Liverpool 1:0 Olympiacos, Pre-In Game-Post Game Thread

Skrtel has done absolutely nothing to lose his starting job for this season.

All Trevor Francis has said for 15 minutes is "you can't replace Luis Suarez", "Luis Suarez is so effective", "Liverpool's best player Suarez won't be available at the start of the season" - no sh*t! Sounds so depressing when he talks this guy.

You might have well get used to get, its going to be the narrative of our season. Its lazy commenting but if we do well they will talk about
how we don't miss Suarez, but can be sure, the first game we lose, someone will say, "They would have won that with Suarez on the pitch"

Skrtel has done absolutely nothing to lose his starting job for this season.

Got to agree, Skrtel has been our best defender (so far) today. Hasn't had any support from Glen either.

Would like to see Sturridge cut out dropping so deep all of the time to get the ball. Main point of attack now, he needs to be receiving the ball higher up the pitch more often.

That was well cut out by Skrtel then.

This is a good point. Sturridge is going to have to really think about and refine his game this season there's a lot riding on his shoulders. He was terrific last season but there's no doubt he benefitted greatly from playing beside Luis

Decent effort by Coutinho

Final ball lacking from Coutinho there Lambert was in

Coutinho looks lively but his been lacking that final ball for a while now.  He seemed to have it for a spell last season.

Joe Allen was poor then and Coates could have given a foul and got a red card. Complete mess that was.

Poor poor poor from Allen not looking at what's around him so nearly paid the price

I see Lucas is picking up right where he left off last season.

Allen really doesn't have the gift of scoring does he.

Liverpool defended well.

Olympiakos missing a striker.

Ibe is gonna be some player! Very excited about him.

How do you win this "cup"?

Another poor performance,but this time we won. Some good performances from Skrtel,Gerrard,Can and some good things from Markovic,Sterling and Sturridge.

Anyway,it's there for everyone to see that we need two top players up front,a striker and a winger. Enrique looked good and will improve his fitness,but still think we need someone better on the ball and attacking wise. I refuse to comment on Johnson

How do you win this "cup"?

"Pot as many balls as you can" 

I have to question why Coutinho was stuck out on the left, I hope it was for testing purposes, and I certainly hope we won't see it happen again!!

I really don't like 4123 formation without a pure defensive midfielder. I think we have players better suited to a diamond or 4213.

Disappointing lack of creativity tonight. Not really creating the chances we should be when breaking forward.

Stirling first half and Coutinho second half were our most creative players, with Skrtel the pick of the defence.

Henderson worked hard but didn't really get into the positions we want to see him. Lambert not really adapted to our game at the moment.

Good hard work out though, as Olympiacos were much better than I expected (or we were much worse )

Jones did little wrong but still gives me no confidence which is probably as much my problem as his.

Johnson was poor with Kelly giving a much better performance second half.

All of our defenders are living nightmares. Quite surprised we didn't concede, but then again Olympiakos don't possess the most potent attack. Few things to note:

- We are in a dire need of a top LB and a top RB.
- Daniel Sturridge looked isolated up front as a lone forward.
- Emre Can is looking like a beast. Could turn out to be our best signing.
- We played frighteningly like England. Predictable sideways passing at a slow tempo (pre season to blame)
- Markovic looks insanely quick. He'll be a nightmare for slow defences.
- Coutinho should never be deployed on the left again, even in pre-season.

All that said, it was a pre-season game. There are only two genuine concerns of mine - lack of quality at LB and RB and the fact Daniel Sturridge could well be a marked man next season given his best ever strike partner now plays his trade in Barcelona.

Defensively, Johnson and Jones worried me.

Jones never looks set, he just stares at shots which pass him with his feet rooted to the ground, sometimes he drops to his knee's instead of making an actual dive which is worrying. His lack of vision and distribution only annoys me further. Personally think Reina and Mignolet have to battle it out if we want a decent keeper next season, because having Jones as no.2 will not help us at all.

Johnson, terrible on the ball, looks nervous when dribbling with it and can never seem to get past any players, defensively he is 10x worse, can't position himself well enough and doesn't close down players quick enough, would much rather have Flanagan out on the right with Enrique out on the left.

In an attacking sense we were ok but not amazing, some moments of creativity not many though. Coutinho, Markovic and Sterling looked sharp.

Coutinho, seems very energetic these days and it seems like he doesn't want to let games pass him by without having a strong influence, however he needs to relax when trying to produce a final ball, it seems rushed and uneasy.

Markovic seems rapid on the ball, couple quick runs he had today, when playing week in and week out with Sterling and Sturridge, he will get more and more oppertunities to score and make things happen, looks promising so far.

Sterling picked up where he left off, with a nice finish and a couple of neat touches here and there for me he was our brightest player.

Singing YNWA at the beginning of the match for my first time ever is one of the most amazing things I have been apart of. Incredible to see how it echoed around the stadium.

Singing YNWA at the beginning of the match for my first time ever is one of the most amazing things I have been apart of. Incredible to see how it echoed around the stadium.

First time for me too.  The whole day was absolutely fantastic, Glen Johnson notwithstanding.

Only watched the 1st half. Was impressed with Skrtel, Enrique and Markovic. Johnson was bloody horrendous. I got the impression we set up to counter attack everything. Hope this is not a sign of a tactical preference by Rodgers. Yes we did it well last year but it was another dimension to our aggressive style and complimented it only. Preseason so heres hoping its only testing options. Not a fan of the lone striker either. Studge looked isolated.