Post Game Thoughts.

[J Macleod]

- Flanagan was poor today. Lost his man for the goal and the amount of times he turned the ball over and put us on the back foot was extremely frustrating. Needs to be dropped for the Arsenal game.
- The fact that Enrique can come in and play like he did after only being at the club for one day really bodes well. He was strong when shielding the ball and some of his passing out of the back was beautiful. Hopefully solved our left back issue.
- I like Adam's game today, particularly the first half. Didn't play well in the second but then again, no one did. His first half was great though. Playing lovely passes, long range shots and his free kick to set up Suarez was sublime.
- Speaking of Suarez, he's our barometer. When he's on, the whole team is. When he's misplacing passes, throwing his hands up in the air, the team falls apart. Still absolutely love him though and while the penalty miss was a bad one, I agree that he should have been the designated penalty taker.
- Carroll was quite good at holding the ball up and playing it off but is it wrong of me to expect him to win every header in the box and get it on target with even a little bit of power?
- Only the opening game of the season and we're trying to get everyone to gel, but these are the sort of games you'd expect to win. Such high expectations at the start and this was a real kick in the balls.

 

[Red Mullet]

Score was probably right considering the differences in the first and second half of our performance. Sustain our first half performance and we'll be fine.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I said before the game that I thought there were too many new faces in the starting 11. We had no choice with Enrique and he played well. Henderson shouldn't have started, especially as it was against his old team. Kelly should be ahead of Flanagan at right back. Disappointing result but I think we'll go from strength to strength. A mere blip.

 

[iseered]

- You would expect Suarez to score the pen 9/10, hardly "shocking" that he took it.
- Henderson is a work in progress.
- Dalglish: Cant fault his team selection, and he made the right subs in the 2nd half.
- Suarez is a fantastic player, but he had nothing left to give in the 2nd half. Didnt stop him from trying.
- Kuyt is still an essential player for us, in hindsight I wish he had started.
- Enrique looks the business.
- There is a danger, which many have pointed out before, that we become too one dimensional and play it to Carroll every time.
- We are mentally frail.
- Let us be nice to Flanagan, he is very young and has a bright future.

 

[Dylan]

We were undercooked. We gave far too much shop window time to certain players pre-season, meaning the 'first team' has had little chance to settle in.

The Arsenal game is now, of course, huge. 4 points is a good enough start. 2 or 1 and we're playing catch-up already.

 

[Asbo]

Feels like a loss, everyone saying Kelly should be in instead of Flanagan forgets how shit Kelly looked pre season.

Signs of promise are there.

Lets hope the Kelly of last season returns sharpish and Glenjo is back quick.

 

[Fabio]

[quote author=Asbo link=topic=46439.msg1379515#msg1379515 date=1313254148]
Feels like a loss, everyone saying Kelly should be in instead of Flanagan forgets how shit Kelly looked pre season.

Signs of promise are there.

Lets hope the Kelly of last season returns sharpish and Glenjo is back quick.
[/quote]
Good point. But kelly knows how to bomb forward and is a lot more dynamic than flannal

 

[Frogfish]

First poor game I remember from Flanno.


My fears re. Carroll and lumping the ball into him at the first opportunity are coming alive.


Enrique makes Agger look an even better CB than he is as Agger doesn't have to keep rushing out to help his FB. Looks a great signing and a very good debut.


Henderson .. who ?


Adam can be a dirty bastard. He gave away too many FKs.


Our problematic left side is going to be fucking fantastic - Enrique / Downing / Suarez and Aurelio in the wings if needs be. Now it is the right that is the worry !


Our passing was very awry - in this sense this team was not a patch on the one that played the 2nd half of last season.


Miereles should start over Adam. Kuyt should start over Henderson. N'Gog should start over Carroll.


Does Carroll have to direct every header in the general direction of the goal and not knock it down if the goal isn't on ?


Is it expecting too much for Carroll to have even one powerful header on target from the 4,278 crosses he met ?

 

[eecheerow]

Kelly looked much better against Valencia.

I assume he was on the bench as he was the only centre back cover in the squad.

 

[MomoWASright]

Just back from the match and no doubts about it, that was fucking shit. The crowd, the tempo and lucas!

On the positive side we played some pass it round in the first half. I think we should have had a man extra for the pen incident, but Suarez should never have taken it. That should have been Adam. Carroll looked an animal up front, but still a bit slow with his movement. Enrique slotted in brilliantly and is as strong as an Ox.

Now for the negative. Henderson didn't look comfortable there. He never did anything to show he was ahead of Jonjo. Flannigan tried the same trick too many times when he comes inside when being closed down. Downing's boots. Henderson's boots. The back twatting forward to Carroll too much.

