At least we won’t lose to Arsenal in the final I suppose. That’s the only consolation I can take from this shambolic, lifeless, inexcusably bad display. The sad thing is I wasn’t even surprised as I’ve had a bad feeling about this all week. The absence of Agbonlahor did make me think we might just sneak past Villa but to my shame even then I was dreading the idea of having to go all the way down there to see us lose to Arsenal.
Call it defeatist if you like, but after the 12 months we’ve had it’s understandable, surely? In a way it's surprising that we didn’t make the final really, as the football gods could then have mocked us even more by letting Gerrard lose his last game, on his birthday. In that sense losing to Villa is probably a blessing as I don't think I could have handled that. The way last season ended was bad enough.
I’m not even angry about this one, just really fucking miserable. I don’t know where we go from here as we’re miles away again aren’t we? Looking at the squad now and there’s only a few players I wouldn’t happily see replaced. That's an article for another time though.
We're a mess at the moment as Rodgers doesn't know what system to use, let alone which players to pick. He understandably went with the formation that sparked the revival between December and March, but it hasn't worked in recent weeks due to opponents figuring it out and us not having the players to make it work.
People seem to be really pissed off that Gerrard started, but with Lucas, Lallana and Sturridge all missing who else was going to play? Had all of them been available and Rodgers had still picked Gerrard, that would be different and the criticism would be justified, but what was the alternative? Look at our bench for this one, it stunk so bad I could smell it from my living room (I won't go to semi's at Wembley on principle).
I'd say starting Gerrard was perfectly understandable and it was the not subbing him that was more of an issue, but even then I can understand why you’d want to leave him on. Sentiment is undoubtedly part of it, not because it would be cruel to sub him in his last Wembley appearance, but because he’s got a history of delivering in big games so you leave him on hoping that he still has one more “Superman” moment in him. He almost did too, but Richardson cleared his “Istanbul-like” header off the line.
It’s really sad how Gerrard’s time here is fizzling out, it shouldn’t be like this but everything has completely turned to shit since that slip against Chelsea. Nothing has gone right for him - or us - since then. It really is fucked up. Look at where we were exactly a year ago. Top of the league with three games to go. Who'd have believed we'd be where we are now, with the players we have now. It's soul destroying. We only have ourselves to blame though as this mess is entirely self inflicted.
Being outplayed by Villa at Wembley is a new low though. And we were outplayed, for most of the game they were the better side. It wasn't based on getting men behind the ball and producing a backs to the wall effort either. They played better football, which just makes it even worse.
When we took the lead it was almost against the run of play as we’d started on the back foot and were mostly playing on the break. Rodgers changed the system from 3-4-2-1 to 4-2-3-1 and it paid immediate dividends as we started to look more threatening. We’d had a decent little spell for a few minutes leading up to Coutinho’s goal but it didn’t last.
The goal was well executed though, as he collected a pass from Sterling and showed his magic feet to tip toe through the Villa defence and score with the aid of a deflection. I have to wonder how much Villa’s enforced substitution minutes earlier played a part in it too, as Baker (the fucking ridiculous looking hipster) had gone off injured and Okore was very shaky in his first few minutes.
Villa responded well after going behind and it wasn’t long before they equalised. It was a great goal too. Delph showed good footwork to get away from two players and play the ball down the line to Grealish. Whereas our players jogged back, Delph carried on sprinting forward, ran onto a return pass and picked Benteke out for a cool finish.
The goal was the game in a microcosm. Villa - and in particular Delph - just ran all over our midfield. Their energy and desire was too much for us and we were pedestrian in comparison. They wanted it more, and that’s hard to take.
The second goal was similar, Delph just ran through and no-one followed his run. The defence really got no protection all day, they had their hands full trying to deal with Benteke and it’s hard to be too critical of the centre backs when midfield runners were just flying at them unchecked. The absence of Lucas really hurt us but even allowing for that I’d have expected more from those who did play, especially Henderson.
Delph was his direct opponent, and given that Hendo is known for his running power and stamina, it’s disappointing that Delph was able to just completely dominate the game with his running while Henderson was largely invisible. He can go into his shell at times when Gerrard is on the pitch, and this was another example of that. Like many of his team-mates, he hasn't really performed in any of the big games this season other than Man City.
We had plenty of time to find an equaliser but never really looked like doing so. The urgency just wasn’t there until it was too late. Sterling may as well have been sat off underneath the stands smoking his pipe and getting high on laughing gas for all the fucking use he was. Enough is enough now, make him a final offer (one that’s nowhere near what he’s asking) and if he doesn’t sign it then put him on the market. Coutinho signed a deal for roughly half what Sterling is asking without a moment's hesitation. Think about that for a second.
Sterling is wanting to be paid like he's Luis fucking Suarez or someone, yet he's flopped in most of our biggest games this season. He was shite at Wembley, typified when he ballooned a shot miles over late on because he was leaning back when he hit it. Next time his agent makes those ridiculous demands, the club should stick the DVD’s on of this game, Old Trafford and Besiktas away and then laugh in his face.
If I’m singling him out it’s not because he was any worse than the rest as he probably wasn’t, it’s because he’s the only one holding out for a 150k a week contract. He deserves to be singled out for that alone.
