"He bottled it" - Six LFC legends slam 'shambolic' Oldham performance. Fair...?

A whole host of Anfield legends have laid into Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool team after the atrocious 3-2 FA defeat to Oldham at Boundary Park yesterday.

For the first time this season, almost all prominent ex-Reds in the media were unanimous in their condemnation of Liverpool's performance.

Gary Gillespie called the result a 'Banana skin of epic proportions', and in his column for The Mirror, Mark Lawrenson slammed Sebastian Coates and Martin Skrtel for being bullied out of the game:

"Coates bottled it for Liverpool. Matt Smith just bullied the Skrtel and Coates. He just threw himself at them. Why? Because he was prepared to get hurt hurting people".

John Aldridge praised Oldham for putting in a 'brilliant' performance, but also criticised the defence. He tweeted:

"Our centre halves got rumbled. [They] didn't fancy it. Serious worries over Coates - he has to get better. All goals should've been stopped and the ref decision not to give Sturridge a foul before their 2nd goal baffled everyone"

Alan Hansen insisted that Brendan Rodgers put out a strong enough team to win the game, but also blamed the defence. He told The Telegraph:

"Liverpool obviously played a weakened team but even with the players starting that match, and others such as Steven Gerrard coming off the bench, they should still have had enough to beat Oldham, who are close to the relegation zone in League One. The defence was the one area particularly weakened but when you have got Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge in your team they should still be winning that game".

Phil Thompson also praised Oldham, but blasted the defensive performance:

"The defence was shambolic, but congrats to Oldham. Gutted!"

Steve Nicol delivered the following withering assessment on ESPN:

"It was an awful display, particularly from the back four. It was a very poor performance over ninety minutes"

Robbie Fowler was also magnanimous in defeat, and paid tribute to Oldham:

"Should never say this when a Premier League team plays a lower league side, but the best side won"

It's undoubtedly a poor result, but the response from some people seems massively over the top. Big clubs regularly lose to smaller teams in the FA Cup; it's happened to Liverpool many times in the past, and it will undoubtedly happen again.

It's a shame to be out of the competition, but it's not the end of the world, and it's definitely not the end of the club's season! The only priority this year is to progress in the league, and - hopefully - finish in the top four.

Nothing else matters, and I sincerely doubt FSG will be losing any sleep over the FA Cup exit. After all, they sacked Kenny Dalglish after he got to the final, so clearly, domestic cup competitions are very low down in the group's list of priorities. An early exit could actually be a good thing for the club:

* Less games/needless replays to got through.
* Less games = fresher players and less chance of sustaining injuries.
* Fresher players = more chance of mounting an assault on the top four.

The Reds are only 7 points away from the Champions league places at the moment, and 4th place is definitely a possibility this season. Yes, there are two tough away games coming up, but 2-4 points against Arsenal and Man City is an achievable goal, and if that happens, then everything will look a lot rosier.

I personally found Brendan Rodgers' disgraceful public evisceration of the club's young players to be far more disturbing than the Oldham result, but that's another article.

Jaimie Kanwar

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