Liverpool 2 - 2 Man City: Post Match Dwelling

[crouchinho]

Well another game without a win, making it 1 win in the past 10 games.

Our defence needs some miracle work because right now it's our weakest area in the side, by far.

[LFC-LCFC]

It had a feel of "one of those games" from the get go.

[johnstop]

Never mind the defense how many goals have we scored in the last 10 games we were on fire last season even when Torres didnt play perhaps we need a creative midfielder.

[Johncolf]

Hiddink anyone ?

[CRK]

Hiddink anyone ?

Why?

[whyohwhyohwhy]

Hiddink anyone ?

No thanks.

[LFC-LCFC]

Hiddink anyone ?

"No" anyone?

[HampshireRed]

disappointed letting two more points escape us but given the first 20 minutes it could have turned out a lot worse. Made up for Skrtyl finally. Felt sorry for Lucas as it was almost too easy a chance but he should have at least hit the target.

[mattmcg]

Ohh how I wish we kept Sami Hyypia.  I'm sure he would have got more first team football than he probably thought.

Anyway, defending is a big problem and one that should have been sorted out months ago.  Men on the posts is the way to go Rafa, sacrificing a couple of players that seem to mark zones with no players in them. 

Lucas seems to be getting a bit of unfair criticism...he should have at least got that free header on target though.  He had a very good first half but was pretty non-existant second half when City pressed and he didn't get much time on the ball.  My real beef is with Kuyt though who was sh*te yet again!  Lost count of how many of our attacks broke down when Kuyt was on the ball and that has been a constant theme this season.

Sh*te defending and a distanct lack of creativity has been our downfall and it needs fixing or a top four finish will be out of the question never mind winning the league.

[Pepe Reina]

Our defense was sh*t, Agger is our only consistent defender and ironically he is injured (again).

I thought Lucas and Mascherano were quite creative, N'Gog and Gerrard we're playing well too. Kuyt was poor.

[bad boy bubby]

Just this: home to City.....

7 out of our starting 11 were, what I would call, defenders; (Reina, Skrtel, Carragher, Agger, Insua, Mascherano & Leiva). Injuries or not, out of the 11 that finished the game 8 were, what I would call, defenders; (Reina, Skrtel, Carragher, Insua, Kyrgiakos, Mascherano, Leiva & Aurelio).

[johnstop]

Ohh how I wish we kept Sami Hyypia.  I'm sure he would have got more first team football than he probably thought.



.

I think he would have been first on the team sheet and its obvious Carra misses him too.

[RedPuppy]

Hiddink anyone ?

I think he is far too old now and a little over weight. He could come on in the last 5 mins if the game was won, but not in the starting 11.

[johnstop]

Just this: home to City.....

 6 out of our starting 11 were, what I would call, defenders; (Reina Skrtel Carragher Insua Mascherano & Leiva). Injuries or not, out of the 11 that finished the game 7 were, what I would call, defenders; (Reina, Skrtel, Carragher, Insua, Mascherano, Leiva & Aurelio).

What about Kyriagos (spell?) does that make 8 and Kuyt 9 Ngog is a novice so that leaves Stevie!!!!!!!!!!.

[Bpatel]

I hope Agger's injury isn't too serious. Poor guy, I feel so sorry for him.

On a positive note, how good was it seeing Skrtel score his first goal for us!

[bad boy bubby]

Never mind the defense how many goals have we scored in the last 10 games we were on fire last season even when Torres didnt play perhaps we need a creative midfielder.

Now there's an idea. 

[sirignano]

reina played great in my opinion, couldnt do much about the 2 goals but yet again awful defending is our downfall.
lost count of how many times city carved us open, we need 2 solid consistent centre backs
dont see why we took the foot off the pedal when we scored though we battered them in the first half

[sirignano]

I hope Agger's injury isn't too serious. Poor guy, I feel so sorry for him.

On a positive note, how good was it seeing Skrtel score his first goal for us!

only to let adebayor get a free header on goal :|

[Ross]

Just this: home to City.....

 6 out of our starting 11 were, what I would call, defenders; (Reina, Skrtel, Carragher, Insua, Mascherano & Leiva). Injuries or not, out of the 11 that finished the game 7 were, what I would call, defenders; (Reina, Skrtel, Carragher, Insua, Mascherano, Leiva & Aurelio).

Got a point there.

If you look at the Chelsea line-up against Wolves today.

You've got two attacking full backs (Belletti and Cole) two wingers, and two strikers. Essien gets forward in the 442 system so they just have Mikel, Alex and Terry who are out and out defensive minded players.

[vtorres]

Today's game was disappointing the way we played was bad we had no consistency when in possession of the ball and at times looked uncomfortable with the ball.

We started the game well attacking from the off but then due to the stop starting of the game are attacking play slowly fizzed out. Babel was playing well until the ankle incidence but IMO if he really wanted to send a statement out to the fans and Rafa about how committed he is to the club I think he would of played on.

Insua and Kuyt got on my nerves, Insua is young and has time to improve but at times today his positioning was laughable as well as some of his passes, he looked uncomfortable when on the ball also. On to my second player I feel that Kuyt should not be starting RM week in week out he doesn't offer us enough today he showed no creativity and no belief in himself, whenever he had the ball instead of running at players he decided to come inside and make a careless pass maybe if Benny was on the right with Babel or Riera on the left we could have had more opportunities to score.

Although Skrtel was the goal scorer for the 1st goal but it doesn't excuse him from having a poor game today for the Adebayor goal no way should he off left him to be free, zonal marking was not at fault here it was Skrtel's lack of common sense when playing zonal marking you have to protect your area he decided because he had no one in his area he would just stand their and watch Adebayor when really he should of man marked him as no one was threatening him at the time.

