FC Augsburg 0-0 Liverpool: In game and Post match debate

All fascinating stuff from you two, but what has Brendan got to do with our result yesterday?

Personally I was delighted when Klopp came in and imo Brendan certainly had to go.

I am still disappointed that we only drew 0-0 yesterday and still upset that our results have been piss poor all season (with and without Brendan).

Doesn't mean I have lost faith in Klopp because I haven't, but I am not going to pretend I am delighted with our results.... because I am not. 

So back to the match... 0-0 was a disappointing result imo.

 

 

Jesus, there's a whole lot of bickering going on.

It was a sh*te game and we have a week between then and the second leg at home. I don't think there's much point in focusing on the away leg, we didn't lose so that's a benefit. Only disadvantage is if they score, we need to score two!

Probably part of the problem as well as the fairly obvious different reactions to similar circumstances encountered previously ("hypocrisy" for short) is that some fans continue to over-react to situations. Just like they over-reacted in a negative sense to some of the "dross" served up under the previous manager, they over react in a positive sense to some of the "progress" served up under the current one.

You only have to look back a few days to the reaction to the Villa result to see what I mean. It's not that people shouldn't be happy when we win 6-0, but if you believed all you read there our whole performance spectrum was about to change for the better. No longer were we're going to have to sit through turgid football, now "Jurgens got his full strength team back" we were going to steamroll all in our path. Fast forward a few days and the fact it didn't quite work out like that means that we have to see ever more hyperbole and ever more outlandish claims about how well we're doing.

Why not keep it sensible? Villa are a poor side who for reasons best known to themselves decided not to turn up against us. We did well, but we still have much work to do as evidenced by the display against Augsberg. Perhaps if we didn't over-react so much all the time we wouldn't need to over compensate constantly.

On a side note I'm going to return to Christain Benteke and the over-reaction we constantly see to his fleeting appearances. Each time we play well there are posters falling over themselves to remind Benteke "that's what a real striker looks like" and other such nonsense. Indeed against Villa each time someone put the ball in the onion bag we had the strange sight of Liverpool fans baiting a Liverpool player and anybody who has backed him with similarly daft statements.

Naturally each time we return to the turgid it never gets mentioned again, and Benteke must be the only Liverpool player in history who gets blamed for poor performances even while he's sitting on his @rse. The times I've read "see how much better we look with a proper striker on the pitch" and I've been left scratching my head thinking "but Benteke hasn't been on the pitch" are too numerous to mention. Given he's a player who it would appear will definately be on his way in the Summer I find it remarkable that people are so bothered that he needs to "see what a real striker looks like" on the odd occasion that we actually manage to score a goal. It's very strange, and I suspect has more to do with who signed him than it does whether he really needs to "learn stuff" or not.

The sooner we can move on from all this silliness on all sides the better. Let's honestly critique the performances without trying to score points against a so called "other side". Let's honestly describe how well or badly we're playing without trying to open up an opportunity for an "As I was saying all along" post. Let's accept that there is "hypocrisy" when it is so obvious as it is currently, but crucially let's excuse it too, it is after all only natural.

In short lets just support the team and cut out all the bollocks.

but I am not going to pretend I am delighted with our results.... because I am not.

But they're 14th in the league these Germans and are in good form, supposedly.

You need to cheer up. 

It was one of those typical European affairs, tactically dullish if you like. I can just about live with it even though I can see a missed opportunity of getting an important away goal, and a potential banana skin at Anfield.

But I can't live with some of the absolute crap some people dream up who, lower  expectations only when they see fit.

But they're 14th in the league these Germans and are in good form, supposedly.

You need to cheer up. 

It was one of those typical European affairs, tactically dullish if you like. I can just about live with it even though I can see a missed opportunity of getting an important away goal, and a potential banana skin at Anfield.

But I can't live with some of the absolute crap some people dream up who, lower  expectations only when they see fit.

I meant all season mate. Although to be fair I'm not happy with our result yesterday either. Either my standards are too high or we haven't been doing very well this season... imo obviously.

