Liverpool 0-0 West Ham: (FA Cup R4) In game and Post Match review

I think with Teixera it's worth a little bit of context. Yes he's a good footballer, yes he has the silky touches etc but is he 23 years old? Compare him to the young fella at Tottenham, the one we were going to sign but wouldn't stump up 5 million quid for (F***** if I can remember his name) and he's 19 years old. THAT is the standard if you want to play for a top team (and I hope we all aspire to be one of those).

Delli Ali mate.

Mignolet: No saves to make and yet still fu**ed up at every opportunity. Terrible with his feet, terrible at coming for the ball. Did nothing right the entire night. 3/10.

Clyne: Standard performance in kin to a Steven Finnan at times. 7/10.

Caulker: Nothing special, kept WH very quiet and looked solid. 7/10.

Lovren: See Caulker 7/10.

Smith: I think saying he's the 'answer' at left back is incorrect. Good performance from the young lad but I would still have Moreno as the starter while Flano gets back to full fitness. Looked ok. 6/10.

Allen: Some tidy play with no real conviction at the end of it. Ticked the ball over well. 7/10.

Stewart: Looked alright in midfield, played it simple but looked very limited. Not really pushing for a first team place but can happily see him play some more 6/10.

Teixera: Cannot understand the amount of people voting him as MotM. Decent first touch, alright on the turn but nothing to write home about. At 23 he must start to do more. Seems like another Danny Pacheco to me at the moment. To make it clear, he did not have a bad performance. 7/10.

Brenaghan: Looked up for it, good delivery on most set pieces and showed the most potential out of anyone for me. I think he deserves some PL time after that showing MotM for me. 8/10. 

Ibe: Yet another stale boring performance from Ibe. He's stopped improving now for some time however this can happen to young players. Maybe needs a rest and a few weeks out before coming back in fresh. (Not saying he should get a holiday to Jamaica) 6/10.

Benteke: Once again I felt that he wasn't getting the kind of service which allows him to be at his most effective however you can only really judge him on what he did when he did get the ball, and it was piss poor. 5/10.


Subs:


Ojo always looks pacey and exciting although didn't play long enough for get a rating. Jose Aspas won't live that free kick down for the rest of days here.

Delli Ali mate.

That's him, the MK Dons bloke. Cheers mate.

I think with Teixera it's worth a little bit of context. Yes he's a good footballer, yes he has the silky touches etc but is he 23 years old? Compare him to the young fella at Tottenham, the one we were going to sign but wouldn't stump up 5 million quid for (F***** if I can remember his name) and he's 19 years old. THAT is the standard if you want to play for a top team (and I hope we all aspire to be one of those).

 If you compere our youth system to teams like West Ham and Southampton we constantly turn out sub standard player and players that seem to halt progression in compression..... LFC need a overhaul, from Scouting Staff (who IMO have been sh!t for a long time) Youth Coaches,First team Coaching Staff (We have no one that can even take a decent corner kick) Defensive Coaches and those who teaches technique... We are dire in so many departments

Generally well played from the back to midfield. My only lament is that in the final third, we did not play the ball in from the wings early enough.

Firmino's second goal in 4-5 vs Norwich, Adam Lallana played the ball in early. In BR's title charge year, we used to do that often.

I always feel we'd create more concrete chances if we play the ball in early.

Completely agree.  This is what I find myself shouting every time we go forward!  Geddidinnnn!!!

Then when folk compare him (Texeira) to Ibe it is for me like comparing chalk and cheese. It's a tools question, in that it's very easy to see with Ibe that he has everything you need to be a top player in his position, no handicaps to overcome. By that I mean he has pace, power, can go both sides, can hit it off both feet and has the physicality to become a bit of a monster.
 

I think its a great analogy Bigmick, like Tex is a find cabinetmaker's chisel while Ibe is more of a mallet!  The problem for me is with your assessment of Ibe's qualities.  You don't mention his decision making and game intelligence, which I think he falls short on. He might get there - he's only young - I hope he does, but I can't help thinking he should be getting there by now, given the amount of games he's had.  Pity we can't cross-fertilize the two players, then we'd have a cracker!

another very poor performance, no one done anything of note. They played with no desire, they played as if they had not played with each other.
the decision making all over the pitch was poor, passing was poor, shooting was awful and i saw enough to say that most of the players will not make it in our 1st team and will be gone within 18 months

now we have another match 

Yet another sh*te performance at Anfield. It's becoming the norm now. Going the match all excited and afterwards realising that watching paint dry was more entertaining. Still it didn't ruin what was an otherwise belting Saturday night.

