Basel Post-Match Post-Mortem
- Thread starter themn
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Status
I'll post it here:
How FFF, myself and others were always commentating how much fun it was too watch footy again ... We were playing fantastic stuff ... The chemistry with Suarez, Sterling, Sturridge and Coutinho was excellent, and they were brilliantly supported by Gerrard, Hendo and others. OUr defense was poor but it was largely masked by what we were doing with our attacking play ...
I'm starting to realize - as Keni mentioned in the match thread - that last year was probably just an aberration ... One pushed more by Suarez - a player some idiots were happy to see go - and his insatiable desire to win every fucking minute of every fucking game ... Where is the urgency in our team? Where is the passion? The anger? At least Henderson showed glimpses of that at the end when he pushed some Basle guy who backed off ...
We're a team without a spine right now ...
Our goalie is struggling - and I'm not sure he's got the make up to take his game to the next level.
Our fullbacks are decent, but our central defenders are - as last year - struggling to do their work at a high level. Skittles+Lovren? Shite. Lovren+Sakho? Shite. It's depressing and I'm struggling to find any hope how Rodgers can fix it, considering he's had so many opportunities now.
Gerrard hasn't recovered from the slip and a poor world cup. His corners are poor, his free kicks (despite the goal) too ... He's bypassed by 20 year nobodys and offers little as more and more teams mark him out of games. Is this how it ends for one of our greatest players?
Our signings bar the fullbacks - have struggled to gel ... and if we don't get on track this weekend, the pressure and tension will be building up dramatically.
I remember last year footy was fun ... I'm still somewhat hopeful this is a 'Hi, I'm a new signing, let's learn to play each other's game' blip ... but then I remember how Studge and Coutinho hit the ground running and worry that maybe we have Spurred it ...
I'm starting to realize - as Keni mentioned in the match thread - that last year was probably just an aberration ... One pushed more by Suarez - a player some idiots were happy to see go - and his insatiable desire to win every fucking minute of every fucking game ... Where is the urgency in our team? Where is the passion? The anger? At least Henderson showed glimpses of that at the end when he pushed some Basle guy who backed off ...
We're a team without a spine right now ...
Our goalie is struggling - and I'm not sure he's got the make up to take his game to the next level.
Our fullbacks are decent, but our central defenders are - as last year - struggling to do their work at a high level. Skittles+Lovren? Shite. Lovren+Sakho? Shite. It's depressing and I'm struggling to find any hope how Rodgers can fix it, considering he's had so many opportunities now.
Gerrard hasn't recovered from the slip and a poor world cup. His corners are poor, his free kicks (despite the goal) too ... He's bypassed by 20 year nobodys and offers little as more and more teams mark him out of games. Is this how it ends for one of our greatest players?
Our signings bar the fullbacks - have struggled to gel ... and if we don't get on track this weekend, the pressure and tension will be building up dramatically.
I remember last year footy was fun ... I'm still somewhat hopeful this is a 'Hi, I'm a new signing, let's learn to play each other's game' blip ... but then I remember how Studge and Coutinho hit the ground running and worry that maybe we have Spurred it ...
No we didn't ... we played the first games without him, and we were getting 1-0 wins based on last minute penalty saves, etc (Stoke, Villa, Manure) ... We destroyed teams with him.
Duplicate post since there isn't a post Basel thread.
Not much change from those that I put up at HT.
Ming 4 - are you fucking nuts ! Passing out to Gerrard with 2 players within a few metres of him. Bloody dolt.
Enrique - 6.5 - has his work cut out with two fast players on that wing. Needs help. Did OK in an attacking capacity too.
Lovren - 6 - a danger at set pieces. He could score today. Wake up in defence please.
Skrtel - ZERO - stop fucking hoofing, 3 times this half. Fucking ridiculous play at the corner. Pushed the guy he was marking so far out that he himself was no longer part of the defensive line and could only attempt a pathetic back-header. Too busy fouling to even notice the ball until it was too late.
Manquillo - 6.5 - a couple of errors but also our best bet to get anything from the right.
Gerrard - 5 - simply has to do more, both in defence and attack
Henderson - 5 - see Gerrard. Not one of his better matches in the 1st half, better in the second and especially the final 15 mins when we actually started playing like Liverpool and not Tranmere Rovers.
Coutinho - 5 - if there were runners he could find them, though he's found Sterling on a few occasions it's not on the wing we need it. Disappeared without a trace in the 2nd half.
Markovic - 5 - he looks better through the centre, beginning to find his feet and trying to make runs through the defence. Still not great. Looks to lack confidence in front of goal and certainly needs to improve his final pass in and around the box.
