Liverpool 0-2 West Brom: In-Game and Post Match Grumbling

F***ing hell it's a happy place here eh!!!,cannot believe the negativity on here.

Ffs lads we battered the sh*t out of them last night creating chances and playing well.

Foster has one of those nights where he wasn't going to beaten,and as the night wore on you could sense them scoring.

Let's put it into perspective it's Brendan's first season and it's a different way of playing the players are just getting used to it as most of us can see,there will be a few problems but I think it's getting there.

 If Hodgson was still in charge there some of them would be praising him up and saying he "owned" our manager. For many of them, they haven't got the bollocks to simply come out and say they want rid of the boss, so they take every available opportunity to put the boot into him. It's a sickening sight to be totally honest, but there it is.

I've defended the gaffer to the hilt - but last night he majorly cocked up

Downing, Carragher, Reina, Lucas and Henderson apart, they all did

Should have won that but for an inspired keeper and too many misplaced passes.

Enrique, Agger and Johnson had bad games, really surprised with them. Carra strong as usual, Lucas, Gerrard, Hendo and Downing were good (mistake to sub Hendo and Downing, IMO, we lost some energy and attacking guile there: Borini looked lost and Coutinho made no difference). Love Agger - I think he's a natural leader and is elegant bringing the ball out of defence, but someone needs to have a word with him about marking. That's two in two games where his man has lost him and scored.

Shelvey showed us why BR has benched him of late. Very poor last night.

Stunned, really. After three home wins agg. 12-0, and coming off the back of two impressive away performances, I thought we'd steamroller West Brom. And we did, kinda. Sucker punched. The return of Mulumbu made a big difference for them. In a short space of time, Sturridge has proved himself vital to our chances. We were unlucky. The pen goes in, we win that match...

Move on. No more slip-ups! YNWA

Why is no one questioning Reina? His feet from corners seem permantly rooted to the floor and doesn't seem willing to command his box and either catch incoming corners or at least punch them?

When a big honking central defender breaks away from his marker (Agger) and attacks the ball from 3 yards out, there's not much a keeper can do about it

F***ing hell it's a happy place here eh!!!,cannot believe the negativity on here.

Ffs lads we battered the sh*t out of them last night creating chances and playing well.

Foster has one of those nights where he wasn't going to beaten,and as the night wore on you could sense them scoring.

Let's put it into perspective it's Brendan's first season and it's a different way of playing the players are just getting used to it as most of us can see,there will be a few problems but I think it's getting there.

Misplaced passes, no urgency from the back, the back three playing atrociously, the wrong players picked to start, and the wrong substitutions

There's your perspective

F***ing hell it's a happy place here eh!!!,cannot believe the negativity on here.

Ffs lads we battered the sh*t out of them last night creating chances and playing well.

Foster has one of those nights where he wasn't going to beaten,and as the night wore on you could sense them scoring.

Let's put it into perspective it's Brendan's first season and it's a different way of playing the players are just getting used to it as most of us can see,there will be a few problems but I think it's getting there.

As much as I love Liverpool Football Club battering sh*te out of a team is no good unless you put the ball in the net and come away with 3 points.Irresepective of how long Brendan has been our boss he will be judged at the end of the season on our results.For years Anfield was always described as a fortress to opposition teams and that at least is what we should aspire to once more. If I am being negative then sorry but when we get results like that some of the optism fades.In the prediction league I had us to win 5-0 sadly we did not even win.

He should have started with Borini in place of Sturridge and kept everything the same. The gaffer, trying to accomodate the absence of Sturridge, had to rejig a lot of the team and tactics as a result.

If/when Borini tires, take him off and stick Sterling on

I was very surprised to see that starting line up. A game like this should have been ideal to have Borini starting to give him some valuable game time. But what does BR do he starts with Shelvey and gets what he deserves.
The Gaffer does not help himself from criticism sometimes.

Seems we have plenty of players with technical ability now
but few who are willing to fight for the right to exercise that ability.

Spectacular collapse after the penalty miss.
Far too soft at the moment.

If teams give us time to play we destroy them.
If teams get stuck in for a fight we crumble.

Sad to see.

What I wouldn't give for a Didi, Mascherano or Sissoko.
What I wouldn't give for a Sami Hyypia.

Our painfully thin squad continues to be just that, painful.
No competition for the first team and it shows.

