I had no problem with Allen coming on, as he was trying to solidify the midfield behind the attackers.
Kelly makes no sense though.
I would have took hendo off for Allen
Post Match - WBA (A), 1-1
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Kelly makes no sense though.
I would have took hendo off for Allen
I dont agree about Studge and Suarez, but it shows when both have an off game. Our attack is non excistent.
Sloppy.
I agree with Mystic - today showed exactly why we needed another creative attacking player for when things didn't go to plan.
Very frustrating performance, because it smacks of players just not raising their performance when needed.
Gerrard was sleepwalking, Toure was playing with all the skill & thought of a decayed zombie, Coutinho ineffective, Suarez wasteful, Sturridge just seemed to wander about where he pleased rather than sticking to a specific role - felt to me like he & Suarez we're trying to operate in the same space, so we didn't stretch their back line enough.
Of course, we'll have off days like this, and the problem is when we have all out top creative players on the pitch and it doesn't click, they we're stumped. We have nothing to go to on the bench to change it.
Anyway - opportunity lost. Now let's crack on and fuck Arsenal over next weekend.
I agree with Mystic - today showed exactly why we needed another creative attacking player for when things didn't go to plan.
Very frustrating performance, because it smacks of players just not raising their performance when needed.
Gerrard was sleepwalking, Toure was playing with all the skill & thought of a decayed zombie, Coutinho ineffective, Suarez wasteful, Sturridge just seemed to wander about where he pleased rather than sticking to a specific role - felt to me like he & Suarez we're trying to operate in the same space, so we didn't stretch their back line enough.
Of course, we'll have off days like this, and the problem is when we have all out top creative players on the pitch and it doesn't click, they we're stumped. We have nothing to go to on the bench to change it.
Anyway - opportunity lost. Now let's crack on and fuck Arsenal over next weekend.
No, but we needed to mix up the attack as it clearly wasn't working, our only option was Moses, Konoplyanka might have at least given them something to worry about down the left.
I love Henderson but he's a passenger lately.
I'm with you on this - lad's done as a top prospect & I reckon he'll be moved on in the summer.
The only positive I can think of is that we would have probably lost this game last season,
We were very flat and the amount of players attempting ill executed passes makes me think that the pitch wasn't our friend.
That is not an excuse for the seeming lack of effort.
Personally I though that Sturridge should have come off for Allen, not Coutinho
We were very flat and the amount of players attempting ill executed passes makes me think that the pitch wasn't our friend.
That is not an excuse for the seeming lack of effort.
Personally I though that Sturridge should have come off for Allen, not Coutinho
Awful attitude towards the end. Everyone looked towards suarez and he had 5 men around him. Henderson was far far too deep
Sturridge on the wing doesn't work at all. Bin it off
Sturridge on the wing doesn't work at all. Bin it off
I think he's at his best when he has Allen beside him, with someone holding behind the two of them, allowing them to press the opposition hard.
R
RedZeppelin III
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i was wondering during the game if that's due to the position he's now playing . He was on fire when playing the more advanced role and given the freedom to bomb on . Coutinho is in there now so he's a bit deeper and maybe it doesn't suit . Although that doesn't excuse being sloppy .
Then again should we be too surprised , he has been in very good form but it's not like we haven't seen lots of performances like this from him for us .
Perfect advert for why we needed to sign Konoplyanka. We have zero options on the bench.
Between now and the summer, Henry must take action and put in someone to take care of transfers. Ayre has become a parody and is dragging the club down. We are consistently missing out on our primary targets - once is bad enough ut it's every time now.
On the pitch today, it was a shite mistake which cost us but no way did we deserve to win that game. We barely deserve a draw. Formation wasn't working and should have been changed early in second half.
Between now and the summer, Henry must take action and put in someone to take care of transfers. Ayre has become a parody and is dragging the club down. We are consistently missing out on our primary targets - once is bad enough ut it's every time now.
