Featured: "A favour? From them? Dream on!" by John Brennan

[tlw content]

‘And if. Yer know. Yer ‘istory. It’s  enough to make you…’vomit. A favour? From them? Like the one we needed from United against City six weeks ago? Dream on.

 

I’m queasy at the worst of times about run-ins…at these – the best times that many of us have seen for several years – I’m an incontinent (well, I do live in France) mess. So, when fellow Reds started writing stuff like ‘we’ll win it at Palace’, ‘we should put three or four past them’ and other manifest poppycock early on in the week, I had a bad feeling about this. This, despite all at LFC staying admirably above the media-driven ‘mind games’ of Mourinho. We’ve been served a staple diet of hope over the years and when things are in our hands, we have an unfortunate habit of letting them slip (James against Coventry).

 

And slip they did again. Literally and metaphorically. But it’s Ste so we can’t really maul him, like we would have had it been Kolo. At West Brom. Or Fulham. Anyway, this team is capable, as it has shown us all season long, of scoring three or four times in 45 minutes. So, we could have got back into it. But yesterday we huffed and puffed, looked narrow and played with no great fluency, inhibited by nervousness which seemed to consume the crowd and was no doubt picked up on by the team.

 

It’s impossible to be angry with this Team. They’ve given us a lot to shout about in this craziest of seasons. 96 times we’ve cheered. OT. City. Sturridge at The Pit. Ste at Fulham. Those 20 minutes against Arsenal. The derby. We’ve even deemed out football ‘poetic’. It’s got us to April the 28th and we’re part of the discussion. And it could go to the last day. But now that we’re here, we need to win it. 11 wins in a row? Cricket scores on a weekly basis? Footballer of the year? But City champions? Sorry, but in L4, that doesn’t cut the mustard.

 

Thus, we can be angry about the management of this team. And especially of its defence. This thing could well go down to goal difference. Except with Rodgers, it’s goal indifference. A refusal to acknowledge this as a serious problem area. And one that could ultimately cost us the greatest prize of all. Ten clean sheets! That means that in the 26 other games, at least two goals were (or would have been) needed to win. We’ve had to score three or more on four occasions this season to take points (Everton to take a point, Swansea, Stoke, Cardiff to take three points none against Hull…even Hull put three past us!).

 

We could equally analyse our results against the Top Four (10 points out of 24 against Everton, Arsenal, Chelsea and City). We’ve dropped 28 points all season: 14 against the Top Four and 14 against the other 15 teams. Our eternal bête noire, the teams in the bottom half, seems to have been dealt with. To take it to the next level, we need to be capable of going to City and Chelsea in expectation rather than hope.

 

At the risk of giving up your principles just for one day Brendan, you could be leading a Title-winning team. It’s never bothered us before, notably in Europe. How exactly do you think the whole European Cup experience is going to go? Defend like we do now and our ‘remarkable achievement’ of finishing in the Top Four will seem distinctly unremarkable.

 

Still, it’s in our hands. We’ve proved we can score 5 or six in a game. We just need to keep a clean sheet at the other e…verton, Everton, Everton…

 

John Brennan

 

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[Dr Nowt]

Goal indifference - nice.

[JermainePennant]

Expect the worst and hope for the best is the attitude lfc fans should have right now, relying on Everton to help us will end in heartbreak.

 

This situation reminds me of when Chelsea had to beat us to stop Manu winning the title, I wanted us to lose as other fans did, the players gave a flat performance as we didn't have a big motivation to win, I am expecting the same from Everton against city.

[sir roger]

I hadn't realised it was that easy, we should just not have had such an attacking  mentality & gone forward incessantly with everybody bar the central defenders involved & we would have still scored the 96 goals, won 11 games on the trot & got this close to the title by not letting any goals in at all.

 

I think Brendan has to go.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

I think Brendan found a system that suited the current players by accident. The form of the 3 S's has helped as has Henderson's rapid improvement and despite a few too many scares of late so has the keeper.

 

We know we drastically need players in defence and midfield, bring in some quality and experience and we will be ok. The current players will add depth, the new boys need to be starters.

 

As for the attack if we can get a couple of players in the mould of a Suarez and a Sturridge or Sterling ( not so easy I agree ) because we need far better than the so called attacking threat coming off the bench at the moment. A couple of decent attackers coming on Sunday could probably have got us a draw.

 

I think a strengthened squad can hold it's own in Europe and at home. The league is also still up for grabs. Not over till Subo sings.

 

Come on a Brendan, get a few solid defenders a couple of good midfielders and like for like upfront. You know it makes sense.

[El Rojo]

'Thus, we can be angry about the management of this team.'

 

Really? Angry at a management presiding over our most powerful and most unlikely title charge in the quarter of a century since we last won the thing?

[Baltar]

Everton can still get that 4th place so I expect them to give it their all against City. They won't want to do us any favours but if they want to get into the CL they bloody well better beat City.

[Rambo]

Goals for/against is one thing, but it's GD as a whole that matters. Unless that's level and it's the first column that matters then, and we are great in that respect.

We've currently got the joint best GD we've had in the premier league, and got two games to beat it. We've made a few mistakes that have led to silly goals but Rodgers can't coach not to slip, or not to hook it past your keeper.

Best season I can remember league wise since 1990, and whatever position we end up in, we have given it a fucking good go with a manager who is learning and despite what you imply, is prepared to adapt. Possibly a bit naive against Chelsea, but I'll forgive him that. If he'd have matched Chelsea's line up, you, or somebody else, would be having a pop at him for not going for it.

[JermainePennant]

What I find strange about this article is the last written by this guy he was praising Rodgers for getting us to play 'the Liverpool way' and now he is saying Rodgers has got it wrong with tactics this season.

