Liverpool 1-1 Sunderland: In-Game and Post Match Disappointment

didn't think we bossed the first half quite like some say - need to go up a few gears I'm afraid - still only first game, lets hope there's more to come. Bloody better be.

I cant beleive some of you lot, FF'S it's the first game, 7 of our players were either making their respective debuts or hadn't trained properly, I thought we were f***in awesome first half especially, how many of you were slightly worried after the pre-season games ? I was tbh, I was thinking f**k me we need to improve massively, but that first half brought me to my senses, we looked and played like it was December never mind August, in the second half we simply ran out of ideas, Sunderland pushed further up which in turn curtailed our midfield, we needed a composed midfield player such as Gerrard or dare I say Aquilani, Hendo needs time, Adam was exposed and lacks a tackle,Meireles again cant tackle, Flanno fu**ed up by giving Larsson to much room,

Downing was superb and was very unlucky to hit the bar, Carroll got collared for a slight touch on Brown, the goal should have stood, Had Suarez turned left instead of right he would have scored, as for the pen, well he can be forgiven for that, first game, not trained, too much adrenalin etc,

I said before that I wouldn't be disappointed if we failed to win, I stick by that,on another day we would have won 4-1, Beach-ball head and his wee pals will be cock-a-Hoop, a point gained away from home, so what positives can we take, well, the first half performance was superb, we were not at our strongest, we are still a bit rusty, there is plenty of room for improvement, we will get better, much much better,
I'm as much enthusiastic now as I was before yesterday, in fact even more so after having watched the 1st half, we lost our way a tad second half but that will be sorted with hard work and confidence, it's looking good PPL, looking good.   YNWA

This says pretty much everything bang on the money..............

Good first half. Poor second half.

Surprised before the start that Flanagan started ahead of Kelly.  Real shame that the lad had such a bad second half as he did really well for us at the end of last season.  He made a mistake and then after that couldn't regain his composure.

Enrique did well, can only improve.

All in all, disappointed with the single point.  Arsenal away next week has never been a good game for us either.

Look on the brightside... Unbeaten so far. 

Will have to look at the highlights when I get to work.

Rather than the actual result itself, the major source of disappointment for me is that we so easily slipped back into our old ways of last season. If we came out and tried to pass and get a goal after Larsson scored and we still drew it would be a bit easier to take but instead it just went to pieces and we resulted in hoofing it up to Carroll.

Rather than the actual result itself, the major source of disappointment for me is that we so easily slipped back into our old ways of last season. If we came out and tried to pass and get a goal after Larsson scored and we still drew it would be a bit easier to take but instead it just went to pieces and we resulted in hoofing it up to Carroll.

This.

After we conceded, we looked exactly like last season's team.

I cant beleive some of you lot, FF'S it's the first game, 7 of our players were either making their respective debuts or hadn't trained properly, I thought we were f***in awesome first half especially, how many of you were slightly worried after the pre-season games ? I was tbh, I was thinking f**k me we need to improve massively, but that first half brought me to my senses, we looked and played like it was December never mind August, in the second half we simply ran out of ideas, Sunderland pushed further up which in turn curtailed our midfield, we needed a composed midfield player such as Gerrard or dare I say Aquilani, Hendo needs time, Adam was exposed and lacks a tackle,Meireles again cant tackle, Flanno fu**ed up by giving Larsson to much room,

Downing was superb and was very unlucky to hit the bar, Carroll got collared for a slight touch on Brown, the goal should have stood, Had Suarez turned left instead of right he would have scored, as for the pen, well he can be forgiven for that, first game, not trained, too much adrenalin etc,

I said before that I wouldn't be disappointed if we failed to win, I stick by that,on another day we would have won 4-1, Beach-ball head and his wee pals will be cock-a-Hoop, a point gained away from home, so what positives can we take, well, the first half performance was superb, we were not at our strongest, we are still a bit rusty, there is plenty of room for improvement, we will get better, much much better,
I'm as much enthusiastic now as I was before yesterday, in fact even more so after having watched the 1st half, we lost our way a tad second half but that will be sorted with hard work and confidence, it's looking good PPL, looking good.   YNWA

 Absolutely agree with every word. Great post.

As Roy said give it 10 games and then make a judgement.just 1 poor 45 mins and people are ready to top themselves we need to get a grip.

Flanno made a costly mistake and he has to learn not to ball watch, put his body in front of the shot the next time, distract the player. By not doing anything and standing still it gave the Sunderland player all the time in the world to demonsrate his world class execution. He must be fully aware with what's around him at all times, as a defender, and never take anything for granted. He's young he'll learn. I wouldn't put all blame on Flanno, what hapened to the 3-players at our corner dilly dallying trying to win the ball back? They should be the first to be blamed. 

