League Cup Final Liverpool 1:1 Man City (ET) 1:3 after penalties.

What? How? Why?

Lucas by a country mile.

Then Mignolet. Coutinho behind them.

I'd throw Clyne in too who I thought had an excellent game. Migs is an odd one because he cost us a goal with his partner in crime Moreno but then pulled off a cracker to save from Aguero to even it up. So if you do the fair thing and square it up with those two he's only really saved 2 hit right at him that you'd expect him to save so at that point it just becomes a decent but nothing special performance.

I know we have stuff to fight for but part of me can't wait to get to the summer and just see who Jürgen brings in for midfield it hurts watching those guys represent us. Listening to the panel discuss about Firmino/Studge/Coutinho it took them an age to get on to the real problem, without a link in the chain you can't possibly expect 3 players to beat 7/8 of City's players, time after time they were completely outnumbered.

Moreno to his credit was trying to get involved but he just doesn't know when 'getting involved' is actually getting out of position, there has to be the balance with Clyne on the opposite side. As for Milner he just gave away attack after attack, bottling shots inside the area and then fluffing set piece after set piece. He finally did something before his pass for Aguero nearly saw us out and you could see just that little chink in the chain and we had them right on the ropes.

People say it's scapegoating, it's identifying the weakest links to move forward without them. We have to be ruthless in the summer and the likes of Henderson, Milner, Can, Mignolet, Moreno have their necks on the block and they're not moving quick enough right now to stop them getting cut straight off.

And they should've had a penalty.

Just as we should have had one too. Remember the Moreno hacking?

Missed the extra time and penalties as I had to go to football. But from the 90 minutes I watched, we were lucky to get that far. Migs at fault for the opener, Aguero probably should have had a penalty, and Sterlings two misses bordered on criminal. I expected a bit more fire than I saw TBH.

Hugely disappointing, but there you go. You can't win them all as they say.

Just as we should have had one too. Remember the Moreno hacking?

Agreed and theirs was not a penalty, on first look you can be convinced it's a stone wall but in slow mo you see Aguero stick his leg out to catch Moreno's.

Granted it's one of the dumbest attempts of a tackle in the box I've ever seen but still Aguero tries to buy it and it was one of the best decisions on the day from a ref who I thought had a relatively poor game.

Yaya should have been off for man handling Lallana.

Fernandinho/Fernando both could have been off for persistent fouling.

To be fair to them Lucas could have easily seen worse for his lunge and the grab at Aguero's ankle when Aguero refuses to shake his hand. Penalty for them though, not if you look properly.

You bored posting on redcafe or something?

He made at least 4 point blank saves after we equalised to keep us in it. And he made a superb stop in the first half.

F**k off.

Bang on mate & 100% agree.

You bored posting on redcafe or something?

He made at least 4 point blank saves after we equalised to keep us in it. And he made a superb stop in the first half.

F**k off.

I don't have an account on redcafe. There are other people called BarneyLFC on redandwhitekop and on redcafe, neither are me. I'm fairly sure I've been over this with you before.

Mignolet cost us a goal. He made one unbelievable save against Aguero when Aguero was through one on one. His other saves were good, but any goalkeeper of real quality makes those saves. Courtois saves them, De Gea saves them, Cech saves them, Hart saves them, Lloris saves them.

Just as we should have had one too. Remember the Moreno hacking?

That wasn't a penalty. Oliver wasn't great, but both sides benefited from his decisions.

Stop clutching at straws the Moreno pen was never in a million years

Thought we were going to nick it in ET their legs had gone in midfield again just lacked that bit of quality. Moreno a gonner I think in Summer think Klopp had enough that attempt at a tackle was laughable.

So clear that playing two similar limited players like Can and Hendo just does not work although to be fair Can did improve in the second half.

But Hendo was a passenger for 120mins, Playing CM is just asking too much from him he doesn't have the ability, either play him as a box to box player or leave him on the bench.
Every single pass he received in midfield went straight back as he doesn't have the ability to turn with the ball with a defender on him.

I am also exhausted after that - to be gutted after going so close is better than be angered at collapsing (like in recent years with defeat) though.

Sounds desperate and clutching at straws I know but there were guanine positives to take from that. I thought we stopped their flowing style of play brilliantly, we were well drilled in getting in their passing lanes and the pressing game was done well too.

Any drawbacks? Well we were defeated in the air so many times but this is a weakness inherited from the Rodgers era and you can't coach pplayers to jump higher unfortunately. FORTUNTALEY.... Klopp is keen to rectify this as his new signings prove - Grujic and Matip are both big strong players each at 6 ft 4. They can offer physicality and strength in the air - crucial to us considering it has been one of our biggest weaknesses in recent years.

