PatiencePending

How on Earth has LFC managed to gather together so many 'professional' footballers in one place who are often half decent footballers in many respects but who all seem to posses the significant flaw that they are also thoroughly unreliable in front of goal?!? The mind boggles with this lot!!! WTF do they do in training??????

The ultimate 'fuck you' moment from Suarez to the Norwich fans. He was actually quite restrained in his celebration, I'd have been stood right in front of them giving it the big 'un after that; "Not laughing now are yer, yer fucking farmers"... That there Dave is why I read the Liverpool Way and love the match reports! Hahahaha! Top Stuff - Barratt/ Bascombe - Read it and weep!!!

Top notch report as ever Dave. So FSG are bringing us our own version of 'the age of Austerity' eh? There's no escaping this bollocks anywhere these days is there?! Strange thing is that, what with savy 'business' types such as our American owners, you would think they realised the need for a business, such as a modern ambitious Premier League club, to speculate to accumulate... No they'd rather run LFC like a household budget instead. Nothing wrong with being financially prudent but this policy of theirs isn't gonna lead us into the Champions League any time soon. They cannot actually be serious about wanting a top four place with their present actions. If they think they are then they're very deluded and not fit and proper owners.

Couple of things: - - Alan Hansen's brief critique of our new 'system' and it's effect on our defenders, especially Skrtel, on MOTD. I thought it was pretty devastating the way he compared our new way with how LFC used to 'play the percentages' during 70's and 80's. I always thought the 'Liverpool Way' was centred around having good players who, on the pitch, could think and act for themselves rather than playing within some rigid overall pre-planned system. Mind you past players seem to have had more character and real life experience than this modern version so maybe modern players need telling what to do in a system?!? It didn't really work on Saturday but maybe in time... - Mr T. Werner was at it again last week going on about Champions League aspirations. Those comments suggest FSG are aiming for LFC to qualify, ideally, this season! I don't geddit? One minute they are on about the LFC 'playing style' then when the season is on they're on about getting results needed for ECL! Surely if results are the main issue then prioritising getting them should be the focus. And yet they seem to have put the playing style first in appointing Brendan Rodgers. Seems like BR will need to succeed in both! Good job he seems to like a challenge because he's certainly got one now..!

I think the whole club, perhaps especially some of the players and some fans, might be suffering with a touch of superiority complex… If we’re all gonna be superior then we all need to learn the art of demonstrating we are in every single match. This includes the fans too as we need to create the same high octane atmosphere for every and all home league games as we do for big European/ Cup games. We need to leave no doubt in the minds of the players that we are up for every match and force the players/ management to deliver their best instead of appearing to hold back and seeming to be more intent on the glamour games. We gotta get really demented and madferrit!!! Just because we haven’t heard of some of Villa’s younger players doesn’t mean they’re no good. Perhaps some of them will turn out better than those they’re currently standing in for. We currently remind me a little of the Mancs in their pre-Ferguson days. We need our star players to be a bit more coy and show more nous, especially Suarez. Louis needs to learn when to play things (passes/ shots) a bit more simple and on target sometimes instead of trying to be Maradona/ Pele with every single touch. And some kind of ‘finishing school’ training drills wouldn’t go amiss either. Can’t we get Rushie, Robbie and Aldo in to share some of their experiences before Saturday comes (Michael Owen could be useful too but he’s now part of the dark side)? We desperately need to find faith in getting some real, genuine high quality width in to the side and learn to trust it and value it like the mancs and Arsenal do. If we can crack that I’m sure the goals will flow. To me Taggarts teams still follow an astonishingly similar philosophy and template to Kenny Dalglish’s 1987/89 outstanding Liverpool team (albeit in a more modern setting). Devastating width allied to clinical finishing. That’s what we lack and need to find it yesterday. P.S. - Oh and once again Downing comes off as Carroll comes on. Would love to know what all that’s all about.

We're now on the canvas and have two choices. Either get back on our feet and come up swinging or stay down and be counted out. I believe we'll come up swinging, but I wouldn't bet my house on it. - Spot on again Dave neither would I bet on it too. So many questions not many answers to all this. There's one thing that's really getting my goat. What, if any, is, or was, the 'plan' with signing Carroll. Where are we ever trying to effectively supply him in a way to get the best out of him?? When we signed Downing in the summer I thought we were at least trying to address the right area even if Downing isn't the type of high quality hoped for. I still hoped for the best and hoped that he could at least get some crosses in from the left side for Carroll to attack (even if that's perhaps never gonna be as devastating as Barnes/ Nicol and Aldo in the past!). Instead the situation now is that we don't have any obvious width in the team, on either flank, and when Carroll plays Downing is either substitute or plays on the right side instead! Where on earth is the team effort to supply Carroll when he's selected?

That Liverpool team looks as flat as a pancake. Too many ordinary players playing ordinary with no pace and no burning desire to win. Henderson desperately needs taking out of the firing line he has nothing to offer.

We desperately need to develop a ruthless streak, a winning mentality throughout the entire club, but how do you do that? I don't know, I just hope Kenny does. Another absolutely great report Dave! The final sentence sums up the big picture perfectly I think. Unfortunately for us Taggart and the mancs posses exactly the kind of missing ingredient we're looking for here but they appear to feed of Sir ExLax's never ending bitterness and bile and a 'backs against the wall' mentality to do it. They are, in their own 'unique' way, just like a darker & more disturbing(!) version of what we were in the dominant 70's/ 80's when we ruthlessly cast aside all challengers... What will fuel our return to the 'right stuff' and the winning mentality? I think Kenny has as good a chance of answering this as anyone if only he has the time to do so and the ingenuity to tap in to it. A few suggestions. He may want to consider making things a little more straight forward and think more about hurting the opposition rather than worrying about them (this was a criticism of Rafa and Houllier to). I remember in Kenny's first stint when he'd drop Beardsley in a 'horses for courses' type of mentality. It did my head in then & it still does today! Go for the opposition jugular when it's exposed! That's what Taggarts teams do. Kenny may also want to start playing Carroll and Suarez together up front more often between now and the end of the season (at least 2 strikers against the likes of QPR). He may want to make sure that Downing plays left wing (what was that right flank switch with Maxi all about against Stoke?) when Carroll is on and encouraged to get crosses and service to him. Either way he has to get a run in the side (injury permitting) like Henderson has had. The Carroll situation reminds me a lot of the Collymore situation with Evans. We invested all that money in a big powerful forward then didn't seem to know what to do to get the best out of him consistently.