In terms of poor fitness in some of our players, I will not agree with that except Suarez, all players that took to the field must have full match fitness, our great Shankly will insist on that and we used to be known as the red machine, we wore teams down in the last 15 minutes of the game, but no, we looked knackered through the second half of the game. Next game what? Still harping on lack of match fitness? We need to start to outrun and out-tackle the opposition, starting in the next game.

Yes, I do agree that Andy got annoyed with those hoofing the ball to him, you could see him complaining a few times during the game and the greatest culprit is no other than Jamie. His hoofs are pretty damaging to us all these years, it went anywhere except to our forwards and his hoofs floated so long in the air as if the ball floated in slow motion that it gave the opposition defence plenty of time to re-act. If Jamie needs to hoof the ball in future he must learn to do it much much more accurately and effectively, or ban him full time doing that. Carroll looked pretty effective with the ball on the ground and why we need to keep knocking those high balls to him I just don't understand. Someone apart from Suarez needs to play alongside him so that he does not have to take on the whole defence alone. Apart from Suarez we need another combative player to play along side him.

As for Henderson, I'm not sure whether he realise that he's wearing our jersey now. He simply did not contribute anything which is worth mentioning here except for keeping possession and those side and back passes. he has simply passed on the load to others. We must have someone else  instead of him in the next game until he picks up the confidence to contribute to the team. Ok, we've played him out of position but when we put him at the wing and he's not having the confidence in his game and not trying to create something from there what makes us think that he'll excel when he's in the middlle. We have critisized Suarez, carroll, Adam but they are the ones trying to create something and obviously we saw more mistakes by them, instead of some players in 3/4 of the game but just making up the numbers.

 

Having let the dust settle my take is that we were very good first 35 mins (should have been 3-0). Last 10 of first half we started to sit too deep. Unfortunately that carried on in second half. SUnderland looked fresher in second half and I think we payed the price of an indifferent pre-season. Not enough players getting 90 mins and too many put in the shop window who won't figure in the squad meant that we ran out of ideas and legs!

To be positive though, If that first 35 mins is anything to go by then it looks very good for this season. We can only get better as players start getting used to playing together etc.

My MoM was Enrique. Thought he looked very composed and I only noticed him giving the ball away for the first time on 80 mins. Not bad for someone only arriving on Friday.

Going to watch it again later.  Lots of plusses & minuses on the day, but I think on reflection a draw was a fair result.  Think I'll post more after a re-watch.

Still so disapointed with the second half performance.

Haven't seen the game yet as was travelling yesterday to visit friends but it's dissapointing to start with a draw particularly as we were playing at home. It'd been a long time since I've felt comfortable watching us with a 1 goal lead, you always feel we're likely to blow it and that proved to be the case again yesterday. Still, it's early doors and a win away to Arsenal next weekend and the mood will be very different. I think it's the hope that gets you so it's hard not to feel like somebody's popped your balloon once we came away we just a point.

Great time to play the gooners with all their players leaving, Gervinho banned and potentially Song going to join him + they have two massive games in the Champions league against Udinese to deal with.

I cant beleive some of you lot, FF'S it's the first game, 7 of our players were either making their respective debuts or hadn't trained properly, I thought we were f***in awesome first half especially, how many of you were slightly worried after the pre-season games ? I was tbh, I was thinking f**k me we need to improve massively, but that first half brought me to my senses, we looked and played like it was December never mind August, in the second half we simply ran out of ideas, Sunderland pushed further up which in turn curtailed our midfield, we needed a composed midfield player such as Gerrard or dare I say Aquilani, Hendo needs time, Adam was exposed and lacks a tackle,Meireles again cant tackle, Flanno fu**ed up by giving Larsson to much room,

Downing was superb and was very unlucky to hit the bar, Carroll got collared for a slight touch on Brown, the goal should have stood, Had Suarez turned left instead of right he would have scored, as for the pen, well he can be forgiven for that, first game, not trained, too much adrenalin etc,

I said before that I wouldn't be disappointed if we failed to win, I stick by that,on another day we would have won 4-1, Beach-ball head and his wee pals will be cock-a-Hoop, a point gained away from home, so what positives can we take, well, the first half performance was superb, we were not at our strongest, we are still a bit rusty, there is plenty of room for improvement, we will get better, much much better,
I'm as much enthusiastic now as I was before yesterday, in fact even more so after having watched the 1st half, we lost our way a tad second half but that will be sorted with hard work and confidence, it's looking good PPL, looking good.   YNWA

Ihad left things while I coold down a bit and was ready for a good rant. Then I read the above from Billy and I calmed down again. Pretty much says it all. I too was as dissapointed with the second half, as I was overjoyed with the first. Ref again had an influence on the game that he shouldn't have. Piss poor performance, other than that, let's just look forward to the next one.

Lots of positives first half, not as many second half. Suarez did well to win the pen, but should never have taken it, recovered well to score an excellent header from a good Adam free-kick.

