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

Difficult to pick a MOTM, most players were great first half and disappeared in the second.

I went for Enrique because he was consistently solid throughout the match.

Difficult to pick a MOTM, most players were great first half and disappeared in the second.

Agreed.

The reason I picked Charlie Adam was because along with Enrique, they were the only ones who were consistent for 90 minutes. Thought Charlie was cool all game, aswell as delivering a killer ball for the goal.

Saturday was definitely disappointing in terms of the second half performance, but in many ways I came away from the game feeling like we had done well to take a point.

The first half was great in terms of creativity, Suarez looked class, but was obvs going to tire as he did.  His pen was a shocker tho! Downing looks good and Enrique looked solid.

I was expecting them to come out second half and start at a high tempo and try to get the early goal and it just didn't happen.  Flanaghan made too many mistakes and Carra was having to cover for him too much, Lucas couldn't pass the parcel and it looked as though Sunderland had worked out that if they kept Suarez quiet then they were in with a shout. 

They looked the most dangerous and as I said I came away feeling we could have lost the game.

Defo a game of two halves, defo disappointing but its not the end of the world, stay positive and for what its worth - we can beat Arse next week.

Come on Red Men!

Was at the games saturday n to be honest I was dissapointed with Flanno's performance. He's only a young lad so i dont wanna get on his back...but particularly in the second half he made some really poor calls of judgment. This combined with the fact that he was at fault for their goal...he just didnt have a good game. I wouldve gone with kelly to be honest.

Damn! I've missed it, thanks anyway. Must have stopped putting the full 90mins on the video bit then longest is 40mins.

It's on LFCTV tonight at 19:30 according to my sky guide.

only just seen their goal, massive mistake from flanno :/ made quite a few mistakes from what i've been watching

only just seen their goal, massive mistake from flanno :/ made quite a few mistakes from what I've been watching

Looking back on it, it seems the whole defense was drawn over to the left, Carragher maybe should of made sure Flanno was positioned correctly.

Some of the posts in this thread are F***ing dreadful and disrespectful to Liverpool fans  being the most knowledgeable.

only just seen their goal, massive mistake from flanno :/ made quite a few mistakes from what I've been watching

 It wasn't even close to being a "massive" mistake from Flanno, nowhere near it.


 Look, the defence gets sucked left as Sunderland work the ball. Flanno is left isolated with the blond bloke who's name escapes me, and correctly sucks in a touch in order to negate the possibility of him sneaking in behind. Had he have gone too tight on the fella, Larson that's it, and the bloke got in front of him on a back post ball then he would rightly have been castigated. In the main, Flanno takes the right course of action in tucking in a bit (remember he has also to be ready for any midfielders who arrive on the scene to attack it).

 Ultimately though he does two things wrong, slightly. First he gets too front on to the crosser and ends up with his back to Larrsson. He'd have been far better off facing outwards, towards Sunderlands goal then he could have got more of a handle on where the Sunderland man was, and then closed him down more effectively.

 Second, and this is what everyone picks up on, he ends up maybe three paces further away from his man than he should be, which gives the Sunderland fella a better look at the flight of the ball. Remember this though, the Sunderland man very likely back-tracked a pace ot two in order to make the hole, AND even when the ball gets there he's got a lot to do to bury it first time. Had he skewed the shot into the crowd nobody would even be able to remember Flanno's "howler" now, it'd be done.

 Bit of an error by the kid, but one that by watching back the video he'll work on. He ain't the first defender to lapse into a bit of ballwatch mode, and he definately ain the the last either.        

Was partly his fault but he did keep the shape of the defence line and probably had no idea Larsson was behind him. Maybe he should have been tighter and even faced him but i certainly looked as though he had no idea there was anyone there.

The other part of the fault lies with the three players against two Sunderland players. Three went for the same player and no one closed down the crosser. I think Enrique was closest to the Sunderland player that passed the ball so he didn't do anything wrong (other than win the ball). There was another player after Enrique for the 2nd line of defence and there was Charlie Adam who probably should have closed down the crosser but perhaps he did not see the player as well.

 It wasn't even close to being a "massive" mistake from Flanno, nowhere near it.


 Look, the defence gets sucked left as Sunderland work the ball. Flanno is left isolated with the blond bloke who's name escapes me, and correctly sucks in a touch in order to negate the possibility of him sneaking in behind. Had he have gone too tight on the fella, Larson that's it, and the bloke got in front of him on a back post ball then he would rightly have been castigated. In the main, Flanno takes the right course of action in tucking in a bit (remember he has also to be ready for any midfielders who arrive on the scene to attack it).