The truth is, we are too predictable, as racer says, as soon as teams pressure us, we crumble.
As for no competition for the first team, I agree, but I also think Brendan is under no pressure, he feels he is secure and it shows. I'm certainly not advocating sacking him, no way, but I think he needs telling that we need to see progress, and at the moment we are taking 2 steps forward, 3 steps back.
I want to see some fight and passion from the players, but if I'm honest I don't see much of it from the manager and his team on the bench, it needs to come from the top.
The whole club at the moment just feels flat, a bit like a burst ballon.

I saw it but i still dont believe it, battered them for eighty mins had shot after shot and could'nt score they show up for the last ten minutes and score two, sick as a small hospital this morning grrrrrr.

If it's a tactical issue, then it's nothing new, cause the same happened last season. I just wonder why the judgement is different.

I hear you.

It's a similar scenario to (last season) when some were blaming the tactics but this season it's the players fault and (last season) the new signings who were sh*t but this season the new signings aren't under the same scrutiny (from the same people) and last season, for some, the table didn't lie but this season... well you get my drift.

Sadly that's just human nature mate; we all "take sides" and having done so we all tend to "ignore" our own hypocrisy when pointing out the failings of others. I try to be consistent but I'm probably as guilty as most. Then again, like I said: we are all the same and it's best we don't kid ourselves otherwise.

There's one thing for sure; (up until now) when you look at things objectively, there's been no sign of progress. Squad strength/depth hasn't improved (players/transfer policy ?) and tactics/system hasn't brought any better results (manager ?).

We can blame whoever we want (transfers/players/system/manager), put whatever slant we want on the facts but the chances are high enough that, come May, this season's "strategies" will have produced nothing in terms of measurable progress (football wise). And that is only what most fans will see... I now realise that who they "blame" is immaterial. 

Progress is all we want to see Mouse you are 100% correct there and if we see it then it doesn't really matter who the manager is.

I don't see too much of it to be honest though.

To add our opposition last night had 1 point from their last six games and last won a game on Boxing Day against QPR. In fact out of their last 36 available points they collected 8.

If we fail to reach the ECL next season, they'll sack the gaffer. Preparation for next season begins now, seeing as this one is over

Looking at the games that we give away, we look far too soft. No steel, no one willing to put up a fight, we allow ourselves to get bullied and allow other teams to impose their will.

I firmly believe that we need to add some players that are downright pricks. Maybe not the best technically, but guys that are going to go out and battle and not give an inch of ground. Guys that will stand up and make other teams strikers keep their heads on a swivel wondering where the hard tackle is going to come from.

Dempsey would have been a start this summer but FSG screwed that up. We need a few players in that vein though.

You could see after the missed penalty and especially after their first goal, our guys just gave up.

Not sure if I get what you mean there.

It was just a small point that last season you said missed chances were not an excuse for our poor season. If that is true, they cannot be to blame in this season either.

For me it is simple. Last season wasn't good enough and the manager took the blame. This season is developing into more of the same minus the cup runs and Brendan now has to accept criticism.

Last season we dominated games and didn't win and it is happening again. I think teams let us dominate knowing that we struggle to break sides down and our defence has a bit of a soft centre to it.

yesterday we went back to the time when we had NO Sturridge , or not a good partner for suarez, poor in front of goal, back to the times when we play well and FAIL to finalize, we could  have (if our finishing was decent) scored 3/4 in the 1st half, apart from the great  day Foster had
 WBA had  only 3 shots on target  all game , the 2 goals, and a save by Reina which led to the 1st goal ,
  and these came after we substituted 2 midfielders , with a wing and a striker,!!!!

 YNWA
   
   

Looking at the games that we give away, we look far too soft. No steel, no one willing to put up a fight, we allow ourselves to get bullied and allow other teams to impose their will.

I firmly believe that we need to add some players that are downright pricks. Maybe not the best technically, but guys that are going to go out and battle and not give an inch of ground. Guys that will stand up and make other teams strikers keep their heads on a swivel wondering where the hard tackle is going to come from.

Dempsey would have been a start this summer but FSG screwed that up. We need a few players in that vein though.

You could see after the missed penalty and especially after their first goal, our guys just gave up.

I agree Dempsey has the kind of attitude we lack. The thing is it doesn't only count against opposition, but internally you need to have that general who you dare not look in the eye unless you're proud of what you've done. While Stevie is the one you'd look at for this and he does have a certain amount of intimidation about him I don't think he has a nasty streak that adds that element of fear. The nearest I think we  have to that type of personality is Agger.