Disappointed with the second half, excellent goal from larsson and whisper it quietly, corbally wasn't far off the mark with his assessment of Adam, he seemed to look fu**ed after 60 minutes.

Bring on Arsenal now!

Adam did play on a heavy pitch on Weds so he may well of been knackered .
Good to have Arsenal next lets see what we are made of.

First half we were brilliant. Everyone was linking up brilliantly and we were just unlucky not to get a few. Although the second half was disappointing, these things happen and it takes time for the team to jel and get their rhythm. With the benefit of thinking over it over-night, I am disappointed we drew, especially at home, but I understand it takes time. YNWA

Season Opener Statistics | Liverpool FC

There was so much optimism, so much positivity preceding the  2011/2012 season opener at Anfield. Everyone was expecting a good performance and because it was an opening game at Anfield, everyone expected a win. Well we didn’t get it, although it wasn’t all bad, there was some superb pass and move football in the first half which made the second half even worse.

In the end if felt like the ice cream that you’d dropped on a hot summers day after the first taste. We were left wanting more however we shouldn’t be disheartened. The first forty five minutes showed the type of football that Liverpool FC can play and will play once their squad is fully fit.

Now onto the stats – the stats below (a note of caution, some of these stats aren’t good reading for some players but please do not judge players on one performance and give them a chance) we’ve split the stats up as usual with Passing, Duels and Shots etc. Take a look and drop us some comments with your views on them!

As you can see the top passer for the day was Jordan Henderson with a completion rate of 88%. However his total passes was quite low in comparison with Jose Enrique who hit 70 passes with a completion rate of 76%. Daniel Agger and Flanagan also had very good pass completions but the pass completion is not always an accurate indicator of how a player has played in the game. It can usually give you an idea if the player kept the ball well or not and these are more impressive if the total number of passes are high like however even that sometimes deceives.

If you take a look at how the players have done in ground possession duels (usually an indicator of how often they are challenging other players and winning) and then combining these results with the passing will give you a little more context in how the player performed.

The table shows that the weak performances when challenging for 50-50′s were from youngsters Flanagan and Henderson. It’s not something that makes them bad players overnight as both Henderson and Flanagan put in amazing performances last season and also had impressive stats last year. However they did seem off the boil today. Flanagan and Henderson were both left ball watching for the goal when one of them should have been a little closer to Larrson. They also didn’t defend together very well in the second half and you could tell as it seemed like total strangers playing on the right hand side for Liverpool, an area which is usually very strong.

The left hand side was a totally different story. Jose Enrique performed well today, well going by the statistics he did. 100% ground duels won, 100% aerial duels won, 100% tackles won and a 76% pass completion. It shows solidarity and strength and to be honest Sunderland may have crossed the ball from the left for the goal but the fault was totally in the marking of the scorer of the goal. Enrique didn’t put a foot wrong and even shielded the ball out of play of five occasions today.

A few players had good stats in the air on the first day of the season with Carraghar, Enrique (again), Adam, and Carroll shining. Carroll’s stats were the most impressive as he won all nine of his aerial duels! John Flanagan lost his only one whilst Dirk Kuyt failed with all three aerial duels in his brief performance.

In the tackling stakes both Charlie Adam and Jose Enrique made 3 tackles each and both won all three.

The shooting stats are pretty depressing really. Only three shots on target at home? Crazy, the first half promised much more but I guess the fatigue factor came into play. We definitely knew what we had to do, the first half proved that but as Suarez tired in the game it seemed Liverpool’s chances of winning also were stretched. Andy Carroll’s 6 attempts off target were the most by any player from the 2010/11 season (credit to @OptaJoe).

So what do you think about the stats above? Leave a comment below with your thoughts and context. They are always open to interpretation so let us know! Follow us on @AnfieldIndex – all stats courtesy of @EPLIndex (http://www.eplindex.com)

Anfield Index

Proves what everyone has been saying, Flanagan and Henderson should not be starting the next game. Our right side was weak only improved slightly when Downing switched but he was far more effective on the left (besides his Mcmanaman type run). Always nice to deal in facts.

Proves what everyone has been saying, Flanagan and Henderson should not be starting the next game. Our right side was weak only improved slightly when Downing switched but he was far more effective on the left (besides his Mcmanaman type run). Always nice to deal in facts.

Proves nothing, Flanagan actually had a good first half. The whole team needs to look at themselves for the second half performance, not just pick on the younger members of the team.

Proves nothing, Flanagan actually had a good first half. The whole team needs to look at themselves for the second half performance, not just pick on the younger members of the team.

For me it proves Henderson did not get himself involved enough, and when he did he either just passed it back to where it came from or lost the ball.

Arsenal and Chelsea both dropped points as well so it's not all bad 

Arsenal and Chelsea both dropped points as well so it's not all bad 

Exactly, we start again next week and take advantage of Arsenal's draw and so to Chelsea's oh and also UTD's loss