22 Oct 2014

LFC 0-3 Madrid: Abject £136m fail at Anfield as BR blows it in the Champions League.

Rumours of Mario Balotelli's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Despite calls for Brendan Rodgers to drop Balotelli, the Italian is - as expected - in the starting line-up for tonight's titanic clash with Real Madrid.

FULL TEAM: Mignolet, Johnson, Skrtel, Lovren, Moreno, Allen, Gerrard, Hendo, Coutinho, Sterling, Balotelli

SUBS: Toure, Manquillo, Can, Lallana, Markovic, Lambert, Jones

MADRID: Casillas, Arbeloa, Varane, Pepe, Marcelo, Kroos, Modric, Rodriguez, Isco, Ronaldo, Benzema

SUBS: Navas, Khedira, Chicharito, Carvajal, Nacho, Illarra, Medran

That is a seriously frightening Madrid team (!)

As for Liverpool - £36m duo Adam Lallana and Emre Can have seemingly paid the price for Sunday's lacklustre performance against QPR, which is fair enough, as neither player made much impact during the game.

Jose Enrique doesn't even make the match-day squad, which comes as no surprise after his long-ball, 58% passing-accuracy horror show against QPR.

The (welcome) inclusion of Coutinho hopefully means that Rodgers will go with a 422 diamond, with Sterling playing alongside Balotelli; Gerrard playing further forward, and Allen taking the defensive midfield role.

-------------------- Mignolet

Johnson ----- Skrtel --- Lovren ---- Moreno

-------------------- Allen

------------ Gerrard ---- Hendo

------------------ Coutinho

----------- Sterling ---- Balotelli

Rodgers may also decide to go with 4231, which will be surprising considering that formation has failed for Liverpool this season. Plus, it will mean Balotelli playing up-front on his own, which also doesn't work.

-------------------- Mignolet

Johnson ----- Skrtel --- Lovren ---- Moreno

---------------- Allen - Gerrard

-------- Hendo --- Coutinho ---- Sterling

------------------ Balotelli

My prediction is a still 3-1 to Madrid, but that's being conservative...

EDIT: 23:30PM

A sobering thought: £136m worth of Rodgers' signings on display against Madrid, and Liverpool looked like they'd *regressed* from last season...

Author:


352 comments:

  1. No cricket scores tonight please!

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  2. At least Moreno isn't injured. Wonder why Manquillo didn't play against QPR...

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  3. Glen Johnson against Ronaldo.....God save us plzzzzzzzzz

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  4. I like the 442 with Gerrard in DM because Hendo and Allen have the legs and tenacity to cover back, harass and break up play and advance our attacks. I don't expect that will happen though. Probably more like a 433 with Stevie and Allen in defensive mid roles, Hendo as the lynchpin behind Balotelli and Sterling and Coutinho in wide areas with a licence to roam (but an expectation to work). I don't have high hopes, but I can't wait!

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  5. Glen Johnson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 why??????????????????? that shaky skrtel lovren axis!!!!!! ayoooooooo! we have only our pride to bank our hopes on now! may God save our team! any chance we can stop the los blancos machine tonight? an answer from the specialists please

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  6. My prediction, a 2:2 draw or a Liverpool 3:2 win. Home advantage will pay big role.

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  7. My prediction Liverpool 2:1 win

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  8. your heart sayin' so or you are pragmatic?

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  9. As for tonight, I only hope we don't make a new CL record.

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  10. Great win for the U19s beating Real Madrid, Rossiter was Gerrard-like.

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  11. Trifecta of Hendo, Sterling and Allen plus the trickery of Coutinho is key to dismantle Real Madrid. If lackluster performance plays in, with Mario brooding, then the result would be bad for lfc....... Gosh would have loved to see SAS playing...

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  12. ronaldo rarely runs with it these days

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  13. Mignolet don't do that again

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  14. Can't understand why he always distributes short !
    But good pacey start and we seem to be getting into em early - got to keep pace up and openings will come

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  15. Very careless of Real to not do their homework on us. Unlike every other team we've played this year they are not pressing our back four when they have the ball. Could be very good for us.