It says it all that Balotelli was one of our better players after coming on despite the fact he didn’t do much other than continually get caught offside. The one time he wasn’t offside the linesman still put his flag up and ruled out what was a perfectly good goal. It was a shocking decision and robbed us of extra time, and yet I can’t even get that worked up about it as we didn’t deserve to get anything from the game.
What it boils down to in the end is that we just had too many passengers. Markovic was subbed at half time yet again. He must be setting some kind of record now as it feels like every game he starts he doesn’t reappear for the second half. Aside from that 4-5 week spell he had around the turn of the year, he’s been a complete flop. So has Moreno, I’m actually starting to hate him now. I’m not proud of that, but it’s how I feel, I can’t help it. Aside from one great recovery tackle to deny Benteke he made no contribution whatsoever and - like all the other summer signings not named Emre Can - looks like a complete waste of money.
To be fair, it’s not just the new signings is it, as no-one played well against Villa. Mignolet did nothing wrong, Skrtel was alright and Lovren actually made some timely interventions before getting turned inside out by Delph for the winning goal. Everyone else was way below par, although I’d probably give Coutinho a pass as it’s difficult to do anything when you’re having to come and collect the ball inside your own half because the midfield were offering nothing and there is no movement ahead of you either.
Rodgers must have changed the system at least three times during the game. On one hand I’d say that shows he’s innovative and not afraid to change things that aren’t working, but on the other you have to be concerned that he’s having to do this at all. It smacked of desperation. A 'Throw enough shit at a wall and hope some of it will stick' approach.
The substitutions were a bit bizarre too. Joe Allen didn’t pull up any trees but he can feel hard done by that he got hooked before Gerrard or Henderson, and what the fuck was that Lambert substitution all about? That was just taking the piss that.
If I was Rickie I’d have told him to fuck off and wouldn't have gone on. The way he’s been treated the last few months has been pretty appalling. The only time he gets on the field is with a few minutes to go, usually when we’re losing. For him to be sent on in STOPPAGE TIME of a semi final where we trailed for over half an hour almost beggars belief. Either give him some time to make an impact or don’t put him on at all. Absolute waste of time that was. Literally, as that’s all it did, waste time. Sherwood must have been laughing his bollocks off, as it saved him having to make a change himself to waste some valuable seconds.
The game ended on Lovren’s fucking ridiculous shot from 40 yards. Sometimes you have to wonder just what goes through these player’s minds. This is a fella who couldn’t score from 12 yards in Turkey but backed himself to leather one in from near the centre circle? If he tried to score from there 100 times, how many would go in? I’m gonna say it’s a safe bet he wouldn’t manage to do it even once.
So for him to try that, at that stage of the game, knowing that if he missed Villa would be able to just waste away the final seconds of the game… it’s almost unforgivable. We probably wouldn’t have scored regardless, but in those last few minutes were at least threatening. Balotelli had just headed one over from a cross and Gerrard had seen one cleared off the line from a corner. Lovren should have just recycled the ball and allowed us to work it wide and get one last cross in to see what happened. Instead he did that. Soft cunt.
When you think we spent £100m on Lovren, Markovic, Lallana, Lambert, Balotelli and Moreno it’s utterly depressing. Think what we could have had with that money if we’d spent it properly. Now we’re going to have to replace most of them this summer and we still need to find a striker to replace Suarez, and another to replace that shithouse Sturridge (yeah yeah, he was injured, I know, but do you think Suarez would have missed this game with the same injury? We can't count on Sturridge, it's that simple now).
It’s understandable then that cries for Rodgers to be replaced at the end of the season are growing louder. I’m not adding my voice to it, although why that is I’m not exactly sure. Part of it is that I see a lot of good things in Rodgers and while “learning on the job” is not really a luxury a Liverpool manager should be afforded, that’s not his fault as it was the owners who decided they wanted to go down that road. To try and get “the next great manager” instead of paying out for one who was already there. They do the same with players, and that doesn’t work either.
If he learns from mistakes and continues to grow as a manager, then what’s the point in replacing him and starting all over again? I’d lean towards giving him another year to see how that goes, but I can’t put up any kind of argument to those who want a change now. I’m not giving Rodgers a vote of confidence, it’s more a vote of no confidence in those who would be appointing his successor. Offer me Klopp with money to build his own team and I could probably get on board with that, but otherwise I’d take my chances with Brendan for another year.
Besides, those frauds on the transfer committee need to go first anyway. At least Rodgers is good at some parts of his job, those so-called scouts are a bunch of chancers. The only thing they need to do is recommend good players. One job, that's all they have and they're fucking shit at it.
I think the main reason I can’t get behind any campaign for change though is because I’ve more or less given up now. I see people saying “we need to buy this player and play this system” or “change the manager and we’ll be fine” etc. I used to think like that too, always looking at ways that we can turn things around and be good again. For the first time in my life I’m not doing that anymore as I just can’t see any way out of our current malaise.
They’ve broken me I think. I just look at us now and it feels like we’re fucked and it’s not going to get any better. There’s absolutely nobody there anymore with the know how or even the desire to make us great again. It’s just not happening, not under these owners.
They came in wanting to emulate Arsenal, which in itself is fucking depressing, but not only have they failed to do that, they’ve somehow turned us into Spurs. This season can’t end soon enough now, what an absolute fucking nightmare it’s been.
Team: Mignolet; Can, Skrtel, Lovren; Markovic (Balotelli), Allen (Johnson), Henderson, Moreno (Lambert); Gerrard, Coutinho; Sterling
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