Report by
Dave Usher
That international break was great wasn’t it? Weekends are so much more enjoyable when we’re not being force-fed a shitburger by the Reds. It was great not having a weekend ruined by an abject Liverpool defeat but it proved to be only temporary respite. As soon as the internationals had finished it was back to being kicked in the balls by the Reds.
First there was the Sturridge news late in the week and then this horror show at Selhurst. In many ways this one result is the perfect microcosm of how things have gotten away from us so quickly. Last April we blew a lead at Palace, conceded three goals but still got a draw because we’d found the net three times ourselves. And if Victor Moses wasn’t such a massive shithead we’d still have won that game in stoppage time, such was our attacking threat.
This season we go there, blow a lead once again, concede three goals again, only this time we lose. Why? Because we’re still shit at the back and we’re still - in the words of Jamie Carragher after this debacle - “a mentally weak team that’s easily bullied” but we no longer score enough goals to cover up those deficiencies.
This wasn’t wasn’t a surprise, it was expected. That’s the saddest thing about it. In the Chelsea report I wrote: “Can anyone really see us winning at Palace in a fortnight? I don’t see us coping with their direct style at all, in fact all I can see from that game is more abject misery.” I feel the same about Stoke next week too, in fact I can’t see us beating anybody right now. Not even Burnley or Leicester.
What made this one especially bad was that we got off to a perfect start through Lambert’s well taken goal. If we’d fallen behind early and never got going it would have been more understandable but we can’t even win games when we go ahead and that’s really worrying. The same thing happened against Chelsea a fortnight ago, but losing to the Champions elect is one thing, being embarrassed by Palace yet again is another.
You know what else is really worrying? Brendan picked the team that most of us would have done and we were still shit. Ok, he still kept Lovren and Johnson in there when most of the fans would have dumped them both, but the front six looked to be the best that we have (the unwell Henderson notwithstanding) and I think he even sent them out there in a diamond. At least that’s how it looked to me, but Sterling’s performance was so bad I’m not entirely sure where he was playing and we may have been playing some kind of variation of 4-2-3-1, I really don’t know. That I couldn’t even tell what system we were playing probably says a lot about the lack of shape.
Plenty of fans have been saying for weeks that we need to stick Sterling up top and play a diamond, yet Rodgers does it and we’re still hopeless. I’ve reached the stage now where I honestly feel like whatever we try isn’t going to work. It could be any combination of players in all manner of different systems and it won’t matter. We’re too far gone, we’re just shit and I don’t think anyone knows how to fix it, least of all Brendan.
He had two weeks to try and come up with a plan for this game and THIS is what we served up? You could see he made some adjustments to how we normally play, even my untrained eye noticed Mignolet kicking it long from goal kicks instead of the usual fannying about playing tiki taka with his centre backs before hitting the lob wedge shot out to Johnson on the touchline. Clearly Rodgers is trying to come up with solutions but it feels like he’s just wasting his time and nothing works.
Maybe I’m being a bit melodramatic there but that’s how I feel. Palace were 2nd from bottom yet it seems like most of our fans didn’t like our chances of getting anything from the game. What does that say? It says we’re terrible, especially when those fears turned into brutal reality with a 3-1 loss.
We can’t even blame Balotelli for this one. For once we actually had some production from the centre forward position yet we still lost and still did next to nothing in attack. Lambert obviously can’t give us the same level of performance that we had with Suarez and Sturridge, but he did ok and he wasn’t the problem. We only had one effort on target in the entire game, and that was the goal. Lambert also had two headers narrowly off target in the first half and he looked a threat in the first half. Unfortunately, nobody else did.
Lambert deserves a run now though as Mario had his chance and didn’t take it. For Rickie to get a goal so early in the game was just what he needed and despite the result, hopefully we’ll see a more confident Lambert from now on. He took the goal like the “Southampton Lambert” and it was a great ball from Lallana too. I actually almost felt hope again for about ten or fifteen minutes until we came crashing back down to earth.
Having taken that early lead though, we should have been able to gain some self belief from that and go on to win the game. Instead we quickly gave up a cheap equaliser and then failed to force a single save of note from Speroni for the rest of the game. Predictably, we also gave away a terrible goal that cost us the game. The third goal was merely rubbing salt in the wounds, the real damage was done with that hideous second goal.
Mignolet’s free-kick directly out of play was almost incomprehensible. How can that happen to a professional footballer? What happened afterwards was a lot easier to believe as we’ve seen it time and time again. Johnson half arsed a challenge from the throw in and Lovren was made to look like a complete mug by Bolasie. Just for good measure, you then had Gerrard and Sterling not picking up the run of Ledley and Mignolet allowing the shot to go straight through him. Just shite all round.
It’s brutal stuff and it shouldn’t be happening as these are all international class footballers who should be better than this. For whatever reason, they aren’t “better than this” though. They stink. All of them. There’s not one player this season who has played up to the level he should. Not one. If you had to name our player of the year so far who would you choose? I don’t think you can, there isn’t one who deserves a mention. Not one. How depressing is that?
