Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Liverpool 1 (Jan 7 2019)

[lebron]

I think most of the players yesterday would be fine if they came into our normal set-up, it's just that whenever they are playing they are thrown together as a completely new unit. There's no rhytm as Klopp would say.

 

I'd actually trust both Moreno and Keita to do a good job with Mane as their nearest front player. When Sturridge is your go-to passing option though, you tend to look worse than you really are.

 

I know it's the wrong opinion to hold on here, but Moreno actually did ok yesterday, and I have no qualms with him being Robbo's back-up, and when playing at Anfield against some of the lesser sides. He's fast, aggressive and whenever someone get past him he usually makes the ground up for it. People blaming him for the pass to Milner are the same complaining about Sakho's to Gerrard... 

 

Speaking of Milner, I'm comfortable with him not playing too much in the run-in. He looks shattered.

 

[Mark M]

Negged for the trusting Moreno comment. 

he’s had good players around him and has still given goals away for fun.

Just like

the scarecrow in the wizard of Oz he doesn’t have a brain. 

[Mikhail]

11 hours ago, Captain Howdy said:

 

Honestly just can’t wrap my head around this

Absolutely no one in this thread is unhappy that we lost because it means we can put all of our concentration on the league the cup that we actually want to win... The only complaint I see in this thread was with the performance which I can also agree with.

 

Fuck the FA Cup and if we lost in the third round of the FA Cup as well as our first game of the League Cup every year it would be no skin of my back.

 

The only people I felt sorry for last night was the fans who travelled to go watch that match. 

[Stickman]

19 hours ago, dave u said:

Saw something on LFC TV the other day showing Sturridge when he first came here. Watching some of goals, it was like a completely different player to what we see now. He was never a sprinter, but he was quick. You look at him now and physically he looks different when he moves.

 

It's not even just that he's slow, he actually moves differently. Injuries have destroyed him, either physically or mentally (he either can't sprint anymore or doesn't trust his body to even attempt to). 

 

 

Guess it's similar to Michael Owen in that you have that many niggling injuries that basically you're shit scared that if you put any sort of effort running it's going to go again...

But that asks the question then surely the manager and backroom staff can see this so why play him or worse why keep him

 

 

[Spy Bee]

Shit, I just read Dave's comment I was going to post that exact clip!

[bigal]

That pass from Moreno to Milner put him under pressure for the first Wolves goal, yes Milner screwed up but that pass was awful. 

Sturridge, Moreno but the other more experienced pros (Fab apart) should be utterly ashamed. Are they though?

[Dr Nowt]

If nothing else it hopefully puts to bed any “give him a new contract” talk.

 

Get the max possible out of him given clearly nobody was gonna buy him, but make realistic plans for next season and beyond.

 

His physical frailties have been holding us back for too long, however much of a shame it is given his quality.

[lebron]

20 hours ago, bigal said:

That pass from Moreno to Milner put him under pressure for the first Wolves goal, yes Milner screwed up but that pass was awful. 

Sturridge, Moreno but the other more experienced pros (Fab apart) should be utterly ashamed. Are they though?

If the pass was so awful why didn't Milner just boot it out of play then? I'll tell you why. Any midfielder worth their salt would expect to control the ball and make a pass out of it, or at the very least shield it and suck up the pressure applied to them. Milner just made a meal out of it, just like Gerrard did out of Sakho's. If we're going to play an expansive passing game, our midfielders must be able to do these kind of actions under pressure, and especially the defensive midfielders (or 6's if you will), it's actually the the minimum requirement. Milner not being especially good at it is also one of the reasons why I put a decent sum of money on him being booked once I saw where he was going to play. For all his other remarkable qualities, he's not technically skilled enough to do this routinely, neither does he have the pace to recover once making mistakes. He's smart enough to make the cynical fouls needed in a situation like that (much like Lucas was), unfortunately he had already (needlessly) made one of those earlier in the game.

 

Xabi was comfortable with men pressuring him (for his lack of pace he nearly never lost the ball in those situations, and Fabinho seems to be able to do much of the same), and would be hacked down getting a freekick if he wasn't making a pass out of it. I think Gini is by far the best of our current squad, as he's much more comfortable with the tempo than Fabinho (so far). Fabinho's passing range seems a bit better, so I expect him to perform as well as Gini once accustomed to the tempo. I don't want to see Milner there again though, preferably not Henderson either. They just aren't technically good enough, and while Henderson undoubtedly has the legs for it, he lacks the bravery and awareness.

 

PS! I went back to check on the pass to see if I could have misjudged it, but I have to say that has to be one of the poorest sequences of play I've seen any Liverpool midfielder complete for the last few years. Someone like Lucas would probably have received death threats over that. Milner actually Cruyff turns the ball into the path of Jimenez. The less said about his attempts to recover the better. Truth be told, Fabinho doesn't really do a good job either, neither does Mignolet. Moreno is blameless my view. People will scapegoat though, no doubt about that.

[bigal]

Wasn't trying to minimise Milner's role at all. It was a shit pass to a man with 2 players surrounding him, a pass to just get rid of the ball. You're right Milner should have just booted it out in that situation and bollocked Moreno. The rest is on him. Just a terrible sequence of play. 

[lebron]

I get that. I just don't think it's a bad pass at all, neither did Milner, otherwise he WOULD have booted the ball out of play. If you are playing cm for a top club you should be able to control it with one foot, play it with the other. If Gini was the recipient of it it would be a bogstandard pass. He would either take it away from Jimenez or make Jimenez make contact with him and shield it from him like he does a dozen times a game. Milner fucked it up, Fabinho's rash tackling attempt compounded his error. If we can't play that type of pass in midfield we won't evolve. We'll probably have to agree to disagree here...