I'm not going to dance up and down saying how great we are doing when one look at our results or the League table tells a different story, even if we have got a great manager. When we start winning and playing well I will be delighted to give Klopp all the praise he deserves.

I'm happy in my misery mate

Well last night proved one thing. Aston Villa are F***ing sh*te.

I was disappointed with the performance if I'm honest. With not having a game this weekend and having the league cup final just three days after the second leg I think we should have gone all out to win last night and put the tie to bed. I felt both teams were terrified of losing and were more interested in getting bodies behind the ball rather than going on the attack. That's fine, but I did think it was a good opportunity for us to go and beat these 3 or 4 nil without being too disrespectful.

Mignolet - Thought he did well and made a couple of nice saves.

Clyne & Moreno - Both defended well but offered little going forward.

Toure & Sakho - Cant remember either making any disastrous errors. Couple of occasions they gave the ball away but in general they were solid all game. I gave Sakho motm.

Hendo - A typical Hendo performance and that's non-existent. He is playing alongside Can (and other times lucas & allen) so we look at Hendo to be the creative spark in the midfield but he just doesn't have it in his locker. I've said it before and I'll say it again he is only good for doing the donkey work alongside a top midfielder with bags of quality. You can see a mile off just how basic he is in this team. He can't shoot, he can't pass, he can't dribble and drive the team forward, the only thing he can do is run.

Can - Massively gone off Can. Hes similar to the above. Cant do anything with a F***ing football but he can run. I think he is ten times better playing as a CB than he is CM. When we played three at the back under Rodgers Can was superb most weeks. In midfield when you need him to create something he offers F**k all.

Milner - Plods along without doing too much either. To be fair to him though he can whip a F***ing ball in. He fizzed a couple of dangerous balls in from wide areas and it makes you think why we don't use him more often with Benteke in the box? Instead of all this tika-taka playing through teams stuff which doesn't always work. We've got somebody who can cross and we've got somebody who can head. Why not use it?

Coutinho & Firmino - Some nice bits of play from these two at times, some nice flicks and some neat passing but neither did enough to trouble Augsburg. Firmino had a golden chance in the first half when he latched onto a loose ball given away by their defender and he made a meal of it.

Sturridge - Looked to me like hes terrified of getting injured. sh*t out of a couple of half chances & 50-50's.  Not involved.

So to summarise, back four did ok, midfield three were sh*t, the Brazilians were fancy at times but weren't creating enough, sturridge is frightened of getting hurt.

Good result

I would take 0 0 every time in a first leg away from home. 

Never really rated Henderson.Yes he was young, and runs all day, but he always seemed to lack that little bit of "Quality" i.m.o.  I Think that it is due to the"Over Rated Liverpool Player Syndrome" that affects some supporters. That If a players is bought by LFC he is automatically elevated to the top tier of "Excellence" in his game, that and maybe the fact that he was a Dalglish signing has afforded him more leeway with the supporters than he deserves, when in fact he is a average player at best... Maybe Klopp chose the wrong options against Augsburg, and for the reasons high lighted by Frankly, Mr Shankly    

There is a massive problem with our midfield and sad to say it I'm going to pick out Henderson here.
Our central defenders have come in for a lot of flak this season and rightly so. But tonight, when our defenders were on the ball or when they won the ball in the air, there was no one available from the midfield to take it forwards. There were a number of times in that match where Sakho won the header yet there was no one, NO ONE, to pick up the second ball. Where is Henderson in these areas?

We never quite show our teeth, (apart form a labored grim). And although some here like to dismiss some contributors post  as rubbish, without giving real thought to what it is they are trying to say, perhaps he (Ribapuru)  was in some part right

Put lucas on for Sturridge and throw Firmino up top FFS, Sturridge way off his game today.

(could not agree with the Lucas for Sturrigde) when he called for the introduction of Lucas, Maybe just like Frankly, Mr Shankly he saw what was missing from our midfield.....

Snooze fest that.

We've made this one much harder now with 3 days before the League Cup Final.

Can't believe some are pointing to Augsburg's form as a way to talk up a bore-draw against a team who sit 14th in their table. 

