Liverpool 3-1 Zenit (3-3a): In game and Post Match Thoughts

Johnson is the best right back in the country. He's just had a poor couple of weeks recently.

I always thought Zabeleta has more end product. Still best England RB though.

Come on, mate. Even his staunchest supporter would admit he is horrible in defence.

Not only is he the best right back in the country,
Hes also the best left back in the country.

Come at me bro.

Great performance from the boys last night, just a pity we couldnt get over the line.
I thought once again Lucas was sharp and definitely looks like he's getting his form back... MOTM was Luis off course WOW what heart he showed.

I have to agree with many here however that Shelvey was not the right sub at the time, but on the other hand i think Assaidi proved to be more effective than Sterling after coming on. The last 15 mins was crying out for another striker to partner Luis and put pressure on them, however we dont have that plan B in our locker at the moment. I know its hindsight, but even trying something different like long balls or direct play in the last minutes instead of trying to play it out from the back, might have given us a chance... the build up was a bit too slow at the end, but i suppose by then the boys had run their legs off. Also no real attempts from outside the box by Stevie, when the defence was packed. I guess we can be happy with the performance, but dissapointed with the end result as we were the better team over the 2 legs for sure.

So so proud of the lads last night, the effort was absolutely fantastic and to a man I can't fault any of them, the tie was lost last week when we failed to grab a away goal and not by Carras back pass or by the subs Brendan choose , on another day Jonjo and Raheem would have been ideal, I thought Assiadi did well and I can see why he was used,

The best side definitely lost, said that before haven't we, but again I can see the potential in this side , we have to remember that this is Brendan's first season with us and we still are in a building process ,

There is no doubt we would have went through had we had Daniel from the start but we can't dwell on that, with two or three quality additions in the summer I can see us having a stronger challenge for top honours next season,

Very proud to be a red today(and always )and yes I'm holding my head very high, onwards and upwards I say and I just hope we can put extra effort in for that CL place we all want so much,

Well done lads , great effort, YNWA

Ouch god my head hurts ,what a game had me drinking like a fish,bloody brilliant performance from the boys.

Suarez was unbelievable what a player.

I need tea.

And if someone calls Glen Johnson the best right back in the country one more time i'll lose it.

He's an inconsistent, Messi-wannabe sh*t bag. His crosses are over hit or under hit and his dribbling is so laboured.

EDIT: Oh, and he can't defend for f**k.

Your talking bollocks mate, ok he wasn't at his best last night but he has been excellent this season, every player has a off day and he probably will again for sure , get off his back ff's, he's only human!

and what about the blatent hand ball in the area? that was a peno all day long!

Disappointing result, excellent performance. I thought until the subs were made we played some excellent football but without creating too many chances in truth. Lost momentum a little after the subs were made but the way we came back from 3-0 down (on aggregate) to be in with a fighting chance at 3-3 says a lot about the character of our players.

I really thought that we were going to do it but sadly though we dominated we couldn't get the final goal we needed. Lack of a quality striker to lend some support to Suarez probably cost us..... that and the Carra mistake WTF!

Thought the last 10 minutes were a little disappointing. I expected us to hit them with everything including the kitchen sink ala Olympiacos but we seemed to spend too much time F'ing about at the back to build up the head of steam necessary.

Good try, sadly no cigar.....this time  

Utterly agree with your post.

I would just add that all the crosses came into too late and we didn't therefore test their keeper enough.

Uber disappointed yet very proud.

It seems as though on numerous occassions Downing and Johnson were not sure what to do with the ball at the edge of the box and ended up going sideways resulting in the crosses being less effective. Re-visit the game and we could see that if Suarez took their defence on they were at sixes and sevens and they tend to panic and commit fouls at dangerous spots. How I wish we had done it more often in the game.

As good a goal as I've ever seen.

Its not a PL coaches job to teach a player how to cross. Players should have learnt how to do that in the youth ranks...

I beg to differ, Johnson is not a natural winger while Downing has better quality of crosses. The coaches should drill Johnson to be more effective instead of just whacking the ball into the box. But more worrisome is the positioning of our players inside the box, why bunched together at the far post when we can spread out and cover more areas inside the box. The opposition defenders just need to shield the ball away from our players at the far post and they would have nulllified our threat. I'e expect say Agger to dash to the near post to meet the incoming crosses and take a defender with him and make more space for others.

Was on a cross channel ferry.
Amazing match.

A great effort, I could easily sit here and pick up little points such as Johnson underlapping Downing instead of overlapping him and the subs and the fact we seemed to run out of steam after the subs but to be honest it was hard to ask more from the boys, the real damage was done in Russia, oh for any away goal !

Was on a cross channel ferry.
Amazing match.

When you gunna change your signature?

Don't think there was anything wrong with introducing Assaidi. He offered a lot more than Henderson down that left flank. Don't think changing the Lucas-Allen-Gerrard trio was the right move though.

There was a distinct lack of quality in the final third though - we didn't create enough chances for my liking. Missed Sturridge especially as Suarez was left to do everything on his own.

Proud of the boys but it F***ing hurts to be out of every competition before March.

Showed great spirit and character think we made changes too early we were playing amazing then shelvey came on didnt offer anything although assaidi looked great and would him to get more first team starts think there is a definite player in their very skilllful and tricky. After the third we really didnt look that threatening apart from shelvey chance which was about the only in last 15-20mins.

I beg to differ, Johnson is not a natural winger while Downing has better quality of crosses. The coaches should drill Johnson to be more effective instead of just whacking the ball into the box. But more worrisome is the positioning of our players inside the box, why bunched together at the far post when we can spread out and cover more areas inside the box. The opposition defenders just need to shield the ball away from our players at the far post and they would have nulllified our threat. I'e expect say Agger to dash to the near post to meet the incoming crosses and take a defender with him and make more space for others.

Your point? Him being a defender is no excuse to not knowing how to cross a ball. Excuse me, but me not being English maybe makes me say stupid things. In my country, we have "baby football", from 3 to 12, then youth system, and pretty much every player that reaches first division can hit a decent cross (or at least on consistent basis). This past year, most of our crosses have been at knee height or very, very past the box. Yes we had some good ones, and some fantastic ones, but the majority...Even Andy had to get on his knees to hit a ball!

Proud of the lads for their effort. We could build from here ,but then again, its not the first time I say this in recent times. We really are a bi-polar team, arent we?

Couldn't have asked for anything more from the lads.

Atmosphere was brilliant, brought back some real memories. Really thought it was meant to be.

Proud of the lads last night. Maybe the fabric of this club isn't dead after all.

And if someone calls Glen Johnson the best right back in the country one more time i'll lose it.

He's an inconsistent, Messi-wannabe sh*t bag. His crosses are over hit or under hit and his dribbling is so laboured.

EDIT: Oh, and he can't defend for f**k.

Funniest post of the year

Couldn't have asked for anything more from the lads.

Atmosphere was brilliant, brought back some real memories. Really thought it was meant to be.

Proud of the lads last night. Maybe the fabric of this club isn't dead after all.

It was like the Anfield of old and look how the team responded!!

Anyone know where we have to finish in the league to get back to Europe next season.  Should be 6th depending on FA Cup, right?

Couldn't have asked for anything more from the lads.

I could have asked for Carra to put his foot through that ball and put it in Row Z.

Anyway, a fantastic 3-1 win at home to a CL team in front of a packed Anfield European night, a decent win bonus, and keeping the coefficient up for the next year we get into Europe. Just like the good old nights. What could we possibly be gutted about?

Oh right, yeah....