I'm still pissed off that BR had the naivety to start with the formation that he did this weekend. We've been defending poorly all season, why leave central midfield totally exposed? Why change a winning formula? I still can't fathom it. That said, and with Spurs winning and drawing level with us on points and with Everton to play tonight with a good chance of overtaking us, it begs the question, are we really in with a chance of top 4? Let me rephrase that, of course we're in with a chance.....but how good is that chance compared to our rivals; Everton, Spurs, Utd. I do feel that the top 3 are pretty much already taken care of. Few would disagree with this, surely? Spurs, for me, are the team to beat for fourth. They have the strongest squad and have enjoyed a good run, albeit of very winnable games. Everton, also, have a decent squad and their team displays a balance between defence and attack that Liverpool simply cannot find....and Utd, despite their woes, still have a deep squad and some quality players, even if they aren't currently all clicking. Liverpool, on the other hand, have no team balance; we seem to be happy in the we'll score one more than you camp....I think it's naivety of the highest order...did anyone see Mourinho screaming at his midfielders to hold when 3-0 up yesterday? Here is a man who is every inch the opposite of BR tactically. A man who takes no risk. BR clearly didn't learn everything from him! It may be that BR simply doesn't have the players available to him......but I don't think it is. He could of started with Lucas in his usual DM role, he didn't. He could of started with a formation that had swept all aside at Anfield, he didn't......There's no question that we need more quality, but yesterday, we had enough to swipe Villa aside but we were set up to fail from the start Everybody loved to watch Keegan's Newcastle but what did he achieve with them? I fear BR's philosophy isn't to far from that right now and he needs to take a good long look in the mirror. So top 4? Spurs, Everton and Utd seem to have better squads, more balance and possibly more tactically aware managers. We have Louis Suarez (for now). Make no mistake, Suarez's brilliance has covered up a long list of unaddressed issues and it's time that somebody at Anfield, stood up and addressed them. This is no over-reaction, no knee jerk response......even if we buy the best players available to us in January, there is no guarantee that they'd settle in straight away, look at our track record with foreign signings; only Coutinho settled reasonably quickly. I truly hope that BR and the Liverpool leadership team sits down and figures this out because right now is when you need to find rhythm in your game and in your results. We can't really afford any more 'mistakes' like Villa and for the love of god, we need to sort out our feckin' defence!!! Negative? No. Realistic? Very. Bring on the abuse!
Stop whinging you ****ing fanny He obv wanted to to fit in SAS + Sterling + Cout, he changed at half time when its clear it wasnt working The next game I want to see Cout on the bench and a front 3 of SAS and Sterling We were bound to lose ground after playing City and Chelsea. All teams now coming to us Everton is a massive game, bring them on!
i said on another thread we need teams above us to beat teams below us, ie stop wanting draws so we can catch those above us when reality is it is unlikely to happen, so we want teams below us to ruddy lose. we have all the tough games at home and a midtable team to play away cant remember their name so in a way its in our own hands 4th spot, need some ****ing signings though badly ffs.
I fear that if we don't add to our squad this January, then we will miss out. The only reason our team is still competing is because of our attack - they have carried our team, whilst our midfield and defence have done their best to f*ck it up. The good thing is that the big teams have to come to Anfield. Not a given that we'll win but it;s a lot better having to play away. 2-3 signings of first team quality could seriously make a huge difference.
"Liverpool, on the other hand, have no team balance; we seem to be happy in the we'll score one more than you camp....I think it's naivety of the highest order...did anyone see Mourinho screaming at his midfielders to hold when 3-0 up yesterday? Here is a man who is every inch the opposite of BR tactically. A man who takes no risk. BR clearly didn't learn everything from him! Liverpool, on the other hand, have no team balance; we seem to be happy in the we'll score one more than you camp....I think it's naivety of the highest order...did anyone see Mourinho screaming at his midfielders to hold when 3-0 up yesterday? Here is a man who is every inch the opposite of BR tactically. A man who takes no risk. BR clearly didn't learn everything from him! " And Im sorry mate but thats a load of ****
I understand playing all four if he wanted to push them back and pen them in but he'd already said himself that Villa were a very good counter-attacking side. He just wanted to fit the quartet into the line-up.
It took him to half time to realise it wasn't working He should of changed it after 10 or 15 minutes.....it was pathetic. Seriously, I'm not whining, just being realistic.
Which bit? You think we have balance? Bullshit! Has BR ever shown us the ability to lock a game down when needed? Seriously, has he? No!!
just be glad it wasn't rafa still here or it could have been the 80th minute before a change lol on a more serious issue, why the **** did it take him so long to change it, there for all to see it wasn't working from the start, and we needed that goal just before half time or we would have been seriously ****ed up.
realistic? We have as good a chance of top 4 as finishing 7th. I think personally there will be at most 6 points covering 4th through 7th at the end. I think the top 3 are in way too good a form to be dropping points on so I con't see LFC really having what it takes for 3rd. Everton, spurs and utd are our rivals. for me however mourinho is a negative nora who conceded far too much space to utd yesterday and defended too deep and this will be his downfall in the end. Much rather ancelotti's version of chavski. Rodgers did get cocky, did pick the wrong set up and did wait until we conceded 2 before trying t o change it... fine but we did react and we do have quality. We've a lot of work to do to get 4th but we can do it.
He changed it after Villa scored their first by moving to a 433 with Coutinho tucking inside. Still too late mind as it was obvious it needed altering before they scored. some of us knew before kickoff
he did try to change it before half time... but well the point is that he didn't when we were at 0-0 and struggling. we tried coutinho in the midfield 3 and in effect it was 4-2-3-1 there but we saw the kid not up to that and he got hauled off.. the thing is... at least it was changed.
Ive no problem with BR after the weekend, he tried it and it didnt work. I'll have a problem if he tries it again! I think he left it until half time as with those 4 on, in theory they can split a defence at any point Your comparison to Jose is a little annoying, they have a much better squad than us thanks to their sugar daddy. To say BR learnt nothing is ridiculous We've played some wonderful football We need to be tighter at the back, some players need to get back to the basic art of defending
He tried to change it with the players on the pitch....with Gerrard still holding. We were all over the place. wtf was he thinking? And I don't buy the 'at least it was changed'.....that's like saying one point saved instead of 2 points dropped and it was definitely the latter! In the spread between 4th and 7th to be so tight ad you rightly predicted, that's a huge 2 points!
It was a shocker, yes everyone agrees with this. But we went 2-0 down and drew level so at least we have something to take from it and BR will have learnt from that line up. 4th was a long shot at the start of the season but now it seems there are 4 teams that could fill the spot and we are one of them, at the end of the day we are 4th at the moment. Everton have a game in hand to play tonight but that doesn't = 3 points, they have to win first. Then we play them in the next PL game and City & Spurs play each other too so certainly a game we need to be winning rather than drawing (or losing!!!!) Long way to go but at 10 o'clock next Tuesday we could all be sucking Rodgers cock or wanting to bite it off - just have to see won't we
Keegan's Newcastle played wonderful football too And defending is not the sole responsibility of defenders! All season, our defence has looked vulnerable; our team lacks balance in this regard, some of this is down to quality, some of this is down to how the team is set up; my point addresses the latter. Fair point about the strength of Chelsea's squad but that wasn't my point really. It's no good playing attractive football if we don't win **** all.....getting a balance is critical. BR does NOT have this right now. Not at all.