Too many players didn't perform, or maybe they did perform and that's just their level. It's hard to tell with some of these players. Toothless up front, a liability in goal and midfield that I think I'd out muscle. There were some promising signs though, mainly the best centre half performance of the season from Steven Caulker. His defensive partner was ok but a bit sloppy at times.

Overall it was a bitterly disappointing night at Anfield.

Mignolet - had very little to do and yet still somehow managed to F**k up countless times. We were all patting him on the back after the Stoke game, yesterday he was back to the same old Simple Simon we've come to know. Flapping at crosses, holding onto the ball for an age, almost getting caught by pissing about with it at his feet and generally just being sh*t.

Clyne - didn't do a lot wrong but then again didn't do a lot worth mentioning either. But given his performances this year, a solid dependable performance is very welcome. He needs to start stringing these sort of performances together on a regular basis now because we can't afford any more indifferent players.

Caulker - as I've said, was F***ing boss. He copped a lot of flack when he arrived and yet he's been F***ing quality every time we've called upon him. More performances like yesterday's and he'll suddenly become a Klopp signing, not the committee one he was when he arrived. For me he starts Leicester and it really is a case of who partners him.

Lovren - for his first game back he wasn't at his worst but there were some moments of the old Dejan. He grew into the game and by the end was very solid.

Smith - probably had his worst game in a Liverpool shirt, since his debut against Chelsea. Couple of really poor passes, number of fouls given away and a really disappointing delivery throughout. And despite all that, he was still better than what Moreno has been recently. He's another I'd be starting midweek.

Stewart - I can't make me mind up on this lad. He looks like he's gonna make that midfield his home one minute then the next he looks like he'd be out of his depth in Sevvy Park let alone Anfield. The mistakes he makes aren't even from inexperience, they're just lazy. But when he does something good, he's F***ing ace. Worth keeping a look at him.

Brannagan - had another performance that he has every other time when he's played for the first team. When he is involved, he's got quality in abundance. His set piece delivery in particular was as good as anything we've seen this year. The only problem with Cam is he's not involved enough. Hopefully he'll grow into that role the more he plays.

Allen - like Mignolet, was getting all the pats on the back after the Stoke game and returned to the same old sh*t against West Ham. Done nothing, contributed nothing except butting Tomkins. As the senior central midfielder, I was expecting him to star like he did against Exeter. He didn't, he was outshone by his young counterparts.

Ibe - is becoming increasingly worse on the pitch and more frustrating for the fans. He's not giving us anything out wide, his crosses don't come into the box and he just runs down dead ends constantly. Can't believe he managed to last 80 minutes last night, should of been heaved off at half-time.

Teixeira - played some nice touches but as the game went on, he grew less and less influential. He's obviously got quality but he's so lightweight that he's easy to nullify as well. Mind you if had a motivated centre forward ahead of him, he'd look a sight lot better because his clever touches would cause the opposition more trouble.

Benteke - he's had his chances now and he's not even putting any effort in. There's a reason why he's sat on the bench in the League and last night he showed it. Running out of time already to turn his Liverpool career around.

Ojo - is one player I'd have in the League squad straight away. He's quick, he's direct and he's dangerous. He done more with his first run than Ibe did all night - went past somebody. Really been impressed by him during our Cup runs.

Sinclair - didn't touch the ball.

Enrique - faultless wasn't he?

Dead lucky with those penalty appeals, the ref was unsighted for both just seen the slow motion replay and they were both solid gold pens.

Last night was fine. Lacking that end quality and final ball but otherwise it was a solid performance from most.

Enrique coming on to immediately take a free kick.... Klopp deserves a slap for that one. Do they not know how bad he is? Do they not know how little he plays. Surely it was discussed before who the 1st 2nd and 3rd FKs are? Insignificant I know but, albeit not the 1st team, it proves we are leaderless, lacking in a spine and in serious need a of someone with Balls to say "look Ill command this team on the pitch".

Enrique like....

Dead lucky with those penalty appeals, the ref was unsighted for both just seen the slow motion replay and they were both solid gold pens.

I thought the Caulker handball was a cast iron penalty, but the handball by Smith was a 50/50 sometimes the refs give them, sometimes they don't... I wouldn't have. 

