Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2014 - Mod Note in OP, 1/09

Benimar · 14-09-2014 08:25AM

slingerz wrote: »

Outside of starting Sterling what was so off with team selection??

Mario was poor and didn't look interested to me.

Lacking a top class controlling midfielder for all that Hendo and Gerrard offer

Should play with 2 strikers all the time as it keeps the opposition on the back foot

The last line answers your opening question.

Henderson too deep, Balotelli isolated up front. It screamed out for the diamond formation.

Harry Palmr · 14-09-2014 08:40AM

Calmed down yet?

I'll assume Kess was at the game so it'll be good to get his eye witness report.

All managers have strange and disquieting blind spots, Rodgers biggest has been his unwillingness to buy an ink-blotter of a central midfielder - someone like Fernando who ranges across about half the pitch closing down, tackling and turning defence into attack. He won't score many but he will prevent plenty and when it's not going well a draw is more likely and that's more points. What do points mean*?

The other obvious issue is the formation, the diamond clearly makes the best use of what Liverpool have as long as there are two bodies who can play up top, the rest can be moved around to make the midfield four work well enough.

*Points mean prizes.

Soft Falling Rain · 14-09-2014 08:43AM

Still can't over how bad that was, to not even really trouble Villa at Anfield is simply baffling.

Not the end of the world though, just a shocking day at the office. They'll bounce back.

Harry Palmr · 14-09-2014 08:45AM

Ludogorets 10 behind the ball no doubt (they have five Brazilians).

rob316 · 14-09-2014 08:54AM

My biggest issue yesterday was we didn't start with two strikers. Rodgers was trying to be smart trying to fit in all these attacking midfielders behind balotelli. The diamond is the best formation we destroy teams when we play it.

Also Wtf is with the atmosphere in Anfield it's so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. The silence can't be helping the team.

el rabitos · 14-09-2014 10:36AM

I think if your going to be a Liverpool fan in the modern era you need to accept that while we're a top club we can't and (rightly IMO) won't compete with Chelsea, City, Utd for players who are already made men.

We're going to be promoting youth and buying young with the aim to develop our own stars. If you don't have a sugar daddy or oil money thats the only way to compete & i'm all for it.

Theres going to be lots of bumps in the road & i dont see us competing for the title every year, but i think with every cycle where our young players mature we can compete. i think as long as you can stay in the top 4 then we're doing great to keep the players we have and have a run at the title every couple of years.

Rodgers frustration was obvious yesterday & he talked too much, but as i said, we're not in a position to be losing the few 'ready' players we have, ie Sturridge, Allen for stupid reasons on international duty. We need those players to be complimenting the young players. Not relying on a front 3 of players making debuts at Anfield.

For any fan complaining that we lost to villa with that team we had out then theres lots of ready made teams in those money pits in London or Manchester.

MR NINE · 14-09-2014 10:44AM

I was watching on my phone so maybe i missed something, but why have i seen 10+ posts abusing borini, what did he do wrong? I admit he didnt have much of an impact, but why all the abuse towards him? Balotelli and markovic were very poor and they started and are arguably first choice. Borini is fourth choice, came on in a game where we were struggling to create, and we continued to struggle to create. Blaming that defeat on him is just people having it in for him. Sakho, balotelli, markovic, rodgers and the English international team are all more culpable for that defeat

BoardsMember · 14-09-2014 10:57AM

Didn't see the game. Can't say I was surprised at the result. How was Gerrard's performance? Did he contribute much?

jesus_thats_gre · 14-09-2014 10:59AM

Pretty poor result and even poorer performance. I think that the first half of our season is going to be impacted badly by the amount of new players we brought in. It simply takes time for the dust to settle - and that's before factoring in Suarez leaving.

Beyond that, the defence really is a major concern.

SuperTortoise · 14-09-2014 11:40AM

BoardsMember wrote: »

Didn't see the game. Can't say I was surprised at the result. How was Gerrard's performance? Did he contribute much?

No he did'nt but no LFC player did anything of note yesterday.

Now, playing with Gerrard against teams that park the bus is as good as playing a man down, he sits too deep to effect the game in those situations,

klose · 14-09-2014 11:42AM

Defensive coaches at melwood evaluating the defence...

djPSB · 14-09-2014 11:44AM

dogbert27 wrote: »

I criticized Coutinho in the match thread but thinking about it, he has developed an understanding with Sturridge and Sterling. He was playing with 3 "strangers" yesterday with Lallana, Markovic and Balotelli.

Lesson to be learned is get into a winning position first and then rest the players.

If Sterling started I believe Villa would have had a different game plan in the first 20 mins.

Henderson's energy was wasted sitting back beside Gerrard.

I like the CB pairing but it seems like neither one of them has taken the responsibility yet of marshalling the whole defence.

Villa's game plan was set in stone once they got the early goal, it didn't matter who we had on the pitch.

Villa were poor too I thought, just we were worse.

Rodgers got the formation wrong, hopefully we see the diamond from now on.

djPSB · 14-09-2014 11:48AM

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Calmed down yet?

I'll assume Kess was at the game so it'll be good to get his eye witness report.

All managers have strange and disquieting blind spots, Rodgers biggest has been his unwillingness to buy an ink-blotter of a central midfielder - someone like Fernando who ranges across about half the pitch closing down, tackling and turning defence into attack. He won't score many but he will prevent plenty and when it's not going well a draw is more likely and that's more points. What do points mean*?

The other obvious issue is the formation, the diamond clearly makes the best use of what Liverpool have as long as there are two bodies who can play up top, the rest can be moved around to make the midfield four work well enough.

