Middlesborough v Liverpool - Match-Thread

I knew we were gonna lose our 15 game unbeaten streak at one point of time, and here we got it at the wrong time.
Surely it's unlikely we only lose one game a season.

The players need to have more hunger and spirit. They looked as though they had given up on the title.

I haven't watched any highlights, read any newspapers or heard anything on the radio...and I don't want to! I saw the result yesterday and I was absolutely gutted - I thought after that Real win we would have beat Boro.

I love Rafa, but he REALLY does frustrate me...I wouldn't like to see him leave Liverpool, but if it has to be for us to win the title the so be it.

It ain't over till it's over....

Riera over Babel any day of the week. Why on earth didn't he start. And Benayoun.

Ok Babel was'nt great!However there's no way Albert deserved a place the way he's been performing lately.

To be honest I just finished watching west ham BEAT man.city
I was thinking this is a team we could not beat last weekend
Why is this happening year after year to liverpool
 Great results or play very good against the big teams and struggle or no reaction at all (like yesterday)against a modest side
 don.t want to p[oint my finger at anyone ,but IMO this has to be looked into and try to solve it as soon as possible if we are to win a trophy

Absolutely gutted by the result and performance. I have been saying we have not got enough match winners for a long time now .
I know Keane was missing chances and was largely frustrating but so is Kuyt in many ways and Rafa seems to stick with him. Can't fault his effort for the team ( or Keane's ) but to sell Keane and not even replace him was plain stupid on Raf's part,just cant see his logic in that decision. We are so short of quality strikers now at a most critical time of the season.
The league has definitely gone now, cant see United dropping many points ,we need a miracle to catch them now,hate to say it but that is fact !
Its a battle for second now and a chance for the champions league is definitely on after our performance in the first leg so all is not lost guys just the league

Lucas done very well yesterday, was impressed.

An unlucky own goal and some wasted chances in the first half.

Yesterday could have been very very different if Torres had been playing IMO.

Even though we lost, I'm looking forward to the 90mins replayed on the LFC channel @ 9pm (I didnt watch the live game yesterday)

Just want to see what this new Lucas's hairdo is like :

Just want to see what this new Lucas's hairdo is like :

Oh god, that is bad.....!!!

The worst part is that now Man Utd will play their reserves against at OT knowing that we cant catch up anyway, and we will be resting our players for the Champions League knowing we cant catch up.  

Thanks to these last 2 efforts in the league the potential "match of the season"

now will become the   "snoozefest of the season"

Bit scary that taking on the scums ressies eh?

Got home from work at 830pm last night (didnt know the result)Put football First on at 830 the main game was ours F**k me I thought theres been a turn up,and I was right.
I've read 36 pages of postings phew!!
Very noticeable how so many members only make a comeback just to have a slagging off of either RAFA or Players.
Personally I don't think RAFA can be blamed for the last 60 minutes that we were (to put it mildly )very poor.
As for Skrtel playing at rb.I think it was probably to contain Downing.However this appears to have failed as he (Downing) ran MS ragged.
Again IMO we need about four more what I call KEY players.Like SG,Nando and Alonso,these three players for me can actually change games on a regular basis.You could put Pepe in the mix for obvious reasons.SO if I am anywhere near right having only four KEY players in a squad the size of ours is a big ask to see out a genuine title challenge.
On a positive note.Now that Rik the pr**k is going maybe the chances of getting more KEY players might be a realisation.

                                         YNWA.................... ......................IR WT   
 

He looks like Bellamy!

The players underperformed imo.
There's no hunger there at the moment, that scares me

What I really didn't like was the lack of balls shown by the players towards the end of the match.

We're famous for our never say die attitude, but Saturday was the first time in a long time I thought the players gave up before the match was over.

The heads dropped, they were giving each other dirty looks - that's not what I've come to expect from the Reds, and hope I don't have to see it again soon.

Defeat is hard to accept, but I wish I could have said we'd tried our best to get at least a point out of the game up until the last second.

there has to be a team meeting on this result everyone had a stinker. was lifestyle choices a factor in this result. our reserves could have beaten boro. to many erractic results this year against the cellar dwellers

 
Rafa says about El zhar :


Nabil El Zhar missed two opportunities, but Benitez insists the young Moroccan did well on what was his first league start.
 
"He had two opportunities, so people were talking afterwards, but you have to be there," said the gaffer. "Not many players got into the positions where they had these opportunities. Maybe he was a little bit down after the second chance but he worked hard and that's the main thing for me.
 
"He knows he has my support because he tried his best."