Liverpool 2-3 Udinese: In game and Post Match Grimace

 I have not seen the match so iI will not comment on individual players but I am disappointed with the result.I saw we were winning 1-0 at half time and thought we will get another couple of goals in the second half,sadly this did not happen.Maybe it is a lesson that we start with our strongest 11 and change key players when we have established a good lead.We can still make progress in this group so all is not lost but it should be a lesson learned.

Di Natale is one of the best players to play the game in recent times.

I think last night's team selection was about right, it wasn't a young team compared with what we've been using in recent midweek games, and they should have won the game or at least drawn it. 

I think Anzhi are the best team in this group, not Udinese.

Silly mistakes in attack and defence cost us, as is often the case.

No in depth 'analysis' from me (that seems to have been covered) so just a few general observations:

* Udinese did not beat our first 'choice XI - they mugged a mix n match team which, let's be honest, haven't played together much.

* Like it or not, (personally I don't), the U.E.F.A. cup/league is not a priority and, with a small squad, a balanced team selection is always going to be difficult. We seemed to have got it right (first half) for the most part.

* Brendan took a gamble by adding to the attacking threat; it comes off - he's a "genius" and we praise him for showing intent; it backfires - he's fu**ed up and we all use our powers of hindsight to show that we would have done things better. How good are we; eh?

* Without any real depth up front any 'second string' team will struggle to score against better teams - Udinese is one of those 'better' teams.

* Until we can balance all the midfield, tippi-tappi passing, with quick and decisive attack; results like this will happen again.

* If Luis Suarez gets injured we are fu**ed.   

Back to the main business of the Premier League on Sunday.

I don't go along with the we didn't deserve to lose line.  They kept it tight at the back and took their chances.  It was Reina who pulled off the better saves of the two keepers, we weren't denied any penalties or had men wrongly sent off and they weren't given anything they shouldn't have.

The bottom line is goals win games.  And Udinese took their chances.  So they deserved the win.  Until we stop conceding so many, we're going to lose many more.  The fact we had more possession is scant consolation.   Even Norwich at the weekend could have had about five themselves.  We're just giving up far too many good opening and not creating enough ourselves.

I think Rodgers should have put a better team out last night.  We've now left ourselves needing to go to Italy and Russia needing results.  We could have left players at home for those trips.  The team he did put out may have been good enough to get the win but it certainly wasn't the team that gave us the best chance of doing so.

Anyone saying this tournament isn't a priority and who cares can kiss my ass.  It's European football and to be honest, we'll be lucky if we qualify for it again next year.  Doing well in this keeps our European coefficient up and keeps us in the eyes of foreign players.  Also our own lads get exposure.

Very disappointing result last night, after the first half.  I can't remember the last time we won three on the trot.  Taking on Stoke on the back of  winning three, would have been better than a few rested legs.

* If Luis Suarez gets injured we are fu**ed.

Absofuckinglutely!!!

Absofuckinglutely!!!

Yep but he won't get injured, and I think Borini just needs to play 3 games as centre forward and he'll start to develop a partnership with a plyer and will score the goals we need. He has something of Kuyt in him and Kuyt was some player at his time.

It was BR's mistake to play Gerrard at CM and let Shelvey play as AM, Shlevey is good at going forward though.

No in depth 'analysis' from me (that seems to have been covered) so just a few general observations:

* Udinese did not beat our first 'choice XI - they mugged a mix n match team which, let's be honest, haven't played together much.

* Like it or not, (personally I don't), the U.E.F.A. cup/league is not a priority and, with a small squad, a balanced team selection is always going to be difficult. We seemed to have got it right (first half) for the most part.

* Brendan took a gamble by adding to the attacking threat; it comes off - he's a "genius" and we praise him for showing intent; it backfires - he's fu**ed up and we all use our powers of hindsight to show that we would have done things better. How good are we; eh?

* Without any real depth up front any 'second string' team will struggle to score against better teams - Udinese is one of those 'better' teams.

* Until we can balance all the midfield, tippi-tappi passing, with quick and decisive attack; results like this will happen again.

* If Luis Suarez gets injured we are fu**ed.   

Back to the main business of the Premier League on Sunday.