Klopp's has transformed Lucas into a centre back - not just a competent one but our best one. Who can believe it? Lucas read the game brilliantly, and though he's not the tallest, he was the ONE player who was brilliant in the air! This is also encouraging as it shows Klopp's got a shrewd eye on what a good defender is and intriguing that Klopp saw something in Lucas that all our previous managers didn't see. His quality into tapping into hidden potential is beginning to be displayed.

We lacked that bit of quality ON the ball however. Some of these players aren't good enough and the squad is still unbalanced lacking creative players - Can, Milner and Hendo are all water carriers and every squad needs one; if anyone thinks we should sell all of them, then that is an undeniably stupid opinion. But to have three of them in one team while lacking width and creativity is like owning a car with three engines but no steering wheel.

The drilling and preparation for this match was excellent - they did well and Klopp got his tactics spot on. Also, it is crucial to mention that the fitness and conditioning for Klopp's plans have yet to be fully implemented, so we will have to wait until the summer before this is fully implemented. It will be interesting to see how different these players are when they receive the right fitness conditioning. Klopp turned Dortmund players into beasts, I can't wait until he turns this whole squad into similar.

I (just) don't know what to do with myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUqXM7D2Lsg

Poll added. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUqXM7D2Lsg

Poll added. 

Haha mate. Bit of pole dancing cheered me up no end ;-)

Now I ve cooled down, I'm thinking we done alright but the pens were quite poor to be honest.
At the end of the day, it's still BRs  squad and JK has done what he could with them.
We weren't overrun, never embarrassed, and once again gave it 100%.  The link up from midfield to forwards was poor mainly due to it being so congested. Quite often city had 11 men back behind the ball. That takes some breaking down.
Think our problem was not countering with enough pace, and being too cautious in the final third.
We'll be stronger next season with a couple of new signings.
Great experience once again,and looking forward to next season already.
Realistically, we are a mid table team, punching above our weight, and things will only get better.
Migs or Lucas for motm. Will decide having given it a bit more thought.
Not massively disappointed, as we were a match for them on the day bar the pens! Just would have been nice for JK to get his first trophy with us. I'm sure more will follow!

Well this cheered up an old perv on a bad day. Go on tell me it didn't make life a little better?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZcSCT34H84

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUqXM7D2Lsg

Poll added. 

Seen Jack and The Edge taking a Masterclass from Jimmy Page showing them Kashmir ?
Hasn't got the bird in it though Racer.

Shes class.

Now I ve cooled down, I'm thinking we done alright but the pens were quite poor to be honest.
At the end of the day, it's still BRs  squad and JK has done what he could with them.
We weren't overrun, never embarrassed, and once again gave it 100%.  The link up from midfield to forwards was poor mainly due to it being so congested. Quite often city had 11 men back behind the ball. That takes some breaking down.
Think our problem was not countering with enough pace, and being too cautious in the final third.
We'll be stronger next season with a couple of new signings.
Great experience once again,and looking forward to next season already.
Realistically, we are a mid table team, punching above our weight, and things will only get better.
(ED:  Lucas for motm. )
Will decide having given it a bit more thought.
Not massively disappointed, as we were a match for them on the day bar the pens! Just would have been nice for JK to get his first trophy with us. I'm sure more will follow!

Agree.

Ponderous and unimaginative but we were never out of that game. On my way home now, just boarded the bus.

Agreed and theirs was not a penalty, on first look you can be convinced it's a stone wall but in slow mo you see Aguero stick his leg out to catch Moreno's.

Granted it's one of the dumbest attempts of a tackle in the box I've ever seen but still Aguero tries to buy it and it was one of the best decisions on the day from a ref who I thought had a relatively poor game.

Yaya should have been off for man handling Lallana.

Fernandinho/Fernando both could have been off for persistent fouling.

To be fair to them Lucas could have easily seen worse for his lunge and the grab at Aguero's ankle when Aguero refuses to shake his hand. Penalty for them though, not if you look properly.

Agree with all that mate

Decided to go with Lucas for motm, on the strength of, if it wasn't for him, Migs may have had a lot more to do.
Not sure if he was capable of pulling off too many more top saves.

Mignolet cost us a goal.

He made one unbelievable save against Aguero when Aguero was through one on one.

His other saves were good, but any goalkeeper of real quality makes those saves.

Courtois saves them, De Gea saves them, Cech saves them, Hart saves them, Lloris saves them.

True

That was hard to swallow. Thought we gave a good account of ourselves for most of it. Lucas was class. Good to see us deal with corners and set pieces for a change. Their team is way better and we coped and out played them in parts. Wasteful in the final 3rd. Studge was bunched from 75 on.

Shame indeed!

It must be the first poll in a very long time where one player has 100% of the MOTM votes.