Liverpool 1-0 Reading: In game and Post Match Debate

Must keep the run going against Everton next weekend, to try and climb higher up the table, with yesterday's clean sheet and goal from Sterling.

Like I said right after the match. We won, we kept a clean sheet, Raheem is off the mark and will be high on confidence. There were more positives from the match than there were negatives.

One of those negatives was a fairly poor midfield play. Another was the wastefulness of Luis Suarez. But you know what, we won in spite of that. Each of those might have bad games, but it's unlikely they'll all be bad in the same match. Yeah we should have hammered them, but I'll always take 3 points.

Jonno was the standout man of the match for me. Surprised to see the Captain didn't make the niminations list? Having just watched the game I thought he was terrific. Passed it well and put in a real shift in tersm of the ground he covered up and down the pitch.

Enrique was very good when he came on. Was watching a sh*t stream but he appeared to be playing Left Mid in front of Johnson. Is that right?

Enrique was very good when he came on. Was watching a sh*t stream but he appeared to be playing Left Mid in front of Johnson. Is that right?

Yeah he was, and he actually did quite a good job at it. He played 3 great balls, 2 of which were wasted by Suarez, one that was just a tiny bit ahead of Gerrard. Don't think he should be there regularly though.

Casually watching the repeat of our game on LFCtv this evening. Referee gave a free-kick in the 55th minute to Reading and the crowd react angrily. Then, who do I see but our very own el Batez going buck mental. TV star in the making. Check the photos out on my Timeline of the man in action.



www.twitter.com/semps19

Oh quit with the drama queen theatrics.

We need a striker and we'll be fine. I know it, you know it, the gaffer knows it.

There's your plan B

Not drama queen, just a rant. Fustrating as f**k.
We have/ had a striker, who's to say he couldnt of done a job. You dont know it, I dont know it, and the boss does'nt either. Theres your plan B, which considering we've already paid for him, was surely worth the risk.

Not drama queen, just a rant. Fustrating as f**k.
We have/ had a striker, who's to say he couldnt of done a job. You dont know it, I dont know it, and the boss does'nt either. Theres your plan B, which considering we've already paid for him, was surely worth the risk.

I'm grateful that Brendan Rodgers, as opposed to you, is our manager.  I don't have time to respond fully to your Football Manager philosophy, but I suspect time will answer most of the doubts you have about Rodgers and the direction of the club under him. 

Three points but we won ugly as usual. It seems all the refs and defenders are branding saurez as a diver, and ignoring any fouls on him. Which is very difficult for a player of his skill set to handle. We need players of his skill set to work with him. Dont think carroll is an option in january as he has just had two good games so he is not going to try again. He had his pony pulled by a defender of the opposing team in the last match. Going to hope yesil can step up to the plate and score some goals.Brad got a clean and hope he can push reina to do better.Well done reds  keep up the good work.

I'm grateful that Brendan Rodgers, as opposed to you, is our manager.  I don't have time to respond fully to your Football Manager philosophy, but I suspect time will answer most of the doubts you have about Rodgers and the direction of the club under him. 

Why do mention Football Manager?. Dont know what its all about , all I know is that its a computer game. I prefer to look at real life meself
My doubts about BR, will no doubt come to light as whether they're right or wrong, but If I am proved wrong (which I think we all want),
then I will say so. Dont really want to fall out with fellow reds, but that is my opinion, and if it differs from yours, lets call it debate eh.

Why do mention Football Manager?. Dont know what its all about , all I know is that its a computer game. I prefer to look at real life meself

clue's in the title mate.  It's about football management. 

clue's in the title mate.  It's about football management. 

Yeah but plenty of clueless bellends play one game and suddenly think they know a lot more than the actual professionals!

As far as the game goes three points, clean sheet and our first home win of the season, but that second half was hard going, we just didn't play that well and just invited Reading onto us. Hopefully that first win at home might just inject some more confidence into the team

Happy we won as if we had lost there would have been incredible pressure on Brendan going into the derby game. Now there is only tremendous pressure on him to win it.

