Real Madrid 1-0 Liverpool: In game and Post Match Debate

He was he broke down play in the centre circle put his foot in where it hurts and passed the ball well .What else can he do.

Yep, would have kept him on and put SG further up to play off Borini.

Spirited for sure. I think a lot of lessons have been learnt from this CL campaign which is a good thing because you could see our lads wayyyyyy more disciplined and structured.

1000%

Thought Lucas, Mignolet and Kolo were our best (who would of ever thought someone would say that?!). Superb from them. Kolo and Skrtel will start on the weekend hopefully.

Thought Lucas in particular was vital for us. His positioning is about 5 yards deeper than Gerrard ever is and that really helped us today. Would like to see him play against Chelsea with Hendo alongside him and Gerrard allowed to go forward and play as the attacking one of the trio.

Yes Lucas was our MOTM. He was great and did the job of a DM should. His passing was neat but lacked that clinical move forwards. I think Gerrard was brought on to spread the play - hate that tactic - and incase we won anymore set pieces.

Migs was very good but his distribution is what caused the goal. Its god awful.

Thought Allen and Marko were our worst players by a mile.

Anyone think we were better with Lucas? Thought he was brilliant.

Organises well, talks to his defenders, intelligent player who I hope goes in to coaching.  A leader on the pitch.  Not the greatest player, but you don't always need to be.

On Joe Allen, please, please, please prove my opinion of you wrong at some point, I'd love it.

Like I said we matched them. But didn't get off my seat once. We don't deserve to go through after he performance of our last 4 champs league games.

I can say what I want. It's my opinion. We have been piss poor in this competition. Fact.

I F***ing love liverpool and I'll watch and support what ever happens, but if I think we are playing DOGSHIT then I'll happily admit and say it.

Pony.

Ok - fair enough but I totally disagree with you and think you are in a minority after watching that... With 5 mins left we could have got a point at Madrid and not a lot of teams can say that. I hope that we go through, and in a decent fashion.

However, putting fact at the end of a sentence does not make it fact, especially when you talk about your opinion.

Can and Lucas with Sterling and Coutinho please.

Need a massive favour from Madrid against Basel and then we've still got to go and win twice which will be tricky. Not expecting us to do by any means really, still not enough goals in the side.

A lot of positives to take from tonight though. Brendan's no doubt stirred things up in the squad with all those changes and the response he got from those who got the nod. Toure, Lucas and Can in particular must be knocking on the door regarding starting on Saturday. We proved that we can actually defend and if Manquillo was better against Marcelo (not just for the goal but over the whole night) then I really could have seen us keeping a clean sheet as they didn't really offer much else.

We did lack a killer instinct though. As much as I like Borini's attitude and movement an attack involving him and an out of sorts Markovic isn't really going to cause defenders like Varane and Ramos many issues. Think we could have afforded to drop Lallana deeper to get him on the ball and given Sterling and Coutinho some more time on the pitch but I can understand Brendan wanting to keep it tight for so long, last thing we needed was a battering.

Always hurts when we lose but at least this time I'm actually looking forward to our next game with some confidence!

He was he broke down play in the centre circle put his foot in where it hurts and passed the ball well .What else can he do.

Did everything brilliant defensively. His positioning was great and he must of covered twice the distance that Stevie does in that role.

Oh and at least we didn't throw away a 3-0 lead vs Anderlecht!!!!

After the clusterfuck of previous games, a good performance is what was needed.

We held the ball quite well and the ball retention that was absent in previous games was there.

Big credit has to go to Can, Markovic, Lucas and Borini - they held the ball well and we didn't look out of all sorts against Madrid. Borini's work rate was excellent - he came deep for the ball, and when he released the ball, immediately shot up the field to make a run forward. Balotelli - I hope you were watching that display of effort.

Fair play to Lucas - I said he shouldn't start for Liverpool ever - I was wrong. It's obvious in this more pragmatic, possession based play (similar to many of Swansea's best performances) where we fill the midfield with more players, he looks far more secure and comfortable. His ball retention was good, his passing wasn't suspect - good job. We looked far better playing a possession based patient game with him than Gerrard who, lets face it, does not have the requirements to play this type of game.