This is also the main business. This competition is the second priority of the season, as who knows when we'll be in Europe again.

This is a tough group, and our best players are needed to progress. Udinese are a quality side, and much better than Stoke. We can't be leaving Steve and Suarez on the bench for games against that level of opposition.

Now we have two games against another decent outfit and we'll need at least 4 points against them to stay in contention. If key players get injured, they get injured. They can get injured at any time in any game over the next 3 months. We know who is to blame for not investing in the squad, and that is their responsibility.

Still gutted some 12 hours later. Can't believe we dominated that game and came away with nothing, again. How many F***ing times is that going to happen to us. Devastating and fucks up your whole day.

Sublime goal from Luis, yet again. We do ladies and gentleman have an out and out Superstar in our midst. Thank F**k for Luis.

I don't think team selection was an error.
A fact is with or without our "first team" (I don't really consider we have one for Rodger's system, if we could have 11 players playing his style to its full potential we would be winning most games ; actually Rodgers still have to find them) we are leaking lots of goals and have some problem finishing too. It's nothing new, out of the 4 first months of Kenny or the occasional good game after, it's the same since about 2 years and a half, despite trying many different systems and players. Looks like we are under the effects of a curse, with our players making silly individual errors and/or having to face bad refeering everytime the team play well, until (I hope it won't happen this year like the last) the team lose confidence and just stops to play well.
Rodgers is changing our style to one with more passes but face the exact same problems as his predecessors, even if most of the team has changed, I think there's a big confidence issue, both for old players who have seen one or two managing legends fail to change the situation, and for new ones as the last 3 years failures put these very young players under a very heavy pressure. We are asking the Shelvey generation to save Liverpool when they know players far better than them failed.
In this situation, when both our (in theory) best  players and our less proven ones have confidence issues,  I think the best he can is giving a chance to everyone, using all the squad until we find a team finally getting results, why, would, say, Coates not desserve to play, when the 'A' team with Skrtel and Agger leaked just as many goals in most games ?
By the way if I was Rodgers I would rotate the team even more. Liverpool need something magic to happen to end a very long spell of (mainly) undesserved results, I think it may as much happen with Assaidi in the team or even Downing as with our best players. The reds unluck level is so high, there's no rationale good choice for composition, the hypothetical level of players can't be trusted when everytime a good performer makes a silly error it costs us a goal. The only criteria the manager should use is one supporters can't see, it's his knowledge of player's psychology and study of training results to play someone the day he has the mental and fitness to have a good game despite the collective confidence issue. Out of the young Sterling (so far) I don't see one Liverpool player who is in this state of mind and form every game he plays. When you face so unsure players, deciding who are our best 11 then sticking to it no matter the results may be far worse than trying many teams (I think the last year showed that).

This is also the main business.

You can only have one "main" objective mate. "Main" meaning; 'chief in size or importance.'

Like it or not and, if you read my post, you'll note I don't; 'we' don't see this competition as a priority. Like it or not, therefore, we are not going to see our 'best' eleven starting any time soon.

We have a small squad (the reasons why are immaterial) and if we are to 'prioritise', (and obviously we are) then it makes sense to keep the 'better' players rested for the competition which takes priority. It's a simple concept really and Brendan Rodgers ain't the first to have used it.

Neither you are me have to agree with the notion of 'prioritising' to understand this. Similarly it doesn't take a genius to understand that, until we have a stronger squad, 'prioritising' competitions will lead to many more results like this.

Sadly, post Kenny, we'll just have to get used to it again. 

Starting to wonder if we should just try and play our strongest team (whatever that may be ?) for a run of 4 or 5 games. Get some confidence and better understanding into the team and get our players playing consistantly well, risk the problem of tiredness and injury in the short term for the longer term benefit to the team.

The Italians had a total of three shots on target result three goals and one an own goal, you will not see that very often, I thought Brendan summed it up well when he said we got lazy and for those five crazy minutes we stopped chasing back with their runners, defensively we went to sleep and allowed a good Italian team to play, our own fault but our young players can learn more from this than beating someone in the Prem. Over the ninety minutes we just shaded it and again bad luck like Jonjo getting in the way of a goal by Luis, it seems luck has been against us now for many years, I sometimes wonder if we shall ever get our fair share again, again last night the ref was not very good and some of the things he allowed the Italians to get away with were poor on his part, the rugby tackle, the holding of Luis in the box, the shove on Luis in the box, they were the most cynical team I have seen in a long long time and I think some of the younger players looked in shock at some of the things the Italians got up to.