F**k me, it's almost as embarrassing as Hodgson's 'formidable' Northampton quip!

(1)Augsburg my sit 14th in the table at present but it does not mean that they will finish there

(2) We drew with Sunderland whom sits 19th in the table

(3) Chelsea sits 12th in the table by your reasoning that should be an easy game for us

(4) Midtjylland beat Man Utd 2-1 the Danish Superliga is hardly regarded as one of the strongest leagues

It is football these things happen

(1)Augsburg my sit 14th in the table at present but it does not mean that they will finish there

(2) We drew with Sunderland whom sits 19th in the table

(3) Chelsea sits 12th in the table by your reasoning that should be an easy game for us

(4) Midtjylland beat Man Utd 2-1 the Danish Superliga is hardly regarded as one of the strongest leagues

It is football these things happen

But when these things happen more often than not, you only end up looking on or up.

Oh, and thanks for the Sunderland reminder.

Never really rated Henderson.Yes he was young, and runs all day, but he always seemed to lack that little bit of "Quality" i.m.o.  I Think that it is due to the"Over Rated Liverpool Player Syndrome" that affects some supporters. That If a players is bought by LFC he is automatically elevated to the top tier of "Excellence" in his game, that and maybe the fact that he was a Dalglish signing has afforded him more leeway with the supporters than he deserves, when in fact he is a average player at best... Maybe Klopp chose the wrong options against Augsburg, and for the reasons high lighted by Frankly, Mr Shankly    

We never quite show our teeth, (apart form a labored grim). And although some here like to dismiss some contributors post  as rubbish, without giving real thought to what it is they are trying to say, perhaps he (Ribapuru)  was in some part right

(could not agree with the Lucas for Sturrigde) when he called for the introduction of Lucas, Maybe just like Frankly, Mr Shankly he saw what was missing from our midfield.....

Firmino proved himself as centre forward, Sturridge was not on the ball yesterday and he came off for Origi in the end but I back what I said, we should have added strength in midfield by taking off Sturridge for Lucas then having Firmino change from AM to CF. Henderson also needed to come off, I can't believe he got 90 minutes.

Good result

I would take 0 0 every time in a first leg away from home. 

thought so as well mate 0-0 away from home means a simple win at Anfield to go through.

Another sh*t performance. Becoming far too common, but given the below average players we persist with it's no wonder you get these sort of sh*t performances constantly. The midfield three were as poor as they were against Villa and the Augsburg defence wasn't anywhere near as bad as Villa's to give us the luxury of the pitch.

But, a goalless draw away from home in Europe isn't a bad thing. So F***ing what if we've got City a couple of days after the second leg, are players incapable of playing two games in a week nowadays? Imagine winning 2-0 yesterday, Jürgen throwing a bunch of kids/fringe players in the second leg and us going out 3-2. At least now, the job, should, be done at Anfield in a professional manner.

With every passing game though, Jürgen must get a better idea of who should be here in the summer and who should be shown the door. Yesterday would of confirmed that one of his biggest problems is the midfield.

Overall though, the result is not worth getting our knickers in a twist. 0-0 away from home, is an acceptable result - it just wasn't an acceptable performance.

Mignolet - made a decent save in each half, still managed his usual fumble at point an all. Given every mistake he makes is scrutinised beyond belief now, it was a decent performance from him. He's going into games with people expecting, and some actually wanting, him to F**k up. That pressure must be weighing heavily on his shoulders.

Clyne - who has looked solid and dependable the last few weeks, got a bit of an eye opener yesterday. He just looked off the pace throughout. I don't think Augsburg targeted him but every time they attacked his side, they had some level of success.

Toure - remains our best centre half this season. Another solid enough performance.

Sakho - remains our best centre half at ending every attack on his arse. He does that well. Still not good enough to be the number one centre half at Liverpool though.

Moreno - was, typically, out of position more often than not yesterday. Relies too much on his pace to get him out of trouble, rather than any positional sense. Still looks like he's trying to learn the role of a left back on the job. Would probably be better to push him further up field and play him as an out and out winger, leaving somebody else to do the defensive job.

