All I have to say is thank God Johnson has not announced he is leaving as he would be playing out of sentiment. Football is a multi-billion business now and as much as Gerrard is a legend there is no place in modern football for sentiment. Last season his set pieces were dangerous his Hollywood balls were good now there is absolutely non of that. No pressing either. This game swung I'm Evertons favor when Lucas went off as Allen will always take a safer option. The subsequent substitutions were puzzling as sturridge is still not match fit. Gerrard was knackered so we had two passengers. To make it worse we brought on lambert who can't run behind defenders. All in all dissapointing but roll on to Spurs.
Thought Ibe was decent tbf. Gerrard was a passenger for most of the match and should have subbed. Don't get the Coutinho sub at all (unless he was injured, but it looked like he'd shook the early problem off). Still there are some positives: Emre Can looks like a really tidy player in that back 3 and Mignolet is turning the corner slowly but surely.
Agreed, but who else you going to play? When Lucas got injured, our options from the bench were: 1) Johnson on and move Can into midfield 2) Lovren on and move Can into midfield 3) Lambert on and move Gerrard and Sterling back a line 4) Sturridge on and move Gerrard and Sterling back a line 5) Allen (see game) 6) Markovic and move Gerrard back a line (maybe swap Ibe and Marko around too) 7) Ward and have two keepers I certainly didn't want to see one or two happen, we'd have definitely conceded. Was number three a serious option at that stage of the game? Four was far too early. Six would have unbalance us. Allen was our only real option!
Yep. We are losing ground and running out of matches. What was Rodgers thinking of? We had most of the game but couldn't put the ball in the net. Where is the damn striker? Sturridge came only for the last half an hour. Until Rodgers realise that there is no point drawing matches and that we have to WIN then we can forget about CL. More evidence today that he is not good enough for LFC. He continues to praise the "outstanding performance of the team" Oh yes? one point when the Saints and Spurs are getting 3 points. How is that good enough for a team wanting to get 4th? By the time recovers its form, it will be too late. The Spurs is a must win game now and we are damn lucky they are poor away. They destroyed Arsenal today but away they somehow disintegrate.
Impressed by Ibe. He "only" had a couple of top quality moments like the strike against the post and beating his man a few times but he was composed on the ball, distributed well and didn't look out of place. Luckily wasn't really tested defensively which might have been a bit harder for him but overall very impressive performance. I thought off taking Coutinho off given he's the main creative player in midfield but maybe he was tiring after the Bolton game and needed a rest? Can all say he should have stayed on but if he had and we'd still drawn then he might not have played as much against Spurs on Tuesday etc. Thought again we were good defensively bar a couple of moments when we were searching for a goal, top save by Mig again from Coleman at the end. 4 successive clean sheets in the league... even the most negative of fans must be happy with that stat No doubt those that were moaning we were conceding too many goals last year despite scoring loads will now be moaning we aren't scoring enough goals despite conceding less. Unfortunately you can't have both as we're not Bayern Munich
came on here thinking people would be accepting of the point given how we weren't great and impressed by a few performances but seems like Rodgers is the worst manager in the World again now, mainly because Sturridge isn't fit enough to play the whole game and we only have Sterling to replace him. If he left Coutinho on he'd be the best manager in the World again though.. how 1 sub can make up peoples minds eh...
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers praised the "brilliant" performance of teenager Jordon Ibe after he was thrust into the Merseyside derby with Everton. Ibe, making only his second league start for Liverpool, came closest to breaking the goalless deadlock with a strike against the post. "I've just been waiting to put Jordon in," said Rodgers, after the 19-year-old winger's display at Goodison Park. "I had no qualms about putting him in, it was a brilliant performance." Ibe has recently been recalled from a successful loan spell in the Championship at Derby County, and was only told he was playing on Friday. Rodgers added: "He was unfortunate not to score with that great strike but he's got a wonderful temperament and technique and tactically he was very, very good coming into that system, knowing when to go forward and when to tuck in.
I have been saying all season that Ibe is a great player, he should never have gone on loan in the situation you were in
A loan spell in Champ getting games and goals would have done more for him than chucking him into our side early in the season...
I think he was ready to step up, not saying he would have played every game but should have had plenty of time on the pitch.
Ibe was pretty impressive today but there'll be sterner tests. I'd start him over Markovic as on the evidence of today he has end product and control over what he's doing but is still very quick and skilful.
Against Spurs he will be tested more defensively by Erikson. Markovic is pretty sound defensively. Erikson may found our system tricky to break as he always seems to run inside, not around the outside. Either way Can and the RW will be busy.
Steve McClaren said that Ibe had lots of technique ut lacked team skills. He needed the loan. McClaren has done us a huge favour.
Meh, pretty dull tactical stalemate, neither side did enough to earn the win, I was particularly ****ed off with our lack of ambition in the 2nd half when the game was gagging for the involvement of Barkley and the removal of the utterly ****ing useless Barry, together with Kone for Naismith who was mince Ibe did well, we isolated the hapless Sakho in the first half, who's utter ****e btw, but for some reason dropped that tactic in the 2nd? Weetabix legs did **** all as did Sterling, an odd game and a strange atmosphere an all
Maybe subconsciously the players didn't want to lose the game for it to be forever known as Gerrard wins last derby etc so were a bit more defensive... Who knows, neither team looked great going forward though.
