TLW picks the team v Arsenal

[Dr. J]

 

 

Rodgers is a manager who is capable of finding excellent attacking systems that can be very effective. But to achieve sustained success the systems require the presence of two world class forward players capable of playing alternatively, or together if required.

 

I can relate to that. I used to coach basketball for 9 to 10 year olds. First year I had a kid 7 foot tall and 20 stone, freak of nature he was, an immigrant from Finland. I think they fed him only reindeer meat. Anyway, all season long I had the lads pound the ball inside to him. He averaged about 90 points a game and all the rebounds at both ends. We won the league in a walk and cruised to the championship. Then his parents wanted him to stop sports and concentrate on his studies.

 

The next year we had a kid 4 feet tall with glasses who weighed less than a wet towel play that position. But I figured why change a winning formula? We kept pounding the ball inside until he needed cosmetic surgery and I was almost charged with child endangerment before I got the sack.

 

But what the fuck, I had one great year and no one will ever take that away from me.

[an tha]

even ferguson said getting a very late equaliser feels like a win.

When you are flying, yeah. When you are closer to the bottom 3 than the Top 4 points wise and need wins desperately I am not so sure. Especially when the team you have just managed to nick a draw with have been dogshite and we have played quite well.

 

As I say the encouraging signs are there and that's good, but ultimately the weaknesses that have plagued us all season are the reasons we didn't win again today.

[ZonkoVille77]

We are 5 points behind arsenal and spurs who I consider our contenders for 4th. West ham will drop off IMO as will Southampton. So if we continue to play like the last 3 games we will just about pick up the points we need. Hopefully! !

[KevieG]

We should be going all out for Petr Cech. 

[KMD7]

We are 5 points behind arsenal and spurs who I consider our contenders for 4th. West ham will drop off IMO as will Southampton. So if we continue to play like the last 3 games we will just about pick up the points we need. Hopefully! !

 

Believe!

[Mojo]

We are 5 points behind arsenal and spurs who I consider our contenders for 4th. West ham will drop off IMO as will Southampton. So if we continue to play like the last 3 games we will just about pick up the points we need. Hopefully! !

Well said!

 

I know many on here are gutted we are already out of the title race after last season, but I absolutely loved our unrelenting high-energy performance today. With Sturridge and another striker, we will not only play exciting footie again, but we will win these games. I can see us getting top four AND playing exciting football. OK, that isn't winning the league, but I'll settle for it in the era of Gulf shaikhs and Abrahamovic.

[Stickman]

Plenty of plus points today and showed great character to come back after everything seemed to be going against us.

We need to just keep,getting behind the lads I still don't think everyone appreciates what we have lost this season with Suarez and Sturridge leaving/injured will have on any side. If Rodgers can come through this he will be much better manager for us because of it.

That said Jones should be nowhere near the side oh and he should have saved the first one.

[Saintslfc13]

Plenty of plus points today and showed great character to come back after everything seemed to be going against us.

We need to just keep,getting behind the lads I still don't think everyone appreciates what we have lost this season with Suarez and Sturridge leaving/injured will have on any side. If Rodgers can come through this he will be much better manager for us because of it.

That said Jones should be nowhere near the side oh and he should have saved the first one.

I keep seeing that said about Jones and whilst I agree it was a "save-able" goal, it also should have been dealt with earlier. Thing is, I've got no doubt in my mind that Simon doesn't clear the through ball Jones came for around 35 minutes or so and instead runs about halfway off his line, shits himself, and watches as it goes passed his "big arms" into the back of the net.

 

Neither keeper is good enough for what we aspire to as a club, they both need replacing. A good keeper that can come in right now is a must for January, a young but promising back up who can take over in a few years should be bought in the summer.*

 

*unless of course FSG get lost on a drunken spending spree and offer to buy both, as well as our other needs in January.

[Paco]

Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal FT: Shots: 27-5 Shots on target: 10-2 Possession: 58%-42% Chances created: 21-4

[Oh Buoy]

Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal FT: Shots: 27-5 Shots on target: 10-2 Possession: 58%-42% Chances created: 21-4

Unreal.

[dirk grout]

Unreal.

 

Literally. I remember Bradley making a save so they must've had at least 3 shots on target.

[Hades]

The positivitists should enjoy the "good" performances while they last. As soon as we have European commitments again we'll turn to shit.

[stringvest]

Can Rodgers go away now please with his idiotic egotism while simultaneously being the worst defensive coach I have ever seen at Liverpool. We will never win anything with this spoofer and he will keep blowing £20M on defenders every season.

 

repped for spoofer.

[JohanH]

This whole "last season was a failure" is ridiculous. Take any metric you want - total spend, net spend, wages, average position last 5 years etc. etc. and Liverpool's level is 4th to 6th. Unfortunately you are not going to be able to beat that year in year out (and when you do someone in the bracket one step up will poach your best players)

 

Chelsea, ManC and ManU are MILES ahead of us on all metrics and will therefore end up ahead of us more often than not. We are competing with Arsenal and Spurs for the 4-6 bracket.

[General Dryness]

Metrics. Yes. Metrics.

[Jairzinho]

This whole "last season was a failure" is ridiculous. Take any metric you want - total spend, net spend, wages, average position last 5 years etc. etc. and Liverpool's level is 4th to 6th. Unfortunately you are not going to be able to beat that year in year out (and when you do someone in the bracket one step up will poach your best players)

 

Chelsea, ManC and ManU are MILES ahead of us on all metrics and will therefore end up ahead of us more often than not. We are competing with Arsenal and Spurs for the 4-6 bracket.

 

Negged. For metrics, obviously.

[Pan77]

Decent performance I thought but it's all too fucking predictable. Until someone sorts the defence out we'll keep getting results like these.