Think we just lost our way in the second half when the chances hadn't gone in..... same as we have so many times since Torres left. Thankfully this time we didn't conceed and got a vital 3 points. From tiny acorns great oaks grow.

7 points from 9 as well, including 2 sheets.

Yeah mate, good spot, you'd take that every time... especially the next set of three. 

this puts us 3 points behind Arsenal. A side getting a fair bit of praise this year and who are of course being mentioned as a top 4 side.

Not forgetting... a team/club some would believe we should model ourselves on. Scary, ain't it? 

How Glen took the fight to Reading

There is only one stat that really matters in football - the final score. But here at Liverpoolfc.com we know supporters love to delve through the facts and figures after each game, so we're allowing you to do just that with the help of Opta.

And to make things a little clearer, we have broken down the statistics from the Reds' 1-0 win over Reading into sections which outline how both sides fared in terms of possession, how they rated defensively and going forward.

Attacking

Full-back Glen Johnson was awarded Liverpoolfc.com journalists' man of the match on Saturday in recognition of a display that showed his quality at both ends of the park. Solid at the back, he was at times the home side's most dangerous attacking outlet and the facts reflect his offensive approach to the game.

Firstly, he saw more of the ball than any other Liverpool player, taking 92 touches. This bucks the trend for much of this season of Steven Gerrard (75 touches) and Joe Allen (71 touches) dominating the ball in the middle of the park for the Reds.

Johnson peppered Alex McCarthy's goal with six efforts. Two of those were on target and one struck the post.

Luis Suarez had more shots on goal than any other Liverpool player (10) but only one of his attempts was on target. Raheem Sterling struck in the 29th minute but he fired at goal five times in all.

At the other end, the visiting forward-line failed to record a shot between them as Pavel Pogrebnyak, Adam Le Fondre and Jason Roberts were subdued by the Reds' defence. Instead, Reading's attacking threat was spearheaded by Garath McCleary in the midfield, who took three shots.

Passing

Saturday was the seventh time in the eight Barclays Premier League games this year that Joe Allen has recorded a pass completion rate of over 90 per cent.

The 22-year-old found a Liverpool player with 95.2 per cent of his attempts. Such efficiency has only been bettered against Norwich at Carrow Road (95.8 per cent) and at West Brom on the opening day of the season (95.3 per cent).

The only time his distribution accuracy has fallen below this marker was against Manchester United in September when the Wales international scored 87.8 per cent.

He is the fourth-highest ranked player on the list of total passes made in the Premier League this season with 593 (Mikel Arteta leads the way with 764).

Of the six midfielders fielded for various spells throughout the 90 minutes by Brian McDermott, Mikele Leigertwood was the most heavily involved. He took more touches than Allen, foiled the home side's advances with six interceptions and made seven tackles in the centre of the park.

Gerrard created five shot assists for his teammates and fired six crosses into danger areas for red shirts to attack. In front of him, Nuri Sahin was similarly creative, playing five crosses and carving three chances.

Defence

Liverpool's defence shared the workload between them. Martin Skrtel cleared the ball 11 times and made three interceptions. Daniel Agger intercepted play five times and played the ball to safety on five occasions. Andre Wisdom cleared the ball nine times.

Johnson was as diligent defensively as he was going forward. He blocked three Reading efforts, made four clearances, won 100 per cent of his aerial duels and intercepted twice.

For the visitors, Shaun Cummings attempted five tackles but won just two of them as he fought to keep the dangerous Sterling at bay.

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/how-glen-took-the-fight-to-reading

Some interesting stats here. 92 touches for Glen is insane for a defender.

Good first half, made hard work of it second. Must have been a very frustrating afternoon for Suarez, nothing really went his way, he gets fouled and he usually doesn't get it and his finishing was way off yesterday. I don't get down to games very often but if refereeing is like that every week (which I presume it is with the ironic cheering and the new Suarez song) then a lot of regulars must really think the FA have it in for Liverpool. Some of the decisions were comical and I found myself laughing at them, the only problem is that it's not funny and very serious and as we don't score many goals and you would hope refs don't loose us any points with their wrong decisions.
Thought Glen was brilliant as was Sahin with a lot of the movement he does off the ball. I love the possession stuff but when it goes back to the keeper and the full backs have pushed up the park and the 2 centre halves are wide with the sitting midfielder looking a bit isolated in the middle it gets a bit worrying to watch.
Going to be hyper critical here as Raheem looks like a great prospect but he really does have to work on his non preferred foot so it doesn't get obvious that he is going to cut onto his right every time, he got himself if a few positions on Saturday where a stronger left foot was a much better option than his changing onto his right, it gave defenders that wee bit more time.

