As is usually the case when LFC's rivals slip-up, the Reds have once again failed to capitalise on a superb opportunity to consolidate the club's position in the top four, and with Arsenal to come next week, dropping two points today against West Brom could prove to be very costly. All is not lost, though, and the club is still right where it needs to be at this stage of the season.
Post-match reaction:
Brendan Rodgers
"Kolo is a wonderful player. He probably shouldn't have received the ball in the first place but I will never criticise any player, especially a defender".
John Aldridge
"I'm absolute gutted. We were in control of the game, and lose a goal in that way, it rips your insides out. Such a terrible goal to concede. A horrendous mistake".
Raheem Sterling
"The whole team is disappointed with the result. It's one of those games where we just lacked a bit of concentration, and they got back into the game"
Simon Mignolet
"Conceding is always disappointing, but we just have to move on. A point in the Premier League is always good. now we have a week to prepare for he massive game next week"
Twitter reaction:
Dietmar Hamann
"Disappointing result for LFC against a struggling WBA. If they want to finish in the top 4 they have to start winning games when playing badly. It was disappointing that we didn't have more of a go after West Brom scored"."
Daniel Sturridge
"Gutted. Thanks to God for allowing me to score 50 prem goals.. Hopefully many more of those to come in an LFC shirt"
Neil Mellor
"2 points dropped for Liverpool.Never really got going today but credit to west brom they responded 2nd half and deserved the point".
Some observations:
* Nice to see Rodgers basically absolve Toure of blame here. Yes, he made a mistake, but he's been pretty solid all season, and every other LFC defender has also made mistakes. One-off mistakes like this happen. For example: Steven Gerrard has been caught out by dodgy back-passes three times in his career, and Jamie Carragher scored SEVEN own goals (!) Toure doesn't often making glaring mistakes like this, and he should be given a pass for it (IMO).
* I also love the irony of Rodgers' comment above. He indirectly criticises Simon Mignolet for playing Toure into trouble, but then says he'll 'never criticise any player' :-)
* Cissokho had his best game in a Liverpool shirt. Got forward well, and solid defensively. His final ball is still pretty poor, though. Several times he was in great positions to cross, and failed to deliver a single decent ball into the box.
* Another great defensive performance from Martin Skrtel. Solid as a rock. Couldn't do anything about the goal LFC conceded. He really inspires confidence at the back these days.
* Mignolet also seems to be regaining his confidence. He made several fantastic saves, one of which basically won Liverpool a point.
* Raheem Sterling continues to go from strength to strength. His dribbling skills, particularly, seem to have improved this season, and during the game, he repeatedly ghosted past West Brom's defenders. Like Cissokho, though, his final ball is not consistently up to scratch.
* Jon Flanagan had a decent game, but (IMO) he got caught out of position far too often. At times, his lack of positional awareness (or being caught up the field) invited pressure onto the Reds defence, which may explain why he got subbed off.
* Martin Kelly had a nightmare when he came on. All he seemed to do is givee the ball away, misplace passes and conceded silly fouls.
* Sturridge is wasted playing out wide. He scored his customary goal, but was pretty anonymous for most of the game due to being stuck out on the flank, and being forced to drop back and defend. At one point, he was alongside Skrtel covering Cissokho. This is not the way to get the best out of Sturridge! A master goalscorer should not be defending the 18-yard line, or constantly tracking back to the half-way line; Sturridge should be as high up the field as possible, in a central role, which is where he's most effective.
* If one of the strikers has to play out wide, let Suarez do it. The Uruguayan is considerably more effective in that role, and will always effect the game way more than Sturridge. Plus, Suarez is built for for defending/tracking back. He's as strong as an ox, but Sturridge gets injured very quickly, and if's tackling regularly during a game, it increase the chances of yet another injury.
* In my view, Rodgers' disappointing decision to replace Coutinho with Allen basically handed the initiative to West Brom. The Baggies' players were probably relieved to see one of LFC's main goal threats leave the field, and be replaced by player who offers absolutely zero goal threat. Coutinho didn't have his best game, but like Sturridge and Suarez, he can create a goal out of nothing. It was a massively negative move by Rodgers, and possibly cost the Reds three points.
* I've raised this issue many times, and I will continue to do so: what is the point in spending £15m on Alberto and Aspas if they never play?! Alberto should've replaced Coutinho; if not, why not? It's a like-for-like change; Liverpool needed a goal, and if the Spaniard is not going to play in such circumstances, then it is a tacit admission of transfer failure by Rodgers.
