West Ham vs Liverpool, 20th September 2014

[Tom araya]

Don't mind that.

[Delmar]

Neither would be in the top half of players in the league in those positions if their roles were swapped.

Possibly.  As a team we would be better, though.  I'd like to see the manager to walk the walk, figure out the practical formation.  We do not get results now, that much is clear.  

[Adebisi]

 

 

 Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers tells MOTD: "Overall we never showed the composure that is related to this team. We didn't start well.

"It was disappointing. We knew this would be a tough game but we were 2-0 down before we started. I thought we reacted well but we were risking the game at the end and unfortunately for us it was a day of too many mistakes.

"We're nowhere near the levels we expect to be at. The expectancy is raised for us after the last few seasons but at this moment in time we are not there. We will continue to work hard. We'll look to bounce back."
 

Liverpool trail leaders Chelsea by six points, and manager Brendan Rodgers added: "It's not ideal, it's a long old season but you don't want to be too far away from the pack.

"We were up there from the off last season so there is no doubt we have to improve and ensure we don't get detached at this early stage."

[clangers]

The best players don't want to come here , that's just a fact

 

The absolute best players, true, however there's a tier of champion's league players we can attract just as City and Chelsea have done over the last few years. It involves overpaying for them both in terms of fees and wages. The mancs are doing that right now.

 

We could have chosen to do this on one or two top quality additions rather than Lallana, Markovic, Balotelli, Origi etc. That's over £70 million to throw at one or two quality additions. 

 

Unfortunately we always go for quantity over quality, why buy one player when the same money allows us to speculate by bringing in four or five prospects?

[Frank Dacey]

When individuals are making mistakes you can only drop them, but if not Sakho, Lovren and Mignolet, then who? Jones? Toure? Maybe we need a bit more experience at full back but the only option there is Enrique, who doesn't seem to be fully fit.

Lallana looked decent in the second half. It's too early to judge Markovic and Can yet. We miss Allen badly and need Coutinho to find his form quickly. Remember how bad we felt after the West Brom away game last year but that was the start of great things.

[Hades]

It will get worse before it gets better. Last season we could have played anyone in midfield, as long as the ball got to Suarez and Sturridge the opposition were shitting their pants. This season we will need a working midfield and defence.

 

Dreading the Real game, we could get a hammering that will shatter our self-belief.

[Anubis]

You'll sign some top class palyers if you pay them. We won't. 

[John101]

We have a number of new players settling in. We have chopped and changed the starting 11 in a number of games. We have played a number of different formations/playing styles in a number of games.

 

The team look completely disjointed at the minute. I'm hoping that with a bit more time and a few less injuries that we will settle into a familiar starting 11 and familiar playing style. I just hope we are not too far away from the top 4 by the time this happens.

[FrenchEyeGlass]

The best players go where the money is. anything else is bollocks. Its like you guys haven't been watching football for the past five years.

 

Pay the Fucking money u stingy cunts. We won't buy big players because we will never bet big. We're the cunt who puts a fiver on an accumulator every Fucking week.

[Gym Beglin]

It can be summed up very simply, you don't sell your best players.

Yeah, because Suarez would have stayed wouldn't he...

 

Ps, he'd have been banned for this one still, and probably until Christmas had it been us and not barca contesting the decision.

 

Rodgers will sort this, but some of you hysterical fannies aren't going to like the solution.

[diamondjoe]

If balotelli is the answer I wonder what the question is? No creativity, no pace, no idea.

There's a good team in there Somewhere, but it better show fucking quick.

[ratcatcher]

You'll sign some top class palyers if you pay them. We won't. 

 

Top class players are now wanting 200 grand a week and more. We may be able to afford 1 player on that rate but not the 3 or 4 that the two manchester clubs and chelsea can.

[ratcatcher]

The best players go where the money is. anything else is bollocks. Its like you guys haven't been watching football for the past five years.

 

Pay the Fucking money u stingy cunts. We won't buy big players because we will never bet big. We're the cunt who puts a fiver on an accumulator every Fucking week.

 

Yeah and when the club is on the verge of bankruptcy because spending big on these imaginary players still doesnt work, youll still be wailing like a fucking drama queen you quim.

[an tha]

A telling fact about our squad (ok injuries aren't helping) is a mate of mine just challenged me to name a balanced 11 for the league cup game Tuesday.... I couldn't do it, not unless it's a midfield made up of attacking midfielders..

 

Try it (keeping in mind we need to rest Gerrard) and probably protect some of our usual starters.

 

Best I could do without picking reserves was

 

Jones

 

Manquillo

Enrique

Toure

Skrtel

 

Coutinho

Suso

Lallana

 

Borini

Lambert

Markovic

 

For my money our squad is unbalanced, has too many similar players - namely attacking midfielders and not enough quality in terms of defensive/central midfielders and we are light up front.

[Anubis]

Yes, of course Funeeeee old chap, poninting out deficiencies in the team that have been there for three seasons, and which have been pointed out even last season, and which have not even come close to being addressed, is hysterical fannieism.....