Some interesting stats here. 92 touches for Glen is insane for a defender.

Brad Jones probably had close to 50 with as many times as they play the ball back to the goalkeeper.

As far as the game goes three points, clean sheet and our first home win of the season, but that second half was hard going, we just didn't play that well and just invited Reading onto us. Hopefully that first win at home might just inject some more confidence into the team

In a Nutshell !!....
I asked for 3 points and I got them !!...

From the look of things, Glen and Enrique can keep the left side of the pitch all to themselves. Both can interchange as back and winger. I'm impressed with Enrique and he made some useful crosses and he looked hungry after the short rest. Enrique is quick and decisive and he has no hesitation to take on defenders as if signalling to BR to play him as a winger and I hope BR sees that.

Realistically we won't be getting many players in January while a player ala Lucas to mop up things up and a quality striker will do for the moment.

Still unsure why Brendan put on Enrique as left winger when he has Asaidi, I'm thinking it was just to give him a run out before the European game this week. Don't get me wrong Enrique did ok but when he's got a natural left winger in Asaidi

Just watched a few highlights again this morning. I know it was Suarez that played in Sterling for his goal but a number of times that he could have played him in again after but choose to go alone and shoot himself. I wonder is it an issue of not trusting Raheem, or was it greed in that he wants to score himself, or could be instructed to shoot more himself.

Just watched a few highlights again this morning. I know it was Suarez that played in Sterling for his goal but a number of times that he could have played him in again after but choose to go alone and shoot himself. I wonder is it an issue of not trusting Raheem, or was it greed in that he wants to score himself, or could be instructed to shoot more himself.

I could be lambasted with what I'm going to say next ...... fully agreed with your observations and I myself did not see that pattern until in the last 6 games or so.  As soon as  Suarez gets the ball at the edge of the box, don't expect him to pass to anyone else to score, he'll twist and turn every defender and dribble into goal, if he could; without realising there were others in better position to score. I could remember, there were at least 3 occassions where Sahin was in a very favorable position to score but Suarez chose to dribble into more difficult positions to shoot. Call it selfish or lack of awareness of his fellow players, not sure which one, but BR has to remind Suarez it's a team game and a game is won or lost by the team and not an individual.

Sahin is one intelligent player, eventhough a bit lightweigh at the moment,  whom can identify an opening and run into space and score and if no one takes advantage of that then it's wasteful and I could see how frustrated Sahin was on those occassions. There were also occassions where Suarez received a pass from others and he has to reciprocate and not do everything by himself while there's no condition imposed upon him that he has to score in every game.

For a change, i hope to see less dribbling from Suarez and leave it to Sterling and Enrique/Johnson to put the ball into the box and Suarez has just got to read where the ball is going to come next.

Of late I'm not surprised of Suarez's poor conversation rate, he can't expect to dribble pass 3-defenders everytime and still keep the balance and to aim accurately at goal while him over exerting himself is not helping to conserve his energy that could lead to fatigue and lost of concentration and subsequently those off target shots. Or perhaps, he should lie low for most part of the game and burst into the scene in the last 15 mins of the game with his dribblings where defenders will be tired and would struggle to keep pace with him. I'm no physical instructor here but as a layman that's how I sees it.

Having said that, I'm happy to see in the last game there was much less of a Stevie-Suarez combo where others were much involved when we were on the offensive.

I observed the forward line is slowly taking shape but it could be better if Suarez could get others more involved when in the box.



 

From what I got to watch of the game (admittedly only about 30 minutes or so) I thought Suarez was passing too much.

I guess it's all perspective.