* Games like today are when the strength of the squad should come to bear, but due to Rodgers' abject waste of money last summer, the squad doesn't have any real depth. When the team is struggling, and the usual suspects aren't getting it done, squad players need to come in and make a difference. That won't happen with LFC as the squad players are just not up to it, and today proved that again. An attacking players comes off, and with Liverpool desperate for a goal, Rodgers ignores THREE attacking players he brought in over the summer. That says it all.
Overall, it's a disappointing result, but, the club is still right where it needs to be: in the top four. Considering that's the ultimate goal for this season, the Reds are doing well, and slip-ups like this won't matter one iota if LFC finish in the top four at the end of the year.
It's another lost battle, but Liverpool are winning the war, and victory is still very much on the cards.
Author: Jaimie K
Post-match reaction:
Brendan Rodgers
"Kolo is a wonderful player. He probably shouldn't have received the ball in the first place but I will never criticise any player, especially a defender".
John Aldridge
"I'm absolute gutted. We were in control of the game, and lose a goal in that way, it rips your insides out. Such a terrible goal to concede. A horrendous mistake".
Raheem Sterling
"The whole team is disappointed with the result. It's one of those games where we just lacked a bit of concentration, and they got back into the game"
Simon Mignolet
"Conceding is always disappointing, but we just have to move on. A point in the Premier League is always good. now we have a week to prepare for he massive game next week"
Twitter reaction:
Dietmar Hamann
"Disappointing result for LFC against a struggling WBA. If they want to finish in the top 4 they have to start winning games when playing badly. It was disappointing that we didn't have more of a go after West Brom scored"."
Daniel Sturridge
"Gutted. Thanks to God for allowing me to score 50 prem goals.. Hopefully many more of those to come in an LFC shirt"
Neil Mellor
"2 points dropped for Liverpool.Never really got going today but credit to west brom they responded 2nd half and deserved the point".
Some observations:
* Nice to see Rodgers basically absolve Toure of blame here. Yes, he made a mistake, but he's been pretty solid all season, and every other LFC defender has also made mistakes. One-off mistakes like this happen. For example: Steven Gerrard has been caught out by dodgy back-passes three times in his career, and Jamie Carragher scored SEVEN own goals (!) Toure doesn't often making glaring mistakes like this, and he should be given a pass for it (IMO).
* I also love the irony of Rodgers' comment above. He indirectly criticises Simon Mignolet for playing Toure into trouble, but then says he'll 'never criticise any player' :-)
* Cissokho had his best game in a Liverpool shirt. Got forward well, and solid defensively. His final ball is still pretty poor, though. Several times he was in great positions to cross, and failed to deliver a single decent ball into the box.
* Another great defensive performance from Martin Skrtel. Solid as a rock. Couldn't do anything about the goal LFC conceded. He really inspires confidence at the back these days.
* Mignolet also seems to be regaining his confidence. He made several fantastic saves, one of which basically won Liverpool a point.
* Raheem Sterling continues to go from strength to strength. His dribbling skills, particularly, seem to have improved this season, and during the game, he repeatedly ghosted past West Brom's defenders. Like Cissokho, though, his final ball is not consistently up to scratch.
* Jon Flanagan had a decent game, but (IMO) he got caught out of position far too often. At times, his lack of positional awareness (or being caught up the field) invited pressure onto the Reds defence, which may explain why he got subbed off.
* Martin Kelly had a nightmare when he came on. All he seemed to do is givee the ball away, misplace passes and conceded silly fouls.
* Sturridge is wasted playing out wide. He scored his customary goal, but was pretty anonymous for most of the game due to being stuck out on the flank, and being forced to drop back and defend. At one point, he was alongside Skrtel covering Cissokho. This is not the way to get the best out of Sturridge! A master goalscorer should not be defending the 18-yard line, or constantly tracking back to the half-way line; Sturridge should be as high up the field as possible, in a central role, which is where he's most effective.
* If one of the strikers has to play out wide, let Suarez do it. The Uruguayan is considerably more effective in that role, and will always effect the game way more than Sturridge. Plus, Suarez is built for for defending/tracking back. He's as strong as an ox, but Sturridge gets injured very quickly, and if's tackling regularly during a game, it increase the chances of yet another injury.
