West Brom 3-0 Liverpool: In game and Post Match debate

Saw the replay of Skertls challenge, definitely not a penalty. If anything the striker came from behind to win the ball so clear cut bad decision. However as we didn't score any goals it probably didn't change much. It may have killed all hope but who knows.

Very disapointed as thought the reds  would just win easily. But the same old story lots of possession and no goals, hope we can rev up our engines and score a lot against hearts. saurez had 8 shots and failed to score, sounds de ja-vue  re last season.

It took years of bad ownership, bad off field decisions, poor management, very poor transfers, lack of continual investment, no consistency on the pitch to get us where we find ourselves as a club. Rodgers won't fix it in one game, no one can.

It wasn't about poor refereeing or bad luck, there is no agenda against the club and the world is not against us. We made too many individual mistakes (MS and DA for peno's, LS for glaring misses) and we dropped the heads when things went against (Gerrards role as captain must come under the spot light.

It will take time to get things right but times like this are good for 2 things:
1. Sort out the real characters who should be wearing that red shirt from those who shouldn't.o
2. Highlight trolls, WUMs and that new breed of 'fan' who will never be satisfied.

It was a poor performance overall. We didnt create enough or take our chances in the first half and we defended poorly in the second half.
The penalties were "soft" but justified by the rules of the game, however Dowd had a terrible game overall.

I thought we played well in patches and this will definitely take time, but i believe our same problem of last season will bite BR as well if he doesnt get a striker asap. When the players start getting used to the new playing systems, there must be somebody together with Suarez who can guarantee you clinical finishing to convert our chances.

If i had to rate players then Pepe and Joe Allen were MOTM, while Gerrard & Downing were by far the worst players. In a system where we are supposed to close down opposition, i didnt see Gerrard or Downing track back to close Mulumbu, Gera or Yacob in midfield... had they done so, it would have been different coz the sending off came from a central through-ball to Long and similarly the 3rd goal was a ball through midfield after we lost possession.

First game so lots to rectify and work on, but there's more to come from this team im sure.

Thought we looked good at times in the first half.

I'll be honest, I actually switched of the replay when I saw Cole coming on.
Not proud of it but I did shout something involving Cole and Shelvey before going for a drink.

No F***ing way should Cole see any game time ahead of Shelvey.
In fact given Gerrard's jaded performance I'd have started with a midfield of

       Lucas         Allen

              Shelvey

and no I'm not still drunk.

Also I hope we give Oussama Assaidi ( Aplologies if I've spelt that wrong )
a run out instead of Downing against City.

We were crap - end of issue.

Lucas is nowhere near match fit, doesn't start on Thursday for me.

Shelvey and Carroll should be miles ahead of Joke Hole.

We were crap - end of issue.

Lucas is nowhere near match fit, doesn't start on Thursday for me.

Shelvey and Carroll should be miles ahead of Joke Hole.

Ah the undying loyalty and affection shown for current Liverpool players.

Truly something us 'fans' can be proud of.

There's a lot of over analysis here I think.

We were poor in every area, holding the ball is useless if you don't use it. As nice as Rodger's philosophy is, he said it himself we need results. End of.

Ah the undying loyalty and affection shown for current Liverpool players.

Truly something us 'fans' can be proud of.

Joe Cole was the WORST piece of business the club has ever done, never has fit in, massively over rated, and the last remaining piece of the disasterous H&G era as he is all to happy to pick up his £130k per week doing very little.....

So dont talk about loyalty - He is a joke - end of matter.

All though it was Brendans first league game it was last season's performance all over again.
Gary Mac has said what a lot of us have said that Luis isn't a main striker and unless we find someone to score goals we are going to have quite a few of these results.
Andy Carrol seems the key to this.If he is sold we can replace him if he is not we need to find a way to get the best out of him and then maybe between Andy and Luis we can start to get a partnership that can win us games.
If we had the Gerrard/Torres partnership in this team we could do so much better.Still plenty of time in this window to find a striker but not sure if we have the funds.

Agger sent off. O.K. some given some not, but is Coate injured? surely with wanting to play a higher defensive line, you don't put Carra on. I've seen more acceleration from a milk float. Brendans game plan will only work with a bit of covering pace at the back. CARRA?

Have you actually seen Coates play? He's not much (if at all) quicker than Carra and isn't particularly suited to a high line either.

One game proves very little either way, I'm just hoping we respond to this disappointment quickly and become more cut throat YNWA

Just got back from a weekend of glamping and not sure whether to put myself through the game or not. Was VERY VERY excited on Saturday and couldn't believe my luck when 5 Live had the commentary from our game but it sounds like everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I'll probably just watch the first half.

