Wigan Away - Match Thread

[Sandman]

Hopefully he'll walk at the end of the season with some dignity left.

 

Dignity will be in short supply this summer mate. It's going to be a very messy offseason.

[bigal]

Pass and move, anyone remember when we used to do that? Didn't it work?

[RyanLFC]

Complete and utter, fucking shite. That was the worst I've seen us play all season, and that's saying something. The amount of times we gave the fucking ball away was unbearably frustrating, 50 quid I spent all in all to watch that shite last night, fifty fucking quid. Half of the players have serious attitude problems, Gerrard being one of them at the moment. I realise that he is the least of our problems at the moment, but where the fuck was his fight and passion that he has shown in recent seasons? fucking knowhere. That is all.

[piscinin]

Complete and utter, fucking shite. That was the worst I've seen us play all season, and that's saying something. The amount of times we gave the fucking ball away was unbearably frustrating, 50 quid I spent all in all to watch that shite last night, fifty fucking quid. Half of the players have serious attitude problems, Gerrard being one of them at the moment. I realise that he is the least of our problems at the moment, but where the fuck was his fight and passion that he has shown in recent seasons? fucking knowhere. That is all.

 

Gerrard is the most of our problems, not because he's been the worst, but because we rely on him the most. Yeah, it's not fair, but it is what it is.

[Delmar]

Gerrard is the most of our problems, not because he's been the worst, but because we rely on him the most. Yeah, it's not fair, but it is what it is.

 

Yes, he was not the worst player on the pitch yesterday, Kuyt was worse. But it's really not about Gerrard now, the attitude of the whole team was bad, even Lucas was yelling at people.

 

I'd drop all of them apart from Torres and Reina, and play reserves with these two for the rest of the season. Then in the summer sell the whole bunch, get rid of the manager, and start another 5 year project. This one is at its end.

[rebel23]

How can you fucking blame Stevie?

 

Granted he was woeful tonight but he's pulled Rafa's arse out of the fire more times than anyone else.

 

Ultimately he's just as fucking fed up as we are.

 

Stevie has had a truly awful, awful season. He is supposed to be a top player, he's on the biggest contract at the club (paid 10x more than a young player like Insua) and should not be exempt from criticism. After the displays at Wolves, Arsenal, Wigan etc. either his heart is not in it or he's in serious decline

[gkmacca]

I thought Gerrard had matured a bit as a captain in the last couple of years, but last night we saw him regress to the sneering, sniping diva he used to be. I gather he's great off the field, but on it he falls far short of what a good captain should be in a crisis. Emlyn Hughes, for example, was brilliant at getting teammates to fight back into form; Steven just scowled at players last night - all while over-hitting passes and then complaining when they're miscontrolled (another nasty old habit that has returned). He probably cares too much but that just isn't an excuse for an attitude like last night's.

[jackofdk]

Yes, he was not the worst player on the pitch yesterday, Kuyt was worse. But it's really not about Gerrard now, the attitude of the whole team was bad, even Lucas was yelling at people.

 

I saw Lucas yelling "Come on" and clapping at his team mates at some point in the first half. A positive thing, if you ask me.

[The 5th Benitel]

This is the first entire season when we've been without a top form Gerrard and we can all see the results. We know we wouldn't have won a single trophy under Rafa without him but we're now seeing what a Rafa team looks like when he's under-achieving for 30+ games.

[Delmar]

I saw Lucas yelling "Come on" and clapping at his team mates at some point in the first half. A positive thing, if you ask me.

 

He's usually extremely positive, buy yesterday he was doing the "Gerrard" with flapping with his arms, yelling at Kyrgiakos, and being clearly frustrated as hell, as there was nowhere to pass 90% of the time.

 

But they were all collectively just bad. There was no team, there was nothing. As empty as it gets. And Gerrard is an attacker these days, from the wing or in the hole. This season has proved at least that much. Not that it makes a whole lot of difference.

[piscinin]

Yes, he was not the worst player on the pitch yesterday, Kuyt was worse. But it's really not about Gerrard now, the attitude of the whole team was bad, even Lucas was yelling at people.

 

I'd drop all of them apart from Torres and Reina, and play reserves with these two for the rest of the season. Then in the summer sell the whole bunch, get rid of the manager, and start another 5 year project. This one is at its end.

 

I'm not sure I'd go quite as far as that, but I think we had the it's time to stop tweaking conversation a couple of months ago and that hasn't changed.

[Paco]

Did I hear the 15 wigan fans last night sing "same old Lucas - fucking useless"

[Wor Horse]

Lucas outshone Gerrard last night.

[Paco]

Lucas outshone Gerrard last night.

 

Aquilani outshone Gerrard last night

[Faustus]

I can only hope for new owners and a new manager in the summer. I think the whole set-up needs to be ripped apart so we can at least start from scratch.

 

Never mind fighting for fourth place, we're in a scrap to even qualify for the UEFA this season.

[Guest PurpleNose]

Aquilani outshone Gerrard last night

 

A total eclipse would have outshone Gerrard last night.

[Ted]

Lucas outshone fucking no-one; he was as bad as the rest of them.

[Faustus]

Aquilani was the only one who can come out of last night with any credit at all. Mascherano and Kyrgiakos were ok. The rest of them can all get to fuck.

[Christian]

Aquilani was the only one who can come out of last night with any credit at all. Mascherano and Kyrgiakos were ok. The rest of them can all get to fuck.