Then there was Lucas. What did he do right today? Off the pace, apart from a 3 yard pass, he got it wrong. Stupid fouls all the time, but he wasn't alone. Adam was the same with the fouls. If we want to play a high tempo game we can never have that same partnership again.

Then there was Meireles. What the fuck about that barnet?

One last thing, good to see Refs are as shit as always. Foul for a goal scoring chance only a yellow, then every other foul a yellow. He also decided to let play run when it shouldn't and vice versa. It was like he was taking 15 seconds to make his mind up. I can see refs doing the same thing to Carroll as they did crouch. He uses his size to win the ball foul, their forward does the same, nothing.

 

[RedZeppelin]

I'm trying not to be too negative after just one game, it's more something that has bothered me all summer ...long term i just don't see alot of this squad being good enough to challenge for the big prizes . Now i know the first step is getting champs league football and then probably adding some big name players to the squad but right now we've lots of players who split the fans and if a player splits fans it obviously means they're not top quality or really need to prove themselves . And without city money we could be relying on alot of this squad for a fair few season so they have to be able to step up . Christ i hope they can do it .

 

[Rosco]

I didn't see the game yet .... but Adam and Lucas ?

I always think you need a bit of athleticism in the middle of the park, how did they fare ?

 

[MomoWASright]

[quote author=Rosco link=topic=46439.msg1379567#msg1379567 date=1313257569]
I didn't see the game yet .... but Adam and Lucas ?

I always think you need a bit of athleticism in the middle of the park, how did they fare ?
[/quote]
Shit is the answer

 

[Frogfish]

[quote author=Rosco link=topic=46439.msg1379567#msg1379567 date=1313257569]
I didn't see the game yet .... but Adam and Lucas ?

I always think you need a bit of athleticism in the middle of the park, how did they fare ?
[/quote]

Adam was excellent in the first half and it was a superb FK for the goal but he faded out of the game and instead started fouling left right and centre which disrupted our play. Lucas' worst game in a long time.

 

[Modo]

Re: Post Game Thoughts.

Hey Sheik. You know who I was thinking of during the game?

AQUILANI!!!!

 

[vantage]

Enrique was very good.
Suarez needs to stop waving imaginary cards.
Adam & Downing were better than expected.
Carol is still unfit and /or not as good as we hoped/expected/paid for.
If Henderson is an EPL player of Liverpool standards, there's hope for me yet. And I'm an overweight 42 year old fan.

 

[peterhague]

I thought Lucas was ok, don't know why he's coming in for particular stick. Besides that, Carroll's still looking about £25m short of a £35m striker, and I was a bit perplexed at the lack of creative options on the bench. Aquilani, Maxi, Cole: any one of them might have made a good contribution once we started struggling for inspiration after the hour mark.

 

[Portly]

I thought Carroll was good today - he looked sharp as if he had been off the ale. I didn't think he had fouled the defender when he scored the goal that was disallowed, and the pundits on "Match of the Day" thought the same.

Anyway, cheer up chaps - I have just seen the league table and we are 3rd - heading for the Champions League next season. Sunderland are only in the 5th spot i.e. Europa Cup for them. 😉

 

[iseered]

I have yet to see Cole make a good contribution in a red shirt, he would be wasted even on the bench. Carroll did ok, certainly not the first one I would blame for this result.

 

[ILD]

Henderson played it safe, moved the ball early but remained on the periphery of the game. He didn't impact it in any way and rarely moved away for his position. Granted Flanagan didn't cross the half way line so Henderson was left with the full back tight on him and also the LW in close proximity every time he received the ball. I hoped for a lot better to be honest, especially since he started ahead of Dirk which should not be the case.

Flanagan had a tough evening. Positionally poor at times and made quite a few errors. Suprised Kelly didn't start. A right side of Kelly of Kuyt > a right side of Flan and Henderson.

Adam started brightly in the QB role and had a fine assist for the goal. His work off the ball needs to improve big time and gave away too many silly free kicks. However what I did like was his attitude. Towards the end he was the only person who was trying to drag us forward and try get a winner.

Downing had an impressive first half and that run/shot off the cross bar was excellent. Pity it didnt fly in for him. Kenny shunted him all over the pitch and had him up front at the end. WTF?

Enrique settled in as if he had been here a few months not the few days he's actually been here. My god is he quick. No one got down the line or passed him. His pace will come in handy over the course of the season. I didn't like his lack of urgency. 1-1 late in the game at home, in a game we should be winning yet he was strolling over to get the ball for a throw in. He even found time to whinge about his boot before taken the throw. I know its petty but come on man, throw the fucking ball and get on with it. We didn't see too many gallops forward from him which was disappointment. However, solid debut.

