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

Can't wait to get some real midfielders in the summer,

I think this is where we're likely to see the biggest improvement Luke.  We are so devoid of everything needed in the engine room, pace, skill, power, strength, goals, drive, tempo, in fact every adjective used to describe what a good midfield needs, we're missing.

Not all of them need replacing as I believe that with better quality around them, some of them will show more than they have been doing but I don't doubt that that's where Jürgen will be making the biggest improvements.

And to think for the last four years of his stay we campaigned for the "benching" of Steven Gerrard.

And to think for the last four years of his stay we campaigned for the "benching" of Steven Gerrard.

Bit over dramatic there!

Midfield was the problem as we can all see. Most of all sadly Henderson.

So, why didn't Klopp make a change? Why didn't he play Branagan who has played in other Capital Cup games? I know it was the final but these kids have to play sometime. Something different.

We have no one to make the pass (was Gerrard), no one for deadball (corners, free kicks, etc) (again Gerrard). No wingers and therefore no Benteke.

And to think for the last four years of his stay we campaigned for the "benching" of Steven Gerrard.

Yeah, because Gerrard would have been on the bench for a game like that.
He's not at the club any more though.
Biggest issue the club has is the complete failure to replace Gerrard and Suarez.

Still hungover from the heart break, took the day off work I keep getting flashes of Henderson getting the ball and having ample green space in front and passing the ball to Clyne and then Yaya getting in the same space and running straight at us with people trying to get to him. The inferiority of our midfield is no secret, it was honest and hardworking vs rich and powerful. I don't think its a secret that we will bring someone in there

Like someone said yesterday, I'd rather be in the finals and lose than not be in them at all.

I was F***ing pins and needles at working sneaking Twitter checks whenever I could. Watching the match back was a real downer, let me say that! Still can't believe we had 3 penalties saved.

We need a whole new central midfield.

This is the biggest takeaway for me as well. I mean, we all knew our midfield wasn't good enough as is, but yesterday should have solidified it for Jürgen (though I suspect he had that figured out in October).

midfield is sh*t and Henderson cant score runs around like headless chicken, can is too slow, joe allen is just ok, tell truth love see brannagan and players like smith, ojo and kent get games in league, l mean look at turtle head play kids against full arsenal and win, why do keep play same sh*t every week when some kids are so much better least try things and got pace which we need

Look I am not really a fan of Joe Allen, and I would be the first to say that there are better out there than him, But that is not the point I am making..... With in LFC we should always pick our best starting 11, and these last dozen or so games Allen has been better than Milner and Henderson... SO why do they always start a head of him?

Jonjo Shelvey for instance. One of Brendan's biggest ever F**k-ups was the criminal under-selling of Jonjo to Swansea and then over-spending buying Allen for £15 million.

Jonjo Shelvey for instance. One of Brendan's biggest ever f**k-ups was the criminal under-selling of Jonjo to Swansea and then over-spending buying Allen for £15 million.

Absolutely correct among other failings of Rodgers. We are left with total sh*te.

Shelvey quality player, should still be on board to my mind.

Yeah, because Gerrard would have been on the bench for a game like that.
He's not at the club any more though.
Biggest issue the club has is the complete failure to replace Gerrard and Suarez.

We would not even had to spend "Big Money" in trying to replace them.... Schweinsteiger reportedly signed for United for between £4-7M (Only wanted regular game so has not to damage his chances of playing in this years Euros) how we could have done with his passing quality from mid field yesterday.... Or Javier Hernandez who when to Leverkusen for £12m  including a bonus of £90,000 per goal a player that would have slotted seamlessly into the gap left by Luis Suarez. I believe that LVG would have had no problem selling him to us and Rolando Aarons now being linked with the likes of Arsenal and Italian giants Milan and Juventus and would have been a idea replacement for Sterling.... Would have cost us a lot less than the £32m for Benteke had we moved for them in the last summers transfer window

Jonjo Shelvey for instance. One of Brendan's biggest ever f**k-ups was the criminal under-selling of Jonjo to Swansea and then over-spending buying Allen for £15 million.

I was not that impressed by Shelvey initially  but he was starting to improve and I felt that we should have held on to him for at least another season

Back home now after the game.