 

Pepe was blameless so shouldn't be included.

The ONLY glimmer of light was a sharper looking Aquilani.

[Hermes]

I have been sitting here for ages trying to think of something positive to say but I just can''t think of anytihng at all.

 

"At least he's one step nearer to the exit"?

[The Chef]

Pepe was blameless so shouldn't be included.

The ONLY glimmer of light was a sharper looking Aquilani.

 

Agreed.....

 

 

I have always wondered whats it would be like to support a shite football team ......and now i know.

[TedCrilly]

The sad thing about last night was that you couldn't even call it a new low. Its been a season of shocker after shocker. The players seem at odds and there is litle or no confidence in that side. Theres a rot beginning to set in and if its not dealt with come season end it will only get worse. Unless we are happy to become a permanent fixture in the Europa league it looks like a change of manager is needed come summertime.

[Delmar]

It's been going through my mind all day this, What on earth was Dirk doing on the left side about 10 yards from insua when he gave the ball away?

 

He was playing as the 2nd forward at that stage, and for whatever reason saw it as his duty to track back beyond Gerrard, probably as Gerrard could not be bothered to move too much on many occasions.

 

That particular incident, I do not know, though. Horrible decision making, regardless.

 

As far as corners go, the team is clearly following the instructions way too rigidly. At times players have to do what they have to do, and take the crap from the manager afterwards. If the manager does not see it, the players should.

[Kevin D]

From the anti-Rafa poster boy:

 

"The Monday Night Football curse strikes again. A wretched, gutless, clueless half arsed display that deservedly ended with us coming away with nothing, and Wigan recording their first ever victory over the reds. Whatsmore, the scoreline actually flattered us. Wigan were at least two goals better than us. At least. Had they shown a bit more composure in front of goal the score would have reflected that. We managed the sum total of zero shots on target in approximately 96 minutes of football. We’ve been served up some real dogshit sandwiches this season, but this topped the lot.

 

At least Rafa didn’t try and sugarcoat it this time. His post match interview was refreshingly honest for a change. He admitted we were second best, didn’t show the right character and that if we play like that again he can’t guarantee we will beat bottom club Portsmouth in a week’s time. Usually his after match comments make me feel worse, at least they didn’t this time. Mind you, this was so bad that I don’t think anything he said could possibly have made me feel worse. It was a car crash of a performance, and for me it was the lowest point in a season of many low points.

 

My worry before the game was that we’d play into their hands by being negative and letting them play to their strengths. That’s exactly what happened, although I’m not entirely convinced that our lack of attacking threat was due to tactical restraints and not just the absolute wretchedness of individual players on the night. Could we have thrown more men forward when we attacked? Absolutely, but given how often we were giving the ball away it probably wouldn’t have made much difference. Rarely have I seen a Liverpool side squander possession so cheaply and so often.

 

It actually started relatively well. Torres hit the post after Wigan made a mess of clearing a corner, and at that point there was little to be alarmed about. After about 15 or 20 minutes though, Wigan completely took over the game and grew in confidence. As I’d written in the match preview, they have some good attacking players, especially N’Zogbia, and they started to show it. They played well at Anfield a few months back, and were a little unfortunate to lose. Despite their terrible run of late, their players seemed to be performing with a freedom and confidence in possession that we can only dream of.

 

How is it that teams like Wigan and Everton can produce such attractive football, full of passing and movement and inventive play, yet we can’t? These teams are proof that it’s not all about money. Look how much our subs bench cost in this game, and then try and argue that ‘Rafa hasn’t had the money’.

 

I watched how Wigan played, and it was refrshing and depressing at the same time. They played with a purpose, and with pace. They passed the ball well, they moved off it, their attacking players were direct and committed defenders, and their midfielders chased, harried and won every loose ball. It didn’t even matter that they are diabolical at the back, because we’re so shit going forward that we barely managed to test them at all. I watched the football they were playing, and I was envious. Yes, I was envious of the football played by Wigan. “Why can’t we do that?” I kept muttering to myself.

 

N’Zogbia absolutely humiliated Insua all evening. He was walking past him at times. It was embarrassing. I don’t want to single the young Argentine out though, as he was no worse than several others. The hungry young McCarthy and Diame (really impressed by him in both games against us this season, a future Arsenal player there I reckon) bossed the middle of the park and completely outplayed Gerrard and Lucas, Figueroa looks like a miles better left back than we have had in years and even Emerson fucking Boyce looked good playing out of position at right back! They were just better than us all over the pitch, and that’s damning.

 

Only Mascherano and Kyrgiakos performed to an acceptable level, and some players, such as Kuyt, Lucas and Gerrard were fucking dreadful. Torres got into one of his sulky moods and started taking it out on the officials, and it was just an all round terrible, terrible team performance. We can’t even blame injuries now either. We’ve got our injured players back, so can we all just accept that it’s not injuries that have ruined our season, it’s just that we are fucking rubbish? The only surprising thing is that we are still within any kind of touching distance of a top four place, so bad have we been for 90% of this season.

 

By the end of this debacle we were reduced to sending Kyrgiakos up front and launching balls at him. To think we used to laugh at Mourinho for doing that with Huth."

[PaulMcC]

Gerrard was a joke last night.

 

He thinks working hard is beneath him now, even when playing in a midfield 2. He didn't put 1 tacklle all game from what i can remember.

 

He was the same at Reading in the cup.