Carroll is going to have a tough time, we need to stop lumping the ball up to him and expecting him to retain possession everytime. He was dropping too deep towards the end, isolating himself in no mans land but by then the shape was a mess. Raul, left wing, Dirk right, Downing up top with Andy in some sort of withdrawn role. It was a mess towards the end. I'd like to see Andy sitting out a game and coming in fresh off the bench. He ran out of steam towards the end when we resorted to lumping it forward. Smashed in a goal that was perhaps harshly disallowed.

Maybe Spidey was right, when we're up one nil and not closing out the game perhaps we should have cheated more. 😉

One final note, I still don't see match winners in our side. Maybe i'm being harsh. I was hoping Dirk would get us the points. Without Suarez and Gerrard on the pitch we lack inspiration. Can't wait for Gerrard to come back into the fold.

BTW, how Awesome was Raul and Agger's (to a lesser extent) hair?

 

[gene hughes]

I don't know how Adam is getting all this love. I thought he was poor. Henderson gave a more mature and disciplined performance while he was on the pitch and I think I'd have preferred him in the middle. By the end we were a shambles and apart from Dirk the subtitutions just seemed to compound the overall lack of direction and shape.

Early days though. It's not just that the players are learning about each other but the manager and coach are learning about the players too.

 

[Skullflower]

yet again we've spent a shitload of money and as soon as suarez (gerrard/torres etc) goes off, you know we'll be fucking lucky to get a goal.

 

[King Binny]

 

[Squiggles]

Today's match reminded me of playing Football Manager, when you say the wrong team talk at half time and your dots just turn completely shit.

I feel loathed to criticise the team selection because in the first half we were playing some great stuff and should have been 3-0 up with the match beyond any doubt. Two individual errors cost us the win; them being the penalty miss and Flannigan's absence for their goal. The main concern I've got from day is our lack of belief or fight to turn the match around. We're going to need to show that if we've got any realistic ambitions of getting into the Champions League, never mind the competing for the title.

Two points pissed away to a very average side.

 

[Bradley]

Pity we couldn't continue where we left of in the 2nd half. Gives the boss plenty to think about. Which is grand with us having extra training time without European footy.

Saw an interesting stat, if you took out Pepe, Agger, Carra and Lucas the other lads had 24 starts between them. Easy to see why this wasn't a smooth performance.

 

[Hansern]

Few thoughts after a good nights sleep;

Thought Henderson was quite good. When Johnson returns he'll have more options aswell

As a few of us have said earlier, pre season hasnt been good enough. Its a concern that our fitness levels were so poor that from 55 mins we looked absolutly knackered. We had nothing to give, and to be honest we were a bit lucky at the end not conceding a late goal.

Flanagan shouldnt have started. Was poor against Valerenga and Kelly had a good game against Valencia at right back. Odd one.

5 new faces and 2 players with a combined 45 mins of pre season between them. It was a case of when not if that the team would look disjointed.

Good first half. Suarez/Carroll looked good. Big Andy had a lot of half chances, but at least was on the reciving end of a lot of passes and crosses. This will only get better.

All in all, a point isnt the end of the wolrd considering how we fell apart in the second half. The fitness team has a big job infront of them this week, but I see no reason why this team cant beat Arsenal away and push on from there.

It will be a learning process in the coming weeks/months. Lets hope we can pick up a decent amount of points during the bedding in period.

Kenny has some tactical issues to think about. Would have been much better to play Meireles behind Andy, and Downing/Kuyt on the wings. There were som weird desicions. Clarke needs to work on the defensive issues we have, and the goals we concede are down to individual mistakes - again..

 

[singlerider]

I can't really make an informed comment about the game as I only say MOTD - but to me it seems a little harsh to entirely blame Flanagan for the goal.

Yes, he lost his man and undoubtedly he has to take some of the flack - but should the cross have even come in in the first place? There were three players in attendance - surely they have to take some of the blame for not cutting off the supply?

 

[Farkmaster]

Gene, I completely agree. Charlie Adam was a large part of why our midfield was so cockless in the second half. His endurance seems to be poor, and his movement off the ball was horrible and lazy in the second half.

 

[Hansern]

Flanagan lost his man and was ball watching. You ould argue that we could have closed down the Sunderland player prior to the cross. But if Flanno had been close to Larsson it wouldnt have been a goal. It was awful defending, plain and simple. A bitmore awareness and he could have headed the ball clear or body checked Larsson.
He fucked up and looked very nervous throughout. Feel for the lad, but Kelly should have played.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing eh.

 

[Ossi]

Post Game Thoughts.

3 things:
1)Kenny got the starting XI wrong
2)Kenny made the right substitutions (although it was hard to see who would score a goal after Suarez went off) but the subs played in the wrong positions.
3)Adam, who should have taken charged of the game when it was back and forth, ran out of gas. =Aquilani should have (at least) made the bench.