Can't - remains sh*t. People walk past him and he makes no effort to get back, until they've already breezed past him then he tries to fool fans that he's actually trying. Players just walk off him, has no awareness of what's around him - with or without the ball. His passing was embarrassing at times. And he still wasn't the worst the central midfielder on display.

Henderson - whether he's still playing with this injury or not, I don't know. But he's nowhere near the same player he was as little as twelve months ago. He's even worse now than he was when we he first arrived. At least then, it looked like he was trying to make things happen. Now, it's pass the buck immediately. sh*t  bag performance from the Liverpool captain!

Milner - put one decent ball in all game. Everything else is just average. Can't track back, can't tackle, doesn't score enough, doesn't even create enough. Set piece delivery is usually poor.

Firmino - had the odd touch here and there but overall wasn't good enough. Another, by and large, anonymous performance.

Coutinho - looked better than he was due to the sh*t that was out there with him. He played ok but it wasn't a startling performance by any means.

Sturridge - had scraps to feed on all game and was deeper than our midfield at times to get involved. Probably could of made more runs into space to try and open the game up a bit more. Still looked our most dangerous threat though.

Origi - gave a lot of effort, just lacked a bit of quality.

Ibe - came on, lost the ball countless times, the final whistle went.

0-0 away from home in Europe is a good result v anybody.

Considering our patchy form and sometimes dodgy defending Ill take that any day of the week.

Win 1 or 2 nil at anfield next week, job done.

It was dire stuff to watch - I am sure most of you will agree. I fell asleep during the 2nd half and my other half was not best pleased that I took control of the TV. I have to make up to her somehow.

Anyway, I love Klopp and could use one of his hugs about right now since my wife won't give me any.

Rant on

I have one criticism of Klopp and that is he keeps playing the same so called 1st team players. It is almost as if he has two teams and never the twain shall meet except of course Stewart somehow managed to sneak in the 1st team. Then he was promptly 'lost' again (I know he is injured). Why doesn't he mix it up? For example, why not play someone other than Ibe (the boy has totally lost it) yesterday - Tex as a replacement for Coutinho, etc.? Anything different and perhaps we will get a different result. It doesn't hurt to try surely - they can't do worse than Ibe/Henderson/etc. Henderson was totally useless yesterday - sorry all Henderson fans.

Rant over.

Edit: BTW I thought their goalkeeper was rather good and they trusted a lot more than our lot. He would definitely be an upgrade on Mignolet - actually anybody would be an upgrade to Mignolet - even Jones .

Snooze fest that.

We've made this one much harder now with 3 days before the League Cup Final.

Can't believe some are pointing to Augsburg's form as a way to talk up a bore-draw against a team who sit 14th in their table. 

F**k me, it's almost as embarrassing as Hodgson's 'formidable' Northampton quip!

Don't talk sh*t , there's no comparison with Klopp  Hodgson's  Augsburg and Northampton . We're still in it and have a home game against them .

Don't talk sh*t , there's no comparison with Klopp  Hodgson's  Augsburg and Northampton . We're still in it and have a home game against them .

Try reading Mick's point about mine, he put it more succinctly.

I don't know why there's some sentiment going around the forum that you aren't allowed to be upset at poor results?

Ok, we know we have injuries and substandard players and blah, blah, blah, other excuses, blah, blah. But does that mean we aren't allowed to be disappointed when we don't win or don't walk a team that we should be walking?

If you have a broken down car, that you know isn't reliable,  do you still get mad when it breaks down on the way to work or are you magically happy when you are stranded in the middle of nowhere because "Well....I knew it wasn't reliable so there's no reason to be upset"?

Some of you need to get off of your high horse and unwrap your lips from Klopp's old chap and realize that being disappointed with losing doesn't = shouting from the rooftops that he needs to go and we need to bring back the Brodge.

