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Awful game really, when are we going to start to play some exciting attacking football?

 

Lets start at the back.

 

People can moan as much as they want about the Konchesky signing, but personally I cant wait to see him in the team so we can sort out the current mess we are in.

 

Skrtel needs to get out of this team and that faster than the speed of a bullet, he is a liability and only a ref who did not make any decisions whatsoever helped us not concede at least one penalty today from his reckless defending, he does not cover his zone and he cant clear the ball with his head to save his life, the constant shirt pulling needs adressing as well and that fast.

 

Agger is not a left back in a million years so get him back central where he belongs to help steady the ship and get someone in there who is able to carry the ball forward and make a pass along the ground.

 

Getting Konchesky in will be a relevation for this team both of our attacking and defensive game.

 

Our central midfield today was just crap really, did Lucas or Poulsen get into the box once from open play? Poulsen gave away posession to easily and Lucas gave away silly free kicks as usual, but this was hopefully the last time we will see this combination and getting Meireles in there will hopefully help us get some drive and defence splitting passes from our CM, lacklustre is the best thing I can say about Lucas and Poulsen today.

 

Our lack of pace out wide is another major worry, the less said about Kuyt and Jovanovic the better it is.

We really need a player with the pace and skill to go past players out wide, we have not had one since we sold McManaman in 99, some might argue the case of Berger but the point still stands.

 

I guess we can only get better when our new signings are ready but I have to say Hodgsons lack of substitutions annoyed me massively in the second half.

 

I thought Olsson had a great game for WBA, but if we had brought on a player or two who actually could have challenged them out wide to open up their defence we might have been able to trouble them a bit more giving Torres and Gerrard a bit more space in the middle to do their thing.

 

Hodgson went for the strategy of not changing things hoping we would hang in there even if we gave away space all over the place in our back four and in the space beween defense and midfield.

 

Personally I would have liked to see him try to change things through attacking WBA a bit more, especially in the wide areas and as I said to my friend early in the second half I would bring on Maxi, Babel and Pacheco for Jovanovic, Kuyt and Lucas to give WBA something completely different to deal with and a few players that actually could help us take advantage of the fact WBA did not come to Anfield just to defend.

 

I understand this might be easier said than done especially when you sit on the bench, but it also confirms a lot of the doubts both myself and a few of the Norwegian experts who all have worked under Hodgson earlier have expressed about his ability to change his tactics and set up to this new environment where we should just go out and hammer some of the teams we are up against, will he want to take these chances or will he play it safe more often than not through his conservative views of the game.

 

Its some time until the next game now and hopefully we will see a different team by then because what we have delievered so far will get us nowhere.

 

Code renewing some faith in the power of reason. Bonus points for mentioning Macca without spitting bile (I still love the man, first player to get me truly excited about the game).

 

I do genuinely disagree about Jovo though, I think he has the potential to spark some really good counter-play, but he needs players breaking their necks to get up with him and offer an outlet and right now we don't have these players. Hopefully if they can build up an understanding him and Torres can get us some goals on the break.

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I cannot understand why our "wide" midfield players are being asked to play so central. They are clearly being told to play an "inside" right/left midfield postion, but surely if doing this then we should be able to win and retain the ball in midfield far better than what we have seen so far this season? So far its not working.

 

At City I thought perhaps Kuyt's head was turned by the interest from Inter and that he was forgetting he should be looking to be an option on the far right. Perhaps that was not the case as again he refused to play out wide today and the same with Jovanovic. When Maxi came on he again played inside right so it is obviously a tactic drilled into the team from Roy. I dont think this is going to work?

 

Yeah this is definitely deliberate, after Kuyt was caught on the ball for the first goal in the Europa Hodgson made a point of forgiving him because at least he was in the (inside)-right :) position.

 

It makes me laugh with everyone dreaming about all these chalk on the boot wingers when its clear he's not interested in that.

 

Normally you would expect to see the full backs press on to provide the width, but width wise all we've seen so far is the central strikers starting out wide (and sometimes staying there).

