Liverpool 1-0 Besiktas: In game and Post Match 'Half time in this tie' debate

I would say that Balo taking penalties is a no-brainer and upon his insertion the manager should have informed the captain that there was a new penalty taker should the need arise.

Beyond that the players will get over it and move forward...winning cures all wounds.

My Micky ratings:

Mignolet. Continues his renaissance, never put a foot wrong and a fine save off Ba. 8/10.

Ibe. MOM by a mile, and another fantastic Kenny Dalglish buy. 9/10.

Can. Not his best game in my view, looked a bit dodgy in possession and didn't look comfortable as the holder. The more I see him the more I think he's a rampaging Yaya Toure type midfielder than he is a Makaleli. 6/10.

Skrtel. One dodgy miscontrol first half, but that aside was solid. 7/10.

Sakho. His usual Bambi moments in possession, but solid in defence. 7/10.

Moreno. Still doesn't utilize his pace enough when going forward IMHO, but a ridiculous shot pushed him up to 7/10.

Allen. Tidy in possession and got his foot in. In this system though it probably isn't enough. 6/10.

Henderson. Odd good moments, odd bad. Unfortunately, "penalty gate" was as damaging to Jordan's captaincy credentials as it was to Balotelli. 6/10.

Coutinho. Has really gone off the boil and needs a game on the bench. 5/10.

Lallana. Ought to have scored at the start of the second half and although better on the night than both Coutinho and Sturridge, still flattered to deceive. 6/10.

Sturridge. Disappointing on the night, too often taking the wrong option and always taking too long about it. 5/10.

Subs:

The future captain: once again extremely solid and won some towering headers. His integration back into the starting eleven continues. 7/10.

Balotelli: penalty gate aside, was absolutely excellent. His best performance in a red shirt by miles. Worth remembering that he did actually score as well. 8/10.

Sterling: a brief reappearance but good to see him back. 6/10.

So nobody discussing the match tonight. Apart from the little incident about who takes the penalty. Difficult situation which Hendo managed really well, like others have said once Balo was on the pitch then it's a no brainer who takes the kick, disappointed in Sturridges reaction, almost stirring trouble.

As for the match I thougt we were sloppy in possession and over playing the simpe stuff. Lallana and Couts in Midfield were poor and we looked a different team with Balotelli and Raheem on the pitch, esp with Balotelli's ability to hold up the ball.
Sturridge up front was quite frustrating tonight continually giving the ball away or holding on too long.

Defence again was really good apart from the odd scary moments from Can, even Lovren looked assured when he came on.

Henderson controlled the midfield, notice the difference when Gerrard is not along side him.
For me Ibe was our best player, what a performance from a 19 year old on his debut in Europe....just wow....the future is bright with all our young players starting to click.

 

If Balo is on the pitch and Stevie isn't, I would have Balo take any set peice over Hendo every day of the week.

This all day for me, I was nervous as fook when I saw Henderson with the ball and ill bet I wasn't the only one. Was a lot more relaxed when Mario took the ball. When he is on the pitch he should take all the direct dead balls because beyond Stevie and Mario we haven't got anyone who can really take one.

Decent win against a good side so we have to be happy

Enjoyed the game, always felt we had the upperhand and 1-0 I'll take that.
I think as they come onto us more next week on a bigger pitch hopefully with the pace of Sterling and Ibe we'll get an away goal and finish them
Defence solid again, thought Hendo and Allen good in the middle. Ibe is a revelation, Sturridge still feeling his way back in.
Main disappointment again Moreno he's not offering enough for me we can't always be attacking down the right side, Sterling Ibe each flank going forward for me 

Good result, happy with that. Well done lads!

The future captain: once again extremely solid and won some towering header

Joke? Can't be serious.

My take is we came to the right decision but in the wrong way. Mario as the best penalty taker on the pitch was the man to bury it.

Point is though that its not his decision to make its the managers.

Gerrard in fairness surprised me with his honesty too. Should have played it with a straight bat, but now he's given an insight into problems in the dressing room.

Plenty of egos in the side and it needs containing. A few players vying for top dog status now Gerrard is off to LA in the summer.

With the clock already over the added on time at the end of 90 minutes, for Hendo to plant the free kick into the wall was positively sinful. Keep it alive in the box FFS, work the keeper ec. He lacks. Brain sometimes.

My Micky ratings:

Mignolet. Continues his renaissance, never put a foot wrong and a fine save off Ba. 8/10.

Ibe. MOM by a mile, and another fantastic Kenny Dalglish buy. 9/10.

Can. Not his best game in my view, looked a bit dodgy in possession and didn't look comfortable as the holder. The more I see him the more I think he's a rampaging Yaya Toure type midfielder than he is a Makaleli. 6/10.

Skrtel. One dodgy miscontrol first half, but that aside was solid. 7/10.

Sakho. His usual Bambi moments in possession, but solid in defence. 7/10.

Moreno. Still doesn't utilize his pace enough when going forward IMHO, but a ridiculous shot pushed him up to 7/10.

Allen. Tidy in possession and got his foot in. In this system though it probably isn't enough. 6/10.

Henderson. Odd good moments, odd bad. Unfortunately, "penalty gate" was as damaging to Jordan's captaincy credentials as it was to Balotelli. 6/10.

Coutinho. Has really gone off the boil and needs a game on the bench. 5/10.

Lallana. Ought to have scored at the start of the second half and although better on the night than both Coutinho and Sturridge, still flattered to deceive. 6/10.

Sturridge. Disappointing on the night, too often taking the wrong option and always taking too long about it. 5/10.

Subs:

The future captain: once again extremely solid and won some towering headers. His integration back into the starting eleven continues. 7/10.