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  16. shocking by lovren but no doubt balo will get the blame

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  17. I thought Sktrtel should have been quicker on the cover too

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  18. we look dangerous. Raheem looks like he can get in behind and COutinho is looking creative

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  19. Thats what Mario does. goes round the outside. looks better

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  20. slow ball over two defenders and one attacker ..goal

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  21. My coaches always used to say one go one cover. Sktrtel and Lovren are ALWAYS caught square. School boy errors

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  22. the problem we have is liverpool cant play from a goal down even when we where on fire last year ,its real up hill now

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  23. We've got to win the ball higher up suicide to defend deep against a team like this

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  24. thats why i call them the chuckle brothers to you to me to you to me

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  25. we're actually playing the christmas tree when we're defending. I knew it would make a comeback. The problem is at the bas of every Christmas tree is a present and his name is Martin Skrtel.

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  26. very similar to there first goal slow ball over defense ball watching

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  27. we just cant deal with crosses.....

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  28. In previous years I would have had faith in our team pulling something off in such a tough game, in Istanbul I had faith being 3 down. But tonight I feel we should just end the game early to spare us the embarrassment.

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  29. we've gone to 4-3-3 tut tut

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  30. Or thru balls, or any type of ball to be honest

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  31. Lol.. going to that use one myself

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  32. we havnt picked runners up for several seasons but this year we have added a complete inability to deal with high balls into the mix as well

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  33. Even a 10-3-3 wouldn't work for us

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  34. whats annoying is real dont even look that good its just that we are so poor

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  35. Keep it to 2-0 or 2-1 til half time to have any chance

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  36. i can see us getting hit on the break and it being 4 or 5 nil

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  37. Hold so Sktrel is one on one with Ronaldo for at least 20 seconds and no one comes across to help? well done lads

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  38. Lovren: to you to me to me to me to me ..... oh Ive forgot how does it go again

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  39. We only have Stirling who can match them for pace

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  40. Ronaldo is still electric

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  41. utterly pathetic could be 10 nil

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  42. woooooooooooooooooooow

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  43. Even Jones would be better and he's BAAAD

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  44. If we didn't have a reality check before we have NOW

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  45. hahaha that is why i was not predicting the scores....

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  46. make that 6 or 7 nil ...slow ball over in the box goal ...it really is that simple and real are not known for crossing embarrassing defensive display

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  47. We started so damn well until our defence mucked it up again.


    Johnson, Skrtel, and Lovren should not be let near the starting eleven.

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  48. I feel like I did watching the Bruno V Tyson rematch. We're Bruno btw. Theres always Istanbul....... who knows

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  49. I am guessing this will be BRs last season.

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  50. thats why perspective is needed all this hoopla on balo and the defensive side to Liverpool is a shambles

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  51. Johnson should be in reserves

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  52. Balo should not be allowed near the team also

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  53. Our defence is a joke......BR doesnt have a clue abt defence

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  54. Are we allowed to play our U19 team instead

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  55. i was waiting for him to be blamed at some point ..as soon as sako is blamed it will be a full house

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  56. Nicolas Chamberlain8:31 pm, October 22, 2014

    Mignolet is a very mediocre GK. We need some back up in that department. Keep it at 3 please. This is torture.

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  57. It has been so obvious Skrtel and Lovren are not the answer. As an eloquent rapper once said 'You cant turn a hoe into a housewife' :)

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  58. Any keeper is going to be mediocre behind this inept defence.

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  59. Or polish a turd ......

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  60. as poor a defensive display i have ever seen at home by Liverpool id drop both cb for our next game

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  61. they would atleast show some passion

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  62. Well played red man. We were extremely nervous but I saw positive signs.
    For me the most obvious problem is Mignolet. Indeed, the sooner he'd be replaced, the better.

