Failure to kill off games. Is it killing our title hopes?

Andy is only 22. Young enough?

Yes.

I have said on a few occasions that Andy needs to start around 4 or 5 games in a row, no matter what.

The 100 plus million Kenny spent needed to be spent on top quality first and foremost to improve our starting 11 and give us a far better chance of CLl football next season . any potential should have been done behind the scenes and added to the reserves. I have seen absolutely nothing from hendo to suggest hes worth 20 mil . in fact ive seen more quality in spearing who last season was excellent for us,set the pace and got up and down the pitch well and cost nothing.  Downing, Carroll and Adam have all been mediocre to above average on occasion. For the money spent i would expect a better quality of player. Folr 20M and 35M respectively we should be getting a gamechanger, a player who turns 1/2 games. Downing ? His stats were poor even at Villa. He was always mediocre. Carroll? One good half a season in te premier league. We panicked after the Torres sale. The new owners were only in the door and had to save face with the fans and after losing Torres, they had to act.  We have spent badly in my opinion.  That has been  the case more often than npt at liverpool the past 20 years. Ineffective management in the transfer market

what the hell are you oon about..manc

It definitely is!!

Imagine if we had beaten Sunderland, Stoke, Man United and Norwich? We'd be top with 24 points.

It is more annoying because we played at Anfield in 3 or those 4 games.

And in matches, if you're 2 or 3 up after about half an hour, a goal conceded won't hurt us or better yet, there's a possibility we go on and score more.

Top teams finish all these "lesser" clubs quickly.

All true.
However its only the first season with the new players together.

So much yelling and shouting about our finishing but just wonder whether we are doing anything about in training or just some usual jogging around the pitch and stroking the ball in a 5-a side match. Week in week out same old story suggests that we are not addressing this problem seriously. Hope the trend doesn't continue.

A simple answer to a simple question... Yes. 29 attempts and only 1 goal is a perfect example of our current issues with a lack of clinical finishing, how we might begin to fix that is a separate issue.

 We need match winners in as many positions as possible.

 At this moment IMO Stevie G, Suarez and Bellamy are the only players I would expect to score if a chance came there way in the last few minutes of a tight game

 When I look at Man U, Man City and Chelsea I feel goals can come from anywhere   

Not really. We have been playing some amazing football, but only for part of the games. Our overall play is still terribly unbalanced. For 15 minutes, we look like a team that could destroy Barca, and for the next 15 minutes, we look like a League Two team. It will probably improve with time, once Kenny settles for his best XI.

Not amazing agreed, but if we'd even converted a quarter of our chances we'd be sitting 2nd at worst.

Not amazing agreed, but if we'd even converted a quarter of our chances we'd be sitting 2nd at worst.

True, but we have sold our only natural finisher in January. It will take time before Suarez and Carroll develop a good partnership that would replace Torres' goals.

With over a 100 million spent the players we have brought are not helping our cause really saurez tries hard every game and will come good. Also enrique offers consistency but hendo,carroll, downing are sub standard adam is hot and cold. also our over 30 players are looking very ordinary.If we dont improve then no champions league for us, then we will have a hard time attracting good players.   

Look at the goals wev conceded there all down to poor defending. Skrtel is a liability to me and carra is starting to get there. They can be solid for 80 mins then just make a serious f**k up. I think wel seriously struggle for top 4

You agree with the opening poster like the rest of us then.

If we took our chances then the odd mistake at the back wouldnt matter.

Results like Saturday do not help matters.

At the end of the day, 1 goal or 10 per game, the defence has to be switchedo on for 90+ minutes.

Unfortunately, I felt Reina was at fault for their goal at the weekend... But hey, we all have bad days at work!

Our home record has not been brilliant since the unbeaten season. As I mentioned last season, teams do not fear coming to Anfield anymore, and we need to get that mentality back. Teams should be scared of coming here, and not playing for draws/wins.

Nothing less than 6 points out of the next 2 games will be good enough. West Brom (A) and Swansea (H)....2 wins in these games, and we should be able to get a result @ Chelsea.

You agree with the opening poster like the rest of us then.

If we took our chances then the odd mistake at the back wouldnt matter.

Ye but you shouldnt be expecting to concede a goal a game. You wont always go out and batter teams like sat. We need to start keeping clean sheets as much as we need to start finishing our chances. Look at the goals wev conceded some of them are horrendous defending.

If Pepe had come and got the centre or Carrgher had headed it clear would we be having these threads? 1-0 and a host of close chances would appear much healthier but the fact would still remain we are  not scoring freely depsite many chances to do so.I am confused now about Andy Carrol (regardless of his cost which is irrelvant ) how are we going to use him? I would like to see Andy Carrol up front with Gerrard just behind him. If that dosent improve things we will then at least have the Jan transfer windows to try and find a genuine goal scorer.Scoring just 12 goals in 9 games and conceeding 10 means results like saturday's are going to happen an awful lot this season.
Why is it we have always been just one or two players short for the last 20 years.

At the rate we're going now, I have to say "Yes". It's a lot of points dropped, and ffs, 6 points at Anfield. It's just not good enough.

Teams used to fear coming to Anfield, cause they knew that there was nothing in it for them, but not any longer.

If we took our chances we had before the break on Saturday, then it would've killed off the game for them.

We definitely need to get back to winning ways, and start killing off these f***ing lesser teams. I'm still very much optimistic that we'll start banging e'm in soon, or. 

