We were below par today or had too many below par performers and a point is all we deserved. We took the lead against the run of play in our first attack and again, my boy Fletcher did the business. 3 shots and 3 goals so far. However, for me we had very little control of that game for the best part of 75 mins and indeed had Liverpool possessed a striker of Fletcher's ability, they would surely have won the game. McClean & Sess have gone right off the boil this season and neither have had a decent EPL game yet so far. Larsson is hit and miss as well. Campbell isn't a winger and looks way off the pace too and our general tactics and play was sluggish and very poor. That said, we scored and got a point. Liverpool were not that good but moved the ball better and controlled the tempo too much for me and in that young kid on the wing they have a real handful or skill, pace and attacking threat. Now there are positives. Fletcher. I bet there are not many pundits, commentators or other fans mentioning the fee anymore. Rose. What a good player he looks with pace, composure in possession and tackling. Tired a bit towards the end but not surprising after no pre season and no games other than England under 21. MiG. Looking every inch a top quality keeper these days and made some excellent saves and clearances. Colback. Much more comfortable as a central defensive midfielder but if he had the composure on that chance just before half time we'd have been 2 up and game over. Gardener. Much better going forward but stuck at full back for the cause. Was full of determination and made that opening goal. All in all a very good result given we were under the cosh for much of the game and still unbeaten. West Ham next week would be McClean and Sess's last game to show what they have got before I would make the changes. AJ to come back hopefully and much more attacking threat to support Fletcher. Not a good day at the office for me but certainly not the end of the world. I'm disappointed not to have beaten Liverpool but happy we have played poorly and still not been defeated. We roll on to the next match.
Lets hope AJ is fit and Sess can find some form, we just need that creative spark to get us going. There are quite a few players who are just out of form, that changes with a bit of time and a few wins. We are still more than capable of having a good season, we just need to be a bit more positive and composed on the ball.
Really like Gardner at RB, I think him and Mon should have a think about making the move permanent. Catts and Colback were both decent, and I think they can play well together.
Fletcher may well have three goals and that is to be commended, however his contribution otherwise is pretty none existent. Link up play - hardly any! Holding the ball up - nil! Was rarely involved! Now don't get me wrong the boot can score, however his link up play with Sess' does not exist. Now sess could not link up with Gyan or Bendtner either. He is either in the wrong role or not trying? I'd like to see Fletcher Saha. Sess' has been appalling so far. He was better second half but to be playing where he is playing he seems to have no appreciation of the main striker!!!
Sess had no pre-season. He is still a few weeks behind fitness and form wise and it showed today. Dropping him is not the answer he needs game time to get up to speed. Also can't believe people complaining about Fletcher he has had minimal service and scored three goals.
I thought Fletcher held it up quite well when it was not being launched at his head, there was no one around him to take the ball off him or make the run beyond him which was the problem.
Inclined to agree. We totally bottled it today and gave them far too much respect. Having said that JC took the p*ss out of Gerrard only to be pulled up by sh*tty Martin Atkinson all the time. Protect the England captain at all costs. Effin embarrassing.
We were poor but the ref did not help our cause, every 50/50 went to Liverpool and Gerrard is not allowed to be tackled apparently
Norman Stanley held the ball up well back tracked well and got a goal. I watched it on a link to Fox Soccer and those guys couldn't praise him enough.
Sorry but AJ isn't going to give Fletcher support up front. That is supposed to be Sess's job...however he hasn't done it yet...perhaps we need to find someone else to play that role and push Sess out wide left!
To say Fletcher did nothing but score shows a total lack of understanding of the game of football. He got no service, no support and fed off scraps all night, yet still won loads of balls in the air, battled against 2 defenders all the time on his own and still got his goal. Try looking at how poor McClean and Sessegnon where today. I really despair at our fans at times.
Not Fletchers biggest fan as you know Cest but, you are spot on with that assessment. MON got the tactics wrong and we set up to defend at all costs, meaning Fletcher and Campbell had nothing to use. Not too concerned about his hold up play his assists etc. he's a CF he's there to score goals, Heskey was the best hold up player in the PL he robbed the Scousers and Villa.
Been reading the Secret Footballer, he reckons you need possession of the ball, we did not have much yesterday. We persist in Mig (who in my book was MoM yesterday) hoofing the ball upfield and then we lost the ball. Sess is poor ATM and we are not creating enough chances and with poor possession are not likely to either! Positives were Rose looked good Gardner and Jack did ok and Fletcher did what he is paid to do score! Pity we did not give him more chance. Saha should have been put on for Sess and to see we if could have won the game!
No offence guys but you didn't deserve anything yesterday. Fletcher took his chance and fair play to him but that was all you had, all day. Typical of Liverpool that we couldn't score enough to win.
To be fair mate, you had a lot of possession but very few clear cut chances. After we scored we had a couple of good chances (if Colback had put his chance away when clean through which MotD conveniently left out) it would have been game over at half time at 2-0. The vast majority of your shots where long range. Mignolet pulled off 2 great saves and you hit the bar. Suarez was gifted his goal and the only bright spot was the lad Sterling who looks a real find but there were no strikers to get on the end of his trickery. I think we just about deserved our point but nothing more, whilst you thoroughly deserved your point but didn’t deserve to win.
NI Revolution in Red, don't worry all neutrals and the less biased Sunderland fans know you deserved the 3 points.
