Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool: In game and Post Match Thoughts

Carragher a deserving man of the match in my view.

Thing is Stu we could have just as easily scored 6 or 7

To be fair though - so could Arsenal.  Our second goal was massively against the run of play.

One thing I am fairly sure of is that if Arsenal had taken a 2-0 lead I doubt we would have got a point from the game.

Clarke was great at that id agree... But.. He wanted a job as no.1.. He wasnt going to hang around as no.2 after Kenny went..


I do agree though that defensively we are a mess at times.. It needs sorting out

Clark was a great asset and should have been considered, that wasn't to be and as a component of the reorganised regime was surplus to requirements, who can say if that is one of the mistakes the owners admit to making?

As posted earlier Jon, the fact that the ever dependable Jamie Carragher keeps pulling us out of the sh*t is cause for concern.

Thing is Stu we could have just as easily scored 6 or 7, Sturridge had two good chances, Agger had two good headers, one cleared off the line, Henderson had a good chance when he tried to lob the keeper (if only he played Suarez in or Sturridge on the edge of the area and Suarez had a couple of good chances including the one right at the death.

So I don't think we were 'Lucky' to get a point as some suggest, I think Arsenal were Lucky the game wasn't put to bed before we allowed them to start playing football.

I agree with this. For me, two things cost us that game last night. First was the team selection. Whilst bringing Carra back was a stroke of genius, not bringing back Enrique and persisting with Wisdom/Johnson was a stroke of idiocy. One does not go to the Emirates and not put out the strongest team available to you. The second, and more importantly, was the absence of Rodger's much vaunted "possession football". At 2-0 we where far too direct with Reina hoofing the ball up the field when time after time it would go to one of their players and Arsenal would come straight back at us in an attack. We should have been building from the back, passing the ball, keeping possession. Only when we'd conceded a two goal lead did we start to pass the ball sideways, build out from the back and keep possession.

As has been shown many times with Arsenal, if you control the game and prevent them from playing their football, you'll win the match. Given that we've City next, I'm of the mind that last night will go down this season as the night we blew 4th place.

I agree with this. For me, two things cost us that game last night. First was the team selection. Whilst bringing Carr back was a stroke of genius, not bringing back Enrique and persisting with Wisdom/Johnson was a stroke of idiocy. One does not go to the Emirates and not put out the strongest team available to you. The second, and more importantly, was the absence of Rodger's much vaunted "possession football". At 2-0 we where far too direct with Reina hoofing the ball up the field when time after time it would go to one of their players and Arsenal would come straight back at us in an attack. We should have been building from the back, passing the ball, keeping possession. Only when we'd conceded a two goal lead did we start to pass the ball sideways, build out from the back and keep possession.

As has been shown many times with Arsenal, if you control the game and prevent them from playing their football, you'll win the match. Given that we've City next, I'm of the mind that last night will go down this season as the night we blew 4th place.

Would agree with the most part..

Not sure after a month out though and being back quicker than expected from a hamstring tear id have risked Enrique against Walcott from the start though

Would agree with the most part..

Not sure after a month out though and being back quicker than expected from a hamstring tear id have risked Enrique against Walcott from the start though

If he was fit enough for the bench, I'd sooner have started him and taken him off after 60 minutes than bring him on when it was too late to stamp our control on the game.

The second, and more importantly, was the absence of Rodger's much vaunted "possession football". At 2-0 we where far too direct with Reina hoofing the ball up the field when time after time it would go to one of their players and Arsenal would come straight back at us in an attack.

Agree with this.

In fact, it was noticeably absent at Oldham too.

Considering at the start of the season we were suffering from poor results partly due to an insistence to ONLY stick to this tika-taka stuff - in the space of 5 months it has gone completely the other way.

Carragher a deserving man of the match in my view.

To be fair though - so could Arsenal.  Our second goal was massively against the run of play.

One thing I am fairly sure of is that if Arsenal had taken a 2-0 lead I doubt we would have got a point from the game.

Don't doubt that to be honest JD.

Did you notice that Rodgers had a word with Lucas around the half the hour mark and following that we dropped deeper and stopped pressing so high up the pitch ?

I'm of the opinion Rodgers told Lucas to get it onto the pitch to drop deeper and close the game out and get to half time without conceeding.

Following that at the half time interval, I feel Rodgers probably told the lads to do the same for the first 15-20 minutes of the second half to frustrate Arsenal.

Then we scored and Arsenal who had built up quite a good head of steam cranked it up further and we dropped even further back.

Wish we'd shown more bottle myself as Arsenal looked rattled everytime we pressed them high up the pitch.

If he was fit enough for the bench, I'd sooner have started him and taken him off after 60 minutes than bring him on when it was too late to stamp our control on the game.