The team today looked far more balanced with the formation. Something Brendan needs to realise, and realise that Balotelli is hellishly damaging to our game.

This is interesting.

All pundits are congratulating Liverpool for losing to Real Madrid by a 1-0 margin

Another defeat, that's all the matters! For Liverpool its not good enough! F**k this good effort lads sh*t!

Good effort, the 1-0 flattered us but not by much, it was a real good try that by some of our lads.

Mig-His best game all season without doubt, think some of the punching was over theatrical but some good saves in there too.
Manquillo-Madrid identified this weakness and went at it all night, to be honest he was our worst performer but he was ganged up on.
Skrtel-Decent.
Toure-Excellent, thought he was our best defender on the night and in no way should be dropped after that.
Moreno-Love this lad, his rash and raw but in time he's going to be so good. Good display.
Lucas-Excellent, didn't deserve to come off, didn't look to be tiring and was standing up to anything that came through the middle, really shoving it down the throats of those that claim he's finished/sh*te/whatever crap they say, well in again Lucas.
Allen-Probably our weakest midfielder but boy did he put a shift in and that energy alone showed so much in our play.
Lallana-Excellent, threatened so many times to break through, if he had someone up top to interplay with more he'd be a real threat.
Markovic-Easily his best game for us, much more promising.
Can-Another good display, shouldn't be dropped after that either.
Borini-Movement is on another planet compared to Balotelli, gave us options, occupied their defenders but didn't especially threaten.

Effort 10/10

Madrid had a couple of players that are just a class above though, Varane and Modric were exceptional.

Lucas was my MOTM.

His best game for us in a long time and looked like the Lucas of old.

Toure excellent as well and has to start on Saturday.

If the Gaffer ever plays Allen again, I'll cry. How many times did he give the ball away and get caught in possession? Even Allen himself spent half the game looking up to the sky in frustration. He was hard working closing down but on the ball he was dire.

All in all though, very pleased with the result and in particular with Can, Toure, Moreno, Migs, Markovic, and Lucas.

Now there's a sentence I thought I would never write.

That's the happiest I been after a defeat in a long time.

only danny is missing...

If the Gaffer ever plays Allen again, I'll cry/ How many times did he give the ball away and get caught in possession? Even Allen himself spent half the game looking up to the sky in frustration. He was dire.

All in all though, very pleased with the result and in particular with Can, Toure, Moreno, Migs, Markovic, and Lucas.

Now there's a sentence I thought I would never write.

I think even Allen would agree he kept losing the ball and putting us under pressure.

knock, knock.

who's there?

Joe Allen.

Our starting 3; Gerrard, Coutinho and Sterling played better as subs today

Anyone else think Markovic would be a better option than Sterling for the moment? Sterling offered less than Markovic tonight for sure when he came on.

Sterling has been entirely absent for the majority of this year - he needs a rest and Markovic put in a good shift tonight.

Liverpool fans still there and still singing. Fair play.

Well, probably a (slightly) better performance I thought than the last time, though Madrid could easily have had 3 or 4.
Bit disappointing to create almost nothing - not sure why BR didn't bring on another striker for the last 15 mins.
Migs, the back 4, Lucas, Can, Lallana put in a good shift. Borini, too, though he offers nothing in the goals department. Markovic and Allen weren't great.
Were we better when the 3 lads came on? Thought Sterling was poor, and Coutinho and SG didn't really make much difference either.

Yet again though, it's the final third were we came up completely short. I don't get annoyed about it now, just have to accept it - need to try to find a way to be harder to beat, nick the odd goal, and wait until the striking winds change.

Brave by BR to start the players he did. And think he was vindicated. Will we revert for the Chavs match? Probably. Will the other lads do better? Will see.

Classic "Adrian Childs. You're a w@nker, you're a w@nker" haha. Rattled the f@cker too  .