but I can't knock him too much.
As you say, Rodgers is a brilliant attacking coach. However, he needs to learn to accept help to improve the other aspects - defending being the obvious one, as well as tactics and in game management. With his in-game management, he has been good at times but is a little inconsistent. I suppose this is the issue when you buy players like Lambert - you end up having to use them from time to time. He was quite lucky last season that we had the likes of Suarez and Sterling who could play every game.
I truly believe the lambert move was one planned ell before may to bascially get a cheap body in within the context of suarez and sturridge being there and him planning to buy lovern and allana at minimum... we spent months getting moreno so i presume he was also always coming. not sure about markovic though once suarez bit the whole thing went up in smoke.. lambert was always the wrong buy... lallana i serious have to question in the context of SAS, sterling and coutinho.. I can only see him as potentially playing CM in a 4-1-2-1-2 diamond or as a replacement for coutinho. I firmly believe no plan b is indeed an excellent summation of rodgers.. give him lots fo time to thing about stuff and he might get it right.. ask him to react to stuff and he makes weird decisions.
Yep, it's almost as if the club expected Suarez to stay. Ridiculous from the commitee, Rodgers etc. Then a last min bid for Sanchez descended into bids for Remy, Bony, Lambert and finally Mario. Haphazard/scattergun approach.
Yes. I do think the sanchez stuff could not be the plan given the timing of things. I don't see who you can be on about lallana pre world cup then somehow swtich to snachez... we coudl not afford both.
Dont get me wrong here , we played well and if we play like that for the rest of the season we will win more than we draw or lose. Costa is a scumbag but id have him in our team any day of the week. I dont mind his antics as they are all big boys but the stamps on prone players legs is a step too far. We had a certain player who overstepped the mark but I cant recall him ever stamping on a player lying on the ground. Johnson is rumoured to be signing a new 3 year deal if this happens Rodgers needs sacking. Brendan isnt a very good judge of player lets be honest. Tried to flog Henderson now touted as next captain. Dropped Sakho hes now our best defender. Splashed 43m on 2 players and doesnt play them. Ugh I give up I could use up all the gbs in the internet with Brendans **** ups.
I'd agree on point 1... and point 2..... and point 3.... and point 4... there is no way a guy like johnson who will be 31 by start of next season merits a 3 year deal. Its not quite carragher country so I could see a 2 year deal if thats really what rodgers wants to hang his hat on but 3 sounds just plain mad. For me...... just sack everyone sell the clubto rich arabs and become city... solve all our problems in one go.
