I genuinely believe we are too 'lightweight' and all this tikka takka football has no effect against more physical sides. We showed this against stoke and to a lesser extent, Villa! Oldham bossed us off the ball by a clear mile. IMO we need a big guy who'll get some heavy challenges in early in the game to say "I'm here so get ready for a rough ride!" We've not had anyone like that for a while now!
Ye I suppose how many teams in the last 54 years have you played away from home 2 divisions or more below you, I'm not looking though....anyone????????? Another thing which I find strange is Liverpool boss Rodgers "bitterly disappointed with the young players" in Oldham defeat - but also had £38m worth of his own signings in team. What Suarez, Sturridge, Borini, Allen, Henderson, Skrtel, Jones and Coates etc not exactly just came in from the youth team have they, just sound like he was blaming Sterling, Wisdom and Robinson cant really blame them 3 for losing the match, can he??
I just got back from the game. Few of us were worried before Kickoff as the midfield and defence looked pretty lightweight and it was obvious Oldham were going to outmuscle us and have a go, think cares would have done better than Coates, don't really need pace against Oldham, would have had sterling up instead of Borini, and had someone bigger in midfield. There was too much of the game where the passing was inacurate, we lacked urgency too, the eriod of passing on the outside of the box when we were losing with about three mins to go really pissed me off. To be fair, that team should have beaten Oldham, it was obvious in the first half the system wasn't working, BR should have noticed that. We are suffering from having three years of poor signings that is now affecting the squad. The past four managers have all been guilty, the past three in particular. You can tell Brendan was thinking of our difficult run in We need to be sure we have the depth to deal with big games in a number of competitions. It doesn't look like Allen and Borini are massive improvements (Borini has an excuse). This needs to be addressed.
In short, we miss Mascherano Lucas does it, Gerrard can when he wants to but the only other guy we have is Jamie Carragher. Moussa Sissoko would have been a good buy but obviously he's gone to Newcastle now.
Don't see Swansea's name in the draw for the next round either. In fact I didn't see their name in the 4th round. So their manager Lillyput ( or whatever) must be truly aweful and so must their team!
Mascherrano was the last one who could bully a midfield but it is Definately something we need. The guy at west ham ,can't remember his name but had a really good game against us until he went off injured, that's the type of player we need ESP in this type of game.
All I can truly say is that it didn't go too well did it? There's lots of reasons and many have been mentioned above. However, I was disappointed by some of the performances. In that type of game and with a physical side you have to earn the right to play your football. On this point I totally agree with Rodgers that many of our youngsters did not show the required level of aggression. Since we bought him, I have continually called Allen a ball pusher. Today he proved that he most certainly isn't a DM and that his incisive passing is severely lacking. Sterling lost his head and was more interested in fighting personal duels than fighting for the team. Wisdom seemed as though he was terrified and didn't impose himself at all! Even Downing showed that you have to use both pace and skill to win yourself even half chances with opponents like that. If today's defeat has taught some of them a lesson about what is truly expected then it's a defeat that I can accept. I don't begrudge Oldham their victory today and hope they go on to batter Everton in the same way.
Thanks for taking him off our hands, much appreciated. Plus all that lovely lolly you gave us as well.
Looks likely that you guys will be taking the trophy win won last season shortly too, no doubt you congratulated Liverpool Football Club greatly for reaching such a achievement last season
Rogers big problem is as you now find out, is that his teams can only play one way. His philosophy is possession keep the ball and you should win. But we all know football never quite workout this way. We had some silly stats for possession last season and lost, but under Laudrup we have won games with a lot less possession.
We lost today, but Im not too gutted as the League is infinitly more important.You can quibble over individual selections but BR is right you cant expect the best lads to play 70 games Some lads had there chance today and it was plain to see why they are squad players and not PL regulars( Coates Robinson ), others are good players but didnt fancy it(Sturridge ), and some just had an off day (Sterling,Suarez) There are positives from this gamethough , its weeds out the sh*t,Robbo wont make it as a 1st team regular ever imo, brad smith is a better player now and 18 months younger, Coates is a good player, but totally unsuited to the English game, its too fast for him and he has no pace at all, but would do a job in Italy or Spain.Brad Jones is a back up keeper,end of. I think today has killed Coates and Robbos chances of ever being an LFC 1st team regular, games like this can do that, 1 game can finish your top level career, it happened with Steven Darby a couple of yrs ago v Fiorentina, it happened today with Robbo n Coates Borini and Allen, Allen is getting out muscled in every game he plays now, he is defo being targeted by the opposition midfield, he needs time out the side to regain confidence , and now we are out of the cup , he will probably get it.Borini, coasting at the mo, good movement off the ball but other than that hes s*it, sometimes has a poor touch,and not getting himself in the game enough Wisdom ,Suarez and Hendo, played ok 2day, but they were piss*n in the wind with so many below par performances from there team mates Sayin that if we get 4 pts or more from the next 2 PL games, I wont give a f**k we have lost to Oldham in the FAC.Lets see a reaction v L'Arse n Citeh
You've won (& not lost) a whole 2 more games by this stage of the season compared to last year by not keeping the ball as much. You have drawn exactly the same amount of games as you did by January last year. Not slagging, just trying to dispel this post Brendan myth you lot seem to be creating that his brand of football is somehow ineffectual compared to your football now without him.