Just observations/questions from me would be:

- How will Rodgers want us to approach away games? It's quite uncommon to play an ultra-high line and squeeze play from the opening whistle in away games. You normally need to pay the opposition a bit more respect given that they are being driven on by the crowd and will come out of the blocks quickly. It would make sense to play a little deeper, ease the crowd out of the game and then look to exert pressure which all stems from having good spells of possession of the ball.

- We've been soft away from home for several years now, I think it will continue to be a problem this year BUT I do expect our home form to improve considerably.

- Our defenders will have to adapt their game quickly. I haven't seen the incidents from yesterday as yet but it our lads are playing higher up the pitch they are in a dangerous position given that if the strikers rolls them OR they jump in to win something and miss it is very likely to set up the oppo with a through on goal opportunity. I gather from the radio that Skrtel made a misjudgment like this that led to Agger's sending off? So decision making for the back four (and particularly the 2 Cbs) will be crucial.

- I suspect our lack of quality in wide areas will show up again this season and we will be relying on Jonno and Enrique to get forward and give us 2 on 1s as often as possible. It was a blow to lose Enrique on Saturday because Jonno's quality is hugely diminished playing off the left hand side. I hope this young Morroccan lad is a player because we are going to need him to perform this season.

Also, the press reporting on our opening game has been SHOCKINGLY LAZY even by their own paltry standards. Talk of crisis and how we were overrun by this vibrant attacking West Brom side. Give me a break. Do any of the journalists out there actually understand and appreciate the game of football or do they simply choose not to? Probably a bit of both but fook me do they write some shi...t.

Joe Cole was the WORST piece of business the club has ever done, never has fit in, massively over rated, and the last remaining piece of the disasterous H&G era as he is all to happy to pick up his £130k per week doing very little.....

So dont talk about loyalty - He is a joke - end of matter.

Right, his face doesn't fit so he's a joke, who is allowed to be name called and ridiculed even though he wears the Liverbird on his chest.

Classy.

At times our supporters remind me of the poets from Black Adder, flouncing about and being as dramatic as possible.

Same as Spurs last year for me, when you are down to ten men and already losing the game is a wrote off and shouldn't be considered relevant.

Right, his face doesn't fit so he's a joke, who is allowed to be name called and ridiculed even though he wears the Liverbird on his chest.

Classy.

Haha, too funny

Joe Cole is in old terms a "fancy Dan" meaning he flatters to decieve. He isn't really a Liverpool player because he does not work hard for the team when we have not got the ball.
He is also like Owen "fu**ed" through playing football from an early age 17 or so.I can see him going back to France again.

Haha, too funny

Too sad.

Joe Cole is in old terms a "fancy Dan" meaning he flatters to decieve. He isn't really a Liverpool player because he does not work hard for the team when we have not got the ball.
He is also like Owen "fu**ed" through playing football from an early age 17 or so.I can see him going back to France again.

Or perhaps he's trying his best but can't help getting injured, or perhaps is guilty of just not being good enough.

Hardly his fault.

If he was prancing around like a prized idiot and taking the micky, fair enough. But it's not like the guy goes out there to fail.

Not sure he was right about the first penalty, red card - yes, but the initial contact was outside the box.

Yeah fair enough, but it's the only point of debate about the penalties though.

People saying Skrtel's wasn't a penalty because he didn't see the player... it would be funny if it wasn't against us. Stop creating rules to justify one of our player's mistakes. If Suarez were kicked inside the area by a defender who never got the ball, I wonder what the same people would be saying...

While the point is relevant, I should just point out that Vidic pulled down one of Everton's players tonight (forget the name!) by grabbing his shirt just as he was running toward goal... no yellow card.

Lucas picked up a yellow for the slightest pull of the shirt in the middle of the pitch.

One example of many. It's not about "textbook" decisions. As I said before, the textbook does not operate in most games. To apply the textbook against Liverpool players more than other teams is what makes it unfair.

I'll say it again - for last time - Phil Dowd was textbook correct... but he was exceptionally harsh, and bias in his decisions. He's set his own standard now. Will he continue to officiate in this manner? I doubt.

Yes the penalties, especially the 2nd one were very harsh but in all honesty we didn't even deserve a point in that game. Yes we had a few good chances we should have scored (Suarez) but from the first whislte our passing, moving and tackling was all poor, some times you just have to admit you were well and truly beaten and that performance was abysmal, was should be twatting them not them twatting us. Abysmal start to the season and we have just picked up where we left off in May.

Anyway, Utd lost, so equilibrium has been restored.