Pre Match: Ludogorets v Liverpool Weds 26th Nov 7:45 kick off

We'll win this.

If they don't score.

If they do we'll crumble like a pair of edible knickers on an incontinent whore.

We'll win this.

If they don't score.

If they do we'll crumble like a pair of edible knickers on an incontinent whore.

But we have to score and that's a big ASK at the moment!

We need to just be solid for this game, in midfield especially. Lucas needs to start and Can.

 If sterling plays I'd play him in a defensive role in the midfield, for a small guy he's strong, has the energy and will do that role very well as we've seen in the past (on the wing). use him as we'd use Allen for instance.
Two upfront from the start or we've already threw in the towel, no other lone striker formation works.
No johnson anywhere near the team, to me he isn't a Liverpool player; his heart isn't there if it ever was.
Is Enrique injured? If not, use him, and even play Moreno on the other side or vice verca.
we play Johnson on the left sometimes so why couldn't it go the other way? Don't get it.
Enrique knows how to defend and won't be brushed aside.
Borini worked hard last game, but he was playing in positions Sterling, Lallana or Coutinho should of been in, this means he's never in the actual box, he's supposed to be a striker or something isn't he.
Lambert and Balotelli up front.
Stevie is a hindrance because we need to play an extra man to just make him able to be on the pitch, like a side kick. He'll be looking for those long passes all night. I'm not here for a Harlem globe trotters showboating extravaganza, times are tough, we need to keep it simple.

Just F***ing win and show some F***ing balls players and Brendan .
                   Migs
Manquilo toure skrytel Moreno
                 Lucas
Lallana    Coutinho.  Can
           Sterling Stevie g
F**k it.

We simply have to win.... we are who we are and we need to start letting people know because the rest of Europe are having a right laugh at us...

But we have to score and that's a big ASK at the moment!

I think we'll get an early one mate, the problem will be maintaining that lead.

Looking at 6stringers post above this, if we don't F***ing win this by at least two then they should hang their heads in F***ing shame and pay any travelling fans expenses.

Dropping Lallana and Coutinho - the only two that remotely looked like creating anything on Sunday - would be ridiculous but it doesn't really surprise me anymore.

Par for the course this season it seems.

Tough one this, tougher than our last league match for sure: Their manager is positive too

Ludogorets coach Georgi Dermendzhiev believes he has spotted physical and mental weakness in all Liverpool's matches this season.

Former Reds defender and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher suggested after Sunday's 3-1 defeat at Crystal Palace that Brendan Rodgers' side is lacking in leaders and is too easily bullied out of games.

And Dermendzhiev sees no reason to disagree with that assessment as he prepares his side to take on Liverpool in their penultimate Champions League Group B match in Sofia on Wednesday.

"I kind of agree with that opinion. It looks that way in every Liverpool game this season - and I have watched every one," he said.

"Liverpool have very high quality players and the only problems they have are in the minds of the players.

"I also know they have very good players and even if they are not in the right mindset they can still turn it around very easy.

"It is only a matter of time before they start to play good football again."

The Bulgarian minnows were only denied a draw in the reverse fixture at Anfield in September by Steven Gerrard's stoppage-time penalty which secured the Reds a 2-1 victory.

Dermendzhiev said that match had given them confidence for the rest of the campaign and they are not in awe of the five-time European champions, who arrive in Sofia looking to end a four-match losing streak in all competitions.

"We were unknown before the first game and now the situation is completely different," he added.

"Everyone knows what we can do and how we play and I think it will change the way Liverpool will play compared to the first game.

"I am pretty sure Mr Rodgers will play with all the best players he has got but I really hope we have a chance to win.

"The (Ludogorets) players have already played enough games in the Champions League so they won't be motivated in the wrong way but we will try to do our best.

"This game is one every player looks forward to against the big teams. We do respect them but we don't fear them."

We were quite lucky at Anfield first time around and they looked a decent little side IMO. We've rapidly gotten worse since then and this is going to be a F***ing struggle. 

Rodgers must ring some changes to give us a fighting chance, he can't keep the bulk of under-performers in the side and hope to win here against this lot.

FYI

Klopp's    Borussia Dortmund won all four champions league games in their group and are through to the last 16.

According to James Pearce both Toure and Lucas will start.

Thank F**k for that.

According to James Pearce both Toure and Lucas will start.

Thank f**k for that.

Don't be too excited yet!!! Rodgers might play Lucas as a box-box player or pair him and Gerrard in the middle

I actually have a feeling that we are going to run this lot right out of the building. Don't know why and there's no reason to think we'll start to play better, but if we are going to have a shot at anything this year it will have to start tomorrow night and I think it will.

I've been wrong before though....maybe 2 or 3 times.

Guaranteed a good performance from one red tomorrow, picked up a bottle of Wolf Blass Cabernet Sauvignon to go with the steak dinner I'll be having tomorrow evening, whilst watching the game.

Guaranteed a good performance from one red tomorrow, picked up a bottle of Wolf Blass Cabernet Sauvignon to go with the steak dinner I'll be having tomorrow evening, whilst watching the game.

nice swan.

nice swan.

No, steak like I said. 

