Well, having had a sleep on it, and mulled it all over, here are a few points that stick in my head... Poor ball control. I have been banging on about this for 2 years now, we just don't seem able to control or pass the ball with the skill level you would expect from professional footballers. It gets especially poor, like last night, when a team ups the pace of the game, and the players have even less time on the ball than usual. But not being able to bring the ball down cleanly or pass it to or in front of another player are a very big issue for us. It gets far better when we are playing well and they have confidence, and that is maybe why the club have brought a psychiatrist in to Melwood (http://www.insidethegames.biz/sport...red-cycling-greats-hoy-pendleton-and-wiggins?) as those times that we are good and confident are too few and far between. Last night, only Suarez and José Enrique could move the ball around with any instinct. Sterling was useless, and has been for a few matches now, but last night, he looked like a baby deer trying to stand for the first time. Opposition players could just walk up to him and walk away with the ball. He was always getting it stuck under his feet, never able to control it, and never able to keep it. He appears to have to be able to see the ball to be able to interact with it, which alarms me, as this is the same as a car driver, who can't master the basics of changing gear without looking at the gear-stick. You need to be able to master these basic skills early on, so you can concentrate on the more important stuff. So I have to question his ability to actually play in big games, if he has to concentrate on controlling the ball, rather than concentrating on the game and what he intends to do to change it. I refuse to accept that a 32 year old man is just past it, and cannot play the game at the top level. So I cannot accept that Gerrard is now simply "past it". I think it is all in the head, and hopefully the shrink will help him get back on track, but even he will have to question why the first decent delivery from a corner came when Shelvey came on after an hour. I think it is more that he is there with his big house, and his three girls, and his good life and his golf, that he doesn't have the desire anymore. He feels he will never get a League title in his career, and so he no longer has anything left to play for, and so isn't! The fact that his name is first on the team-sheet and he is in no danger of being dragged off does nothing to buck his ideas up. Rodgers has to grow a pair and give Stevie a month on the bench, and give Shelvey a run in the team. What is with Nuri Şahin? Is he not even good enough for us? He started out fresh enough, but seemed to fall off so quickly, and now can't even get into the team. Why were we wearing the second kit last night? Do Spurs play in red? We should be in our red kit unless we can't. Wearing it out of choice to sell kits is sickening.
As you can see NOF, I was laughing. That signifies I didn't actually mean it, unlike you, of cheap shot fame