I thought today we could of seen Aquilani start but it wasn't to be, I am not saying today's loss was Lucas or Mascherano's fault but today did we really need two defensive midfielders. Maybe if we had Gerrard playing with Mascherano and Benny on the right with Riera on the left and Kuyt in behind Ngog we would of been more of a goal threat but then again not everyone was match fit.


 

[bad boy bubby]

What about Kyriagos (spell?) does that make 8 and Kuyt 9 Ngog is a novice so that leaves Stevie!!!!!!!!!!.

You're right john, I've amended it......we did, indeed, start with 7 "defenders" and finished with 8.

[johnstop]

You're right john, I've amended it......we did, indeed, start with 7 "defenders" and finished with 8.

You're right john, I've amended it......we did, indeed, start with 7 "defenders" and finished with 8.

Actually we are 3rd top scorers but 11th in the defense league so its a bit of a conundrum that having two holding midfielders we a scoring ok but leaking goals like a sieve.
No wonder Rafa is scratching his head.The central pairing seems to be giving us cause for concern and due to injury it has been difficult to find a settled partnership. But having two holding midfielders you would think that would give them extra cover but it dosent seem to does it. Who'd be a manager because nothing at the moment seems to make any sense what so ever.

[bgwdivemaster]

Never mind the defense how many goals have we scored in the last 10 games we were on fire last season even when Torres didnt play perhaps we need a creative midfielder.

We have one.  His name is Alberto Aquilani.  For some reason Rafa has in his mind that Aquilani isn't fit enough to start although he has been practicing full strength with the squad for a month.  We've seen potential in Aquilani's few touches being brought on the end of matches.  

I trust Rafa fully but I am confused as to why he is hesitating on bringing on the creative midfielder he brought to replace Alonso.

Lucas - I can't believe he missed that header at the end.  What a golden opportunity to do soemthing big for the club and he arsed it up.

Our defense, yeah.....

[whyohwhyohwhy]

Disappointing result again.  The first half injuries set us back obviously, but I thought we recovered towards the end and started to look threatening.  City rarely looked dangerous considering the players they have.  Thought De Jong had an excellent game for them.  Good to see Stevie back, he had a good first half, plenty of passion and urgency.  Babel, I give up on him.  He is the absolute opposite.  Apart from one brilliant cross field pass I thought Kuyt struggled again.  Delighted that Skrtel broke his duck, gutted about his defending though.  Masch had a great game, Lucas was solid and did well in the first half especially with some good passes.  That was a bad miss at the end though.  If only one would go in for him.

The thing that really disappoints me is the way we sat back after scoring the first.  Don't know if it's a confidence thing or what, but I'd like to see us push up after we score and really press for another.

[LFC-LCFC]

Man City are a very good team who have underperformed all season. With our current squad complete with key player injuries, a result against them would have needed a full 90 minutes effort and concentration from the entire 11. Sadly, that didnt happen.

[macca8]

Well, I was first a bit optimistic because we have the advantage on them considering our past encounters with them.

Game started, 1st half: For the 1st ten minutes or so we clearly has the posession over the ball. Great link-up play and we were adventurous when suddenly the unexpected happened; Agger's injury. After the injury we tend to fade a bit with a little less of control over the midfield area. N'Gog for me was clueless and uninspiring to begin with. Skrtel got unlucky as his header was met with a great save from Givens.

2nd half: First goal for Liverpool and the maiden goal for Skrtel. He was over the moon with that goal. We finally got what we deserved. But yet another less than great performance from our lads apart from Gerrard, Mascherano and Yossi who has been giving their all.Then a string of passes between them Citeh tore apart our defensive lines and eventhough I thought Ireland was offside but the fact that our crumbling defensive was shown in that move. After that 2nd goal then we saw the real Liverpool. Playing with passion, urgency and determination and was rewarded by a Yossi equalizing goal after N'Gog mistime shot left Given fumbling over the ball and Zabaleta failure to check Yossi. Then it was Liverpool all the way but unfortunately our weakened strikeforce couldn't win it for us.

My take on that game:
Clearly there's something wrong in our defensive area. Whenever they got a corner or freekick it send shivers in my heart as I knew deep inside there's always a big chance one of our lads will make a mistake. When we're in attacking mode, we're amazing but without Torres it seems like we lost the ability to score. N'Gog clearly wasn't ready and he sometimes trying to be overconfident with his dribblings. We tend to be vulnerable when we attack and the gap between our striking line and the midfield was too big. Masch and Lucas tend to stay back even if we're attacking and thus we loose too many chances on the rebound.

Performance wise, we are still good despite the fact we have too many players injured. And now with Agger and Babel out, it's not helping. I know Rafa's trouble with this current situation. The fact he has been forced to play Yossi showed that Liverpool are lacking behind in terms of squad in depth. Playing two holding midfielder with one clearly not at par with the other one means that Gerrard has to concentrate more in the midfield area and less supporting N'Gog who I see not having the support he needed. I still see City not a big 4 material yet. Boasting with over 100 million of talents, they were second to none against our side with a defender of mere 1.5 million. But Liverpool need to tighten their grip in the back to revive any chances of challenging. It's not over till the fat lady sings but things has to be put the right way back.

[HUYTON RED]

Hiddink anyone ?

Yeah if you could afford his wages and get him to leave the Russia job, wouldn't leave it for Chelseaso can't see him moving to us!

[Johncolf]

2.2, last 10 minutes  , need to win to kick start the season again, bring a left back on  ,we can't afford to lose any more ground we needed to go for it  you have got to throw an attacking player on not a left back for f** ks sake  

[CRK]

Yeah if you could afford his wages and get him to leave the Russia job, wouldn't leave it for Chelseaso can't see him moving to us!

Even then I'd say no.

[Eem]

I feel like crying.