Oldham 3-2 Liverpool: In-game & post-match debating

Whilst we obviously didn't play very well, and in defence were poor, there were a couple of things to add to the mix:

1) Oldham were very physical. Within 20 seconds, one of their players had already stood on Allen's ankle. That was just the beginning.. elbows to the head, kicks, pushes and more. The ref allowed that kind of play, which was to the advantage of Oldham. It's difficult to play skill when an opposing player just cuts you down.
2) The ref wasn't great. He allowed far too many fouls, and gave far too few yellow cards against their players, thus allowing them to continue their aggression. He also missed a couple of blatant penalties (I counted at least 2).
3) Rain, wind, a poor scruffy pitch. Again, this favours brute force play as opposed to skilful passing play.
4) Silly errors.. e.g. Jones not keeping a hold of the ball.

All just culminated against us. We had enough quality players out there, but when things go against you.. they really go against you!

Well after our awfull display at mansfield not suprised at our defeat we deserved to lose. We must have known oldham would give 110%, but our players were not willing to give that much. Pity another chance of a trophy wasted. Would like to see oldham win the FA cup and see these millionaire EPL  players cry in there beer. 

This.
Plus whatever selection the manager put out and whether you agree or not it was adequate, they play for a Premiership club and should be well capable of beating a team of Oldham's standing without being put under too much pressure.
That statement rings true if Oldham are indeed from a lower league, which they are.
As for the LFC players ...... well something doesn't ring true.

Every now and then you come up with something original that really makes me think Mick.

Very true, I heard an interesting comment the other day that in the 'Premier' Academy's now they aren't even teaching tackling. A sign of things to come? Watered down football? F**k it.

Whilst we obviously didn't play very well, and in defence were poor, there were a couple of things to add to the mix:

1) Oldham were very physical. Within 20 seconds, one of their players had already stood on Allen's ankle. That was just the beginning.. elbows to the head, kicks, pushes and more. The ref allowed that kind of play, which was to the advantage of Oldham. It's difficult to play skill when an opposing player just cuts you down.
2) The ref wasn't great. He allowed far too many fouls, and gave far too few yellow cards against their players, thus allowing them to continue their aggression. He also missed a couple of blatant penalties (I counted at least 2).
3) Rain, wind, a poor scruffy pitch. Again, this favours brute force play as opposed to skilful passing play.
4) Silly errors.. e.g. Jones not keeping a hold of the ball.

All just culminated against us. We had enough quality players out there, but when things go against you.. they really go against you!

Good post

It's a great point Mick makes about the style of football and how it's almost alien to the top players today.

Many teams would have struggled to get to grips with them today.

We should be able to beat them no problem but add their style and the prospect of a cup upset then it wasn't as easy as it would normally appear.

You'd of probably had people in here screaming why Carra was starting ahead of Coates in  that case mate.

Doubt you'll get many arguing that after this performance.

Yeah, fair point.  Hindsight is a great thing.

A good league position keeps a manager in a job: cups, it would seem, don't but the truth is; if we lose or draw to Arsenal on Wednesday, then we will have rested players in vain. That is the gamble which Brendan has taken. A gamble which, like it or not, brings with it the risk of criticism. He knows and accepts that: so should me and you.

BBB i said it after the Swans game he rested Gerrard in that game and again today,  but he has ended up playing in the two games anyhow just trying to rescue us so there was no point to the exercise in the first place ,he has taken liberties in two cups and hey presto we are nocked out of the two,hell of a masterstroke   that one.

Well done to Oldham, too much emphasis on the physical side, IMO they were more committed to winning the game and stopping our shots, were better organised and had a plan on HOW to beat us and win the game. This in turn generated them the luck they got.

I have no problem with the side selected, with good planning and the right mentality I expected, rightly, to win this game. The blame lays with the manager and players.