Even the third goal was awful. It was a great strike from the free-kick and Mignolet had very little chance with it, but why was Skrtel holding the shirt of Dwight Gayle in the first place? He’s getting involved in a physical tussle on the edge of the box with a player half his size and weight. If Gayle wants to back in then stand your ground, put an arm on his back to hold him off and head the ball away. Don’t start fucking wrestling with him and holding his shirt. I don’t even care that Gayle was holding his shirt too and that the ref should have seen it. Why take the chance? Because he’s Martin Skrtel and that’s what he does.
Where do we go from there though? It’s such a mess and it feels like whatever changes Rodgers makes has a feel of moving the sunbeds round on the Titanic about it for me now. He’s tried different things, different players, but by and large we’ve been crap no matter what. I expect we’ll give three at the back a go again soon and guess what, that won’t work either.
Whenever we’ve been shit in the past I’ve always been able to maintain at least some degree of positivity and hope because it’s usually been fairly obvious what needed to change. Whether it was an ownership issue, a manager who had ran his course or a team that just needed a centre back or a top class wideman to be really good, there was always a feeling of “we’ll be ok as soon as we do x, y or z” Even this year is was “we’ll be ok when Sturridge is fit” except now it’s starting to feel like he’ll never be fit again.
I don’t have that hope anymore as I have no idea how we turn this thing around. I just think from top to bottom we’re screwed. I despise pretty much every senior figure at the club now apart from Rodgers. My belief in his ability to turn this round is no longer there but I have no dislike for the fella and I’m sure this is really hurting him. I can’t say the same about the rest of them: that pisshead Ian “Teflon” Ayre, FSG and their constantly increasing ticket prices that are totally out of whack with their lack of ambition, the fucking frauds masquerading as scouts… I wouldn’t piss on any of them if they were on fire. They’re all taking us for a massive ride in one way or another.
People will say Rodgers should go and that’s fine. If this continues into the new year then he could have no complaints if that happened, but if he does get canned then everyone else that has had a hand in player recruitment also needs to go. If you take the sole responsibility of signing players away from the manager you also take away sole accountability. Why should Rodgers alone carry the can for the club’s horrific record in the transfer market? Only some of these cackers are on him.
So no, you’d have to replace them all (Ayre, Michael Edwards, Barry Hunter and Dave Fallows) otherwise you’re not eliminating the problem. And who would be entrusted with finding the right people to succeed them? The same people who hired them in the first place. The same people that appointed Kenny and Damian Comolli before them. It’s the blind hiring the blind.
For the first time in my lifetime I can’t actually see any way out of this mediocrity. We need players in January but even if money is made available (and there’s no guarantee there will be) there is nothing whatsoever to suggest those in charge of spending it will get anyone who is even remotely useful to us. We’ve got a bunch of phoneys in charge of signing players and any time I see us linked with a player I haven’t seen much of I just automatically assume “he must be shite if we want him”.
Then there’s the captain. I look at Gerrard now and I just think he owes it to himself to leave. He shouldn’t have to go out like this, playing in this shit team and looking like a shadow of the immense player he’s been. The fans will turn on him too, as he’s contributing nothing in this role he’s being asked to play. It worked last year but it’s not working now because the dynamic of the team has changed and opponents aren’t scared of our attack any more so they’re pushing up more on our midfield. Maybe he needs to play further up the pitch or maybe he should be left out completely. He’s still got more quality in his boots than most of the others combined but in this team - with all of its weaknesses - can we afford to play him every week? It sure doesn’t look like at the moment.
Last season must have taken a massive toll on him mentally and I don’t think he’s recovered from it. He knows now that was his one and only shot at it, and not only did we fall short but he probably blames himself for it. To make things worse Suarez left and we replaced him with a pile of shite. Is it any wonder he just looks like a broken man now? He looks the way I feel, completely demoralised and beaten.
The way this team is playing we’d be much better served with Lucas in there. I don’t think we can play him and Gerrard in the same team as we get exposed by anyone who can run, so what does that mean for Stevie? A role as an impact sub maybe, I don’t know. It’s one of a number of questions that I can’t even pretend to have an answer for. Worryingly, I don’t think Brendan does either.
I think I’ll stop now as I’m sure this has done nothing to lighten anybody’s mood. Sorry for dragging you down even further but if you’re looking for any kind of hope from me then sorry, I got nuthin. I’m just preparing myself for the worst now before every game and if we somehow manage to avoid defeat, or dare I say it, win, then it’s a welcome bonus.
Star man was Joe Allen who used the ball well, ran around a lot and showed the kind of fight and heart that was lacking in most of his team-mates. I’m not entirely sure why he was brought off, maybe it was due to the head wound. I wouldn’t have taken Lallana off either for that matter, yet I can’t get too worked up about any of it as, like I say, I don’t think any of it makes any difference right now.
Team: Mignolet; Manquillo, Skrtel, Lovren, Johnson; Gerrard, Lallana (Borini), Allen (Can), Coutinho; Lambert, Sterling:
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