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The team lacks confidence?? oh funny how Purslow told everyone on 5 live that there mood in the camp was much better now that Roy had come in. Well where is this new found good mood? because it certainly reflected in the play I have seen so far it has been utterly abysmal.

 

Funny how the Rafa knockers "oh but compared to last season today was better", RAFA is fucking gone and it is Roy's team and i have seen no bounce in style, no change in formation or tactics for the better if anything it has got worse.

 

Purslow, Carragher and Gerrard were the three self-appointed spokesmen who talked a lot to the press about "the new buzz" around the squad, the "smiling faces", the "relaxed atmosphere at Melwood" and the fact that players now seemed "happy to train". It may not have been a coordinated press campaign but those three happen to have been the most active in trying to undermine Rafa. They probably thought it was in their interest to prove that their shoddy campaign had been right.

 

What a contrast with the actual dire performances of the team, the departures of players and Carragher's snarling at Kuyt, so early in the season, as well as Gerrard's usual uncertain form and sulks on the field.

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Our first few games under Roy has been as bad playwise as anything under both Ged and Rafa. Must admit that I'm sceptical to this being corrected, as the way we play now is similar to all the Hodgson teams I've watched. It's all about being compact and defensively structured. I'll support Roy (as I have other Liverpool managers), but the decision to replace Rafa with him still baffles me.

 

On a side note, man marking at defensive set pieces won't work very well for us if our players keep holding the opposition players as much as they did today. WBA could have had 4 or 5 penalties from Skrtel and Carra alone (and probably would have if it had been Riley/Webb/Bennett and we had played away from home).

 

Behave yourself, 4 or 5 fucking pens!? The blind twat of a ref (and linee on the centenary side) didnt see the deliberate handball on Torres' shot in the second half.

 

Benitez's time was up. We had a game on thursday night. west brom didnt. Look at spurs, won 4 -0 midweek and still lost at sunderland. If your opponents dont play midweek and you do, its a great leveller.

 

Today's performance was great. Poulsen had a very good game today. Im struggling to think of anyone better than him in that game.

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Behave yourself, 4 or 5 fucking pens!? The blind twat of a ref (and linee on the centenary side) didnt see the deliberate handball on Torres' shot in the second half.

 

Benitez's time was up. We had a game on thursday night. west brom didnt. Look at spurs, won 4 -0 midweek and still lost at sunderland. If your opponents dont play midweek and you do, its a great leveller.

 

Today's performance was great. Poulsen had a very good game today. Im struggling to think of anyone better than him in that game.

 

The bit in bold show me that there really is no ground for discussion as we obviously didn't watch the same game, but for arguments sake.... The cameras highlighted at least 4 episodes of blatant shirtpulling and grabbing around the chest. Not the snidey type of tricks that Vidic and a few other CBs get away with all year either, Skrtel (in particular) and Carra held on far too long (and obvious). The referee hardly blew his whistle all afternoon, and I seriously doubt he'll ref in the top division next week! The English commentators were shocked that no pen was given, and they didn't sound particularly hostile towards us on the whole. Our penalty should of course have been given as well, but they could have had 3 by then. Carra almost pulled the shirt off Tchoy on one of their corners after that.

 

Edit. Wasn't really arguing for Rafa, just pointing out what a waste this appointment will prove, especially to those that were concerned with our playing style. Results can't get much worse than last year, I'll agree with that, but I think it's safe to say this season will be another borefest in terms of style of play. Sorry about the pessimism, let's hope Spurs and City will get too distracted with their European adventures

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The bit in bold show me that there really is no ground for discussion as we obviously didn't watch the same game, but for arguments sake.... The cameras highlighted at least 4 episodes of blatant shirtpulling and grabbing around the chest. Not the snidey type of tricks that Vidic and a few other CBs get away with all year either, Skrtel (in particular) and Carra held on far too long (and obvious). The referee hardly blew his whistle all afternoon, and I seriously doubt he'll ref in the top division next week! The English commentators were shocked that no pen was given, and they didn't sound particularly hostile towards us on the whole. Our penalty should of course have been given as well, but they could have had 3 by then. Carra almost pulled the shirt off Tchoy on one of their corners after that.