[Russ Atmosphere]

Top class players are now wanting 200 grand a week and more. We may be able to afford 1 player on that rate but not the 3 or 4 that the two manchester clubs and chelsea can.

FSG have spent the past three years assuming high salaries were the problem when it's actually just that average players were getting them. The best players earn high salaries, don't be amazed if we can't attract any by offering buttons.

[Koptimus Prime]

Return of eye aids

[Boss]

Yeah, because Suarez would have stayed wouldn't he...

 

Ps, he'd have been banned for this one still, and probably until Christmas had it been us and not barca contesting the decision.

 

Rodgers will sort this, but some of you hysterical fannies aren't going to like the solution.

 

So we contest the decision, with a world class player that will fire us back after christmas. If your going to sell Suarez go out and spend 40 million on Sanchez, Falcao, Di Maria or Reus, just one of them, that's all we need. Instead of signing Lovren, we keep Agger. Instead of spending 25 million on Lallana we buy a defensive midfielder that can actually defend. 

 

You know like the things that everyone said in the summer, sign a top player to replace Suarez, Gerrard can't play that amount of games, we need a proper defensive midfielder etc, pretty obvious to everyone else, except in seems the transfer committee.

[lamai]

So we contest the decision, with a world class player that will fire us back after christmas. If your going to sell him go out and spend 40 million on Sanchez, Falcao, Di Maria or Reus, just one of them, that's all we need. Instead of signing Lovren, we keep Agger. Instead of spending 25 million on Lallana we buy a defensive midfielder that can actually defend. 

 

You know like the things that everyone said in the summer, sign a top player to replace Suarez, Gerrard can't play that amount of games, we need a proper defensive midfielder etc, that every man and his dog could see what was wrong with us, except in seems the transfer committee.

 

 

You might want to take those 2 out for starters as they did not want to sign for us, and Dimaria as well as he probably like Falco would have choosen the mancs. 

[Boss]

You might want to take those 2 out for starters as they did not want to sign for us, and Dimaria as well as he probably like Falco would have choosen the mancs. 

 

Falcao didn't chose the Mancs, he chose Real, he was loaned to the Manc's last minute because they offered the money and the wages Monaco wanted. This was all after panic stations MK don's, before that Van Gaal was happy with their squad. We could of signed him in the summer if we offered enough of a fee and wages, uncontested.

[magicrat]

I don't think our defenders are that bad as individual players but they are dis-functional as a unit

and the result is less than the sum of its parts. The frailties at the back last season seemed to be all put down to the individuals so we have spent the best part of the summer spending big to re-shuffle the pack only to find the problems at the back are worse which is now infecting the rest of the team . Some serious introspection is needed by Rodgers and his assistants as to how theses lads are being asked to play and coached. If we can we probably need to bring in a specialist to sure things up 

[Mr T]

I don't know how anyone could have watched last season and not come to the conclusion that a key priority is to sign a proper defensive midfielder and get a balanced pair of centre backs.

 

Surely the whole point of a transfer committee is to rectify some of the blind spots of any individual? Rodgers clearly has a massive fucking blind spot when it comes to the defensive side of the game but he had the luxury of two of the most prolific strikers in the history of the premier league. Unfortunately it wasn't quite enough.. because we were fucking shocking at the back.

 

The Lovren signing is looking like a shocker already IMO. The guy is not a top centre back. Dives in when he shouldn't, isn't fast, in fact I can't think of anything he does particularly well. Apparently 'organisation' - haha fuck off. He can't even put his name on a fucking long-ball.

[JoeyJones65]

We have a number of new players settling in. We have chopped and changed the starting 11 in a number of games. We have played a number of different formations/playing styles in a number of games.

 

The team look completely disjointed at the minute. I'm hoping that with a bit more time and a few less injuries that we will settle into a familiar starting 11 and familiar playing style. I just hope we are not too far away from the top 4 by the time this happens.

Sorry I am not buying into this new players settling in argument. Could be said that West Ham had more new players on the pitch today than we did...didn't stop them giving us a 3-1 defeat did it.

 

Our problems stem from the fact that we are still shite at the back...serious lack of communication all too evident (again) between our centre backs.

 

That and the other elephants in the room...namely the glaring lack of a quality defensive midfielder, and the selection of Gerrard and Lucas in midfield..which just does not fucking work.

 

How much longer is it going to be Brendan until you realise this?

[stringvest]

Gerrard was just as bad as Lucas.

 

Not quite as bad, but not much better.  As was Henderson.

[ratcatcher]

FSG have spent the past three years assuming high salaries were the problem when it's actually just that average players were getting them. The best players earn high salaries, don't be amazed if we can't attract any by offering buttons.

 

So how many high salary earners are going to 'solve' the problem? 3, 4, 5, 6 and at what, 200 grand a week each?

 

Yeah Im presuming the fans will just love the ticket increase or the shirt price increase to pay for them.

 

Or are we supposed to go down the mansour route now and to fuck with any FFP fines we will undoubtedly get?

 

The team did fucking great last year and but for a couple of shite performances would have won the league. I dont recall high salary earners or number of them of the kind some seem to think would be the panecea.