27 Aug 2012

'He was great' - Nicol hails LFC'S 'star of the show' vs. Man City...

After the 3-0 opening day debacle against West Brom, it was great to see Liverpool bounce back with such an encouraging performance against Man City. The Reds arguably did enough to beat Roberto Mancini's men but, alas, the curious curse of the concentration lapse struck again, leaving the club with one point instead of three. There were lots of positives to take from the game, chief of which being the performance of Raheem Sterling.

Discussing the Liverpool-Man City game on ESPN last night, Nicol was full of praise for the 17-year old winger. He enthused:

"The star man against City was Raheem Sterling.

"He was positive, and you talk about the innocence of youth - all he did was try and get after the fullback, and defensively, he did some good stuff as well.

"He's a great prospect. I think his final ball needs a bit of polishing, but he was the star of the show"


Last week, Jan Molby argued that Sterling is 'not ready' for regular first team action, but if the Man City game proved anything it is that the youngster IS ready, and hopefully he'll continue to keep Stewart Downing out of the team.

As encouraging as the team performance was, there are still some concerns that need to be addressed:

* Skrtel's concentration: I've argued this point repeatedly in the past, and the first two games of the season have confirmed it yet again: Martin Skrtel can be an excellent player but he is prone to costly concentration lapses, and with only two league games of the season played, those lapses have cost Liverpool two league goals.

* Poor finishing: Liverpool's finishing from open play continues to be woeful. Both goals against City came from set-pieces, and it's now three games in a row where the club's attacking players have failed to score from open play. Liverpool need a goalscorer ASAP.

* Reina's mistakes: Reina made costly mistakes last season, and lack of communication between him and Skrtel led to City's equaliser (just as lack of effective communication was an issue against West Brom).

The season is only two league games old but three of the five goals conceded by LFC have come from individual errors, and Glen Johnson hasn't even started chipping in with his usual quota yet ;-)

Overall though, with Sahin and Assaidi still to enter the fray, Allen looking fantastic, Shelvey and Sterling playing well, Rodgers' ideas coming to fruition, and more signings possible before the end of the week, things are looking very exciting for LFC at the moment.

Jaimie Kanwar


73 comments:

  1. It is still early days. We are humans and do make mistakes. Skrtel would have been MOM if not for his blunder. But this is an open forum. so lets have a field day. Lets badger him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree Sterling's a great prospect. I think Assaidi will be fantastic from what I've seen on youtube pure technique.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Absolutely agree with your comments on Sterling. This lad is going to be a little gem ! Dalglish must be kicking himself when he looks back at his comments on why he was not getting match time last season. Superb goal by Skrtel ruined by a complete and utter lack of concentration in giving away two points to City. Thought we were the better all round team despite what Mancini said after the match. Still think we could use the services of Clint Dempsey as we still seem to be a bit goal shy, but I would not let Carroll go, I still think he has potential !

    ReplyDelete
  4. no... reina didn't spill the ball... he didn't even touch the ball.. he went for the ball but due to skrtel's flick,he missed it... if skrtel had not touched the ball,reina would have punched it... stop blaming reina and any player... just get real,we r not man city... we don't have unlimited money... we make expenses and we have a wage cap!!! stop ur crap jaimie... if u think u know so much,put on ur boots get on the field and play the match.......

    ReplyDelete
  5. Every time you write 'Liverpool Legend' in one of your headlines, it's always about Steve Nicol. Does he pay you to write this? 

    I'll give you a tenner more if you refer to him as 'angry scottish d**khead' from now on.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Censorial. Nice.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I dont remember Reina making mistakes, what r u tlakin about Jamie?

