Liverpool - Played 12 - Won 9 - Drawn 2 - Lost 1

Unlucky tonight lads, if the Swans had took the lead while dominating the 1st half we would have struggled to get a result and left ourselves open chasing the game(a bit like Swansea after we scored).

Good luck for the rest of the season.

 

Play like we did tonight and we'll get 13 points imo.

 

I was pleased to get to half time for a breather - a great half and it was hard to tell who was the Champions League side. After the break we found out.

Liverpool upped the pace and intensity and we couldn't handle it. I thought their play without the ball was outstanding and ultimately that was the difference between the two sides. No complaints about the result from me.

 

90% happy with first half -30% second = 60% happy overall with that soft loss.

 

Gave everything in first we no reward. I think that took it out of the players, rather than a change in Brendan's tactics we just ran out of steam. The flukey goal really sapped our energy. Only criticism is that with 40 points in bag and just gone by a goal at home withs legs tiring we should have made changes earlier. Shelvey, ki and Gomis seemed to be the worse effected.

Listening to Brendan when you are on the other side of fence is painful.

 

Excellent first half with Taylor, Shelvey and Ki leading lights - but in reality we didn't look like scoring.
Half time really told the story - Rogers tinkered with the midfield and they took hold of the territory with our players unable to hold the ball or create. Siggy was off throughout the game but Shlevey, Ki, Taylor, Cork and Gomis all looked shattered long before Liverpool's goal - lucky indeed but when you are tired luck tends to go against you. Taylor , who had been outstanding in the first half mis-passed six times in arrow and Jonjo (another who had played so well in the first half) started playing his 'long aimless pass and give up game' with 40 minutes left to play.
By the time Monk realised we were losing and had been battered for half an hour we started to see replacements - too little, too late and in the wrong positions, again. Montero was starved of the ball, Nathan looked like all his confidence has been sucked out of him and what was Emnes supposed to achieve with a minute of the 90 left?
Although a battling first half performance there was little to enthuse about.
Liverpool weren't all that much - well organised in defence but didn't look like scoring until we tired. Stirling and Lallana must be made of paper!

 

Swansea played well, but we escaped by the skin of your teeth. Sometime lady luck have to be on
your side in football.Swansea.

 

Disappointed to see all that hard work meaning nothing , we were chasing the game when at up to that it was clear the players on the pitch needed freshening up

Not sure where you were when we forced Mignolet to make 2 wordily saves and had a off the line clearance by Skirtel ? other than that I have to agree with you.

 

We definitely looked like scoring in the first half. Numerous times. We were literally all over them. I was sitting right next to the Liverpool fans and you could feel their angst - we looked incredibly dangerous. Loads of running off the ball, and a massive desire to win the ball back quickly, which we did extremely successfully in Liverpool's half. All the action was happening right in front of us and everybody was just waiting for us to score. Mignolet made a couple of fantastic saves, and some good positioning and blocking from the Liverpool players meant that they hung on. We most certainly looked like scoring.

Second half, we visibly tired. I was calling for subs at 55 minutes. Ki, Siggy, and Taylor seemed most affected to me. I turned to my friend and said that Monk probably wouldn't do anything until after they scored. Montero was warming up on 58 mins, by which point, Liverpool's right side (Can and Lallana) were camped in our half. We needed to make that change then to give Montero some room to work in, or at least to make Can and Lallana retreat and starve some possession to Sterling, who had begun to roast Taylor (no shame in that, LBs up and down the country get roasted by Sterling). By the time Montero was brought on at 72 minutes, we were a goal down and Liverpool were sitting much tighter ready to play counter attack football. Every time Montero got the ball, he was double-teamed. We had to bring him on at 0-0. Bringing on Montero turned out to be a wasted substitution. Gomis was isolated second half. Siggy was visibly struggling to get up the pitch and support him - but, to be fair, from the stands you can only appreciate the ground that Siggy covers in a match. He'd put so much effort in, he should have been taken off sooner. Shelvey's work rate looked immense from the stands - even late in the game, he was the usually always the first midfielder busting a gut to get back, and often he would make it and make a clean tackle. I've not seen him work so hard in a game, but he has to learn to not just do it against Liverpool, every game please, Jonjo! Jack Cork played a fantastic game too.

We were better first half, but didn't get any luck in front of goal; they were better second half and got a huge slice of luck in front of goal. It was a classic 0-0 entertaining match, but a 1 in 100 fluke goal decided it. I'm proud of the lads, all of them. A really good effort thwarted by dumb luck.

 

Battling first half!!! Nothing to enthuse about, are you for real....
We outplayed them during that period...

 

That's exactly how I saw the game also...was just about to write nearly an identical post. Weird.

If Shelvey can play like that consistently he can be an England player.
Monk made similar mistakes to what he has made all year.
Can't grumble about losing to Liverpool however.

