For me, Rodgers needs to change things because it's pretty damning: Manquillo for Johnson Toure for Skrtel Gerrard for Can It can't be any worse than the sh*te we've seen all season.
Ludo, Liverpool and Basel are all on three points, all having won one lost one against the others (i.e. not counting the results against Madrid). That's why we're below Ludo.
rules are: http://www.ehow.co.uk/list_6715252_champions-league-knockout-rules.html (sure there are other better sites) If two sides are even on points at the end of the group stage, then their head-to-head record determines who goes through. If that record is even, the side who has scored more goals away from home in the two matches between the two sides in question progresses. If necessary, the final factor may come down overall goal differential over the course of the six games or the teams' UEFA coefficient points for the past five seasons. so..... how do you do the table in this case? Ludo lost 2-1 at anfield LFC lost 2-1 at basel basel lost 0-1 at ludo by reading the rules if the group ended now... both basel and LFc scored away goals. further LFC beat ludo so must top them bu basel and ludo beat each other.... In short LFc should be second cos i am a reds fan and the perosn doing the table was a saaford ****er just surprised they managed to put ludo last. in any event its pointless as the table doesn't matter now. LFc need to beat basel by 2 goals at anfield OR win 1-0 to progress as long as we beat ludo at ludo which looks a tough ask given the other two struggled.
have a read of McCunty's article, decades of #bitterness flowing out over one game http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29734854 He goes on and on about Balotelli's price and Lovren's but not a single mention of Real's billion pound squad Even us applauding Ronaldo off is called an "admission of submission"
£16m for Balotelli - hardly a big amount. I've not even read the article but does he mention dross like Skrtel, Johnson, Migs, Gerrard? Or is he focusing on the easy target?
Took pity in the first half too; three goals and a change of gloves for Casilles but only one minute (not complaining, we needed HT)
Ok, enough of the negativity - let's focus on the positives. Players who actually played like they deserved to be on the pitch with the European Champions: - Sterling - Coutinho - Can - Lallana (not his biggest fan but at least this guy demands the ball) - Moreno (thought he was rash at times but the lad wasn't intimidated) Another positive (kinda) is that we witnessed a masterclass from Real. They were superb. This is Rodgers's 3rd CL match. He will learn (I hope he does) but he needs to learn quickly because he keeps making the same mistakes and this time, the attack will not save him. Consistent defensive issues are costing us.
He probably didn't even watch the game, he spends most of the article whinging that the LFC lounge had screens showing the 4-0 win before the game and saying (after the fact) that Liverpool had zero chance of ever repeating that result and we were lucky that Real only had crap players like Robben, Sneijder and Higuain back then. Then he slags off our fans and banners a bit.
I thought the first half hour was great and I'd argue their first goal was against the run of play, we didn't deserve to conceded at the time. Because it was that bad, I struck the final hour of the game from my mind!
I felt sterling is losing confidence and wasn't that good after 30mins coutinho was by far and away our best player and was wrongly taken off. he didn't feel one bit intimidated. Can.... not sure... they were not trying too hard. I don't think he is fit so i can't say Lallana? was not up to it but gave it a go. he isn't fast enough to take players on really. he's more and a flick and 1/2 type player... moerno... was decent... not great but farily decent. I thought henderson did "ok" but wasn't agressive enough. allen was anonymous and far to farr forward at times without it mattering. may bwith a full press commitment it'd have mattered but he wasn't in the game where he was needed as a result.
I'm not a massive Lallana fan because I think he is a MOTD player - he looks good in the highlights because he can do these clever flicks etc and he likes to press hard. Whilst I think he lacks substance, he at least makes the effort and he wants the ball and that is commendable. Compare that to Real Madrid, you have players all over the pitch that want the ball, even when surrounded. They can shrug off the opposition and still play it. Henderson definitely needs to add that to his game. In fact our whole midfield needs to learn to do that - Gerrard, Allen and Hendo. Coutinho and Sterling are the only ones who can do this in our team, and Lallana to some extent.
he'd just played sterling in with a wonder pass... and sterling looked over at bench worried.... it was an astounding decision for me. he didn't look knackered to me... simply isolated. every time he got the ball he was lively and trying stuff. our game died when he went off... it was on life support prior to that.