[Dr. J]

No chance to win the league, out of the CL, 22 points and 1-1-1 in the last 3. 

 

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christ-mas"

[Mr T]

This whole "last season was a failure" is ridiculous. Take any metric you want - total spend, net spend, wages, average position last 5 years etc. etc. and Liverpool's level is 4th to 6th. Unfortunately you are not going to be able to beat that year in year out (and when you do someone in the bracket one step up will poach your best players)

 

Chelsea, ManC and ManU are MILES ahead of us on all metrics and will therefore end up ahead of us more often than not. We are competing with Arsenal and Spurs for the 4-6 bracket.

We didn't win anything. Coming second is only of value in itself for two potential reasons: if we built upon it to do 'better' the next year. Better doesn't necessarily mean winning the league but it could mean buying the right players in order to have some sustainable development as a club. Or , and linked to the previous point, doing something in the Champions League. This could be to boost the reputation of the club so potential players know we are still relevant and not some relic of a bygone era. Or it could be mean going far in the competition to give the fans a morale boosting run etc.

 

Rodgers has done none of these things. In fact you could go far as to say he has systematically destroyed any of the potential 'successes' flowing from last year. So last year was an unmitigated disaster in light of what has subsequently happened. Rodgers is 95% responsible for that which is why he should go .

[Gym Beglin]

I recorded the game yesterday and I avoided knowing the result and watched it at around 9pm last night, peace and quiet.

 

My notes:

 

1. I was impressed with our build-up play. We passed it brilliantly at times, movement was great but Arsenal were so deep that it was nigh on impossible to slide a ball in-behind them for Sterling. Arsenal also knew that we don't have the players to hit goals from distance. Sterling, Coutinho, Markovic, Henderson, Lucas, none of them are going to be hitting top corner with a missile from 25 yards. The only two who could do that were Lallana and Gerrard, and neither really got into the right positions to do so. So Arsenal were fairly content to build a small commune on the edge of their area.

 

2. We pressed like motherfuckers. Why are we only seeing this recently? Where was it between August and December? I love seeing progress, but I hate that there's 20 odd previous games for us to now look back on and ask "why didn't you do this then?". Asks more questions than provides answers.

 

3. Skrtel is shit. I knew he'd fucking score and turn a '5' performance into a '7', thereby looking like he was alright. Look, our defence has been shit for a few years now, and I can't put this any simpler than:

 

Skrtel and Agger = bad (so Agger leaves)

Skrtel and Toure = bad (so Toure dropped)

Skrtel and Sakho = bad (so Sakho dropped)

Skrtel and Lovren = bad (so Lovren dropped)

Defence and Mignolet = bad (so Mignolet dropped)

Defence and Lucas DM = bad (so Lucas dropped)

 

In fact, I think we've gone through every possible combination, and it appears that every other defensive player in the squad is utter shit, and it must be their fault that we've been conceding goals like a fucking sieve for 3 or 4 years. And yet, the one constant in the defence for that period, a SLOVAKIAN CENTRE BACK, is absolved of all blame.

 

In terms of number of tackles, for the entire division, he's down in 112th position (squawka stats).

 

He is a bucket of errors and he's sat in the middle of our defence and has been for years. Great header mind, but both the goals we conceded were largely down to him. It seems that Skrtel's biggest asset, for a manager, is that he's seldom injured, and thereby you can 'count on him' in terms of deciding from week-to-week what your team is. Sometimes it's better the devil you know, but in his case it's getting a bit ridiculous now.

 

 

4. Sterling never really got into the game, which was a big thing for us. He did well, but Arsenal knew he'd run amok behind them if they let him, so instead they just let us run at them in central areas.

 

5. We look like we're one top striker away from giving teams a hiding.

 

 

Bear in mind the results Arsenal have picked up, especially in the Champions League, they are a good side and we were better than them on every level.

[Dr. J]

It was clear to me after 5' that missing 3 midfielders - Wilshere, Ramsey and Ozil, in a team built on midfield possession and build-up - Wenger was perfectly content to play for a draw away. All that control and possession we had in midfield was because they stayed back and gave it to us.

[Gym Beglin]

It was clear to me after 5' that missing 3 midfielders - Wilshere, Ramsey and Ozil, in a team built on midfield possession and build-up - Wenger was perfectly content to play for a draw away. All that control and possession we had in midfield was because they stayed back and gave it to us.

But in playing more midfielders, they'd not have had Giroud, Welbeck and Sanchez up front. Which we'd have preferred, being shit in defence and that. Not really much in the way of goals from Wilshire and Ozil.

 

But if we're playing the 'what if' game, then we could equally point to Balotelli and Sturridge being out, either of which would have been useful to us.

 

BTW, I thought Borini was quality when he came on, and showed great movement and attacking threat, getting shots off. I blame Rodgers for the red card, you can't go treating players like shit for months on end and then say "I need you to win a game for me". He's been wound up as tight as a coil for all this time and then he's expected to just pick up where he left off for Sunderland? It's obvious that Borini has class, but it's equally obvious that Rodgers has a fundamental problem with the lad and yesterday we saw that frustration boil over. Rodgers has managed him appallingly, and I hope he goes onto another club and hits 200 goals, which considering his age and his talent, he's more than capable of doing.

[Dr. J]

Arsenal were insipid - whether that was because of us or not I don't know, but they were certainly better in the second half when they were a little more direct and managed to negate some of the pressing.

 

I agree completely about Borini, this lad has been hard done by and deserved better. Rodgers has been petty throughout the whole thing whilst playing his favourites.

[johnsusername]

Thought we played well.

 

Niggly fouls - it was the same at man utd. How come other teams are free to break up our play with niggly fouls around the halfway line? The yellow cards usually come around 88 minutes when it's all too late.