 

Best football we've ever played in first half imo. Mostly sharp all over the pitch and were unfortunate not to score.

Its becoming very apparent that if our midfield doesn't score no one does. As sharp as we are in midfield it is very hard to score with a blunt arrow up front. We had opportunities and Gomis should have scored at least once. We played pretty but if we can't score its pointless, literally.

Liverpool did improve in the second half but we were still in control until their fortuitous goal. They appear to be a charmed team making the most of the Angel on their shoulders. They could end up sneaking fourth place if their good fortune continues but I still see them finishing 5th. Their next game will tell us all though, win and its Europe for them, lose and they'll falter and struggle to get 5th with a hungry Southampton and a moody Spurs to contend with.

+ve
Amat - stepped seamlessly into defence and didn't miss a heart beat.
Cork - superb and is still improving game by game. What a steal
Naughton - Getting better but imo, needs to run the line a la Rangel of old, he's capable.
Joe Allen - Good to see him playing well. Good luck and come back Joe
Monk - set the team up superbly and tactics were spot on.

Our general attitude and demeanour throughout the game showed us to be a team 'wanting more'. It was good to see they are looking to get the most out of this season and have not settled for a warm and cosy mid-table finish.

-ve
Disappointed - We were unable to force our pressing game in the second half.
Energy - levels dropped off and players couldn't get to their positions to take a pass.
Possession - Cheaply conceded through sloppy passing, particularly second half.
Heads up but looking down - We played on automatic at times and passed the ball to where players 'should' have been without looking up to see where they actually were.
Gave it away - We cheaply passed the initiative to Liverpool because of the above which disappointed me the most.
Gomis - Had three guilt edged first half oppertunities and fluffed them all. How vital a first half goal would have been for us.
Monk - Set the team and tactics up perfectly then messed up the substitutions yet again. Emnes and Montero should have been on sooner, as it was they had little time to effect the game. Monk has got to learn

... and finally my big gripe is with those fekkin Gods who still appear to be against us. I'm gonna have words with them, I've had enough.

All in all, dissapointedly happy with performance which came to naught, so, at heart, I'm Gutted

 

"Excellent first half with Taylor, Shelvey and Ki leading lights" is what I wrote and it was a battling first half - we were quick in their space and tackling, ergo we battled.

 

"Best football we've ever played", seriously?
It was good and the possibly the best we've played this season ... but ever? Not close.

In the first half Ash gave some serious grief to Amat & Naughton although both did OK.
Taylor attacked ... at speed ... and it worked.
Shelvey stuck to sensible football ... and it worked
Ki was everywhere
Surprisingly Siggy was a passenger all game.
Cork is going to be immense for us but needs some midfield protection - in the second half Ki & Jonjo were visibly flagging from about 10 minutes in and Siggy didn't improve. Taylor, Naughton and Amat got pegged back and Monk made no effort to alleviate the situation (possibly thinking we've hold out against sustained attacks again). Routledge was hit and miss and, although Gomis covered the grass, we had no effective attack (despite all our adventure we only had two shots on target in the first half which was matched by Liverpool according to Opta).
Our subs came to late and had no real impact although Emnes looked lively.

Either Oliviera is really hopeless or Monk doesn't want to play our loan players in which case maybe it's time for Emnes to start a game or two as striker.

All in all we were unlucky not to get a point but Liverpool's zonal defence meant we were always going to find it hard to score.

 

So when have we played better BS?

 

Throughout the season before last and most of the first part of last

 

Love it

What U think of Aleksander Mitrovic or is it just me that thinks he's an essential signing.

 

No opinion on Mitrovic then BS? didn't think so because that would mean you'd have to look forward.

Here's another one to ponder BS.

Given Michu has been an abject failure at Roma and also given that he'll be coming home in the summer do you think
A) He'll be a regular starter next season
B) He'll figure more from the bench next season
C) He will not be in the match day squad except for cup games and injuries next season
D) He wont be seen back here and he'll be shipped of on loan again or sold to the highest loser, sorry bidder

 

...Napoli...and D)

 

When i say that Liverpool are a class above us then last nights game showed it. We were evenly matched for an hour when we had most of the ball but liverpool's defence coped very well just like our defence did but where Liverpool could keep going for the full 90 minutes we started making mistakes and running out of steam after 60 minutes and they kept up the pressure that gave them the goal, We did not have enough quality players to stay with Liverpool in the end and we never had a bony type player who could have given us the lead we deserved in the first half that would have given us a cushion.....All in all a very enjoyable entertaining match against a giant in football and even though we narrowly lost you can see the improvement and the way we are growing and getting closer to the bigger sides every season......A few more quality players we need to take some of the pressure off the quality players we already have that worked their socks off and had to be replaced...