Wigan Athletic 0-0 Liverpool - Post match grumbles

We just don't know what to do at the final thrid. I just want to know who's our attacking coach, get him sacked this very moment and get someone in to train us how to atack properly. We are clueless on the attack, we are obsessed with both wings the way I sees it, spend all the time on the wings won't allow us to score goals, we need to get our people into the box fast and our players move around the box to create space for themselves to scorer. For instance, when Bellers got the ball just outside the box, Downing just need to run into the box to receive the pass from Bellers and the chance is there to shoot, no, he chose to run to the right wing. We can't score from 6 or 8 yards and we can't score from the penalty spot, there's something very very wrong with the quality upfront. As usual our midfield got bypassed everytime. Man of the match Pepe and Enrique. Skrtel also has a good game. We need 2 proven strikers and 2 defensive midfielders comes January. Credit to Suarez, he performed reasonably well inspite of all the pressure.

Agreed. At one stage Enrique or Maxi went on a decent run towards the edge of the box but had no outlet ahead of him. Despite a whole third or so of the pitch in front of him there was no option but to play a tricky reverse pass to Suarez who was outside the box. No one was in the box, on the rightside of the pitch or coming in support.

Sums up our season, just failing to convert chances.

Get the heads up lads and take it out on Blackburn!

F***ing Gutted. Wrecks your whole day that!

Recorded it but maybe just delete the whole thing. Might end up throwing the remote at the TV.

9 days till the Transfer window opens up!

Another disappointing result, do not seem to be able to beat sides in the lower half of the table, these poor results will surely cost us a champions league place !

When teams get men behind the ball its difficult to break them down, especially when Maxi drops deep, Suarez drifts wide, Kuyt wanders aimlessly and Downing, well I don't know what the hell he does.  Probably contributes to the fact that we don't score many goals. 

A goalscorer in January is a must.  As is a Lucas replacement.  And Gerrard returning.

F***ing Gutted. Wrecks your whole day that!

Recorded it but maybe just delete the whole thing. Might end up throwing the remote at the TV.

9 days till the Transfer window opens up!

Chances are u will break the TV. Far cheaper to shout at the wife/partner/kids/dog/cat/imaginary friend/Jeebus

F***ing Gutted. Wrecks your whole day that!

Recorded it but maybe just delete the whole thing. Might end up throwing the remote at the TV.

9 days till the Transfer window opens up!

Give it a watch mate it wasn't that bad, what made it a frustrating match was the Luis factor. We've had 24 hours of frustration and anger and that MAY have caused some to get more frustrated than the norm. We've had matches like that before this season and in fairness Wigan cancel us out in their style of play. They're a very attacking side if you let them out and we did tonight at times.

All in all it's a match worth a watch as you can gauge the subs etc.

Let's not let frustration take over our impartiality folks, this more than ever is a time for unity.

YNWA.

Getting really annoyed with the lads who call the fans who are venting "knee jerks"! Everyone wants the best from the team and that there tonight is not it.... I think the lads who call other people knee jerks are actually more whiny than the ppl complaining in the 1st place! Doesn't make yous better fans that you have rose tinted glasses on... its called constructive criticism! Vent over!

I only asked if the thread was still open so make of that what you will.  I'm not wining at all and in no way do I think I am better than anyone (so best hold off with that).  I know where we were last December and I was lost, I wasn't watching games even.  We're getting back on track and of course there will be setbacks on the way.

Somebody shoot me .

We played terrible football for the majority of the match. Henderson and Adam are not good enough to carry each other through a game in the middle of the park.

Enrique had his usual great game but nobody else really stood out.

I think a lot of the frustration in this thread has a lot to do with the hangover of the Suarez ban. Everyone is still fuming, and the same old problems continuing this season are not helping. Just put the ball in the back of the net 

The sort of game where we could have done with Gerrard.  I think young Jay would have played if available too - would have given us more bite in the middle.

Fair play to Wigan.  They played for the draw and their fans were so very happy with that.  For me, we should have kept possession better after the first 30 mins and we probably should have won.