 

Edit. Wasn't really arguing for Rafa, just pointing out what a waste this appointment will prove, especially to those that were concerned with our playing style. Results can't get much worse than last year, I'll agree with that, but I think it's safe to say this season will be another borefest in terms of style of play. Sorry about the pessimism, let's hope Spurs and City will get too distracted with their European adventures

 

If WBA should have had 3 pens then there'd probably be at least 3 pens given in every match. That kind of shirt pulling and wrestling goes on all the time.

 

Anyone else thing Tchoiy looked a bit like Reginald D Hunter?

 

"To conquer Fritzel you must become Fritzel"

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The bit in bold show me that there really is no ground for discussion as we obviously didn't watch the same game, but for arguments sake.... The cameras highlighted at least 4 episodes of blatant shirtpulling and grabbing around the chest. Not the snidey type of tricks that Vidic and a few other CBs get away with all year either, Skrtel (in particular) and Carra held on far too long (and obvious). The referee hardly blew his whistle all afternoon, and I seriously doubt he'll ref in the top division next week! The English commentators were shocked that no pen was given, and they didn't sound particularly hostile towards us on the whole. Our penalty should of course have been given as well, but they could have had 3 by then. Carra almost pulled the shirt off Tchoy on one of their corners after that.

 

Edit. Wasn't really arguing for Rafa, just pointing out what a waste this appointment will prove, especially to those that were concerned with our playing style. Results can't get much worse than last year, I'll agree with that, but I think it's safe to say this season will be another borefest in terms of style of play. Sorry about the pessimism, let's hope Spurs and City will get too distracted with their European adventures

 

I know what you mean about the shirt-pulling but I think the ref made it pretty clear early on that he was going to allow a lot of contact and the defenders tailored their game to it. If he'd stamped on it early on I don't think they would have looked to take advantage.

 

I loved it, Carragher was giving Fortune a good old bashing.

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1 West Brom played us off the pitch

2 Without Torres we would not have won the game

3 You wouldnt think it would be possible to have a more negative CM pairing of Lucas and Mascherano. However Roy didnt want to be undone by Rafa and has found it.

4 What was the fucking point in playing Stevie G CM all pre season only to move him back to one of his best positions now so we play Poulsen,

 

Its only going to get worse

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The team selection was a joke.

 

How does he justify 2 up front away at City and then revert to that shit today?

 

Roy must know he's not here long-term so I wish he'd just go for it and let the players express themselves.

 

Well he changed the tactics, lost, and got pilloried for it. He goes back to most fans' preferred formation today, and gets pilloried. What the fuck is he supposed to do?

 

The formation today was shite, even more shite against rubbish like that, but that's what the public want. They want to be served up shite every week. Not his fault the formation is embedded in the playing squad and being told that this is the way to go, it's a legacy of what he was left with 2 months ago. I argued weeks ago that we didn't need 2 DM's for this game and got told off. So we did, and everyone fell asleep.

 

4-4-2 would probably have run riot against that today, but alas we're stuck with what we have. And while we have it, we might sneak 3 points, but don't expect open-end, edge-of-the-seat football.

 

All things considered, we've played 2 games this week and won them, so Roy himself hasn't done that bad.

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four points from a possible nine, in the first three games of the season. It could be worse, but we've started in our usual average manner. I'm about to sit down and watch the first two games of the season, now that they've arrived on dvd. i wont get to see the west brom game until next week, but i don't get the feeling it was an exciting pulsating game.

 

what was hodgson's deal - was it two years? that would explain why he's buying late career players for 17 million; he'll be gone short term and the next manager can lead the player to the knackers yard.

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Piss poor game to watch. Thought we were pretty lucky myself, (then again, I spend around half of every season in wonderment at just how fucking lucky the mancs are so hey ho).

 

Not getting carried away just yet though. Give the midfield of Poulsen, Meireles, Gerrard, Cole or Pacheco a good few games to bed in and see what we're like then.