 

My take on it is if we had not set up to attack like we have this season we wouldn't be as high in the prem and as I have said in other threads Rodgers did not get it wrong against Chelsea a mistake cost us.

[stringvest]

I can't be angry with this team, or the manager.  This has been the most exhilarating football we've played for 25 years.  We will get found out in Europe if we play like this, I accept that, but in order to maintain the balance in favour of our attack, we are going to need quality acquisitions in midfield and in defence.  And in all likelihood, in attack.  

[JermainePennant]

I can't be angry with this team, or the manager.  This has been the most exhilarating football we've played for 25 years.  We will get found out in Europe if we play like this, I accept that, but in order to maintain the balance in favour of our attack, we are going to need quality acquisitions in midfield and in defence.  And in all likelihood, in attack.

 

Rodgers has shown he can adjust tactically in tough away games where he has changed formations and it has worked.

 

Against Chelsea he set us up to attack as he wanted a win and we were at home, we dominated the game and lost because of a mistake.

 

I don't believe this 'we will get found out in europe' thing at all, we will have a stronger squad next year with more options, I expect us to do well and knockout atleast one of europes superpowers.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

The team and the manager have already over-delivered this season, so any talk of being angry at them is just madness gone mad.

 

Also, I don't understand the fixation with EFC v MCFC, as if it's the last game of the season.  City have two home games against Villa (who held us to a draw at Anfield) and West ham (who got a draw at Rentboy Bridge) - both teams are better than Sunderland, who came to within a bug's dick of winning at City.  The important thing is that we have to win our games.

[Hermes]

The main criticism in the article is that we are poor defending and the manager doesn't seem able to address that problem. That's true. If the league table was drawn up on attempts on goal by opponents we would be in the bottom half with an average of 13 attempts per game on our goal.

[RedKnight]

Hermes sighting! Fire away.

[Paco]

apart from beating them in fa cup final msrtinez has a poor record against city.

 

everton though have a decent record against them. im sure they ll want to mean regardless of what it means

[Pureblood]

I don't think we'll be poor in Europe.  We do have defensive issues but we can more than compensate with our attack.  In time the defence will improve (I hope, there is no solid evidence of this yet).  There's no reason to believe that our attacking style can't be reproduced successfully in the Champions League, well none which are obvious to me at least.  

 

Rodgers has shown he can adapt his approach and formations as required by the circumstances, and his ideas are drawn from European experiences, so I think our style will suit European competition.

 

A great read and I definitely agree that we need to improve defensively.  It is the final touch Rodgers must apply to make this team the truly finished article.  

[The Golden Eel]

The article seems a bit like it was written with the whiff of Sunday's disappointment lingering

[Paco]

The article seems a bit like it was written with the whiff of Sunday's disappointment lingering

there's a lot of that about but theres still some football to be played and we re top of the league with 2 games to go.

[The Golden Eel]

there's a lot of that about but theres still some football to be played and we re top of the league with 2 games to go.

Absolutely... I'm not getting down about it until it's over, which it isn't. That's just a fact, it neither optimistic nor pessimistic, it's just a fact.

[Jose Jones]

I'm not buying this bollocks.  It's wankers lining up to complain at the first chance in months to complain about something.

We lost against Chelsea because our captain fell over, which fell right into their game plan as it allowed them to continue to shut up shop.

 

We're now allowed to be "angry at the management" of the team?  Fuck off!

 

Our results against the other top teams are pretty decent.  Splitting wins and losses with Man City and Arsenal (including a 5-1 thrashing), 4 points against Everton, (including a 4-0 thrashing) and 6 points against Man U (3-0 win at Old Trafford included) and Spurs (9-1 on aggregate.  The only team we had difficulty with was Chelsea - due to shit ref at Stamford Bridge, and Steven Gerrard falling over.

Oooh if only Brendan could be more defensive like Gérard. 

 

TL;DR - The Waterford Cunt strikes again.

[PestiRed]

I'm not getting this article. At first I thought it was piss-take or some sort of satire on the modern fan's thought process, especially as it's so badly written. But it appears to be serious so maybe it's just shit

[Reckoner]

Rogders can't defend Init we need to get a manger who can, like giggs, his team played wel against nowrich and conceded no goals, we let 3 in , branden out im so angry,

[Hermes]

 Tonight's game sums up the feelings in the original post.

 

 Why were we charging forward when 3-0 up with 15 minutes left? The game was won.

 

 To win the league on goal difference we would have needed a minimum of another 9 goals in 105 minutes of football. Naïve at best, but irresponsible lunacy is a more apt description.

[The Golden Eel]

Tonight's game sums up the feelings in the original post.

 

Why were we charging forward when 3-0 up with 15 minutes left? The game was won.

 

To win the league on goal difference we would have needed a minimum of another 9 goals in 105 minutes of football. Naïve at best, but irresponsible lunacy is a more apt description.

It was after their first goal that the problems started imo. I can understand us going for the kugul at 3-0 as we were absolutely killing them. When they scored their first, we needed to be more pragmatic. But we went to shite

[JermainePennant]

Tonight's game sums up the feelings in the original post.

 

 Why were we charging forward when 3-0 up with 15 minutes left? The game was won.

 

 To win the league on goal difference we would have needed a minimum of another 9 goals in 105 minutes of football. Naïve at best, but irresponsible lunacy is a more apt description.

Our fans were screaming attack attack when it was 3-0 and I saw lots of people before the game saying we should go all out and get as many as possible.

 

The whole team collapsed in the last 15 minutes and were not able to keep the ball and slow things down like they should have been able to, not Rodgers fault and as he said our problems tonight was bad decision making.