On the pitch today, it was a shite mistake which cost us but no way did we deserve to win that game. We barely deserve a draw. Formation wasn't working and should have been changed early in second half.
I think it does if he holds the position - he was very effective against Everton when he held the left side - but against WBA he just seemed to do as he pleased.
I know there's times that Sturridge & Suarez have been great together, but it often imbalances our attack as well - and I kind of don't really like that.
The only consolation that I've forced upon myself is WBA had
- drew Everton twice
- beaten Man Utd once (A)
- drew Arsenal (H)
- drew Chelsea (A)
- drew Tottenham (A)
- drew Everton twice
- beaten Man Utd once (A)
- drew Arsenal (H)
- drew Chelsea (A)
- drew Tottenham (A)
I was actually okay with the subs. I think if you're struggling to create chances and score, the worst that we could do was to at least get a point especially given the results yesterday. With them having their tails up after their goal, I can understand Rodgers trying to shore things up at the back as well as introducing Allen to try and improve our midfield. Allen and Henderson had worked fantastically well in their ball-winning, movement and passes before Allen's injury, so I didn't have a problem with that. The way West Brom were outmuscling and kicking our guys, I don't think soft touches like Moses, Alberto or Aspas would've been able to add much anyway, especially not when they had the momentum over us.
We had a very bad day collectively up front with guys leaving passes short, overhitting them, or trying too often to pass through congested areas. These days happen, I can take that - the Mancs won titles taking full points from games like that. I just find it very hard to stomach dropping points because a player shoots us in our own foot with a totally boneheaded play like that.
R
RedZeppelin III
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but anyway like i said before , this result was so predictable , it drives me mad . Why couldn't they get up for the game ? Why do we keep having lethargic games like this? . Opportunities missed.
We're obviously having a decent season with some big wins but i still think we're a team with lots of issues to address and it would be a mistake to sweep them under the carpet because we've two quality lads up front who can get us results .
We're obviously having a decent season with some big wins but i still think we're a team with lots of issues to address and it would be a mistake to sweep them under the carpet because we've two quality lads up front who can get us results .
I think City and Arsenal (to an extent) have made fans of other clubs expect too much.
We wont win every game. This WWWWWW thing is just a fucking pipe dream.
Last 5 games 3 wins and 2 draws.
Thats fucking deadly!
We will be in the mix for this 4th no doubt.
8th to 4th in a season would be brilliant.
Then invest that Euro dollar in summer.
Bingo.
We wont win every game. This WWWWWW thing is just a fucking pipe dream.
Last 5 games 3 wins and 2 draws.
Thats fucking deadly!
We will be in the mix for this 4th no doubt.
8th to 4th in a season would be brilliant.
Then invest that Euro dollar in summer.
Bingo.
can someone explain the rationale behind the subs when we are chasing the game?
It's up to Rodgers to balance that.
With Lucas out i'd have Allen in for Hendo, and have Coutinho and Suarez switching. Coutinho had to come too deep to get the ball with Suarez too far away at times
I don't understand this attitude, it's pretty much the same with the entire Ayre/Konoplyanka situation. Staying positive is overrated.
Either way, we know half the people on here are going to be claiming the sky is falling, the other half that we have enough to get over the line.
For me though...
- Sturridge just vanished for large periods of the game, I imagine it's because Suarez was dropping deep already, and we didn't want both of them in our own half. Seemed like he was the least involved player in the side, but got a tap in for his trouble.
- Suarez wasn't anywhere near his best, but did plenty to trouble West Brom. Did well to assist Studge, but only really had the one other chance, on the misplay by Lugano. Not much to legitimately complain about.
- Coutinho actually showed flashes of his form from last season, picking up the ball, running at defenders. Think he got the hook a bit early, he hadn't been all that involved. We need him to drop deeper, centrally, and do more of that.
- Sterling was fantastic in the first half, but he dropped off a bit in the second half. MOTM for me, I though he was fantastic for us. The final product was lacking a bit, but he was awesome running at defenders, but didn't have a whole lot of options to play in.
