mike23

Johnson - definitely our 2nd best player this season after Suarez Agger Reina

Started really well and looked like we'd win comfortably early on. Then we just fell apart completely after Enrique went off and I couldn't see s getting anything from that game with 20 minutes left. Probably our worst display of the season and even nicking a point might have been a bit lucky so getting all 3 was taking the piss a bit but games like that have gone against us enough times in the last 18 months so it's about time we got one go our way. Plus their equaliser did come from an absolutely ridiculous penalty decision and maybe we'd have weathered the storm and never got into that position without that. We're just not going to ever get a penalty this season are we? You can't get any more clear cut than the one on Shelvey at the end. How you can give one for a player handling a ball that is blasted straight at him from a couple of yards away but not give that is beyond me. Just 4 points off a top 4 place and everyone other than the Manchester clubs and possibly Chelsea look like they're going to drop plenty of points this season. A good run in December and bringing in another desperately needed striker and we might still have a chance.

Really good first half. Second half less satisfying with some sloppy passing and awful decisions in the final third which made it a lot edgier than it needed to be. Don't remember Southampton really having a chance but at 1-0 and with the number of games like this we've dropped points in I always become a bag of nerves towards the end of games. The defence all played very well though. Is that Suarez suspended for one game now after his booking? It had to happen eventually I suppose. He's been on 4 bookings for ages. Surprised it took this long to be honest.

I didn't think it was posible to start a match as badly again as we did at White Hart lane last season but in the first 5 minutes we just seemed all over the place. Giving away possession in ridiculous circumstances and somehow creating problems from nothing. A freekick straight at Reina that he makes a complete mess of and almost leads to a goal. Us on the attack and then losing possession in their half and then just being caught wide open with no one exactly busting a gut to get back. We got away with it once only to do the exact same thing a few moments later. We seemed to settle down after that and had a couple of good chances. In fact good doesn't even begin to describe the one Henderson had. He simply should have scored. No excuses. Sums up what a complete waste of space he is. And a minute after that we're two nil down. I've read a few comments that it was never a freekick. I couldn't really tell as I had such a crap stream up at the time (thanks to whoever it was that posted a really good link for a stream earlier on in this thread that I watched the second half on). It wouldn't surprise me. The ref seemed to give a freekick every single time a Spurs player went down in the second half and as usual seemed to be applying different rules for our players. We at least showed some fight in the second half and should have rescued a point but we didn't and that's just the story of our season. There have been some good aspects to most of our performances but the results just haven't followed. Just 3 league wins and down in the bottom half of the table at this stage of the season isn't good enough and Rodgers should stop praising the players and moaning about hard luck stories. We've not beaten a single team of any note and if Suarez can't produce anything then no one else seems either capable or willing to even try.

You'd certainly never guess he was a Liverpool fan the way he talks about us at times. Happy to just dismiss another wrongly disallowed winning goal with the cliched nonsense about it all evening itself up over the course of the season. I'm really looking forward to us winning loads of games in the second half of the season with goals that shouldn't stand.

Johnson Agger Suarez Reina, Skrtel and Enrique did okay too. Midfield was a big disappointment.

Most of the games between the top sides have been end to end thrillers with loads of goals in the last couple of seasons but that was more like a top of the table clash from a few years back where neither side really wanted to go for it and they just cancelled each other out. Dull as fuck in other words. Alex Ferguson was probably made up with it. Early signs that Chelsea will probably be a lot more organised under Rafa but probably won't score as many goals. Whether that will have them challenging for the title remains to be seen. Can't say I really noticed much booing. Didn't really see anything other than a couple of mongs waving 'Rafa Out' flags whenever the ball went near one corner of the ground. I was only really sort of half watching the game though.

It wasn't great but I don't think we were anywhere near as bad as most people on here are making out. First half performance was actually pretty decent. Sterling was unlucky to hit the bar, we had a goal disallowed for a very marginal offside decision and Enrique and Johnson had decent chances. Second half was disappointing and sadly the players looked more afraid of losing the game than winning it. Still should have nicked it though with Sterling messing up an easy return pass to Suarez that would have seen him clean through on goal. Not many teams will win at Swansea and a draw there isn't the worst result in the word but with our lack of wins and current league position it doesn't really help us much. Positives - we looked more solid defensively and Reina had his best game in quite a while. Negatives - Downing looks no better at left back than he does anywhere else on the pitch. The sooner he's gone the better as there really doesn't look like there's any chance he's turning things around here. - Midfield was poor. Allen's form is starting to become worrying. Gave the ball away numerous times despite mainly playing simple passes and also gave away numerous freekicks in dangerous positions. Hope he's not going to be another signing who starts well and then just loses all form and confidence. Gerrard looks a mere shadow of his former self and we just seem to get odd glimpses of the player he used to be. I actually thought Henderson was better than both of them, although I'm not actually sure that's much of a compliment.

Should have just closed the game out in the last 10 minutes. Really couldn't understand why we allowed the game to be so open or so many players were pushing forward to try and get a third goal. Reina maybe should have saved the second goal and he was poor overall again tonight but a lot of players should have done better in the build up to that goal. Personally I'd have played our strongest possible side tonight to get the win and qualification sorted out and then we could have just taken a load of youngsters and fringe players to Udinese. Now we have to take a strong team which may have a negative impact on the following league games and I still wouldn't have much faith in us getting a result there.