Very disappointed with this game. Yes, it's a cold Thursday night in Germany, but if we expect Champions League like we all want then we have to show we're at least worthy up of winning these Europa League games first don't we? And what's worse, is that is basically our strongest team that we boringly drew 0-0 with the bottom half of the Bundesliga  team. This game has to be a win to show we have at least some sort of quality. The main things I took away:
-Couts and Firmino are the studs of the team. They're the ones going to carry this team.
-Studge is soft and afraid of physicality, which is the biggest thing that always separated him from Luis Suarez.
-And finally, relying on both Can and Hendo in the middle will not work. At least one, or both, will see their way out or at least to the bench. We need energy and offensive creativity here. They're both terribly boring on the ball and predictable. You know that one touch pass going flat outside or back is coming before they even do it. I think at this point when Lallana is healthy, he slides in for one of them, and this is the area to focus on in the summer.

I'm not sure a scoreless draw away from home in Europe is as good as some want to make out. Under Rafa's squad, it'd be an excellent result, because we knew we could keep a clean sheet at home. Not so much with this squad. So I think not getting an away goal could be crucial, as any draw besides a 0-0 means Augsburg go through.

With our Anfield form -- only 7 wins from 20 in all competitions -- this could be a tricky return fixture, especially with the League Cup final being 3 days after. Advantage to us, but only a slight one. Still think we'll win it, but we'll need to be at our best for sure.

I'm not sure a scoreless draw away from home in Europe is as good as some want to make out. Under Rafa's squad, it'd be an excellent result, because we knew we could keep a clean sheet at home. Not so much with this squad. So I think not getting an away goal could be crucial, as any draw besides a 0-0 means Augsburg go through.

With our Anfield form -- only 7 wins from 20 in all competitions -- this could be a tricky return fixture, especially with the League Cup final being 3 days after. Advantage to us, but only a slight one. Still think we'll win it, but we'll need to be at our best for sure.

I don't think that form is a good guide because this team is the most difficult to work out . Lets hope we turn up and all will be good but if we don't we will struggle

I don't know why there's some sentiment going around the forum that you aren't allowed to be upset at poor results?

Ok, we know we have injuries and substandard players and blah, blah, blah, other excuses, blah, blah. But does that mean we aren't allowed to be disappointed when we don't win or don't walk a team that we should be walking?

If you have a broken down car, that you know isn't reliable,  do you still get mad when it breaks down on the way to work or are you magically happy when you are stranded in the middle of nowhere because "Well....I knew it wasn't reliable so there's no reason to be upset"?

Some of you need to get off of your high horse and unwrap your lips from Klopp's old chap and realize that being disappointed with losing doesn't = shouting from the rooftops that he needs to go and we need to bring back the Brodge.

There's nobody on here suggesting we should be overjoyed with the result but they're are some fellas who get their knickers in a twist like it's the end and what some of us are trying to get across is that LFC has always done it this way . The Liverpool way is the hard way . Come next Thursday night if we lose then i'll be disappointed like everyone else but until then we should keep our gun powder dry . Personally i think certain players were to blame for last night performance the mf 3 , we'll see what Klopp will do about that .

There's nobody on here suggesting we should be overjoyed with the result but they're are some fellas who get their knickers in a twist like it's the end and what some of us are trying to get across is that LFC has always done it this way . The Liverpool way is the hard way . Come next Thursday night if we lose then i'll be disappointed like everyone else but until then we should keep our gun powder dry . Personally i think certain players were to blame for last night performance the mf 3 , we'll see what Klopp will do about that .

Where has anyone acted like it's the end? And what do you even mean by "the end"? Because from what I've read (and from what I've posted) there hasn't been any doom and gloom like we are going to be relegated. We however very well may not win the Europa with performances like that. Had it been a one off against a current run of good form, then yes, a 0-0 draw might not be too hard to swallow...but let's be honest...we haven't been on a run of good form. This type of performance was pretty much the norm and we won't win Europa and we won't beat Man City in the League Cup with performances like that, so screw me if I'm a bit concerned that this type of performance means we are going to be lucky to win anything this year.  And I don't buy that "Liverpool have always done it this way". I've not been a fan as long as many of you, but I've read enough on here and on my own to know that Liverpool historically have been a powerhouse in Europe and 0-0 draws may be one thing against a top tier CL opponent...but against a 14th ranked Bundesliga team.....not so much.