Balotelli played better in the 30 mins he was on than Sturridge did all game. Shows how little Gerrard knows saying Sturridge was fantastic today. Absolute knob head the way he spoke about Balo too. Clearly the best penalty taker we have aside from Stevie, if the manager had Hendo down as the taker then it shows how ****ing dumb he is too. Balotelli proven quality from the spot, handles pressure perfectly. Has to start the next game, has done more than enough in the last three games he's played. Ibe MOTM again, class kid, really class.
think you've gone a bit too far there regarding captaincy (he wouldn't be my choice but i wouldn't go far enough to say he's not captain material) i think it says a lot about our lack of set piece specialists in the team in general when a. Hendo is first choice on pens and b. Our best set piece taker is only good enough as an impact sub (atm)
It might be true, but what Jimmy and I are saying is that you don't say that on tv. He's not an ex LFC player like Carragher that's making a career out of being a pundit.. he's LFC captain. Behind close doors, fine... but on live tv not good. He knows that his comments will be taken and used to possibly cause rumours of unrest over all of this. What he should have said was, look they had a little disagreement but the end result is we scored and won and we move onto the next game with even more confidence etc.
If Henderon had taken a knock who would give a **** about him not taking it? Mario was the better option available at the time Anyway Hendo doesn't seem upset now, and hugged Mario afterwards This will all be forgotten by the time they're out of the shower and applying their Nivea for Men
It's a shame it will detract from ballotelli's best overall performance for us. You can be sure all the fingers will be pointing at him.
Oh well f This. They are young lads so not too sure on your earlier comment about not captain material etc - it's all great experience but for me - I'm ****ing glad Mario had the bollox to take it as I genuinely think Hendo wouldn't have slotted
Don't agree at all. Happy that Gerrard spoke out. Hendo was the managers choice and Mario should have respected that. Anyway, as you said, we won, let's move on
I've looked again and yes, that's how it seems. However it's not Sturridge's place to say that- if he's not in contention then he should stay out of it, and he certainly should be celebrating the goal as much as anyone. Anyway, storm in a teacup for me, and distracts from the real issues. Not a great game, and a just barely acceptable result- we've given ourselves a lot to do in the second leg with a tough place to go to between two very hard league games. Now we'll see just how much improvement we've made in the last couple of months. We still need to be scoring more goals. With Mario starting to come good surely it's time to play him and Sturridge together from the off?
to be fair, if nothing else, it cleared things up so there won't be as much hearsay and rumour as there would if gerrard gave a non committal answer
Champions League: 6 goals in 4 games over 2 days Europa League: 41 goals in 1 day The Europa League: a proper football competition.
Right time to move - poor performance really. We're struggling to create anything substantial In the final third. Sturridge is isolated and he needs a partner. Thought Migs was excellent again, Sakho and Skrtel did a good job. Can was really poor though. Allen and Hendo were ok defensively but add no drive from the midfield. Coutinho and Sturridge were guilty of dwelling on the ball - which was very frustrating given they actually did a lot of the hard work just before. Lallana didn't do much apart from an awful miss. Ibe was clearly man of the match. Excellent performance.
I disagree with your disagreement. Regardless of the rights and wrongs, Stevie should have been more diplomatic. He's still a Liverpool player, but was talking like a disinterested observer.
Hendo's a good lad and a trier but he struts around the pitch like he's world class, his Ronaldo stance when he takes free kicks is funny until the ball ends up way off target. I hope the lad improves to a standard of former legendary Liverpool captain's, but he better hurry up.
I think he's a very good squad player - good engine and is capable of very good things. But far too inconsistent and lack of real quality is what hinders him. However, I think he needs a rest. Both he and Coutinho have played 20 games consecutively.
Agree with this. I thought Hendo and Allen played well in terms of keeping the ball, pressing their midfielders etc and they aren't there to be the creative spark so hard to judge them for that. Coutinho, Sturridge, Ibe, Lallana were meant to be the main creative players and unfortunately Coutinho & Sturridge had off days. Everything they seemed to do was just a second too slow or slightly over hit. Ibe had a great game but can only influence so much from that side position. Lallana was neat and tidy on the ball but he just needs to start adding more goals or assists. Mig continued to be the keeper we hoped he would be when we signed him. The more clean sheets he gets the more confidence he'll get which will help him keep improving. Can had a poor game, put strangely was in possession, not his defending. Not too worried by that. Balotelli was the game changer though. Came on and did everything right. Also him being there allowed Sturridge to drift a bit more and gave hi a bit more freedom. I don't think he's that effective on his own as teams seem to double mark him and he can't exploit much space or get defenders 1v1. When he has a partner it occupies one of the other defenders and allows Sturridge to flourish some more.
Maybe i just appreciate players/managers being honest and speaking their minds. I find it funny that people moan about players no longer being in touch with the normal world and any media appearances are meet with with standard PR trained responses yet when a players does speak their mind like Gerrard tonight they get lambasted for it. People constantly moan about managers like Warnock, Holloway, Mcarthy and Redknapp buys that's exactly what they do.
But not if its to the detriment of the team. How does Mario feel now having come on, changed the game, scored the winner and he turns round and sees his captain saying he's been disrespectful and knows the headlines will be about that rather than him performing well?