Balotelli: penalty gate aside, was absolutely excellent. His best performance in a red shirt by miles. Worth remembering that he did actually score as well. 8/10.

Sterling: a brief reappearance but good to see him back. 6/10.

Mick your a great poster and usually look forward to your posts but your rating of Sakho like quite a few others have done with sakho in the past. It's just plain bollocks mate, I didn't once see what you described and no doubt he has been dawdling in possession in some games in the past.

I just wonder is it something to say about Sakho when there is nothing else to write about?

Joke? Can't be serious.

If you don't think the future captain was excellent when he came on tonight mate, I'm at a loss as to know what to say. Other than I suppose watch it again and pretend you are watching a game between two teams who you have no idea who any of the players are, that might do it.

I'm glad to see the players showing a selfish side, I've thought at times that we have too many 'nice guys' in that team, nothing wrong with a bit of competition. And Hendo if he's going to be captain is going to have to get used to that and show some stones if he wants to take it, no chance Stevie would have handed it over.

Who cares though, it's a non-issue, we scored, think Stevie has gone a bit OTT in his criticism of Mario and just fuelled the fire.

Onward to the Ataturk now, with a goal and a clean sheet to boot, can't ask for more than that.

If you don't think the future captain was excellent when he came on tonight mate, I'm at a loss as to know what to say. Other than I suppose watch it again and pretend you are watching a game between two teams who you have no idea who any of the players are, that might do it.

Lovren was good when he came on. He's 100% not future captain material

Mick your a great poster and usually look forward to your posts but your rating of Sakho like quite a few others have done with sakho in the past. It's just plain bollocks mate, I didn't once see what you described and no doubt he has been dawdling in possession in some games in the past.

I just wonder is it something to say about Sakho when there is nothing else to write about?

It's worth remembering mate that I'm one of Sakho's biggest fans on the board, always have been. He did knock a couple of perceptive little dinks to Lallana tonight and one or two good little switches, but there were still one or two moments where he got himself cornered. I do sympathise with him though, often Moreno doesn't give him an easy out, far too regularly getting too close into Coutinho.

My take on the whole thing:

Hendo was the designated taker. He was confident, up for it and he was the default option, so starts with the ball in his hands. Mario comes over and tells him he really fancies his chances. Hendo makes a captain's decision to let Mario take it. A good call and good match awareness - Mario had shown he was really switched on tonight as well as having a strong history.
Where Sturridge comes in at this point is unclear. Whether he wanted it, or whether he wanted the designation adhered to is unclear, so no sense speculating.

As for Gerrard's comments; He has always been a straight shooter and says what he thinks. Fair play to him. He's right that Mario and Hendo took a big risk, as the dressing room could have been tense had he missed it, but the risk paid off.


Edit: Finally, I've never seen Hendo take a pen, and he may well be cracking at them in training. The boss may want him to be the next PK taker because he knows he is also likely to be on the pitch as well as being good in training. The counter argument is that he has no history of PKs and thus should defer to someone who is proven. The history argument is compelling, but on the other hand every player who takes PKs has to take his first, if the boss thinks he is good enough, he probably is.

If Balotelli on pitch he should take end of . Henderson designated but The manager should have sorted that before the game.

On the whole I thought the game was a 4 or 5 out of 10.

Mignolet made a fine save from Ba - but apart from that Besiktas didn't give too much threat.  They looked like they were playing for it to be tight so they should have a bit more in the next leg.  Rodgers probably wanted to keep a few of the big names at home next week but he's going to have to take a fairly full squad now.  Big disadvantage of playing the home leg first in that sense.

Atmosphere didn't sound too good but we probably deserved the win.  Lallana and Moreno should have both scored at the start of the second half - possibly would have set us up to put the game behind Besiktas.

Good to see that Lovren and Balotelli are improving gradually from the bench.  Just as it should be.  Nice that we've got enough solid players to be able to 'rehabilitate' the squad in the right fashion.

Here's what Gerrard said when Balo was bought.....

https://twitter.com/Irish_KopiteLFC/status/568540761584582656

Crazy scenes at the end, was literally 2 seats away from the Besiktas supporters in Annie Road. After our goal they all started trying to antagonise a fight, a few of them went for some baldy headed chap and threw a steward to the floor. Also threw coins and a bottle at Mignolet and at the full time whistle they threw about 20 coins at us, disgraceful scum.

Crazy scenes at the end, was literally 2 seats away from the Besiktas supporters in Annie Road. After our goal they all started trying to antagonise a fight, a few of them went for some baldy headed chap and threw a steward to the floor. Also threw coins and a bottle at Mignolet and at the full time whistle they threw about 20 coins at us, disgraceful scum.

Could have been worse mate like a egg whisk!!

So much for winning making us all get along better.

Mate, come match day in particular, this place is infested with people who are fans in name only. They have no respect; no loyalty. They mock, with vile abuse, their own players; their own manager.

Uneducated, Ill-reared, immature, disloyal F**k-tards the lot. 

Crazy scenes at the end, was literally 2 seats away from the Besiktas supporters in Annie Road. After our goal they all started trying to antagonise a fight, a few of them went for some baldy headed chap and threw a steward to the floor. Also threw coins and a bottle at Mignolet and at the full time whistle they threw about 20 coins at us, disgraceful scum.

Upset that  it happened, it's a football match and it's  very foolish for the besiktas fans to do that, they could very well be annihilated by the Liverpool fans. They threw a steward to the floor? They deserve to be bashed up.

Mario Balotelli ‏@FinallyMario  1m1 minute ago
Thank you hendo for let me take the penalty.. Stop drama now. We won that's what it count. We are a team and expecially we are Liverpool. Come on guys.
https://instagram.com/p/zTNOGTrjw7/