Hamstrings are funny injuries though, he may have wanted to ease him back.. And to be fair at around 60 minutes the game was "won".. Maybe not due to us being great but we were 2-0 and that should have been a good time to introduce him..

Im not sure that decision had much to do with us not winning the game, starting Jose..

But the lack of ability to keep the ball and kill games we are winning i fully agree with, i posted that earlier.. We should be good enough to dominate possesion when we are winning games, dont lose the ball, dont lose the game..

The whole structure of the side though still leaves alot to be desired

I agree with this. For me, two things cost us that game last night. First was the team selection. Whilst bringing Carr back was a stroke of genius, not bringing back Enrique and persisting with Wisdom/Johnson was a stroke of idiocy. One does not go to the Emirates and not put out the strongest team available to you. The second, and more importantly, was the absence of Rodger's much vaunted "possession football". At 2-0 we where far too direct with Reina hoofing the ball up the field when time after time it would go to one of their players and Arsenal would come straight back at us in an attack. We should have been building from the back, passing the ball, keeping possession. Only when we'd conceded a two goal lead did we start to pass the ball sideways, build out from the back and keep possession.

As has been shown many times with Arsenal, if you control the game and prevent them from playing their football, you'll win the match. Given that we've City next, I'm of the mind that last night will go down this season as the night we blew 4th place.

It's all very well disecting the selection process and suggesting this was our greatest failing when realistically Arsenal's defence was a shambles and there for the taking.
Your assertions about the contingencies for an Emirates fixture though correct in the usual circumstances could be allowed a wide margin of error on last night's display by the home side.

Reina was wellying the ball as far as he could because he had little confidence in the foundation and ability of the players in front of him to set up a viable attacking movement, there was more of an effort to retain possession as Arsenal did press more but it didn't look like a choice.

Still think it's a job in progress and we need all the breaks we can get, let's hope we get a few at Citeh. 

Im not sure that decision had much to do with us not winning the game, starting Jose..

The reason I say that is because Johnson is far better on the right than on the left and last night he had a particularly bad game. Two big games we've now lost this season because he's played on the left because he's been caught flat footed and failed to pick up the player that scored.

Great game of football if i'm honest..
Thought the ref had a good game keeping it flowing..
Thought Suarez played a blinder , helping out in defence down that left hand side and as for that pass with the outside of his right foot up to Sturridge in the first half ....world class...If only Sturridge could have looked up before he hit it !!
What a difference right down the spine of the team , Reina , Carragher ,Lucas, Gerrard & Suarez all played well..and Henderson is a different player !!
I was buzzing at Half Time and when we went 2-0 up I thought we could've/should've pressed more and got a 3rd..
We had that game won and then we just fell to bits in the space of 3 minutes and could so easily have lost it in the end...
Walcott is a class act and he took his goal really well but by the final whistle I was numb with disbelief..again !!
2 MASSIVE points dropped....not looking forward to Sunday at all...

Don't usually compliment the opposition in the match thread, but Wilshere was class yet again. Going to be some player in a couple of years.

Il take a point away against Arsenal, Even tho they are not as good team as they used to be. They still are pretty good and it wasnt a easy game in any sense. Although after we were 2-0 up, we started panicking and it showed from our defending but i have faith that BR will sort it out. BR is still pretty new coach and he will learn from game like these.

What i dont understand is why Luis is playing on the left, i know that he have played on the left couple of times for ajax and Uruguay but in our squad. Luis is the main threat, the main goal getter. Surely you want him infront of the goal. You dont setup the team around a new signing (i like sturridge) and move other players around. You build your team around your best players. Stevie and Luis.
I would have made Luis play a AM role against Arsenal and put someone else on the left. This has been bugging me since last night.

Felt devastated after that, if I'm honest.
Definitely felt like 2 points lost.

2-0 up after 60 minutes I had hoped we could keep the pressure on.
Not sure if it was wise to rest so many in the FA Cup yet start Sturridge and Suarez.

Thought it showed in the second half. It was there pressing early on that made the difference.
The joys of being a manager I suppose, if it goes wrong we'll look to the reasons why.

Pleased with Carra. Man of the match for me.
Lucas and Gerrard may be our best midfield at the moment, purely because of Allen's drop in form
and Henderson/Shelvey being attacking options, but I feel we still need a more powerful option in there.

It's F***ing madness to be still relying on Lucas after all the injury problems he's had.

Brendan spoke about wanting to bring Enrique in the 5 minute spell that cost us.
Really though I think not having a Toure/Mascherano option cost us.