Away from the footy just want to highlight how there was relatively little incident between both sets of fans.  On the tube and around the ground etc it was good natured from what I saw.

In fact the worst incident I saw was at the final whistle in block 548 when two young girls, who looked like they had come for a night out rather than the footy, decided to kick off because we couldn't get out the stadium fast enough!

One of Brendan's biggest ever f**k-ups

Punting out Agger and Reina a couple of seasons too early for sub-standard replacements.

Got to admit I'm still fuming about the pens.  Knew Lallana was going to miss it as soon as he misplaced the ball before putting it on the spot.  His arse had gone.  If Milner takes that second he scores and then they're under pressure in my view.  Never understood saving your 'best' taker for the fifth pen.  You've got to get to five in the first place.

Really difficult to place my feelings about the game now the dust has settled.  Massive part of me thinks we were hugely lucky to even get it to extra time because they could have had 5 in the first 90 minutes.  But once we levelled I thought we were the better side in extra time so I feel let down by that.

Quite simply we were lucky to scrape into the final and it would have been something of a miracle if one of the worst Liverpool sides in memory actually won a trophy.

Got back home around 1am on the coach, and still gutted we lost on pens

Thought for most of second half, and after we had equalised, they were there for the taking

Suprised we didnt move Can into defence when Sakho went off, but there you go

Imperative we beat the mancs now in the Europa League

I was not that impressed by Shelvey initially  but he was starting to improve and I felt that we should have held on to him for at least another season

Always liked the boy Shelvey. Can be a bit rash, but he's undoubtedly got quality. With nurturing he'd go far.

We would not even had to spend "Big Money" in trying to replace them.... Schweinsteiger reportedly signed for United for between £4-7M (Only wanted regular game so has not to damage his chances of playing in this years Euros) how we could have done with his passing quality from mid field yesterday....

Yeah because he's been amazing this season for the Mancs...

Mignolet, was an embarrassment and nearly cost us the game but for Coutinho. He made some important saves but let in a complete howler, not good enough and he has to go.

Lallana should have scored, luckily Coutinho followed it up and knew Lallana was going to miss his penalty as soon as he missed the ball on his way to the spot, lost his bottle completely.

Lucas was our best player. On the whole basis of the game, we deserved to lose, if they had a decent finisher other than Aguero then they would have finished us off but luckily it was only Sterling.

Milner was as crap as ever but if there is a player I want to step up early on and take a penalty it is him, could well have gone on to win that shootout if we had him up second. Poor penalties on the whole though, other than Can and Aguero they were shocking.

But we got to a final with a mediocre team, something Rodgers wasn't able to do with the likes of Suarez so hopefully this is just the first of many under Klopp. Bit more luck and it would have been ours.

Who?

Milner tried for 90 minutes and failed, he also tried against Augsburg all night and failed.

Moreno was sh*t, Henderson maybe once got close to the box in both games and should have scored a simple tap in but failed.

The best crosser of the ball we have is actually Firmino.

Did you see Lallana berating Henderson for a shocking pass that nearly cleared the entire box when he was completely free. Milner just about got his crossing boots on in extra time and we probably should have won it there, Origi very unlucky with both the diving studs attempt and the header, a foot wider and it's a goal without question.

The difference yesterday was that our midfield was indeed different both in personnel and in attitude. Henderson was a shell of the player he can be, he produced absolutely nothing, I'm convinced if Allen was near fitness he would have played, if Stewart hadn't been injured he would have played but Klopp had, yet again, so few options that we had what we had and had to deal with it.

Lucas in the middle would have given us much more control over both tempo and possession. Can in the first 30 minutes literally gave the ball away on every touch, it was a shocking first 30 by the German. Milner was not much better throughout the entire 90 and Henderson managed to be the worst of the 3. Trying to put the emphasis on an attack that had no connect to it's midfield is, as S@int right says, banging the Benteke drum it's not even disguised but it is horribly misguided.

We also had the misfortune of having to use one substitution that was forced and the other on a complete moron, Moreno getting out of position endlessly forced Klopp's hand and you can hear in his interview how disappointed he was to have to 'fix' the problem. With 1 substitution left and our crosses showing no signs of even beating the first man let alone being effective why introduce a lamp-post that wont close down, wont create on his own and likely wont even score when presented with a chance from 3 yards out.