Still hindsight is a wonderful thing and we can all say, do this and do that, but we don't even know it would have made any difference. 

Disappointed in dropping points to a lesser side, quite honestly I will not praise any individual nor curse them. Team failure all around from top to bottom.

luck? Al Habsi? Get out of here. Al Habsi made one decent save from a not very good pen. The team were poor and the tactics were even worse.

We were simply awful in midfield the first half. There was a huge gap between defence and midfield, and nobody was closing anybody down they were getting an absolute free run at the defence. To blame Henderson for getting muscled/turned off the ball time and again, and Adam for being so F***ing slow.

But in the second half, why did no one come on till the 70th min? then bringing Carroll on for Suarez with 3 mins to go was ridiculous. Bellamy should have been on a half time, same with shelvey. Moved to 4-4-2 and then with 20 minutes to go Carrol on for Kuyt.

Agreed. At one stage Enrique or Maxi went on a decent run towards the edge of the box but had no outlet ahead of him. Despite a whole third or so of the pitch in front of him there was no option but to play a tricky reverse pass to Suarez who was outside the box. No one was in the box, on the rightside of the pitch or coming in support.

We are too slow on the attack, we need players to move into position fast, moreso from midfield into the opposition box. But we have Adam and Henderson in the engine room, one takes ages to release a pass while the other simply wants to get rid of the ball. Being a bit more analytical, whats the point of Downing, Johnson or Enrique hugging the touchline when no link up play with those inside the box. Johnson/Downing or Enrique running parallel, just slightly ahead of those in the box when the ball gets pumped into the box, those inside the box will need to dash towards goal to nod/flick/volley/force etc the ball  into goal, such crosses are very difficult to defend against. not static  as in the game as Wigan's defenders are 6 footers and standby to head the ball out.

Replay the game and we could see that we simply don't know what to do on both wings when we got the ball, no link up play with the forwards. As the game went on, Wigan knew our game plan and put players forward to suffocate us on both wings but we were not fast and smart enough to realise that and to switch from wing to midfield attack, but with Adam and Henserson don't think that can happen. We need a defensive midfielder, an Aguero/Silvia and 2 proven strikers comes January, may I just be a bit greedy. Besides that, if we could have more players of Enrique's competitive spirit it will do us a world of a good. If KD were to shop for players, pls get more robust, intelligent and competitive players in and not slow mos.

The sort of game where we could have done with Gerrard. 

Just thinking the same thing. We missed (are missing) that little bit of quality that Stevie brings.

Chances are u will break the TV. Far cheaper to shout at the wife/partner/kids/dog/cat/imaginary friend/Jeebus

Give it a watch mate it wasn't that bad, what made it a frustrating match was the Luis factor. We've had 24 hours of frustration and anger and that MAY have caused some to get more frustrated than the norm. We've had matches like that before this season and in fairness Wigan cancel us out in their style of play. They're a very attacking side if you let them out and we did tonight at times.

All in all it's a match worth a watch as you can gauge the subs etc.

Let's not let frustration take over our impartiality folks, this more than ever is a time for unity.

YNWA.

 

mmmm...maybe I'll watch the first half 

That was a very sad display....  We just don't seem to have a formula to be consistently beating teams who sit 9 or 10 players behind the ball.  Aside from last week, we have been very poor at converting from set plays this season, and this was the case again tonight.  Suarez seemed to be completely isolated far too often and it frequently felt like he was the only player who had a chance at snatching a win for us. 

My biggest complaint about our performance is that we consistently seem too content to play simple square passes instead of making a purposeful, penetrating pass to a forward player who is checking back to the ball.  I noticed countless times when Adam, Hendo, Downing, and Kuyt in particular would just knock the ball sideways when they had an opportunity to find Luis or Maxi's feet with a vertical, penetrating pass.  Our play seems to lack drive and purpose at the moment, and that is very sad thing to say about LFC.  I do believe that Gerrard's return should help with this, but we need to be more ruthless - not just in front of goal, but in our entire game.  We need to be attacking teams like Wigan for a full 90 minutes, not just for bits and pieces of the game. 