Sterling - 6 - stupid foul for a yellow. Trying to do everything himself and failing most of the time .... though who can blame him. Horrendous miss when the he inadvertently nudged the ball with only the keeper to beat.
Balotelli - 4 - fuck off. Lazy arse. Get back onside FFS. Don't yell at RS that he should have passed to you when you should have run into the box and stop trying to dribble past 2-3 defenders, because you can't. Not much better in the 2nd, in fact worse. So many attacks break down with him .. either offside, greedy, tried too much or just poor passing. Such a poor team player.
Lallana - 6.5 - should have started. Keeps possession and added creativity immediately. You could sense that something would happen given enough time .... he/we didn't have it.
BR - 3 - Poor not starting Lallana and should have got Lambo on a lot earlier for Balotelli. Really did not get the team up for this match at all and that is by far the most damning statement, because we are Liverpool and this is the CL. How great is this going to be, after Everton, for confidence.
Not much change from those that I put up at HT.
Ming 4 - are you fucking nuts ! Passing out to Gerrard with 2 players within a few metres of him. Bloody dolt.
Enrique - 6.5 - has his work cut out with two fast players on that wing. Needs help. Did OK in an attacking capacity too.
Lovren - 6 - a danger at set pieces. He could score today. Wake up in defence please.
Skrtel - ZERO - stop fucking hoofing, 3 times this half. Fucking ridiculous play at the corner. Pushed the guy he was marking so far out that he himself was no longer part of the defensive line and could only attempt a pathetic back-header. Too busy fouling to even notice the ball until it was too late.
Manquillo - 6.5 - a couple of errors but also our best bet to get anything from the right.
Gerrard - 5 - simply has to do more, both in defence and attack
Henderson - 5 - see Gerrard. Not one of his better matches in the 1st half, better in the second and especially the final 15 mins when we actually started playing like Liverpool and not Tranmere Rovers.
Coutinho - 5 - if there were runners he could find them, though he's found Sterling on a few occasions it's not on the wing we need it. Disappeared without a trace in the 2nd half.
Markovic - 5 - he looks better through the centre, beginning to find his feet and trying to make runs through the defence. Still not great. Looks to lack confidence in front of goal and certainly needs to improve his final pass in and around the box.
Sterling - 6 - stupid foul for a yellow. Trying to do everything himself and failing most of the time .... though who can blame him. Horrendous miss when the he inadvertently nudged the ball with only the keeper to beat.
Balotelli - 4 - fuck off. Lazy arse. Get back onside FFS. Don't yell at RS that he should have passed to you when you should have run into the box and stop trying to dribble past 2-3 defenders, because you can't. Not much better in the 2nd, in fact worse. So many attacks break down with him .. either offside, greedy, tried too much or just poor passing. Such a poor team player.
Lallana - 6.5 - should have started. Keeps possession and added creativity immediately. You could sense that something would happen given enough time .... he/we didn't have it.
BR - 3 - Poor not starting Lallana and should have got Lambo on a lot earlier for Balotelli. Really did not get the team up for this match at all and that is by far the most damning statement, because we are Liverpool and this is the CL. How great is this going to be, after Everton, for confidence.
he wasnt in the team when we battered arsenal was he?
5-1? Sure he was ... he almost scored a worldly, set up Raheem's 1st etc ... He was in the team that battered Spurs, Manure etc
ah ok, fuck knows what game i was thinking of
It's actually a good idea ... Thinking of the games last season ... that made me smile Lewy ... Thank you and good night.
im actually better off thinking about when hodgson was manager, that cheers me up much more
The biggest concern right now is, as someone said in the match thread, that Rodgers doesn't seem to know what to do. Treading water until Sturridge gets back isn't really good enough.
Balotelli is no good up front on his own as things stand. Stop playing him up front on his own.
Markovic is going to take time to adapt. Don't throw him in at the deep end while the team is struggling. Bring him on off the bench.
Pick a system that suits what we have available to us. Stick with it.
Balotelli is no good up front on his own as things stand. Stop playing him up front on his own.
Markovic is going to take time to adapt. Don't throw him in at the deep end while the team is struggling. Bring him on off the bench.
Pick a system that suits what we have available to us. Stick with it.
are you rafateria?
Honestly think we just need to weather the storm at this point, it's not the time to make wholesale changes. We will start to gel given time.
A lot of the criticism being leveled at Markovic/Balotelli seems to backed up by lazy reasoning, which is pretty disappointing.
