I wish I could say I was surprised by that but it was all too predictable wasn’t it? Concede a goal from a set-piece; check. Thoroughly toothless up front; check. Generally lacklustre all over the pitch; check. Barring one game at White Hart Lane it’s been the story of the season so far. It would appear that the improved display and higher intensity shown in the derby was just down to the occasion after all, as we were back to being ponderous and lacking sparkle again in this one.
This was always going to be the pivotal game in the group and now that we’ve lost it we’re in a real dogfight to make it to the knockout stages now. To be honest I don’t even care about whether we get out of the group or not, that’s the least of my worries in fact. I’d rather finish bottom than third too, and let’s face it, that’s a real possibility based on what Ludogorets have shown so far. Fuck this Champions League shit, I just want us to get our league form sorted out because right now I don’t even have any confidence that we’ll beat West Brom this weekend.
Basel are obviously no pushovers, especially at their place and better teams than us have been beaten by them. They beat Chelsea twice last year and also beat United the year before, so us losing there isn’t exactly an upset. Yet I couldn’t help but think when I was watching this that they’re actually a bit shit and the Liverpool of last season would have bummed them senseless. Sadly we bear absolutely no resemblance to the Liverpool of last season and may never do again. 101 goals? This team will do well to manage 101 shots the way they’re playing.
We had loads of space to attack Basel and got into countless dangerous positions, but every time we just ballsed it right up. Sterling was the biggest culprit, the kid had an absolute ‘mare. Twice he should have scored in the second half, and twice he seemed to completely panic and fluffed the opportunity. He looked pretty stressed about it too I thought, it was etched all over his face. Maybe the pressure of having to carry the team is taking it’s toll on him? If his form starts to go downhill then we’re really fucked.
He shouldn’t have been playing anyway though, Rodgers is taking the piss with him really. Leaves him out against Villa because he ‘needs to be managed carefully’, then plays him in every minute of every game since, including two hours plus pens in the league cup against a Championship side. He’ll probably have the cheek to complain about Hodgson overplaying him too. Seriously Brendan, sort it out as it’s making you look foolish.
And Balotelli has somehow morphed into Emile Heskey with a bad haircut. He’s working harder than many expected he would but his decision making is terrible at times. He doesn’t look suited to playing up top on his own at all, as he holds on to the ball for too long and often loses it as a result. Even when he doesn’t lose it he often slows down our attacks because he’s the furthest man forward but he won’t run in behind. He needs to stop trying to dribble too, because he can’t do it and isn’t quick enough to get away from anybody.
Apparently he didn’t touch the ball once in the opposing box. That’s not all his fault of course, but it’s still worrying, especially when he’s hobbling around after every challenge looking like he’s feeling sorry for himself. We need more from him. A lot more. I’m convinced he’ll be better when Sturridge is alongside him, although when Sturridge comes back there’s probably a decent chance Mario will be benched. Should that happen he can’t complain; one goal in seven tells it’s own story.
Coutinho wasn’t that bad but he’s probably missing Sturridge more than anybody as he needs people running in behind. Not only does it give him a target to thread passes through to, it also spreads the field and gives him more room to operate. Balotelli is coming short all the time and just getting in his way. It couldn’t be any more different than last season, when we were flying at teams from all angles because of the speed and movement of our attacks. That’s not happening anymore, and the reason it isn’t is because the players in attack are just nowhere near as good as they were last year. It’s not rocket science.
Markovic did fuck all again, save for one effort that a defender blocked after Balotelli’s free-kick had been parried to him. He was tidy enough in possession but he’s not looking like scoring or creating and that makes him an even less effective Stewart Downing.
To be fair, I don’t actually think the rest of the team are doing that much different to what they were last year, but we don’t have that 50 goal strike partnership and it’s killing us. Last season we had the two best forwards in the league and they were complimented by people like Sterling and Coutinho. Take those two out and you know what you have? Oasis without the Gallaghers, that’s what. Liam will be back soon and that will help, but everyone knows that it was Noel that was the key to making the whole thing work. Staying with the Oasis analogy, we have all kinds of candidates vying to be ‘Bonehead’ right now, including the manager.
I honestly believe after watching this one that it’s the attack that is causing everything to malfunction. The defence were actually ok against Basel and I didn’t think the midfield were that bad either, but you always know that we’ll find a way to concede a goal so it’s therefore vital that we have it going at the other end, and we never did. It was just incompetent forward play from start to finish. As things stand we’re weak at both ends of the pitch, and that’s being reflected in our results.
We were weak defensively last year too but it didn’t really matter. Now it does, because the attack has gone from being the best in the league to one of the worst. I don’t think that’s an exaggeration either, outside of the bottom four only Stoke, West Brom and Villa have scored fewer than us.
There’s not much more to say really, it’s just so demoralising what’s happening to us now. We’re shite, there’s no point sugar coating it. Sturridge obviously can’t return soon enough, but if we’re putting all our eggs in his injury prone basket then God help us.
The arguing among fans has started already and it’s only going to get worse I fear. Some are ripping into the manager and the new signings, others are saying “relax, it will just take some time and we’ll be fine”. The truth is none of us know the future and no-one has a clue if Brendan will get it right or whether we’ll continue to be crap. It’s all guesswork and there’s enough evidence either way to strengthen whatever argument you want to make. There’s no point us falling out with each other over it, either side of the argument could yet be proved right but it’s too soon to tell.
This time last year nobody could have predicted we’d go on a 12 game winning streak that would take us within a whisker of the title, and the same is true now. We all have hunches about what may happen, but really, nobody knows. Not us, not Brendan, not the players. We could win 12 on the bounce again (not now, obviously, but perhaps later in the season), or we could go 12 without winning (that could well happen now!).
You know, we were so desperate to get back into the Champions League but what good has last season actually done us? Suarez fucked off anyway, we had to buy a load of players to cope with the extra games and that has unsettled everything, and to top it off we were left psychologically scarred after having the title in our grasp and letting it sli… letting it get away. Now Rodgers has got no time to work with his squad and get the new players integrated through training sessions because we’ve got all these midweek games that look like proving to be just a series of humiliations. I dread to think what Real Madrid might do to us.
Oh how we laughed at the Mancs last year, with their 7th placed finish and no European football. How we laughed when MK Dons hammered them in the League Cup. Well we won’t be laughing at them for long, not when Van Gaal has had the luxury of a few months working with his squad every day in training preparing for one game a week, while Brendan juggles with rest days, rotation, injuries and no time to plan for opponents. United might be shit now, but they’ll get better because they have time to work at it and because they’ve got the kind of firepower we had last year.
We don’t have any of that. But hey, we’re back in the Champions League. Woo fucking hoo. What good is it if we break our necks trying to get out of a group, maybe win a knockout match or two and then go out, if we end up missing out on the top four because of it? The CL money is doubled next year too, if we miss out this year it will seriously hurt us. It won't happen of course, but I'd play the u21s from now on and have Brendan spend a full week working with the first team getting them ready for league games, because that's what's important. Maybe I'm in a minority, but I'd take three points against West Brom over a win against Real Madrid all day long.
Star man is probably Lovren, although Enrique did ok after a ropey start.
Team: Mignolet; Manquillo, Skrtel, Lovren, Enrique; Gerrard, Henderson; Markovic (Lambert), Coutinho (Lallana), Sterling; Balotelli:
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