So, you think Feregie was responsible for Ronaldo`s talent, Pep was responsible for Messi? some players just have the natural telent and drive to take them to the top regardless.
This is rapidly becoming the Balotelli show. Bad buy' as most of us feared at the time, but we did hope he could be a talisman and, at £16m, there wasn't too much risk. That was wishful thinking. But I almost feel sorry for him now. The hysteria of the shirt swap - what sort of deflective bull**** is that? He was hopeless last night, almost cringeworthy; but if we go out of this competition, as seems likely, it"ll be more down to the abysmal perfermance against a beatable Basel that will hurt most.
Absolutely ridiculous the level of criticism this lad is receiving - anyone who thinks he was the worst performer or is fixated on the shirt swap should jump in the nearest bin as far as I'm concerned. Even the Echo made their backpage headline 'Apologise' referring to Balotelli - here's an idea, why don't you get an apology from the following also: - Migs for being afraid of his own shadow - Johnson for being an empty vessel - Skrtel and Lovren for being one of the worst centre back pairings in English football and consistently make basic mistakes - Gerrard for being completely anonymous for the past 2-3 years in our midfield - Rodgers for completely alienating our best centre back in Sakho - Rodgers and the club for being naive for thinking that Suarez would stay in the summer and failure to plan accordingly
Agree with all of that. Balotelli was a crock of ****, but he was certainly no worse than anyone else last night. He actually held up the ball very well a few times, only for nobody to make any runs towards him or around him.
He definitely grew into the game and could see him getting on the ball more. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't amazing but I actually feel sorry for him because everyone is focused on him. The Echo backpage just sums up everything for me - focus on the scapegoat, and not on the real problems which is the team selection.
I do think the shirt swapping is a non entity myself. You are at half time. it is standard practice in europe to change shirts at half time anyway so he swapped his with pepe. this is balotelli were are talking about he doesn't lie by convention. so what? I feel his performance in general was no different to other games he's played and while he didn't raise it i felt he didn't do worse either. Mingolet is rooted to his line, it brings dfensive line too deep to play the press. we coudl do it for 20 mins then gaps started appearing in between lines. its only one element of that issue but for me a top sweeper keeper plays on his pen spot to 18 yard line not on his goal line. Lad is failed by coaching as well. Johnson hasn't got the legs to get back. you can see going forward he's not too bad at all but consistently he coudln't sprint back. Skertl made the basic errors last night and looked poor. lovern looked decent and tried his best to be in control of his own game. his strengths came out more when defending thier fast breaks. for me we need trust between CBs and there is none. gerard isn't that bad... but we are failing to stick to the basci game plan. we need him sitting between both cbs in possession and we need the lines to be closer together to make it work. It cannot work with a deep back line and guys up front not coming back. rogers deserves much critism and it will grow as time goes on. over a month ago now everyone said this defensive clownery needs to stop, so far no sign of any improvement, if that continues two more months we'll be out of cl running. Balotelli selection and decision to buy will haunt him badly.
Some good points and some I would argue but as far as Balotelli goes he's just not good enough and it was a mistake to buy him. I've been of this opinion from the start. As you say there are others who need to look at themselves including the manager. If this continues we'll be looking for a new manager soon our owners won't put up with these below par performances if we start falling down the league.
I don't really care about swapping shirts at HT but I can understand why people are annoyed by it. My issue is that there is so much focus on that one particular incident than the 90 mins of medicority from our so called senior players. --------------------------------------- Migs is rooted to his line - completely agree and it;s not good enough. New keeper in the right style is what we need. Skrtel is a back foot defender - he is naturally a deep defender so this drags the line deep. Lovren is far too aggresive - he goes for everything and his judgement is appalling. He simply cannot judge the flight of the ball and his positioning is all wrong. Skrtel and Lovren - you have one defender who prefers to play deep and one who prefers to play high. As a result, you're never going to successfully play the offside trap because the line is all wrong. And there is no signs of it improving - unlike Sakho and Lovren who struggled initially against Spurs but at Sakho figured out how to play alongside Lovren and covered well. Johnson was up against the best player in the world - is it harsh to criticise him? Probably, but we're talking about a supposedly top english right back with plenty of international caps. He was sh*t, and has been sh*T for a number of years. Gerrard plays far too deep because he cannot cover the ground. Between the GK, CB's and DM - we play far too deep. This then puts a strain on the CM's and the attack and it creates so much space for the opposition to exploit. This isn't a new problem - the same happened last year. The difference is, we're not scoring early goals which change the dynamics of the game. Once we attacked and scored a goal, we could sit back deeper and then catch teams on the counter.
He's a ****, we know that. Swapping shirts is out of order IMO but its also expected of Mario. I'm glad Brod is dealing it the way he is though, no for the shirt instance only, more for the message he is giving Balotelli as well as other players too. Its his way or the highway! Having said that, the focus on the shirt swapping is ridiculous really. Its an avoidance of talking about the game. I heard the radio say "lets talk about the surprising result at Anfield" this morning, surprising???
Final point on this topic: Liverpool conceded 15 goals in last 9 games. And apparently Balotelli is the problem.
The point I was trying to make is that there is a huge emphasis on Mario and not enough on the more problematic area of the team.
You mean not enough finger pointing at one individual for our defensive errors? Maybe because defence is a team thing and the finger needs to be pointed directly at the manager and his coaching staff for not resolving a issue that was clear as day eighteen months or so ago!
I think loads of #bitters didn't get what they wanted last night and are now having to rewrite history to claim 3-0 is a shock and an "embarrassment" Even last night Tobes was reduced to trying to argue that the value from £20m Lallana (after a handful of games for us) shows Rodgers is a #fraud for not buying Bale, Ronaldo or Di Maria instead
I lay the blame on incompetent players - Migs, Skrtel, Lovren, Johnson and Gerrard. I also lay the blame at the man who continues to pick them - Rodgers. I don't think it's an error caused by the style of play - blaming the system is a lazy reason. It doesn't prevent defenders from basic positioning, nor judging the flight of the ball, or making a player. I'm talking the very basics of defending.
