Failure to kill off games. Is it killing our title hopes?

The team is playing well and creating chances the selection isnt the problem its piss poor finishing

The team is playing well and creating chances the selection isnt the problem its piss poor finishing

Come back Roger Hunt and Ian Rush all is forgiven.

The team is playing well and creating chances the selection isnt the problem its piss poor finishing

It is not that simple, I am afraid. The poor finishing is a big part of the problem, but our inability to keep a clean sheet is an even bigger problem. Had we managed to keep a clean sheet against Sunderland, Stoke, Mancs and Norwich (conceded a single goal in every match), we would've had 7 more points, and would've been firmly into the title race. Not to mention that we've actually had the lead in 3 of those matches. As I have pointed out, we are conceding more goals at the moment (1.11), than we have conceded last season under the same manager (0.94). For comparison, in our best season in recent years (2008/09), we have conceded 0.71 goals per game. And the numbers of goals conceded is not a responsibility of the defence alone. Our defending should be starting much higher up the pitch.

It's definitely seriously damaged any title hopes we had.

I mean had we taken a quarter of our chances and we'd be in and around the top of the table. But we aren't.

We're playing decent stuff which is good, but just need to finish the chances.

title hopes? I never thought of going to this season and having a go at the title, our team is not even close to Chelsea's Mancs and Man city's team. I'm starting to wonder if we are going to get a CL spot after a game like today! Again we are unable to kill off the game due to lack of finishing. Again, whats up with out subs? why aren't we using our subs earlier to kill off the game? or maybe change things for example bringing spearing on to protect the back four?

Obviously it is. Along with conceding goals.

But we're not even halfway through Kennys first full season yet and turning teams into title winners doesn't happen over night.

One thing we are doing though is creating chances. Mainly through Suarez. If some other players get involved, we'll create more. And then that will mean more goals. And that can only help title hopes.

We have been playing some amazing football especially for a team that needs more time to gel in my opinion.

I really fear for Kenny if we dont get top 4 I really do, FSG have shown there ruthless streak with the Red Sox and I think we will be doing well to get top 4. Before I get slated I would give Kenny 10 years if he wants it and then replace him with Rafa.

 I dont think this season will meet the expectations of a lot on here. For me City Chelsea and Utd are streets ahead of anyone else and until we match there spending they will stay miles ahead

I totally agree.

We have been playing some amazing football

Not really. We have been playing some amazing football, but only for part of the games. Our overall play is still terribly unbalanced. For 15 minutes, we look like a team that could destroy Barca, and for the next 15 minutes, we look like a League Two team. It will probably improve with time, once Kenny settles for his best XI.

Maybe saying title-challenge was a bit of an over-reach.

A lot of people are comparing it to the 08-09 season. The difference then was we were not conceding goals, this year we are. Nearly every game this season we have, in all competitions.

Look at the goals wev conceded there all down to poor defending. Skrtel is a liability to me and carra is starting to get there. They can be solid for 80 mins then just make a serious F**k up. I think wel seriously struggle for top 4

The 100 plus million Kenny spent needed to be spent on top quality first and foremost to improve our starting 11 and give us a far better chance of CLl football next season . any potential should have been done behind the scenes and added to the reserves. I have seen absolutely nothing from hendo to suggest hes worth 20 mil . in fact ive seen more quality in spearing who last season was excellent for us,set the pace and got up and down the pitch well and cost nothing.  Downing, Carroll and Adam have all been mediocre to above average on occasion. For the money spent i would expect a better quality of player. Folr 20M and 35M respectively we should be getting a gamechanger, a player who turns 1/2 games. Downing ? His stats were poor even at Villa. He was always mediocre. Carroll? One good half a season in te premier league. We panicked after the Torres sale. The new owners were only in the door and had to save face with the fans and after losing Torres, they had to act.  We have spent badly in my opinion.  That has been  the case more often than npt at liverpool the past 20 years. Ineffective management in the transfer market

1. Failure to kill off games. 29 shots against Norwich, one single goal? Like little Luis said, we got one hell of a strikeforce but minus the clinical finisher. Got to have someone Nistelrooyish (what a word) to do the job. Luis is great but hell he couldn't do it on his own.