    ReplyDelete
  8. First comment, wow. Ok, a few things to address. I agree with wholeheartedly with Molby. Sterling although a great prospect who is looking very promising is NOT ready for regular first team action. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he doesn't deserve first team action, but we have to be careful with him and ease him in gently gently or he will easily burn out. This season should be the one where he gets eased in to the first XI and then next season, he will be given a full on roll. Hard to say our finishing from open play was woeful, Shelvey and Borini came extremely close and we are showing penetration now which we didn't have last season. Carroll when he has come on both games has looked sharp. However this game was always going to be a tight affair and we weren't likely to score more than the one goal, very few teams are against Man City. I think so far in the season, after all of two matches, the positives far and away outweigh the negatives of the new regime.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jamie, perhaps you were thinking of the previous goal opportunity where Tevez almost scored from the sideline?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I don't think you can fault Skrtel too much, it would be easy in his position to just lump the ball forward but he choose to attempt to keep possession and keep the ball on the floor. 

    I think that's why Rodgers didn't blame him, because he wants them to play this way and these errors are going to come about when learning a new system. I also don't think Reina made any mistakes, he misjudged the flight of the ball after Skrtel knocked it on which caught Kelly out as well and let Toure in and a 1v1 with Tevez is going to favour Tevez no matter who we're putting in goal.

    I thought it was a good performance, before the game I probably would have been happy with a draw off the West Brom performance but feel a bit robbed after the game.

    ReplyDelete
  11. montenegro scousser12:42 pm, August 27, 2012

    it really wasn't reina's fault... our defence had lot of dificulties- agger red card, leiva injured, kellly right and he is central, coates first big game, johnson on left... it takes time, theese things happen. but in mid season we'll have cleen sheats with 2 or 3 scored

    ReplyDelete
  12. Our problem last season was not the defensive mistakes but rather the lack of goals or poor finishing.
    Yes there were a few defensive errors but from what I remember most of those games should and would have been out of sight if the finishing had been better. Goalkeepers and defenders make mistakes in all teams. But if you are already leading 2 or 3 nil then 1 mistake a game does not matter. Problem was we were either nil nil or only 1 up, so the mistakes were costly.
    Ok yesterday we made 2 mistakes but that is not a regular occurrence. Maybe again with better finishing maybe we would have been 2 up or even 3.
    Having talked about the mistakes we still had one of the best defences.

    Not sure the real problem of clinical finishing has been addressed yet. The lack of funds is not helping as I am sure if we had the funds rodgers would go out and find a great finisher. But I guess he has to sell to buy.

    Dempsey will help.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Well under Benitez these errors would have been worked on a lot more. And slowly flushed out. But under Rodgers these will happen more and more as we continue to pass. Skrtel was the unlucky one but it could have been Allen or a couple of others with loose passes back to Regina. Not fair to single him out.

    The new philosophy is good. Maybe just need to clear it sometimes. Also need to score more and put games out of sight. The confidence in passing will grow and we will see the improvement. Just need to get behind them.

    ReplyDelete
  14. On the official LFC site, they describe the goal thus:

    "Yaya Toure makes it 1-1 after Reina spills Tevez's cross"

    The overall point is that there was confusion in defence, and just like against West Brom, communication between Reina and Skrtel was non-existent. If Reina called, why did Skrtel still go for the flick?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Word filter, actually. It's automatic when certain words/phrases are used. Like calling players d**kheads ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  16. oh dear, there was no Reina mistake. Skrtel flicked it which gave Reina no chance. watch the game properly

    ReplyDelete
  17. Agree with you on sterling.
    Oh and what a sight it is to see sterling making a difference. Beats watching downing and Henderson. Yes they may be better defensively but we got 4 defenders and at least 2 midfielders to do that.

    ReplyDelete
  18. REINA has been the big problem. he would have blocked tevez on time if he was alert. he sleeps alot in the post and don't punch ball like cech and others. hes always the problem. he gave away 5 games last season and see city's first goal. where was he? look at tevez's first half missing that touched the goal post. he should be benched!
     

    ReplyDelete
  19. That's the spirit we are looking for. 

    ReplyDelete
  20. You say Benitez would have worked on these faults and reduced these errors. Rodgers and only had a few weeks to work with the team. Your point is not really relevant at this stage of the season!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Nice article Jamie. What about Joe Allen? He was fantastic wasn't he? I really hope Reina starts to improve again. Before the last 2 seasons he was one of the best goalkeepers around. Last season he was terrible and this season he still doesn't fill me with confidence making some costly mistakes again. Maybe we need some new goalkeeping coaches, because how can his previously excellent form dip so dramatically in the last season?