Along with competition for places, more of these characters that demand pride in performance would go some way in eliminating the type of half arsed performances we saw from Enrique last night. Unfortunately this type of character comes with experience and the path we're taking it might be a while before we see these characters develop. The likes of Kelly or Wisdom look the best candidates in our next generation of players but it's a few years before they become established first-team players and I don't feel there's a lot of patience around.

I did not see the game, seems as if we lacked Sturridge up front, to partner Suarez , with all those missed chances. Usual defensive shambles, which really needs to be sorted. I had a rush of blood the other day backing us to win the Europa League outright! on this display I wish I hadn't bothered.

Daniel Agger ‏@DanielAgger

I agree with most of you. My performance the last 10 minutes of yesterday's game was NOT good enough. It's as simple as that!!!!!

Daniel Agger ‏@DanielAgger

But thank you for letting me know:0)))))))
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Jonjo Shelvey ‏@shelveyJ

Love people giving me stick .. When half of people on here haven't got a clue what they're on about.
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Spot the difference?

Have to be completely honest, this is the first time I've woken the morning after a game we've lost and still be as angry as I was last night!

Sterling and Borini should've started for me, keep the 4-4-2 with players In their natural position!
But apart from that can't really fault Rodgers for anything.

Agree with many on here, lack of competition seems to be a real problem!

Reina: wasn't really at fault yesterday, but still been poor.

Enrique: can't play short passes without trying to flick them round the corner with the outside if the boot. Gave away possession on countless occasions last night! Just not Liverpool quality in my opinion!

Agger: don't know what's got into him the last couple of months, I still think he's class but need to up his game fast before we cement a 10th place finish.

Carragher: solid as usual but didn't have the legs when Lukaku came on, can't blame the man for the result yesterday!


Johnson: yes, probably does need some competition, but he, like every other player, just seemed to have a really off night. And he's been one of our top performers this season!

Downing: best player for us yesterday but still nowhere near good enough for this football club!

Lucas: played quite well, did his job and was let down by his teammates who didn't seem to show any desire, looks like he's getting closer to the form he showed last year.

Gerrard: off night, strangely didn't seem that interested, but it's Gerrard so say no more.

Henderson & Shelvey: both were extremely poor, but both did at last did have a decent level of effort, but very difficult for two young players when they're out of their natural position.

Suarez: very disappointing from him, could've done a lot more in the game but still looked like the one of the very few who really wanted to Win the game!


In all honesty, it's not so much for me that we lost the game, at home, to West Brom. In fact what we as Liverpool supporters want is to see some heart and desire to put themselves on the line for the team, the club and the fans, that's all I want to see as a liverpool fan, if we loose, we loose so be it. But we should be able to walk away from a match saying "at least our boys showed some fight!"  Yes, we were unlucky with some of our efforts being saved well by Foster, but we were playing as though we were already 5-0 nil up!

Overall, I know that there are going to be nights like this, every team has them. Our touch was off and we didn't seen to have that bit of luck, however, these players need to learn that it's not except able to go to the Emerites and Eitihad stadium and play to such a high level and then perform so poorly just because it's not a team in the top six!

What would happen if we adapted the same strategy as west brom. Would we also have 10 men camped around the box ? if the ball stopped on the half way line, who would dare venture forward to retrieve it ?
 I'm sick that we lost, Pissed off with the Tactics and lack of penetration and imagination, but what were the alternatives. I remember when the great Liverpool sides would take the ball to the oposing defensive line and pass accross it, slowly moving back up field with occasional forward probing balls, and then back again to the spaces between the 18 yd box and half way line, this would draw the oposition out of their defensive shell and we would then get penetrating passes through the gaps, with movement off the ball giving the player in possesion at least 3 options. Now we seem to just go accross our own back 4 and then try and play directly through the crowd of defenders. There seems very little thought, and very little imagination. Our only other out is a 40yd inch perfect pass from Gerrard. But by the time it reaches the target, the cover is there. For all the possesion we have, we need to be a lot more clever. The so say top teams who come out to beat us by playing footy, make for an open game which suits us, but until we learn a strategy that will defeat the bus parkers, things are not going to change any time soon, and its been like this for at least the last 4 seasons.

I just wonder how are we going to score goals and win games when most of the time we only had 2 players inside the box. Even 3-players we don't position ourselves properly to be a threat. Watching the start of the season all over again, things simply broke down at the final third.