- Speaking of which, I thought we were very stagnant in attack. Not a whole lot of clever running off the ball, mostly just long balls to relieve the pressure.
- Gerrard was very average for me, but I do think he's growing into that more defensive role. He needs to be more careful with his passing though, he has a tendency to try and play a ball to "launch the counterattack" instinctively because he's so deep in our own zone. Since that's his playing position now though, the opposition back line is typically set and he's just giving the ball away.
- Hendo ran a lot. Not a whole lot else to say, he was good at times, bad at others. Pretty average.
- I thought Allen was excellent after he was subbed on, I wouldn't mind seeing him start against Arsenal.
- Cissokho was okay, but his lack of a final ball makes him very limited. I thought he was partially at fault for Kolo's mistake, I believe he prematurely bombed up the pitch, so Kolo didn't have his first option.
- Kolo was okay, the times he lost the ball when he made an attacking run spoke greater volumes about our attacking malaise today than anything else, options to pass were very limited. Shit happens, he was absolutely at fault for us conceding, but I don't think we need to give him a ton of criticism. I expect Sakho will be back against Arsenal.
- Skrtel was probably out best defender, and has been for the last couple games. He might have played his way into Rodgers long term plans.
- Flanagan was sloppy in the first 15-20 minutes or so with some badly misplaced passes, and was caught out at least once, but I thought he performed admirably. Had some fantastic blocks and headers that I had no idea he had the physical capability to make, and he's a lot quicker than at first glance as well. I don't know if he'll be a started for us down the road, but as a depth option I have no qualms at all.
- Kelly was very poor in his short stint, I hope something clicks for him and he shows some quality.
- Mignolet made a fantastic one handed save on a headers early on in the match, I think the level of difficulty was being played down by the commentators. Also did well to see that free kick later on and hold it. I think we need to have some sort of understanding with our backline and keeper on when we want to play our way out, and when we want to just boot it up the pitch. Having Sakho back will help tremendously though, he's our best CB on the ball by far, and is excellent at picking out passes forward under pressure.
- After dropping 4 points in the last two weeks now, we've badly missed an opportunity to create a bit of a cushion for ourselves. A result against Arsenal would be fantastic, but it's going to really depend on how well our attacking players do.
We don't have any game changers on the bench? Flannos a midget
R
RedZeppelin III
Guest
fair enough but the two draws were against villa at home and West Brom away and both were as much about attitude and desire as anything else .
What's that... the 3rd game in a row that Kelly hams come on for Flanagan around the 70th minute - is say there's a reason for that which may be fitness related.
Coutinho was getting bullied off the ball too much - though I might have been tempted to stick Moses on for Sturridge to try and create a little bit more width to stretch open space for Suarez to exploit.
That saying - Allen came on to try and regain a foothold in a game that was verging on slipping away from us.
As soon as Gerrard came back his performances have dipped a fair bit, he was excellent when Gerrard was out.
One thing we'll see more and more teams do until Sakho/Agger is back is try and force Cissohoko and Toure to play the ball out of defense.
This in spades. Of course, if he had been a better attacking player though, he'd probably have gotten more attention in games and wouldn't have had the same amount of space he's been offered game after game. I wince when we push forward and find ourselves having to use him as an outlet on those occasions when the other options for a pass are closed. It's inevitable that the attack then slows down dramatically, breaks down, or we get a cross that never beats the first man.
To his credit, he improved defensively today but then again, WBA didn't have any proper threats out on their right. Enrique can't come back quickly enough. He's not even training yet is he?
I didn't see the a single second of the match so I am focussing on this as a positive because we've at least matched our rivals against WBA.
By the way, was anyone else surprised when Mulumbu was shown a yellow card in the second half and stayed on the pitch? I thought Kevin Friend had booked two of their guys in the first 45 minutes - Yacob and Mulumbu - but I guess I must've been mistaken as looking at the live commentary on Soccernet now, only Yacob picked up a caution.
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