 

The wingers and the lack of genuine width to stretch teams is a definite cause for concern without a doubt.

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Well he changed the tactics, lost, and got pilloried for it. He goes back to most fans' preferred formation today, and gets pilloried. What the fuck is he supposed to do?

 

The formation today was shite, even more shite against rubbish like that, but that's what the public want. They want to be served up shite every week. Not his fault the formation is embedded in the playing squad and being told that this is the way to go, it's a legacy of what he was left with 2 months ago. I argued weeks ago that we didn't need 2 DM's for this game and got told off. So we did, and everyone fell asleep.

 

4-4-2 would probably have run riot against that today, but alas we're stuck with what we have. And while we have it, we might sneak 3 points, but don't expect open-end, edge-of-the-seat football.

 

All things considered, we've played 2 games this week and won them, so Roy himself hasn't done that bad.

 

Playing Kuyt with Torres up top isn't the same as Ngog and Torres up top. The point is he should have done that in both games.

 

He's criminally underusing Maxi; and Babel must have done something to piss him off.

 

At the end of the day, all our 'wide' players have faults, but that doesn't mean it's okay reverting to Poulsen AND Lucas at home to a relegation-threatened team.

 

Fuck anyone who tries to justify it.

 

For an experienced manager to choose those particular formations in two contrasting games is amateur to say the least. He simply got them the wrong way round.

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Right now I would much rather see Babel and Maxi in the team than Jovanovic and Kuyt. Our problems are plain for everyone to see, it's now up to Roy to address them. I have a horrible feeling that he's not going to bring in any wide players though, and we're going to be stuck watching this horrible, narrow football all season (or at least until January).

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1 West Brom played us off the pitch

2 Without Torres we would not have won the game

3 You wouldnt think it would be possible to have a more negative CM pairing of Lucas and Mascherano. However Roy didnt want to be undone by Rafa and has found it.

4 What was the fucking point in playing Stevie G CM all pre season only to move him back to one of his best positions now so we play Poulsen,

 

Its only going to get worse

 

Patience man. We're not even full strength yet.

 

nate-berkus-bedding.jpg

the-three-horsehoes-inn-radnage-nr-high-wycombe_030320091457403380.jpg

period_shelves_81809_m.jpg

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If WBA should have had 3 pens then there'd probably be at least 3 pens given in every match. That kind of shirt pulling and wrestling goes on all the time.

 

Anyone else thing Tchoiy looked a bit like Reginald D Hunter?

 

"To conquer Fritzel you must become Fritzel"

 

It should, until it stops....

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Patience man. We're not even full strength yet.

 

nate-berkus-bedding.jpg

the-three-horsehoes-inn-radnage-nr-high-wycombe_030320091457403380.jpg

period_shelves_81809_m.jpg

 

The one bonus this weekend was Man City and Spurs both losing means were on the same points, a big plus as we need to keep these two in our sites until January when hopefully we will have new owners, new players and a new manager

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Well he changed the tactics, lost, and got pilloried for it. He goes back to most fans' preferred formation today, and gets pilloried. What the fuck is he supposed to do?

 

The formation today was shite, even more shite against rubbish like that, but that's what the public want. They want to be served up shite every week. Not his fault the formation is embedded in the playing squad and being told that this is the way to go, it's a legacy of what he was left with 2 months ago. I argued weeks ago that we didn't need 2 DM's for this game and got told off. So we did, and everyone fell asleep.

 

4-4-2 would probably have run riot against that today, but alas we're stuck with what we have. And while we have it, we might sneak 3 points, but don't expect open-end, edge-of-the-seat football.

 

All things considered, we've played 2 games this week and won them, so Roy himself hasn't done that bad.

 

I think you can blame Rafa for a lot of things. But sticking Hodgson's choice of formation on the previous manager is a bit rich!

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He had Maxi & Riera actually, it was him that decided to sell Riera and play Kuyt instead of Maxi.

 

 

Maxi is as much a winger that kuyt is, Riera had to go. He's been left a squad that has very little variation in it. Hopefully his wheeling and dealing with Masch/Meireles will add some.

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