*Points mean prizes.

The lack of an ink blotter midfielder wasn't the reason we lost yesterday.

Villa created very very little from open play.

A soft goal and a very dis jointed attacking performance is what cost us yesterday.

mada999 · 14-09-2014 12:02PM

havent a clue why lallana was subbed for sterling... it should have been markovic off.... lallana was just coming into the game...then we would have 2 wingers who actually try and beat players on the pitch... would have kept ballotelli on tbh

14-09-2014 12:05PM

There will be days like that

I'm surprised at the expectation some folks in here have, every team goes outand plays poorly every so often and drops points. After 4 games its too early to be getting worried.
However, I'm not a fan of changing tactic from the off with this team, fair enough if its not working after first half but diamond needed all games imo. If we get the odd hammering so be it

Raif Severance · 14-09-2014 12:10PM

mada999 wrote: »

havent a clue why lallana was subbed for sterling... it should have been markovic off.... lallana was just coming into the game...then we would have 2 wingers who actually try and beat players on the pitch... would have kept ballotelli on tbh

Lallana was probably our most Dangerous Player in that Game. 2 of our Best Chances came from him.

But since he just came back from an Injury, I can understand why BR subbed him.

michael999999 · 14-09-2014 12:17PM

Origi starts for Lille.

Agent Coulson · 14-09-2014 12:25PM

Yesterday showed how short we are of real midfielders.

Gerrard & Lucas can't do it anymore for 90 minutes. So with Allen and Can out it left us with only Henderson.

We seem to have plenty of attacking midfielders in Lallana, Coutinho & Sterling who can rotate or replace in case of injury.

If we were to lose both Henderson & Allen for any amount of time I would really worry.

jesus_thats_gre · 14-09-2014 12:28PM

mada999 wrote: »

havent a clue why lallana was subbed for sterling... it should have been markovic off.... lallana was just coming into the game...then we would have 2 wingers who actually try and beat players on the pitch... would have kept ballotelli on tbh

You would assume it is a match fitness thing. It was his first match back after all.

It could also be down to how BR plans to use him midweek.

Harry Palmr · 14-09-2014 12:50PM

michael999999 wrote: »

Origi starts for Lille.

Half time, they've have 60% of the possession and 2 shots - both off target. He'll fit in at Liverpool when he returns

8-10 · 14-09-2014 12:52PM

mada999 wrote: »

havent a clue why lallana was subbed for sterling... it should have been markovic off.... lallana was just coming into the game...then we would have 2 wingers who actually try and beat players on the pitch... would have kept ballotelli on tbh

Yep this, was disappointing

michael999999 · 14-09-2014 01:03PM

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Half time, they've have 60% of the possession and 2 shots - both off target. He'll fit in at Liverpool when he returns

And he scores!

Ciano35 · 14-09-2014 01:08PM

michael999999 wrote: »

And he scores!

And gets an assist 3 minutes later

Harry Palmr · 14-09-2014 01:15PM

Too good for Liverpool clearly.

Just spotted Jordon Ibe is on bench for Derby in the big East Midlands game right now.

SlickRic · 14-09-2014 01:50PM

Jordan Ibe about to come on for Derby.

Knex* · 14-09-2014 02:05PM

Raif Severance wrote: »

Lallana was probably our most Dangerous Player in that Game. 2 of our Best Chances came from him.

But since he just came back from an Injury, I can understand why BR subbed him.

Used to crash around the 70 minute mark for Southampton, anyway. Was not expecting him to play much longer, regardless of form.

Same for Sterling. Season is longer than just one game, lads. If he played either for longer and they picked up long term injuries, we'd be giving Rodgers more flak.

segadreamcast · 14-09-2014 02:40PM

Has this been posted here? http://www.irishmirror.ie/showbiz/celebrity-news/mario-balotelli-scored-liverpool-fan-4256100

I know it's a red-top celeb story but if there's even a scintilla of truth to it, he's going back to old ways and just being a bit more covert about it. The main bit about it doesn't worry me too much but it's more the detail...

A new striker who has yet to score, smoking and drinking a few days before a match is not a good sign.

mosstin · 14-09-2014 02:45PM

segadreamcast wrote: »

Has this been posted here? http://www.irishmirror.ie/showbiz/celebrity-news/mario-balotelli-scored-liverpool-fan-4256100

I know it's a red-top celeb story but if there's even a scintilla of truth to it, he's going back to old ways and just being a bit more covert about it. The main bit about it doesn't worry me too much but it's more the detail...

A new striker who has yet to score, smoking and drinking a few days before a match is not a good sign.

People need to realise that paper doesn't refuse ink. There were the stories after the Wolves friendly that he'd kicked someone in the head. Baseless. Rumours before yesterday's game that he was ill and wouldn't play. More crap.
He'll just have to go out and perform so that people spend less time worrying about what he does off the field. And, seriously, do any Reds swallow this crap?

LuckyLloyd · 14-09-2014 02:47PM

Kerrigooney wrote: »

We were rubbish this time last year as well. Scraping 1-0 wins and not appearing for second halves. We were putting points on the board but we were crap. It'll take a bit of time I think.

@rarnes I'm not excusing **** performances...I'm just saying they happen to every team.

At least we don't have to wait a week to put it right...seems we're playing in some champions cup league or something on Tues. Might be worth a watch.

Last year we had Suarez still to come in at this stage.

Gbear · 14-09-2014 03:00PM

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Last year we had Suarez still to come in at this stage.

That didn't magically fix everything though.

It still took half the season for it to click.

Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2014 - Mod Note in OP, 1/09

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