Too often teams break through our midfield at pace. A 100% Lucas could cope a
recovering Lucas gets exposed. I don't expect Gerrard to do so I expect we need
to strengthen. Nobody in our squad to perform in that role bar Lucas. It'll be our
weak point for the rest of the season, as having signed Sturridge and Coutinho I
don't expect us to bring anyone else in.

Cracking first half an hour away to Arsenal.
Shouldn't have looked at the live matchtable at that point.

Like Carra said though, draws can only be seen as good or bad when in context of
the games that follow them. Thought we'd do well to get 4 points from these two games.
To achieve that we now need to beat City.

To that extent, with Toure & Kompany being out, I'd start Coutinho. (If he's fit)

Definitely 2 points dropped. Its the same story this season where we look good when given time to play, but as soon as a team presses us, we crumble.
I spoke about this team's fragility before the Man U game and its still there. We somehow lack confidence and composure to close out or even hang onto a lead. The rest of the league will follow suit and press us further so that we are forced to play a style which BR hasnt prepared us for.

Its all good saying work in progress, however i feel this is where we urgently need another experienced player in midfield to control the pace of the game which we want to play. Either that or get a genuine DM to play alongside Lucas in tough away matches.

Anyways City up next and without Yaya, they are there for the taking too.

Definitely 2 points dropped. Its the same story this season where we look good when given time to play, but as soon as a team presses us, we crumble.
I spoke about this team's fragility before the Man U game and its still there. We somehow lack confidence and composure to close out or even hang onto a lead. The rest of the league will follow suit and press us further so that we are forced to play a style which BR hasnt prepared us for.

Its all good saying work in progress, however i feel this is where we urgently need another experienced player in midfield to control the pace of the game which we want to play. Either that or get a genuine DM to play alongside Lucas in tough away matches.

Anyways City up next and without Yaya, they are there for the taking too.

So where are you planning to play Gerrard?

Gerrard doesnt have the legs to be a box to box midfielder anymore and our system of play allows for him to have a free role, so to answer your question i would play him off Suarez / Sturridge.
Also yesterday we played Suarez wide left instead of off the shoulder of Sturridge and gave Henderson a free role. Gerrard would play that position much better especially if he has defensive cover behind him.

If he was fit enough for the bench, I'd sooner have started him and taken him off after 60 minutes than bring him on when it was too late to stamp our control on the game.

I do agree that Johnson is much better in the right. But Enrique played about 30 minutes yesterday, which is probably what the medical team felt he could handle, not 60. Imagine Rodgers starting Enrique and subbing him off after 30 minutes. Or keeping him on until the hour mark and risking such an important player getting injured again. That would be a far worse coaching decision than playing Johnson on the left, IMO.

We took our foot off the gas after the second goal. Let the opponent back in the game.

Two points dropped yesterday, great first half, made a fair few chances, just didn't take them, not a bad result though. Bring on City.

Just a quick shout out to the travelling Kop last night , they were in top vocal support and right through the match all you could hear was LFC fans singing...Respect !!..
Oh and a bit of respect to the Arsenal fans for NOT booing and whistling everytime Luis Suarez touched the ball.....i'd like to think they admire his skills and the entertainment he brings to the PL...just don't get that from the Mancs or the Bitters...or at any other ground come to think of it....so cheers for that gunners...

Just a quick shout out to the travelling Kop last night , they were in top vocal support and right through the match all you could hear was LFC fans singing...Respect !!..
Oh and a bit of respect to the Arsenal fans for NOT booing and whistling everytime Luis Suarez touched the ball.....i'd like to think they admire his skills and the entertainment he brings to the PL...just don't get that from the Mancs or the Bitters...or at any other ground come to think of it....so cheers for that gunners...

Very fair point that 6stringer, agree with it entirely.

Was made up with the first half, could have, should have been 4 up at the break. Didn't start the second half too bad considering it was expected the Arse would come out having a go. What rancles with me is, when we do go ahead in games, we seem to drop back and defend too deep, allowing the oposition to come on to us. It's been a similat trait for a long time now. Long before Brendan arrived, so it's not of his makeing. Seems to be a mental thing with us, but can't justify why. Poor defending for the first goal, and the second we let them run through us to easily, although Wallcots finish was quality.  All in all, feel like we lost two points rather than gained one, but the performance was decent for a large part of the game.
My biggest criticism is there wasn't a mention in the press about Giroud's blatant dive. If that had been Louis, all the back pages would be covered with.....
 CHEAT. DISGRACE. GET HIM OUT OF THE PREM. LIVERPOOL WILL SURELY HAVE TO SELL HIM NOW. WHAT DOES SIR ALEX THINK. HOW MUCH MORE CAN WE TAKE. Etc. Etc. Etc.
And they say there isn't a wich hunt. FFS The silence says it all.
Oh, and i voted Louis MOTM, just for being the constant thorn in the side once again.