* In my view, Rodgers' disappointing decision to replace Coutinho with Allen basically handed the initiative to West Brom. The Baggies' players were probably relieved to see one of LFC's main goal threats leave the field, and be replaced by player who offers absolutely zero goal threat. Coutinho didn't have his best game, but like Sturridge and Suarez, he can create a goal out of nothing. It was a massively negative move by Rodgers, and possibly cost the Reds three points.
* I've raised this issue many times, and I will continue to do so: what is the point in spending £15m on Alberto and Aspas if they never play?! Alberto should've replaced Coutinho; if not, why not? It's a like-for-like change; Liverpool needed a goal, and if the Spaniard is not going to play in such circumstances, then it is a tacit admission of transfer failure by Rodgers.
* Games like today are when the strength of the squad should come to bear, but due to Rodgers' abject waste of money last summer, the squad doesn't have any real depth. When the team is struggling, and the usual suspects aren't getting it done, squad players need to come in and make a difference. That won't happen with LFC as the squad players are just not up to it, and today proved that again. An attacking players comes off, and with Liverpool desperate for a goal, Rodgers ignores THREE attacking players he brought in over the summer. That says it all.
Overall, it's a disappointing result, but, the club is still right where it needs to be: in the top four. Considering that's the ultimate goal for this season, the Reds are doing well, and slip-ups like this won't matter one iota if LFC finish in the top four at the end of the year.
It's another lost battle, but Liverpool are winning the war, and victory is still very much on the cards.
Author: Jaimie K
that pass from toure should not be glossed over. junior players are taught never to pass across your own box. the pass, like toure, is simply not good enough. yes all our defenders have made mistakes...far too often! dropping precious points against the likes of wba, when in a dominant position, will screw us in the end. i agree that kelly was pathetic when he came on. sub or no sub, you have to be mentally ready for the call. overall we didn't play at all well. with the big guns coming up and the tofu's 2pts behind, we may very well be in a bit of trouble hanging on now. i'm furious and gutted all rolled into one.......stuff you toure!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think aspas won't come good as he looks fair technically but he's built like a child and would get bullied as for Alberto he'll play with time, I think we he brought on allen as we were losing out in the middle of the park and he works and presses well. And keeps the ball well
ReplyDeleteThe only way for Aspas to get in the team, is for him to date BR daughter. He has the build of the 'Crazy Frog', don't think he's as Ish as people make out, just too light weight.
ReplyDeleteis it any wonder why we can easily sign players like those two?!?!?
ReplyDeleteThe motivation and drive we saw for the derby wasn't quite there. Maybe because they weren't playing a bitter rival, maybe they were 'flat' following the disappointment of the transfer window, or maybe Suarez has already stated he's leaving the club no matter what (due to lack of ambition). We didn't create enough clear cut chances and didn't take advantage of the few we had.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I lay the blame for the goal squarely at Mignolet's feet. Indeed, Toure could have passed the ball back to him, but that would have just put Mignolet under pressure. There was absolutely no need to give Toure the ball when there were at least 3 WBA players pressing high up the pitch. The best way to eliminate such an error (ie Toure's) is to avoid the situation that created it. Despite Mignolet's heroic saves, his distribution still needs work.
You didnt lose...But as a West Brom fan I am gutted that we didnt take all three points....as the game went on It was looking like we might do it...we dropped 2 points.....you got a decent draw.
ReplyDeleteThe big downside today was, if we get sweet F*ck All against Arsenal, we'd be still sitting 4th. Que Sera Sera, we just made it that much harder. People are thinking about 4th, if we did improve the squad during the window, we'd be thinking higher than 4th (maybe the title).
ReplyDeletegiven another 5 or 10 minutes toure may have felt even more generous.
ReplyDeleteJaimie, pls tell me you are not really that ignorant in using stats constructivelly towards an argument. From your argument any youth player that get 1 first team game and scores a goal are "more prolific" than Fowler, Rush, Torres, Toshack, Keegan, Owen, Suarez etc... Also saying the argument that who you play with, against and how the team play will not affect stats is just silly. Suarez was topscorer under King Kenny, Suarez was top scorer last season (where Sturridge joined) and Guess what Suarez is topscorer this season as well... Finally Suarez have scored more goals than Sturridge in games they played together, Suarez have better goal/game ratio for 2013, Suarez have better goal/game ratio under Rodgers. You really, really, really have to take the most uncomparable stats you can find to surgest that Daniel is as prolific as Suarez. I like having both though, they are both great players for us :)
ReplyDeleteSturridge vs Rooney...no contest...not even close...Sturridge is better.
ReplyDelete