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  63. He will get his wish to go to Spain sooner rather than later

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  64. its just that real maid are too good

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  65. Toure should have started. Above all we we need organisation and leadership

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  66. We might as well have kept Agger to be honest.

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  67. Nevergonnacrackthecode8:34 pm, October 22, 2014

    why because we are losing to the most expensive team in history
    the european champions?

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  68. I said before the game that shutting Modric out would be the key. We did that amzingly for 20 mins and then we just stopped and got screwed.

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  69. We will still qualify from group stages but what's the point? We are getting schooled today...everyone expected this but it still feels bad.

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  70. yes and also our defense is sh@t

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  71. I admit the first goal was sheer class but the other two could easily have been prevented.

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  72. there goals where nothing special ..just balls floated into the box

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  73. Nicolas Chamberlain8:35 pm, October 22, 2014

    Well, I don't agree with that. Mignolet should be the general in that area but he is clearly not. He seems so insecure.
    I'm not saying that he alone is to blame but come on, be real. Lovren will definitely not be the buy of the season. Remember Logan? ;)

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  74. Otherwise we have had a splendid season so far?

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  75. First goal was amazing and you have to applaud. Other two were just shocking defending.

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  76. You would think Skrtel would be doing better than Lovren ;-) who is just as mediocre.

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  77. Nicolas Chamberlain8:36 pm, October 22, 2014

    Exactly, Agger is better than what we have at the moment.

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  78. Real Mardid are amazing
    if we had SAS this game would be so awesome

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  79. that shot from countinho tho

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  80. real smart by lovren kicking fresh air and falling on your backside with ronaldo at your side if he had just stayed on his feet and blocked him theres a good chance he would of missed

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  81. the only two games we deserved to win this season were against Everton and Tottenham......we are lucky to have 13 pionts could have been much worse.......

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  82. Also, what happened to the shooting boots.. We shot two meaningful efforts and almost scored from them.. We are just too scared.

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  83. Nevergonnacrackthecode8:37 pm, October 22, 2014

    we are joint 4th where were we meant to be

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  84. I am saying it because I am tired of slating that defense..ive had enough..they cant improve..you cant beat world class with mediocres..as simple as that

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  85. Not that this would have dramatically affected the score, but what constitutes a foul these days?

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  86. add the cost of this liverpool team up its hardly chicken feed

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  87. I believe we were paying back from QPR game TBH

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  88. It could have actually. Arbeloa fouls Sterling and that could have been a red card..

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  89. Nicolas Chamberlain8:38 pm, October 22, 2014

    True. Skrtel is all over the place. Henderson dito.

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  90. No because he doesn't know what he's doing Madrid beat Ludogrets 2-1 away this could be 8 9 or 10 if they go for it. The players he's bought are simply not good enough

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  91. I really dont know what happened to Lovren...he has been sh@t for us till now

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  92. I thought Henderson was our best player by a mile in the first half. He was the only one who regularly pressed.

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  93. we were ok for the 1st 15mins.....mignolet is just awful

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  94. I agree with you, but just tell me WHAT exactly was doing Mignolet for the third goal? I'm guessing partying on the floor?

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  95. the benzema header is awful he had a complete free header

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  96. just stood there and watched

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  97. Theres some truth to that. Our victory papered over the cracks at QPR but Real are having none of it. To play that pairing at CB is criminal after the season they have had

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  98. Enemyofeverydisbeliever8:40 pm, October 22, 2014

    I bet real madrid saying ohh boy this is a lot easier than expected. I swear they only gave 20% in this half and got three. Puuhh scary sht. I predicted 1-5 but I changed it now... 7 or 8.

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  99. Totally agree, and the third one my GOD!

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  100. Imagine what happens at the Bernabeu..