We lost on penalties against one of the best teams in the country, no disgrace, even less so when all mitigating factors are taken into account. A damn fine attempt that was disappointing but bloody close to triumphant.

Can't wait to get some real midfielders in the summer, midfielders with ability as well as engines, one's that can cross a ball and stay on their feet more than 5 minutes. One's that when it comes to a moment of responsibility or pressure they don't hide and one's that when one of their team-mates gets gripped by the kneck and bent sideways in the air has the bollocks

Firmino was poor yesterday as he has been for most games this season he had plenty of chances to go past people which he doesnt do and gave the ball away far to easy as most experts say he has not impressed far as much as some think and if we play two up top he should be the one to make way

Firmino was poor yesterday as he has been for most games this season he had plenty of chances to go past people which he doesnt do and gave the ball away far to easy as most experts say he has not impressed far as much as some think and if we play two up top he should be the one to make way

Your opinion, certainly not mine. I don't think Firmino had one of his better games by some distance but he was still the one who tried to link the attack the best, he tried to drop into the spaces and he certainly had some decent link up play with Coutinho.

Ran his socks off again and all this after playing game after game after game recently.

I like him, I think he's got a fantastic football brain, he sees the right pass and tries to execute it all the time. Granted it doesn't come off all the time but his decision making is far in advance of 90%+ players.

He will be a star next season, I've absolutely no doubt about it at all.

It's a very difficult role to try and be the connection between a non-existent midfield and the attack, but also be the attacker that does the most closing down and be the attacker that makes the most runs. As I've said before, quite often it feels like we have an extra player up there because Firmino links onto the 2nd phase of his own work so well, dragging defenders where they really don't want to go.

Put better players around him and he will not only bring out the best in him but also in them, a snip at £29m, not a doubt in my mind.

Yeah because he's been amazing this season for the Mancs...

Mignolet, was an embarrassment and nearly cost us the game but for Coutinho. He made some important saves but let in a complete howler, not good enough and he has to go.

Lallana should have scored, luckily Coutinho followed it up and knew Lallana was going to miss his penalty as soon as he missed the ball on his way to the spot, lost his bottle completely.

Lucas was our best player. On the whole basis of the game, we deserved to lose, if they had a decent finisher other than Aguero then they would have finished us off but luckily it was only Sterling.

Milner was as crap as ever but if there is a player I want to step up early on and take a penalty it is him, could well have gone on to win that shootout if we had him up second. Poor penalties on the whole though, other than Can and Aguero they were shocking.

But we got to a final with a mediocre team, something Rodgers wasn't able to do with the likes of Suarez so hopefully this is just the first of many under Klopp. Bit more luck and it would have been ours.

The player is World Class, Tell me who we have in Midfield that comes close to offering what he can?? Well then...

Your opinion, certainly not mine. I don't think Firmino had one of his better games by some distance but he was still the one who tried to link the attack the best, he tried to drop into the spaces and he certainly had some decent link up play with Coutinho.

Ran his socks off again and all this after playing game after game after game recently.

I like him, I think he's got a fantastic football brain, he sees the right pass and tries to execute it all the time. Granted it doesn't come off all the time but his decision making is far in advance of 90%+ players.

He will be a star next season, I've absolutely no doubt about it at all.

It's a very difficult role to try and be the connection between a non-existent midfield and the attack, but also be the attacker that does the most closing down and be the attacker that makes the most runs. As I've said before, quite often it feels like we have an extra player up there because Firmino links onto the 2nd phase of his own work so well, dragging defenders where they really don't want to go.

Put better players around him and he will not only bring out the best in him but also in them, a snip at £29m, not a doubt in my mind.

Fair enough funny how people see things differently I hope your right though I for one am sick of big money buys who have not justified price tag .

The player is World Class, Tell me who we have in Midfield that comes close to offering what he can?? Well then...

He was wc but I think all of our midfielders have been better this season as they've all scored more goals than him bar Lucas.  We have an abundance of midfielders who don't score enough goals but you feel he'd be better?  He's well past it mate, especially in this league.

The player is World Class, Tell me who we have in Midfield that comes close to offering what he can?? Well then...

What has he done this year? And comparing him to our midfield isn't necessarily proving anything.