2.Lack of composure. Happens everytime after we went AWOL. Time period 55-90th minute of the game. On the 55th we went AWOL and let them grow into the game. Gaping hole in the midfield just because we sit deep and let them attack. 80th minute, gung-ho mode and put in streams of attack but lacked the penetrative passes and the accuracy. Too much premature passes and crosses. Mistimed, overhit, too direct and weak passes.The urge to get something sometimes cost us when they counter attacked us.

3.Not bringing the game to our opponents. Happens at the same time when we went AWOL. Against the lesser teams, we seem to suffer from a serious illness of complacency. After we got the lead, we let them get into the game and inviting trouble for us. Even when we play at Anfield somehow it looks as if we're playing somewhere else.

4.Wrong kind of players for  the right kind of situations. With Suarez against Norwich, we always look to our flanks to supply the crosses when he's not the tallest guy in the box. With him we need to play a more direct and open game as he's mobile and agile. But when Carroll came in, we changed to a more direct and pass game. We didn't use our flanks often.

5.Wrong time of substitutions. Not to blame Kenny as this also happened during Rafa's era. Often our substitution came in late and hell it didn't have any effect on the game.

This are what I see the problems we're facing right now. Some of us may beg to differ because everyone sees everything from their point of view.

There is no work in progress, another myth.  You buy mediocrity and put it in the team you end up with a mediocre team.It realy is that simple. Kenny is not going to cut the mustard this time around. At the point of selling torres the fork in the road forked..He chose the wrong route and went on to buy duds.No hind sight about it.it was glaring at the time.Obviously i or no one else could tell him but i for one wanted to scream at him wtf are you doing buying that crap kenny. It was at that defining fork in the road that i ..and a few others...had to let the king go his own way..he was/is the king after all but it was clear he got it wrong.  His buys have been poor.  Mediocre british joureymen who weren't proven quality. Carroll and Downing are and will prove to be disastrous buys for 55M combined.  We had a chance to really step up the plate and progress with the money at our disposal but we bought terribly

There is no work in progress, another myth.  You buy mediocrity and put it in the team you end up with a mediocre team.It realy is that simple. Kenny is not going to cut the mustard this time around. At the point of selling torres the fork in the road forked..He chose the wrong route and went on to buy duds.No hind sight about it.it was glaring at the time.Obviously i or no one else could tell him but i for one wanted to scream at him wtf are you doing buying that crap kenny. It was at that defining fork in the road that i ..and a few others. had to let the king go his own way..he was/is the king after all but it was clear he got it wrong.  His buys have been poor.  Mediocre british joureymen who weren't proven quality. Carroll and Downing are and will prove to be disastrous buys for 55M combined.  We had a chance to really step up the plate and progress with the money at our disposal but we bought terribly

Every has the right to their opinion but thats a pretty sweeping statement to make for someone with 7 posts.
You sure you are on the right forum?

There is no work in progress, another myth.

Stop embarrassing yourself. Creating a title challenging team is always a process. Ferguson has won his first Premier League title in his 6th season with the Mancs. Chelsea have spend £120 million (net) under Ranieri, and another £110 million (net) under Maureen, before they have won their first Premier League title. Man City have already spent £400+ million (net) in the past 5 seasons, and are yet to win a Premier League title. It is always a work in progress.

There is a work in a progress.

We have just gone through our two worst seasons in the league in the last 10 years with no thanks to a a poor season with Rafa, a mediocre manager in Roy Hodgson and off the pitch issues - Purslow, Hicks and Gillett and all.