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  101. what is absolutely shocking is this fact !


    we lost our number one striker we gained 75m


    we bought his replacement for 16m


    it should ahve been at least 50m on a higuain,martinez, or cavani


    depth is useless if the players are not at the bracket needed to compete with the best


    now some questions need to be answered who decided on our summer plan who decided to use suarez money to invest in squad rather then one player?


    is it rodger? is it ayre? is it john w henry?
    the owners were said to ahve given us 60 to 70m extra which they ahve not fuffiled

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  102. Half Time 0-3, Manager Ancelotti. Guess I have seen it earlier.

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  103. Rodgers isn't the manager we thought he was last year. Plays decent football but ordinary at everything else and terrible defending wise.

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  104. Jesus. Wake up.

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  105. No Istanbul there mate

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  106. what was Skrtel and Lovren doing ? i'm guessing ball watching like always ?
    2 Madrid players in the middle of the back for had all their time to pass it around, how is that mignolet's fault ?

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  107. because jhonson started

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  108. Enemyofeverydisbeliever8:42 pm, October 22, 2014

    They barely won at ludogorets and scored just two, now they got three at anfield first half. Somebody must go in prison here.

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  109. Nicolas Chamberlain8:43 pm, October 22, 2014

    Like pressing is a sign of playing great. Pressing is like running but without any result or enough back up its useless. Henderson was woeful in possession and intercepted not even one ball.

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  110. johnson hasnt been bad mate

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  111. Is there a defence worse than us write now........I mean just head the ball into the box and you score

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  112. I think any four of us bloggers would do a better set piece defending.

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  113. Both Skrtel and Agger needed to be replaced for me. But Sktrel should have been replaced over Agger if one were to stay.

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  114. now we have to take of sterling , henderson


    give markovic, can game time
    hull in the pl is more important then cl

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  115. jones should be the number 1 at this club

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  116. i wont keep him in reserves

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  117. manquillo is worse

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  118. I agree Skrtel and Lovren were passengers, but Mig could have collected the ball, heck even I could have done it!

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  119. Yea, SAS papered over all his huge cracks. I can't stand watching Liverpool defending like that anymore and teams walking through us. Southampton would've gave Madrid a much tougher game tonight.

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  120. Ha ha and you think he is going to do better unless we have defenders who can defend of course.

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  121. Almost 50mn on lovren..sakho and ilori..lol

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  122. And the club is, Hereford.

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  123. it helps if you at least stand next to an attacking player even if you dont jump ....have are defenders been checked for color blindness as that can be the only reasonable reason for multi million pound players to act like this

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  124. That's a joke, right? :D lol

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  125. add 17 mill for Johnson(not that BR bought him) lol

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  126. i think the only thing left now is damage control

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  127. Float the ball in the box against us and you'll score a goal, it's that simple. In my life I've never seen defenders being so terrified at the sight of a football. As Carra just said, at this point the problem is clearly mental

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  128. No striker...wow

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  129. i agree he wasn't perfect on the action and dived poorly but he was too far from the ball, even skrtel who were closer attempted to defend and did a Lovren (a brilliant shot in thin air).
    I don't even want to start on benzema's first goal where Johnson doesn't even jump...

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  130. I have lost words to describe our defense

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  131. Well Carra you got your wish now

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  132. now we've scape goated Mario.

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  133. add to that the cost of moreno manquillo and mingo plus the wages of kolo and we have splashed out huge on the defence

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  134. Skrtel still on the pitch

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  135. maybe when he can get a shot past a defender or stops passing it to his imaginary friends he can rejoin us.

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  136. Also his transfers are as worse as his defense tactics

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  137. We are playing the best team in World Club Football, simmer down, realistically what did you all expect, I expected what I am seeing, at least Ballo has shown he can play, thats a positive.

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  138. and Skrtel? Lovren?

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  139. Rodgers has to take the blame, his formation, his training, his team, and nearly £200m spent in a few of years.

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  140. Playing for pride now ....... if they know what that is !

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  141. where did he show he can play

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  142. We played bad against other two less fancied teams as well.