    ReplyDelete
  22. montenegro scousser1:13 pm, August 27, 2012

    poor comunication. but it will get better with  time,defence line need more playin time together, esspecially with BR style. we will be fourth, at least

    ReplyDelete
  23. not being funny but have you seen the goal? I thought Reina was at fault for this as well, then watched the reply and it was taken away from him by Skrtel. It was just very unlucky. Agree with the rest though. I saw the bad back pass from Skrtel coming miles off. This is the danger of playing around at the back like we want to do

    ReplyDelete
  24. Lets be fair Jaimie it might have read that but if u watched the match then u would know what really happened ...then the Glenn johnson part its really un called for he has n he will establish himself as one great asset 4 LFC  lets support him n not wait for him 2 do mistakes

    ReplyDelete
  25. Mate - That's why they are saying that there is lack of communication between Skrtel and Reina. if there was proper communication, Reina must have catched the ball easily....

    ReplyDelete
  26. He got a rating of 9/10 from daily mail. Looking bright!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Is this the same Nicol who "wasn't at all convinced about Allen" and wanted Rodgers to try Henderson instead??? 
    Jaimie do you know if he said anything about Allen yesterday?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Sterling is improving rapidly - even from the Hearts game, where he was head down with running at every opportunity (which isn't necessarily a bad thing though, Mr. Downing!), to the City game where his link up play was much better. If he was actually given some protection from the ref and awarded free kicks every time the defenders just ran through him, his impact would've been even greater

    ReplyDelete
  29. Irt Skrtel, we're just seeing the same thing that we've seen throughout the years from him - decent games with massive, inexplicable errors, whether they be him daydreaming on the ball or committing the most ridiculous of fouls off of the ball. 
    Last year he surprisingly cut out the errors for a few months, but apparently they've returned with a vengeance, seemingly justifying my reluctance to join in the rejoicing at the news of his new contract and constant opining that Coates or Kelly could quite easily step in to replace him if need be.

    ReplyDelete
  30. The owners need to hopefully G B Rodgers £50m to bring in these 4 players:

    1: T Walcott Of Arsenal for £12-£15M    RW / RWF should be brought to compete with Sterling.

    2: C Dempsey Of Fulham in swap deal with C Adams and £4M AM to compete with Gerrard and Shelvey.

    3: G Rossi Of Villareal or Soldado Of Valencia, One of these deadly strikers should be brought to club for £16-£21M to compete with Suarez and Carroll for Loan striker role at club.  FD

    4: C Nzogbia Of A Villa should be brought for £5-£10M  LW / LWF to compete with Downing and Borini.

    These 4 players would bring more pace, speed, creativity and goals to side. These 4 players would bring to club minimum of 30-50 goals to side , including assists and converting chances.

    ReplyDelete
  31. And unfortunately Borini looks more like the player I expected/feared at the time of the signing, rather than the player I'd hoped he might be tbh. 

    It looks like after all these years of waiting to be rid of Kuyt, we finally did it and just replaced him with a younger version to torture me for the next decade!

    ReplyDelete
  32. I think thats a fair asessment of the game Jamie, these "errors" are costing us vital points....as they did last season.....sick and tired of seeing it tbh, we play well, get ahead in a game and then throw it cheaply away.... pisses me off.

    Reina and Skrtel were responsible, Carra would have been burned at the stake had been in Skrtels shoes, lets be clear about this we are talking about dropped points after our 2 first games of the new season due to silly schoolboy type errors and unconvincing finshing.,..

    Of course there are positives to be found in the likes of Sterling Allen and the new set up, but if we don't sort out our goalkeeper and back line issues...and buy a another quality striker we will continue to see a lot of hard work and positive performances undone....

    ReplyDelete
  33. After watching the match, the following conclusions could be drawn:

    1. The tiki taka takes time to implement. Our passing game was not very smooth and there were lots of misplaced passes during the match. This will improve with more practice and hopefully it will get better after several more games. 

