TLW picks the team v Chelsea League Cup Semi Final 2nd leg

[stringvest]

Well that was great. I shall avoid Rodgers pronouncements like the plague today. We had chances, but so did they. The lack of people who know how to score, and have the bottle to do so, still kills us.

 

Gerrard put in a great performance yesterday all over the pitch. Lucas had a great first half, and a terrible second half. Sakho, as was entirely predictable after me telling everyone what a great passer he is, plays a few passes so bad I could smell them in the Matthew Harding. Skrtel was excellent, and even Mignolet had a good game. Sterling, not so good. Coutinho looked pretty but not to any great effect, and the rest of them were average.

 

Onwards and upwards.

[JermainePennant]

Tremendous performance, fuck off with that shite. Beaten and never looked like scoring. That's not good enough and never will be.

Coutinho was one on one, Hendo missed a sitter, Sterling could have laid it on plate for Gerard, they are just a few I can remember from last nights game and there were probably more I'm forgetting.

 

The first leg was all ours aswell, Man City have not produced one performance like we did in two seasons against them and no one has troubled them like that all season.

 

It's hard to take Rodgers doubters like you serious when you can't give credit when due, youve made your mind up and nothing's changing it.

[stringvest]

Barring tonights disappointment, Philippe Coutinho is an absolutely spectacular player, I could watch him dribble and football for days on end, he makes fools of top players like matic, terry and fabregas for fun.

Yes, but where's the end product? I love watching him dribble as well, but I'll not see him as a great player until he turns it into something tangible.

 

[stringvest]

Coutinho was one on one, Hendo missed a sitter, Sterling could have laid it on plate for Gerard, they are just a few I can remember from last nights game and there were probably more I'm forgetting.

 

The first leg was all ours aswell, Man City have not produced one performance like we did in two seasons against them and no one has troubled them like that all season.

 

It's hard to take Rodgers doubters like you serious when you can't give credit when due, youve made your mind up and nothing's changing it.

There's no credit due for not being able to put very presentable chances away JP. You have to ask yourself why that is.

 

[diamondjoe]

I dreamt last night that Jeremy Clarkson equalised for us last night in front of the Kop with a peach of a header then went and sat down on the bench with this bemused look on his face.

Weird.

[JermainePennant]

There's no credit due for not being able to put very presentable chances away JP. You have to ask yourself why that is.

 

I was responding to a comment that we never looked scoring against chelsea which clearly was not true.

 

There should be credit for creating very presentable chances against a side like Chelsea, that shows you the manager is doing something right tactically.Play like that most times and we will win especially playing teams not as strong as chelsea, also having a lethal finisher like sturridge in the team could have made that a comfortable win for us over two legs.

[magicrat]

A tremendous performance, and more evidence that Brendan has not only dragged us away from the precipice of the Palace defeat, but given us hope that we can do something this season.

 

I don't subscribe to the criticism of Chelsea's tactics. Winning semi finals against good sides can be a tough business and in the 80's we were more than capable of dishing it out to get to a final, or win it. And that is Brendan's next challenge, to prove that he, and the team, are winners.

Rodgers failed to maximise our chances with his substitutions and whilst its quite possible we would have still lost I think he deserves strong criticism for his decision to bring on Balotelli and not Lallana. On the balance of probabilities which of those players was more likely to have an impact ?, As it happens Balotelli did have an impact. He costs us the goal

I never get your knee jerk support for Rodgers. Praise him when he deserves it fair enough but he could have done things much better last night.

[magicrat]

Two accidental stamps according Mourinho .

I would like to accidently stamp on his head for his failure to condemn blatant foul play by his hired thug. Despicable cunt is a shit-stain on the game

[KMD7]

Rodgers failed to maximise our chances with his substitutions and whilst its quite possible we would have still lost I think he deserves strong criticism for his decision to bring on Balotelli and not Lallana. On the balance of probabilities which of those players was more likely to have an impact ?, As it happens Balotelli did have an impact. He costs us the goal

I never get your knee jerk support for Rodgers. Praise him when he deserves it fair enough but he could have done things much better last night.

 

In fairness mate I don't think that line is fair.  I don't agree with a lot of Xerxes opinions on things but he's not a Rogers fanboy

[KMD7]

Two accidental stamps according Mourinho .

I would like to accidently stamp on his head for his failure to condemn blatant foul play by his hired thug. Despicable cunt is a shit-stain on the game

 

Cunt of a human being

[Lario]

Hazard is a fucking little diving rat as well. At one stage in extra time someone made a perfect tackle on him but he still did his best Tom Daley. Little ISIS lookalike cunt.