Whilst we obviously didn't play very well, and in defence were poor, there were a couple of things to add to the mix:

1) Oldham were very physical. Within 20 seconds, one of their players had already stood on Allen's ankle. That was just the beginning.. elbows to the head, kicks, pushes and more. The ref allowed that kind of play, which was to the advantage of Oldham. It's difficult to play skill when an opposing player just cuts you down.
2) The ref wasn't great. He allowed far too many fouls, and gave far too few yellow cards against their players, thus allowing them to continue their aggression. He also missed a couple of blatant penalties (I counted at least 2).
3) Rain, wind, a poor scruffy pitch. Again, this favours brute force play as opposed to skilful passing play.
4) Silly errors.. e.g. Jones not keeping a hold of the ball.

All just culminated against us. We had enough quality players out there, but when things go against you.. they really go against you!

Good points mate, but the truth of the matter is they wanted this more than us! And that pisses me off.

This game would have been totally different if it's 1-1 at halftime. No question about that for me. That's totally on Jones for muffing a simple ball and Robinson for not even being in the frame when the winger on his side receives the ball.

As for the selection: Other than Robinson, was there a player on the pitch who is a worse player than his Oldham counter part? No.

The attacking front 4: Sturridge, Suarez, Borini and Sterling. Other than Luis and a few good moments of combination between Sturridge and Suarez, they did nothing - and nothing with the talent each of them possess.

What's most concerning for me is a severe lack of fight in the side when it comes to playing against a physical side. Henderson and Allen are like turnstiles. Coates is 6'6, but gets completely out-muscled and out-jumped. "Skrtel is so hard" Is he f**k. Robsinson is a youth team player. Continually pushed off the ball. These are supposed to be those big bad English football Premier League players. The falsely self-proclaimed "Greatest League in the World" and all that. Completely and utterly weak whenever a team takes the fight to them.

But as I said, it's not the end of the world. There's no such thing as a "potential banana skin" in the FA Cup because it's always a competitive cup. Teams better than ours (Spurs) are also out for example, Chelsea barely scraped a draw, etc.

We go to the Emirates, get a very hard-fought result, a win even, and things already look a whole lot better. Roll on Wednesday.

Absolutely gutted.

To top it off I hear some tit of a "fan" called Andy on 606 calling for Brendan Rodgers head and for Luis Suarez to leave the club because he "shows no class or dignity". Then, would you believe, he said 'we should never have sacked Hodgson'. What a f**king tool. Clearly he was taking the piss but that was totally lost on the clueless presenters.

But yeah...wow. That was a kicker. Not good lads. Not good. I'd be wasting my time trying to pick apart those players and the whole team so I really am not going to bother. Night everybody. Have a good week and lets keep our heads up for a tough week of fixtures next week.

If Jones wouldn't have gifted them a goal, we would be looking at a replay...still calming down, but at the end of the day. Coates, Allen, Robinson, Jones, Borini are just not that good. Sterling is not going past anyone any more. But worried about Wednesday and then Sunday...

Posted before the game, saying back four lacked experience, surely Carragher should have played alongside Skrtel in the back four. Do not think Coates will ever make Premier league standard. Some bad mistakes by Brad Jones probably cost us the game. Need to play a whole lt better against Arsenal, or we will be in for a hiding. Disappointed as this was one chance of picking up a trophy in Brendon's first season as manager.

Piss Poor today
We were bullied just like we were at Stoke.

Hope Brendan learn's his lesson here sometimes you have to win ugly.

Some of our players are not looking like they are gonna make the grade sadly.
Henderson & Allen are borderline at best.
Coates & Jones just not good enough never will be imo.

Bad day at the office but he ho it could have been worse the real stuff is mid week

Bad day at the office but he ho it could have been worse the real stuff is mid week

This kind comment confuses me, since when is the F.A. Cup not the real stuff, I'm absolutely gutted that we've been knocked out of the premier domestic cup competition in the world by a side that simply played bully boy football and their plan came off a treat.

Lessons should of been learned from the first half v's Everton, the game against Stoke but they weren't and only the lack of strength in depth of our squad is stopping me from putting all the blame on Brendan's table.

So fricking frustrating! The fact that we rested players for an FA Cup match is frustrating enough but then for the younger players to have such of a howler makes me so pissed off!

Onwards and updwards, lets concentrate on improving the league position!