    2. Raheem Sterling is a good prospect but he is far from being ready to make our starting eleven especially in the league and against teams like man city! Imo he is still not quite ready yet. His cross for borini was excellent but that asside he did not do anything too great, did he? He is still too young and frail and was easily bullied on several occasions. Everytime he could not impose himself physically on an opponent he resorted to things like pulling shirts etc giving way countless faults against us.
    He should be used in cups or maybe even sent on loan (just like united did with danny welbeck) for now until he matures a little more then we can integrate him into the team. Anyway he is still better than the inept stewart downing...

    3. Assaidi should have played! Why put a 17 year old reserve player when you just signed an international winger a week ago?

    4. Enrique should have played since the beginning. If he was fit enough to be included in the squad, why bench him? 
    First Skrtel was playing without his prefered partner agger and we all know that he can only play at his best when agger is with him.
    Then Kelly played was on the right and johnson, a right back, was forced to play on the left! Also Coates played in aggers place and although he is the best replacement he did not play very often last season just like kelly. So all these changes to our original defence of johnson-agger-skrtel-enrique contributed in making us really error prone which explained why we conceded these 2 silly goals.

    5. We are still the same as last year. The unluckiest team in the EPL! Last season we dominated countless matches but still ended up losing anyway thanks to the occasional silly defensive lapses, our inexplicable failure to convert our chances, penalties etc and the dreaded woodwork getting in our way. 

    6. Reina is partly responsible for both of the goals. Often when he goes to intercept a ball during a corner or a cross he misses it and end up exposing our defense.
    He also never do more than the strict minimum required of him. If one of his team mates does an error he never tries to cover for it. Its like he is letting the ball go in on purpose. Skrtel did a mistake. Yes its not hjs fault
    but he should have been more energetic and tried to cover for him instead of half heartedly trying to protect his goal against tevez. Its like he is saying to himself "Its his error, he should be the one to wipe his own shit! " Football is a team game afterall, you should cover for your friends, not just do your job and care less about the others. Teamspirit is important! I hate his attitude...

    ReplyDelete
  34. Hey Kieran - Of course I've seen the goal :-) I was wrong on my initial point about Reina spilling the ball, but the miscommunication issue is still there; if Reina had made the call and dominated his area, skrtel surely would've left it for him? The same comms issues were also costly in the West Brom game.



    Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note

    -------- Original message --------
    Subject: [liverpoolkop] Re: "He was great!" - Reds legend hails LFC's 'star of the show' against City... | Liverpool-Kop.com

    ReplyDelete
  35. I watched the match, and at first glance it appeared that Reina spilled the cross, and I highlighted the official site's description to show that it wasnt unreasonable to think that.
    Reina.still at fault tho IMO



    Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note

    -------- Original message --------
    Subject: [liverpoolkop] Re: "He was great!" - Reds legend hails LFC's 'star of the show' against City... | Liverpool-Kop.com

    ReplyDelete
  36. Yes, he said Allen was 'outstanding'.





    Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note

    -------- Original message --------
    Subject: [liverpoolkop] Re: "He was great!" - Reds legend hails LFC's 'star of the show' against City... | Liverpool-Kop.com

    ReplyDelete
  37. Totally agree mate. People think I'm being harsh highlighting the errors of Skrtel and Reina but as you say, these mistakes from *experienced internationals* are costing us vital points that might make all the difference come.the.end of the season.
    So far, 4 of the 5 goals conceded have cone.as result of the club's most experienced players making silly mistakes:
    * vs. WB - Gerrard gives ball away. Agger makes silly challenge. Red Card.
    * vs. WB - Crap comms between Reina + Skrtel. Latter caught in possession. Penalty. Goal.
    * vs. WB - Crap marking at far post. Reina slow to get acroas. GOAL.

    * vs. MC - Crap comms between Skrtel + Reina. Both miss the cross. GOAL
    * vs. MC - Suicidal backpass from Skrtel. GOAL.

    Take those mistakea away and LFC would have at least 3 points now, possible 4-6.
    Everyone makes mistakes but with Reina and Skrtel it's a regular occurrence, and that's a problem.




    Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note

    -------- Original message --------
    Subject: [liverpoolkop] Re: "He was great!" - Reds legend hails LFC's 'star of the show' against City... | Liverpool-Kop.com

    ReplyDelete
  38. I understadn what you mean about communication, but i think in that situation most defenders would go for the ball no matter who was calling. Kelly was too slow to react and that was the real issue. Reina is still a top keeper, maybe not as good as he was 2-3 years ago, but he is still the best we have and could get right now

    ReplyDelete
  39. The pens from the WBA game were a joke, we will never get anything like that. I think it is the system at fault more than the players. Or put another way it is the players not used to or can play the syste,. What was Skrtel trying to do dribbling it out and not just clearing the ball? Saying that, i think it will come good, the players need a little time. I think i am the only person excited about Borini though

    ReplyDelete
  40. Fantasy football i see. You will never get these players for these prices even if the owners would pony up 50m also, i wouldn't want them to. All we need is a Torres-eque striker, job done

    ReplyDelete
  41. Septimus_severus3:38 pm, August 27, 2012

    i was at the game yesterday and the atmosphere was amazing.

    We played to WIN which was the most important thing the mentality of the players was brilliant DOWN TO A MAN .

    At one point in the game you may have seen Borini waving his hands at the LFC fans where I was seated near the front, to get them CHANTING.

    I urge you all to watch Borini's MOVEMENT he pulled that defence all over the place and created SPACE, a part of his game that goes UNNOTICED.

    Borini missed some great chances BUT he was in the right place to miss them if you catch my drift.
     
    I'm LOVED the way we played and for anyone harping back to Dalglish now is the perfect opportunity to hold your hands up.

    Henderson, Adam, Downing (although he could be converted into competent left back) Carroll have NO FUTURE at Anfield.

    THEY ALL HAD THERE CHANCES LAST SEASON AND BLEW IT.

    I see no reason to keep them  providing adequate replacements can be found.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Not another Nicol story, Jaimie switch channels please, cant take another story from our leg end.

    ReplyDelete
  43. 1- yes i agree, however results matter at the end of the day.
    2- I disagree, depending  on games, he held his own against city and the manager agrees with me.He is a quick leaner to. He will be monitored and rested when required and its a squad that wins you trophys.
    3-Disagree, manager has his reasons, how fit is he, does he know our pattern of play. Buying a player  doesnt garantee he should play.
    4-why should enrique play? did you not notice how burnt out he was last season after the first 6 months? Not as if our left back was poor. Don`t see your point here. Maybe your saying your own team should play. Skirtel mistake was due to BR philosophy of  keeping the ball and him not being aware of tevez nothing to do with his defensive partner mate.
    5-u make yr own luck and its only been two games. against west brom suarez was crap at finishing. no luck there.
    6-first goal yes i agree, 2nd goal never. skirtel should of played it down the  line or just held it and turned towards  keeper then reina would of tried to help him.
    of course just my opinion....

    ReplyDelete
  44. I actually agree with you here however i will say this. When we played hearts our defensive passing was terrible. I said to my son city will thrash us if our defence will play like that. Against city I saw a gigantic improvement in the defence movement and passing. Ok there were still two mistakes. Man utd also conceded a similar goal from vidic who is one of the best defenders. I honestly see big improvement and feel those mistakes will be cut out as the team evolves.

    ReplyDelete
  45. It was a game that we should have won. I think the players are still trying to implement fully Brendan's style of play. 

    Sterling was a revelation. If a player is good enough, he should be  old enough to play no matter what the age is. The other player who did well was Joe Allen. He was very efficient with the ball and his passes and defensive works were spot on. He is a good buy.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Everyone saying assaidi should have played is doing my head in! He is on Ramadan! Which means he's fasting. He def isn't up to full strength. Sterling was great, br wanted to reward his hard work with a start. Jamie I finally agree w a very good point you make about early season mistakes that cost us BIG later down the line. But let's call a spaid a spaid, reina's flaps at crosses are shocking! I'm spainish and love reina, but for Fuck sake its hard to watch. Skrtel just made a simple mistake....oh well...so what. They happen. If we convert our chances this year we should be where we belong! Keep your heads up reds. Walk on. Ynwa. #calikopite @bmyers36

    ReplyDelete
  47. Hindsightisgreat5:12 pm, August 27, 2012

    Raheem Sterling - No goals, no assists, majorly at fault for Man City's first goal

    ReplyDelete
  48. Very simplistic placing of the goal on certain individuals, while totally overlooking the involvement of certain others, so I'll update the commentary on the errors made that have cost us so far...