Well not gonna lie, I didn't see the match. Only saw some highlights and followed along what reasonable people were saying on Twitter (disregarding the muppets of course).

The jist of it was we thoroughly dominated possession, created some good chances, but we were very lazy and lackadaisical in defense and Udinese burned us for that and our very slow start in the second. We did score some nice goals, however.

The Italians had a total of three shots on target result three goals and one an own goal, you will not see that very often,

I think you are doing Pepe a great disservice mate. Do you not remember his excellent save from a close range header?

i thought it was a good game considering we were under strength. There a bloody good side and there players looked shattered by the end. And leave off Borini the kid has moved defenders a few times now enabling shelvey to score a couple of times now. And if every players in our squad plays with the same energy and hunger as he does il be a happy man. one downside henderson just aint gona cut it sell him to stoke in january he needs to be playing in a slow tempo hoof it squad.

Lack of focus brendan has to speak to our defence who are giving opposition forwards to much time on the ball. Its time  to address this problem once and for all. Shelvey has played hero and villian twice, and this has to stop. Pepe is inconsistant and its time for him to rest a few games and see if jones can step up to the plate.I would play wisdom and suso on a regular basis, think they can be consistant on a regular basis.   

First time I could bring myself to post in this thread. The defence last night was a F***ing disaster; it seemed like everytime they could muster an attack they scored and if I'm honest we had no answer - well we did but it was the word ''panic''.

You can only have one "main" objective mate. "Main" meaning; 'chief in size or importance.'

Like it or not and, if you read my post, you'll note I don't; 'we' don't see this competition as a priority. Like it or not, therefore, we are not going to see our 'best' eleven starting any time soon.

We have a small squad (the reasons why are immaterial) and if we are to 'prioritise', (and obviously we are) then it makes sense to keep the 'better' players rested for the competition which takes priority.

Neither you are me have to agree with the notion of 'prioritising' to understand this. Similarly it doesn't take a genius to understand that, until we have a stronger squad, 'prioritising' competitions will lead to many more results like this.

We'll get results like that, while we make it hard for ourselves by playing weakened teams, to our already average squad. Lucas got injured before a League game. Like it or not, we have to deal with it. If others get injured on European nights, then we have to deal with it too.

Udinese are an ex-CL team from a strong league, and if it was a CL game we would field our strongest XI, regardless of who or what was coming up next. This is still a very important competition, and one we need to progress in for everyone's benefit.

From a somewhat neutral perspective there is ALOT of positives to be taken from yesterday, you have one of the most exciting squads around who are playing an exceptional brand of football.

Willing to go on record and say within 8 years Liverpool WILL have won the Premier league IF BR is given time

watched the game last night,really impressive first half from us,for me Coates and Shelvey stood out, second half we were caught cold by an impressive Di Natale strike ( bet he couldn't do that everytime) we got sloppy and panicked after the equaliser, Udinese are no mugs and they are a useful team, i always think Suarez is going to score ,he's a real pest for defenders, great strike from him, Pepe made a great save ,fantastic reactions ! we need Lucas back and a settled defence .

watched the game last night,really impressive first half from us,for me Coates and Shelvey stood out, second half we were caught cold by an impressive Di Natale strike ( bet he couldn't do that everytime) we got sloppy and panicked after the equaliser, Udinese are no mugs and they are a useful team, i always think Suarez is going to score ,he's a real pest for defenders, great strike from him, Pepe made a great save ,fantastic reactions ! we need Lucas back and a settled defence .

Hope you were joking about di natale. look at his record hes always been a clynical finisher far better than suarez and hes 34 next week.

Yep i know Di Natale has been impressive scoring goals , i just meant that one goal , first time boot ! 9 times out of 10 i reckon it would fly off target

Not read any of this thread so don't know what the general consensus has been, but from what I saw, we passed the ball very well and dominated but yet again didn't win.

Story of our season so far?