Another frustrating day, but what are we doing wrong, how can we improve 1. For me this the main one. TOO MANY TOUCHES. I am sick to death of seeing LFC players , pretty much all of them at some stage, taking more touches than they should, making the decision to pass,shoot,cross 2 seconds later than they should have, it happens so many times its untrue. We play in front of teams, the movin from one side of the pitch to the other , it takes too long.If I was BR i would have them playin 5 a side , and ban players from playin more than 2 touches, it totally slows the game down , and allows the opposition defnce to reform, 1/2 takes the defnce out of the game We need TEMPO, tempo doesnt mean loadsa runnin, it means QUICK passin, 1 ,2 touch, if you take any more the chance has gone 2. GET IN THE BOX, I am also fed up of seeing no f**ker in the box, a natural goal scorer which hopefully we will get in Jan , would know where to be in the box and when to time the run.But we dont have that problem cos theres no f**ker in there in the 1st place half the time,the 2 wide players and the 2 CMs who arnt sittin should be killing themselves to get in there 3. SET PIECES, the amount of goals score in footy by this method is MASSIVE, we score from a corner about once a season, which is bad cos we have bloody loads of them, we have to work on this, we dont seem to have any plan attacking free kicks and corners.This has to change
The too many touches thing isn't new, it frustrated the hell out of me last season when we had Carroll in the box. However had the ball in a wide position had to try and beat their man before consisering crossing, I found myself screaming "just put it in the ****ing box" at the TV!!! Only Gerrard was prepared to whip it in early. Of course thats no longer a issue as teams let us cross...because theres no ****er in the box to get on the end of it!!! Set pieces have been a problem for a while too. We've not had a proper ariel threat at set pieces since Sami Hyypia left! We have a few players that want to run with the ball too - Suarez, Sterling, Suso, Assaidi, etc. Part of the reason I don't want us to get Daniel 'I wear velcro instead of footy boots' Sturridge!
Newcastle fan in peace I watched the match with alot of scousers today (i live in Aigburth) and we were pretty much all agreed at half time that Liverpool had dominated the match but not really looked like scoring, whereas although Newcastle were terrible (we have been all season, utter tripe compared to last season and this game was one of our worst) we looked like getting at the goal and causing problems. If you had someone like Ba or Cisse up front i think you'd have won comfortably today but as it looks you hold the ball well but don't look to do anything with it. By the time you scored (and not the type of goal BR has talked about aiming for, though a very good goal none-the-less) I had finally got to the point of thinking you weren't going to threaten us. Your players aren't quite as good as i think some of your fans believe, but more worryingly they need to get some self belief. They looked bereft of ideas at times (many hit and hope balls into the box to no-one), but got to say Suarez was world class today.
I agree that we've got a problem with set pieces, especially corners, but we're not the only ones. In a recent study across the board in the premiership, less than 10% of corners beat the first man.
Fair judgement. I was always worried, as you have the quality to score and I thought you inevitably would eventually. Thought we did dominate most of the match and just couldn't manage to score in our fast play at the beginning. It was a good game though and thoroughly entertaining, we just need that finished article main man as a striker.
I think we broke records last season, something like 250 corners and only 4 goals from them. It is continuing this season.
Gerrard was bad, but Downing when he came on as sub was utter pish. Why Brendan didn't bring on Assaidi who has more drive and menace is a mystery.
I agree, I think to myself that Assaidi might not be fully fit still to get a start, he looks A LOT better than Downing from what I've seen in the Europa games!
A lot of problems really. - We don't have a natural goalscorer so even after starting well we never get the goal so we can relax and work on the counter. Instead teams get their chance and take it and we're left chasing games without the quality in the final third to make possession count. - Jose is about as good going forward as a duck with no legs. The amount of times he went forward, gave the ball away was incredible - although his punt got us the goal. - Wisdom is very inexperienced and has been severly caught out on the last two games. Ball watching and closing the man quicker he needs to work on. We need Johnson and Kelly back asap to integrate Wisdom in, rather than bomb him in every game. - I'm not sold on Sahin. Didn't realise he's 24. I asumed he was 19/20. Not sure how much better he will get and seems lightweight to me. - We need to be careful not to burn out Sterling who I thought was excellent today. - Shelvey badly needs to work on his finishing. - That horrible question mark over Gerrard. I think we're carrying to be honest, and he looks thoroughly fed up. I think we should drop him once Lucas gets back. Let him work for his place. - Lack of depth - Downing actually came on the pitch if you didn't know. Players like Henderson and him arn't suddenly going to change you a game - where as Assaidi might - but isn't getting on for some reason. - Generally no goals in the team. Another thoroughly depressing game to be honest.
Downing was fine when he came on. He produced a brilliant ball that Shelvey should have scored from. If Shelvey had've taken his chance we'd have been saying Downing helped change the game. Also, he, for all his faults, puts in a shift - important when you want to go for the win but also don't want to be too open.
I don't get why we keep taking Suso off, especially today. He looked the most dangerous player today and we needed to score!
In the long term I reckon Suso will be the better of the two but at the minute Raheem is our second best player behind only Suarez IMO
Going forward yeh (which is frightening). And I agree about Suso. He has so much potential. As does Raheem, but Suso could be magical. Our best player at the moment, after Suarez, is Agger for me.
I'm afraid to say that you are describing exactly how everyone used to describe us... Lots of class with no end product in the final 3rd, that is the one main thing that Laudrup wanted to change with us.... You have lots of classy players and the support to buy class through the transfer windows - So if Brendan's way is the right way but getting the better players that we couldn't afford, then through a couple of transfer windows and you'll be where he believes you'll can get to. If his way always had these limitations, then I'm afraid you'll all be frustrated for some time.... I'll watch with interest - good luck
I'd say Johnson ahead of Agger at the minute. I don't Agger has done much but he is a very important part of our system, he is one of the best passers we have
I think his calm and his on the ball ability adds so much to our side. Johnson is looking good right now though.
As I've said on here a few times though, Johnson perhaps looks better on the left because the expectations aren't as high. People are more forgiving of a mistake because he's 'out of position'