We had some good times under Rafa and I'll always love him for those. It all went wrong under him at the end and obviously opinion on here on how much that was his fault and whether he should have been sacked or not differs a lot on here and I won't add any more to the debate as it's been done to death. But one thing I always found disappointing after he was sacked was how poor his reputation amongst football fans in general in this country became. The media really went to town on him in his final season. I've never seen a manager receive so much criticism before or since. His time here seemed to be rewritten as one of complete failure and most people I know who support other clubs seem to view him as being somewhere between poor and average as a manager. Even Aston Villa fans didn't seem to think he was good enough to manage their pointless little club when his name was put in the frame a while back. I've always wanted him to get another job and do well to rebuild his reputation but it's impossible to wish him well at Chelsea as it's such a horrible club. I can't blame him for taking the job as he's been out of work for a long time but hopefully he's just using it as a chance to put himself in the shop window. If he manages to wind Ferguson up again while he's there than would be a nice bonus.

Suarez Enrique Sterling

Second half was a pleasant surprise after a dull first half. Good to enjoy a comfortable win over Wigan for a change. In fact it was nice just to enjoy a comfortable win over anyone for a change. Suarez was brilliant yet again. Enrique's Liverpool career was maybe written off too early as he's been great the last 2 games. Other results went well for us too.

Wenger inherited a good side. Mourinho inherited an already strong squad and was given a fortune to spend to improve it. Rafa didn't inherit the best of squads but they had finished in the top 4 the previous season. Rodgers inherited a team that finished 8th and had been abysmal in the league since January. We haven't even come close to finishing in the top 4 for 3 seasons. I'm not at all convinced by Rodgers yet but you can't seriously have expected him to achieve anything like those managers did in their first seasons.

Suarez Enrique Gerrard

Strange game. Could and probably should have been 3 or 4 goals down after an hour but looked the more likely team to win it in the end. Sahin made a few encouraging early appearances but has been dreadful recently and we always seem to look better after he's taken off. Allen was disappointing too. Suso did well when he came on and that was by far Enrique's best game for some time.

Spot on in saying it's a combination of United's belief and the other team's fear. I imagine everyone watching that match thought it would finish 2-3 as soon as United got one back because it's happened so many times and if we think like that then it's no surprise footballers do. The other top teams just don't impose the same fear and if it had been City or Chelsea I doubt Villa would have spent the last 20 minutes doing exactly what they shouldn't do in defending deeper and deeper and inviting non-stop pressure. Plus it's Villa who seem to exist purely to give United 6 points a season. Even when they were decent a few years back they still constantly rolled over against United so it's not really any surprise they did it again now they've gone really shit. One team I would quite happily see relegated.

Was thinking the same thing when I was watching it. Shame I'd decided to take a breather this weekend and had set my deposit limits so I couldn't put any more money in my account. Would have been even nicer backing them at 2-0 down. If bloody Udinese had beat Young boys on Thursday night I could have had a good weekend as every team I fancied to win has done so since then. I'm great at predicting outcomes when there's no money involved. Shame I can't say the same for when it is.

I didn't have great expectations for the game considering the team we put out but it was a frustrating defeat in the end as we'd looked in very little danger of conceding in the first half and only had to stay solid for a few more seconds. Second half was disappointing but we never really had the players out there to chase the game. Udinese losing certainly helps us and a win over Young Boys should be enough now unless Udinese actually win in Russia. If we can't win at home to Young Boys then we really don't deserve to qualify.

Frustrating. Pretty decent first half completely undone right on half time. These have looked pretty shit and most of our problems seem to have been of our own making. Don't really fancy our chances chasing the game now though - our team doesn't exactly look full of goals. Ridiculous decision from Henderson to try and square it when he was through on goal.

Had quite a big single on Chelsea so it was a big relief when they scored. Had a shit weekend and Tuesday night so I'm afraid to say I also celebrated when they scored at the end which felt very wrong. Barcelona let me down on an accumulator. Really hate Barcelona at times. Rarely bother betting on them because the odds are usually so shit and guarantee if I include them in an accumulator it will be one of those weeks where they can't be arsed turning up and draw or lose to some shit team. I actually had a bad feeling about their game but it was some enhanced accumulator with Stan James and I just decided to go with it. Small accumulator of Federer, Udinese, Spurs and Lazio tomorrow. If it wins then I'll use the money for some weekend betting and if not think I'll give it a miss for a week.

Suarez - by some distance Sterling Agger

Can't remember the last time we actually managed to nick a game like this at the end. And as usual we should have. Add that miss from Shelvey to the long list of chances I can't believe weren't put away in the past 18 months. Absolutely brilliant goal from Suarez and he was great again. Without him though we really would be screwed as no one else is contributing anything up front. Great ball from Enrique too but that really was out of keeping with the rest of his performance which was one of the worst I've ever seen in a Liverpool shirt. After an hour I was screaming at the telly to get him off. Freekicks and corners were atrocious and it's scary just how wide open we constantly look at the back. God knows what would happen if a team actually decided to attack us. Absolute joke how much time Krul wasted and how the ref did nothing about it. Should have been about 10 minutes injury time at the end but he didn't even add on the full 4 despite another goal kick that took half a minute. Seem to remember Krul was exactly the same last season.

Good of Chelsea to start winning now in extra time. What a shit night.

Fully deserved win for Swansea. I really don't understand how we always have so few players in the box and yet constantly get completely caught on the counter. Not exactly going with Rodgers' plan to turn Anfield into a fortress this season are we?

Anyone have a punt on Arsenal in play tonight? Noticed it was 12/1 for the draw after 90 minutes when Arsenal had just got it back to 4-2 and 20/1 for Arsenal to qualify in extra time. Briefly thought about a small bet but decided it would just be throwing money away. Oh well. No idea what the odds were at 4-0.