Southampton 3-2 Liverpool: In game and post match debate

Scapegoat? Having a f**king laugh there lad.

He's not too far wide of the mark. Benteke should share equal blame for missing a sitter. Bang that in like any £32.5 million striker would and we're 3-1 and it's game over. Neither player is good enough for where we want to be, neither would have gotten into the side ten years ago. The drop in quality in our team is frightening.

Oh lighten up its gallows humour.

Don't actually care what you call it, still not funny.

Bit misdirected the anger at Skrtel, had we taken our chances upfront we now would be discussing another topic entirely.

I agree to be honest.

We had it within ourselves to end the game when the team wasn't apparently fatigued.

Skrtel is terrible but you can't solely blame him, the ball was coming back too quick in the second half and their midfield was bossing it.

I think Lovren and Sakho have shown plenty in the last month or so to prove that they are more than worthy defenders at this club don't you?

You really can't comprehend just how toxic Skrtel's defending is. The very best would look poor alongside him.

Imagine if you paired Frank Sinatra up with Barry Chuckle for a duet of Fly Me To The Moon? It would be utterly sh*t wouldn't it despite the immensity of Sinatra.

Yeah last month they have been decent no question, now judge there Liverpool careers so far, and the answer is a huge no no for both, Lovren has been pretty poor overall, and Sakho is Sakho, hit and miss at best, there is your answer

Matrin Sktrel is the new Torben Piechnik

Yeah last month they have been decent no question, now judge there Liverpool careers so far, and the answer is a huge no no for both, Lovren has been pretty poor overall, and Sakho is Sakho, hit and miss at best, there is your answer

I would not count anything from last year or earlier this season as an indication of a players quality.

The last few months we have been looking tighter and tighter in the defense; the more time those two work together the better they will become.

New keeper and some consistency at the back and there is a decent spine in the defense.

Yeah last month they have been decent no question, now judge there Liverpool careers so far, and the answer is a huge no no for both, Lovren has been pretty poor overall, and Sakho is Sakho, hit and miss at best, there is your answer

Lovren was sh*te under Rodgers, but deserved his chance under Klopp and has been excellent under him. Sakho was a bit shaky after he came back from his injury but has been very good also.

The worst thing that can be said about these two is that they had to play under Skrtel at times. It is no coincidence that every single defender of ours goes to sh*t when paired with Skrtel.

He's not too far wide of the mark. Benteke should share equal blame for missing a sitter. Bang that in like any £32.5 million striker would and we're 3-1 and it's game over. Neither player is good enough for where we want to be, neither would have gotten into the side ten years ago. The drop in quality in our team is frightening.

You honestly believe Benteke is as much to blame for that result as Skrtel? Are you being serious right now?! What 'sitter' did he miss exactly? The price tag doesn't mean he scores every shot lad, the price tag has F**k all to do with him.

Lovren was sh*te under Rodgers, but deserved his chance under Klopp and has been excellent under him. Sakho was a bit shaky after he came back from his injury but has been very good also.

The worst thing that can be said about these two is that they had to play under Skrtel at times. It is no coincidence that every single defender of ours goes to sh*t when paired with Skrtel.

I think if you have Lovren, Sahko, Matip, Lucas (I think he is done in the mid) & Toure (for next year only) Martin become expendable.

Pretty sure that Matip will force either Lovren or Sahko to the bench and that will give the boss some decent cover.

There is always a positive to take even from the most horrid of circumstances, at least Skrtel won't be playing against Dortmund. 

Very very true. There is a common denominator every time we completely capitulate, and it's happened four or five times now under Jürgen. That common denominator is physicality on the part of our opponents, and perhaps even more crucially a willingness on their part to hit their front men much quicker. When they combine that direct play with a willingness to get midfielders high up to pick up second balls, we really struggle to have any answer at all. Like I say it's happened a few times now, so I've no doubt Jürgen is onto it.

The answer IMHO and counterpoint as far as we're concerned is more physicality in midfield, and a willingness
to shelve the 4-3-3 if needs be and ourselves go a little more direct. So far we have been unwilling or unable to adapt, but next season I'm sure we'll have sussed it out.

To be fair to Jürgen on this one Mick he didn't have many options on the bench to add that physicality. I've absolutely no doubt that someone with presence about them will be high on the shopping list for the CM areas. There's rumours of us sniffing around Fernando etc and I wouldn't at all be surprised if that was the type we brought in. As much as we both praised Allen in the first half and rightly so once things turned into a bit of a brawl in there it's fair to say he didn't offer much to the fight.

While I do and have said the midfield share their blame for our capitulation I don't think anything can legislate for just how poor Skrtel was, it was as if he'd completely forgotten how to head a ball, how to position himself in a back 4 and do absolutely anything resembling that of a defender. It clearly rubbed off on Mama too who did his best early on to catch the house of cards as it came tumbling but once he let one slip it seemed like he didn't know which one to try and catch next so many were falling all around him.