 Ultimately though he does two things wrong, slightly. First he gets too front on to the crosser and ends up with his back to Larrsson. He'd have been far better off facing outwards, towards Sunderlands goal then he could have got more of a handle on where the Sunderland man was, and then closed him down more effectively.

 Second, and this is what everyone picks up on, he ends up maybe three paces further away from his man than he should be, which gives the Sunderland fella a better look at the flight of the ball. Remember this though, the Sunderland man very likely back-tracked a pace ot two in order to make the hole, AND even when the ball gets there he's got a lot to do to bury it first time. Had he skewed the shot into the crowd nobody would even be able to remember Flanno's "howler" now, it'd be done.

 Bit of an error by the kid, but one that by watching back the video he'll work on. He ain't the first defender to lapse into a bit of ballwatch mode, and he definately ain the the last either.       

I couldn't be bothered to freeze frame but there's also the question of where are both of our centre-midfielders? Henderson was marking a man on the edge of the box so i can only assume both Lucas and Adam were in the party of players over on the far side near to the crosser. There were a few errors all around. I can't quite believe there has been a need to go into it in so much detail but i guess it's neccessary given the level of criticism the young lad got on this board.

Think we should put this one behind us now, been talked to death

We can learn from it and not repeat mistakes

Most of the bigger teams had poor performances, I think everyone needed that game to just settle in, the fact that it was a draw wasn't too bad considering this

Would it have been nice to start the season with a win? Of course it would have but I'd have been a lot more disappointed with this result if it was in the middle of the season

I think we've got a good shout against Arsenal especially considering the state of their team and the draw against Sunderland might come in very useful as a trial and error match for what a lot of people would consider a harder fixture

I couldn't be bothered to freeze frame but there's also the question of where are both of our centre-midfielders? Henderson was marking a man on the edge of the box so I can only assume both Lucas and Adam were in the party of players over on the far side near to the crosser. There were a few errors all around. I can't quite believe there has been a need to go into it in so much detail but I guess it's neccessary given the level of criticism the young lad got on this board.

 Sorry Scott, you know me of old though mate when it gets into the technicalities of defending I can't resist a little dissectation of what went on.

Looking back on it, it seems the whole defense was drawn over to the left, Carragher maybe should of made sure Flanno was positioned correctly.

Not sure if you watched just before the goal but I noticed it at the game.

The exact same thing happened - a cross came over - the whole defence were dragged to the left and Lucas saved us with a clearance.  Where Carragher and Flanagan were I have no idea as haven't watched the game again since live.

Not sure if you watched just before the goal but I noticed it at the game.

The exact same thing happened - a cross came over - the whole defence were dragged to the left and Lucas saved us with a clearance.  Where Carragher and Flanagan were I have no idea as haven't watched the game again since live.

Sadly i did not have the chance to watch it at the game, instead a replay on Setanta 1

how long does it take for proffessional footballers to get match fit. they have a preseason  and the first game played for 45minutes. looking at videos of training is a joke barely moving at 25% pace.just showing up for a soacil event. time to get these guys doing a strenous work out exercise bycyle for an hour,followed by 30 minutes in weight room, folllowed by running. after that poor display hope they show up against arsenal next week.    

Shankly's training calls for running up and down the hills in all kinds of weather, that's the reason the all conquering teams of the 70s and 80s never got tired and outran the opposition, compared to training by jogging nowadays. How sad. Players nowadays are overly pampered, play 2 games in a week and manager is ever ready to protect the players, we used to play 42 games in the league, the same FA Cup and League Cup plus European Cup, the word "tired" is unheard of.

Shankly's training calls for running up and down the hills in all kinds of weather, that's the reason the all conquering teams of the 70s and 80s never got tired and outran the opposition, compared to training by jogging nowadays. How sad. Players nowadays are overly pampered, play 2 games in a week and manager is ever ready to protect the players, we used to play 42 games in the league, the same FA Cup and League Cup plus European Cup, the word "tired" is unheard of.

I agree. In Uruguay, pre season training involves running up and down the beach sand meadows. I can begin to explain the uber extenuation this causes, but, boy when you play in grass, its like a dance floor, and never get tired. Many teams in Argentina do it too, and we should ask Diego about brazil.

But...the best way NOT to get tired in a game is DONT LOOSE THE F***ing BALL