A lot of the criticism being leveled at Markovic/Balotelli seems to backed up by lazy reasoning, which is pretty disappointing.
Didn't see the game (was watching CL simulcast), but it seems Brendan's biggest mistake was not starting Lallana. He was consistently our best player in the last few games, but more than his individual qualities, it seemed that it was starting to "click" for us with him playing in the midfield triangle with Gerrard and Hendo. When the team is treading water like it is now, you can't afford the luxury of rotating your most effective players – when at least something is working you have to keep doing it and build other things on top of it. Rodgers needs to calm the fuck down and start making right decisions, that's the only way we'll be able to come out of this.
They're professionals, why can't they do such a simple thing without Suarez? I mean it's pretty simple.
It just looks like Balo is preoccupied with himself, Markovich is a fanny and Sterling was pissed off about something.
Maybe the way forward at the moment is just stick to what we know is decent, which means maybe next game should be like-
Sturridge---Sterling
----------Coutinho
------Hendo--Lallana
---------Gerrard
I know it won't happen but I'd love watching those players at the moment as much as possible, and Balo and Markovich as little as possible
Got up at 430am to watch that pile of shite.
We definitely need to play 2 up top without Suarez.
We definitely need to play 2 up top without Suarez.
I thought Markovic had his best competitive game for us so far yesterday. Though it still fell short of expectation, he benefited from the space given to him, and was using his pace to get into great positions in the final third, only to waste them with a poor pass in the end (see picture below). At least he showed a bit more willingness to take on the responsibility to shoot in this game. Three shot attempts is probably three more than his last game. Still needs to improve his overall workrate.
There are some promising signs and Rodgers is certainly giving him quite a few chances recently to try and get him up to speed. Will probably be on the bench for Saturday but hopefully these few games will have helped him a bit in his form / adaptation.
There are some promising signs and Rodgers is certainly giving him quite a few chances recently to try and get him up to speed. Will probably be on the bench for Saturday but hopefully these few games will have helped him a bit in his form / adaptation.
After learning his lesson in the second half against Ludogorets, getting into the box to get off a few shot attempts, Balotelli proceeded to forget them all in this game and revert to his role of loitering outside the box and pulling way wide. Zero attempts in the box is pretty damning for your lone striker. It seems like this is what he did a lot for Milan and City - it'll work well with a front two and it'll free up spaces for Sturridge in the middle - but in a 4-3-3, that's not what we want from him.
If wide left / right is where he fancies himself, maybe that's where he should be starting while we're going with the 4-3-3, with Lambert in the middle. Might actually suit him better as I get the feeling that pulling out wide and cutting back in seems to come more naturally to him than sprinting into the box to get to the end of a pass/cross.
And stop checking your ankles, they're still there, they're fine. Stop Heskeying around.
If wide left / right is where he fancies himself, maybe that's where he should be starting while we're going with the 4-3-3, with Lambert in the middle. Might actually suit him better as I get the feeling that pulling out wide and cutting back in seems to come more naturally to him than sprinting into the box to get to the end of a pass/cross.
And stop checking your ankles, they're still there, they're fine. Stop Heskeying around.
I thought Coutinho had his best game this season for us and was surprised he was the one taken off; had expected it to be Markovic instead. He wasn't doing the stuff that frustrates the hell out of some of us, and was making an effort to actually carry the ball and take on a guy or two before making a short, simple pass. Was quite a good departure from his over-reliance on the difficult needle-threaders. Lost the ball a couple of times while attempting to take on the opponents, but at least he showed improvement on his previous games.
He seems to be the player whose game has suffered the most with Suarez's departure.
He seems to be the player whose game has suffered the most with Suarez's departure.
Most fans realized how critical he was to this team and what we did last year ...
Yes.
Absolutely. Just check the threads in which some people (who for some reasons post less these days) wanted him out for various reasons.
Many here insisted how critical he was for the team and how badly his departure will impact us. Sadly - it has.
I hope that Rodgers manages to make this team gel and tick sooner rather than later.
It's not going to be easy, as there are problems across the field, mainly with our forwards - with only Sturridge at the level we need, as well as in midfield where Gerrard is a major problem, and with Allen out and Lallana and Markovic not yet fully in the midfield is simply not functioning.
We have a lot of talent in this team, and I hope that with Sturridge hopefully able to play regularly, as well as bringing a new top quality forward in January + having the midfield functioning, we'll be a different team. I hope it won't be too late by then, both in the league as well as CL (Basel and Lodo are far from being a high hurdle for us once/if we hit form).
- Status