My other main complaint has more to do with the personell.  Downing and Kuyt have been total disappointments so far this season.  Our attacking wide players need to be able to do 2 things: 
1.  Play simple pass and move footie when necessary AND
2.  Take on defenders, beat a man or two off the dribble, and put the oppositions defense under pressure. 

None of our wide options seem to be willing or able to beat a man or two, get to the byline and pull a ball back that begs to be finished off.  In my opinion, we need to be looking to address our lack of creativity and penetration from out wide in January.  We don't have a single player like Affelay, Krasic, Nani, Ribery, etc, while most of the other top teams in any of the top leagues have at least 2 or 3. 

Rant over.  Hopefully we can pull our heads out and get a result against Blackburn on Monday. 

Enrique was man of the match for me.  Agger and skrtel were decent. Have to say though Maxi Kuyt Adam and downing were woeful. Our midfield was piss poor. Barring our full backs we had a severe lack of pace in the team

Shows how much we miss lucas also. Adam cant play a box to box midfielder he needs someone sitting there so he can play forward. Henderson is offering nothing at all half arsed shots sideways passes afraid to tackle. I think he will be great but he needs to learn alot and he could look at james mccarthy tonight. I dont no what the game plan was tonight because we looked clueless

The big moment in this game was the penalty miss. We score that then we should and probably would have won. After that, Wigan had their tails up and started to gain some belief and we just couldn't open up the Wigan defense.

We lack creativity too. We couldn't create anything in open play through the middle, other then Johnson's run through. Everything was played from wide and Wigan just flooded the box giving us no chance. Corners were F***ing useless too.

We're so inconsistent its unreal. We destroy Villa then go stumping to a stalemate against Wigan.

Now we drop points to our hunt for the title, or the top 4.

Our rivals would squeeze a 1 - 0 won then. We just don't have that in us, it's a constant problem that needs time, so patience from us but also probably some investment. Notable a striker and a creative midfielder too.

That pretty much sums it up me. And add to that a very poor Adam penalty.

Frustrating night.

Just back from the game.  A very bright opening 20 minutes and then.... crash land!

Downing was shockingly bad - doesn't play high enough up the pitch and doesn't look like he ever wants the ball.  Enrique did his own job and the job of the wingers.

Kuyt's legs look shot, and I'm not sure who was supposed to be playing holding midfielder - Adam or Henderson - but neither of them can tackle.  Spearing is going to walk straight back in that side no question.

I expected Maxi to start as most of us are aware of Bellamy's limitations to play twice in a week, but I thought he had a strangely poor game.

Felt sorry for Suarez who was isolated with no support from Kuyt, Downing or Maxi.  Johnson had a poor game.  Skrtel, Agger and Enrique our best players by a mile.

As for Carroll - what is the point in bringing him on with 3 minutes left.  There is none.

If we aren't playing a holding midfielder then we should be playing the normal formation - we should have gone 4-4-2.

Ah well - the hoodoo at Wigan continues.  Pressure now on picking up 6 points from the next two, which I'm sure if the players turn up - they can get.

Oh and as for Adam's pen.  Knew he wasn't going to score it.

Downing and Kuyt have been total disappointments so far this season.  Our attacking wide players need to be able to do 2 things: 
1.  Play simple pass and move footie when necessary AND
2.  Take on defenders, beat a man or two off the dribble, and put the oppositions defense under pressure. 

None of our wide options seem to be willing or able to beat a man or two, get to the byline and pull a ball back that begs to be finished off.  In my opinion, we need to be looking to address our lack of creativity and penetration from out wide in January.  We don't have a single player like Affelay, Krasic, Nani, Ribery, etc, while most of the other top teams in any of the top leagues have at least 2 or 3. 

Rant over.  Hopefully we can pull our heads out and get a result against Blackburn on Monday.

To be fair though, I don't really think Kuyt is a wide player. He's a striker that can play wide, just like Henderson is a CM that can play wide. Doesn't mean either of them should be shoved out there, though.

Our midfield was woeful thought diame and mccarthy dominated Adam and Henderson.  dunno who was worse tonight downing Adam or Kuyt but there performances were as poor as ive seen this season