No, steak like I said. 

But won't that be with 2 good reds, or is your steak just offal?

But won't that be with 2 good reds, or is your steak just offal?

My steaks more on the pink side.

Been beaten to death but I'm just gonna say again - Hope BR stops his favoritism and puts Stevie, Allen, Sterling, Johnson on the bench. Coutinho and Lallana have been the only creative sparks (if you can call that) so far. Lets hope its something like this

Mignolet
Manquillo-Skrtel-Toure-Moreno
Lucas
Hendo      Can
Lallana           Coutinho
Lambert

Subs - Jones, Johnson, Lovren, Stevie, Allen, Sterling, Borini

One thing I'm really desperate for is the return of Flano to full fitness. He might be susceptible and offer less going forward, at least the lad cares about the club, contrary to the bunch of headless chickens that played fullback on Saturday

There's absolutely no reason for me to have any belief that we can win tonight,  so on that note,  I'm going for a 4-0 win! 

 

Going for a 2-1 win Gerrard and Lambert, cometh the hour cometh the man and Gerrard doesn't want to get knocked out of the CL so early... come to think of it neither do I.

Ludogorets vs Liverpool: Brendan Rodgers set to throw Steven Gerrard forward in must-win match


Above the entrance to the elderly, somewhat dilapidated arena where Liverpool’s Champions League fate may be decided is a quote from a German poet. “The true worth of a man,” said Friedrich Schiller, “is only seen on the field of sport.”

Until now the worth of the man who led his team on to the plane at John Lennon Airport was never in question. Steven Gerrard’s place as one of the Anfield immortals has long been secure.

However, in the wake of Liverpool’s fourth successive defeat, the humbling by Crystal Palace in the south London rain, his place in the Liverpool team has been open to fierce debate. There was heavy criticism of Gerrard’s performance in that game and many of those supporters who have backed him for a decade and a half would prefer him not to start against Ludogorets Razgrad, once the makeweights of this group but who, after the debacle at Selhurst Park, look a formidable prospect here in the Bulgarian capital.

Gerrard’s close friend, Jamie Carragher, would want him to play but he suggested that the experiment of refashioning the 34-year-old as a defensive midfielder had not worked. “He is not Javier Mascherano, he is not Didi Hamann,” said the former Anfield defender. Earlier, he had remarked that Liverpool had looked “mentally and physically weak”.

Brendan Rodgers accepted that Carragher, as a media pundit, is paid to give strong opinions but denied the charge of weakness. “The squad has resilience,” he said. “It showed that last season.”

Rodgers is not a manager who takes his cue from comments made in the Sky Sports studio but on this one occasion the signs are that  he may have agreed with Carragher.

This is an occasion where the old Steven Gerrard would be seen at his best – Liverpool’s backs jammed against a wall, knowing only victory would realistically do. Tomorrow night, Gerrard is likely to revert to his old position in the heart of the Liverpool midfield, with Lucas Leiva protecting a back four, in which Kolo Touré, who played superbly in the 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid in the Bernabeu, will probably start the game.

Rodgers is a man at his best painting the big picture, talking of the philosophy, style and structure of a team. His focus has now narrowed to 90 minutes of football in an old Eastern European stadium with open stands, old-fashioned floodlights and an athletics track. The Vasil Levski National Stadium is not a stylish venue and this will not be a place for stylish football. It is about the win, no more, no less.

“We have to go and stand up, show we can get a result and tough it out,” Rodgers said. “The criticism comes and, whether it is deserved or not, you won’t like it as a player. I have got a team full of characters, courageous players, a team that is committed but low in confidence. There may be no way back if we lose. It does raise the stakes because we want to qualify for the knockout phase. We always felt that this game and the Basel game  would be the critical ones for us, and nothing has changed.”

For Rickie Lambert, who grew up weaned on tales of Liverpool’s European heroics, this is a moment he has waited for all his life, the chance to lead his team’s attack in the Champions League. He knows, too, that at the age of 32, the opportunity might not come again.

“We are desperate to get the game underway,” he said. “It was a very low atmosphere on Sunday and this match gives us a chance straight away to rectify that. We lost the individual battles at Crystal Palace and that is not good enough for a Liverpool team.

“First and foremost it is about the performance – win or lose we have to put in a performance with the stamp of a Liverpool team.”

Lambert professed himself outraged by some of the comments made about the man who will captain his side here.

“I have seen some of the stuff that has been written about Stevie and I find it shocking, given what he has done for the club,” he said. “It is up to us other players to stand up for him if he has a bad game. He leads by example every time he walks through the dressing-room door.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/ludogorets-vs-liverpool-brendan-rodgers-set-to-throw-steven-gerrard-forward-in-mustwin-match-9883391.html

Biggest game of the season.

What a win here would do for our confidence.

Come on reds.

Biggest game of the season.

What a win here would do for our confidence.

Come on reds.

Indeed, and if successful, we really should hope that Basel get sweet FA against Real Madrid. We need more than a win though - a convincing win. However, I cannot see how that is going to be possible without any outlets. We've gone from one of the most dynamic front lines in Europe to Lambert, Balotelli, Borini...