So today is the day. apparently we turned some corner or something cos we beat up a swansea reserve side and a wigan side fighting with each other. Well I'm kind of sick of hearing this stuff and have been enjoying us beating up on weak sides but keeping one eye on today's fixture. Its time for players to put up or shut up and its high time rodgers got his tactics spot on for a full 90 too. Any side can lose despite putting everything in and on day's like this a bounce of a ball can just go against you but thats not what this article is about. this is about dropping the attitude that throwing 2-0 leads away or scraping a draw is ok against a decent side. Today is about each player putting the required effort and BELIEF in. I hope i don't see players not making the runs cos they don't trust team mates, i hope i don't see panic of spurs score and i especially hope we don't see the side getting desperate cos its still 0-0, over committing on attacks and getting caught rotten at the back. we need to truly believe in the system and have both urgency in applying the system but also patience not to go chasing and leaving stupid gaps. Today or all days is a day to deliver a performance. Lets see what happens.
Who says we've turned a corner? The results against Wigan and Swansea will mean **** all if we lose today but I'd rather we'd won those games than not. Every fan on this board seems to recognise pretty precisely where we are at. Not as bad as we feared but not as good as we'd like. In honesty MITO haven't seen any suggesting everything is rosy because of two decent wins. Yes today will be a test, I've been saying all year Spurs have done well and bought well in terms of squad strengthening. They are ahead of us at the moment, not by a million miles but IMO they are better equipped than us in a lot of area. However we can still beat them on our day but as you say if we are going to do it we need to address some of those problems because frustratingly a lot of them are just mental issues. Spurs will press us high up. We flap around like seals in the clubbing season when teams do that to us and we need to cut that out. However Spurs also play a high line which should allow us to get in behind them often enough to get goal chances. Game on
Agree to some extent - if we're ever going to build a winning team the players need the belief they will win these sort of games, but I think you're being a bit harsh wrt Wigan / Swansea games - I think the reason Wigan turned on each other and collapsed was not that they are a bad team but that we totally outplayed them and made them look awful...
Because I actually watch us play I have watched us play some lovely footy and some abject ****e just like last year. I have laid no claims that we will definitely beat them. I merely believe that we CAN if we are at our best. I don't doubt you'll be on later if we lose, all happy and straining to tell us you know best but I'll go to Anfield today as I do for every home game believing we can do it. I don't really need evidence MFG all I need is a little optimism (mis-placed or not) which makes being a football fan a pleasurable experience not the miserable existence you seem to think it should be
I'm so glad you came online. You know how threads are. You're always worried that nobody's going to be around to suck the energy out of the thread like a giant black hole of boring despair. But there you were, in the clinch!
Good response Billy I think MFG is getting worried that poor little Brendan might actually get us to finish higher than last season
So we have to beat a team that is unbeaten since December 9th in the league to prove that we are on the up? I don't think you can judge progress on one game. It should be judged on the season as a whole. And I say we have shown loads of progress this season. Yes, our defence has been poor at times, but its mostly invidual errors with people trying to get used to the system. And our attack is MUCH better, despite Rodgers having only one recognized centre forward until January.
The OP is of course right. You cannot just keep thrashing weak bottom sides and get beaten by top sides and at the same time saying you are in line with your objectives. It is time you beat a good side at home. If you do, no doubt Rodgers will say that he is aiming for top four...and this time he will say it with conviction...
I have seen on the LFC website rodgers saying just this... we've adapted to his system etc etc. Honestly the important thing about us today is what you said, a bit of quality if they do press high. if they press up their midfield then all it takes is one pass to make real space... we need the quality to deliver that pass and thats not carra and aggers job is it?
"@kennethdalglish: Big game at Anfield today. Strongly fancy a home win. A shut out for Pepe. A couple if goals from Luis. 5 star Steven and Cara stopping Bale" How ****ing dare he support Liverpool.
well guys i'm happyish. We rocked and rolled honestly in that second half but the sub worked, thats a good thing. tactically we were losing out badly in the middle and putting another body in was the right move. Countinho can be disappointed he didn't last til 70 even but he worked hard and will gain fitness. Spurs had chances but their two goals were complete defensive foolishness from us. the first was johnson and the second was a disaster. They gifted us one back and then ekotto was a complete idiot. We could have done better but we gave a good showing and did make a tactical change that helped our performance. All in all that's all positive.
I think we all got a bit fed up of playing well in some games and not winning so I'm not going to complain when we don't play particularly well and do take the points. Is MFG about by any chance?
it wasnt a great performance but we were clinical and BR made the right changes when it mattered. Besides we deserve a less than convincing win against a top side, having been tactically spot on against Arsenal and City only for silly defensive errors costing us the three points.
I watched the game again on motd2. i must say that if sigurdsson had have put that one away we were done in but once rodgers switched it we improved and spurs failed to change it to get back in. credit where it's due rodgers did what i wanted before half time, it only took him til 58mins though.. which is not too bad by some managers i guess. You are right getting a bit of luck going our way was nice.