We lost so many world class players in that short span - Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres. We've also lost a fair good amount of decent players in Alvaro Arbeloa and Yossi Benayoun. Under Roy and probably Rafa's last season, these players were "replaced" with inferior players.

We've got new owners now, for barely over a year, who have spent tons of money. Yeah, some results aren't ideal but we're a much better side than back in 2010. It's not only a major concern to replace the calibre of players we've lost, it's also difficult to bring back the winning mentality of the players that underwent two (err, one and a half) horrendous seasons with the club.

It took Ferguson 6/7 years to win his first league title. And back when they started dominating in around 2001 ... they themselves have spent shitload of cash - Ferdinand (30 mil, 2001), Ronaldo (13 mil, 2003) and between 2004-2009, they've spent almost 20 million EACH on Nani, Anderson, Carrick, Berbatov, Rooney and Hargreaves and that was BEFORE they even sold Ronaldo for 80 mil. Then you add Ashley Young, Valencia and De Gea all costing around 20 million.

Manchester City and Chelsea went through the same process. They got billionaires who instantly spent tons on money in their first season. This resulted in Chelsea getting to league titles back to back. Quality players yield results almost straight away. I wouldn't be surprised if Man City themselves won the league this season.

Though some players aren't there anymore, they've spent Robinho (32 mil), Bridge (10 mil), Bellamy (14 mil), De Jong (16 mil) all in 2008/2009. In 2009/2010, they bought Barry (12 mil), Santa Cruz (18 mil), Tevez (30 mil?), Adebayor (25 mil) and Toure (16 mil), Lescott (22 mil) and Johnson (?? mil).  Last season, they signed Boating (10 mil), Silva (25 mil), Yaya Toure (26 mil), Kolarov (16 mil), Balotelli (23 mil), James Milner (24 mil) and Edin Dzeko (27 mil).

This season, Nasri (22 mil) and Aguero (35 mil) arrived. The total spent in 3 years amounts to 403 million and this is excluding all the players that cost less than 10 million. And not all their players turned out to be successful.

While money does not guarantee success, it definitely helps a shiteload. We've only spend a quarter of Man City's spending. Yeah, we spent more than a 100 million this year but that is natural as we've just got taken over wheares other clubs like City, United, Chelsea and maybe even Real and Barcelona had spent significantly less than us during the same time is due to the fact that they've spent tons on players they've got before we were taken over.

Two sh*te seasons with first half of 2010 being the lowest any Liverpool fan had felt. A new manager. New players (we freaking changed half of the squad!). Mentality to be fixed and expectations to be meet is a work in progress.

It is early days we have only played 9 and got 29 to go, got to think of the long all and not always the short term players take time to bond together as a unit.
This is not to say that there are not areas of weakness that need to be addressed and i think that Kenny will seriously have to look at our defence in the January transfer window 

There is no work in progress, another myth.

I can't put my finger on it but your writing 'style' and content looks very familiar but I digress.

On the point above: surely every team aspiring to either the title or a top four finish, after lowly finishes previously, are a work in progress? Whether or not you, or me, like the players we bought (or would have preferred others) the fact remains, with half a team being replaced - it was always going to be a work in progress.

Some of us hoped and believed 'the work' would bear fruits earlier than it has. Some of us (yourself included) don't believe it ever will - that's fair enough mate - it's your opinion. We need to get things right, correct some mistakes and put the chances away but (in my opinion) it's just too early to be so disparaging and non-supportive.

I can't put my finger on it but your writing 'style' and content looks very familiar but I digress.

Ignore him, Donnie Brasco Joe D Pistone is clearly some undercover mole who thinks he's far too clever for his own good, capiche.

give the lads time starting at stoke in midweek we will  really begin our season

give the lads time starting at stoke in midweek we will  really begin our season

That's what we said after Sunderland and Stoke.

Perhaps it is time to give a youngster their chance up front

Perhaps it is time to give a youngster their chance up front

Andy is only 22. Young enough?