Thought we could have had a penalty when Allen was charged in the back as he was about to shoot too.

Can't believe that I think a home draw with West Ham is a good result. I thought they were crap by the way but we were so bland and boring it was unreal.
We do a lot of running to get nowhere, at the moment we are on the road to nowhere.

By the way by the law of averages one of our strikers should be fit soon ? We're going to play 100 games this season with one really F***ing awful striker

Can't believe that I think a home draw with West Ham is a good result. I thought they were crap by the way but we were so bland and boring it was unreal.
We do a lot of running to get nowhere, at the moment we are on the road to nowhere.

By the way by the law of averages one of our strikers should be fit soon ? We're going to play 100 games this season with one really f**king awful striker

I agree mate, but playing with only 3 first team regulars and 2 of those coming back from injury I think we did pretty well.

We need someone to start putting the ball in the net soon or our season is just going to fade away.

West Ham were pretty poor, whether that was down to their injuries or our hard work I am not sure, but I think we could have played for another hour without either side scoring.   

I agree mate, but playing with only 3 first team regulars and 2 of those coming back from injury I think we did pretty well.

We need someone to start putting the ball in the net soon or our season is just going to fade away.

West Ham were pretty poor, whether that was down to their injuries or our hard work I am not sure, but I think we could have played for another hour without either side scoring.

The team we put out yesterday cost over £75 mill

no matter how people try and sugar coat it, it was a poor performance.

I think that another makeshift team that had never played together before didn't do too bad considering, especially given that West Ham have beaten us convincingly twice before this season. Some of the youngsters took the opportunity well and impressed, others were steady. New faces got a full 90 minute run out and some supposed superstars once again failed to impress. MOTM for me was Brannagan, he has always played well when picked for the first team but in my opinion he shows signs of improvement with each game. Despite criticism by others I thought Tex was steady and reasonably assured on the ball and did a lot of chasing back, not bad considering that he has had less opportunities than others thanks to Brendan not selecting him for our Europa League squad. I also though Kevin Stewart had his best game for us. Ibe was determined to keep running with the ball until he was tackled and Benteke just doesn't seem to be able to think quickly enough for me, he is always a second late to the ball and for a big lad is woeful at winning headers when challenged. I think one on one with the same player either Lucas or Firmino are more likely to win a header than so called Big Ben.

I think one on one with the same player either Lucas or Firmino are more likely to win a header than so called Big Ben.

Good assessment, agree with every word but pulled this particularly from your post. It's a point I would wholeheartedly agree with and demonstrates quite succinctly one of the issues we have.

Great discussion on Radio 5 Live atm about clubs disrespecting the FA Cup, we're the hot topic.

I intended to follow the roller-coaster in here but someone wanted to join me to watch the match, doesn't really follow footy but knows so much because they've watch all last years games as an excuse to all get bladdered n' have a laugh.
I want to watch the whole game again because, We were just talking all the way through the game. It's just how it goes.
Overall consensus? I'm not asking for a breakdown of the game.
All I noticed was Brannagan looked really young but was outstanding, it may have been because I only had a chance to see them moments.
I'll read through this thread, it'll be a good way to relive the match.

The team we put out yesterday cost over £75 mill

no matter how people try and sugar coat it, it was a poor performance.

Most of it was Benteke and Lovren.

Great discussion on Radio 5 Live atm about clubs disrespecting the FA Cup, we're the hot topic.

They can all get fu**ed our injury situation is already as dire as it is, we have played more domestic games this season then anyone else.

They can all get fu**ed our injury situation is already as dire as it is, we have played more domestic games this season then anyone else.

To be fair Ian Wright and Kelly Cates defended the situation very well. At the end of the day we had Mignolet (1st choice), Clyne (1st choice), Lovren (one of the 1st choices IMO), Allen (first team regular), Benteke (32m striker), Ibe (first team regular). That's 6 first team players. We've played 16 games in the last 2 months, that's insane.

I am unable to understand all this talk about the performance. People should understand that we were playing a mix of first and academy players and even then it was decent enough to earn a win if we had a half capable striker playing for us. The  only things I was disappointed was Bneteke should have been hauled off at around 60 mins mark to give Ojo or Sinclair a chance.

Boring game but thought we actually did alright with half a team out.

The sooner we sell Benteke the better. I think if we sell him in the summer we will still get 20+ for him. He has to go though.