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  143. i dont expect to be losing 3 nil at home by half time when we have splashed out 100m ...real ony just beat ludogrets whose team cost about 8m to assemble

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  144. Yep what did we expect if we couldn't defend against bottom team in prem.

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  145. On his own, he done quite a lot, went by players, actually passed the ball many times, and made himself available, everyone to their own.

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  146. we still cant track runners

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  147. i thought balo did okay

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  148. We expected well paid pros to have learned from that performance manager included

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  149. BR for the life of me plz hire a defensive coach.....cauz you have no clue abt it

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  150. sorry im just really butt hurt right now. suarez was similar in his first full season at liverpool. balotelli deserves time. but the way he wafts around emotion less just makes me angry. im positive he will come good eventually.

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  151. We spent 120m pound and we look sh@t.....

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  152. Can Liverpool skip the away fixture ?

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  153. Lallana on for Ballo, damage limitation it looks like.

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  154. Yep we'll all be too tired !

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  155. i think they will naturally ease off why Liverpool will play for pride ...what i dont want to hear if it goes to 3 - 1 is rogers say we won the second half ...its the most pointless statement ever by a manager

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  156. Basel have had a player sent off against Ludogorets, that may be some consolation.

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  157. It's like we are his personal experiment

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  158. i think the only consolation is a liked bazil brush as a kid boom boom

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  159. Yea how we pressed and passed and showed great spirit bla bla bla but he will say that no matter the score- ridiculous

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  160. id like a bit of honesty by rogers and say hes spent a lot but its not worked

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  161. Lallana and Sterling up top make us unpredictable upfront which is what made us so good last season. unpredictability. We need to go with this formulae

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  162. Prob be best if we are out of this competition as soon as ...... no where near the standard required and then we can just concentrate on getting into top 4 and hope to get in more quality players in the future

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  163. i wanted us to start with this formation as it would give us more options in possession

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  164. Exactly we haven't got the quality to compete - yet

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  165. y doesn't he ever substitute gerrard...ever

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  166. BR is brilliant, taking off the best player on the pitch...

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  167. But we are rated as a 3rd tier team, we need to get into the last 16 to improve that, if we do end up in the Europa league, we would be a real threat to win it, but better we get into the knockout stages of the CL, for the reasons I mentioned above.

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  168. Never not even if his legs fell off

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  169. I am sorry for all the thrashing. If Gerrard was so fickle like us, he would be playing in white jersey now. He made so many compromise...ditched all major European clubs for what? Stupid fans like us. Unconditional love. Maybe someday we will be king of Europe again . YNWA.

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  170. trust me BR has lost it..he doesn't know what he is doing?

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  171. markovic wont ever shoot i guess

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  172. BR Looking like he's shyting his pants

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  173. but we have to remember BR never would have dropped back into DM last season if he hadnt been injured and given BR the opportunity to see how well we press without him in the team. It was the same with Mourinho at Chelsea, he would never have played Robben and Duff on the wings had it not been for injury because he was an avid 4-1-2-1-2 man. We need to stick with this chance opportunity because it is the only combination that gives us any real fluency. We play so much better with a false 9 (whatever that is)

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  174. Still 3-0 is not 7-1

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  175. Hull game will have lots of high balls as will every other team we play rest of season

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  176. With suarez and studge...we would have done lot better i guess. With agger too

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  177. hes payed millions and the reason he never left is he asked gangsters to stop him being hassled

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  178. Am sure other clubs would have paid lot more and not sure if gangster hold up the transfer lol

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  179. The plus point is Real are scared of our attack now. They're defending deep given our midfield space and giving us the chance not to say F@@k Skrtel and Lovren which is a nice touch.

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  180. Well Ronaldo taking off was hard to take

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  181. his family still live on merseyside and after asking known local villains for help they didn't want to be singled out if gerrad jumped ship

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  182. they are not scared they're just in training mode... they have Barca to play this w-e why would they bother the gamer is over...

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  183. i am done with jhonson

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  184. Quite sporting of them

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  185. What I meant by scared is they have something to think about.

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