Yes it is obviously. To win the title we need to finish above Utd & City we cant draw home at home to the likes of Norwich & have title asperations. We cant draw at home to the likes of Norwich & expect to finish above Spurs ffs.
Home wins are a must if we're to qualify for the Champions league never mind winning the title.

I only saw (live) the first 8ish minutes of the game on Saturday due to work, I saw Suarez hit the post (and nearly score twice), Skrtel nearly score and a couple of other close chances... I honestly thought I'd come home to see the board after a full on battering of Norwich. It's a perfect example of the root of our problem, creating chances are fine, but making the net ripple is all that counts.

Equally though, I was much more satisfied with the team selection, it looked attacking (Downing, Bellamy, Suarez, Kuyt)... I'd like to see those 4 playing in the same team more regularly, could defo see a good striking relationship between Kuyt and Suarez over time.

Yes, but it's night and day to last season, these teams were playing us off the park under the barn owl.

Chilax !

I know creating chances are very, very important. I've stressed before but there is no point creating them if we don't convert them. Surely creating more means we have a higher chance of winning games but all that matters at the end of the day is how many enter the net.

It's okay if it happens off and on but it's been happening far too often for my liking. Look what two draws at Anfield cost us in 2008/2009.

Our defence is sometimes so clumsy it gives me a nervous breakdown. We have to put more pressure on teams. Also nerd to sign a player like Suarez, Silva, Nasri so we get more creativity.

Don't think this tells us anything we didn't know but interesting to see the full stats nonethe less

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15470953.stm

BBC Sport
Liverpool count the cost of slack shooting
06:38 GMT, Friday, 28 October 2011 07:38 UK
By Mike Henson
BBC Sport
 Luis Suarez has four Premier League goals this season It is a early in the season for "what-ifs" but Liverpool fans can already imagine quite a different campaign.

Lying sixth in the table, they could be Manchester City's closest challengers at the top of the table, if they had kept a tighter grip on the leads they have established at Anfield.

On Saturday the Reds peppered the Norwich goal with 25 shots, but found the net with just one before being pegged back by the Canaries
A week before a subdued Manchester United had departed Merseyside with a point despite falling behind while Sunderland emerged from under the cosh to take a draw on the opening day of the season.

Victories in those three matches would have carried Liverpool to second.

POINTS LOST FROM WINNING POSITIONS
Continue reading the main story
•16. Blackburn -5
•17. WBA - 5
•18. Wigan - 5
•19. Liverpool - 6
•20. Villa - 7
If the Reds had taken something from their trip to Stoke where they had 11 shots on target compared to the host's solitary, successful, strike, that position would be even more comfortable.

Instead the Merseysiders are second only to Aston Villa in the number of points surrendered from winning positions this season.

Manager Kenny Dalglish invested heavily in midfielders over the summer, but his side have struggled to find the punch up front to floor reeling opponents.

While they have taken 116 shots, equivalent to an effort every seven minutes, only one in 10 has found the back of the net.

 Liverpool have the quantity, if not the quality, of shots By contrast and Manchester United and Manchester City have scored with 23.6% and 22.1% of their shots respectively.

"If we don't convert our chances we're always going to give the opposition a chance," admitted Dalglish after the draw with Norwich.

John Aldridge, a former team-mate of Dalglish, converted 63 chances in 104 Liverpool appearances between 1987 and 1989.

"It has cost us," he told BBC Sport of the Reds' current run of wastefulness.

"At least the creativity has been there to create chances, but we need to be leaner and meaner in front of goal.

"The trouble is that if you are missing you can find yourself snatching at chances."

Luis Suarez was front and centre in the shooting gallery against Norwich, firing on goal 11 times - more than any other player in a single Premier League game this season - but failing to make an impression on the scoresheet.

Since his arrival in January, the Uruguayan's smooth transition to life on Merseyside has eased the pain of Fernando Torres' departure to Chelsea.
But Suarez's dazzling skills may have blinded fans to his relative wastefulness in front of goal.

Of the players to have scored four or more goals in the Premier League this season, Suarez is the least efficient, with his shots-to-goals ratio lagging well behind the main marksmen at Liverpool's rivals for a top-four spot.

 Luis Suarez has taken 33 shots this season - the same as Wayne Rooney - but scored less than half the number of goals It may be that as his club's main attacking force Suarez feels he has to take on responsibility for shooting more often.

Nine of his 33 shots on goal have come from outside the area which hardly suggests a personal shoot-on-sight policy however.

"He scored two fabulous goals against Stoke in the Carling Cup on Wednesday  so hopefully that will give him confidence," added Aldridge.

"Steven Gerrard will help take the pressure off Suarez. He has only played one game so far since returning from injury and will score goals from midfield, as will Charlie Adam. You need goals from all over the pitch."

Craig Bellamy and record signing Andy Carroll are also at Dalglish's disposal.

Liverpool do not lack for firepower, but their big guns' sights need tuning if they are to keep Champions League qualification in focus.

Every goal Suarez has scored this season, except for Arsenal (7) has done it with Carroll on the field.

Is the partnership the key to killing off games? Like we did against Stoke the other night, by actually getting a second goal.

Yes to some extent but the defending has to take it's share of the blame as well. End of the day it's a team game and no one single part of that team is to blame exclusively, but all are collectively.

even looking at the 1st half vs 2nd half tables here (http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11662_2705370,00.html) it shows that we fall back in the second half. 1st half results were are in 5th positon, 2nd half, we are in 10th. Is this a fitness issue? Concentration?

As for the defence, we have allowed 34 shots on target against us this season, which is among the lowest anyways, but have still conceded 10 goals.