Everybody could see their first goal coming and in truth while I think it was Chico said selective criticism on the miss from Benteke it could also have been the thought we all knew that was the pivotal moment. Now it is laying too much blame at his feet to say he's responsible because he clearly isn't but big moments like that is what defines strikers and again he came up short.

Very disappointing.

Bloody hell that's the top four gone for certain now, was made up on Thurs  just deflated now.
I do trust in Klopp and I think the future will be bright but can't stop thinking back to this time two years ago especially with Leicester doing so well.... I need to get that season out of my nut and look forward it still kills me going so close, only winning it will erase the memory.

Basically the subs from both side decided the game. Wanyama and Mane ran all over , our subs were poor end of . This can happen but must admit im miffed that Lovren was subbed for the reason he was surely at H T he could have had a word and sorted him for second half.

Very disappointing.

I think Jürgen has proven you can polish a turd, it's the awful smell that keeps coming back to haunt us that's the problem now.

You honestly believe Benteke is as much to blame for that result as Skrtel? Are you being serious right now?! What 'sitter' did he miss exactly? The price tag doesn't mean he scores every shot lad, the price tag has f**k all to do with him.

Plus Benteke may of cost as an +1 goal but Skrtel contributed to -3. Therefore there is no comparison.

I think Jürgen has proven you can polish a turd, it's the awful smell that keeps coming back to haunt us that's the problem now.

Fair enough mate, yep it's fair to say there was one god awful stink that did have a familiarity about it in the second half.

 :This will be even worse if the scum beat City. We could have been 4 behind with a game in hand. 

:This will be even worse if the scum beat City. We could have been 4 behind with a game in hand. 

Every time we believe top four is on we lose. Usually in a piss poor manner like today.

Time to concede defeat in the league and focus on Europe.

Every time we believe top four is on we lose. Usually in a piss poor manner like today.

Time to concede defeat in the league and focus on Europe.

That's the annoying thing. All of the teams from 4th-9th are so inconsistent.

:This will be even worse if the scum beat City. We could have been 4 behind with a game in hand. 

First, forget about 4th it was never going to happen, every year we build this hope that if we go on a run we can clinch it, it never happens.

And if you insist on dreaming, then scum beating city is a good thing otherwise city goes up to 54.

We are better off focusing on Dortmund, beat them and we are favourites to win the cup.

And strangely enough I'm not laughing.

As I said, chill the F**k out.

And as I said, you're having a F***ing laugh.

I can't help thinking some of the criticism of Martin Skrtel is WAY over the top too. He isn't a "fraud" or a "disgrace" he's a good pro who was having his first game back after a long lay off. I've never been his biggest fan, but he has had loads of really good games in a red shirt, often in fairly poor teams to be fair and he's always given everything for the club.

Yes he was poor today I'm sure he'd be the first to admit it, but he wasn't entirely on his own in that second half. We're talking about a player here though that's been at the club eight years, was signed for not that much by Benitez and who has repaid his fee a couple of times over.

Blokes like him (and maybe this is is just me) ought to be above the vitriol and name calling we've seen in the last hour or so. He's one of us and deserves a bit more respect, it's not El Hadji Diouf we're putting the boot into here, it's Martin Skrtel. If he does move on at the end of the season, in my view he can d so knowing he doesn't owe the club a thing an he can go with his head held high.

I know people get emotional after a game, but there's no need for some of it.

How much is too much? He's had decent moments for us (you'd expect that from anyone who's spent 8 years with us) but it's going some to say he's repaid his fee several times over. What pisses me off about him is that this is a guy who had the tenacity three years ago to come out to the media and effectively blackmail the club into playing him or else he would leave the club after Brendan played Carra and Agger together. He got lucky on account that Carra was retiring and that Brendan somehow screwed up by selling Agger. He's had reprieve after reprieve after reprieve and he keeps on committing the same mistakes.

He's been the one constant in our defence the last 8 years and for the majority of that time we can't claim to have had a defence anywhere near the levels we were used to. This tendency to dress him up to levels that are totally unjustified utterly bemuses me. The 'Burger King' myth and now some bizarre idea that he has paid his fee several times over - some people don't buy it. It's a complete mirage that some fans are taken in by. Fraud, ok I admit, might be a bit hard but there's no doubting in my mind that when given chance after chance after chance the guy has consistently failed to prove himself. Not capable of playing at the highest level he's conjured up a thoroughly bang average career at a club that expects better. In addition he's conjured up a lengthy career at Liverpool by default on account of players retiring, better players being injured and also dubious sales. Quite frankly, it's hard not to get pissed off. Sympathy levels can only go so far.