 

Think it was near the end of extra time. Johnson bumped into the back of him, Hazard hit the deck like a sack of spuds, and you could hear him screaming over the commentary! Johnson was standing over him, thinking "what the actual fuck??".

[stringvest]

I was responding to a comment that we never looked scoring against chelsea which clearly was not true.

 

There should be credit for creating very presentable chances against a side like Chelsea, that shows you the manager is doing something right tactically.Play like that most times and we will win especially playing teams not as strong as chelsea, also having a lethal finisher like sturridge in the team could have made that a comfortable win for us over two legs.

 

Having even an average finisher in the team would have done that, but for reasons known to Rodgers, we don't have one.  No credit for getting beat JP.  That's loser talk. 

[an tha]

A tremendous performance, and more evidence that Brendan has not only dragged us away from the precipice of the Palace defeat, but given us hope that we can do something this season.

 

I don't subscribe to the criticism of Chelsea's tactics. Winning semi finals against good sides can be a tough business and in the 80's we were more than capable of dishing it out to get to a final, or win it. And that is Brendan's next challenge, to prove that he, and the team, are winners.

 

I can see the point you are making here and yes we are looking a better team of late, with an idea and an identity again after the aimless, gutless shite we were serving up week in week out for a while.

 

I also agree that criticising Chelsea's tactics isn't exactly right as history has shown that teams with a big streak of cuntishness are very often winning teams - we had it in spades when we were on top.

 

The last part is the bit I have a "problem" with and can't see happening - this team is not a team of winners, in fact the more time goes on the more I believe we are mentally and physically too weak to be winners. We need some horrible gets, we need more "men" rather than the boys we have.

 

We are about to lose our only really battle hardened proven winner in Gerrard.

 

We play some nice stuff, we have some nice footballers, we work hard, but we lack that edge, we aren't nasty enough, clever enough, snide enough and we aren't clinical enough.

 

I also think we are mentally fragile.

 

Until we toughen up, until we inject some nastiness into the side and the way we play we will continue to get done by the likes of Chelsea, who whilst we take the plaudits and the pats on the head for playing "nice" stuff, and "congratulate" ourselves for playing well and creating and frigging wasting loads of chances are off to Wembley, are in the hunt for the big prizes and are getting the job done.

[magicrat]

In fairness mate I don't think that line is fair.  I don't agree with a lot of Xerxes opinions on things but he's not a Rogers fanboy

Fair do's . I really don't read all Xerxes posts so maybe I was being unfairly selective. I'm sure he will forgive me in time !   

Rogers splits opinion.  Personally speaking I like the bloke but I'm not convinced he is good enough, he just doesn't make the best of what he has for me and so slow to change when things go wrong. Last night I was livid he brought Balotelli on. He had said the lad wasn't good enough a week earlier so wtf is he doing coming on at a crucial stage of a semi final against Chelsea. It's such long odds he is going to turn the game for us based on everything we have seen from him. The smart play was to introduce Lallana on the basis that a classy midfielder is more likely to create a goal than a fuckwit striker. In fact all three subs last night made us worse although to be fair we were done anyway by the time Lambert lumbered into the fray.

[Kevin D]

Yes, but where's the end product? I love watching him dribble as well, but I'll not see him as a great player until he turns it into something tangible.

I would have started Lallana over him last night. His shooting is terrible and because it's so bad, any decision he makes to shoot is invariably the wrong option. Lallana carries a bigger and more consistent goal threat.

[BCM]

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Diego Costa has been charged by The FA for violent conduct following an on-field incident which was not seen by the match officials but caught on video.

The charge is in relation to an incident involving the Chelsea forward and Liverpool’s Emre Can which occurred in the 12th minute of the League Cup semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge last night [Tuesday 27 January 2015].

The player has until 6pm on Thursday 29 January 2015 to respond to the charge.

Following a review of an incident during the game involving Costa and Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel, The FA will not be taking any further action.

Read more at http://www.thefa.com/news/governance/2015/jan/diego-costa-charged-violent-conduct-chelsea-liverpool-semi-final-second-leg#XVzABs4XJ7qEFhYO.99

 

Shit out of giving him a charge against Skrtel. Should be a 6 game ban.

 

If its 1 charge for violent conduct, a red card for violent conduct is a 3 game ban, so should be at least 3 games, wouldnt be surprised if its not though.