    *vs WB - Gerrard gives the ball away high up the pitch. Lucas goes wandering and leaves Gera with acres of space to run through the middle of the pitch with no pressure and pick a pass. Skrtel drops onto the floor leaving the striker behind him with a clear run on goal. Agger comes across and makes a silly challenge. Red card.*vs WB - team rushes out to play offside trap as corner is cleared. WB manage to retain possession, beat the trap and get behind the defence. Scrambling defence fails to deal with the cross and bodies in the box. Goal. (not much to blame Reina or anybody else for there imo)vs. MC - crap comms between Skrtel & Reina. Both miss the cross. Kelly attempts to control the ball at the back post. Kelly has a poor touch and drops the ball at Toure's feet on the edge of the 6 yard box. Goal.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Simplistic? No. More like zeroing.in on the main issue. In your case though, it's extreme pedantry. With every avoidable goal there is an inciting incident that creates a chain of events that ultimately leads to the goal. I've focused on those incidents. But for the incidents I've highlighted, it's probable rhat goals wouldn't have been conceded. All the extra detail is unnecessary. However, if you want to ge back through every touch, knock yourself out!




    Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note

    -------- Original message --------
    Subject: [liverpoolkop] Re: "He was great!" - Reds legend hails LFC's 'star of the show' against City... | Liverpool-Kop.com

    ReplyDelete
  50. as i had said many times on this site we need a new keeper asap .a simple  shout of keepers ball was all that was needed it didnt happen 1 all this man is not up to the job world class my arse

    ReplyDelete
  51. You're zeroing on the issue of mistakes costing us, but attributing the blame to the incorrect figures. I'm saying that you can't pick and choose one mistake, and ignore all that followed - especially when you're ignoring the mistakes that *directly* led to the us being punished - i.e. Kelly's miscontrol of the ball on his goal line, or Skrtel's slip to let his striker in on goal.

    For someone who loves to go on about specific and measurable contributions, or whatever you call it, it's weird that you're placing blame here on figures that are involved early on in the passages of play but not the players that made the final, conclusive mistakes.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Yes what a howler, we all could see it, Tevez could see it, but that's football if mistakes were not made we'd see a lot of nil-nils, Skirtel had a good game, so did the team, best for a while. Sterling was a breath of fresh air, Allen lookes accomplished, Coates, Shelvey, Borini, all did well, so with a couple more players to go with Sahin, should be in for an interesting season. YNWA.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Surprise surprise mitzu agrees with his master Jk Chang... Hmmmmm!

    The player who was at fault was Gerrard who inexcusibly lost the ball while we were in a great a counter attacking position.

    Then Stirling was at fault for allowing tevez to run on his outside, as anybody who has seen tevez play knows he will attempt to hit the line to either drive in himself or cross.

    Then the only fault is with Kelly who without any pressure fumbled the ball to Yaya.
    He then lost the ball easilymoments after the restart and got subbed for his troubles.
    Kelly is an excellent defender, positioning, blocking and tackling wise but offers nowt going forward... Oh and hast got a clue how to cross a ball just yet....
    But all these things will come in time I'm sure.

    Skrtl did what any player would do and flicked the ball which unltimately took the ball out of the grasp of Pepes hands!
    Who says there wasn't a call??
    Too many assumptions going on here!

    There may have been a call Whether skrtl heard it or not is another matter...yes another assumption!

    So Gerrard, Kelly and Stirling made mistakes... Ok let's line them up and shoot them... Right Jamie?


    Mistakes happen it's 90mins... Some are costly and most go unreported!