And that hopefully should shut everyone up going on about why coates doesn't start a game.  He's crap.  Ship him out.

Good points mate, but the truth of the matter is they wanted this more than us! And that pisses me off.

Yep, fair enough. That often happens though.

One more point to add, from the first 10 mins.. I wanted Sterling off. He's not been on his game recently, and today against the physical boys, he was MIA.

Thought 4 of our back 5 were piss poor today. Would have played Downing LB today to at least give them something to worry about in wide areas. Robinson and Wisdom provided very little going forward and when they got into position didn't use the ball well enough. Neither for me are of the standard required to play regularly in the full back positions for years to come, Wisdom may have a future at CB.

Coates was really poor, just didn't seem up for the fight, beaten to every header, was unsure on the ball and slow on the turn. Smith bullied him all night.

We all know Jones made a complete mess of the second goal and his distribution was awful, but until Reina is back he is the best we have and he needs to keep his head up.

Midfield was pretty much no existent and it wasn't till Gerrard came on that anyone in there looked threatening.

Suarez was good, but was let down somewhat by Sturridge and in particular Sterling. Don't want to keep having a pop at the lad, but I just don't see the player everyone else does just yet. What I see in Sterling is a very rough diamond. His end product just isn't what it should be, and I don't think he will ever be a natural in front of goal like someone  like Walcott has developed into.

Anyway, this is the FA Cup and this sh*t happens. Small compact stadium, a loud pumped up crowd, players giving that little bit extra, a referee who can't handle it, a windy day on a bobbling pitch and all of that is somewhat a leveller.

Good luck to them against Everton, though I expect they will handle the physical side of the game a lot better than we managed to.

Does BR know his best team? IMO we should play the same team every game unless people play sh*t.
No one gets dropped these days there rested in 1978/79 we used 16 players and pissed the league, i know things have changed but if your gonna rest Gerrard why have him on bench.
We should win games then sub players to rest them, we are not good enough to rotate so why do it, we nearly lost to Mansfield and lose to Oldham, Tranmere beat them a couple of weeks ago they have won once in 8 games.
BR is arrogant beyond belief if he thinks this can carry on.

Sterling needs to sharpen up his shooting quickly

Not posted for a long while now, I have been content listening and reading your thoughts! And i value all of them! However I feel this needs to be said. I am as disappointed as the next man and it made me sick not being in the draw this afternoon!. But I want to say this is a marathon not a sprint, we are a work in progress and we will make mistakes along the way. Should SG been on from the start today? Yes. Am I going to ask for the managers head No!.I am convinced this guy knows what he is doing. I go to a pub that is 50/50 Liverpool UTD. I have had to take some serious sh*t tonight. But I don't mind I think we are on the up!. Tonight hurts no one is denying that but come on guys and girls lets get behind them!

In hindsight, it's easy to say we should have been more physical at the back. But apart from Sturridge, every player in red out there today has been here long enough to know what's expected of them when they go out on the pitch.

Our team went out there with the wrong attitude today. When Suarez got that goal, we should have stepped up the pressure on them and got another one or two goals. But instead, we coasted. Then, when they scored at crucial moments in the game, I was looking to the team to show some balls. Instead, we reverted to bringing Gerrard on and just let him do all the clawing back. Not to mention the un-wizardry of Downing down the right wing, causing absolutely no threat or danger apart from kicking the ball against an opposing player and give the ball away.

Terry Mac made a valid point earlier on Twitter though. If you think of Kenny winning a cup trophy last season and getting us to the final of the FA Cup, yet still getting binned off. Then you have to accept that cup competitions don't really mean anything to our owners and they will not be losing too much sleep tonight whilst they're kicking back in Boston.

Personally I'm really pissed off and always am when something like today happens. I'll still be like this tomorrow.

We've got a striker who looks like he's just here to make up the numbers, a handful of young players who look like they think they've done enough for the season and a stand in keeper who was supposedly playing with an injury. Take one or two key players out of our team and it's scary how average we appear. Today was confirmation of that.

Let's just hope we don't see a repeat performance of today in the league.