    The overall play was a major improvement. The fact that we are talking about about how we should won the game is a testament to how good we were.

    I know one thing for fact... City were on their A game and we rendered players like Nasri and mario redundant!

    If we are saying we can still better then that speaks volumes to me and every other real supporter who has suffered since Rafa left!

    ReplyDelete
  54. no he should be sold

    ReplyDelete
  55. wot has happened to doni . if hes available he should be playin

    ReplyDelete
  56. 30-50 goals how did you arrive at those numbers? While you've got your head months clouds why dont you suggest we sign pele, maradonna and van basten those players would guarantee 100 to 150 goals a season. Now I sound as ridiculous as you, think about what you write and try to keep your feet on the ground.

    ReplyDelete
  57. lucas injured in warmup .rank amateur decision to start him wot are the doctors and medical staff doing ! wouldn t happen in the sunday lge. really piss poor

    ReplyDelete
  58. I was refering to the style of play. It is different.
    The point is relevant. Under any other manager that ball was in row Z. At any stage of the season.

    ReplyDelete
  59. "Skrtel Beast! Kill Ball!"

    ReplyDelete
  60. I'll agree on this, Reina does not have that same box presence anymore. looks very uncomfortable in the area! Fix that shit!!

    ReplyDelete
  61. Sterling to not let all the compliments coming in to go to his head. stay strong and focused. He is our best young prospect since michael owen!


    I say play him every game you can, at least from the bench!

    ReplyDelete
  62. that pass was comical! scored such a power goal then he fluffed!

    ReplyDelete
  63. attack is the best form of defense!

    ReplyDelete
  64. I see him coming good. gets in the right place WHEN HE'S IN THE BOX!! that's where we need him, but I also think Morgan needs a go...

    ReplyDelete
  65. hope BR can sort this nonsense out!!!

    ReplyDelete
  66. or use some pace if you're going to dribble at the back. look for the easy pass and DON'T GET CAUGHT IN POSSESSION!

    ReplyDelete
  67. Vidic gets raped by quality players... you'll see this season again...


    I'm all for this playing out the back stuff, but safety first at the back, sometimes a clearance is necessary, and sometimes all one needs is a run toward the corner flag or a simple pass!

    ReplyDelete
  68. true... but silly things like loss of possession and goalkeepers not taking command of their goal line from a high ball (through communication or whatever) ARE the defining moments in a goal. 

    THe whole defence is put on the back foot, not expecting a schoolboy mistake, and bang...Liverpool have always been especially prone to this because of the possession brand of football... 

    ReplyDelete
  69. Agreed, everyone makes mistakes, the problem is when its a defender or keeper who does it, its a lot more noticable because its usually more costly. I thought we played really well, and im still feeling really positive about this season. If someone would have asked me if i would take a 2-2 draw i would've been happy with that. Afterall they are the league champions!

    ReplyDelete
  70. no to walcott- he is an athlete that they are trying to turn into a footballer and failling. no to nzogbia- lacks effort, not good enough. no to dempsey- too much money for an ageing player, we need younger talent. rossi/saldado- won't come to us as we are not champs lge entrants. sell adam/downing/cole- yes pleeeeeeeease!

    ReplyDelete
  71. To be honest, I was not expecting anything from this match since I still WBA syndrome. And the line up was rather surprising. Was not sure if Sterling could handle the strength of Kompany and co but he did us proud.

    Skrtel cost us the game. This has happened too often, he really needs to address this. Number one rule for a defender is not to pass the ball back to goalkeeper without looking. Common sense.

    Poor finishing is still a problem. Although Suarez is a good player his finishing is awful. From open play he has missed several opportunities.

    However, I much rather we commit these mistakes early on than in December when we have a busy schedule.

    Sterling showed a lot of promise, however he has a lot to learn, but I loved how he got stuck in and tracked back.

    Promising indeed. He put SD to shame. We better start with him next Prem game.

    ReplyDelete
  72. Sterling's mistake led to the 1-1. Got on the wrong side of the City winger who got the cross in ...

    ReplyDelete